Page 111 of Broken Obsession
“It’s not their future,” he corrected. “It’s potential branches.”
“Right.”
“You were going to come here and then go find Creation. I decided to intercept you for the sake of all of us.”
“That makes it sound like Ares and I are about to fight.” Eden was angry, sure, but it wasn’t to the extent he planned on going full scorched earth or anything. It would also be out of character for Ares to take things to that level. Aside from that time he’d gotten snappy at Eden his first day here, the Black Hart never lost his cool around him. “Are you trying to cause trouble?”
Zar leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his stomach. “My little brother—because that’s what he is, whether something as inconsequential as society sees it that way or not—can’t tell you the answers you want to hear. For all his talk about it, he doesn’t believe in reality, at least, not as a cohesive whole.”
“Phrase things in a way I can make sense of it,” Eden said.
“He’s the only thing that’s constant throughout time and space. Past lives, alternate universes, and the like may contain versions of him, but they aren’t inherentlyhim.”
“You think differently?”
“Me?” The corner of Zar’s mouth tipped up, but it looked fake, like he was trying to make Eden comfortable out of a learned habit, more so than any humor or good feeling he may have been feeling. “Reality is the only thing that exists. I’m merely a byproduct of it. Threads and loose components strung together, bound by flesh and bone and blood in this particular plane of existence.”
“Right.”
“You’re not surprised.”
“I already knew you were both crazy.”
“We can see things no one else can. Tears between dimensions are all around us. It’s not our fault we’re aware of them while the rest of you are forced to remain in the dark. You don’t believe it? Take the thousands of years of spectral sightings. Ghosts have a rich lore and history that spans across the entire universe.”
“You’re telling me ghosts are real?”
“Energy is never destroyed completely. It transfers and transforms. Some ghost sightings are glimpses through the veil separating this world from another. Though there are many separate realities—branches—all taking place at the same time, overlapping.”
“And in one of them, you’re the God of Reality.”
“I was.” Zar’s gaze shifted, settling on the window behind Eden. “Some days, that life feels more real to me than this one. It feels like this world is a dream, and I’m trapped in a perpetual nightmare wherein it’s impossible to wake.”
“Why is that?” What about this other reality could have been so appealing to make him think this way?
“I had family there,” he explained. “Friends. Purpose. Everything here is tasteless and dull. Bland and uneventful.”
“Well, sort of seems like something that would come with the territory when you can foresee what’s going to happen next.” They could sit here and unpack all of Zar’s beliefs and experiences for days, but as fascinating as it was, Eden only really cared about one thing. “Tell me about your relationship with Ares in this other life.”
“At the dawn of time, Light touched Darkness, and together they formed the first beings—Planets. These planets existed alone for eons before the first finally began to decay. Itdied, and from its core sprung new life. The first of the Gods of Light. This was Reality.”
Eden had heard about an ancient species, more myth than fact nowadays, that were born from dying planets or stars. The energy leftover, sensing the path to annihilation, fought back by reforming and creating something new.
“Novus Ordo.” They weren’t called gods in any of the stories he’d heard, but given a distinct name all their own.
“The word god didn’t exist at the dawn of time,” Zar said. “We weren’t superior beings. We were the only beings.”
“We?”
“Reality formed the first branch, the first existing timeline, because he sought order in all things. But he lacked vision. He only knew what he’d personally experienced,” this time Zar’s smirk seemed more natural, though pointed, with an edge of mockery, “and that was darkness and the pinprick of light nearby, cast by his nearest neighbor. That planet died next, and from it Creation was born. Together, with Light’s guidance, they made the universe as we know it now.”
“Including the multiverse?”
“Creation had too many ideas to fit into one timeline, and later, when living beings were given free will and the ability to form conscious thoughts of their own, their choices often didn’t align with what we expected. Things got out of hand. We lost control. Ultimately, we were reduced to dust, just as the planets we’d birthed from had been.” He pursed his lips. “Have you heard of the Rein?”
“The species that supposedly have seven lives?”
“They can transfer their energy just before death and inhabit a new host body, making it their own,” Zar clarified. “My little brother created them. It was a rebellion of sorts. He didn’t like how quick I was to snuff out a being's reality. He’s not sodifferent now, don’t you think? Ares doesn’t enjoy torture, but he’ll prolong the end when necessary.”