Muteness and stillness were a part of Aysus’ nature, and by now it had embraced those aspects of itself completely. It was not inclined to rush something as drastic and shifting as the weaving of the threads, and to its great pleasure Tahaan understood that enough to leave it be and give it exactly what it needed; space and stillness.

To begin this change, this process of acceptance, Aysus first looked to the darkness. The threads that they had used to weave the darkness into being still existed, even if their ordered and bound structure was different from the roving chaos of the rest of the threads. Neither did the threads of dimness relate to it the way the free threads did. While they continued to gather around it, creating ripples and waves about his movement, the woven threads remained stationary. It plucked one tentatively, and watched the hum of the line quickly become swallowed. It then plucked a roving, wandering thread. That hum raced away quickly, sparking more and more hums around it.

There was no doubt that the darkness was far more stable than the rest of the threads. It was what it was, bound to itself and the brightness. Within that bonding of two unlike things it had found a measure of stability. It was complete, in more ways than Aysus could have known when it said that to Tahaan. 

Aysus was not usually the destructive type. It was content to leave things be, to let them exist and explore on their own. Its tamperings with the threads had always been minor before this moment, brought about more by Tahaan’s exploits than any desire of its own. But now it gathered a handful of the threads of shade, and, hesitating only for a moment, it ripped them apart.

For a moment, in the space between the ripped ends, there was nothing again. Sweet, beautiful, familiar nothing. Aysus released the ends, a shiver running through its silken folds as it stared at the space between. But the ends of the threads were wriggling again, finding each other, bonding back up. And the nothingness was gone again. Darkness reigned supreme.

Not only were the dark and the light complete, but they were stable. There was no doubt that Aysus could affect it on a small scale, but it was no longer certain, even if it wanted to, that it could destroy the dimness and the brightness and return the universe to nothing. 

On the far side of the brightness Aysus saw Tahaan draw closer. It partner was there, ready, whenever Aysus completed its thoughts. For a moment Aysus watched the escapades of its partner, and let its attention wander completely. It shivered lightly, happily, before returning to stillness and turning its attention back to the darkness.

Its exploration of the darkness complete, its understanding as near to perfect as it was possible to get, Aysus turned its attention inward, to Aysus. There was a collecting, and inhalation of self, and Aysus settled down to wait until it understood exactly how it related to this new universe.

In many ways there was no change. The universe still tugged at it, creating the faintest hints of movement within its stillness. The loose threads still gathered around it, swirling and eddying in the cosmic tides of energy from which they had both been born.

It wasn’t until it gradually began to move closer to the light that Aysus understood exactly from where its sense of imbalance had been coming. For all of its existence, Aysus had known it was the center of the universe. It could feel it constantly. Everything spiraled out from its location. Everything was oriented around it. This was no vain fancy, but a conscious realization.

But that was gone now. Some of the threads had a new orientation. They grew out in infinite rays from that one point of brightness. It had become the center of the universe. And Aysus did not like the change.

It sat there, staring at the pattern of the light, and slowly it began to gather the threads of the darkness and some of the loose threads together. It understood the darkness, now it was time to better understand the lightness. Slowly Aysus began to weave, following the pattern of the brightness. Now that it existed, now that it was a part of the universe, it was not necessary for both it and Tahaan to come together in its creation. The light was a wild point of chaos, and even if Aysus had led in its creation, its trueness had been granted by Tahaan’s chaos. But some of that chaos rested within Aysus as well. If it was not for that, there was no telling whether or not “Aysus” would even exist. And therefore it could recreate the light.

There was a brief rejection of the change, but suddenly it came to be. There was a moment of bonding, and another point of brightness came to be. The dimness that already existed reoriented itself, bonding to this second brightness as it had bonded to the first.

And then Aysus understood, and it was a relief. The brightness was not the center of the universe, for the center could only be at one point. The change that had so unbalanced Aysus was the fact that the universe no longer had a center. It was simply an infinite space of unfulfilled potential.

Aysus moved towards the first brightness, where Tahaan still played with the brightness and darkness. It moved between Tahaan and the brightness, creating another wave of shadow on the threads.

[i]~I’m ready,~[/i] Aysus told Tahaan, a shiver of excitement passing through it.