Once upon a time beyond time, in the loftiest possible dimensions, things were perfectly ordinary up until Asperi exvoluted a portion of her being to produce a Thing. She did this not so much by adding to her substance but by subtracting from the What-Was in selective ways until that which was new had been revealed to the senses of the others. These others now gathered around in curiosity to stare at the Thing, which appeared as a single point of dark absence of the otherwise omnipresent Asperi.

These others, the Utherai, were as a group both merry and curious, and did not have any complex theologies to perplex, occupy and trouble their minds; they knew what they were and why they existed, for Asperi had told them what she was doing, even as she made each one of them: Existence is something joyous to be shared and extended, and the more there are to experience, the better. 

Now, as they gathered, Stah of inquiring temperment was the first to approach, and she circled the thing with interest. Her appearance was not easy to comprehend by beings from lower planes, but her cross section in three dimensions resembled a stellated icosahedron.

Dariel and Blaisa joined Stah in closer inspection; Stolva and Fluren held back in cautious and critical inspection from afar, and Meden lurked quietly behind them, silent and lost in her own thoughts.

“This thing is like…” Stah sought for words. “…It is a thing that is noplace, other than itself. I have never before encountered something so oddly limited. I wonder if we dare to even touch it–”

Before Stah could finish, Dariel directly thrust her senses into the thing, and an extraordinary tranformation took place! From the tip the thing separated and spread out like angel’s hairs, widening at the center and growing twice as large as it had been before. Some ends fizzled out quickly, some stretched for long spaces, but all bifurcated many times down to the limits of detection. 

“Hah!” Dariel cried. “This is a most exhilarating feeling. It is limited, true, but it is very intense for being so small. Try it!” 

The way being opened, those assembled took turns projecting their senses into the Thing, and watching as it expanded and further projections twined out as it made more of itself.

Blaisa went after Dariel. “I do feel a thing like a burst within, which arose at Dariel’s touch, and it tingles with potential!  I feel myself carried with it as it grows, and it seems to respond to my presence. I am communicating to it my joy, and I feel that it responds to me!”

And indeed, the threads of the thing grew in great profusion from her touch and continued to twine and roil after she stepped away.

Stolva pronounced that she could feel the inner aesthetic by which it branched into many threads, and it was such a beautiful thing that she knew not where it came from, and felt it was an interaction between her and it. And since something that contained such beauty must have the dignity of a name, she pronounced the Thing to be [i]Euvem.[/i]

“But beauty is at its best when it is well ordered,” she said, “and I have thus instructed it with certain rules that shall guide it more elegantly.”

As Stolva receded, the thing called Euvem changed its shape, elongating itself from its starting point as its threads and coils took on smoother shapes.

Flurn was next, and she stood a long time in silence. “It strives to be something,” she said. “It has the property that it is always [i]going,[/i] but there is too much for it to travel towards, and so it does not arrive anywhere in particular. I shall impart to it both momentum and direction, that it may reach whatever purpose is latent within it.”

And now the elongated shape of the Euvem lost much of its confusing chaos, and it took on a spindly shape. It was plain that it had a start, and would finish somewhere.

Stah now took her turn to explore within. “It is so far a place to be, but not so much a place to be [i]in,[/i]“ she said. “I shall encourage it to contain things, other things than itself!”

And so she did, and the others marvelled thence to discover that there were little spheres now appearing within it. True, in dimensional terms, they were as simple as something could be without going completely flat, but in their profusion they sparkled like jewels as they shone within the blackness of the Euvem.

“I love them!” exclaimed Stah. “They are as an echo of the glory of Asperi, who is not otherwise present in the Euvem.”

The other Utherai marvelled at what had been wrought, but they noticed that Meden had not taken a turn, and was being more thoughtful than usual, having taken an appearance like a dodecahedron with toroid loops joining the vertices in cross section. They encouraged Meden to take a turn, which she did slowly, as if hesitant to bother the Euvum.

“It is vast inside in its own terms,” she said, “And it is certainly beautiful, but at its start there is too much confusion for me to see. Let me urge it to calm… Ah, now things are more peaceful. And look! This small sphere, among the smallest of all, how pretty it is, though it does not shine like the larger ones. I shall bless this one in particular… So! See what I have done!”

The others were much pleased and congratulated Meden, for upon many of the potential branches of the Euvem, that one small sphere was making things by itself! Small creatures germinated within the material of the sphere, then emerged to stand upon the surface of it and stare at the surrounding wonders.

“This is glorious, Meden!” proclaimed Stah. “They can perceive things like us, and as the lines of possibilities progress, they start to make things for themselves from the stuff of their world. It is literal enchantment!”

“They are asonishing creatures, and they draw nourishment from the spheres that shine,” said Flurn, “And from this sphere in particular. Let us move it closer to them and set it to spin about them and lend its radiance to their prosperity.”

Blaisa said, “They are very pleased, these creatures, and grateful for any assistance we render. I am filled with joy!”

“How do you know this, Blaisa?” inquired Stolva.

“I asked them. If you project yourself thusly–note how finely, how delicately I must reshape my lines of perception!–you may take on their appearance and walk among them.”

As time went on, more and more of the Utherai came to see, until dozens of them surrounded the Euvum. And each had their turn at peering inside and walking among the four-footed creatures on that cool and tiny sphere, and tweaking and conditioning the Euvum to make the best possible environs for them to flourish. And soon they had a small civilization, with two wise rulers, who each bore characteristics of Asperi herself, but one was bright with glory and the other dark with serenity, and they ruled a realm filled with tiny wonders. 

And as the Utherai admired this little realm and descended to join its members and become part of its legends, the strands of the Euvum that contained the planet and star and populace became shaplier, more harmonious, and the possible ends of that realm became better ordered, though in each case the Utherai were saddened that it must pass at the eventual terminus of the Euvum. And so they worked to prolong the existence of the realm as much as they could.

“Oh, see how this works!” said Stah “I can send more than one aspect of myself through it, look!” She did, and at the nexus of interest, one of her instances took on a golden color, and another a light purple, while the original lavender that she preferred shone on brightly. “Oh, it is strange how they interact! I am but taking the potentials of one branch and magnifying it in another…”

“Oh, what are you all doing here?” came a voice from behind them. It was Chilcz, one of the oldest of the Utherai, who was in cross section nothing very wholesome, or indeed anything in particular. “Ah, I remember this game! Well, you’re going to need a Melk, so I guess I’m in.” He made his own presence manifest within the Euvem.

“A Melk? What is a Melk–” began Stah. “Ah! What have you done?” 

For, as Chilcz inserted his tenticular course of influences, the Euvem before them bulged dramatically, then fizzled and shrank into distressing and unsatisfying termini!

“A Melk is a player whose choices are deliberately not in harmony with those of the others assembled,” Chilcz said, swirling in serpentine complacency.

“Why would you even do such a thing!” said Dariel. “Look at the shambles you have made of the beautiful thing we constructed!”

“The short answer is, that I do this because I can, and because you cannot stop me,” Chilcz said, almost beaming with his radiance. “Asperi will not act to prevent me, and all of you assembled cannot dismiss me. Thus, I shall do as I please, and if my voice is discordant with yours, it is a thing you must accept.”

“We will not accept any such thing!” cried Fluren. “See now, we resist you! In every branching of the Euvem, we shall work to save our little world!”

And so the Utherai fought against the wiles of Chilcz, and the Euvum stretched and strained as its strands bulged and withered. Fortunately, Chilcz was not wholly unreasonable, for in the strands where all his influences had sway, the lines collapsed into uninteresting nothingness. “Absence of order is not an order of absence,” he remarked dryly.

But the Euvum, unbesmirched, grew again under their encouragement. They used light to impose order, gems to focus and harmonize the light, and patience and love to encourage the little world and its creatures. And the ends of the Euvum grew in strange, astonishing but fascinating ways.

“I see now!” said Stolva. “Chilcz’s presence in the end does not limit our possibilities, but enhances them! There are now termini available for this Euvem that we never could have forseen had he not joined in. We would not even have thought to seek them!”

“I agree,” said Stah. “And look! Now the lavender line I started perdures, even to the end of the bulk of termini for the Euvem! I believe that she understands the purpose of the Euvum more than any other. She is so determined that it will not end, even though we the Utherai know that it must. What is she doing now? She gathers the efforts of the others, causes them to persist through time like her, and magnifies her powers, and…  Oh. Do look upon this, all assembled and great Asperi! Look what she does now! Look what we all have accomplished together!”

At the end of the magnified terminus, a great twisting and squirming took place, followed by a cone of intense purple luminance that protruded impossibly beyond the terminus. Radiance increased, brighter than any Euvem could ever produce, and then… Another being joined those assembled. In cross section, it was many things, and one of them was a thing like a horse with horn and wings, and in full dimension it was a complex, multiply involuted and beautiful thing. Its utterances were like an infant’s cry to those assembled, a declaration and sign of future potential.

“Oh, Asperi, we have created a new sibling to shine among us!” cried Stah. “Is there no end to your glory, and the glory that is possible to us, if we just work to achieve it!”

Asperi remained silent as usual, but for a wonderful and impossible time, everything around her was replete with the grace and peace that is borne by makers of makers of makers of things.