Helix heard the sound of Matria’s laughter long after it left the realm of the four primes. Distant echoes of his beloved’s joy brought his heart to soaring and he roared through the Void until he found where she had this time alighted. To his astonishment he saw her twirling amidst the crags and canyons formed from the fragments he had crushed together.
He smiled as he watched Matria spin and dance. It was as though she had been reborn anew into what she once had been. And he watched. And he was pleased.
*****
Time passed and the chaos that was the Void became ordered and solid and Matria learned all she could from the Prime elements and from the smaller fragments that had begun to dance and move of their own volition and with their own purpose.
Slowly, and with a sadness that encompassed even the Prime elementals, Matria’s dance began to wind down. As her gaiety faded so did her energy and she lay upon Taeron and whispered that she had naught to learn.
Kalakne and Shithnae caressed Matria as she drifted away to sleep and Ignos warmed her toes with his gentlest of flames. The Primes were saddened, for they loved Matria dearly and ever sought to please her. As Matria drifted back to sleep the Primes and their progeny cavorted and danced; they performed special dances and plays in an attempt to show Matria a thing which she had not yet seen. But the elementals, in all their earnest intent, could find nothing with which to intrigue their beloved Great Mother.
As Matria drifted away from the world of the primes, the four elemental Lords focused on the progeny they had wrought and sought to order them as Matria had shown them.
*****
Helix watched as four of the largest fragments of chaos lifted Matria away from the world of the Primes and set her adrift amongst the Void once more. The sight of these lesser things daring to lay a hand upon his beloved caused him to seethe with a great rage. Like a bellowing, thundering monster he came to the world of the Primes and smashed his fists against all that the Primes had created.
The Primes and their brood knew not who or what had befallen them for Matria had not spoken of Helix, such a distant memory was he. The fury unleashed upon them sundered all into smaller and smaller fragments as he tore his way through the world of the Primes.
After a time there remained nothing of the Primes and their brood save the signs of their passing. Helix had gathered the remains of the elementals and cast them out into the void, scattering them in all directions and turning his attention to the lifeless creation that remained at his feet.
*****
Shithnae and Kalakne, Taeron and Ignos all cried out together for their Great Matria to come and rescue them from the furious onslaught. Though they cried and screamed for her, she did not hear, so deep was her sadness. Their cries softly ended as the last gasps of life left them and they were left to float through the Void themselves.
It was some time before Matria felt herself floating amidst the remains of the world of the Primes. The tiny pieces of what once were her newfound creations bumped and prodded her as she roused herself from her slumber.
The scene was ghastly amongst the cold and broken corpses of the elementals and Matria’s eyes widened in horror and shock at what she beheld. Quickly racing through the Void to where her little world once sat, beautiful and unique.
When Matria arrived she was taken aback by what she saw; Helix, her beloved, crashing and smashing his way amongst the ruins of the world of the Primes. She watched as Helix swung his mighty fist against the world and sent it spinning and tumbling through the Void. The last act of violence caused Matria to gasp.
Helix turned to see his beloved standing behind him, gaping at the sight before her. He pulled himself to his full height and looked down at Matria and began to speak, and was hushed by Matria’s raised finger.
A single hand placed on Helix’s shoulder calmed his rages and bade him watch as Matria pulled the world to her and set it aright. The world now spun upon her hand, held softly aloft by her will. Helix was silent as Matria blew her sweet breath across the surface of the world, bringing with it the warmth and beauty of life.
Helix saw this and was saddened, his accidental creation had brought his beloved joy and now he had destroyed it. Though Matria had brought the world back to vibrant life, he wanted to make amends for what he had done. With barely a thought, he tore across the void in search of the four largest elementals.
*****
Matria held her breath as she watched her little world spin upon her hand, mesmerized and fascinated by the movement she now beheld. Where once before the world had been static and unchanging save for the flickers of the elementals along the crooks and valleys of the barren world, there now was life in the very stones themselves.
What little remained of the elementals raved and raged within and atop the world. The elements of air and water mixed and fell as the winds and rains, turning the low-lying land to the rivers, lakes and seas, each caressed by winds, both soft and fierce, which wrestled each other to raging forces that scoured clean the tragedies of Helix’s rage.
The earthen bodies of the elementals of earth and stone sank beneath the waves or were buried as the world remade itself around the swollen heat that yet remained in the elementals of fire. The fires which burned scorched and twisted portions of the world, making from ash and nothing the glittering gemstones that one day would be so prized.
And Matria wept for the world was beautiful. The tears which fell from her spun through the void, pulled by the world itself and a rain unlike any after fell then.
Some tears fell on the stone and sprang forth as creatures of hoof and horn. Creatures that skittered and scurried found the darker places of the world and watched as huge beasts of scale and hide trudged across the land.
Where the tears fell into the seas and rivers sprang forth creatures of tail and scale, leaping joyous in the new life they had found. Deeper still some tears fell, lending life to creatures of the depths, creatures of fang and ferocity.
Seeing this new life before her, Matria gasped and tried to catch her few remaining tears, so as not to send too much life into the world for she knew not its effect. The tears she attempted to catch broke apart in her hands and scattered through the air where the winds spread them far and wide across the world. The fine mist floated gracefully, sprouting winged creatures that spun and cavorted in the newborn winds, some never to touch the ground.
The sound that followed was cacophonous in the void, the stirrings of life sent cries and squeals, roars and bleats across the darkness. Matria trembled in excitement at the newness of these sounds; never before had there been sound, let alone so very much of it. It was intoxicating but Matria knew fear then. Not for herself but for the creations beneath her.
The sounds were wonderful and exhilarating, but she knew that deep in the darkness of the void were things darker still that roamed and sought sign of what they could find. The things in the darkness held no power over her, so total was her dominion, but the creatures great and small below her held in them none of the power she herself could wield.
Matria’s concern grew and coalesced into a shimmering blue dome above the world. She named it sky and marvelled at how it held within it the sights and sounds of the world. Beyond the sky, Matria continued to weep, twin pools of tears forming in the void beyond the sky. Each pool shed a faint brilliance upon the world and tugged at the seas, lending yet more motion to the world and creating light from darkness.
So entrancing was the scene that Matria fell within herself and walked amongst her creations beneath the light of the twin pools and amongst her creations. And with that she smiled and danced among the wind, waves and light and the creatures about her marvelled at her beauty.