Aermerea Creation


Many eons ago, in an endless sky radiant with a multitude of luminous lights there was a wandering star that was beautiful and grand who spent her days wandering through that vast expanse. From what she could tell from her long journey she was all alone and had no one else to share her sky. She wandered and flew and danced playfully amongst the heavens, twirling the stars to her hands and feet as she went. She enjoyed the gracefulness and peace of her movements, but not the solitary feeling she had come to know. The stars were no partners to her and she still was, to the best of her knowledge, alone. She was uncertain of her purpose and why she existed, or even how she had come to be in the first place. She began to explore everywhere she could rather than just wandering aimlessly, searching for someone like her, or anyone at all really, but still she seemed to be alone in the empty space. Yet despite not seeing anyone around she never gave up heart or hope, and so she continued to wander alone.

Unknown to the lonely star was the fact that there were many others like her, but they were just shy and not as brave as she. They were the spirits of the stars and planets that filled the heavens, each one born with the celestial body to which they were bound. Hidden in the shadow of the planets they embodied and cared for they watched the young lady flit about and dance about. Many felt anxiety at her boldness and wandering about when she should have been tending to her own planet, for it would surely wither away and become barren without her there. As they watched her the oldest and wisest among them came to the realization that she must have been one of the scarce and mostly untalked about children who had been born without her planet or star tethered to her purpose. She would most likely be doomed to wander eternally and eventually burn out and die, as had happened to the ones who came before her, for what were the odds of her finding her true home. But with this still unknown to her she continued to dance freely, and no one dared approach her to expose themselves or her own fate, believing this to be a kindness as not to burden her with such dark knowledge.

This went on for some time before she noticed herself start to feel, turn by turn less and less energetic. She began to amble and waver and drift more chaotically, her wings doing as they lazily pleased taking her to and fro in a more erratic and graceless manner. She had less bounce, less happiness and her heart felt heavy. But for many, many more turns she kept on holding out the hope she would find someone, even as things began to look dim and her vision failed her.

Thankfully, there was a satellite close to her as her end approached, a moon if you would, but she hadn’t noticed it at all -- so small and with shimmery crystals upon its surface. It was populated by one such being as herself and he watched as the starlight faded from her eyes and went to her, catching her as her vision blackened, her body no longer able to grab energy from the stars despite the filled sky surrounding them.

He was young and small, only a mere child of a satellite, maybe looking a few years younger than the lady, who now was very close to maturing to womanhood. A planet spun below his moon, barren and with no wandering star to nurture or guide it. He carried her as best he could with magic, as princely as he could muster with his small form, and took her to the desolate planet below. He felt it a fitting resting place for one of his kind for where better for a star to take their last breaths than on a planet that was doing the same.

The moment he lay her down upon the planet life sprung from the barrens instantly. The lady felt herself mature and her energy returned as her body became warm and she surged upright with a deep gasp. Her heart sang with purpose - this was her home, what she had been looking for for so long. There was nothing to explain it in words, just that it felt right. The grass and plants unfurled beneath them like a blanket and made it soft and comfortable for the both of them to lay on, and the boy sat to watch and tend to her as she came into her own with nothing but himself to offer. She was lucky, he thought, for him to have found her and her heart to have led her here.This was her destined home. She was to be a bringer of life, but after being alone for so long she was far more content with just herself and her new companion -- the boy who had saved her.

Over much time they got to know each other. He admired her wholly, and she viewed him as a child of sorts - a son. His silvery eyes always filled her heart with joy. He went with her everywhere, and she tucked him in on his little moon every night. Life was good as she made the planet full of flowers and other wonderful life they could enjoy together, and they lived alone like this for quite some time. Mother and son, friends, caring for each other, family.

They were happy for many turns of the planet until she started noticing changes in him and his satellite. They were small at first, some cracked crystals and a shimmering dust that was absent before, and the moon seemed less alive than previous. Supposed to be eternally young, a child like his moon, he began to age as the moon’s core seemed to be becoming unstable. It was clear though that the winds had changed and a terrible fate for her son may be near, but she ignored it. He felt this change as well but hid it from her so as not to worry her, and all she knew was that something was horribly wrong, but in her ignorance and love of him continued to disregard the signs.

He tried to make the most of things, knowing his days were now numbered, feeling it in his bones and did his best to distract her. He took her to see the curious bunnerflys and the assorted fuzzy spiders and other things she enjoyed being near to and caring for, hoping to give her something to focus on when he passed. They had picnics together, they wrote poetry and they generally continued to enjoy each other's company, both unconsciously trying to make more and more happy memories to hold onto. Springs seemed to be endless in this new world and they enjoyed every single day they had together, and he made the most of them all with her.

But all good things must at some point come to an end, and one day while doing planetary duties a shimmering cloud burst out from space and littered the planet with crystalline snow. She watched in horror as the beautiful jewel like dust rained down to her planet, and ran to where she knew her now teenage son would be picking berries as fast as her feet and wings would take her.

Her eyes met his,heavy with the knowledge of what had happened, as she got to him but he was already fading away. She ran to him and clung her child to her breast sobbing, begging him not to leave her alone again.

He looked at her, his form fading slowly, and he reached to her face. “I love you Aermerea, and I will always be with you.” His touch was icy and yet somehow soft at the same time.

“Don’t go Orion,” she begged, her speech broken and choked as he disappeared, leaving nothing behind but the same crystalline dust that fell upon the planet and even as it touched her skin she knew that no matter what he had said that her baby, her child, was gone.

She had lost her moon, and her stars, her everything, and she felt more pain in her heart than ever before. In her pain her magic turned wild and dangerous, the crystals turning cold as ice and falling to freeze the earth. She looked up as the last of the moon completely disintegrated, nothing left but a few larger pieces scattered to the stars and now part of the faraway sky. She would never see her moon again.

Her pain was too great for her heart and she fell to the ground with a resounding noise as the earth cracked beneath her knees, her hands clutching her chest. She felt her heart ache and ache and it seemed the pain was even greater than when she had been alone before, at least then she hadn’t known what being with another had felt like. This pain was new to her, and it was a worse fate than death.

He was gone and her emotions and light began to change, and she screamed her pain into the crevices her body had created, shattering the land around her in a blaze of magic that struck deep into the planet’s dark core, her core, and something new was born there. An imbalanced pair one giving light to obsession, born of her well meant obsession with her son and first companion, and the other a deep dark corruption that would override a purity hard fought for, born of her own imbalance between her duties to her planet and the continuance of life and her single minded dedication to Orion. These were to be later known as Nemesis and Nexus the first of their kind and the only, part wandering star, part bloompuff but not quite either, a mystery and hazard of magic unbound and unchecked.

She lamented for her son wholeheartedly, her despair beginning to plunge her planet into an ice age, killing most life upon it, leaving only the strongest to fend for themselves in the harsh cold. The first and hardest winter the planet had ever seen. She eventually hid away not noticing the change in the various things around her. Taking refuge in a cave that Nexus would someday call his home, the land there feeding off her pain to create the seat of corruption, a dangerous and treacherous throne upon which no one should ever sit.

Her magic had touched the spiders and the bunnerflies, giving way to two new species that in her blind grief she would not witness flourish. It touched many other trivial things like the water and the trees. It whistled discordantly through the wisteria creating yet another child not known to her. A cold child, with all the beauty of music but none in his own heart, who would be known as Cynfael. Her heart weeped and cried and her magic flew as it willed, wild and yet graceful as she had been dancing in the sky so long ago.

She was alone again and she would succumb to these feelings for many a year before she became numb. As obscene as it was, once she had become numb to everything she felt the warmth again overtake her body but not touch her heart, and no creature ever would again as she would only feel that warmth for her child. But she couldn’t risk losing another child and being left alone again….no, she couldn’t.

So as the long winter finally began to melt into spring again, and life returned quite quickly she made a new child, one that would embody the coming of spring whom she hoped could eventually melt her heart and fill the space left. Yet when the small child smilled at her and flicked her petal wings, she still felt herself unsatisfied and empty. But this would have to be good for now. She would give it time.

The little girl looked at her in awe. Her mother was beautiful, and looking in her eyes filled her with love and joy. “Hello!” she said in a small yet endearing voice, offering a flower crown that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

“Hello,” the woman said back with less enthusiasm; why had she done this -- it would never be the same.

“Are you my mommy?” the girl asked, looking at her and now fiddling with one of her weeping sakura as she still held the crown with the other.

“I guess you could say that,” the woman said stoically as she walked away; the child would follow her she knew.

“Hey wait…” The small girl padded to her, her little bunny feet helping her move swiftly

The woman stopped and the girl jumped up, the woman catching her on instinct. The little girl put the crown of flowers on her.

“I love you mommy.” She kissed her cheek and hugged her neck, nuzzling into it.

The woman saw more ice melt around them as she felt a bit more warmth in herself, even just a little.

“Masa-Yoshi,” she said softly, a smile gracing her lips as she kissed the girls forehead between her bunny ears. This move felt foreign to her for some reason, like it was right but it didn’t feel right.

“Yay! Yay I have a name!” The girl giggled; she was so happy, “Mommy, mommy, mommy.” She sang delightfully.

“Not mommy, my name is Aer-” She paused, “Ah, please just call me the All-Mother,” she continued firmly, her voice warm and comforting. She couldn’t handle hearing another call her by her true name. That was for Orion only and if she could manage it, no one would ever know her true name again.

“All-mother, right got it,” she replied quite bubbly.

While the newly self-christened All-Mother considered herself a bit pleased, she did not consider herself happy. Emotions and feelings had wormed their way into her heart but they weren’t good ones and she still felt mostly numb. She went through the motions for this child, but a real mother's touch was absent, unlike the moonchild who had received it. She convinced herself it was better this way, safer for them both. She refused to acknowledge that she was just selfishly defending her own heart.

“What will we do today?” Masa-Yoshi asked, pulling her mother out of her thoughts.

She looked across the land, changed after the long winter. As she looked towards the place where Orion had died and saw that a large lake was now there. It was in that moment she made a decision.

“We are going to plant a new flower at the lake, for today is a day of mourning,” the All-Mother spoke.

“Morning?” Masa-Yoshi repeated, confused by the unfamiliar word.

“No, mourning,” the All-Mother corrected, knowing instinctively that the child had got the word wrong. “Today we release our grief and we shall plant baby moonflowers at the lake where the animals drink, so they can all remember the wandering star than no longer shimmers, as he gives himself back to the sky. These moonflowers will collect his dust and bring it to me, so I can always have him nearby,” she explained.

She seemed so sad as Masa-Yoshi looked at her, but also still so strong.

“Okay All-Mother.”

She wouldn’t question it; she wanted to please her mother and she would do what she could to make things better. As little as she was she had a big heart, and she wanted to give her mother all she could so she wouldn’t have to see her be sad anymore.

And so the two of them went to the lake and the All-Mother taught her new child how to use her powers to make flowers grow and bloom. Almost immediately they began collecting the moon dust.

The All-Mother looked on before moving away. Masa-Yoshi was distracted by her task and the curious animals that were coming to greet her, their new princess and governing force of life and nature for that is what she had been created to be. Now she could disappear and find a way to truly feel again while also keeping her heart safe. She held her hands in front of her and a pendant formed between them, it was a crystal star with shimmering powder inside. There wasn’t much now but there soon would be more.

She soon reached the heart of the land and stopped. Here she could feel the pulse of the planet at its strongest. This spot would suit her needs perfectly. A large tree began to sprout from the ground before her, growing taller and more resplendent with each pulse of the planet’s life force.As it reached its full growth she heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Masa-Yoshi.

“This will be my Sanctuary,” she told the child. “I will go here to rest and recover as needed and you can come here to speak with me should you need me. Until you are grown and sure of yourself and your powers you shall live with me here as well.”

Masa-Yoshi nodded. She would do her best and learn all she could. Anything to bring a smile to her mother’s face and true warmth to her sad, cold eyes.

Anything for her mother and the first person she had ever met.

Written by KizunaYui cy-chin & AzraelVek