Fall of Ima (Cycles of the Lights series)

Prologue

With no measures of time or distance, stillness dominated the illimitable womb of nonexistence. Only the nothingness swirled, gradually gaining sentience. At an indecipherable moment, the nothingness became aware of a sphere of light.

A solitary timbre emerged with alluringly to encircle the radiance. It was voice from the nothingness, filled with adoration. "Please," it asked simply, "Will you become a part of me?"

Upon hearing the voice, the once slumbering light awakened to know it was not alone. Captivated by the sound, it responded, "I am intangible and you are devoid. How am I to become a part of you?"

The nothingness answered lovingly, "I cannot change you, nor force you to become. Yet if you'd allow, you can will for me a place to enter and be a part of you."

The words of the nothingness stirred the light and it danced. As it did, rays expanded into the dark. Its form gradually changed and the light carved a space for the nothingness.

Where the two collided, infinite manifestations occurred. They affected one another, building and changing. "Nothingness, do you see what I see?" the light asked in awe.

A warm voice answered, "Yes." In mesmerized silence they observed their offspring of dust and various hues of light.

Eventually time and space came to be and sentience dotted the scape. "Isn't it beautiful?" the nothingness asked in a silky voice. "Our emanations naturally gravitate, moving in flux."

"They're connected by the pull I feel for you."

"Light?"

"Yes?"

"I believe we've created breath, and with it, life."

Amber waves pulsed to the furthest reaches of the endless womb. "Every iota of our creations oscillates between extremes. They diminish to darkness only to be revived and grow until their presence is inevitably noticed. Afterwards, their radiance recedes, all caused by the relation they have to one another."

"Do you think they behave this way as an echo of our union?"

"Yes."

"What shall we call this attraction?"

The light fell silent. As the nothingness waited, countless breaths passed. In that time, billions upon trillions of universes were born and destroyed in natural rhythm. The light finally answered through a harmony of vibrations. The combined sound came as "Love."

The nothingness swished and echoed, "Love."

The light reached tenderly as if to caress the nothingness. In its movement, millions of multi-verses spawned, each with different sets of natural laws and countless dimensions. In one, gravity reversed. In another, there was no time. In many more, unimaginable quandaries were born from chaos, while in others order ruled divine.

The nothingness responded in tenderness, "Observe. The moment when aggression turns to futility, hopes dies and all that's left is surrender. That's when the sentient creations are most like us, untangled and free from the pulls of others."

"Why do you rejoice in their becoming like us?" the light uttered. "I'm envious of our creations. If they choose, they can offer all of themselves to one another. They can entangle, forming bonds, whereas my core can never fully become one with you."

After an eon of silence, the nothingness swished and sent waves of positivity. "Here," it pulsed in strain. "See where you cannot sense me at all?"

"The endless dark of entropy?"

"Yes. That is my purest essence. Shoot your core towards it, the brightest of your illumination. Let us see what happens."

The light dug deep and bound together its most luminescent rays. A speck formed. Taking aim, the light aligned its core to the faintest region of the nothingness. It released. The cores collided and the consciousness of the two launched into their boundless creations. Emanations around them shuddered as the remaining essences of the light and the nothingness fell silent.

Oscillations continued as eternity marched on. Two embryonic drops of cognition formed. Unconsciously, one answered to a voice calling "Entropy," the other to "Illumination." The names echoed until all that remained were the syllables, "En" and "Il." Slumbering, the two gravitated until they met. Their unconscious attraction kept them close as they drifted. Eventually, their proximity stirred them to wake.

When they first formed sight and gazed upon each other, the conflicting energy of En and Il caused them to vanish as if the meeting of matter and antimatter. They hurtled through space and time. The energy casting them apart trapped them in form. Form allowed them to become influenced by their surroundings. Soon they grew ensnared with the effects of their emanations, the boundless multiverses, no longer drifting free.

As they journeyed apart, En and Il forgot the voice of the other. Only a deep intuition responded to an instinctual yearn, vying to be together once more. Thus, their journeys began.