"As a man, casting off worn out garments taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, entereth into ones that are new."
-Epictetus.
The striking of a hammer upon the forge resounded inside of the dark chamber. A place of absence, void of time and place. All that was, will ever be, and what was shall be. From the embers casting new flames, to flames dying into embers, an enteral renewal. A shedding of clothes, bereft of other embers, and cocooned embrace when once they find another.
Ever so, the universe stands on limbs of a mighty tree. An all creator, her physical will that of the nurturer and growing seeds of life. Her spiritual will giveth life, breathed into fresh creations, and making them anew. While her form in the worlds outside this void is eldritch, she stands in rusted armor marked by endless, uncountable time, hammer in hand.
The heartbeat of fire drummed to her actions. Each resounded strike upon the figurine she forged from metals unknown to all but her. Souls in those embers, flowing out, creating new flames, uncountable blazes dancing in this timeless void.
Stardust in their own right.
She toiled her labor, and stopped at the last strike. Standing in her infinite gaze, upon the sight of all knowing eyes, a figurine of a set of nine. She smiled, lifting one finger as an orb of light affixed itself around it. She saw embers become drawn to it, igniting a fire inside of it's chest.
His features back to the pristine form of the monstrous giant he had been. Nine tails, and all, his sacrifice even making her heart wain at his tail when he arrived back to the tree. As with all things, she made them, and they in turn returned to her in the end.
Some stories were sad.
Some stories were tragedies.
Most stories were relatively tamed.
His story, however, was that of a sun!
Very few stories she'd take in would have one change so much. Change the moon, removing its shadows. How many times she heard this same tale was all but worth two fingers on her right palm. Twice, but unlike this thrice time, the story ended with the sunlight fading away to give his world a new one.
She noted, ever so closely, a foreign ember floating near the fox figurine. Smiling softly, a smile only a mother of mother's could give to one her many children no matter how wayward. A subtle gesture of her figure made that very same ember come to her hand, and she held it gently.
It was as the fox said, a life well lived, despite how short it was. Similar to the very first stars she bore upon her limbs in physicality. Bright, beautiful, and all so sweet. Short-lived, into dust they were brought together and dust they returned to properly.
From the dust of those first fruits bore the first of many more.
"Such a being as yourself, young one, little ember. I have heard your name from many others. This one, especially in length, told me all about you. You are drawn to him, a link created by death and life, your soul longing to be with him." She coaxed the light away from the figurine, watching as it's own larger ember danced around the one in her hands no sooner than the barrier was lifted. She smiled gently, and slowly she took a deep breath. "A link forged by sacrifice, pain, love, and understanding. I think not of a stronger bond that can be forged by those who are mortal."
"Those who will one find their way back here, embers all."
She let the embers move onto the top of hands, circling each other, affixed in the guise of two dancing stars. They twirled, mixing every so often, yellow and red, to give orange embers. It seemed to signal out to two more, however, and she watched as another set of orange and red embers danced around them.
"I see, truly I see what your ember desires, your pieces of souls. Seeds to grow into different shapes, but for you lot, I grieve your story. Time, and again, I've seen this story play out with a much different result. One of such results lays in pain still, a tragedy spun by my two errant sons, ever so prideful that they never truly figured out what they were meant to do." The enigmatic blacksmith lamented before slowly she looked at the four embers. "I wonder what it must be to have such finite time, yet, to hold so much love?"
"Still, even as old as I am, you wouldn't believe the question I ponder myself now."
She paced the infinite void inside of the unending realm, and then a smile came over her. She took her hammer, and then without missing a beat, smashed it into the fox figurine. It obliterated it into start dust, back into the unending embers. Raising the embers above her head, specks of light flowed from her hand as objects around the room manifested.
Wood from The Eternal Mother.
She moved the embers over, and then looked at the larger one staying close to the original ember that was now orange. Strutting over towards the table, she flicked her wrist as the wood split into three pieces. The ever-present heartbeat of the universe in her eardrums as she took the whittle knife from her beltline.
"Now let me see, what I can create."