Havenless

Prologue

"Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great."

—George Bernard Shaw

"How much do you know about the Celestic religion?" he asked one day, combing through the library for books that would be useful for future lessons.

"The name comes from the patron Goddess, who is known as 'the Celestica', almost as if she had a title instead of an actual name."

"Is that it?"

"Yes. Sorry."

"Don't be." He tore his gaze away from the endless row of book spines to smile at his pupil. "Many foreign-born trainees are unfamiliar with it. The teachings are kept rather strictly within Haven. Mostly due to purist superstition and the Archmages' decision to back that superstition up. Anyway, why don't we start with the creation myth? The best place to start is usually the beginning of all creation, in any culture."

His student grabbed the large book to his left and began flipping through pages until he came across a picture of shadowy, chaotic swirls that made no sense whatsoever.

He cleared his throat and began. "Most creation myths begin with a primordial void, but the Celestic creation myth is unique in that it begins with an already-existing universe, or at least all the makings of one. It was fully formed, but scattered and buried beneath layers of darkness and chaos." A pause. "In this, chaos is a force or a physical thing rather than a void."

The student flipped to the next page, where he was met by a colorful, glittering form, resembling nothing on this earth that anyone was aware of. The image was probably meant to be an abstract one.

"Then one day—actually, there are no days yet, but I'm sure you get the idea—the Sovereign decided to raise the stars and moons and planets from the darkness and weave it into the masterpiece of the Cosmo. No one knows where the Sovereign came from, or where he was before he fashioned the universe, or why he decided to do it in the first place. The point is that he did."

Another page-turn revealed an illustration of the earth, blue and green and white against the velvety black background.

"Another thing he did, for no particular reason, was to leap from arranging to the complex art of creation, his efforts of which were focused solely on Earth. His first creation was the Celestica, his daughter, and for material he used the power of chaos and a portion of his own essence, fashioned it into the shape of a woman—then, lo and behold, the princess of the Cosmos was born. Together, father and daughter created life. The Celestica kissed the land, blessing it with magic, and then fashioned creatures from the earth, sea, and sky that would master this power."

The student flipped through a few more pages, each illustration portraying different information. "Odd...they all say that a different race came first."

A nod from the teacher. "That's a debate as old as time itself. Lots claim it was humanity, but others claim it was the sith or undine or whatever race they're part of. The more religious, though maintain that it was the Evange. I'm sure you've heard of angels from Christian myth, right?" When he received an affirmation, he continued. "Thought so. Well, the Evange are fairly similar—celestial servants and warriors of the heavenly realm. Honestly, no one knows for certain which race came first, but after all that was said and done with, the Celestica was entrusted with watching over earth while the Sovereign decided to go elsewhere.