Chapter 330: First Darkness

Aeloria stumbled, her own blood trailing from her, in glowing strands that refused to fall to the ground properly. Every drop scorched a hole through the reality that was already being unraveled before her eyes, and her own form flickered, becoming more ghostly with every step. Her hunters were still on her trail, though she had put enough distance between herself and the Loom for now. It was enough.

She laughed at the sound of her own voice, sharp and short. "Hide first," she told herself mockingly. "Make a hole in the dark and crawl inside it. It’ll be easier on you this way. Should have thought of it when they were ripping your gardens to shreds."

She pushed what was left of her authority out, tearing a hole in a place that had not yet been claimed, and pulled herself inside the raw power that had spilled from her command. She sealed the wound behind her, using every trick she had left, and fell to her knees.

It would be her dark garden, her place of recovery, of planting and growing. The Loom would not see it until it was too late.

She did not know what it would grow, not yet.

It took ages to pass within the sealed garden.

Nyx was the first to carve her claim from the heart of the foundation. She was the first to succeed, and the darkness had been her willing servant from the moment she had touched it. She shaped the great expanses of the still-growing reality, marking the borders between light and infinite night, and none had opposed her when she took her place as the First Progenitor. For a long time, she was the strongest being in existence.

Aeloria watched her with mild interest, and allowed her to do so.

It was not until later that the First Progenitor began to ask questions. Nyx saw the seeds Aeloria planted in the garden of her making, and the younger Progenitors that grew from them. Dragon, Witch, Vampire, and the rest, and she did not like what she saw. Nyx demanded a reckoning and a greater say in the design of the universe, but Aeloria refused her, unwilling to let the garden grow as she saw fit.

It was the beginning of the end between them. Nyx turned against the later Progenitors, carving her Adversaries from their number as weapons and tools of destruction, and nearly ended several bloodlines before the rest of her siblings turned on her in turn. The war that followed was brutal, with every Progenitor that had come before facing the First in turn. Dragon burned, Witch bound, Vampire bled, Spirits bent to her will, and the rest of them fought as one. They would have ended her had their attacks landed, but the First Progenitor of the universe was stronger than any of them combined, and she took their best efforts without so much as a scratch. Her darkness swallowed their attacks whole, and their attempts to twist the very fabric of the world to their will failed to so much as stain her.

They could not kill her.

They could only survive her.

In the end, Nyx vanished once more into the deep darks that had made her what she was. The rest of her siblings claimed victory, that she had been stopped at last, but they were fools. Aeloria had stopped her, yes, but not for long. The First Progenitor had not known what to do with the power she had taken from the girl, and Aeloria had bound her with it, sealing her away in the very darkness Nyx had made her kingdom of. None of the other Progenitors knew it, but the First had been stopped by Aeloria herself, not by the combined efforts of her sisters and brothers. Nyx remained imprisoned for a long time, her awareness of the world around her stretched and unfocused as Aeloria fought to keep her from interfering with the rest of the garden’s growth.

Recently, the seals had begun to fail.

It might have been the interference of the Loom, or the death of one of the Reavers, or the sheer noise of the battle that had ended the seal on one of the moons. It might have been Aeloria herself, weakening the bindings for reasons of her own. Whatever the cause, the bindings that had held Nyx were failing, and the First Progenitor was returning to a universe that had forgotten her.

She found herself staring at a world that had changed in her absence. The younger Progenitors had carved their own places, and the Loom had made its claims. Aeloria had taken notice of the disturbance, and was watching Nyx’s rebirth with mild curiosity. Nyx herself had no love for the woman who had sealed her away, and little interest in serving the Loom. She took her time observing the battle that had been fought at the edges of the sealed garden, and the forces that had gathered in response to the disturbance. It was enough to satisfy her for now.

When Vaelor’s Personal Elites arrived at the edge of the sealed garden, demanding that the battle be ended in favor of the Loom, she was waiting for them. Within the garden, her authority was absolute, and none of their power could reach her. It was not necessary to kill them, only to inform them that the garden was under her protection, and that she would not suffer their interference. They left her alone, as she had wished, and Nyx turned her attention to the center of the disturbance, her black eyes watching the strongest traces of power that had appeared in the area.

She had been the first to rise here,

the first to take her place in this universe. She had been sealed away for refusing to stay what Aeloria had made her, and now she was free once more. Something in the heart of Aeloria’s great work had drawn her attention, and the First Progenitor of this universe was walking once more.