“Imagine a world beyond the one you have come to know, beyond that which you can sense and describe. The world as it existed before things and ideals, before science and religion. So often we reject knowledge of the truth, because it defies what we have chosen to believe. But what if we looked beyond all that, to the beginning. We all agree that consciousness exist, though we may give it different names, and even argue about who can and cannot possess it. But we can all agree that we have thought, and that thought is a form of energy. Though it is difficult to know and measure, it exists… subtle and pure. We might also agree that all things in the Universe were in some way created from something, and most would agree that they were created from, or by, one singular thing. So, if consciousness is energy in its purest form, and all things are made of energy, of one singular thing expressed in different forms. Would it not be safe to say that the Source of creation, God if you choose to call it that, was consciousness itself. That all of creation is in fact an illusion, which we are unable to reject because the Source of that consciousness which we share, has willed it so. It has chosen that we believe in feelings, senses, and the various other artifacts of our perception. It has determined that we believe in a world that exist only within our minds, because there is only the mind which truly exists. But what if you could reject that reality, what if you could remake to reflect your will. What would that power be called… magic? What then would you become… a god?” Uvari spoke softly, but with a clear and steady voice. Roah listened carefully, in hopes that the meaning of it all would become clear. They now stood in the ruins of a village consumed by liquid fire, under a sky dark with the pitch of ash and smoke which had risen from the mountain which had reclaimed the island. There had been nowhere to run, no chance to escape the fate now shared by so many. But somehow Roah had done so. Somehow, because she had refused to die in this way, refused to be moved from this world and her place in it, death had merely flowed around her like the waters of a warm spring. Now here before her, stood the god her people had worshipped… Uvari, Father of Stars, and Lord of the Seas. He had walked up from the Ocean, and found her searching among the dead for her family. He’d lifted her head to him and began to speak. But she was not certain what he meant to tell her.

“Is this all a lie then? Is that what you’re saying? Will I wake up from this and have my family, my people, returned to me?” She asked hopefully, still unwilling to believe that she had lost everyone, and yet somehow stood unharmed.

“No, they have already moved on from this place, as it was always to be,” he answered her plea. “But yours is another path. Have you ever asked yourself where gods come from? Where they really come from. Gods like myself.”

“You came from the stars, and fell into the sea. It was dark, so you called to your many children in the heavens, until one came close enough to make the day. And that star shone so brightly that it even revealed your home hidden in the night sky, so that you might return to it. Just as we use the stars to guide us home again,” she recited this tell which she had heard so often as a child, as if it would excuse her for never wondering to think beyond it.

“I do love that story, but it is little more than that. No, gods may come from many places, not merely from the heavens. Though in a sense, it is true that I came from the stars above. A distant world to be precise. Just as you will have come from this one,” he explained. “You see, gods are those who can re-write the narrative, bend reality to their will. This is how you survived after all. It is this act which brought me to you. For you have within you, the power to be as I am, the potential to be a god.”