16. Failure | Beyond The Firmament: Tales From The Cosmos

Beyond The Firmament

Tales From The Cosmos

 16. Failure

As I said before, my Acolytes. I do not need to tell you of your own history. For your disobedience, for breaking the one and only rule you had, for your sin, a crime against God, you and your world were cursed with labour, pain and death. 

You had caused Da Vaada a greater sorrow than what had been done to Mars, and you would continue to this very day.

Believe me, I do stand in judgment of you. I am no different. There is a reason I am here, speaking to you, far away from my own world. That is a story for another time.

15. Whispers | Beyond The Firmament: Tales From The Cosmos

Beyond The Firmament

Tales From The Cosmos

 15. Whispers

The songs of the cosmos began anew. Songs of praise. Songs of joy. Songs of love. But under them, there were whispers. Whispers of doubt, whispers of outrage, whispers of disgust. They had spread to the far reaches of, among the heavenly hosts, the stars and even the ones who birthed them, Kallor and Kibet. 

14. Pride | Beyond The Firmament: Tales From The Cosmos

 

Beyond The Firmament

Tales From The Cosmos

 14. Pride

The shadow of Teyra loomed over Onárstil, drowning him. He looked down upon the dusty, bloodstained plains of his own world. Dust... DUST! Like the so-called inheritors. The children, made in the image of Da Suun, who was Da Vaada, who had been given everything; a beautiful, perfect world that was all theirs, unending peace and Da Vaada's ear, his love.

What did he have? He, who was born from the brightest light? This... faulty imitation that was always doomed to fail? Always? Yes, always. He knew. HE KNEW! Da Vaada knew his world would fail. This planet was never a gift. It was a punishment. A mockery for daring to rise above his station. For daring to think he could be like Da Vaada, be like Da Suun, be like... them! 

The humans!

Those... creatures! Fragile, weak, infants born from dust! They were beneath him. And if they were made in the image of Da Suun, Da Suun was beneath him! And if Da Suun was Da Vaada... then Da Vaada should be beneath him! 

All would be beneath him, or they would be brought down TO him!

He looked at Teyra once again and saw a weakness. A single restriction. A tree, a fruit that the humans could not eat, among the thousands that surrounded them. An asterisk in their dominion. Just as Teyra has been an asterisk in his.

He looked higher, at Udamu, and he saw doubt in the hearts of the many hosts. He called out to them, and many came. 

13. The Evening Star | Beyond The Firmament: Tales From The Cosmos

Beyond The Firmament

Tales From The Cosmos

 13. The Evening Star

Da Vaada held out his left hand and Udamu went silent. There was a red stain on the beautiful cosmos that had once been a sister to Teyra, and he mourned it. A deep regret had filled his heart. Not regret as you and I understand it, but as it was once understood: A great sorrow for the loss or absence of something pleasant.

Once again, Onárstil stood before throne, shielding his face not from reverence but from shame.

"What have you to say?"

"Let me try again."

"That is all?"

"I can do better with a new world."

"You were given one."

"Then give me another."

"You have one. It is yours. Return to it."

"So I can gaze upon your perfect world?"

"You were the Morning Star, seen before the Sun rises. Mars will shine brightly as the Sun sets, so that it shall be seen before sleep and remembered in dreams."

Onárstil's hidden face no longer carried shame, but anger, "I do not want it!"

"It. Is. Yours."

Onárstil left the throne and returned to Mars. The planet's firmament had been all but destroyed, so he could see into the far reaches of spaces and the first thing he saw was Teyra, bright and blue and still full of life. 

His own light had dimmed from his festering rage, which only served to make Teyra all the brighter and for the first time, he was cast in shadow.