(Jessie pov)
Jessie leaned heavily against the wall beside the massive doors she'd just closed, her heart hammering in her chest. The brief glimpse of what was forming in the void outside had sent a jolt of recognition through her that bordered on terror. Those entities, one radiating light, one of primordial darkness were unmistakable even from this distance.
"Did you see that?" she whispered to the Oldest House, knowing the building's consciousness would hear her. Through their connection, she felt the House's equivalent of a nod, a gentle pulse of acknowledgment tinged with curiosity and caution.
"I want to see what's happening," Jessie decided suddenly. "Can you... I don't know... make the windows one-way? So, we can observe without being observed?"
The building considered this request, and Jessie felt its consciousness shift, focusing on the barrier between themselves and the void. The windowpanes near the entrance began to transform, rearranging themselves at the House's command. The material became transparent from their side while remaining opaque from the outside a perfect observation point.
"Thanks" Jessie murmured, approaching the new windows.
Beyond the walls of the Oldest House, the Empty was changing. What had once been an undifferentiated void now contained two distinct entities, facing each other across the nothingness.
God—or what Jessie recognized as God from supernatural—appeared as an amorphous being of pure, radiant light. Not blinding, despite its brilliance, but somehow both gentle and overwhelming at once. The entity had no definite shape, constantly shifting between abstract patterns of luminescence and vaguely humanoid outlines.
Opposite stood the Darkness, Unlike Shadow with its liquid darkness, this was a dark cloud floating in space. It absorbed everything around it, pulling at the fabric of nothing itself. Where God radiated outward, the Darkness pulled inward, a cosmic inhale to God's exhale.
The two entities seemed to be communicating, though Jessie could hear nothing through the barrier. They gestured, or what passed for gesturing among beings without fixed forms their movements creating subtle ripples through the Empty.
As Jessie watched, transfixed, something new began to form between the two cosmic entities. A shimmer, a disturbance in the nothingness that hadn't been there before. It started as a tiny spark where their energies met, then expanded outward in concentric rings.
Suddenly, Jessie felt a wave of something indefinable washing over the Oldest House, passing through the walls as if they weren't there. It wasn't physical, it wasn't energy as she understood it, but something more fundamental.
"What was that?" she gasped, though she already knew.
Through their connection, she felt the Oldest House's reaction a curious tickling sensation across its entire structure, like static electricity but more... intentional.
"Magic" Jessie whispered. "That's magic being born."
The Oldest House's consciousness fluttered with interest, examining this new phenomenon without absorption or alarm. Unlike paranatural forces that might later appear, this magic seemed to recognize the House as something separate something already defined. It brushed against the building's exterior like curious fingers, then moved on, finding no purchase.
Outside, the interaction between God and the Darkness intensified. Their energies collided, separated, and danced around each other in complex patterns. With each movement, more magic spilled into the void, transforming it. The Empty was becoming... less empty.
Jessie watched in awe as a distinct boundary began to form in the nothingness. On one side remained the pure void—the Empty as it had always been. On the other, something new was taking shape. Not quite reality yet, but potential—a space where things could exist, where rules might eventually apply.
An idea struck her then, bold and perhaps foolish. "The House can move, right? Can we... can we position ourselves right at that boundary? Between the Empty and whatever's being created?"
The Oldest House considered this request, its consciousness calculating possibilities. Jessie felt its uncertainty moving through dimensional space within itself was one thing, but repositioning its entire structure in a reality that barely existed was another challenge entirely.
"I know it's asking a lot" Jessie acknowledged, stroking the wall beside her. "But think about it we could be the bridge between nothing and something. The very first thing to exist at the edge of creation."
The building's consciousness warmed at this idea. Through their connection, Jessie felt its decision form not words, but clear intent. It would try.
The sensation that followed was unlike anything Jessie had experienced before. The entire structure seemed to hold its breath, gathering its dimensional energies. Then, with a soundless shift that nonetheless resonated through every atom of Jessie's being, the Oldest House moved.
The walls seemed to stretch and contract simultaneously, reality bending around them as the House found its new place. When the disorientation passed, Jessie rushed back to the viewing portal, one hand pressed against her temple to steady the vertigo. The perspective had changed dramatically. Now they were perfectly positioned at the boundary, one side of the Oldest House touching the absolute void of the Empty, the other extending into the nascent space of creation.
"We did it" she whispered, a tremor of excitement in her voice. "We're actually here at the edge of everything."
Through the transparent wall, Jessie could see the division with perfect clarity. To her left stretched the familiar nothingness where Shadow still existed, formless and dreaming. To her right, something miraculous was happening.
The interaction between God and the Darkness had created a bubble of potential a space where energy could flow, where matter might eventually form. It wasn't reality as Jessie understood it, not yet, but the precursor to it. Primordial forces swirled in beautiful, chaotic patterns, preparing the canvas for what would come.
Jessie placed both hands against the transparent barrier, watching as God and the Darkness continued their cosmic dance. Neither entity seemed aware of the Oldest House's repositioning, too focused on their interaction and its extraordinary results.
The next hours—or what might have been hours if time had any meaning here—passed in breathless observation. Jessie couldn't tear herself away from the viewing portal as the swirling energies began to coalesce, forming distinct patterns in the void. What had been formless potential was now taking shape, solidifying into something more concrete.
God moved with purpose now, hands of light crafting something specific from the raw materials of creation. The Darkness hovered nearby, neither helping nor hindering, merely observing with what Jessie could only interpret as wary curiosity.
"They're making something" Jessie whispered, pressing closer to the transparent wall. "Something deliberate."
The Oldest House's consciousness focused, trying its best to stretch its awareness outward to better perceive what was forming. Through their connection, Jessie felt its attempt to categorize what they were seeing not Earth, not the familiar blue marble of their home planet, but something with similar potential.
A world was taking shape.
First came the core molten, churning energy bound within a sphere. Then layers forming around it, matter differentiated and organized according to some cosmic plan. Mountains pushed upward as valleys deepened. Liquid pooled in the lowlands, not quite water but a substance that would serve the same function. An atmosphere began to gather, wispy at first, then thickening into something that could sustain the processes to come.
"It's beautiful" Jessie breathed, watching as God shaped continents with sweeping gestures, the landscape responding to each motion. "Different, but... familiar enough. It could hold life."
God stepped back from the newly formed world, regarding it with what appeared to be satisfaction. The Darkness moved closer, inspecting the creation without touching it. There was a moment of communication between them an exchange Jessie couldn't hear but could see in their synchronized movements, like dancers acknowledging the completion of a performance.
Then, with one final gesture, God breathed something into the world an essence, a spark that made the entire planet shudder with potential.
The cosmic display before Jessie was mesmerizing God and the Darkness creating a world unlike Earth yet clearly designed for life, when a sound cut through her concentration. It started deep within the Oldest House, a distinctive, insistent ringing that echoed through corridors that hadn't existed minutes before.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
Jessie recognized it immediately through the Hotline.
She straightened suddenly. Through their connection, she felt the Oldest House's awareness shift inward, focusing on a room they both somehow knew had always been there, waiting for this moment, the Hotline chamber.
"It's calling" Jessie whispered. She cast one last glance at the newly formed world outside, where the seed of life had just been planted. "Well now I have to answer it."
Ring. Ring. Ring.
The sound grew louder, pulling her onward. Jessie's footsteps echoed against the polished floor as she traveled down a newly formed main passage that seemed to be the central artery of what was becoming the Executive Sector, doorways that led to empty offices, conference rooms with bare tables, spaces still awaiting their purpose. Everything smelled of new concrete and potential like a building just completed but not yet occupied.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
Jessie rounded a corner and found herself facing a door that stood slightly ajar, light spilling from the opening into the corridor beyond. The sound of the Hotline was unmistakable now, pulling her forward with almost physical force.
She pushed the door open fully and stepped inside the Hotline chamber, ahead of her was a catwalk which led to a small office, intimate, dominated by a single chair positioned before a pedestal. Atop the pedestal sat an old-fashioned red telephone with a rotary dial and a thick, coiled cord. The receiver vibrated slightly with each ring, the red light pulsing in sync with the sound.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
She circled the chair once, studying the setup. The room had no other features besides windows circling the entire room that showed a void outside the light, no additional furniture, nothing to distract from the single purpose it served. Just the chair, the pedestal, the Hotline.
"Okay" she said at last, settling herself into the chair. It fit her perfectly as if designed specifically for her form. "I'm ready."
The Oldest House's consciousness pulled back slightly, giving her space. This moment belonged to her alone, the Director, answering the first call.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
Jessie reached for the receiver, her hand hovering just above it as a moment of hesitation gripped her. What would happen when she answered? Who—or what—was calling the Oldest House at the very beginning of creation?
She took a deep breath, steeling herself.
"Here goes everything" she murmured and picked up the receiver.
The moment Jessie's fingers closed around the receiver, the world around her dissolved. There was no sensation of movement, no transition at all merely a sudden shift in perception. Her body remained in the chair in the Hotline room, but her consciousness expanded outward, breaking free of physical constraints.
When she opened her eyes, Jessie found herself in a place that defied conventional reality. The Astral Plane stretched around her an endless white void punctuated by impossible geometric structures floating in the distance. But what took her breath away was her position—she stood not before the inverted black pyramid as she'd somehow expected, but atop it, the massive obsidian structure beneath her feet.
(image)
"What the hell?" she whispered, her voice swallowed by the vastness around her.
The surface beneath her was smooth yet somehow not slippery, the black material with golden veins was neither warm nor cold to the touch. The pyramid extended downward into the void, its perfect geometric form pointing into nothingness like a massive arrow indicating a direction that had no meaning in this plane of existence.
Jessie turned slowly, taking in the impossible vista, and noticed she wasn't entirely alone after all. In the center of the pyramid's flat top surface stood a desk, an exact replica of the Director's desk she'd just seen in the Oldest House, down to the grain of the wood and the subtle wear on its edges.
She approached cautiously. The desk seemed strangely ordinary in this extraordinary place, like a piece of reality that had accidentally slipped into a dream. On its polished surface lay a single sheet of paper and a fountain pen.
Jessie picked up the paper, half-expecting it to dissolve in her fingers or transform into something else. But it remained solid, tangible—pristine white paper with text that appeared to be typewritten in a formal, bureaucratic font:
[ESTABLISHMENT OF PARANATURAL OVERSIGHT ENTITY]
Please complete the following fields:
Entity Name: ___________________
Number of Founding Members: ___________________
Symbol of Recognition: ___________________
Authorized Signature: ___________________
"What is this?" Jessie murmured, glancing around the empty expanse as if expecting an answer. None came just the endless void and the geometric anomalies floating in the distance.
She pulled out the chair another perfect replica of the one in the Director's office and sat down, the paper still in her hands. Through her connection to the Oldest House, she felt its curious presence, somehow extended into this plane alongside her consciousness.
"So this is... what? An application form?" Jessie said aloud, turning the paper over to check the back. It was blank. "For what? To establish some kind of... oversight group?"
The Oldest House's consciousness pulsed in response not answers, but interest and anticipation.
Jessie picked up the fountain pen, surprised by its weight. It felt old, significant, like an artifact with history rather than a simple writing implement.
"Entity name" she read again, tapping the pen against her lips as she considered.
Something about this moment felt pivotal as if the choice she made now would echo across realities yet to form. She needed a name that conveyed authority, oversight, structure something formal enough to command respect but enigmatic enough to inspire a certain warranted caution.
A slow smile spread across her face as the perfect name occurred to her.
"The Board" she said aloud, testing the sound of it. "Serves those bastards right."
She wrote it in the first blank space, the ink flowing smoothly onto the paper in her neat, precise handwriting.
"Number of founding members," she read next, considering. Through their connection, she felt the Oldest House's consciousness pulse with what she interpreted as expectation.
"Two" Jessie decided firmly. "You and me." She wrote the number in the second blank.
When she came to "Symbol of Recognition" Jessie paused, glancing down at the massive, inverted pyramid beneath her. The structure had a presence, a gravity that went beyond its physical form or what passed for physical in this realm.
"Well, that's obvious" she murmured with a slight smirk. "The inverted black pyramid."
As she wrote the words, something shifted in the air around her, a subtle change in pressure, as if the Astral Plane itself was responding to her decision. The pyramid beneath her seemed to pulse once, a ripple of energy passing through its obsidian surface.
All that remained was her signature. Jessie hesitated, pen hovering above the final line. This felt like more than a formality—it felt like a contract, a commitment to something she didn't fully understand but somehow knew was necessary.
"So be it" she whispered, and signed her name with a flourish: Jessica Faden, Director.
The moment the pen lifted from the paper, the document began to glow with a soft blue light. The ink of her handwriting seemed to sink deeper into the page, becoming part of its very fiber. Then, slowly at first but with increasing speed, the paper began to dissolve not burning or tearing but breaking down into particles of light that scattered upward like luminescent dust.
Jessie stood, instinctively stepping back from the desk as the particles swirled around her. They coalesced briefly into the shape of the inverted pyramid before dispersing into two distinct streams. A small current of light flowed toward Jessie, entering her chest with a warm pulse, but the majority—a rushing river of luminescence—arced away from her, pouring into the space behind where she stood.
Power flowed into her, subtle yet unmistakable. Not physical strength, but something more profound an awareness, a connection to the boundary between realities. But this power was merely a fraction, a token compared to the torrent that rushed elsewhere.
A soft sound like settling stone drew her attention. Jessie turned, and her breath caught in her throat.
Standing there, merely feet away, was a figure that hadn't been there moments before. Humanoid in shape but distinctly otherworldly in composition a body formed of geometric blocks shifting and realigning with subtle, constant motion. The blocks resembled the same material as the Oldest House itself, rearranging in a perpetually fluid pattern while maintaining a distinctly feminine silhouette. A hooded cloak made of the same shifting blocks draped over her form, partially obscuring a face that seemed more suggested than defined, with dark eyes that held innocence.
(Image)
"Jesus!" Jessie gasped, stumbling backward as the figure reached out, geometric fingers gently touching her arm. The contact felt solid yet somehow permeable, like touching a wall that somehow might flow over your body at any moment.
Through their mental connection, Jessie felt a surge of emotion not her own, but the Oldest House's. Joy. Wonder. Curiosity. The building-consciousness was experiencing its new manifestation with childlike delight.
"You... you have a body now" Jessie said, regaining her composure. "I can see you."
The figure nodded, the blocks of her face rearranging in what Jessie interpreted as a smile pressing through cloth. The mental connection between them pulsed with pleasure and gratitude.
"This is incredible" Jessie murmured, circling the figure slowly. "The power from the form it mostly went to you, didn't it? It gave you this shape."
Another nod. The Oldest House's consciousness brushed against Jessie's mind, communicating without words this form was tied to the Astral Plane, a manifestation that could exist here but not in the physical world. Not yet anyway.
The figure stayed close to Jessie as they moved away from the desk, walking across the flat surface of the inverted pyramid. Each step the Oldest House took caused ripples of geometric realignment through her form, blocks sliding and restructuring with mesmerizing fluidity.
"You're going to need a name, I suppose" Jessie said with a slight smile. "I can't just keep calling you 'the oldest house' now that you look like... well, this."
The figure tilted her head, the blocks of her neck rearranging to allow the motion. Curiosity pulsed through their connection.
"Something fitting for a founding member of the Board" Jessie continued, tapping her finger against her lips in thought.
Before Jessie could suggest anything, she felt a strange tugging sensation, a pullback toward physical reality. The void of the Astral Plane began to waver around the edges of her vision.
"I think I'm being called back" Jessie said, reaching out instinctively toward her companion.
The Oldest House nodded in understanding. The blocks of her arm extended slightly, geometric fingers lifting in a gentle wave goodbye.
As consciousness pulled back toward her physical form, the last thing Jessie saw was the figure of the Oldest House standing atop the inverted pyramid, her blockwork form shifting in patterns that somehow conveyed both patience and anticipation.
Jessie blinked, finding herself seated once more in the Hotline room, the red telephone receiver still pressed against her ear. But something had changed. She could feel something different inside her, a new awareness, a deeper connection to the boundaries between realities.
Jessie placed the Hotline receiver back in its cradle, the connection to the Astral Plane severed but the memory of what had just happened still vivid in her mind
"That was... intense" she murmured, rising from the chair and adjusting her director's suit.
Through their mental link, she felt the Oldest House's consciousness stirring with excitement. There was a new dimension to their connection now, something that hadn't been there before.
"So" Jessie said, striding toward the door, "are you still there? In the Astral Plane, I mean. That form you took can you maintain it?"
The building's response came as a gentle pulse of affirmation. Yes, the consciousness could exist in both places simultaneously anchored in the physical structure of the Oldest House while also manifesting in the Astral Plane. The geometric figure hadn't disappeared when Jessie left; it continued to exist, exploring its new form with childlike wonder.
"That's remarkable" Jessie said, stepping into the corridor. "Two places at once. I'm almost jealous."
She glanced down the long hallway that stretched before her, suddenly aware of how far she was from the entrance where she'd been observing God and the Darkness. A sense of urgency gripped her she wanted to get back, to see what had happened in her absence.
She closed her eyes, concentrating on the feeling of lightness. She visualized herself rising, the connection between her feet and the floor weakening until it broke entirely. When she opened her eyes, she was hovering several inches above the polished concrete.
With a thought, she propelled herself forward, gliding through the corridor at increasing speed. The sensation was exhilarating not quite flying, but a controlled float that allowed her to move far more quickly than walking would have permitted.
As she navigated the twisting corridors of the Oldest House, she continued her one-sided conversation with the building's consciousness, feeling its responses as emotional pulses through their connection.
Jessie increased her speed, the walls blurring slightly as she raced toward the entrance. "I wonder what they've been up to while we were busy becoming interdimensional bureaucrats."
The corridors seemed to adjust subtly as she moved, the building guiding her toward her destination with slight shifts in its internal geometry. Doors that might have led her astray sealed themselves, paths that offered shortcuts opened before her. The Oldest House was helping her navigate its ever-shifting interior.
"Thanks" Jessie murmured, sensing the intentional assistance.
Finally, the grand entrance hall came into view. Jessie slowed her levitation, gently lowering herself to the floor as she approached the viewing portal the House had created earlier. Even before she reached it, she could tell something was different. The quality of light filtering through the windows had changed no longer the diffuse glow of creation's beginning but something harsher, more chaotic.
"What the hell happened out there?" she whispered, quickening her pace.
When she finally reached the window and looked outside, Jessie froze, her breath catching in her throat. The peaceful scene of world-creation she'd left behind was gone, replaced by something far more disturbing.
The void was no longer empty. Where once there had been a single newly-formed world between God and the Darkness, now the space was littered with celestial debris—planets in various states of destruction. Some were cracked like eggs, their cores exposed to the vacuum. Others had been seemingly pulled apart, stretched into impossible shapes before breaking. A few had been reduced to nothing but rings of dust, orbiting empty centers.
These ruined worlds formed a trail through the void, leading to where God and the Darkness now faced each other. The distance between them had increased, as if they had been moving apart while locked in some cosmic struggle.
God still appeared as that brilliant, shifting light, but the radiance seemed dimmer now, more focused. The Darkness had changed more dramatically what had been an amorphous cloud of shadow had taken on a more defined shape. From its core, black tendrils extended outward, writhing like angry serpents.
Between the two entities floated another world larger than the others, more fully formed. But this one was under active assault. The tendrils from the Darkness reached toward it, and wherever they touched, corruption spread. Beautiful blue oceans turned murky; green landmasses withered to gray.
But what truly chilled her was the third figure she now noticed, a being hovering above one of the destroyed worlds. Unlike the abstract forms of God and the Darkness, this entity appeared humanoid, draped in a black cloak that seemed to absorb the very fabric of reality around it. Its face, if it could be called that, was skeletal, ancient beyond comprehension.
Death. Somehow, Jessie knew exactly what—who—she was looking at. The first Horseman had entered creation, drawn by the destruction unfolding before them.
"This is bad" Jessie murmured, pressing her hands against the glass.
Death turned slowly, as if sensing observation. For a terrible moment, those empty eye sockets seemed to look directly at the Oldest House, at Jessie herself. Then the figure returned its attention to the cosmic battle, seemingly content to watch for now.
Jessie shivered, stepping back from the window. "I think we should take a break and leave them to their activities."