Chapter 6: Kivas Reborn
There was a smell in the void.
A scent thick with trembling thought, curling through unreality like steam in a freezing room.
It stank of anxiety—sharp, briny, metallic, like iron dipped in sugar and smoke. The scent clung to the outer shell of existence, unnoticed by the grand mechanisms that turned behind the curtain of the world, but pungent to those who lingered in the spaces between.
That smell belonged to a mysterious lifeform made of liquid.
It quivered as it watched the world being born. The world, fresh and trembling, layered in barrier after barrier, gleaming in cosmic purity.
To the liquid, the shape and elegance of the creation held no meaning. Its being could not comprehend the intricacies of this world's forging or the elegance of its mechanisms.
But it felt something.
A shiver of excitement coursed through its body.
It rippled with anticipation.
In its dormant state, the liquid hung in the in-between space—neither inside nor outside—without edges, without volume, suspended in a state of waiting.
Time passed, though it did not track it. Eons folded over themselves, silent and vast, and still the liquid remained. Until, slowly, it began to shed.