Chapter 48
In the beginning, there was only light.
It was blinding and colourful, shining from everywhere and nowhere all at once. The light had existed for all of eternity, and no time at all.
Slowly, ever so gradually, the light moved apart and, in the spaces between the light, blackness grew. This blackness strained against the confines of its' light prison, swirling and devouring, and raging at its' entrapment.
Out of the blackness, beings, known only as Wanderers, grew. These Wanderers stretched their shadowy fingers, and blinked open their inky eyes, and slowly, ever so slightly, shifted.
Around them, the light stretched wide, creating in its wake a whole new space to discover. The Wanderers, being carved out of the darkness, flitted between the tears in the light, and swam through the gaps.
As the light continued ever so slowly to spread and disperse, the Wanderers changed, each taking on the form most pleasing to their fancy.
Ifer was born; Born of darkness and forged in shadows.
Where his fellow Wanderers formed alliances and enemies, Ifer preferred to walk alone.
For hundreds of years, Ifer traversed the universe, occasionally catching wind of some conflict or disagreement and changing course, never staying in one place for very long before he moved on.
Then something changed.
A spark, nothing more, and suddenly a new dimension was added to the two-dimensional space. All across the universe, fire flared into existence.
Ifer found himself adjacent to one of the unidentified phenomena and curiously observed what would come of it.
In the wake of the fire, a being formed; burning and spitting, and sparking with Magic. A being Ifer would later come to call Viserna.
Together, Viserna and Ifer travelled the universe, though this time, when something changed, it was much sooner.
Matter was created.
And from that matter, planets and stars formed. It was on the surface of one of these planets that Ifer and Viserna found Elamaya; stumbling out of the molten rock on fresh legs.
She blinked at them with newborn eyes. "What am I?"
Viserna took a step forward, reaching out in awe. "Life."
"What are you?"
Ifer looked away. "Death."
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
They first became aware of the Discontent around the time biological life was beginning to venture out of the oceans.
Deep beneath the crevices of the Earth, nestled within the fundaments of its existence, something stirred. It threatened the collapse of the planet before it had truly begun, and shook the foundations of life.
Still, they ignored it.
The first sign that the Discontent was serious was when Elamaya fell into a fevered sleep. Ifer realised, with great gravity, that Elamaya's own life force was irrevocably tied to that of the planet's, and that, should the Discontent be allowed to continue growing, it would tear Elamaya's existence apart right from the seams.
Together, Ifer and Viserna combined their powers to create a stabilising unit, which would slow the Discontent enough to find a way to counter it.
It worked, and Elamaya arose once more.
But the task was draining, and had almost destroyed Viserna in the process. Ifer was forced to traverse to the Unplace – a parallel shadow world where Darkness connected and Wanderers traversed – in order to save her, and even then, Viserna took years to return to full health.
In the meantime, humanity blossomed from a strain of ape, and the three found themselves, for the first time, among a community which they could walk amongst as one and the same (at least in appearance).
They went by different names over the course of the Earth's history.
Cyrus, Heldiona, Rainya, Nuaya; but no matter the name, their natures did not change.
It was on the dawn of civilisation that the trio first split. An explosive argument led to Viserna defecting and retreating to a high mountain where she wove her Magic into the fabric of the planet. It sent out trails, leeching into water supplies and spreading through villages.
Magical creatures started to appear, and soon enough, the humans themselves started to develop abilities.
By the time Chester and Amaya caught up with Viserna, she was going by Dìona, and had amassed a following of these new Wixen, whom she was instructing in the art of weaving fire from nothing.
They had found her sitting in a circle of Wix, lit by orange flames, making animals dance in the fire. She had looked up at them and said, "About time you two got here."
A/N: yo, wassup (forget I said that, I'm cringing as I write this, oh god, please forget that)
anyway, hi! I love this. We finally get a bit more background on these guys. Plus, like, sooo much worldbuilding for not even 800 words. But yeah, hope you enjoyed it and tune in again (tomorrow hopefully) for the next installment.
Peace out*
song rec - Fool's Gold (feat. BØRNS) by Dagny
*yikes
Oh! And thanks for sticking this far along! I love this story and I can't wait to be finished so I can go back through it and edit it to hell and back (i'm not crying, you're crying). And don't forget to go give my ao3 a looksee! wizardoface for the win!
(also come say hi on tumblr too - wizardoface (i'm not very creative with names) - I don't bite, and love making new friends, even if i'm a bit awkward at first!)