Book of Fire

The Beginning
Long, long ago, there was a nothing. It was called Isn't, and it was the first thing that was.

Isn't hated its existence. It continually warred against itself. Sometimes it lost; sometimes it won; but Isn't could not move any closer to its ultimate goal, which was to stop existing. Even beings (or nonbeings, in this case) as powerful as Isn't cannot truly destroy themselves.

To entertain itself, Isn't made shapes from its own protoplasm. A streak of darkest pitch, a shard of perfect nothing. A being whose very heart was darker than dark itself.

The being sat up suddenly in the folds of the Isn't and its eyes flew open. Out poured a gout of aether, a flood of Is that spread and spread. Isn't hissed in fury and agony, but the Is could not be denied. And so it was that Isn't retreated to the very edge of Is, where it would spit out foul unbeings to plague the world like Hate, Greed, and Gluttony.

The being, who we will from this point call Ielia, for that is who she will become, found that she could move with a mere thought. She looked upon the Is, and saw that it was alive, sentient, and could be spoken to.

Ielia asked the Is what it desired. It replied that it wanted to become. To be given tangible form. It desired to be created and to create.

And Ielia began to speak, and the words she spoke were a thousand different concepts in a thousand different languages, all at once.

And the universe poured forth from her words, an unending deluge of creation.

Suddenly, she became aware of a new voice. It matched her pace, her cadences. She knew not what produced the voice, but hers became stronger with the knowledge that she was not alone. And they cast our universe into form with the power of their words.

The Settling
Eventually, Ielia's voice slowed, and the flood of creation that poured from her words subsided.

She turned and gazed upon the one whose voice had joined hers, and he was Aeternus, the unceasing clock, and his body was time itself. She asked him to join her in Is, but he could not, as he kept the universe in spin, and to leave his position would be to break it.

Aeternus, in compromise, took one of his own eyes and cast it into Is, and the sky was filled with stars.

He told Ielia that whenever she looked into the sky, she would remember his ceaseless vigil against the breaking of the sky, and she would not weep.

Hearing this, Ielia did weep, but then she relented and went into the Is, though not without sadness.