Song of the Void

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With a casual wave of her hand, Selendil parted the remaining earth between her and the facility below. Dee's little stunt with the mountain had saved some time, but the facility was deeply buried in rock and dirt. There were signs that this area had been underwater at some point in time as well, and geological shifts had pushed the mountain and the facility below it to the surface. That was one of the problems of leaving behind any kind of facilities for such long periods of time. Even the most carefully constructed structures could be damaged by such monumental changes in terrain.

Selendil slowly floated down the path she had cleared and the stone soon gave way to construction materials that only the species that served the Dhar used regularly. Very few species other than the Dhar had figured out the way to use materials that could be grown into desired shapes with the aid of psionics. With a single thought the material also parted before her, flowing away as if it had turned liquid. The dark interiors of a wide hallway appeared before her.

“You don’t really do the whole walking thing too much, do you?” Dee asked, spoiling the solemn mood just a bit.

“I’m more surprised that you do. You have wings after all.” Selendil pointed out and let her senses guide her down the hallway. “And it’s not like it takes a lot of power to float like I do. The expenditure is negligible and that way your power is always ready to be used should anyone try to surprise you.” The act of already having your power constantly at your fingertips would only save fractions of a second in an emergency situation, but those fractions could be the difference between life and death.

“I didn’t start with wings. I suppose I just got used to relying on my own feet.” Dee replied after a moment of consideration.

“The more I hear about your heritage and what you were and weren’t born with the more confusing it gets," Selendil stated with a bit of confusion.

“Not my fault really. Let’s just say that my birth wasn’t entirely natural and there were many fingers in that particular pie.” Dee shrugged simply.

“I could really go with a pie right about now.” Selendil blurted out her honest thoughts.

“Yeah, I agree. Let’s see if the chefs can whip something up once we get back. We might as well have a bit of a celebration.” To Selendil’s relief, Dee quite agreed with the sentiment.

“Agreed, though let’s not celebrate until we’re done here. If something can go wrong, it usually does.” Selendil had already learned not to celebrate too early.

“Normally I’d agree with you, but I can already sense the faint presence of the being we’re looking for. The crazy creators of this universe were right. The being is dying. Not all that surprising considering it's a being born from mana. Usually, such beings need a continuous supply of mana to sustain themselves, even if the supply doesn’t need to be that large.” Dee nodded towards the direction they were heading towards.

“I still have trouble wrapping my mind around the concept of magic. My entire life the whole idea of magic has been more of a joke than anything else. Well, be that as it may, we’ve arrived.” Selendil commented as they stepped into a rather modestly sized circular chamber. In the middle of the chamber lay a small mass of Void energy surrounded by a field of energy. Selendil’s senses informed her that the energy would burn anyone or anything that came into contact with it, including psionic energy. The sides of the room were lined with generators that kept the field up and projected it into place. The generators were not in a good condition either, but they’d far outlive the being they were holding in place.

“So how do you want to do this?” Dee asked, knowing this was an important moment for Selendil.

Selendil on the other hand just wanted it over and done with. With a wave of her tails, the generators on the sides were all disabled and she made a grasping gesture towards the creature that had just been released. The being was held in place by overwhelming psionic energy. “Finally this war will be over.” She stated and closed her hand into a fist, effectively squashing the Void being she had held in place.

A peace settled over her. One more burden had been lifted off her shoulders. The Void beings that had been left over from the earlier war were unfinished business of the Dhar. Business she felt obliged to bring to a conclusion. If tomorrow some hapless species somewhere opened another gateway to the Void, then it would be the problem of those idiots, the universe, and the younger species. She and the Dhar had done their part. Nearly all of the burdens that had held her down had disappeared. Now all that remained were the AIs and the business with the Shaer. Then she would be free.

“Feels liberating doesn’t it?” Dee asked with a small smile. “I went through something similar in my old universe. The shedding of all the duties that hold you down is such a freeing experience. The downside is that if you’re anything like me you’ll start getting bored after a time. That’s why I’m now traveling to other universes.”

“Boredom is the eternal enemy," Selendil muttered in agreement. Long-lived species like the Dhar were better at dealing with the emotion, but far from being immune to it.

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"I see both our ship and the enemy ships are still in one piece," Selendil stated as soon as they teleported back to the ship.

“For now. I don’t know if that will last though.” Amaterasu admitted. “I managed to spook them off for now, but they might get over that issue if given enough time.”

"Well, it's a good thing then that I don't plan on giving them that time. Nox, prepare for warp. The destination is Sentry Point." Selendil gave her command, and Nox looked up sharply from her console.

“Sentry Point? Really? So we’re going to do this?” Nox rarely questioned Selendil openly, but she did so now. Not because she thought her master was wrong though. She just wanted to be sure.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but if you do go to the Sentry Point and bring the home galaxy back, doesn’t that mean you won’t be able to undo it?” Haven’s voice interjected after not having taken part in the major decisions for a while.

"You are correct," Selendil confirmed simply.

“Umm, could you fill us in? What’s this Sentry Point and why is it important?” Amaterasu voiced the question everyone else was thinking.

Selendil gestured towards Nox who took the role of explaining. “We’ve talked about this before, but when the Dhar faced their death, there were several decisions that had to be made. Some decisions were simply ignored, like what to do with the servant races, mostly because the Dhar wanted to spend their last moments in peace and not worrying about such minor details. However, there were some decisions that could not be avoided. The two biggest ones were: what would happen to the home galaxy and what would happen to the ships.”

Selendil decided to add the perspective of the Dhar. "We didn't really care what happened to the rest of our empire, although I already mentioned how I dislike the grave robbing nature of the younger races looting our ruins, but our home galaxy was special. We were not going to allow some other races to taint our home. Or so the thought went at least. The same thing with our ships. Eventually, some clever individuals would discover how to operate them if we left them, and the thought of allowing our ships to fall into the hands of others was not a pleasant one. So we sealed them away.”

“I’m guessing this Sentry Point is where they were sealed?” Xiaoli suggested.

“Not exactly, but you’re not wrong either. The key about the seal is not where, but when.” Selendil replied with some pride in her voice.

“You used your temporal powers to seal your home galaxy.” Amaterasu put two and two together and blurted out the answer with quite a bit of certainty in her guess.

“Exactly. Besides, if we had not, then all the ships and technology within would’ve faced the same fate as this ship. That galaxy might be the cradle of all our technology, but time can take its toll on everything.” Selendil confirmed with a nod.

“So why didn’t you go there straight after you got the ability to warp?” Nochehuatl asked honestly curious. “Wouldn’t it have saved a lot of time and effort if you salvaged one of the ships untouched by time instead of scrambling to repair this ship with whatever you could find?”

Selendil’s shoulders slumped a bit. “Three main reasons. The first reason is that undoing the seal is not easy and it’s also not something I can take back. The original seal was done while several of our Keepers were still alive and we only barely managed it. Once I break the seal, the home galaxy will be back for good. Now, I could theoretically reapply the seal with the help of Dee, but she doesn’t really have the training…”

“Actually, my presence might be more of a hindrance. I have a certain amount of resistance to temporal effects, but if I try to use them myself, I have to utilize the power of the gods to do so. I don’t think that will work with what you have in mind.” Dee pointed out.

"Well, that brings us to reason number two. We took into consideration that eventually there might be a new race that could break the seal, so we didn't leave the galaxy undefended. The galaxy is home to the only unshackled AI still around, although even that AI is obliged to follow my commands. However, once I realized that the AI's had found ways to go against their programming, I also realized that this AI might be a problem if it chooses to be one. To compound on that, we didn’t pick the AI based on its pleasant personality. We picked it because it was the only AI powerful enough to do the job, as that was the AI’s job before the end came, and because it had the ability to defend our home no matter what. So by necessity, it’s among the more warlike AI that we ever created.”

“Clolarion, also known as the Shield of the Dhar.” Nox said in a voice that showed the mixed feelings she had about the other AI. There was respect in her voice, but there was also a bit of fear and apprehension.

Selendil nodded in recognition of the name and the title. In addition to being the protector of their home, the AI had also been part of all the major wars that the Dhar fought ever since the creation of sentient AIs capable of learning. Clolarion was also one of the few AI that had stayed loyal during the rebellion of the other AIs. The Dhar had rewarded that loyalty with allowing the AI to remain unshackled, partly because that also allowed the AI to do its job more easily. They had always wondered why that particular AI had chosen to not join the rebellion. “And now the AI also has effective control over all the ships we left behind.”

“So we might be facing a dicey situation once we go there?” Xiaoli summarized.

“To put it lightly, yes. Then there’s the third reason. We effectively froze time inside the galaxy with the seal, but at the same time not exactly. It wouldn’t do much good if the plague was left behind in our home galaxy while the rest of the universe got rid of it. So, we programmed it into the seal that the time would freeze when Clolarion would no longer be able to detect traces of the plague inside the seal. Here’s the thing. I now know something we didn’t back when the seal was created. The plague went away when I was the only Dhar left behind. What I don’t know is how quickly it went away. It could've been thousands of years, or it could've been days. There's a very real possibility that the bodies of my people still exist within that seal. I wasn't willing to face that possibility before and I’m still not sure if I can do it.” Selendil’s voice cracked at the thought.

Amaterasu’s eyes shot up as a thought occurred to her. “Dee, you mentioned holy magic before, and you even mentioned healing magic that you’re capable of casting. Can that heal death? I mean if there are still bodies around…” It was a gruesome thought but something that might be possible.

“No. In theory yes, but in practice no. The spell exists, and I can even cast it, but death isn’t quite so simple. The longer someone has been dead, the harder they are to bring back. And once the soul is gone, there’s really nothing that can be done. Even if the body could regain life, it would be an empty shell without a soul. There are some deities that can bring back someone long dead because the soul of that particular dead person is spending their afterlife in their domain, but even that's quite rare. As far as I know, most souls get sent on a few days after their passing. Even if the temporal field had preserved the bodies of the Dhar, their souls would've already passed on." Dee shot the idea down decisively. The concept of a soul being confirmed intrigued many of those present but they saved their questions for later.

“What about a Keeper?” Xiaoli suggested. She had not said it in the most eloquent way, but they all understood her meaning.

Selendil shook her head. “I do not keep the souls of the dead. I keep their memories, knowledge, skills, and a bit of their personality, but it’s more like making an incomplete copy than storing their souls. No, I believe the dead will stay at rest. However, I’d prefer not to come face to face with their bodies if at all possible.”

“In that case, let us hope that enough time has passed.” Nox declared firmly. “The ship is ready for warp.”

Selendil reached towards the warp network and found a very particular point. A singular point in the network that didn’t require a beacon to travel to. As they finished warping, they were surrounded by empty space. Yet at the same time, they all felt it. There was something special about this place. They couldn't put their finger on why, but it was like ghosts were running fingers down everyone’s spines. It was like their senses were screaming at them that they were not alone despite the place being very much empty.

"Eerie place," Xiaoli commented.

“For you maybe. For someone who can actually see the temporal anomaly, it's actually quite beautiful. I've never seen anything quite like it." Dee commented and stared at the empty air. To her, the area around them was far from empty. To her, it was a beautiful tapestry of psionic power woven into something she had never imagined possible. She was a powerful psion, and in combat she could face just about anyone or anything, but large and intricate projects like this that required refined control and knowledge over psionic energies were beyond her abilities. This was something that could only come as a result of generations of experimentation and refinement.

"Wish me luck," Selendil stated and appeared outside the ship. She spread her hands wide and all her tails looked as if they were flapping in the wind despite the obvious impossibility of the idea. An enormous halo appeared around the ship and it started expanding. It started off as barely the size of the ship, but soon enough it was large enough to circle a planet. Then it became large enough to circle an entire solar system, and then it grew beyond the range of the scanners on the ship.

Every psion on board the ship could feel a bit of what Selendil was doing, although none of them really understood exactly what she was doing. It was like she was working on twenty things at the same time, all of them too complicated to follow. Many of the twisting constructs of psionic energy that she seemed to be forming melded together to create something new and utterly impossible. They could all sense that whatever she was doing was breaking many of the very laws that held the fabric of the universe together, and yet, the way she twisted space only seemed to change that fabric instead of tearing it apart. Finally, they all sensed as if several keys made of those very laws were turned at the same time, and the space that had been empty just moments before was no longer empty.

In front of them opened a view of a galaxy. They were not inside the galaxy, but they were not far from it either. They were just outside, looking towards one of the oddest galaxies they had ever seen. They all felt that the ambient energy present in that galaxy was much higher than elsewhere. The stars burnt brighter and had a slightly different hue. The galaxy was also larger and seemed older than most others. They all got the feeling that this galaxy may not have been the first, but it was among the first. They could also detect the presence of several megastructures even from this distance. It was like there were shining paths built between the stars in many places, and at the core of the galaxy was some sort of enormous facility that surrounded the central black hole. They couldn’t even fathom the amount of materials that would’ve been required to build something like that.

There was also something else they noticed. Ships. Countless ships. The entire galaxy was surrounded by almost a literal net of ships almost identical to the one they were on. Every ship was close enough that the effective sensor ranges of the ships overlapped. The maximum sensor range of the ships was much longer, which is how they were able to detect the net, but the ships were spaced evenly close enough with their effective sensor range so that nothing that would be able to slip by them.

"That's a hell of a lot of ships," Lilly stated dumbly.

“Well, we did reign over countless galaxies and for a very long time. That gives you time to build ships. And all of them are here.” Nox explained just as Selendil’s tired form teleported back on the ship. The effort of undoing the seal had taken a lot out of the Keeper.

“So. Are we going to talk about the fact that the Dhar, and by extension Selendil, seem to be capable of making an entire galaxy just disappear and appear again? No? Ok then.” Xiaoli stated in a bit of stress-relief.

“Hush now. We’re all soaking in the view.” Amaterasu stated. The view was stunning. They had never seen a galaxy like this.

“Well, soak faster because we’re about to meet Clolarion.” Nox poured some cold water on all of them as several ships seemed to be approaching them.