The Twenty Virtues Book 1- The Twenty Generals

48-Hope.

A long time ago, there was nothing; it was just darkness. But at some point within this darkness, spheres began to appear. How? It is not for us to know. They might have emerged because they needed to, they might have gradually formed until they were born, or perhaps they had always existed. There are many ways to theorize, but it is a fact that they came into existence. For thousands and billions, trillions and zillions of human years, only they existed. So much time had passed that, honestly, you could say they had no beginning. If they did, it was so long ago that there is no trace of it. If there is no trace, then one might say it is as if it never existed.

They wandered through the eternal void; there was no direction, no stopping, no gravity guiding them, so they simply traversed the darkness, or whatever you want to call it. Until, at a certain moment, something impossible happened—or rather, not impossible because it happened, but statistically minute, a probability so small that the zeros in the number could be called infinite. It was like something that could only be the work of destiny, something that was meant to happen despite so many improbabilities. What, exactly, you might ask? Well, they collided. All of them, at different points throughout the vacuum, traveling at thousands of miles per hour, all ended up meeting at the same point. All the spheres collided at once, and, well, they weren't just spheres; they contained magic, they contained feelings, they contained fantasy, science, everything.

These spheres were the 20 virtues, and they even contained life.

When all these spheres collided, it was not just the creation of the universe; it was also the creation of a very special couple. Names? They never had such things; the only ways they were referred to throughout their lives were as Mother and Father.

Consciousness was the first thing formed in that explosion, even before their physical bodies materialized, and the pair watched as the world formed, feelings flowed, and the most virtuous rainbow of the world was being assembled, remodeling and deciding all the laws of nature. The Father was perplexed, and the Mother was fascinated. The first sight they had was literally the greatest and most beautiful event in history. As their bodies materialized, they both observed.

She was much more emotional than he was. He was much more analytical than she was.

When the explosion finally calmed, the 20 spheres that originated everything descended carefully right before the couple. Each one glowed with so much glamour, power, and majesty. Those spheres were not objects; they were creators of everything, they were everything. They were the universe as it should be. Tears streamed down the Mother's eyes as she watched, amazed, her creators. The Father did not cry; he just contemplated, speechless at the magnitude of the power he was witnessing.

Time passed. How much time? It is hard to say—seven days? Seven years? Seven decades? Thousands and billions of years? It is so difficult to speak precisely. The important part is that time passed. The Father and Mother did not age; they were not affected by the passage of time, so they didn't even notice that things were slowly changing. They were not on Earth or in its creation. No, they were in their own palace created by the Father.

They were not human, obviously, but they were also not deities per se, as only the virtues deserved that title. They were prototypes of gods, celestial beings but without any trace of true majesty. Over time, the pair became a couple, lucky to find true love with the only other person by their side. Or perhaps, the fact that only each other existed led them to fall in love. Maybe becoming a couple was the only option to avoid being forever alone.

The two were very powerful; coming directly from the virtues, they had direct contact with all of them, with all creation, and with all matter. Thus, they learned to manipulate it to their will, transmuting one element into another, building and destroying everything at their whim. But with the Earth itself, they did not interfere, as they saw it as the most blessed planet by its creators. They built a tall castle in the sky, and there, a separate room where they kept the spheres. The Father wanted to study them, and the Mother wanted to worship them. One feared them, and the other loved them.