It has been a long time, but finally, the planet is ready to welcome the people of its predecessor.
Solvei has put in phenomenal effort in order to reshape the planet in the image of their birthplace. Much of the early stages were the easiest, and she managed to shape a cloud of cooling debris from her own form into a cooled ball of rock in only a few years. I was only able to assist with my knowledge of the planet’s composition; having deciphered the fabric, I now have a comprehensive understanding of the way hyle interacts and alters forms with matter.
The only hurdle in the early days was the áed’s reluctance to permit so much water to cover the globe. I understand why, but there can be no deviations. It may not apply at the planetary scale, but I’ve already seen small deviations cause unforeseen consequences. Best not take the risk.
Progress slowed down drastically when life began to form. Mountains and seas had been easy enough to replicate with the amount of force the both of us have at our disposal, but life is tricky. Even giving microbes the ideal conditions to replicate and spread, evolution is slow. Solvei spent a considerable number of years actively interfering with the growing variety until soil, forests and even the first bipedal animals began to appear.
And now, everything is prepared. All that remains, is to bring back the continent.
Ever so slowly, I pull the opening in the realm wider. My fabric keeps it from closing, but my home is not nearly as weak as it was when the Anatla invaded. The formation of a planet — not hollowed out — has strengthened the local threads and gradually, the fabric recovers. Soon enough, it will refuse my existence entirely. Not before I bring all these people back.
The realm stretches around the edges of the continent and the ocean parts for the suddenly appearing landmass. I’ve been preparing for this for a long while now, so as the continent slowly slips into reality, the ocean floor is already carved and ready for it.
Despite my best efforts to make the transition as seamless as possible, the sudden shift between nothingness and space is enough to send tremors across the land. Anyone who had been standing when I swallowed the continent is thrown to the ground. A rare few are injured by the shift, but it’s far better than the ribbon taint. That, I made sure to clean from their bodies when I first pulled them from the realm.
From outside the fabric, I watch all those sapients become aware of the sudden change. No longer are they being swallowed. No longer are the Anatla invading their home. No longer do they face Armageddon.
So many millions of expressions. Shocked. Mystified. Overjoyed. If for nothing else, it was worth going through all this just to see the sheer relief and excitement that washes over their faces as they stare up at the empty blue sky. As they realise it is over.
Solvei floats off the shore. At least a small portion of her form. She watches for a while, seemingly unable to comprehend that the day has finally come. Then, she’s gone. Following the subtle stream of fire that branches across much of the continent, I find multiple copies of her lowering to meet a few small groups of people. Other áed. An ursu, along with a dohrni, an albanic, and one of the Fenghuan kin. No… a portian infesting that metallic creature.
I leave the áed to enjoy her reunions and cast my eye over the rest of the realm.
Beyond the reaches of the planet’s sky, the Nightfall Shroud is rapidly recovering. As one of the realm’s defences, it’s no wonder the strange hostile space is coming back. Soon enough, nothing will be able to penetrate this fabric. Solvei knows to stop creatures from stealing hyle from the planet that supports them, and will cull the formation of Titans going forth. She knows what’s at stake, and will do what is needed to retain the realm’s strength.
And so my own presence will ultimately be denied. This realm has already ceased recognising me as a resident, and while I don’t have the power to push against the realm’s full power, I am given no other option besides leaving.
It is sad — I may never see what ultimately becomes of Solvei and the people I saved — but I already knew it was coming. I have changed too much. If I were to stay, I’d be giving up too much. Countless fabrics that I had already spent eternities cultivating. I am invested in bringing them to bloom. Not to mention the memory I went to extraordinary lengths to recover from this world.
So long as resurrection does not exist, this realm is not where I want to live.
Still, I owe it to Ceph’s team to explain what happened to her.
“Hirsh.” Space folds to welcome my appearance. This time, I’ve had plenty of time to bring down my excessive size to about that of a building. Still not as small as I could once bring myself, but I’m getting better. “We should talk. You and your team.” I tilt my head to the albanic and the pair of volans looking worse for wear.
The khirig’s eyes remain as scorched as the day I’d evacuated him. And his antlered arms, the burnt out hyle Markings were still there. Only the ribbon of the Beyond wasn’t.
“Ceph.” He tilts his head, as if looking around. His mouth opened, before he shut it. A grim expression settled over his face. “She’s gone, isn’t she.”
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I nod. “Because of her, there weren’t more deaths.”
Hirsh didn’t seem surprised. “How?” His unseeing gaze slides past my scales to the picturesque sky. It isn’t his to see, but he must be able to feel how the world has changed. Likely to do with the lack of ash filling the air. “How… everything?”
My body coils in the cratered battlefield, crushing dead earth to make room for my enlarged form. This is going to be my last conversation for a very long time. I am going to make the most of it.
I tell him everything.
❖❖❖
The fabric of my origin knits itself closed as I slither back into the nothingness. The weave is now so strong that I doubt I’d be able to slip back inside. I can barely see within the borders. Soon enough, I won’t even have that.
I will never forget my home realm, and I will always be able to find it again, but it still feels like a ultimate farewell. I’ll never see those inside again.
Still, I’m hopeful. I glance down at the small bundle of memories I’ve taken with me. Every tiny hint ingrained in the furthest reaches of my home universe’s of the brief moment in time when a single life existed. It is comprehensive, and yet formless. A trillion tiny little details recorded in a small bundle of threads I crafted myself to retain such information.
This is my hope. It is what will push me on for the eternities that are to come.
And so, I get started. The half-completed realm crafted in mimicry of my old, I cradle between my scales and mould to my desires. I improve upon what was already there. This is my realm, and so why do I need to limit myself to rules I do not like.
First, I strip away all threads that allow death. In my old realm, doing such would cause innumerable problems. For one, how are predators supposed to eat without a creature to fall? But this is my realm. If I don’t want death, it won’t exist. If I want to support the creation of a utopia, I will. I will craft a space that can cultivate life and sapience to a degree incomprehensible in the old world.
In the place of death, I instil the threads of resurrection. Considering death is impossible, they will be contradictory. Pointless. Except for a single exception.
This realm killed Ceph because she wasn’t one of its residents, but recreating a life from the memories that built them entirely inside the realm will make it possible. A realm will not cull one of its own.
But even as the base structure of the realm takes shape, I hold off on the resurrection. I do not want to welcome her back to emptiness. I want to gift her a realm full of life. A place where she can experience all sorts of enjoyment. And — selfishly — I want to craft a world where she can take on a full sapience of her own. For all the good, and bad, that comes with it.
I set to work. For as long as is needed.
❖❖❖
I slither along one of the many surfaces of the cavern and slip into a tunnel devoid of all but the smallest life-forms. It is one of the few places in my realm actually calm enough for my purposes. For all I have desired abundant life and a lack of death, those choices make for a… very chaotic world.
Chaotic or not, I have come to love this vibrant realm of my own make. To say the creatures here live in harmony would be a lie, yet I find little issue in that. So long as creatures have the breadth for emotion — even those not yet to have reached full sapience — then there will always be problems. Always conflict. But that anarchy is what makes living worth it. Especially when the beings of my realm simply cannot die.
I settle in a small nest I’ve long since cordoned away for myself. Crested in the heart of the web. Unlike my original world, this universe has not taken the form of lumps of rocks floating out in distant emptiness. Instead, there is a never-ending array of chasms, chambers and tunnels connecting the major planes where the sapient communities reside.
The imagery spawned of — admittedly — my own impatience. I didn’t wish to wait so long for life to begin spawning in such tiny pinpricks floating so far from each other. I wanted them to be able to reach other groups, and speak without barrier, as I once wished were so easy.
My body curls within the cave of intricately crafted spatial glass. I was ready for this moment long ago. Each extra millennia I perfected my control and preparations to the point where my realm fractures resemble perfectly cut crystalline formations rather than the rending of the fabric.
And my form? I now have total control. If I wanted to, I could expand my body through the entirety of this realm, and still not have enough space. But the longer I live, the more I find use in subtlety. The smaller I am, the less I am noticed. It makes slipping in and out of civilisations infinitely simply when I don’t accidentally stir already ancient legends from the records.
The biggest problem with deathlessness is that communities are less likely to forget. Even after a thousand generations.
But none of that matters. Not now. Not when my self-set restriction has finally unravelled.
Finally, it is time.
All the preserved thread memories filter through the spatial glass and bestow a focal lensing concentration on the centre of the chamber. Right in the core of my coils. There, I have supplied the precise materials required for a single life to form.
The process is incredibly complex. Mostly due to the imprecise nature of the memories I collected. If I had the corpse, an impression in the mud, or even a sample of the wind she once breathed, this would be much easier. It might take a day or two. Instead, I settle myself down for the long, undisturbed resurrection of life.
Anything for her.
I lie in my sealed abode for centuries, slowly guiding the exact parts from the old realm to reflect their memories into the body forming inside my coil. Almost a thousand years. It feels like nothing. A mere blink in the eye. Goes to show just how much timelessness has affected me.
Sooner than I can believe, and far later than my heart desired, the tiny little bat takes shape in the nook between my scales. For years, my eyes don’t shift from the nostalgic, gutting sight. It takes far too long, but eventually, the bat shivers to life. Its wing unfolds, and two large, curious eyes peek up at me.
My breath hitches. Suddenly, I’m engulfed with terror that it isn’t actually her, and I’ve just recreated any other Sciacylch.
But the small bat chirps, and stretches its wings as if it hasn’t been infinite eternities since it last moved them. It scrambles to orient itself, then throws itself upwards. In an instant, the tiny critter hooks its wings around my neck and hugs tight.
It’s her. It’s really her. The bat’s large eyes, filled with curiosity and unfiltered joy, gaze into mine. I bow my head, and lean into her. My head meets hers and she presses as hard into my scales as her little form possibly could. All my doubts and fears and uncertainties drain away. I’ve been working for so long just for this, and it was worth it. Every single moment was worth it.
Scia is with me.
And together, we have an entire realm to explore.