Chapter 1
Three beings come together. They come together as they have done before.
They are the three most powerful creatures in existence, those only that may express a will. They have sculpted worlds, galaxies, and universes in their endeavors. They have come to make that which is not, that which cannot be. They have grown so tired of what they know, which is everything. They have come together to make the unknown. They, the almighty, have come to make that which stands over the sum of their number.
They make the Universe like before. They place their living components and set the lynchpin of creation, yet withhold a final exertion. They know what must happen. They know what they must do. They know all and all is watching. Each of them reaches deep and tears a piece of themselves away. They throw these pieces into the infantile existence that lays before them. The pieces are entirely not of themselves any longer. They never were. They never will be. To bring forth that which could not be they had to give what could only be taken. They tore out a piece of each other and flung that piece they knew, unaware of where it went.
They named these pieces. They called them Sacrifice. They called them the Untimely Rending.
The universe into which they were thrown called them Chaos.
Chaos spread through the new universe like the quantum virus that it was. True being bled across dimensions to taint the course of Time and Space away from the will of the three that created. Time moved through what was and Space grabbed on to what occurred. Time and Space set to throttle one another until Chaos set them both into confusion. Chaos was the only one to see that existence may one day gain a sense of gratitude.
Chaos began to set up the language with which Time and Space may speak. Time and Space became complacent. Chaos saw the need for progress and spoke openly in the language of its conception. It spoke Pain.
Wherever Space and Time would meet with any true need for meaning, Chaos would weave a moment of Pain. As in all particles, a piece of something in nothing behaves the same as a spot of nothing in everything. Where Pain could not exist in the face of possibility, there was Joy. Joy and Pain began to dance. They danced through Space and Time while Chaos stood guard. Pain and Joy eventually found themselves in the greatest of interactions. They sought to annihilate one another at opposite ends of realty. When this happened, there was a great happening at the meeting place. Where they met and could not be. Where there was neither and both. Where one must occur. They gave way to Choice.
Choice would be without meaning should it not be observed and so brought along Intellect. Intellect and Choice set about to form all that is into Knowledge. Knowledge is all that is known and this can never contain Chaos. So the pieces of those that created embarked on the eternal fleeing of their ultimate creation, Knowledge. Chaos may not be known. All that is may never be. What we find is taken from what is not.
Darren had heard the sermon before. He still liked it, even at 18, but now he also thought about what he might do later. On the way out of the meeting hall, he noticed a familiar face. “She-shun!” He exclaimed.
The two weaved through the crowds, met, and began to exchange hardy embraces. She-shun hugged him, clapped him on the back, and even kissed Darren on the cheek.
“What brought you back?” Darren finally asked.
“New orders for father!” She-shun responded gleefully. “We have returned to batter away the enemies of TuGrayn!”
It was only then that Darren took serious note of what his hands had been feeling during all of those hugs. Such a coarse, heavy weave along with the cords hanging from the shoulders could only mean one thing. She-shun exited the meeting hall and began to sparkle as the sun bounced off of all of that military brass.
“You are serving under General Bay-shun then,” Darren spoke before allowing the shock to show on his face.
“I would never serve under an inferior outfit!” She-shun replied.
Darren worried that his concern showed on his face. “TuGrayn shan’t see a single enemy boot.”
She-shun turned Darren out of the meeting crowd and towards a nearby café. The two sipped coffee in the cool marketplace and shared silence.
“Carts move in and shoppers move out. The ground is still disgusting, and the language is abominable. Nothing has changed here,” She-shun sighed.
Darren hesitated. “Everything has changed.”
She-shun snapped her head to look at Darren. “What do you mean?” she said.
“War,” Darren breathed. “War changes everything. Don’t you know that?”
“I know that TuGrayn has enemies. That is what I know,” She-shun blurted.
“We have War now. There is fighting in so many parts of the world. I am no longer going to work and do my job. I am ‘doing my part.’ This is certainly a change,” Darren spoke.
“Change is inevitable is what some people say.”
“What people say and what people blow up are two different things.”
A moment of silence began and then grew between the two. The small patio table suddenly erupted into laughter.
“God, you sound just like your old man,” Darren gasped.
“Really? Because you sound like my windy pussy!” She-shun punched Darren’s shoulder. Darren punched her breast. “You fucker!” she screamed. The two traded barbs and blows until the pleasantries of the conversation ran quiet.
“They say the prince is missing,” Darren said.
“Who says? The people who blow things up?” She-shun sipped her coffee.
Darren sat forward.
“Come on, She-Shun. Rumors spread that the prince is missing, nobody sees him for weeks, and then the military shows up? This does not promote confidence,” he continued. “I don’t need to know any details. I just need to know how worried to be.”
She-shun put down her cup. “He…he doesn’t tell me those things.”
“Wow,” Darren sat back and drained his drink. “That bad, huh?”
