Saaee
The Night of Ash
Saaee was chosen.
She was born ordinary.
When the raiders came beneath Zulmar’s pale moons, her tribe fell in fire and blood.
She ran away from death.
The Astari construct
Gas filled the chamber.
Cronux entered her lungs.
She did not dream.
She saw herself dead, broken, forgotten.
And she saw something else.
Ascension.
The voice spoke without sound.
“We are you.”
The Miracle
She walked out alone.
The raiders did not recognize her.
Her skin had hardened.
Her eyes saw endings before they began.
They attacked.
They died.
The tribe called it a miracle.
Ithnorak
The years passed, but the visions did not stop.
She saw Cronux tear Zulmar apart again and again
but now something else was watching her.
It listened.
Something ancient moved within her thoughts
cold, vast, patient.
It did not offer power.
It offered survival.
The Choice of Surrender
Saaee gathered her people.
Cronux would tear Zulmar apart
she had seen it but Ithnoark promised survival.
To endure, they would not remain individuals.
They would become one with Ithnorak.
The Becoming
The Astari Constructs opend once again.
Syraen led her tribe into the center of the construct. suddenly Masks descended like living verdicts.
They fused.
Screams ended in harmony.
The tribe rose no longer many.
But as one.
350 years later
Ithnorak threaded their thoughts into one.
The tribe became Cronarii
the calculated will of Ithnorak.
They optimize and move as one.