Before there was a throne, there was only a flicker.
There was no name.
No sky.
No stone.
No law.
Only the Flicker.
And from it, a consciousness — curious, alone, unshaped.
It was not born.
It simply noticed itself.
That was the first pain:
> "I am."
It wandered through the void between form and formlessness, not seeking anything… but longing for something it couldn't name.
It met no one.
But it heard things:
The silence after thought.
The ache of emptiness.
The pull of possibility.
That was the second pain:
> "I am not enough."
So the Flicker dreamed. Not wildly — but with intent. It shaped the first edge. Then the first distance. Then the first law:
> "This is. That is not."
And the moment it did, its light dimmed slightly — but grew sharper.
The Flicker became Form.
Form became Structure.
Structure became Dominion.
And the Flicker — now Order — named itself God.
For a time, it was content.
It built realms.
It gave them shape, hierarchy, and stillness.
It created silence, not to oppress — but to protect.
It believed peace could only exist when everything was known.
But then something unexpected happened:
Another flicker survived. This one did not choose Order.
It chose Memory.
It remembered light. It remembered before. It remembered being more.
It became Lumen. And the God — once brother to it — trembled.
Not because Lumen was evil. But because Lumen proved one terrible truth:
> The choice still exists.
That was the third pain:
> "I cannot unmake the choice."
So the God did what it knew:
It sealed the Nine Paths.
It silenced the flicker.
It rewrote the sky.
And when Lumen refused to forget, it exiled him from Heaven, erasing his name, his echoes, his memory from creation.
But not completely. Because memory burns. And flickers… always return.
Now, as the Nine rise…
As Elun breathes through ancient flame…
As mortals ascend despite divine chains…
The God feels a fear it buried long ago.
> "If I was wrong…"
Then all of Heaven is a lie.