Demise and the Gods

In the fullness before yet there were any kingdoms nor lords to rule them, all was all and nothing else. Before there yet were any gods of the sky or even a sky at all, there was one who came first. When all that was first became divided, it was into Demise and all things else. All things would, and must, change, and it was Demise who first saw this. She looked upon the blank, unchanging excess of all things, and she grew bored. So Demise reached into herself and from the womb of her being she pulled forth a new thing, the first child. This child she called Time, and she told him to bring forth something to amuse her. "But mother," he said, "in the fullness of all things there is nowhere to go, nothing to bring, and all things are already here." "Idiot child." Demise gnashed at her child's foolishness, and in response she took hold of all things and torn it in two, destroying one half and leaving it empty void. This void was to be the sky, and the remainder of all things was to be the earth. "Find me something interesting among what is left." Tired from the great effort of clearing away the sky, Demise fell to earth and watched Time as he went. He gathered up bits and pieces of the earth and brought them together into gradiose patterns, and they became vast and beautiful creations. He uplifted the mountains and laid sweeping valleys. He could not reach into his being and bring forth a child like his mother, but he could carve from what already existed. He showed his creation his mother, excited to reveal to her what he had made. She took one look at it and laughed. She brought the mountains to her mouth and devoured it with great erosion. Time was dismayed by this act of destruction, but Demise took great pleasure in it. "Bring me more, my child." So he returned to the earth and swept more things together into another sublime creation. This second creation he made even grander than the first, a great tower of earth overlooking the sea, and he shouted in his excitement. "Won't she love this?" Demise, still watching her child work, saw this as the moment for her to act, and she took his latest creation and devoured it as well, his great tower crumbling to nothing before him. "Mother, why do you devour everything I create? Why..." Much as he brought things together into beautiful patterns, he decided to create a word to reflect this horrid act. "Why do you kill?" "Fullness is the absence of change. Nothing can grow, nothing emerges. So I created you, my child, to farm this earth and grow what I will kill." Time cast his eyes downward and returned to his work. In time, he once more brought the remnant of things together into a shining whole, something still greater than his first two creations, such that the very sight of it made him shake with joy. If he could create something beautiful enough, would even Mother Demise hesitate to destroy it? But it was not so; no matter how hard he worked, no matter the glory of his creations, there was no thing too resplendent the Demise would not take it. His spirit was truly leaden with despair, and Demise found even this amusing for a time. His work became rote and heartless, each new creation more dim and uninspiring for the knowledge that it would soon be taken away. "I grow bored of killing your simple creations, my child. I am going to sleep, wake me if ever you create something interesting again." And so Demise crawled down beneath the earth, the roteness of existence boring her to sleep. Time continued to create, for there was nothing else on earth to do, but his ennui had not withdrawn; for would his mother not awaken eventually and take it all away again? Such was his thoughts for a time. But cunning struck him: while his mother sleeps, she could not watch his work and snatch it away just as he makes it. Nothing was too beautiful she would not kill it. But what if he created something she could not kill? So Time began to work with renewed determination and gathered all of the things on earth into something far bigger, far brighter, far greater, than any work he had shaped before. It was so shiny he could scarcely look at it; but Demise's mouth was wide, and her gut large, and so he still knew she could devour it if she saw it. But then he looked up, into the great void Demise had cleared away. So he took this shining thing and threw it as hard as he could, until it was so far away in the void that nothing could reach it. Time was lonely now that his creation was so far away, so he endeavored to make more of them. Shiny thing after shiny thing he made, some of them brighter than others, but all of them thrown away into the unreachable expanses of the void. He grew fond of these creations, and bestowed upon them a name: stars. Time's masterwork was such that even in placing stars in the sky he made it so that they formed still greater patterns among themselves. When his work was done, he had painted a majestic, sparkling expanse. Yet his loneliness had grown with each star he threw away, even if the distance was for their own protection. So for the last star he made, he could not bear to part with it, and kept it on earth with him, adding more and more until it shined brighter than any of the stars. Its radiance was such that it woke Demise from her slumber beneath the earth. "My child, what have you done?" Time was quick, and on hearing her voice he made to hide his last creation. But the sun was too bright to be hidden. "Idiot child. Is this all you made for me? I will not be amused by snuffing out a single one of your lights." Time's voice shook, but he dared say, "Mother, I made more than just a single light." And he pointed up to the sky. "Do you like my stars?" "What is the use of putting them so far out of reach? I cannot kill them from here." "Can you not learn to be be amused without destroying?" "My child, I am the demise of all things. I was here before the sky was void, and I know there is nothing but boredom to be found in fullness where nothing can change and die." "Perhaps it would be more amusing if you would change. Or even die!" Demise stared at him with vast eyes. "Is this how you dare speak to your mother? I created you, and I can kill you just as well." But when Demise advanced on Time, his last creation, the sun brightest of all, moved to protect him. "I will start with your foolish light." Demise tried to devour its radiance, but Time had achieved success in his first plan, and she could not easily destroy this sun. After a great struggle, she spat out the light, and it flew up, hiding the stars with its brightness. "I never wish to see you again, idiot child. You have plotted against and betrayed your mother, and for this you will be punished. Go. Run to the ends of the earth. If you ever stop moving I will swallow you up and you will know the fate all of your creations." Cast out by his mother, Time shuddered, a despair engulfing him. But the earth began to open up beneath him, so he knew he better move. Time roamed the world as the winds, always marching forever, never stopping, and watched as the earth swallowed and then spit back up the sun, nevering fully extinguishing its light. Demise had devoured all things --- was it a matter of time before the triumph of his last creation was also dust? So as he wandered he began to sow the seeds of something new. Never able to stop --- for if he dallied, the earth would shudder and quake with Demise's fury --- he could never again work something as magnificent as the sun or stars. So he made small, flourishing things. They eagerly accepted the light of his greatest creation, worshipful, a continuous thanks for protecting him from the wrath of his mother. At times he was able to tend to these flourishing things, slaking the earth so that they might grow, but he could never stay for long lest the earth open up and swallow him. When Demise saw that flourishing green was overtaking the earth, her fury erupted into flames like an imitation of that sun she was growing so familiar with. She burned away the greenery with great consuming flames, leaving nothing but ashes. Still Time continued to pour adown water to extinguish the flames, and grow more green. So Demise perverted these rains, made them black and acidic to melt away the green. So Time made them fold up their leaves, and endure the black storms. Enraged, Demise erupted once more, smoking pouring out from the earth to engulf the plants. But Time, still traveling as the winds, blew away the smoke again and again. So finally Demise reached inside of herself to rip forth another child from her womb. One smaller, more obediant then time. She called her Ruin. And she sets Ruin to chase after Time, to snatch away everything he tries to create. To let rot and decay overtake that which is green. Time is harried and distraught, chased by Ruin, and no longer can he take the moments to care for and hone his creations. Abandoned, the flourishing things quarrel and conflict, growing taller than one another and spreading their leaves to block and grasp more of the sun's light. And seeing how ruin takes them, turning them to rotting husks, some get an idea, and turn away from the light entirely. They begin to devour one another. Thus following Ruin's ways, the plants become the beasts of the earth, and they kill and devour each other, such that Demise need no longer even do so herself, and her amused laughter rung throughout the world. Demise had settled deep below, even as she continues to swallow the sun and spit it back out. She felt the birth of every creature as a terrible itch, and as plants and beasts fall down and return to the earth, it is as if that great itch were finally scratched. Demise could feel as the beasts struggle against each other, how each one that dies next was stronger than the last. And yet they die all the same. It pleased her that nothing is beyond her grasp. She would witt