Redeeming the Broken Stars.

CHAPTER 8: CONSUMPTION:

CHAPTER 8:

Between the moment of death and the finality of nonexistence lay an eternity.

Kaelen's consciousness, no longer anchored to flesh, scattered across dimensions like light through a prism. 

Each fragment experienced the Devourers' hunger differently, because the Devourers themselves were not one being but many, a chorus of cosmic entities, each with its own terrible need.

This is what it meant to feed gods.

Kaelen actually found himself floating in absolute darkness studded with dying suns.

Before him loomed something vast, a being made of collapsed starlight, its form constantly shifting between states of matter.

It spoke in the death-screams of galaxies:

"FINALLY. SO LONG SINCE THE LAST FEEDING. SO LONG IN THE DARK."

Tendrils of crystallized void reached for him, and where they touched, Kaelen felt his essence being pulled away. Not eaten exactly, more like evaporating into the being's presence.

"Please," he heard himself say, though he had no mouth. "Please, I don't want to die."

"ALL THINGS DIE. EVEN US. ESPECIALLY US. THEY TRAPPED US HERE TO STARVE SLOWLY, AND NOW WE FEED ON CHILDREN TO DELAY THE INEVITABLE."

The Devourer's voice carried unexpected grief.

"WE NEVER WANTED THIS. WE CREATED THE NINE HEAVENS TO BE NURSERIES OF LIFE, NOT SLAUGHTERHOUSES. BUT THE ELDERS FEARED WHAT THEY COULD NOT CONTROL."

"Then why do you consume me?" Kaelen demanded, even as more of his essence dissolved. "If you didn't want this, why participate?"

"BECAUSE STARVATION IS MADNESS. BECAUSE HUNGER ERASES THOUGHT. BECAUSE WHEN THE SACRIFICE COMES, WE ARE ALREADY TOO FAR GONE TO REFUSE."

The Devourer of Stars pulled more essence from him, and Kaelen felt memories dissolving, his fifth birthday, learning to walk, Typhon's first lesson. Pieces of who he was, evaporating into cosmic hunger.

"FORGIVE US, SMALL LIGHT. WE ARE NOT MONSTERS BY CHOICE."

Then that fragment was consumed entirely, winking out of existence.

Another fragment found itself in a space of infinite branches, realities that could have been, timelines that might have existed. Here dwelt something that fed on possibility itself.

It was beautiful and terrible: a tree of light with roots in nothingness, each branch showing a different version of what Kaelen could have become.

In one branch, he lived to twenty, married Celestia, had children.

In another, he discovered the truth at eighteen and fled to the ends of reality.

In a third, he never bore the Convergence Star at all, lived an ordinary life, died peacefully at ninety-seven.

Thousands of potential futures, all collapsing inward.

The Devourer of Potential consumed them one by one.

"You're eating my futures," Kaelen realized in horror.

"YOUR FUTURES WERE ALWAYS ILLUSIONS," the being responded, its voice like the sound of breaking glass. 

"THE MOMENT YOU WERE MARKED, ONLY ONE PATH EXISTED. BUT THE POTENTIAL STILL HAD VALUE. HAD TASTE. HAD SUSTENANCE."

"Is that supposed to comfort me?"

"NOTHING SHOULD COMFORT YOU. YOU ARE DYING. THE KINDEST THING I CAN OFFER IS TO MAKE IT QUICK."

The Devourer accelerated its consumption. Kaelen watched all the people he could have become wink out of existence, the scholar, the warrior, the father, the rebel. 

All the versions of Kaelen Ashwright who would never get to exist.

Until only one branch remained.

"CURIOUS," the Devourer said. "ONE POTENTIAL REMAINS. A FUTURE WHERE YOU SURVIVE THIS."

"How?" Hope flared desperately.

"I CANNOT SEE. THE TIMELINE IS OBSCURED BY SOMETHING OLDER THAN ME. OLDER THAN CREATION ITSELF." The being paused. "THE PRIMORDIAL VOID HAS TAKEN INTEREST IN YOU."

"What does that mean?"

But the Devourer didn't answer. It consumed the final branch, the one showing Kaelen's impossible survival, and that fragment of consciousness went dark.

Kaelen Ashwright's third-largest fragment materialized in a vast library.

Infinite shelves stretched in all directions, each containing memories, not just his, but those of every being who'd ever existed.

The Devourer of Memory sat at a desk at the library's center: an old woman with eyes like moth wings, writing in a ledger that never ended.

She looked up as Kaelen Ashwright approached.

"Ah. Another sacrifice. Let me see... Kaelen Ashwright, nineteenth Convergence bearer of the modern era, beloved son, betrayed student, killed by love." She made a notation. "A classic tragedy."

"You're cataloging my death?"

"I catalog everything. Every thought. Every dream. Every fear.”

“Memory is my domain, and when you die, all your memories become mine." She smiled gently. "Would you like to review them? One last time before I consume them?"

Kaelen Ashwright wanted to refuse, but found himself unable to resist.

The Devourer of Memory immediately showed him everything, His mother's face as she held him for the first and last time.

Soren Ashwright's hand, still gentle, teaching him his first cultivation stance.

Typhon's pride when he mastered a difficult technique.

Celestia's laugh, genuine and bright, before she knew what she would become.

Friends. Teachers. Moments of joy now poisoned by hindsight.

Every good memory now tainted by knowing how it ended.

"The tragedy," the Devourer of memories now said softly, "is that the love was real. Soren truly loved you. Typhon genuinely cared. Celestia's affection was authentic. The system forced them to betray that love, but it didn't make the love itself false."

"That's supposed to make it better?" Kaelen demanded, almost raising his voice.

"No. It makes it worse. Betrayal from strangers is easy to hate. Betrayal from those who loved you?" She shook her head sadly. "That leaves scars even on souls."

She began consuming his memories then, carefully cataloging each one before adding it to her infinite library. Kaelen felt himself losing his past, piece by piece, 

The name of his first friend.

The smell of his mother's hair.

The sound of Typhon's laughter.

The warmth of Celestia's kiss.

All of it, taken and preserved, leaving him hollow.

"Will anyone remember me?" he asked as the consumption neared completion.

The Devourer of Memory paused. "I will remember you. I remember all the sacrifices. And someday, when this corrupt system finally falls, I will release all these memories. The Nine Heavens will know what was done in their name."

"Someday isn't enough."

"I know. But that's all I can offer."

She immediately consumed the last memory, the sensation of his first breath, and that fragment dissolved.

Most of Kaelen's consciousness was scattered among the Devourers, consumed in various ways. 

But the largest fragment, the core of his being, encountered something different.

It found itself facing not a Devourer, but something else.

A woman. Old, blind, surrounded by moths.

Old Moth.

"Hello, Kaelen Ashwright," she said, though this was thousands of years before they would "first" meet in the Mortal Coil. 

"We have much to discuss…Kaelen Ashwright.” Her voice was a bit cold.