Before the when and before the how. We opened our eyes to a comforting place. Enveloped in nothing but Grey mist, thick, warm, we yet sat still, eight clans, siblings of stone, enjoying the endless quiet before us. As one, we needn't disturb this comforting, kind and lonely place with idle things.
But then, almost as sudden as our own existence had come to be, but more inquiring, someone outside of us, spoke. A question rose to conversations, we wanted to keep to ourselves, yet could not and so we indulged. At first they were surprised, but eventually welcomed us, thus we made our first friend, our first many friends. The Nu needed conversation to communicate between themselves and so we held conversation, learning about our differences. Only two conversations lengths later, a third kind appeared, different from the Nu, The Hel seemed skeptical whenever there was a difference in opinion, but would often jest when there had been heated discussion much to the Nu's delight and this in turn delighted us.
Starting on an inquiry, the Dia had appeared as sudden as everyone else. Asking to know of our shapes and together with the Furora they would weave cloth out of passion, friendship and hard work. Thus it seemed harmony had reached its peak and despite them having disturbed this comforting place, this excited us, the Ishi, and so we celebrated with everyone.
Unbeknown to us the Hel had grown discontent. Rallying the Dia and Furora to their side and lashing out at us, war broke out, a fight for which we had no desire. But from this war we learned a good many things, that we were the strong, good at adapting, fighting, hunting. Compared to the Hel alone we were few, but having to contest against the Dia and Furora as well, our numbers of only eight seemed miniscule. We learned to create, birth more of us and the first born came to be. Learned to take from the Dia, to steal from them, the weapons they created to harm us. Learned that our shapes were not very compatible with the use of weapons and so we adapted our stone bodies to temporally to resemble Dia and Hel, to turn their weapons against them. In turn our enemies had learned to unify their power into larger beings, yet we still brought them to their knees, one by one.
We asked them to stop the senseless fighting, it had turned out more pointless than any of us had imagined, for it appeared that none of us could die... the Furora would follow the Dia, no matter how pointless. The Dia said the Hel had told them, that we spoke ill of them behind their back... at first we didn't understand, but once we realized, that the Hel had learned to create something of their own, the first lie, the Hell had already taken the next step and showed us what else they had learned.
The Hel drew forth accursed knowledge, that set ablaze their own immortality. Taking hold of both the Dia and Furora alike, crushing them both on to their being like kindling for the growing Hel fire. Weak from fighting neither the Furora nor Dia had the strength to resist. A pain filled a roar, like rows of endless glass shattering, the Hel's success in forcefully binding the others frayed the Grey World around us to the point of snapping, leaving it rugged and tattered. Stunned by surprise for the first time, we watched on as our beloved Grey World dissipated before us, both in awe and in terror we stood... but not for long. A wave searing pain swept over us, followed by great anger, we reached to towards our brother in need, but Ishi Tsubasa had already melted at the hands of the Hel, his first-born turned to dust in an instant as his connection with the Ishi severed at Tsubasa's end.
This could not stand! In that very moment we became the storm, anger the fuel of our strength and ambition, our hate lit into a flame so bright, that the light of newly born stars were forced to yield, enlightening what scraps was left of the Grey! Leading the charge of endless claws, Ishi Rin of the first born leaped forward like a dark shade of anger and with his mighty Dia spear Okraz, he pinned the Hel to the spot. Unable to move they could not escape our relentless onslaught.
The dust finally settled, our rage and anger subsided. The Hel lay broken and shattered, only able to utter quiet whispers for mercy. In the heat of battle our sisters Ishi Mitsume and Ishi Shizugokoro had managed to separate the accursed union of three and the Hel Fire had come to an end... but all too late, their immortality spend and their beings exhausted in the blink of an eye, soon the three would come to die.
Shizugokoro wept the first tears, the first song of sorrow, for she loved playing with them. But it soon changed to determination, gently and carefully she picked up the dying leftovers of Dia and Furora, changing her form to better carry them like children in her arms. Her long spiked tail pierced the ankle of the Hel dragging them behind her violently! Taking them all to the biggest most ornate forge that the Dia had ever made, she gently lay the Dia and Furora on the decorated anvil, while slinging the Hel harshly into the forges’ empty fire pot. She began ripping off her scales, one by one, dropping them into the fire pot. When the forge was finally full she stood naked, yet still proud.
Shizugo then drove her claws into the chest of the half buried Hel and stepped on the forges’ mighty bellows, the Hel screamed in pain as she reignited their flame and set the forge ablaze along with the immortal stone scales. As she stepped off the bellows the Hel meekly stretched out their arms to her, pleading and begging for passing to the after life. At first she did nothing, just staring and listening to the pleading, but then she had an idea, an evil idea, her green eyes flashed with malicious joy as she took their hands, pausing only briefly looking the Hel straight in the eye, her white gleaming teeth expressed in a twisted smile. Then she pushed their hands on to the bellows, forcing air to flow into the forge. The Hel let out a second scream, when it finally died down, Shizugo drew close to the face of her victim and hissed slowly and softly "Keep the heat even and high, this way you cannot die, if you stop, I will not lie, for you, painful persistence will arrive", afraid to contest her they took hold of the bellows, as she turned away.
She lifted up the Dia and Furora, holding them close while whispering words of encouragement and kindness to them. She knew that once her work here was done, none us would be the same; yet she carried on, she had to hurry now. Crushing them together, between her hands, she stuck them both into forges inferno. The Hel, whimpering in pain, rocking the bellows to and fro, to and fro, keeping the forge ablaze. When she pulled out her hands again she had successfully pushed the Dia and Furora into an almost smooth oval. Taking a hammer and the wrought tongs off the tool rack, she began hammering the oval out into a flat long shape, then folding it into layers and then hammer it flat, again and again. Stopping only to reheat the joint Dia Furora material. Once folded a few dozen times over, she hammered the material into a long rod and dipped it into the inferno one last time, with both her hands in the forge she bend the rod into a ring, twisting the two ends of the ring together, creating life and its endless cycles of the universe. As Shizugo lifted the ring out of the forge the Hel let go of their arduous task, meekly reaching and taking hold of the newly forged object, birthing Hope for a brighter tomorrow and Faith, they faded to dust desperately holding on to the ring.
Satisfied with her work Shizugo put the ring of life around her neck, no longer a part of us she and her first born spread their wings and left for the stars to find a place to make their nest, where exactly we do not know, but so did we. Finding home and kindness towards our self in a warm, dark and lonely place, our only lament not knowing where the Nu have gone.
