I was thinking back on the many adventures I had in my youth, and what I had learned from them, when I received a call over Infraspace. I pressed the button with my paw as pinhole sized openings into that dimension opened on either side of my head and a familiar voice issued forth from them.
"For someone of your faith you write an awful lot about the copper avatar of the goddess of freedom," she said.
"How did you know that's what I was thinking about?" I asked.
"You literally suggested a replica of that monument, modified such that resembles those actually enslaved, with the date on her tablet of law be changed to the date the last of those enslaved in your country, and the shape tablet itself changed from a keystone to the elephant-ear continent's outline, be built in the place in which that occurred."
"That was a long sentence," I remarked.
"I have experience with those," she replied.
"You also read my posts online," I added. "And wasn't it you who, through something you told my bat friend, told me about that hidden aspect of the statue?"
"That the broken shackles and chains symbolize how she is dedicated to the abolition of slavery?" she asked rhetorically.
"Yeah, that. Don't think I would have noticed that for years otherwise." I replied
"While it is not a tradition of your people to literally worship statues, one of your faith's oldest holidays is the festival of freedom. That aspect resonates with you on a spiritual and personal level," she explained.
"If I never was taken by Mecha's army, would it still resonate as much with me?" I asked
"Why do you keep on mentioning that?" she asked.
"Well, whenever I go through Infraspace, I see visions of a world where the whole cyborg army abducting people never happened. I had a more normal childhood," I mentioned.
"Does that mean we never met?" she asked.
"Not sure if you even were in that world," I replied.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"Why? What for?" I asked.
"Well I feel like it was partially my fault," she said, before I interrupted.
"No, you also suffered under his claws. I can't blame you for it," I said. "And you were there for me at that time, to care for me and the otters."
"Don't you mean 'others'?" she asked.
"Nah, I just said it that way as a joke," I admitted. I could have sworn I heard her groan at how bad that pun was from my side of the connection.
"I see your sense of humor hasn't changed," she replied. "Even if the world around us has changed so much."
"But what matters is that we keep moving forward," I said.
"Towards freedom and peace." she added.
"As the ideal of freedom is one my country, my people, and my family all strive to achieve," I replied.
"It resonates with us all, and with every person born or hatched into this world. For I wish to work with all who live here in bringing peace, regardless of faith, species, or where on Earth they dwell," she stated.
"May all answer your call for peace. And may peace be upon you and this world. Peace," I said, hanging up by pressing that little round black button on a box with my right paw.
