Kaya's excitement grew each time he made connections to other lights as well, feeling their bond and started exploring their connection, playing with them.
Each connection felt one a little different, each light felt a little different. Some were as easy to move as the wind, and others as stubborn as a rock. Some moved straight like an arrow and others drifted sporadically like lightning. Different colors, different speeds, different sizes, there was so much difference and-
"You guys are so fun to play with! Especially you, Bluey!" An unrestrained childlike joy came out naturally as he was playing with the lights, he was having more fun than he remembered ever having.
Eventually, Kaya thoughts it would be fun to gather the lights, and nothing was stopping him, so he did just that, pulling all the lights of the night sky towards himself.
At first, he did not care about order. He simply pulled the fun and beautiful ones close to him, letting them float around the sphere in loose patterns. Some spun slowly, others drifted more quickly and others vibrated seemingly with excitement.
"That one might be my favorite." Kaya chuckled to himself as he lingered on the vibrating light a little longer than the rest.
Kaya looked at all the lights for a long time. Now that so many of them were close to them, he couldn't help but feel in awe again by their stunning beauty and nature.
They were scattered around him, every color he could imagine, and many he could not. There were so many of them. So many different shades, some bright, some faint, some almost in between. It felt alive, and...a little chaotic.
"This won't do" Kaya shook his head in his mind, sarcastically dissapointed. "Let's rearrange you guys!"
He started off by scattering all the lights closest to him, making some empty space around him again, before yet again slowly gathering the lights close to him, but this time methodically.
First, he started gathering all the different yellow lights he could find, placing them close to him in a big cluster, which over time started resembling more of a small sun. Kaya smiled at the sight of it, this was already turning out like he wanted to.
Having gotten more motivation to keep going, Kaya did the same for every other color: orange, red, purple, blue and green, now all floating in big clusters around his sphere.
"Perfect!" Kaya thought excitedly to himself looking around him "But not perfect perfect!"
He was having fun sorting the colors, so why stop here? Within these clusters, there were a lot of different variants, shades, of color, and so, Kaya started to arrange them perfectly by color.
There were dozens of shades. Tiny differences, almost imperceptible, but each one mattered. He selected one and placed it in front of him, then another, then another, until the whole cluster was arranged, making sure each color flowed into the next naturally. No sudden jumps, no gaps, nothing out of place. It had to be smooth, perfect.
Once he completed it with yellow, he started connecting the orange, and then red, purple, blue and lastly green which he connected back to the first yellow again.
"Now, that is perfect!" Kaya admired proudly, feeling the joy of seeing his creation.
A perfectly complete ring of color, each hue flowing seamlessly into the next. The subtle changes between each shade were so precise that it felt like the colors themselves were alive, breathing, moving into their place.
"Haaaaa" Kaya sighed the longer he looked at the ring of color "Okay...maybe not perfect yet." He said in mock dissapointment, secretly excited to play around more.
The boy started making dozens of tiny adjustments, one light at a time. He swapped some out, shifted them, replaced dimmer ones with brighter ones of the same shade. Slowly, the ring became something more than a circle. It became a full, continuous spectrum, delicate and flawless, as if the colors themselves had been waiting for him to put them in order.
And only when it was truly complete...he started the process all over again, but this time with the white and black colors. From pure white to pale grey, to darker grey, and finally to black. There were hundreds of variations between the perfect white and eternal black lights. Each subtle difference mattered. Each shade was placed deliberately, forming yet another perfect ring.
Now there were two rings, hovering stunningly around the sphere, one of color and one of greyscale. Two perfect circles, one floating above the other, both delicate, both complete.
Kaya stared at it for a long time. He couldn't help but feel happy, proud and accomplished. The sphere, the rings, the colors, it was his creation and it was the most beautiful thing he had seen in his entire life.
And...the most fun part was only beginning just now.
Somewhere along the time he started to make the perfect ring, a yellow light had reacted sporadically and bumped against his sphere...and actually went inside it, and some experimenting later, he realized he could put the lights in and out of the sphere.
An unbelievable excitement rose from within the boy. He started putting the perfect rings of lights inside his sphere one at a time, arranging them perfectly even here. The rainbow ring went in first, every subtle variation of every hue. Then the greyscale. At first, the lights went in easily, but as time passed and the sphere started to fill, each new light became a struggle to get inside, but eventually every single shade found its place inside the sphere, glowing softly from the inside, full of every color imaginable.
Kaya's heart felt full but yet light at the same time . He did not know how long he had been doing this, only that it was beautiful, endless, and entirely his own.
Kaya sat back for a moment. The sphere was full. Perfect. Complete.
And then it appeared.
A golden light.
It was bigger than any star he had seen. Brighter than any color he had touched. It hung there, alone, and it felt different. Alive. Strong. Almost aware. Kaya could feel it before he even reached out.
It was alluring, and before he even knew it, he reached out to it, but unlike any other of the stars, it did not budge.
It resisted. Strong. Willful. Unyielding. Every time he reached out for it, it pushed back. Just slightly, but enough to make him feel it. It was testing him. Forcing him to focus. To try harder.
It ignited something in him that he hadn't felt in a long time, his competitive spirit.
He tried again. And again. Each time he reached for it, the golden light pulled back a little. Each time, he strained, felt the connection wobble, falter, almost break. He could not let himself give up though, he could not stop, he could not give up. This light was different. It was special. He could feel that it was not just another star. It was something else. Something important. And he wanted to have it.
"This is my universe, and you will obey, you will be mine!" Kaya beamed out, more confidently and demanding than he had even been.
Then, suddenly, a connection snapped into place. Strong. Solid. It was there. He could feel it anchoring him, holding him, a thread of gold stretching from his sphere to the light.
But it was not done.
The light resisted. Stronger than before. It pulsed, shivered, almost jerking against him. It moved unpredictably, refusing to settle, refusing to be tamed. Kaya gritted his teeth. He would not let go. He would not let it escape.
He pulled. Slowly. Carefully. Inch by inch. The light wavered and tried to break free. He tightened his focus, tightening the connection, stretching his awareness across the void. Every pulse of the light, every small flicker of movement, he mirrored, he countered, he matched.
The stars around them blurred. They scattered and swirled as the golden light got dragged through the field, testing him, pushing him, demanding he commit everything he had. He felt every ounce of his strength, every thought, every hope pouring into that connection. He could not let it fail.
Step by step, inch by inch, he drew it closer. Every attempt strained him. Every movement was a battle. The light twisted, shifted, tried to slip away. And yet, slowly, it began to obey. Slowly, it moved toward him. Not fully, not yet, but enough for him to keep going.
Finally, after what felt like forever, he had managed to pull it all the way to the edge of his sphere. He hesitated for a fraction of a moment, holding it there, feeling the pulse of its power, the weight of its will. And then, carefully, he let it touch the surface of his sphere, which rippled, straining.
Unlike with all the other lights he let into the sphere, the golden light behaved differently. The sphere wasn't letting in the golden light wilfully, the golden light made its way inside as if the sphere had no choice but to obey. The golden light started to slowly float towards the the center of the sphere, and along its course, the other lights drifted to the side, making way for the light, as it made it's way to the center, as if it had always belonged there.
Kaya had no control over the lights anymore, it was as if the golden light had taken over.
And then suddenly, a flash of white spread out from the sphere, so bright that it chased out the darkness.
The black vanished. The stars disappeared. The eternal void disappeared.
In an instant, only absolute white remained.