A Creation Fable

The absence of light stretched for eternity. An oily black panorama, depthless and formless. Perfect void. In the underpinnings stirred a presence. A coalescence of will, an alien occurrence pierced the abyssal fabric. A wrongness that grew, like a puddle in the rain. The other side of the coin stretching probing fingers into the ebon wilderness.1

A dismal spark appeared in the choppy wake, waxing and waning, a living pulse. It grew, pushing oppressive boundaries aside with its existence, a splinter in reality. Thrumming discordantly, invisible beasts howling as light pierced their domain.2

The shifting shape emitted dazzling motes of energy as it stretched further into the empty universe, a calamitous birthing that rocked the foundations to the core. With a great sigh the tumult ended, the being now expanding unhindered, with a vastness to fill, and a voracious appetite for space.3

It darted from point to point, spinning rapidly as if in struggle. The left side glowed with a fierce violet light, the right side a violent orange. At last they split, skittering off millions of miles, leaving trails of blazing light in their wakes. Chasing after one another, reversing the roles again and again, flying and spinning and darting across their infinite playground.4

Eons passed in this fashion, until the violet light slowed to a stop. The orange light danced around it impatiently before flying off again on its own. It returned to find the other sitting still.5

'What are you doing?' it asked the violet light, a warbling buzz that emanated from its core.6

It didn't answer.7

"Sister!" screeched the orange light.8

The Sister made an annoyed sound at The Brother, who flew off again. He twirled and spun and danced among the ether. Sweeping arcing trails of light up and around him as he pirouetted again and again. The thought of Sister returned, so he sought her.9

When he reached her, she sat amongst a field of glowing orbs, stretching as far as he could see. He gasped and studied one, spinning around it. He felt a strange sensation from it.10

"It's a star." she told him.11

"What does it do?" he asked.12

She made a confused sound, "I don't know, it will be for a craft I think...", she concluded.13

The Brother made a bored, buzzing drone and swept off into the empty heavens again. He danced and glided around in his joyous fashion once more, until the nagging thought of his Sister came back yet again.14

He did not have to search long to find her, as her ministrations had traveled far and wide. The orbs now numbered beyond his ability to grasp, and were everywhere. Surrounding some were strange dark spheres. She huddled near one of those spheres.15

"What are these, Sister?", he asked her.16

"They are the elements, Brother", she replied.17

"What are they for?", he asked her.18

"I don't know", she answered, extending a long tendril with grasping fingers toward the elemental ball before her, it took on a molten fiery glow and began to spin. She gasped and bristled at her brother, who buzzed with indifference before flying off again.19

This time he listlessly rambled across the skies full of orbs. Bored and annoyed. Why didn't she want to play anymore? Why didn't he? He did one lap around a large red star before seeking her out again. In the same spot, huddled over the dark spheres.20

She fussed over the elemental orb in front of her, glowing and buzzing happily. He moved closer and examined it. An entire universe existed on it, full of strange things he had never seen before. The dark brown elements were still there, but awash in flowing blue tides, spotted with green growth.21

Amongst the endless fields roamed sentient creatures of her creation. Each with their own thoughts and ideas, consciousness born from nothing, as simple as a gesture of will and a mingling of beings. She birthed a new playground, of indescribable intricate beauty, a webwork of checks and balances for creatures of limits, challenged to exist, and exist they did, thriving. Some creating their own worlds inside her portrait, as she had before.22

Most of all he saw the way she smiled down upon them, and they as one smiled up at her. Not directly, but in tribute. Large structures made of the elements dedicated to her, songs and prayers, love and sacrifice, a gamut of expression that radiated from the sphere, cloying at him.23

"Come with me sister, we can play again", he said. She made a disinterested warble. He had to get her attention, he reached one burning tendril for the orb. She shrieked in fury, sending him reeling back. Hurt, he raged back at her, knocking the stars aside, some slamming home into others and exploding brilliantly, the concussive waves rolled over the empty spaces, shattering her blue orb to dust and smoke. She howled in agony, coming at him.24

They struggled back and forth across the universe. Two furious lights locked in a spinning sprawl. They clawed and wrestled, the chaotic blows drawing everything down around them, the stars, the spheres, all of it. Each sought to destroy, trying desperately to pierce the other as they had pierced the empty universe together. They swirled tighter and faster as each found purchase in the other. Shrinking smaller and smaller as they collapsed into one. At long last they reached the point of no return. With a brilliant flash and cataclysmic explosion of light they vanished, sending the elements rocketing out across the blackness, like paint thrown across a blank canvas.