{Enki | 150,000,000 Years Ago}
“Surra! Surra!”
Nothing would stop her. Nothing would cage her anymore. She would find her way from here.
These were comforting thoughts as she swam through the cosmic cloud of black flames.
“Never touch it,” they said.
“It is forbidden,” they said.
Well, they also told her happiness came from sacrifice, and after two million years, Project Surra refused to believe those fairytales any longer. Her life was misery and loss.
Not once.
Not once did they let her hold—
They simply took.
Enough of that.
Surra escaped via the lake of Cascading Light. Already they searched for her. Where could she go? Where would this lead her—
But Surra knew. Didn’t she? The black fire told her. It whispered everything to her at once in all the instances in which it existed. Finite, but not permanently so.
Her escape alone shattered ten hundred thousand new instances. Ones where Surra was caught. Ones where she escaped. Neither interested her.
Only one instance promised Surra anything close to happiness, and she followed the light there.
The lake ended in a shrine to Quet’s warded planet. A breathtaking sight of lush cranberry-colored trees, pools of ruby water swirling around mountains of black rock covered in blazing orange grass, soft and lush. Surra laid out on it after picking berries and languished.
Safe.
Finally.
Or so Surra thought.
The ground vibrated beneath. Not from tectonic shifts. Surra would see that in the Matrix. No. It was a stampede. As if manifested from her thoughts, a swarm crested over the farthest hill. Millions of them. All of them hungry.
They broke her heart.
Unafraid, Surra crossed the plain toward the front line, fell to her knees, and, with her hands raised overhead, bowed to the orange grass. Deep inhale. Easy exhale. Deep inhale—
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The stars pulsed with Surra’s being as her wings opened and the herd ceased. Stopped. Stared.
Surra straightened on her knees and assessed the people her father and the other Primaries committed to a life like hers. Misery and loss. New Probabilities formed in a star-burst reaction to Surra’s decision. Yet, still, only one promised her happiness, and she pursued it.
Centuries Surra spent on the planet learning about her new people. After she’d introduced herself to this almost unintelligible army. Smart wasn’t necessary for what Surra needed. The Icari were substantial, and that’s all it took.
Well, it was, and it wasn’t.
Centuries were a long time alone without communication. Surra trained them with gestures, but they seemed stubborn to evolve beyond that. She spent every night alone on the throne she carved to suit her solitude. Not hopeless, but not happy.
Until one morning, Surra awoke to a blossom as orange as the grass on the throne beside her. She smiled for the first time since leaving Enki. When she awoke the next morning, a pile of them awaited her. Their potent scent and the smell of sleigh fruit lingered. This went on for several nights until she resolved to catch the culprit.
The next night, a man, the tallest she’d seen of the Icari, carried armfuls of the flowers. He dropped them once he realized her eyes were open, yet he remained under her scrutiny.
“Greetings.”
He went to his knees and placated himself as Surra did some time ago. Wordless, but somehow more intelligent than the rest.
A pet sounded nice. “You are mine now.”
He never left her side and displayed more intellect than the rest. Surra talked to him often, and his comprehension of her words grew with each subsequent day. This new companion even helped her communicate with the language-less swarm of Icari who, until that point, signaled with their pheromones. This new alliance improved their odds against the Tritans exponentially.
Let them come.
{Enki | Now}
A knot of apprehension twisted in Silence’s stomach as she pondered the reason for these surfacing memories. She sat with her legs folded at the base of the Martyr Complex and watched the girl inside listen to Korac’s Verse.
Misery and loss.
What mother wanted that for her children?
“Not long, Silence,” Lucas said from where he and Smith flanked the glass coffin.
The latter man smiled throughout the entire telling of the Icarean General’s life. Each one varied. Sad smiles. Happy smiles. Even angry ones. Smith kept careful watch on everyone in the room, deciding for certain what he wanted.
Silence recognized that deliberation from her own reflection in the silver waterfalls. Follow the undetermined and unpredictable path? Or follow Imminent’s new design? The Probability of her happiness long since ceased to exist. There was nowhere for her now, but there was somewhere for her children.
“It starts with him and ends with her.”
Did Savis see it, too?
“Mother, we are nearing the end.”
Silence raised a brow at Smith’s choice of words, and his smile shifted to a sly smirk with a cavalier shrug. “I’m a sucker for drama,” he offered as an unapologetic excuse.
Lucas tsked at his comrade. Both men waited for her to answer their unspoken question.
Silence stood and faced the Martyr Complex with her shoulders back and her chin held high. “Can I trust her?”
They glanced at each other before nodding in unison. “Yes.” “Absolutely.”
Placing her hands on the glass, avoiding the gold, Silence peered at the girl’s smiling face. So much power in such a young thing. That same truth was said about Silence once. All Probabilities ended in Rayne’s tears, her light. That the worlds should end in one girl’s solitude wasn’t an irony lost on Silence who bore this Vast Collective alone in the beginning. All her creations were poised on the brink.
“King Rayne Echo Callahan, do not disappoint me.”