The council dissolved into quiet murmurs as my kin drifted away from the table. Their forms shimmered faintly, restless and curious. Yet their eyes, if they could be called eyes, often returned to me. They sensed something within me that I had not yet revealed.
And the ether sensed it too.
It called to me like a silent heartbeat pulsing through the formless expanse. The vast nothing beyond the castle did not simply stretch it waited. As if asking: What shape will I become? Who will I be?
I stepped to the edge of my realm, where the courtyard's smooth stone faded into raw ether. The mist beneath my feet curled around my ankles, urging me forward.
The silver-being approached from behind. "You look outward, First One… as though searching for more."
The golden-being added softly, "Is the castle not enough for you?"
I stared into the boundless void. "No," I said. "The emptiness holds more potential than these walls can contain."
The mist around me tightened, as if bracing. The silver-being whispered, "We feel something building within you… something vast."
They felt it. All of them did.
But they did not know how close creation was.
I lifted my hand slowly.
Silence fell over the courtyard. Every ether-born froze. The orb above the spire dimmed, as though bowing its light in anticipation.
Then
With a flick of my wrist, reality changed.
There was no sound. No explosion. No flash of violence.
Just a sudden, overwhelming shift, as though existence inhaled for the first time.
A point of light appeared.Small.Bright.Alive.
Then it expanded.
Light stretched outward in every direction, carving paths through the void. What began as a spark became a blaze. What became a blaze expanded into an ocean of new matter. Spirals formed great star-forges twisting into galaxies. Nebulae bloomed in colour, clouds of creation swirling in slow, cosmic dances.
Worlds condensed. Suns ignited. Space unfolded.
I had created a universe.
I heard gasps from behind the ether-born falling to their knees, overwhelmed by the magnitude of what lay before them. But I kept my gaze fixed on the newborn cosmos.
Then I felt something forming within the universe. Not mist. Not ether.
Something born directly from my act.
Two pulses. Two centres of gravity. Two new beings coalesced where the cosmic wave had been strongest.
The first emerged from the edge of the spreading light, a tall, fluid silhouette cloaked in darkness. Its body flowed like shadow poured into the air, and its eyes glowed a deep violet, soft and ancient despite its birth.
The second emerged from the swirling centre of a nebula, a being of shimmering intervals, its body stretching like a ribbon of shifting light. Its glow flickered in perfect rhythm, each pulse marking presence, continuity, forward movement.
They had not come from the mist. They had not come from the ether.
They had come from me, from the force of creation itself.
The shadowed one drifted forward first, its voice a whisper of calm darkness:
"I am Night. I am the veil. The comfort of shadow. The resting breath between moments."
The shimmering being followed, its voice chiming softly, like delicate bells scattered across eternity:
"I am Time. The pulse. The measure. The constant motion that shapes all change."
The golden-being behind me gasped. The silver-being stepped backwards in awe.
But Night and Time did not look at me.
Their eyes were fixed entirely on the universe.
Night reached toward the void between stars, smoothing darkness like a blanket over the newborn cosmos. Time leaned into the motions of rotating worlds, pulsing softly to steady their rhythm.
They were mesmerised, captivated by the creation still unfolding.
They did not witness my flick of the wrist. They did not see the moment I ignited existence.
But they felt it.
Night shivered, turning its head slightly as though sensing the echo of my power."Something enormous moves behind this reality… a will woven into every star."
Time paused its pulsing."I feel it too. The force that birthed me still ripples through creation."
Their voices trembled with wonder, not fear.
They felt my power and pressure in the fabric of everything, an unseen hand that shaped the laws of their being, but they had no understanding of its magnitude.
And for now, that was enough.
I stepped back from the edge of the ether, letting them explore the universe in awe. Night drifted through the shadows between galaxies, forming gentle pockets of darkness where stars could rest. Time spiralled around the rhythms of worlds, giving order to their motion, granting continuity to their existence.
The silver-being whispered behind me:
"They do not look at you… Yet they feel you. They know you are the source, even without seeing your act."
The golden-being added, voice trembling:
"If this is what you do with a flick of your wrist… what else lies within you, First One? What shape will you bring next?"
I did not answer.
Night and Time continued drifting through the cosmic ocean, unaware that I watched them. Unaware that I had more yet to create. Unaware of the deeper power stirring in the quiet chambers of my being.
They did not see.
But they felt.
And the universe pulsed with possibility.