12

The dark was behind her. Above, below, left and right of her were immense balls of light separated by vast stretches of space. This is what the speck of light, the sphere of glimmers had become and now she knew where she was – the sphere of stars. Within the sphere was more darkness but it had a different quality, for everything inside the sphere of stars had virtue. There hanging at the very centre was a globe of blue and green and white, and around it revolved the seven wanderers, each in its crystal sphere, the outermost hardly any distance from the sphere of stars. One of the orbiting bodies was a bright, hot ball of fire that gave light and succour to the other seven objects within the universe.

She was at the boundary between the realms of good and evil but it was no barrier. The wretched souls of hate streamed past her bound for that green-blue orb, there to achieve their purpose and wreak vengeance. She knew that was where life existed born of the tender love nurtured by the planets. She shared the anger of the souls and soon would follow them to foul and destroy the sickening idyll, but she was not quite ready.

In her long journey across the nothingness outside space and time she had developed. She now had form, a body, a head, arms and legs and was able, given the opportunity, to sense light, sound, odour and taste. She wasn’t sure why she had those limbs or senses, perhaps it was some remnant of the existence she had before, not that she recalled any such past, nevertheless perhaps they would be of use when she took her rightful place in the universe.

Now however, she knew what she was. Like the determined souls that flocked towards the world, she was one of the unborn, a life snuffed out before it had independent existence. She knew too that she was special, that some connection gave her the ability to think, to plan, to control. No unconscious servant of the Malevolence she. Her destiny was power not simply mindless destruction. But destruction, or the promise of it, nevertheless gave her pleasure. She would guide the assault of the Malevolence on the planets and their people. She would unite the powers of the souls and bring victory at last to the dark and destroy the light. And she would enjoy the task for she was Malice.