[hider=MAMA SUPREMA AND PAPA DOMINUS]
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Ovaedis. Blood-tinted darkness. Churning eldritch tendons. Hot air. Spitting bubbles of liquid. A stream of brilliant, uninterrupted energy from the Core. Jvan at work.

[i][color=9e0b0f]One? No, I think more. One is too much of a risk. Two, then. Any more and their power will be too far diluted. It would take them too long to grow. Still not enough, not entirely secure. A mating pair? Yes, so be it. 

They will be different, of course. Diversity in all things. The entropites can take care of the offspring once they mature. Motherhood is in their veins. And the Arks will take care of them. They'll be able to hold so much, in the end. They can take the change eaters down to commence the counter-genocide. They can carry things up, into orbit. Maybe even Urtelem.

Or other mortals. Explorers. Colonists. A whole settlement, why stop at that? An army. They can be flagships for an empire of the stars. Lifprasil would love that. Oh! Two Arks. Of course. And offspring, besides. Enough to share.

Yes. Lifprasil would like that very much.[/color][/i]

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From the great portal of the Divine Engineer's manufactory, two bodies emerged into the dark.

They were wound around one another, a slender form and a sinewy one. The thin entity entwined her brother in intimate embrace, and the four arms of the robust being caressed the loops of his sister with effortless delicacy. Neither resembled the other in the slightest degree, and yet they were twins, born on the same day from the same womb. Each one stared into the eyes of their sibling, and saw that they had no need to be the same. For they were lovers, a union ordained long before their birth, and they knew one another's very soul. They were as lock and key.

Between the stones of Lex, where the noctus fronds drifted thick, the change eaters watched them.

The [url=http://blighted-guanine.deviantart.com/art/Sky-Crawler-299919174]male[/url] was grey, lit white from within. His face was wise and solemn, and his eyes were those of a prayerful judge, a guardian-priest. The chambers of his body beat with no heart, only glowed with a soft, patient authority. His hands were the hands that uplifted, that gave comfort, and brought peace to the violent.

The [url=http://zakforeman.deviantart.com/art/Floating-Worm-rider-4-15-13-365897600?q=favby%3ABlighted-Guanine%2F62859938&qo=7]female[/url] was brown, and streaked with hot metal sparks where her upper and lower sides met. Her smile promised speed, and her eyes denied relent. The fins of her body flicked in anticipation for the frenetic crowd she would lead. Her tail whipped, as if to chide the slow and hesitant into joining the sprint with whatever they had. She was the voice of passion, the shout that held back nothing.

Three winged tails of colour surged to meet them, the only children of Diaphane who had survived long enough to reach Lex. As they flew to meet the newcomers, they could hear the voice of the monolith, the impossibly huge structure floating in the Ring. The source of all life. Big Grandma.

[color=9e0b0f][i]"She is the Mother Suprema,"[/i][/color] spoke Jvan's voice from Ovaedis. In absence of air, the words carried on radiation. [color=9e0b0f][i]"He is the Father Dominus."[/i][/color]

The sisters tittered to hear such names as they flew loops around the colossal Mother, who hissed with pleasure in a voice of hot metal, and curved around them in turn. Father Dominus laughed in his low hum, not saddened to be left alone. 

No, the sisters had had no need of names until the third one had joined them, and a nomer was needed beyond 'you' and 'me'. All three had chosen to be called Diaphane, though they knew not from where that name had come. And so they had taken simple identities. The first was Diaphane Stellar, who had never known a blue sky. The middle sister was Diaphane Wander, who had flown a reckless journey into orbit. The last was Diaphane Whisper, who was quiet, and had been forced from Galbar by evil spirits. Soon, Stellar's eggs would hatch, and her children would take names of their own.

A hushed tone of awe soon overtook the change eaters. [colour=LavenderBlush]"What [i]are[/i] you?"[/colour] came the voice of Wander.

[color=9e0b0f][i]"Mother and Father are still very young. Soon they will grow, and then they will be your protectors. They can carry you onto Galbar, and return you when it is unsafe."[/i][/color]

At this, Ovaedis had the attention of its audience. None of the change eaters had ever seen a living thing so large, even among the longest of nocti or the largest imagen-whale they had ever brought down. The Father alone was more than fifty metres tall, bigger than the biggest Rocks. Mother Suprema stretched longer than double that. To think that they might actually [i]grow[/i]...

[colour=Ivory]"How big?"[/colour] piped Stellar. [colour=Honeydew]"How long until we eat Galbar?"[/colour]

[color=9e0b0f][i]"Huge. Ten times their grandeur now at very least. But,"[/i][/color] and that word came sharply, for the sisters were flapping wildly in excitement, and even Whisper seemed eager. [color=9e0b0f][i]"While they are young, you must take care of them both. Clean them and they will carry you. Guard them and they will guide you. Whisper to them and they will teach you."[/i][/color]

[colour=Aliceblue]"Yes, but answer our question, Grandma,"[/colour] whispered Whisper, impatience foiling her quiet air. [colour=MistyRose]"When can we eat Galbar?"[/colour]

[color=9e0b0f][i]"When you're ready."[/i][/color]

And though the Diaphanes pleaded, Jvan said no more.

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[colour=MintCream]"Hey!"[/colour]

A full turning of the Lex shadow cycle later, Wander came to Stellar as she guided seven children around the lilting currents of planktonic gaia. [colour=GhostWhite]"Come!"[/colour]

Stellar hesitated, but Whisper, who nursed her own clutch of eggs, knew what that word meant.

Together the growing sisterhood clambered under the upper-shell of Mother Suprema. Curiously, an even, hollow space had grown in her, perhaps to serve that exact purpose. With a flick of her tail and speed unimaginable, ten hunters of Lex were ferried into the place where the space glowed blue and was thick with juice, and viscous blue fluid rippled below. Together they explored one little, quiet corner beneath the Fractal Ocean, where water was liquid, and life tasted sweeter than anything to be found in Lex.

And when Father Dominus bid them come, they whined and complained, but come they did. Galbar was dangerous, Whisper had taught them. They were young and few. And, of course, they trusted Father. They trusted Mother even more. They had come to love their wordless guidance, and come to love their caretakers. Something had been given to them, that repaired a piece of their hearts they had not even known was broken.

Never again would the Diaphanes be orphans.[/hider]