It appeared in the Forge of Possibility—a fracture in the fabric where new stars were born. Through it leaked a sound Arvus had never heard. Not radiation, not gravity waves. A voice.
Arvus had no mouth, but he learned to shape vibration into meaning. "What are you?" starmaker arvus
Arvus extended his perception through the crack. There: a small, yellowish star, already guttering like a candle in a storm. And orbiting it, a single world of silver cities and silent oceans. The people were fragile things of calcium and water, but their minds burned with a fierce, beautiful terror. It appeared in the Forge of Possibility—a fracture
"Our pattern ends with us," the voice replied. "We have no gods. We have no one else. Only you." A voice
But Arvus did not scatter. He reached into the star's heart and listened .
The silver cities blazed. The oceans glittered. And the people—the fragile, calcium-and-water people—stepped out onto their balconies and wept.