The Volumes by Maxus
Book 0 - Preludes and Prologues
1.1 - Azeret // The Realm of Light
Toray seldom materialized before Azeret.
Hundreds? No…thousands of cyps.
Yet, the light overwhelming her chambers was unmistakably His. Orange and Red light danced as if refracting through a pool of diamonds, filling her soulstone with energy and calming her mind. This aura of peace perpetually surrounded Him. The calefaction, incomprehensibly soothing, tempered the grave news it carried.
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Toray filled her mind, “My child, Iarepsub has opened the seal.”
Azeret sat up in her bed. Toray floated twenty lengths above her. Wings like solar flares curled in as He descended. The altemis crystals in His armor scattered His body’s light in all directions, speckling the pulsing orange-red walls with blue and white dots.
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But how? For twenty thousand cyps it has held firmly...
“Nasta sacrificed himself,” Toray interjected.
She froze. I can’t…. but why would he Father?
“Your brother would do anything to end our current iteration. His time with your uncle Ianoda eroded his morals. He values nothing here. Iarepsub knew only my soulcode would open the seal. And Nasta… well I assume it wasn’t a difficult decision with all that in mind.”
But how will this lead to the end of the iteration. Can’t you just close it agai…
He cut in again, “Azeret… you must go to Kathos at once.”
No! Father, wait! Please explain this time.
His wings extruded until they were about thirty lengths across. The gravitational field they generated was massive. The shimmering stopped as He sucked the light from the room becoming pure darkness. He launched.
As He shot upwards He boomed, “Begin recruiting your army, as in the previous occurrence.”
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Azeret dashed to the other side of her chambers, throwing off her nightwear and grabbing her armorsuit. It was heavier than she remembered.
I guess it has been long.
The cold crystals running along her skin felt unfamiliar. She slid her arms in and held the front together. The crystals fused leaving the armorsuit seamless.
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Azeret strode briskly through the corridor that led from her chambers to the Tolic Gates. The floors, a woven fabric of dense off-white condensation and bluelight, seemed to guide her steps and quicken her pace.
The Magic River, she had named it in her youth.
The palace was so alive. Light ran like water between the crystal cubes of the corridor’s walls. Her right hand gently touched the warm crystals, the light tickling her fingers as she continued down the corridor. She sang, “udah seh’Pahtehrkah… ah’seh’Pahtehrkah.”
Each word filled the corridor, trailing upwards without hindrance. Father fabricated no ceilings for the castle. Only the Muli glimmered above.
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Brilliant blue emanated from the end of the corridor… like the sky of Mizatu during the Heat.
The corridor became the courtyard as you moved through its final lengths. The walls widened and grew with vines. The cloudy pathway became thick violetgrass and the flowing light changed to water.
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She spread her white wings and took flight. She glided out through the courtyard, wide as a planet, cutting along the largest of rivers that extended from the palace. She flew down through the Garden of Fountains.
The Garden was filled with fountains grander than any waterfall on Kereth. Statues of Equilos, Father, and Mother stood as magnificently as snowcapped mountains.
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Drawing close to the Tolic Gates she turned. Only here could one truly appreciate the beauty of Father’s work. The palace sat on the glowing backdrop of the nebula like a vast mountain range guarded by a forest of rivers and waterfalls.
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Surrounding the palace was a vast region she had dubbed the Canvas. Iterations of the Land that Father had disliked floated in all directions. Here, mountains would collide with mountains; yet instead of crumbling to rubble, they would coalesce like two colliding galaxies. The resulting sphere of dust was valuable raw materials Father would reuse.
It was far from dangerous, but the vastness of it all was so terrifying that it made it hard to pass through without feeling so very insignificant.
Still, her wings carried her through the vast expanse.
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She sat on the edge of the Realm cross legged with closed eyes as Father had taught her sometime in the far distant past.
‘Just think of the cold water and warm sun my child and you will arrive on the shores of the Land,’ He would say.
Azeret found that she traveled quicker when she imagined herself falling to the Land.
She opened her eyes. The blue waters of the Sea of Toray reflected the Star’s warmth onto her skin. The setting sun burned its red light into the sand. She was about six thousand lengths above the waters north of Kathos, wings cutting through the currents in the air like razorblades.
She smiled.
It feels good to breathe in the air of Kereth once again.
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