As the revelation started I was embracing three familiar albeit different figures, not the grown powerful figures I knew, these were adolescent, mature but still incomplete, the lacked the real experience to be considered so in my eyes.
"My girls, what troubles you today?" I asked in a voice not my own, it was soft but projected in a way that eclipsed any mortal comparison. It was heard, the idea that those it was intended for wouldn't hear was an impossibility, it was the voice of a being that didn't need volume. I speak, you hear, that was it.
Despite that voice though, it came from a mouth that seemed to despise its own authority. One that felt his presence and divine authority was a betrayal of the free will he so enjoyed witnessing expressed. So it always laced the voice with a hint of sadness and was only used when required.
"Are you leaving again?"
"Not just yet little one, how could I possibly abandon you all so soon since the last time?"
"But you will?..."
"Unfortunately, a selfish part of me wishes to stay, let those self-important candle lights have their "Mortal Realm" whilst I stay here with you. The Black must always be selfless though..." His tone was more than laced with sadness that time, it was laced with the grief of a mourning father.
"Why? Why must The Black always be selfless, Dad?"
The figure didn't answer immediately, instead he fell back suddenly and despite his massive figure he felt almost weightlessly, as though the ground decided to just move to his back at his will.
He then craned his head forward, gesturing for the girls to lay with him; The tallest took his left, the middle took his right and the smallest, his little one, monopolised his torso. He then pointed both of his index fingers towards the absolute black of the sky that dominate as far as their all-seeing eyes could see.
"My girls, you see there, you remember what I told you about your bodies? How, by way of contrast, they make everything around more vibrant?..." The girls nodded, enchanted by the sensation being held so warmly made them feel. "Well imagine how terrifying it would be if all that decided to stop making everything else more vibrant and started overpowering everything like The White does." The girls at either side of him trembled and the smallest turned to cling to him.
"So is The Black, are we bad then?"
"My girl should know herself better...No, you aren't bad, I'm not bad, good and bad are just beliefs born from differing perspectives.... In mine, thinking something is bad and doing it anyway makes you bad."
"What if you think something is good but don't do it?"
"Then you're lazy, but we already know you like avoiding work Celesael, just like Astrael likes making herself the best at her favourites so she always gets it and just like my little one does everything to make sure I have time to spare holding you all." The tree like arms closed, forcing the two girls up to his torso as they giggled and sighed.
"Lord, can I please come with you, the next time you go to blow out the candles?"
"Absolutely not. Fighting is for those that started the argument, not those that only came long after."
I noticed that that memory wasn't the same as others at that moment. There was no sense of time for it, it was... Painful... Like my consciousness was falling apart without that fundamental law which mortals were so reliant on and took completely for granted. I realised though, falling apart wasn't what hurt, it was the act of holding it together.
I was watching the memory in a mortal linear fashion, but that was not how this was meant to be watched, so I let it fall apart and found myself before the figure, alone in his room, though not entirely before him, this like all memories was first-person.
What it actually was, was a mirror, it was just that the idea of being this.... well words can't describe how impossible the notion felt.
"Hahaha. Impossible? You, me I?" He waved the second question away. "We are the sole heir of black, we are impossibility incarnate. Look at us, so weak, yet stronger than ever. I'm sure you have questions, but I won't answer them, I want us to experience them. All I wanted to do was show you the girls, make sure you understand who they are to us, redefine that bond if you must... But honour it. I know you will, I saw our wife, our children. No one's that happy without someone giving it their all. We truly got lucky with them.
I have one more thing to show us, A favour to ask. After we see what is coming, we will already know the message."
The memory was muddled and reformed.
"I just don't get it, Lord. Why did you make us? The deva of the white were made to fight, but you always fight the battles yourself."
He didn't answer for a while, he couldn't through the laughter that shook very domain. "My dear girls... I am strong enough to fight battles myself, I don't need more power to fight... I need reasons to." He finally said, pulley the sombre girls into an embrace so warm it defied the void they resided in. "What better reason is there than knowing I'll see my girls when I get back." He kissed each on the forehead in turn, then left with meteoric speed.
I then emerged peacefully from the memory and stood, summoning the three deva through sheer will.
"My girls, I missed." I spoke in a tone that was soft, yet heard without issue, laced with fine sadness.
Their faces contorted and I opened my arms for them to embrace me, which they did without hesitation. Tears streamed from them, giving the effect of a meteor shower in a clear, starless night sky.
"My girls, I am sorry. I speak as this now to right a wrong older than the realm itself. I should have kissed each forehead infinitely more, I should have held you all in an embrace that never ended.
I abandoned you out of selfless duty and that was selfish.
I am gone, if you need to mourn then do so, but I have a little bit of selfishness left in me, so please watch over them all; Eve, Adam our darling children. I'm sorry my daughters, for being your creator before your father."
"Dad, you can't disappear til I hit you three times. No, four. I owe you one for the one Adam took in your place."
"Dad, don't go, I love you Daddy."
"Lo- Dad, I'm sorry I never called you it enough."
"My girls, Celesael, Astrael, Cosmael. My time has ended...
Celesael, enjoy life, keep honouring your sisters and cherishing them to the point of hating me, then none of you will be alone.
Astrael, you... You have always lived free, you humble your father in a way I could never express.
Cosmael, when you are reborn, cherish your parents as you did me... Feel no guilt, I abandoned the right to be your father when I abandoned my daughter little one. A girl can only have one father and Adam will be a far better one than this memory."
"DAD NO!" The girls shouted in unison, but the memory had left, remaining in each of us as a memory of a memory of the first son of The Black
"I'm sorry girls. I was selfish, I couldn't let him return and make Eve and Quatal lose Adam. Please forgive me." I cried with them as we held each other.
Eve watched, overwhelmed by the infinite depth of their sadness, a pain she felt partially responsible for.
"Don't lie Adam, he never gave you a choice, he just gave you a message to pass on. Why would you try to take responsibility?"
"Because... As a father, I didn't want to see you hate your father, even if you hated me."
"SHUT UP! You're too much like him. If you don't stop sacrificing yourself, you'll do this to your children."
"Did dad not want me anymore? Is that why he let me be yours?"
I cursed that memory with every word they spoke, what made it worse is I had to respect it too. I knew he gave me that message for two reasons.
The first reason was to give his daughters the ability to properly grieve for him, to let them move on rather than holding out hope he would one day return.
The second, he wanted to show me how much pain selflessness can cause. He wanted to show me that I was going to cause pain regardless of whether I done things for me or in spite of me and that the only way I can prevent my family suffering like this was to never leave them.
"Celesael, You can hit me as hard you like, so hard that bastard feels it, if he doesn't, then get stronger and keep trying til he does."
"Astrael, you were always free, show him that he was just a shackle on that all this time and make him regret it."
"Little one, he never deserved you, if he did come back one day I wouldn't give you back to him if you both begged. I may not be great at it, but I know when to put my foot down... I think... Maybe."
The girls chuckled through their sadness a bit except Cosmael, who just hugged and cried harder, but the tears were slightly happier.
"Eve, we need you over here, we both know I am not good enough to hug out a few epochs worth of abandonment issues." Eve chuckled, crying because she knew how much I was repressing,
Luckily Astrael was too overwhelmed to pick up on whose was whose so it went unnoticed.