In his voice heavy with the weight of the infinite universe, Ophireon spoke to Annie and said: “Let me tell you one last story before you leave to go help save the world.”
He had already told her a few stories. He told her about his daughter Asteria and how she put the stars in the night. He told her about the Moon and how many, many years ago, it had crashed into Celestial Lake and tumbled into the void, shattering itself in the process.
“Are you ready? Listen closely.”
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One time, a man from the kingdom of Balis came to the shores of the Western Ocean brandishing a piece of paper. The man came to the Western Ocean by horseback with the orders of the king of Balis.
The man first requested to see the goddess Asteria, the daughter of the supreme god Ophireon. Asteria, who had been taking a dip in the depths of the Western Ocean, heard the man and poked her head out of the water in curiosity. Her head was the size of an island.
The man said a lot of words. Asteria wasn’t really listening. She was more fascinated with the swaying motion of the man’s fancy robe as he spoke. Asteria blew air out from her nose, which was still submerged in the water. Huge bubbles erupted from the sea as Asteria idly played around.
Then the man stopped speaking, looking at Asteria as if expecting something.
“Sorry, could you run that by me again real quick?” Asteria blinked, “I kinda might not have been listening a little bit.”
The man huffed, “The kingdom of Balis has laid claim to this land. The king demands that you swear fealty or otherwise vacate this land which is now rightfully the property of Balis.”
Asteria stared at this man, unable to comprehend what she had just heard. Even the rocks respected that the Western Ocean was her home. This man was dumber than rocks. No, the entire kingdom was full of people dumber than rocks.
Asteria giggled. And then started laughing with a full-blown belly laugh that roused the waves and shook the sea bed.
The man scowled, “Laugh while you can, goddess. The weapons of men have grown greater than even divinity. Our weapons can shatter mountains and bring down the stars. If you do not swear fealty to the king, you will be vanquished by the armies of men.”
Asteria’s laughter grew frigid. The Western Ocean began to chill.
“I am Asteria,” the goddess spoke, “If you seek to drive me out, bring your armies. Bring your weapons. Bring everything you have and see if you can best me.”
Seven days later, the king of Balis himself arrived on Asteria’s doorstep with all his men and all his weapons and all his terrible machines of war.
Asteria’s fury had caused the Sun itself to shrink away in fear. And the land was cold with an early winter. A dusting of snow covered the world and Asteria stood at her full height, rising out from the Western Ocean. She looked down upon the men and their weapons and their terrible machines of war and her fury only grew.
Ophireon shaped Asteria out of clay that he retrieved from the Western Ocean. And he fired that clay in the heat of the magma that flowed beneath the land. And so Asteria’s veins burned with the fury of the earth. Ophireon shaped Asteria out of clay infused with starlight, and so Asteria’s eyes blazed with fearsome light and her voice boomed with the noise of supernovas and her hair glittered with the rage of a thousand suns.
Asteria looked down upon the army of the foolish king that dared lay claim to the Western Ocean, the birthplace of stars.
“I am Asteria.”
And all the storms of the world gathered above her head.
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“I am the architect of starlight.”
And all the stars in the sky shrieked with combined rage.
“I am the grave keeper of the sky.”
And all the earth and stone in the land shook with fear.
“I am all that burns and shines violently in the night.”
And Asteria raised her arms and all the fire contained within the belly of the world erupted. The surface of the universe shattered and she called the storms and the stars and the stones and the fires and the king and his army were destroyed by the awesome power of Asteria’s nighttime anger.
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Stories were powerful. Stories about divinity were doubly powerful. Ophireon’s gifts to Annie to help her save the world were the stories. Each story contained within it a whimsical soul, sometimes playful, sometimes terrible, always alive.
And so when she and the astronomers looked upon the Dragon eating the western part of the sky, Annie closed her eyes and thought about stories.
The Dragon’s claws scraped against the celestial bedrock. Its maw dripped with the blood of stars.
The head astronomer (the one with the wild grey hair and equally wild and equally grey beard) leaned back from the telescope. He looked at the other astronomers, all their faces ashen. Then he looked back at the telescope. And when he leaned away again, he picked up his pen and began scribbling notes on a paper on the table next to him.
“The world is ending,” he announced gravely.
“Yeah,” Annie rolled her eyes, “I already said that. Look, I’m gonna step out for a minute. I’m gonna need you guys to keep your fancy telescope focused on the Dragon while I go try something real quick.”
“Okay?”
She pushed through the astronomers and stepped into the night. Annie nodded at the darkness. What she was planning to do would only ever work at night.
Annie closed her eyes again. And she thought about Ophireon’s stories. She thought about Asteria, Ophireon’s daughter. She was an artist. She put the stars in the night. She dyed the blank canvas of the night in all the beautiful colors of the heavens. Asteria made the night come to life. Asteria was a creator.
But she was also a destroyer. Asteria annihilated the king and his army. Asteria called all the powers of the universe to smite them. Asteria brought the fury of the night and the storms and all the lands upon the king’s head.
Annie thought about the numbers in her soul.
And Annie whispered the words to the story to herself and felt lightning race its way through her veins, her heart beating faster to keep all of the divinity inside her. Because stories have power, some of them quite literally more powerful than others.
“I am the architect of starlight.”
And some of the stars in the sky shrieked with combined rage.
“I am the grave keeper of the sky.”
And some of the earth and stone in the land shook with fear.
“I am all that burns and shines violently in the night.”
And Annie raised her arms and some of the fire contained within the belly of the world erupted. Not near her. But thousands and thousands of miles away, where the Dragon was eating the stars. A burst of solid crystalline starlight burned its way through the night like a comet and struck the Dragon in the center of the eye.
The night erupted into cataclysmic fury. When Annie opened her eyes again, she saw in the western part of the sky there looked to be a new star, which in actuality was simply the explosion that she’d created.
Annie’s power was far less than Asteria’s, but the story that Annie had called upon was the strongest in existence, Ophireon had said. Ophireon was a creator, but his daughter Asteria was both a creator and destroyer.
Annie shuffled back to the observatory and shoved her way through the astronomers towards the telescope lens, still focused on the Dragon’s vile path of destruction. And, as Annie had suspected but hoped against, the Dragon still tore its way through the void, unharmed even by the power of Asteria’s story.
“Dang,” Annie quirked her lips, “I guess it couldn’t be that easy, huh?”
And all the astronomers, who had seen Annie create a literal supernova ex nihilo fell to the ground at her feet.
“Oh stop with that,” Annie waved a hand at the astronomers, “I’m not a goddess or anything. Or, uh, I guess Ophireon wasn’t super clear what my mom was. I guess he knew her at some point? He told me not to worry about the exact familial relationship of everything in the world so I thought it would've been a bad time to ask if my mom was his kid in some form or something and sorry I'm really getting off topic! But you don’t have to kneel or anything!”
The head astronomer raised his head a fraction of an inch, “There is no doubt now. You are the chosen child of the supreme god Ophireon. You made the miracles appear on the mountain and the Moon. You put a star in the sky. You said you need our assistance with averting the apocalypse? What would you have us do?”
“Of all things, it’s the big explosion that convinces you guys I’m the real deal,” Annie muttered. To the astronomers, she said, “All I need you guys to do is spread the word. I need you guys to write papers, or articles, or books, or whatever it is you scientific types do when you find something significant. Can you do that?”
For dramatic effect, Annie grabbed her shovel from its place strapped to her hip and pointed it at the group of astronomers.
“Yes, yes, of course,” the head astronomer vigorously shook his head, his frizzy grey hair shaking along with it.
“Cool,” Annie said, and yawned, very much exhausted from climbing a mountain and also creating a supernova, “I’m gonna go find a bed around here if that’s alright?”
