Finally, Arzog replied, Have you ever read the Z'arthaxian creation myth?
I have not.
Allow me to tell you the story? I shall keep it brief.
Xenoth indicated that he was listening and his pacing slowed to a distracted wandering as he listened.
In ages past, when the mighty Goddess Z’arthax first wandered the cosmos, she came across a creature made of dazzling rainbows of light. Fascinated, she followed it, chasing it across the empty night sky. In its panic, not knowing Z’arthax meant it no harm, the creature began shaking out its mane, dropping little pieces of itself as a distraction as it fled.
Thus, the first stars were born.
Fascinated by the tiny light-bringers, Z’arthax raised her hand to each one as she passed it, her chase slowing significantly. With each star she touched, Life bloomed.
The birth of the universe.
Z’arthax was fascinated by the many new creatures that appeared, and for millennia spent time watching and learning about them. She forgot about her chase entirely, until one day, the rainbow creature returned.
Some say it had continued running around the vast edges of the universe until it returned to where it began. Some say it was lonely and went back to find the one creature which had given it any attention. Regardless, it was back, and Z’arthax was fascinated once again.
She gave chase, but more carefully this time, slowing her approach in the way of the most patient of hunters. She watched from afar and saw the creature’s trajectory amongst the stars. She set a trap.
It worked.
Approaching the mired creature, she tried her best to calm it, to no avail. It thrashed in the net until it managed to break free, but it left a piece of itself behind—one of the long strands that made up its body. As Z’arthax picked up the strand, it began to go dim. She realized it could not survive away from the creature.
In her panic, trying to save it, she grafted it to her own body.
The moment it connected with her, the beast stopped running.
The strand had opened a doorway between them, and now they understood one another.
Z’arthax was delighted, but took things slowly, knowing the creature had been terrified of her for so long. She offered it a piece of herself in return for the glowing strand: the fluid flowing through her veins. The creature accepted and their understanding of one another grew, tenfold.
Now, their chase became a dance, with each taking turns as hunter and prey. When caught, they would make love—or fight in the way of bored friends keeping one another sharp. All of the cosmos would shake when they came together.
One day, the rainbow creature informed Z’arthax that it was dying.
“I am no longer made of light,” it said to her. “I have become too much like you to sustain my current form.”
“What can I do?” Z’arthax asked, panic forming at the thought of losing her dearest companion.
The creature thought quietly before saying, “Perhaps if you were to take some of yourself back, my light might return and I may thrive again.”
Z’arthax wept bitterly, for she knew she could not return the fluid to her veins, for they were already full, having refilled the moment the fluid left her.
The creature looked at her, noting that the strand she had taken so long ago had thrived upon her, multiplying until she almost outshone it.
“Perhaps there is another way,” it said. “Give me back some of my strands so that I might have more of myself and less of you.”
Z’arthax handed them over instantly and the creature sighed, feeling its balance restored as the strands joined with it.
Arzog paused in his recitation before saying,There is more to the story going into the birth of our people, but I think that is the most relevant piece.
Xenoth took a breath, going back over the words his friend had just sent him. The implication of it was…startling. Taken literally, it meant that the Z'arthaxian people were born of two separate species.That the first bond had been with a non-Z'arthaxian.
Well that…certainly puts things in a new perspective. Why have I never heard this version before?Xenoth asked, staring through the domicile’s window, out into space, his thoughts whirling.
It is an old version, kept buried in the High Queens’ archives,Arzog said carefully.
