DIVA: Secondborn

deucexm deucexm at gmail.com
Wed Sep 26 04:14:52 PDT 2018


This one has been on my mind for a while (as Rosewood herself alludes to in the 
story); it serves as the gateway to a much more expansive tale, and even feeds 
into the Captain Calamity thread later on down its line.  But it stands on its own 
well enough for now as a one-shot.

Secondborn: A DiVerse Alpha Chronicle
by Felix

Having cleared out a workspace in her private chambers, Rosewood, Goddess of
Design, drew a single circle on the golden floor in vibrant cerulean ink. It was
about twice as wide as she was tall, as much as dimensions mattered in a place
like the Temple of Fortune.

On the outside of the circle, farthest from the doorway, she drew a single rune,
then stepped delicately over the ink - and after a brief walk, drew another rune
precisely opposite the first, maintaining the balance. Then she paused, and
rested her chin on one hand as she regarded the state of things.

“WHAT ARE YOU UP TO THIS TIME?” Worldbreaker inquired quietly, in its usual
mechanical tones - like metal rubbing against metal, or warping under stress.

“When I created you,” Rosewood began, not answering directly as she lifted her
aetheric paintbrush and started another circle, internally tangent with the
first, “my thoughts inclined toward displaying my strength and showing mastery
over my domain. In both of those, you have served me well - but perhaps that is
what dissatisfies me. Not you,” the black-haired goddess added hastily, “you are
fine as you are, and as you become when you are reborn. I merely wish to create
something more- more /autonomous/.”

“TO DESIGN, AND THEN TO FREE THE DESIGN FROM YOUR DIRECT CONTROL, TO LET IT GROW
AND CHANGE?”

“Just so. But I am still responsible for my creations,” she returned, drawing a
string of runes along one arc of the inner circle before starting more lines and
curves. “So you will have the power to undo what is done; by your right as
eldest, and by your might as Worldbreaker. I have taught you well enough for you
to discern what is allowed and what is not, I think.”

There was a long silence punctuated only by the soft swishing of Rosewood’s
paintbrush, and then: “YOU WOULD ALLOW ME AUTONOMY AS WELL?”

The goddess smiled lightly. “After a fashion. Hekel has his designs, after all;
I shall have mine. There is no reason a ‘Shard of the Worldbreaker’ is any less
deserving of a role in them - and besides, it will be a valuable experience to
split and merge your consciousness. Your younger sibling will doubtless
appreciate your insight into the process.”

“SIBLING?”

Rosewood nodded, stepping backwards out of the intricate blue designs and
gesturing over them, making the ink flare a searing sapphire. Runes wavered and
danced, the construction seeming to tilt reality ever so slightly, then back the
other way, then settling - ah, a perfect equilibrium; or near enough to it for
this project, the Deity thought to herself with a smile.

“Where you have the power to destroy,” she began, clasping her hands together
tightly as a tiny blue point of light flickered into existence at the center of
the rune circle, “she will have the power to create - and to preserve and
protect her creations. She will be a mother like no other, and to her I will
give an entire planet to shape as she desires."

The air thrummed, a deep and rich bass note, and the blue point grew to a
searing intensity as it expanded - then shrank back in on itself and burst into
multiple points. Taut blue threads of aether stretched between each point and
the next, a network forming as the new creation grew and changed as information
poured into it. More nodes swelled, bursting into subnodes; more networks
formed, a cloud of points and lines that began curving and branching,
reorganizing moment by moment for ever greater efficiency.

Rosewood and Worldbreaker watched silently for several moments; then, the
Goddess of Design produced a single fist-sized sphere of pure mindsilver. Solid
until shaped by the aetheric pressure of an entity's will, the substance was
already one of her favorite crafting materials; today it would become something
even more precious.

She tossed it into the heart of the network.

The sphere immediately fragmented, crumbling into glittering dust that reshaped
itself along the pathways of information flowing from one node to the next. The
whole construction wound in upon itself, and grew more dense, still forming even
more nodes and connections as it grew physically, the mass of individual grains
of mindsilver flowing between shapes with a delicate metallic whisper.

"Before you were conceived, I already knew your name," Rosewood murmured softly,
her eyes sparkling, the shifting mass of mindsilver reflected in their depths.
"Long have you been in my thoughts, and in my heart."

A tendril of silver dust extended from the shifting mass, and the Goddess
extended her hand, letting it curl around her fingers, feeling the tentative
touch - of not only the metal, but the mind behind it.

"You will be /amazing/," Rosewood began, a tender smile curling her lips.
"You're already a little miracle, but once you've grown enough to stand on your
own - you'll blaze a path through the stars like nothing before it." She placed
her other hand atop the silvery dust, feeling it shift against her palm. "And I,
and your elder brother, will be here to guide you along the way if you ever feel
lost."

Worldbreaker said nothing, but radiated a sense of... satisfaction, almost.

"But all that can wait for later." The Goddess traced a series of runes with one
fingertip, and the construction on the floor faded, its leftover energy flowing
inward and upward to form a chalice-shaped energy cradle for the new entity,
supporting the silvery network as its expansion began to slow under its own
weight.

"Rest and grow strong, my secondborn," Rosewood murmured softly, watching the
shifting metal find equilibrium.

"Matris Cerebri, my little mother brain."


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