The change began gradually. The cramped cavern, mostly silent until now, shifted in sync with the steadying rhythm of my heartbeat.
First came a tickling sensation across my skin, a light mist brushing against me, moistening the surface. With every breath, the air thickened, heavy with humidity. I had no idea how this place worked, but it was clearly responding to something.
*Drip. Drip. Drip.*
Tiny drops of water echoed in the darkness, splattering softly against the stone floor. My breathing slowed, calming, even as several drops splashed onto my face.
I tried. I really reeealy tried. But holy crap, do you know how annoying it is when a couple droplets hit your eyelids, slide down your nose, and just cling there like they've got unfinished business? Like... jump already, you stubborn little gremlin of a raindrop.
So itchy. Unbearably itchy.
My focus shattered. Nothing new happened, but nothing vanished either. So I took the moment to recover, wiping my face with the kind of aggression usually reserved for my enemies. I even gave my nose a good rub for insurance.
"Ahhhh. Much better."
I eased back into the rhythm. The drops came faster, heavier, hammering down on me like a growing storm. Still, I kept my eyes shut, scared that even a glance would break whatever fragile thread held this experience together.
Then came the winds. They slammed into me from every angle, wild and cold, carrying the fury of a torrential downpour. I was soaked through, my skin cold and brittle, my whole body trembling under the storm's weight.
It couldn't have lasted more than a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity.
And then silence. The rain stopped. The wind vanished. Not gradually, but instantly. The cold remained however, clinging to me with stubbornness.
Had I messed up? Was that it?
I cracked my eyes open, just a sliver at first only to be greeted by a deep blue glow. The sight struck something primal in me, and my heart skyrocketed into panic. Reflexively, I held my breath as my eyes flew open.
But… nothing happened. I was still floating inside what felt like my own personal droplet of water, completely unharmed. Another realization hit me. I could hold my breath way longer than I remembered.
Then again, maybe I'd been submerged for a while with my eyes closed… soooo, I took a metaphorical deep breath of resolve and then a literal one.
I could breathe. Just like normal. No pain, no drowning. At first, I had to force myself to inhale as it went against every instinct, but the longer I stayed, the easier it became.
I tried moving, swimming, actually, and it felt like being underwater, but freer somehow. I shifted with ease, the orb I floated in moving with me, always keeping me centered.
I turned my attention outward, to what now lay beyond the cocoon.
The cavern was gone.
In its place, a void stretched in all directions. Vast, dark, and scattered with points of light. Stars, I thought, or at least something like them. Slowly, a cosmic scene came into focus as I rotated gently in the water.
Behind me, one of those stars glowed brighter than the rest. But it wasn't the violent, blistering fire of a sun. Its radiance was calm and smooth, like light flowing through liquid. It pulsed softly within its own droplet of space, as if echoing the orb I floated in.
I couldn't tell how large it really was. Depth and distance didn't behave like normal with the distances and size I was working with, but even as I stared, the light didn't blind me. It just shimmered, like some unknowable truth wrapped in serenity.
My vision shifted. I was pulled back, zooming outward with no effort of my own. The single sphere became one of many, and when I focused on any one of them, I could see it. Really see it.
A world in every drop.
The worlds teemed with life. Plants floated like soft sheets across unseen currents. Some rose in elegant stems, others bloomed like radiant flowers. Sea creatures darted through coral formations that shimmered with colors I couldn't begin to name.
Some were familiar, vaguely echoing animals I'd seen in documentaries or textbooks. But others defied all known shapes. Coiling bodies of translucent flesh, veins pulsing with fluorescent light. They moved with the rhythm of their worlds, in a harmony so natural, so complete, I couldn't hope to describe it in justice.
The further I pulled back, the more, and less I could see. Galaxies of these worlds spun through space, some nestled in clouds of ice-dust that gave their spirals a painterly beauty. Cosmic formations hung around them like ornaments meant to celebrate holidays.
All of it rested on a strange, curved shape. Something stretching far across the star-choked void. A pole... I thought at first.
Then my Precursor Energy stirred. Unbidden, it flared bright, hotter and stronger than ever before. My senses sharpened as my Precursor Sense ignited, there was nothing around me, and yet… I felt everything.
That's when it moved.
The 'pole' lifted, dragging the galaxies upward with it. Everything rose together. Worlds, stars, nebulae, all climbing until I faced a vast, orange wall.
No. Holy... not a wall. A vast structure of something so large I froze in awe and fear.
An eye.
I was pulled back again, my perspective zooming out to reveal an iris the color of molten copper, with a single black pupil staring out into the void. The pole I'd seen wasn't a pole at all, it was an eyelash, or something similar. I'd been drifting through the eyelid of something unimaginably vast.
And it saw me. I felt observed, and sure, whatever this thing is, it's far too big for me to discern its true point of focus, but... I don't know how, or why.
I knew it had opened its eye… for me.
A voice echoed in my mind, layered with dozens of harmonized tones. Deep, powerful, and resonant like a celestial choir. "Flame carved the world, shaping it with chaos. I came to cool it."
"Uhhhh. What?"
"AHHHHH!" I shot forward, straight toward the eye, with no control over my movement. My limbs flailed, useless against the current dragging me in. My random paddling did nothing.
The wall of black surged closer until it consumed my entire vision. I could no longer will myself to look away, to shift perspectives or slow my fall.
I passed through.
I didn't black out. I didn't die. I just… passed through eyeba—barrier.
The cocoon of water vanished as I emerged into yet another void. Darkness stretched in every direction, and at its center, or what I chose to call the center, hovered a glowing orb. Crystalline, spherical, and pulsing softly with turquoise energy.
I stood, drawn to it instinctively, but every step forward was like trudging through mud. The resistance was palpable, a thick invisible bog that clung to my limbs, making each movement harder than the last.
But as my internal flame flared brighter, my violet core burning with renewed intensity, the way forward eased.
Then came the visions. With each step, an image flashed in my mind.
A figure, shaped from pure and visible World Force, glowing blue, standing in a circle with others, each one bathed in a different hue.
Next step, each figure raised their palms.
I forced my foot forward, sweat beading on my brow from the sheer pressure on my body and mind.
From above their palms, violet energy spiraled, alive with intent.
Another grueling step. My right leg trembled, refusing at first, but eventually surrendering to my will.
Gold light joined the violet, streaming from each figure, merging into a growing vortex of radiant power.
"One more," I whispered, panting.
I didn't know why I needed to reach the orb, only that I had to. Something deep within me ached for it, a magnetic pull in my chest that felt like both hunger and purpose.
"ARGH!"
My final step was met with another surge of vision. Each figure's outstretched palm bursting with coalesced energy. The power solidified into form, and five cries rang out, one from each hand. Loud and primal. The cries of birth, shaking the very realm they stood within.
But I didn't see what they had given form to.
My sight was overtaken by the sphere which was vibrating as if alive. Relief washed over me like a warm tide. I didn't need to reach for it, but instead, it moved to me. The distance vanished as the orb pressed against my palm, cool as glass, rippling with tiny waves at the point of contact.
A cool surge flooded into my veins, threading through every fiber of my being, before settling into the core where my Precursor Energy burned.
Then came the last vision. A shattering.
Reality cracked like fragile glass under immense pressure, a massive explosion erupting from an origin I couldn't identify. Its shockwave rippled endlessly outward, pushing past all resistance, expanding into the infinite or further than I could comprehend.
Wave after wave of radioactive flame and chaos devoured everything in its path, annihilating even the barest whispers of form that arose from the shockwaves.
But after time, after a thousand heartbeats of destruction in fast-forward, a roar split the endless dark.
A serpent, blue and green, tore through the fire. Its aura didn't snuff the chaos, but actually soothed it. Calming it and giving structure, an order to follow along.
"Chaos births movement. But flow gives it meaning," a chorus echoed within me.
I blinked and everything was gone.
The vision, the stars, the storm, and the void. All of it replaced by the quiet, familiar walls of the cave.
One thing needed to be done now that I was back.
"LUNA!"
'AH! WHAT!'
I smiled, that warmth still lingering in my chest. "I wanted to get you before you got me…" I let the silence settle. Still unsure of what I'd just witnessed.