"No."
Then how do I make up for my mistake? she asked.
Bel jerked his chin toward her. "Make it so my Muse will never die."
I already did. That is why she is here now. She is the Ayala, and I cannot risk losing her. Ask for something else?
"No," I said, jumping to my feet. "What the fuck is this Ayala business? And who the fuck are you? God?"
She shifted a foot, making me tense, but it was only so she could tilt her eye toward me a little more. God is one of my names. I have been given others. I cannot count them all. My first was easier.
"What first?" I demanded.
Tiamat, the mother of creation. I answer to them all, like your friends, but it was the first.
"You're... God," I said again, trying to convince myself that this was real. "Just, you know, the real God. Like, all that religion stuff is real kinda God?"
Just God, she said. What you call religions are nothing more than stories told to people who told them to other people. Along the way, the events are forgotten or embellished. Often, the point is lost and recreated to empower another group, but I am not a tool to be used. I am simply the creator, and one who tries to care for her children, but my children also deserve to grow up.
"Yeah, ok," I mumbled, because that was an awful lot to unpack. "So, should I call you, like, I dunno, Tia, or something?"
Or God, since it is an easy word for you. I do not care. I simply enjoy having someone to talk to again. That is why I want to make Beelzebub forgive me.
"It was a long time ago," he grumbled, all but proving that he still resented his early days. "Just tell us why she glowed, and why she roared! Tell us, dragon, why her body burns with power. All I want is to take care of my Muse."
She is not just a Muse. This woman is the Ayala. The first star. The brightest I have ever made, because I did not make her on my own. She is the culmination of all lives. All the hard work of the planes, blended together into a single life, powered by the strength of her heart.
"That doesn't answer the question," Bel bellowed at her.
It does. This woman is my greatest creation. In her, I made all of the things I cannot be.
"What are you talking about?" I demanded.
Tiamat let out a heavy sigh, and then she began to recite.
In the beginning, there was only darkness, and a light burst forth from it. That light created the worlds, and connected them all. The first to be born were on the harshest worlds. Gifted with wings, they were the pinnacle of creation, identical yet opposite, and made to be the most powerful. Yet they were not perfect. More were made, and made better.
And then the others were born. They were life, and they carried the spark that would fuel all existence. Their souls bore the power of creation, breathed into them at the moment the worlds formed. As they grew and changed, they were meant to be separate, for each slice of life to have its own purpose. But one will be born from all. That one will shine bright, like a star, and destroy all who came before, remaking it in the midst of battle. As the first star, it will be called Ayala.
Demons and angels will kneel before him, unable to help themselves. He will be called the destroyer, and have the power to undo all that was done. Punishment and vengeance will be his domain. Life will be his breath, inhaled until it exists no more. All that was created will crumble beneath his touch.
Made from the five worlds, this creature shall control them all, pulling at them with an insatiable hunger. Only the firstborn will be able to stand before him, as the voices of creation, but even they shall not control it. The Ayala is punishment for that which we have not yet done, and it will become the weapon which we cannot stop.
Those who stand against him shall suffer for their pride. Those who stand behind him shall be tread upon for his goals. Those who stand with him will be named evil, called a scourge upon existence, even as they reap the benefits of their terror.
Because, in order to see the light, we must also see the darkness. One