Song of the Void

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Selendil was floating in space gazing at the stars and the Eriad ships flying by. One of the ships had carried Yrala to her hearing previously, although it had been escorted by a fleet of other ships. It seemed that Yrala’s family had a lot of pull in the Eriad society. That wasn’t why Selendil was here though. As much as the genetic connection between the Dhar and the Eriad would’ve caused her to grow some curiosity during normal times, this was not a normal time. The last few days had been filled with revelations, and the one Moonshadow had sprung on her just moments before was the one that had the greatest impact on her.

The quiet of space allowed her to think. Because she wasn't even wearing a spacesuit, communicators couldn't bother her either. Only Nox could reach her and the AI knew to not bother her unless it was a dire emergency. So here she quietly floated, looking at the stars and the planets surrounding her. She could even see a nebula spread out in the distance thanks to her keen eyesight that could match a telescope if she really wanted to. The beauty of space still enthralled her even after all these years. The universe was a vast and mysterious place filled with all sorts of oddities, but it was also filled with beauty and wonder.

The reason she was out here was because that familiar beauty calmed her down. The news Moonshadow had managed to push her into figuring out had agitated her. She was thankful to the Mrrroww, but she kind of wished that she didn’t have to learn of this. The woman deserved thanks and praise for the service she had provided, not Selendil taking her sudden confusion and insecurities out on her, so Selendil had sought solitude before her impulsive emotions drove her to say something better left unsaid. Besides, she did her best thinking while calm.

The Great Song had been the guiding light and the unifying factor of the widespread Dhar society for so long that hearing about changes to it left her in a state of bewilderment. It was like the laws of physics she had come to rely on had suddenly been upended. She would’ve thought Moonshadow was lying if not for the fact that she had been prevented from speaking further by the universe, a sign that she recognized. She half suspected that was part of the reason such a condition had been imposed on Moonshadow. The trials the universe gave people were some of the most out of place oddities that the Dhar had ever experienced, right along with the experience known as the ‘Crossroads'. Dhar philosophers believed both to be an expression of either the Great Song or the Universal Consciousness. The two methods were some of the more direct ways the universe used to communicate back with the Dhar.

These trials could be anything from a small personal growth moment to something that changed the fates of entire races. The personal ones were far more common though. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason when they appeared, and sometimes those involved didn’t even know they were facing one, as seemed the case this time as well. They were more common than the ‘Crossroads’ by a fair margin. Usually passing through such trials brought about rather notable benefits. Those benefits were often in the form of knowledge gained through the Universal Consciousness, or progress in the Great Song. Selendil herself had passed several trials, though it seemed she had completely missed this one.

That brought about a scary thought. How long had she been facing this trial without knowing? Had it started before she went into stasis? Was that why she had been faced with the ‘Crossroads’ on whether to save Moonshadow or leave her to die? Would she have failed the trial without knowing if she had not saved the Mrrroww woman? Seeing as she had not been aware of the trial, that seemed likely. She certainly hadn’t even considered this kind of possible change to the Great Song. Assuming this was what the ‘Crossroads’ had been about. She couldn’t be sure. Usually, the decisions made during the ‘Crossroads' had significant effects on one's life, which meant that the success and failure of this trial came with real consequences that would affect the path her life took going forward.

That suggested the same thing that Moonshadow had tried telling her, namely that there was more to this piece of news than seemed obvious on the surface. The news that there was another Great Song was quite shocking on its own already. To suggest that there was more to it and that it was tied to the trial she was facing was disconcerting. Just knowing there was another Great Song was enough to change her life, though she wasn't entirely sure yet how. So what more could there be? This trial seemed like one of those that required some sort of realization. Thus it stood to reason the answer would be something she was capable of realizing with some thought. It would also not be a true trial if it was something simple, however. It had to be something she would not think about normally or something she did not want to admit.

Selendil wracked her head for a long time while floating in the empty quiet of the space, and it was that very quiet that helped her start putting things together. The Great Song had gone quiet for the first time since the very first time the Dhar had started their feeble attempts at trying to sing it, when she had gone to stasis. And now there was a new song. Did the quiet between the old song and the new song not imply something? Did the quieted voices not signal that the first song was over? She felt something inside her. She felt like something was telling her that she was reaching some important point, but that she wasn’t quite there yet.

Did something like the Great Song really just end? Was it not just that new people sang new songs and that the old people sang the old song? No. That wasn’t quite it. Then it hit her. A cascade of realizations started flowing from a piece of a puzzle fitting in place. There was a reason there were no people in the Universal Consciousness aside from those she had touched. Something was still stopping them. The Dhar had dominated in the past so heavily that they had crowded others out. Other races could not join the consciousness despite their talents. Now others could, but only with great trouble and only if she gave them a push. That was because they were supposed to sing a new song, but there was still something standing in their way. The Great Song Selendil knew and had spent so much time of her life singing was over. It was over, but it was not finished. And as long as it was not finished and one of the singers was still around, the new Great Song could not properly start.

Through her, the Dhar were still casting their shadow over the Universal Consciousness. Either she needed to be gone, or she needed to finish the Great Song. A feeling of rightness came over her. She was getting there. She had almost figured it out. Almost but not quite. She got the feeling that much like the Great Song, her trial was now over, but it was not finished. There was still something else for her to figure out, but that something was not necessary.

With the homeworld of the Eriad as the backdrop and the starry sky as her audience, Selendil started to sing. No voice carried in the void of space, but the Great Song was not about the words and melody. No living being heard her voice as she sang but the universe listened as she brought the song away from the consciousness and to reality. The song she sang was a crystallization of everything her race had accomplished over their long existence. Their deep emotions, their great achievements, their growth, their fall, their vast knowledge on many fields, the realizations of their best thinkers and greatest philosophers, their deep love for the universe that gave birth to them and what they gave birth to together with the universe. She also allowed her own grief and loss flow out of her to add to her creation.

Had Pharaa or another powerful psion been next to her, they could’ve felt the weave of powerful psionic energy that she wove into a tapestry with her voice. That tapestry seemed to be a creation of pure power that would’ve allowed the viewer to understand the people known as the Dhar by just seeing it. Selendil’s creation was the product of all the silenced voices inside her, as well as all the power their deaths and the knowledge she had inherited from them seemed to be pouring out of her to become its basis. All that seemed to condense into a tiny sliver of the universe itself. The song lasted for days and the sliver was complete at the same time as the song was finished. That sliver seemed to sit still until it took a form that looked just like a tiny Dhar, and then it flew back inside Selendil. Now the song was truly finished. It had served its purpose, whatever that purpose was.

For a moment Selendil didn’t feel any different, and then she felt something like a heartbeat. It felt as if the heart of the universe had taken a beat, and that beat also came from inside her. Then came the second beat, and this time everybody felt it. It seemed as if in an instant a wave had passed through the entire universe. Those that had little or no psionic talent only looked up as if they had sensed something odd. Those with enough power realized something monumental had happened. And those with true power realized something new had just been born.

Selendil opened her eyes and saw the universe much differently than she had seen before. Everything seemed closer and more clear, and even distant places felt within reach of her hands. She felt closer to the universe than she had ever done before, and that connection came with understanding. There was no way there would be no consequences from her as a Keeper storing everything her entire race managed to create since the birth of the first Keepers. All those minds stored by other Keepers had been transferred over to her, not to mention the people that had died during the plague. Even standard Keepers were dreadful in their powers, so what would happen if all that was concentrated in a single being? All that power had already been inside her, lying dormant, too much for her to truly handle. Until she had given that power new form by finishing the Great Song. Now that power was hers and she had been changed as a result.

How had she been changed? She didn’t know yet. But she was different. And that had been the point. Not just the point of her trial, but the point of the Great Song. The Great Song had aimed for the creation of someone like her. That's why it existed. The Great Song had evolved them as a species, and it had granted them many secrets of the universe, all in preparation for greatness, all in preparation for someone to finish the Great Song. She had already done it before going to stasis, and she had not even realized it. She had finished the song, but she had not sung it in its entirety before now.

That knowledge came with a realization. If the Great Song had prepared their race for this, and it required the deaths of the Dhar, didn’t that mean that the Great Song had also caused those deaths? Had the song brought about the plague? Was that why it had managed to infect everyone despite all the measures they had taken and all the technologies they had? And did that mean that was why she had been spared? Because someone had to finish the song, and she had been the one to do so?

Selendil soon realized that this was the case, and she also realized this was the reason for all those messages that didn’t blame her. The others had been granted understanding in death. They knew why they were dying. And they forgave her because if it had not been her, it would’ve just been someone else. She had been the one simply because she had been the most powerful. She had not been the best at singing the Great Song, but she had been allowed to finish it because she was a Keeper and the strongest among them. There was no decision she had taken or could’ve made that would’ve prevented this fate. The only thing that would’ve changed was who survived and when it happened. Someone would’ve eventually finished the song and then they would be here and she would be gone.

‘What a cruel fate for an entire race!’ Selendil cursed in her mind. Yet at the same time, it was true that the main reason for the Dhar reaching such heights was the Great Song. Their deaths were the price. And for what purpose? Yes, to create someone like her, but for what purpose? She didn’t know and that understanding was not granted to her. She just was.

What about the new Great Song then? Would that condemn others to the same fate? She allowed her mind to join the Universal Consciousness to find out, and she discovered that the answer was no. She wasn’t allowed to know what the purpose of the new song was, but the new song came with a different purpose. Good. Otherwise, she would've done her best to make sure no one else joined the consciousness.

Even now she felt like raging and throwing a tantrum at the cruel universe for causing the deaths of everyone she cared about. Yet she didn't have someone to rage against. With her new connection to the universe, she also understood that this was not something that had come as a result of malice. It was something her race had chosen. That was the hardest thing to swallow and one of the pieces of knowledge she was granted upon finishing the song. Her own race had chosen this fate. In fairness to her ancestors, back then it had not been much of a choice.

Her ancestors had been on the verge of going extinct. That had been the bargain. Either death immediately, or death later after a timespan too long to even fathom. That memory had been removed from the Universal Consciousness and no Keeper would ever be able to record it. Otherwise, the Dhar would not hold their end of the deal. It had been a good bargain. The Dhar had achieved greatness in the meantime. The whole universe had benefitted from their rule, even if just because of the number of inhabitable planets they had created. The Dhar had gained much as well. And then it had all come crashing down. It was a deal that doomed their race, and one made under duress, but it was still a good deal.

With her new connection with the universe, she now regained some of that information that had been stripped from her race. That had been the very first ‘Crossroads’, and one that had decided the fate of their race. It had granted the Dhar a glorious future they wouldn’t have had otherwise. It was hard to be mad at the universe for that. She still felt it was a little unfair for all the dead Dhar to have their happiness snatched away at the height of their glory, but that would always be the case. There was never a ‘good time’ for an entire race to die. There would always be innocents who suffered.

That didn’t mean she was happy with the universe. No matter the reason, her people were dead. No matter what sort of plan the universe had in mind for her, the chances of her going along with it were slim. The deal was now done. She was under no obligation to go further. Assuming there really was something else. It might have been that the universe simply wanted to see what would happen. It was hard to tell. She now knew for certain that the universe had a will of its own, but she didn’t know how aware that will was. She also felt no need to take part in the new song or assist others in taking part. Before now she would've wanted to introduce worthy people to the glory of the Great Song, but now they would have to do that on their own. She didn’t feel like helping something that had killed her people.

Despite the situation, she found herself remarkably calm. Part of the reason she wasn’t as distraught as she could’ve been was because finishing the song had been cathartic. She had poured everything, all the memories both good and bad, into the song. She grieved the fact that they had to die and for such a useless reason as well. But she wasn’t feeling crushed by the grief anymore. There was also a sense of relief. Relief that while the deaths had been her fault in a way, it was not the sort of thing that made her feel guilty. She had told Nox before that she wouldn’t carry guilt around for something she didn’t know for certain was her fault, but she had still been worried. This was a load off her shoulders. It was also a relief to find out the cause of the plague. Now she didn’t have to be worried about some invisible enemy lurking around, or the plague resurfacing.

Now that she had managed to deal with the issue, at least for now, she turned her eyes inward. There had been changes to her. She felt that if she hadn't already been an energy being, she would've become one. Now though, the quality and quantity of energy inside her had grown. It was hard to quantify, but she felt that it would be excessively hard to kill her now, not that it had been easy before. As a Keeper, she could've flown into the heart of a star and come out unscathed.

There was also the obvious increase in her power. She had no idea how strong she was, partially because she almost never used her full powers even before now. What benefits were there in having more power if you weren’t using that power? At least she had gained one benefit. She felt that the control she had over her own power had grown. Her being pushed to the extremes of her control ability was almost as rare as her using her full power, but it did make even simple tasks easier, and that was a welcome change. She could be a bit of a slothful person at times, and getting off easy was something few people would turn down. She could probably also accomplish some fine control things that would’ve eluded her earlier, but those were niche cases that she would have to explore later.

The largest changes to her were when it came to her senses and the connection with the universe, something she didn’t appreciate all that much at this moment. She could ‘feel’ the bumps and scratches on the surface of the CAS ship that had just jumped into the system on the other side of the planet. She could also sense the people on the planet below her staring around, wondering what the weird feeling earlier had been. She could see the outermost satellites on the very edge of the system without even trying. It also felt like she could touch that satellite in some way. She was pretty sure she was able to teleport there now without much effort. Luckily she actually had to focus a bit to use these newly heightened senses, so that she wasn't flooded with useless information.

One thing suddenly occurred to her. If her senses were suddenly sharper, then did that extend to her sense of taste as well? Maybe there really was a proper benefit to this change.