It is written, in the oldest, dustiest stories in libraries so ancient they might as well not exist, that there will come a day when Uusoae will break free of her imprisonment and consume the world.
Uusoae is the Queen of Chaos, who has been imprisoned for ten thousand years by Mother Flame and Father Universe, for warring with her siblings.
There has been peace, in it's own way.
Human wars go on, empires fall and others rise.
The old lands-Tortall and Galla and Scanra and Carthak-yield to new leaders.
And so the wheel turns.
But Uusoae has heard of this legend, as well as many others. She knows she has the power to defy her parents, and her siblings.
Ordinary, mortal children do it. But the consequences are much more dire when one who is a god does such.
It is written this day would come.
--
Changes come slowly.
The Circle falls, and rises, only to fall again.
Ghosts of ghosts of dreams come and go, and come again.
Emelan, Summersea, Namorn, Sotat-none of it matters. Not even the Circle made that much impact, not really, even if their tales are told for a thousand years.
Uusoae is patient. She will wait.
--
Uusoae slowly starts to break her cage. No one notices at first. No one notices the slight tremors that grow ever frequent in the mortal world. No one, that is, except the mortals.
They pay no mind.
Wars among the humans becomes more frequent, as Chaos becomes intent on breaking free from its cage.
--
No one remembers the old gods. Too much time has passed, though they are known by different names, even if not themselves.
Daine Salamin has been able to cross out of her father's realm for a while now.
She has been a goddess for a long time.
The Seraph of Beasts, some call her, but others know her as the Woman of the People. And some know her simply as Daine.
The dragon Skysong is old, and her children have had children and grandchildren of their own.
She is the one who tells the younger dragons of the Chaos War, and how much it would cost them if they turned their eyes away from the world of mortals once more.
They do not listen.
--
The Great Gods take no notice of Uusoae. They ignore her, and slowly start to forget. For get what she did, and what she tried to do.
She is patient, patient as the sleeping snake.
She will wait, like the snake will before it strikes.
Only this snake turns to a lion made of fire.
--
The world of mortals is riddled with disease and starvation, and, despite there being little to fight over, wars.
The Ragged Goddess can do little, as there are few people who really believe in the gods, now. They keep her strength away from her by their mere ignorance.
The Great Gods have turned their faces away, and the Ragged Goddess loses more strength every day.
--
Uusoae is gleeful. She hides it well, however, when her siblings cast the occasional glance at her.
Gainel fell today. One could say he simple vanished. One could say he died.
The mortals have forgotten how to dream. The immortals are dying.
Stories are ended, and no more tales are told.
Uusoae feels strong again.
--
The Ragged Goddess finds nothing to protect, and longs for the peace of a mortal's death, for her power and strength is almost completely gone.
The Woman of the People helps the gods of the animals let People leave the world, and she and the mage Numair Salamin(long dead, of course) followed.
Weiryn has no more things to hunt, seeing as the People and his daughter have left this world.
They cannot be found.
The Green Lady finds that the world has left her behind.
The Great Gods have left the world for too long. They can do nothing.
The world is dying, and it slows as Chaos is given more power.
--
Uusoae is satisfied.
The Wave Walker fell today, and her storms no longer swept the world.
She no longer hides her smug smiles, and her cage is growing ever weaker.
The mages of objects, the ambient mages, have disappeared.
All those that had carried Wild Magic vanished.
The magic is almost all gone in the world, for even those with the Gift are fewer and fewer, and the magic gets less and less.
Wars plague the land of mortals, and there are no more Stormwings.
Chaos Vents extend into the mortal world now. Uusoae cannot be blamed, for she is seemingly imprisoned.
--
The Green Lady vanished, along with the Ragged Goddess and Weiryn. Their strength had all faded away.
Everything is collapsing, and the Great Gods are the only ones who have not vanished. The People and their own gods and goddesses left the world a long, long time ago.
There are no dragons, as they fled, following the rather cold trail of the People.
The humans are all dying, and their lives are ever more short and miserable.
The great cities have all collapsed into dust, and humanity has reverted to the ways of the People, but it came too late.
They can never leave now.
--
And on it goes.
Even the Great Gods vanish, one by one, and Uusoae gains more ground, and Her cage lies shattered, left behind.
The Peaceful Realms have stopped existing, stopped moving. Time is frozen there, an island of peace in a raging, poisonous ocean
Finally there is only She and Mithros and the Goddess. She is ruler of the world. She is Uusoae.
Their parents, fading themselves, do not join the fight, as it is not theirs.
Mithros and the Goddess are weak, tired, old. They cannot stand up to a fight with Her, and she laughs as they try.
Uusoae is happy, joyful, jubilant.
She stays in no one form, and claws replace flippers, and golden eyes replace red.
Her realm is huge. It is the world. Theirs is nothing, and the only reason they are not Hers yet is because they remain on the First bridge, the only place not eaten by Chaos.
It is ending. Even Death is ended. There is nothing but chaos and insanity, and there is nothing left.
She smirks with a face that does not belong to her, and her teeth become pointed spikes that cut.
Mithros and the Goddess do not know what to do. They do not know where the others have gone, and they wish they had left with them.
Now it is too late, and they long for death, though death will not come.
Uusoae opens her mouth, full of spikes with a snake's flickering tongue and swallows them whole.
So it is written.
--
I was rereading the Immortals series, and I read the part when Numair mentions that legend where Uusoae is supposed to take over the world and all, ad I figured it was a good story idea.
I started capitalizing Uusoae's she and her in the last paragraph because, I figured, it would be more impressivem, and she is the ruler of the world, after all.