Fiction: A Legend of Creation

This story at Fictionpress.

After the Gods descended from the spires of the stars and made the world and all things that existed thereon, and in the depths thereof, They waited for a time in the midst of the world and observed the work which they had saw fit to form. And it came to pass that They saw many that began to grope forward toward the light of knowledge, and in the fullness of time it was to these that the Gods taught the gift of writing.


And the writing which they were taught was an holy language, for it was the writing with which the Gods Themselves did write, and what it described was made so. And thus was the writing wherewith the Gods had ordered the creation of all things, and as They taught it to the learned among the beasts They further shaped the work of Their hands, for nothing could be written by it save the world was shaped by it. And the writing which They gave had been altered according to the understanding of Their creations.

And the manner of the writing was that it described all things, so that the name of a thing, in the fullness of the writing, was its exact nature, and for this reason it was a writing given to truth, for none could lie with it to one that knew as much or more than she, for it described the world and the bonds thereof, between its parts, and a falsehood would demonstrate its own error to she that knew the writing well.

And the learned among the beasts became great in their knowledge. And they grew in their understanding, from revelation to revelation, and they did circumscribe the temples and the cities thereof, and the towers were risen, and the vaults carved out in the depths of the land. And the spires of the stars were recorded, and the ranges of the mountains that lay below them, and the whole expanse of the world was set down. And the Gods looked upon the works of their creation and were well pleased, and They gave the whole world over to Their students as a dominion for Them, to keep and to prosper through even as it prospered.

And it came to pass that even as the writing had been altered by the Gods as They handed it down to the learned among the beasts, so it was further altered and dimmed by time until it had lost all power to order creation, and so the changing times of the world, and the growing times thereof, began to fade away. And as the way of the world began to change, so too did the thoughts of the learned among beasts, and their forms, which were neither the thoughts nor the forms of those that came thereafter. And the Gods departed from the world to return to the spires of the stars, and there watched the progress of their students. And so it was that an age came to pass away, and another came and followed after it.

But still there remained traces of the old script in myriad places, passed down through hidden societies and records buried deep away, and these were used by those that knew them, and the learning of the writing changed their thoughts, so that their minds were not like unto the minds of their brethren, and their thoughts were not like the thoughts of others, nor their ways like the ways of others, but were closer to that of the Gods, insofar as they knew the writing. And so it was that insofar as they were thus changed they were strangers among their brethren, not thinking like them but being near companions to the Gods.

And it came to pass that the writing was further altered and dimmed by time until it had lost all power to order creation, but still there remained traces of it in myriad places, passed down through hidden societies and records buried away, and these were used by those that knew them, and the learning of the writing changed their thoughts, so that their minds were not like unto the minds of their brethren but closer to that of the Gods insofar as they knew the writing, and insofar as they were thus changed they were strangers among their brethren, not thinking like them but being near companions to the Gods.

And even as the greater works of the first writing gave them greater understanding, so then did greater understanding allow them to implement greater works, until they came near to understanding the whole of creation. And so it is that some of those that learn these ways, and adopt the ways of the Gods, do depart out of the land, and it comes to pass that they are never heard of more, and as to their death or burial we know not of.

And we call the same the Gloryborne, for it is said by many that they were taken up by the Gods to Themselves, or borne in glory to the spires of the stars. And it is said by others that they do return from time to time, under task from the Gods or for reasons known only to themselves.