She Who Woke Among Eternity

Nevella walked through the crumbling metal halls of this ancients’ ruin. It was so incredibly exciting to be the first to wander these halls since the people who built them. There was so much here to learn from, and she was going to get to be the first. Though the idea filled her with joy, she felt guilty about it. Though she had been the one to make the discovery of where this ancients’ crashed vessel might be it was her daughter who was the one presenting the findings to the Alliance, and her daughter was the one who sought for funds for an expedition into the dangerous open zone so close to Yechun.

It was almost a certainty that the expedition would be funded, as who wouldn’t want to discover an ancients regent yet to be ‘born’? There was so much to learn from an unformed regent, and even more possibility of raising one in modern society. This would be the biggest discovery in history! There was so much potential that Nevella couldn’t hold herself back and came here before anyone else. For the expedition, it would be a dangerous affair, but for a goddess such as herself, traveling this deep into the open zone wasn’t all that dangerous to her. She didn’t have to worry about boring in some starship that could be detected as it arrived in this system; she could just bring herself right into the very atmosphere of the planet where no Yechun could detect her.

The human goddess of ancient history bit her lip as her footfalls made no sound, nor left any prints in the dust and dirt on the floors. Being a goddess had its perks of truly being able to leave no trace in such a place, where every square inch would be studied to no end. On that line of thought, though she was exploring this place, she would not disturb anything even if she found something she desperately wanted to study. This would be an enormous project and something that a full team of people would need to be working on, not just one lone goddess. Besides, she dearly wanted to see the joy on her daughter’s face as she too discovered this ruin.

Of course, no one would see her when they arrived because it wasn’t publicly known that her daughter was her demigod child. Though they were clearly distinct people, her daughter did take after many of her traits, and if people saw them around each other enough, it might be clear that they were mother and child. People made celebrities of most demigods the moment the public knew they were demigods, even if they didn’t want it. It was so much of a problem that it actually became a crime in the Alliance to out someone as a demigod. Then there was the constant tracking by governments and ‘secret’ organizations in the Alliance, because there were too many stories of demigods abusing their power and status. Needless to say, after being outed, it typically changed a person’s life for better or for worse.

That wasn’t the life her daughter wanted. In a way, she did want to be well known, but for her own achievements and discoveries in the field of archeology, not because of her relation to Nevella. For the past 400 vol she had been doing just that, but at some point someone was going to make the connection between the two of them, and Nevella was going to do all she could to keep her daughter’s secret, even if it meant giving up on being the first to do an in-depth study into this new ancients ruin.

Something caught Nevella’s eye as she walked down a now sideways turned hallway; footprints. A booted footprint told her that someone had already found this place, and it brought a tear to her eye. Someone had already found this place, and since this wasn’t a publicly known ruin, that meant looters had potentially sacked it.

“Oh, no…” Nevella rubbed away the tears in her eyes. What immeasurable damage had these looters done to this place? Anger and determination built up inside of her as she followed the footprints down the winding halls. After a handful of turns, a new set of footprints appeared, and she froze in fear. They were clawed and digitigrade.

Yechun…

This was bad; this was so very bad. If they got their hands on a regent… That could mean the end of the Alliance. The end of a free rule for people who weren’t Yechun. Nevella’s hands started shaking as she thought about what to do. The prints looked fresh, and there was only one set. A set that was clearly following the boot prints. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself.

“I am a goddess,” she whispered to herself. “I might not be the best warrior, but one Yechun can’t stand up to me. A dozen couldn’t. Not three score.” With determination and still some healthy fear, Nevella followed the tracks, going as quietly as she could, which was completely silent. Gods were very good at going untraced.

As she followed the tracks, the atmosphere of the ruins changed. They suddenly felt warm, and the further she went, she found that some of the ancient lights were trying their best to flicker to life. Had they already powered the ruin? They were confident enough to try powering up such a potentially deadly place? The flickering lights soon became a steady glow as she came across a pile of rubble that appeared newer to the ruin, but also moved out of the way. Then she heard the gentle clack of claws against the metal floor, or what would originally have been the walls.

Large-scale ancients vessels compared to most of the today’s were built vertically instead of horizontally. Anceints were a people capable of flight so instead of long halls with low height levels like flightless people had on ship, they had a good number of small floors with high ceilings and a large flight tube up the center of the ship so that once could fly from one floor to the other even whilst inside a starship.

Sneaking up to the rubble, she held her breath, still not having peaked around the corner. Her heart was beating hard, but she knew she had nothing to fear. As long as it wasn’t a Yechun god… Her blood ran cold at the thought. That was something she was not prepared to face. Should she really be doing this? Shaking her head, she knew she had to at the very least check to see what was in the room past the removed rubble.

Slowly she positioned herself, ready to pounce if need be, and peaked around the corner. What she saw froze her in both fear and awe.

~~~

Eternity stood before the giant clear tube set into the floor. Originally it was set into the wall, but with the starship crashed and on its side, the wall was now the floor. Tears were welling up under her mask as she stared at the shattered tube. The unique liquid contents splashed all over the floor and dried up millions of years ago. There was no recovering the contents… Though she knew finding her daughter a body was probably going to be difficult, there had been a little hope that if she returned to the crash site marked down on Heather’s notes that everything would be there ready and waiting for Avalyn…

Slowly, she reached out and touched the shattered glass. One way or another, she was going to get her daughter a body, but now seeing what was truly left of all her people’s achievements firsthand made her feel a little hopeless. Though there were probably plenty of things that survived, most of everything had been worn away by time in the tens of millions of years since her people flew in the galaxy.

Without thinking, she found herself falling to her knees, two of her hands now reaching out, touching the glass, while the other two wrapped around her midsection in some hopes of providing even just a little comfort. Her wings spread out across the ground, not caring what dust and debris might dirty them. This was Avalyn’s birthright. This was meant to be the body she deserved, and it was gone… Leaning forward, she closed her eyes and touched the forehead of her mask to the glass.

“I’m sorry, Avalyn… I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but now I’m scared it will be even harder than I had thought. How much of what we need has been lost to time?”

Where would she even start figuring out what to do? Yes, she had immense knowledge and partook in a lot of the creation of Avalyn, including what was to be her body, but she wasn’t one of the great scientists who knew how to make this like it was the back of their hand. She had only assisted, and though it taught her much, she was terrified her knowledge wasn’t going to be enough. Of course she was a powerful goddess, but this needed more than just her power.

By the entrance of the room, the sound of rubble shifting drew her attention. Looking up, she found someone peeking around the corner of the rubble, staring at her with wide navy eyes. In fact, the person’s hair was also the same navy, and so was her skin. Not only that, but all of her looked to be glowing with stary swirls of nebula-like gas flowing across her. That was another god. Though Eternities chest suddenly felt very tight, it was in a strange way comforting to see that even gods of today shared that similar nebula-like appearance. Though so much had changed in the time Eternity was gone, it made her happy to know that some constants of her past were still here in the present.

This new god appeared to be a little too stunned to realize that Eternity was staring back at them. All it took was for her wings to pull off the ground and fold back up for this newcomer to realize they had been spotted. With haste, they pulled themselves back, making a little eep sound.

~~~

Nevella’s heart was pounding in her chest, her breath ragged at the sight of an ancients goddess being in the other room. Being caught staring only made things worse as she yanked herself back. The image of the woman kneeling in sorrow would forever be burned into her mind. She was the first non-ancients person to ever see an ancients god. Her body was shaking as another crucial piece of information clicked in her mind. The goddess was wearing a mask. There was only one ancients god that was known to wear a mask, or at least only one they had ever found evidence of.

That was Etnity, Goddess of Nothingness and the Forgotten. The most mysterious ancients gods that was known to exist. There was barely any information found about her. She was never depicted without her mask on, nor was there any history attributed to her. From all that they had found about the ancients gods, it appeared that this goddess just appeared one day, but they knew they were just missing the true story. Something that had been lost to the millions of years since she last walked the galaxy.

What was known was that she was feared, stoic, barely spoke even to other gods (some people even theorized that she couldn’t speak), had no notable relationships to anyone, and had a cult of followers who’d constantly disappear, only to return with a person no one knew. Then, those people would disappear only to come back with a new person no one knew. There were theories about who those people were, and the leading theory was that they were soulless creations made out of the nothingness of space (potentially dark matter) in an attempt at imitating the concept of something. The automatons of the god of nothing wanting something.

She could clearly speak, so all those theories about her not being able to were out the window. Her voice was so much gentler and filled with much more emotion than Nevella had imagined. Amber was also not the color Nevella had expected for Etnity. Most were convinced she would be black due to the supposed dark matter connection, but that was just pure speculation. There were some minor mentions of warmth in relation to her. Perhaps that related to her color. It also felt warmer in this area, but then again there was some power returned to the ruin, maybe some sort of heating system?

~~~

Eternity wasn’t sure what to do right now. The fear of having been seen was almost paralyzing, and all she managed to do was stand up. If she suddenly left, there was a good chance this god would go off and tell people they had seen her. Would people believe the navy god? There also needed to be consideration of where they were. Potentially, this person just stumbled across the starship, or maybe they had found it on purpose. Even Eternity herself wasn’t able to find this starship, so if that was the case, this new god would have endeared herself to the goddess of the lost. At least a little, but if this Starship had been sought specifically by this god, Eternity could think of only one reason that would be.

Avalyn…

16 fingers balled into fists, but not out of anger. It was fear. Fear that these people were already seeking her daughter, who was but a child compared to them, even with the power regents possessed. What were they planning on doing with Avalyn? She wouldn’t have even been born yet if they found her, and Eternity was terrified to think was these people might try to do with an unborn regent, let alone her very own daughter.

Determination filled Eternity as she knew she needed to confront this newcomer. She needed answers, and hopefully this person wasn’t here for nefarious reasons. What was she going to do if they were here for those sorts of reasons? The anxiety was eating away at her inside as two of her hands nervously fiddled together. This was for her daughter, though, and nothing was going to get in the way of her being protective of Avalyn. Even if that thing was her own paralyzing social anxiety.

With silent steps, feeling that sound would only make things more awkward, Eternity walked up to the pile of rubble. The god was still there because she could make out the tiniest sounds of breathing and a faint blue glow peeking through the gaps in the rubble. They weren’t running away, nor were they peeking around again, so what were they doing? With her slow approach, Eternity gained a better look at the now obvious goddess that was hiding from her. She hadn’t noticed Eternity yet and appeared to be deep in some thought, maybe even debating over something Eternity couldn’t begin to image what it would be.

~~~

The presence of an ancients god brought up so many questions and possibilities, and Nevella’s mind was trying to run through all of them at once. Since there was a living god, did that mean there were living mortal ancients as well? Then again, Etnity was the goddess of the forgotten and nothingness, and much of her people was forgotten and faded into nothing with the passage of time. Had this goddess actually been around for all these millions of years? Had she been totally alone? Maybe she had just been in some other part of the galaxy where no one from the Alliance had been.

“Shit,” Nevella whispered as she realized she had actually been seen, which meant this was now a first contact situation. Something she had never been a part of. She was a goddess of ancient history, not exploration like many other gods from other species. Regardless of how nervous that made her, she knew she had to act and give the proper introduction of herself and the civilizations here today. She needed to leave a good impression on this ancients goddess hoping to establish further contact with a once thought extinct people. After reaching up and flattening her shirt, Nevella turned to properly introduce herself, only to find that the other goddess was already standing right beside her.

“Fuck!” she screamed out as she jumped a step back. Blood was roaring in her ears as her heart pounded harder than she had experienced before. The other goddess just stood there, not moving or speaking, but clearly watching her. Up close it the height difference between the two gods became very clear, with the ancients standing well over a foot and a half taller than her, which only added to the already intimidating presence. “U-um,” Nevella said, trying to steady her now shaky body. “G-goob morow.”

The other goddess head tilted ever so slightly to the side, and the feathers on the now raised side lifted at hearing Nevella’s greeting. Ancient beings were well known to have feathers on much of their body, including their head, but soft tissue rarely fossilized, so whether the feathers not on their wings moved was a big debate in the archaeological community. Some said they did and theorized ancients used movements as indications of mood or gestures to communicate. Nevella was happy to know she had been right in that belief as well.

Now came the problem, and that was that Nevella was not a linguist. She had, of course, spent a great deal of time around people who enjoyed trying to decipher the ancients dead language from the small amount of audio recordings they had ever found intact, but she knew she was very poor in her speaking skills. Reading it was something she was better at, but by no means was she an expert on it.

The silence filling the air was growing heavy on Nevella’s shoulders, so she decided to say something else. Holding up a shaky hand, she pointed to herself. “Nevella.” Then, she even more nervously pointed at the other goddess. “Etnity?” All the feathers on the other woman’s body lay flatter against herself. Her whole body stiffened just a bit, and Nevella started to get a little afraid she had just offended the other woman.

“Eternity.”

The fear didn’t go away because now Nevella was sure she had just fucked up this woman’s name directly to her face. Eternity was standing so incredibly still that Nevella felt like this woman was a predator waiting to ambush its prey.

~~~

Eternity wanted to run away so badly. Every fiber of her being told her to leave and hide where no one could find her. Her body betrayed that desire because she couldn’t bring herself to move a muscle. She had barely even gotten out her own name. What was she to do now? Nevella was just staring at her with wide eyes, clearly waiting for something more to come from Eternity. She had to say something. Anything!

While she was too paralyzed to say anything, it did dawn on her that Nevella had tried to give a Vysven greeting. It was poorly said and not actually a greeting they used, but it was close enough that she could understand. That was a little nice, but that pleasant surprise was wiped away by the fact that people of today couldn’t even get her name right… What other things did civilizations of today believe about her people that were wrong? A spiraling pit of despair started to engulf Eternity, and she wasn’t sure how to pull herself out of it. She was alone again… Alone where nobody knew her… Alone with no one like her and no idea where home was…

She had Avalyn. She had her daughter, so she wasn’t alone, and home was wherever Avalyn was. Not only that, but she was talking to Nevella for Avalyn’s sake.

Two of her fists clenched tight in determination. These two goddesses needed to have a conversation, so that was what Eternity was going to do. All she had to do was open her mouth and say something. “Hello, Ne-vel-la.” So much relief flooded the goddess at just being able to say two words. Now she just needed to continue repeating the process. Though maybe she could wait to see how Nevella responds. Nevella, for her part, also looked very nervous as well, which was a little comforting to Eternity. She wasn’t the only one nervous in this situation.

Pointing to herself again, Nevella said, “Human.” That was a word Eternity easily recognized, and her feathers lifted a little again now that she felt that maybe this conversation could work. Nevella pointed to her and then said, “Kestevk?”

The feathers on Eternity instantly flattened as her blood ran cold. This had to be a mistake. Nevella couldn’t… A little calm came back over Eternity as she realized that Nevella call herself by her species only to then ask if Eternity was the first? Was she trying to imply that Vysven were the first? Which was the common acknowledged truth by Vysven. They believed it so much that when they marked a new place, they would do so with the message We are the first to discover with hopes we won’t be the last. Then it dawned on her, did people of today mistake the word first to be their species name?

Pointing to herself, she said, “Vysven.” How did she now communicate that Kestevk was a mistake? When Avalyn and Eternity had first met, her daughter had spoken to her in the common language of these people, but Eternity had only understood Avalyn because of the magic bond they shared as mother and daughter. Avalyn could communicate to her in any language, and Eternity would understand perfectly, even if she didn’t actually know the language. Eternity wasn’t fully sure how that worked, but it was a part of being a god. All Vysven gods were able to naturally understand their children no matter how they communicated.

The problem was that Eternity didn’t actually speak common. Over her time watching Avalyn and from when she came across people in her search, she was able to pick up a little of the language. All that being said, Nevella appeared to have some understanding of her language, so maybe she could understand her?

“I believe the people of today have misunderstood our markers and taken the word ‘first’ to be our name.”

~~~

The language was very similar to what people had recreated of the ancients language, but it wasn’t close enough for Nevella to understand what the goddess was trying to say. Eternity had pointed to herself and said Vysven, which could mean that she didn’t identify with her people. Maybe she was taking insult at being called the same name as her people? Nerves were running wild inside her because Nevella had no idea whether this was going well. She had never thought she would be put in a situation of first contact with a living species. Sure, she might be the first to discover an extinct one, but that was so different from what was happening now.

How could she get across that she didn’t understand? She could shrug, but was that a gesture an ancients would understand? What if that was a rude gesture, and she just continued to insult Eternity more than she already had? Just as Nevella built up the courage to say anything, Eternity spoke again.

“Kestvek you broken.” Her words were harsh and curt, as if it took tremendous force to speak them. Was she angry at having to speak Nevella’s language and barely able to hold back her rage? Did she consider Kestvek to be a broken people? Eternity pointed to herself and said, “Vysven.” She gestured to the ruins. “Vysven. Ancients Vysven.” Shaking her head, she said, “Ancients Kestvek,” as the feathers on her body made one aggressive flap, slapping against her body and making a ruffled noise.

There was so much fear deep inside of Nevella of misunderstanding what Eternity was trying to say, but she was a little confident she understood. Eternity was trying to say that Kestvek wasn’t the name of the ancients, it was Vysven. That was going to break a lot of ancients historians’ minds if it was true. Wait! Eternity had used three words of common; did that mean she had encountered members of the alliance before? At least enough to pick up a few words. Now Nevella felt a little sad that she wasn’t the first to meet Eternity.

“Vysven,” Nevella said, pointing to Eternity. The feathers on Eternity now did that flap again, but this time they did it twice instead of once. Was that the ancients equivalent of yes? She pointed at the surrounding ruins. “Vysven?” Again, two flaps of her feathers. An idea occurred to Nevella, and she quickly reached into one of her many pockets.

~~~

Eternity’s wings spread a little as Nevella suddenly reached for something, ready to flap with enough force to push both of them away from one another in case it was a weapon. It wasn’t a weapon, but a small device with one large screen on it. The human goddess tapped a few different prompts on screen before an image appeared, turning it around Nevella showed it to her and asked, “Vysven?”

The picture showed the fossilized remains of a Vysven and Eternity’s wings and shoulder slumped a little. Of course, Eternity had seen other fossilized Vysven remains from their own history on their home world, but this was different. This wasn’t someone from Vysven’s ancient history, but from Vysven at the near end of their existence. Her feathers flapped twice, but much softer now. “Vysven.” Her voice was quiet and filled with sorrow. How many more remains of her people was she going to see now that she had awoken again?

Nevella didn’t miss the hurt in Eternity’s voice and quickly closed the image. Then Nevella put her right hand on the center of her chest and bowed. “Nevella, Human Goddess of Ancient History.”

Eternity was pretty sure she understood who Nevella was now. Not only that, but she had seen this greeting done once before by Vestan when he first saw Heather. Mimicking Nevella’s actions, except that her wings extended and raised up a little, she said, “Eternity, Vysven Goddess of the Endless and the Lost.” She was proud she could say that at least since she had heard Avalyn say that when she told Vestan his friends about her.

“G-goddess of the Endless and the Lost?” Nevella looked a little stunned. “Not the Forgotten and Nothingness?”

Eternity’s head tilted to the side with some of her feathers raising, not understanding the words in Nevella’s second question. “Eternity, Goddess of the Endless and the Lost,” she repeated, pointing to herself.

~~~

Well, that just undermined thousands of vols of research across hundreds of planets and dozens of species. Granted Eternity was the most mysterious of all the ancients gods, and there was so little information about her, so it was no surprise that they got things wrong. But getting wrong what she was the very goddess of was upsetting. Both in that they had failed in their understanding and in that they had been potentially insulting the memory of this goddess for thousands upon thousands of vols. What other fundamental beliefs about Vysven had they gotten wrong?

There were so many questions Nevella wanted to ask Eternity. She could spend vols just asking never-ending questions to this woman. Maybe she would get the chance one day, but right now was still first contact. The questions she asked had to be what formed the basis of a relationship between her species and the Alliance. Even so, there was a massive language barrier happening here, but one that Nevella desired to conquer above anything else.

“Eternity spek lanage my?” Nevella asked.

“Few words,” Eternity answered. “You can speak some of my language, though?”

Though Eternity’s words sounded familiar, it was hard to piece together what she was saying, especially at the speed at which Eternity spoke. But after replaying the goddess’s words in her head a few times, she thought she understood enough that it would hopefully help bridge the language barrier. “Little undstand.”

All in all, Nevella had to admit this was going a lot better than she had feared, even if Eternity still sounded as if even speaking to Nevella was a challenge she had to bear. Even the Vysven’s stiff body language told Nevella that Eternity was not enjoying this, but the Goddess didn’t appear to be pulling away from the conversation.

“How alive?” Nevella asked, only to immediately regret it by the way all of Eternity’s feathers tucked in tightly and how scarily still her body became. All except the largest claw on both of her predator-like legs, which were tapping in clear anger.

“Why Nevella here? How find?” Eternity’s words were so cold that it almost made the room feel colder.

~~~

Now the pair were reaching the part of this first contact that Eternity had been so afraid of. Her body felt paralyzed again, all except her claws, which nervously tapped in a repetitive pattern. That was only something that happened when she was really panicked and afraid. She had to put so much force into getting those few words out, and she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to get any more out until she felt more confident again. This was for Avalyn though… Her fists balled up, trying to bring her some sense of control over her body to force herself to speak if she needed to. All that being said, she held her breath while she waited for Nevella’s answer.

“I-I found a record of a lost Vysven vessel. U-umm, inform fund los starboat. Ancient mystery. A friend studying randomly appearing wormhole, found a pattern. Accqtance inform patter ter space. Coincidence that he said it appeared near location of last direction of the Vysven Vessel. Accident inform form pace, trailed. The wormhole was so unstable that it typically killed all living matter when going through it. Alive not live travel ter. The gravitation of the nearby planet would pull in uncontrolled vessels and crash it. Starboat in yanked plant force. Searched the planet for two hept and found yesterday. Disovr last brite befor dark.”

Eternity didn’t respond for a long while. It took her some time to piece together what Nevella was saying, and though there were parts she didn’t fully understand, she was able to figure out how Nevella found this place. When she did understand she was quiet for even longer, in a mix of being impressed Nevella found this place even when Eternity couldn’t (which made sense since Eternity would have to search for survivors because they were what was considered lost, but the wormhole kill all the crew), and fear because there was only one reason why information about this starship going missing was available enough that it could have been preserved over millions of years. Avalyn’s cradle was on this ship, and there was a large search for the lost unborn regent.

“Information know you about starship?”

Nevella hesitated, and that made Eternity afraid, but it was her next words that made her blood run cold. “Unbon Regent los.”

Eternity’s claws stopped tapping. This could be very bad. “How many know?”

“M-my daughter is presenting these finding to the Alliance scientific board today. Sh-should have started about two hours ago.” Eternity wasn’t able to understand all the words Nevella had said, but she was able to catch six; daughter, presenting, alliance, two, hours, ago.

~~~

Nevella had just made the greatest and most terrifying fuck-up ever. All the feathers on Eternitys body lifted to make her look bigger. Her wings spread to their full size as her digitigrade legs stood straighter, adding more terrifying inches to her towering height. Nevella was about to die; she was sure of it.

“Plan for Regent?” Nevella took three scared steps backwards at Eternity’s words, but Eternity only needed to take one to get even closer than she had been before. “Plan for Regent!?” Another step back and Nevella tripped on some rubble and fell towards the ground. Before she could fall too far, four arms reached out and caught her. She closed her eyes and almost screamed out in fear, but before she could, Eternity spoke again, “Please, Nevella, what plan for Regent?”

How soft and gentle Eternity’s voice was was jarring compared to the terrifying she had just been. What was even more jarring to Nevella was that her question was asked in a pleading voice filled with tears. She felt Eternity’s arms and hands holding her up shaking, and only then did she realize that the goddess grip was so gentle. Her tear-filled eyes opened to see that it wasn’t just the goddess’s arms that were shaking, but her whole body. Eternity wasn’t angry… she was afraid.

“Please…”

“S-study,” Nevella answered. “Study your automaton technology and magic. Take apart, put back together, wake up the automaton. Study it more.”

There was a long moment of silence, only broken up by quiet but gentle sobs from Eternity. “Regent, Avalyn, not automaton. Avalyn Person. Living person. Living Vysven. She has soul. Pass Krens test, whole test.”

Nevella stared up at the masked face, trying to process this new information. Regents weren’t automatons; they were living people with souls. They were living Vysven. This revelation would change their entire understanding not just of regents, but of how advanced Vysven science and magic was to create a truly living non-organic person. That was a truly terrifying revelation. Even more terrifying knowing that they would have literally been taking apart a living person and putting them back together trying to learn how the person worked. The regent being a living Vysven would also explain how Eternity was alive.

Something then suddenly clicked in Nevella’s mind. “Avalyn?”

~~~

Eternity was barely holding it together. They were planning on taking her daughter apart and putting her back together in some sick experiment, but she couldn’t ignore the detail that these people didn’t realize regents were living people. They wouldn’t understand the horrors of their actions, but that didn’t mitigate the fact that their plan was to do those things. Not her Avalyn. She would never let anyone do that to her daughter.

Then Nevella spoke, and Eternity realized in her fear she might have given too much away. What should she say? Just because she had given Avalyn’s name didn’t mean that these people would assume she had been born yet. But if they knew she was born and a living person, would they decide what they had planned was wrong? Another thought occurred to Eternity; Nevella was a mother as well. Could she appeal to this mother’s sense of love for her child to help her keep her own daughter safe? She was afraid, so very afraid, but maybe this was the best way…

“M-my d-daughter name Avalyn.” She watched as Nevella’s eyes went wide. “Need protect Avalyn. Only Avalyn and Eternity now. Need protect.” Nervously, she pulled her arms away from Nevella, before all four of her hands went to fiddling with one another. Her feathers started folding down again now as her legs became more relaxed. “Scared people knowing Vysven alive. Please keep secret.” She couldn’t bring herself to look up from her feet, with how scared she was.

~~~

If someone had told Nevella that in her life she would get to meet a living Vysven she would have thought that person had been drinking too much. If someone had told her it would be the most mysterious of all the gods of the ancients she would have helped that person find a safe place to ride out their obviously bad trip. There was no way in all of existence that she could have ever even imagined what had happened and been revealed to her in the last half hour.

There was a truly massive part of her that screamed for her to tell the galaxy of what she had found and learned. This was the biggest discovery of all time and could change the very shape of civilization in the galaxy. People needed to know that what they had thought was fact was so wrong. The greatest civilization to ever walk the galaxy was alive again!

Nevella’s heart ached for Eternity though…

This was a mother afraid for her daughter’s safety. Afraid because people genuinely wanted to take that poor girl apart and put her back together. People really would have taken apart the equivalent of an unborn fetus, then put it back together and watch how it tried to grow, even going so far as to alter it to fit what they wanted. Eternity had every right to be afraid of the people of today.

“I will keep your secret, Eternity.” The feather on Eternity’s head raised as she looked up from the ground. “I tel no persn.” She watched a few golden drops of liquid fell from the bottom of Eternity’s mask.

“Thank you, Nevella.” Eternity was still shaking a little, but she did appear more at ease. What happened now?

~~~

There was a lot of relief inside of Eternity, but there were still questions she needed answered. “When people come starship?”

“Um…” It was clear Nevella was searching her mind for an answer. After a few seconds of thought, she said. “At least half a hept. Do you know how long a hept is?”

There were a few seconds of silence as Eternity did her best to translate Nevella’s words in her mind. Her crown of feathers flapped twice. She had been awake for around half a hept, so she had a good idea of how long it would be. She was so very used to traveling at incredible speeds that she had almost forgotten what it was like for people to travel at even less than 10 light years a rotation.

“What happen no find regent?”

Nevella took a deep breath. “They will search until they have looked over every square inch of this place.” Eternity didn’t pick that up, but her head tilt and slight raise of half her crown made her confusion clear. “Lok all vesel. Time tke long. No find leave.” Nevella looked down at the footprints on the ground. “But…”

“Know person before been,” Eternity said, looking down. She hadn’t thought to leave no evidence of her being here. “Look for person?”

Nevella nodded. “Whose footprints are those?” She asked, pointing to the boot prints.

“Heather Cassie Colton.” Eternity could help but wonder what Heather must have been thinking when she found this place. What she felt when discovering a place lost even by the Vysven. She probably thought she had just found the mother lode of ancients artifacts and technology.

“They will find her,” Nevella said with so much certainty. “An unborn regent is the greatest discovery our people could imagine. Not to mention the greatest danger if the wrong person found it first.”

“No find Heather.”

“Are you hiding her?”

Her crown flapped once. “Heather Kenana wayfarer. Dead long past.”

~~~

That would most certainly hinder the alliance’s search. That was before the alliance even existed, so there wouldn’t even be records of her. Maybe her home system might have those records, but there were hundreds of worlds they would have to search just to find the right one. “That would certainly make finding her difficult, if not impossible. Did Heather wake you and Avalyn?” Had there been two living Vysven roaming the galaxy since the Kenana ear?

Eternity’s feathers flapped twice. “Heather took regent womb. Powered on her starship, took all power, Heather suffocated, Avalyn gestation since. Both only woke half hept ago.”

She had only been awake for half a hept and she could already speak this much common? That was impressive. Did she already have someone teaching her, or had she just picked that up by watching people of today? “Is Avalyn here?” Nevella asked, curious about where she was since her mother appeared to be very protective of her. Eternity’s feathers flapped once. “Where?”

Eternity didn’t answer for a few seconds. “Safe, not here.”

There was a major part of Nevella that wanted to know where Avalyn was, but as a mother she wasn’t going to push Eternity on that. “Why are you here and not with Avalyn?”

Eternity looked down at the ground, and Nevella noticed that all four of the woman’s hands were nervously fiddling with one another. Then she noticed that Eternity was also tapping her claws very lightly. Was tapping her claws early not a sign of aggression? Suddenly, Eternity turned around and walked back into the room where Nevella had first seen her.

~~~

Was it really okay for Eternity to be telling Nevella all this? The other goddess had made a promise to her, but Eternity knew she easily trusted people’s words, and people had abused that in the past. Her heart was beating so hard, but she didn’t waver from her path to the cracked cylinder. Looking up, she found Nevella had followed her.

“Avalyn body…” she said, pointing to the dried-up residue in the cylinder.

Nevella didn’t respond right away. “That was meant to be Avalyn’s body?” Eternity flapped her crown twice. “Avalyn has no body?” She sounded horrified.

“Not true body.” Tears were starting to run down her face under the mask again. “Use human automaton body…” Two of her hands pulled away from the other two to wrap around herself. “Avalyn can’t feel anything…” The tears were turning into sobs now. “Can’t feel wind on wings. Avalyn no wings. My daughter deserves to fly and I’m scared I won’t be able to give that to her…” Eternity fell to her knees again as the sobbing got so much worse. “I want to feel the warmth of her hug. The softness of her skin. I want to preen her feathers and teach her to fly, but I can’t…”

Avalyn deserved so much better, and Eternity was so afraid she wasn’t going to be able to give that to her. She wasn’t capable of giving Avalyn all that she deserved. She was a damn goddess but couldn’t even give her child a real body. The vow had been made to Avalyn that Eternity would get her the body she deserved, but Eternity already felt like she had broken that vow. This wasn’t something she could do alone… Eternity jumped as a hand landed on her shoulder. In her sobs, she hadn’t noticed that she had closed her eyes, nor that Nevella had kneeled down in front of her with tears of her own running down her face.

~~~

Nevella knew she could never understand the true pain Eternity must be in, but it still broke her heart. Eternity just wanted her daughter to have a real body. A body that could feel. A body that had the right limbs…

Right then and there, Nevella decided she was going to run down the path fate had put before her and never look back.

“Nevella help Eternity mak Avalyn nuw body.” Though Eternity wore a mask, Nevella just knew the expression on Eternity’s face. It was a look of fear and uncertainty, but there were cracks in it. Little sparks of hope and gratitude.

“You would help me?” Nevella nodded. “Do you know how?”

“I’m a goddess of ancient history. This is what my life is dedicated to. Discover, learn, achieve anything. Together.”

~~~

A whirlwind of emotions were running through Eternity, but the only one she could focus on was gratitude. She didn’t have to do this alone. She wasn’t going to be alone.

“Thank you, Nevella. Thank you.”

~~~

Nevella didn’t expect her heart to flutter at the sound of Eternity pronouncing her name with a Vysven accent, but it did.