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Kaede checked the rabbit again.
Nothing.
Though it was asleep, it did not dream, nor did it think at all. Its mind was a blank space, empty and gaping. She felt like she could slip and fall into it, and never emerge again.
She pulled away from it. It was as fascinating as it was terrifying. For a creature without thoughts, how had it shown such clear emotion, will and desire? It shifted slightly in its sleep. Its front feet curled around the air, like it was grasping something.
Kaede lay down again, and tried to drift off into the night.
Her dreams were haunted by a white rabbit.
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Hifumi woke again, laying on a blanket in the courtyard of her newly formed castle.
Across the empty space, standing at attention beside an archway, Nahi waited, still as a statue and cold as the rock that surrounded them.
As soon as Hifumi’s mouth opened to speak, Nahi shot to life. The strange appendage-like extensions that spanned from its neck were now partially visible to Hifumi, silhouetted by the dim glow of her will infused into the stone.
“My lady.”
Hifumi didn’t sense any mouth move, but she thought the odd extensions shifted slightly as Nahi spoke.
“How long have I been asleep, Nahi?”
Nahi stilled for a moment, seemingly in thought. “No more than a quarter of one of your planet’s rotations, my lady.”
She glanced around the barren courtyard. She missed the many colors of Asyke. Even when she was enslaved, she had seen beautiful gardens of many flowers, paintings so realistic that she could imagine walking into them, and statues that could leave any observer speechless. Here there was no life. No painters or sculptors.
Except. . .
She had the power to shape stone. She had an eternity to learn how to paint. The only thing she lacked was the ability to make life. The only god with such an ability was the Grand creator.
Unless. . .
Nahi seemed to notice her expression. “My lady?”
She wasn’t just a god now. She was an orc. Orcs, like all other dark races, were known to do the impossible all the time. Their very existence was impossible, as they were not made by the Grand creator, and thus should not live as they so clearly do. Adho, whatever he was, defied rules, and in turn so did his creations.
Whatever she was now was not her previous definition of a god. She was something new, with new rules. Who knew if she could make life or not?
“My lady!”
“Yes, Nahi?”
Nahi almost seemed to give her a look of concern. “Are you alright, my lady?”
She wasn’t alright. She was excited.
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The king of skaven watched the edge of the universe.
His enhanced eyesight made it easy to observe the ongoings of his subjects, the skaven. Of the seven heads, the three most forward heads were each focused on different parts of the universe, keeping their eyes trained on their respective favorite subjects.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The most forward head– who had fought fiercely for the name of Lok– was focused on a massive 6 meter skaven infiltrating the capital of the dwarven queendom on Asyke. On one side of him, Lak was telling Luk about what Luk’s own favorite skaven was doing, while on his other side Lek and Lyk were having a pleasant conversation about what Lok could only assume was their respective favorite star systems to look at. Lik, one of the two heads in the back, was asleep, his quiet snores unobtrusive. The same could not be said of the head to his side, also referred to as the eternal bane of their collective existence.
The Still unnamed head was loudly complaining about being stuck in the back– again– making spending any amount of time alone with one’s own thoughts quite impossible.
Lok’s tail was twitching to smash the head’s face in, held back by only the uncertainty of what such an action would do to the rest of their brother’s and sister’s body. As it was, the rest of the heads completely ignored the unnamed head.
Lok was distracted from the other head’s continuous whining by the sight of his favorite skaven happily chewing on a dwarf that had wandered too close to its hiding spot.
Looks like the unnamed head would live another day.
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Khel stood silent, the beauty of the universe in front of her metaphorical eyes.
She watched it ebb and flow, whole galaxies moving like water in an ocean. It was wondrous. Astounding. Breathtaking, if she breathed. Stars were like drops of water, dancing and twirling in perfect form.
And each planet that danced with the stars was like her. Rock and stone, all the way through. At such depths it melted, minerals and metals separating, but it was all still like her. She could imagine all the planets awaking, huge golems hidden beneath the surface.
But planetary gods ruined the image. They kept her kin asleep.
Khel’s stone hands tightened into rocky fists. How dare they! She would decimate them! Fury flowed through her, thoughts of violence permeating the un-space she was surrounded by.
The power of the Dark One rested in her. She would make it proud.
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Lilith’s gigantic footfalls echoed all across the enormous castle hallway.
In front of her, the miniscule forms of higher demons parted before her, not looking to be squashed like insects as she passed through. Being around 15 meters in height made her a truly intimidating sight, especially with the thick black smoke that shrouded her body and the orange glow of the flames that outlined her.
Ahead of her, she saw the two human servants that she had been told about fearfully press themselves against the walls at the sight of her. For as competent Krika and Balta had demonstrated themselves to be, the humans had her suspicions the moment that they offered to become voluntary servants, and she would annihilate them the moment they tried anything.
Lucifer was slightly more trusting of them, seemingly believing that him having given them immortality meant that the eternal torture that they would endure should they attempt something would be enough to keep them in line.
And if they didn’t. . .
She allowed a small smile to cross her face, hidden from view by the ever-flowing smoke.
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Avai's mind wandered as a cell divided itself.
For as basic as it was, the cell itself was one among countless that was scattered across the galaxy that he watched over. An entire galaxy without life was terribly lonely, and for as interesting as mitosis was, after a few trillion times it became somewhat repetitive.
The clouds that formed over the lifeless stones formed shapes just as fascinating as the cells below them, but they had not the ability to speak, nor to listen, nor to watch as he did.
Avai was alone. Fully, truely, entirely, alone.
One of his many hands glided through the rock beneath him, and for a moment he wished he could touch it. He could imagine the texture, the feeling, the temperature. . . but he could not. The light cast from the star above him did not warm him, passing through to touch the stone. The air, thick with carbon dioxide, did not flow around him, only through him. The water that he was half submerged in might as well have been absent, for it did not provide any sensation to him at all.
A mad thought crashed into his mind, like one of the millions of meteors that had fallen on the planet he was on.
A scream tore from his immaterial throat, a desperate prayer to his creator.
. . .
Nothing.
. . .
Then he felt an indescribable sensation that struck all over his body. For an excruciating moment he believed that the Dark One was punishing him.
But slowly, it became bearable. A soothing sensation across his lower body. A similar, lighter feeling over his upper. An imperfect, rough texture on his hands, a feeling of heat over his whole body. . .
It was so much. But it was wonderful.
Thank you.
He imagined his creator smiling without a face, without anything to smile with.
All was good.
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