He flitted from flare to flare. Carving images into the surface of this small blue light. Carefully carefully he wrote out the thoughts and the sounds of the creatures he heard on his world. Carving too deep would be bad though so his images faded as soon as he exhaled letting time flow forward again.

With his breathing he saw the world turn again. Life moved forward. His eyes saw it and all it's varied paths through that singularity still. Each reality overlaid upon reality. Each moment some spun out and were burned up again and new ones were formed from those that remained. Those that decay happened most where he touched frequently. Those made him sad.

Still this was his world. He would play. There he said pointing to a point in all of the realities. Of all of the ones he had made so far this one was the most entertaining. Even in looking away for a moment the small clumsy one had the others afraid of him. Perhaps it was that he had the skin ripped off another animal and wrapped around his own. It was so strange, he needed to instantiate this one's behavior in others.

A moment and there. The thought was planted in the ever changing medley of viruses that mutated around the planet. It would change the way the single stranded instructions were used to interperate memories in the ones shaped like him. A thought, ah well it may also effect their memories and brains in other ways. No point in trying to correct it before it happened. It would do what he wanted any surprises were just that.

He looked at another point. The other ones who became more than creatures. Order, structure, information processing, were those attempts to calculate probabilities? The attempt to use logic was so grossly misapplied it was hilarious. Perhaps, yes, a twist and now the signalers most likely to have faults in their calculations would have marginally shorter life spans.

The surviving queen was trying to manipulate the genetics of her broods again. She was constantly weakening the gene pool. It was kind of annoying actually. After millennia only two sentient creatures emerge and this one is insistent of slowing progress and stagnating this branch of life. Another correction, a few rogue traits and there, things would be much more amusing this way.

* * *

There was a flashing in the field. Most creatures didn't understand them, but the lights indicating colony growth were generally understood and drew in enough creatures to establish a new biome. This signal would not have been understood and would not have that same allure. On its side in a field of black. Holes riddled its side. It was old damage, but it had no water or means of repairing it.

"No response received to signal. Unable to amplify. No channels to reroute." it flashed in red, ultraviolet, and purple flashes.

"Purge incomplete. Dormancy period volatile. Sentinels unable to complete maturation cycle. Resources required." it repeated in yellows and blue waves of the spectrum.

"Iteration 18220101100"

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

It repeats with no gap between the previous iteration.

* * *

The sun circled overhead, it grew closer and further by imperceptible amounts, but Yagbur felt them. The black field they had begun their search on extended beyond his range of sight now. All four of their packs were full of the small round mushrooms. 300 in all, each individually blessed in oil and blood. There was still one more thing Yagbur had to find.

Sanshall walked with him but left the others closer to the frost. The endless black worsened the delusions of Murkie. Now he called Yagbur the great specter and asked for his guidance through the plains of death. It was unanimously agreed that this type of behavior was too much of a distraction and that only those vital to this last portion would continue further.

Yagbur chanted and Sanshall felt the winds and the earth beneath his feet. At least that was how Sanshall explained it worked when there were no stars in the sky. Yagbur didn't understand, but Sanshall didn't understand the point in the meaningless words.

His words extended with the highs and lows of his voice. Echos of nothingness returned. The air was stagnant and did not blow here. His was the only sound. Yagbur made himself smaller, mind contracting within itself. He sang lower and touched his tongue to the roof of his mouth and sang from his through. A high whisteling and a low groaning harmonized and reverberated from his mouth and chest. The high notes sought answer. In his low tone he became the stagnation.

The void slept and did not dream. If it stayed and did nothing it would remain nothing. He was nothing. It was not a feeling unfamiliar to him. It was the absence that he knew to follow.

"Follow the absence" Yagbur dazedly stated.

Sanshall grunted, and they continued. It was timeless now. The sun did not wane, did not wax. Their skin crisped and throats dried regaurdless of their provisions.

As he sang he knew he was with the void now. So he continued and allowed himself to feel the desire to remain the same. That desire carried from his song. The emptiness became less and less aware. He pored sacred oil over the ground and time stopped for the nothingness. Sanshall and Yagbur dug. It was not deep and they found the poison they were looking for. A small almost invisible stone. Without touching it with their hands they put it into the pack of purified oil and it stayed. This was what they came out to do and so they left.

* * *

There was a flashing in the field. Most creatures didn't understand them, but the lights indicating colony growth were generally understood and drew in enough creatures to establish a new biome. This signal was understood with certainty and did not have that same allure. On its side in a field of black. Holes riddled its side. It was old damage, but it had no water or means of repairing it.

"No response received to signal. Unable to amplify. No channels to reroute." it flashed in red, ultraviolet, and purple flashes.

"Purge incomplete. Dormancy undetectable. Sentinels unable to complete maturation cycle. Resources required. Resources unavailable. Colony to be cannibalized. Accelerated maturation commencing." it stated in rapid red flashes.

"Iteration 19202014034"

The signal did not repeat.