Chapter Text
It all started with a perilous black. She was this pitch darkness, this expansive, hollow, never-ending abyss. This gulf of nothingness was her orate cloak that she donned so elegantly. She, too, was a pit of emptiness. Her name was Kakoz. This maiden, lying desolate within herself, breathed deeply. She breathed in for the first time within her expanse. Her eyes closed and face relaxed, she laid calmly on her side. Her endless cloak billowed across nothing, forever hiding her complexion. As she slowly exhaled, her breath became the atmosphere. From nothing, air emerged to fill her. With this strange sensation, she began to stir in her slumber. The cloak stirred with her. Kakoz twisted and turned and soon sprawled her limbs out in a stretch. From nothing, something emerged as she awoke. A groggy thought. Her sleepiness had muddled her emotion, so she had felt nothing yet.
“Where?” She thought, “Where must I be? How long have I slept?”
She stirred once again, pressing her hands upon her face to rub away the sleepiness. With a yawn, she arose to sit up. Her cloak, in her rustling, had now been twisted and coiled around her. Swirls of dust had appeared to float along the air among the nothingness. She blinked away her grogginess while dust rested on her lashes. The dark maiden thought once again.
“Why am I here?” She pondered as she gazed upon her orate, swirled cloak, “How long have I slept?”
Something had once again emerged from nothing. A cherub leapt from under her cloak and outward into the nothingness. It was tangible yet abstractly held together. This cherub was feathered and winged like an angel, woolly like a sheep and animalistic, yet sooty in color, blending in with the darkness around it. Its face was distorted and strange. Hooven, and four-legged, it bounded about the expanse and stepped upon her cloak. Kakoz yelped in fear of her creation and, from her yelp, out erupted another cherub. This cherub instantly took flight, cawing and shrieking. It took the form of a black, dove-like creature, it was headless and frightening. Kakoz cowered into her cloak, scared and confused. She could not cower for long, for cherubs soon spilt from her cloak like flowing water. They scattered out into the abyss, their cloven feet and frigid caws echoing out into the black. These woolen cherubs were the angels of confusion and these blackened doves were the angels of fear. Kakoz, in her confusion, could not realize this, and soon, she began to wish. She wished for someone to accompany her to ease these unruly cherubs. This was her first wish among this flurry of emotions and feathers. In her wishing, peace returned, the cherubs of fear and confusion delved deep enough into the expanse of nothingness to no longer be seen nor heard.
Yet, a new sound emerged. It was the sound of a baby’s cry within the gulf. Kakoz’s confusion remained, yet, as she reached out for the sound, she had seen something more than darkness. Something had emerged from nothing. In this beautiful wish, her baby had come to her. Small and helpless, he was. Wailing with his eyes glued shut, he was humanoid, yet abstractly bird-like, retaining a nose that would resemble a beak, yet having a mouth right below it. He had little wings, talons, and a the nub of a tail. All featherless, he was, and covered in a baby’s plumage. He was sweetly held within the arms of Kakoz. The maiden of nothingness had become the mother of a precious thing; life. She cooed to him.
“Ah, now, now, child. You’re safe. We’re safe.” she hummed softly to him, her voice echoing across the emptiness.
She held him to her chest, closely. With cautious hands, she swaddled him within her dust-licked cloak. Feeling this, the newborn’s cries eased. By the sound of her echoing, thrumming voice across the abyss and the sound resonating within her chest, he had eased his body into the warmth of it. Kakoz gently gazed down upon him. For the first time, she smiled fondly down upon her creation.
“You, who have just took your first crying breaths, are in my arms with me,” she began to him, “Your cries, a sound as new as these sensations of mine, cut into this fabric I’ve woven. I shall hold you as my own in this weaving nothingness of mine. You shall live and I shall love you.”
At her word, a new cherub gently tumbled out from her cloak. It was angelically white, spreading its four wings out as it tenderly clamored to stand on its thin, deer-like legs. It let out a chirp as it craned its neck to Kakoz and the baby. It had a beautiful, flowing mane, a short, and stout deer snout, a doe-like build, and big, bright eyes. They did not glow within the darkness, but an easing warmth was present in them. This was the first angel of love. As it got its footing, Kakoz welcomed it close to the baby. She hummed fondly as she watched the angel hover its head over the newborn, peering curiously down.
“What should I name him?” She gently asked the cherub.
The cherub simply thrilled a soft coo as it turned its head to look into the abyss. It soon lifted its head up straight and let out a resounding note. It had called out for others. Kakoz heard the note carefully. Understanding its call, the wish it had was granted. As Kakoz lifted up her cloak of nothingness, a herd of love cherubs manifested from underneath. Kakoz fondly beamed at her creations. These white cherubs surrounded Kakoz and her baby, peering and observing the newborn with curiosity.
In unison, the cherubs of love began to sing, each with their own beautiful note, one after another, into a beautiful lullaby. Kakoz’s eyes widened at this, she stood silent as she watched her creations sing to her. It was a beautiful symphony and, in her inspiration, she gave the newborn a name.
”Encore, you shall be.” She said to him as she looked down upon him with a smile, “For love sings for you, as beautiful notes of many.”
Encore lay relaxed and leaned against his mother’s chest. He let out a peaceful yawn as he drifted into slumbering. The first to be something, the first to be wished by nothing. The first to be precious, he was. Swaddled by nothingness, he was at peace in Kakoz’s arms. Kakoz couldn’t stop gazing down upon him, even if the choir of cherubs had enraptured her beforehand, she admired every little pattern on Encore’s tender skin. She gently reached her hand over to caress her baby’s cheek. His skin was soft, yet parts of his cheek were covered in natal down. She moved to tenderly hold his head. His entire scalp was covered in this natal plumage as well. To Kakoz, he was beautiful. With gently deliberate motion, she lifted him up to kiss his forehead, before resting him onto her chest. Chest to chest, Mother to son. Encore laid upon the abyss and the abyss cradled him. Their heartbeats were absent, their emptinesses filled by the thrumming lullaby the cherubs sang for them. From nothing, came life, and from life, love beautifully bloom.
