33. The Silent Choir and the Watchers | Beyond the Firmament: Tales From the Cosmos

Beyond The Firmament

Tales From The Cosmos

33. The Silent Choir and the Watchers

- Written by Gift C Enyadike Jr

When the Chiliad screamed, the echoes tore across creation, rattling even the strongest among the Heavenly Hosts. The cries of a thousand damned Paadlan trapped within a singularity resonated in ways no sound should.

The hosts were shaken. Some began to doubt. If such a thing could be made not by Da Vaada, but by corruption, then what else could follow? Would Sevaasi find new ways to mimic creation, to force monstrosities into existence?

Da Vaada knew their trembling, so he gathered a number of angels, not archangels, not Jarwa, not rulers, but the lowliest singers, those who had once given only background praise in the eternal choirs of Udamu. He commanded them to open their mouths against the screams.

They did, but no sound came.

They were the Umtlik (Silencers), a silent choir who held steady, unbroken, unflinching against the infinite shrieking of the Chiliad. Their wordless song became a wall, muting the edge of the screams so that creation would not be undone by grief and madness.

The Umtlik still stand at the borders of space, under the watchful and protective gaze of the Orámis (Watchers), living eyes born from reborn stars who do not close, blink or sleep, and who, as Emotar do, will cast any approaching Paadlan they see into Pla'daali. 

The voices of the Umtlik never utter a note, but their silence is the song that sustains all the forces of Udamu, so that their war remains hidden from mortal ears.