Black.
No sound. No light. Just a stillness so perfect it feels intentional.
Date: [22nd Dec, 2023]
Then, a glimmer. A slow, creeping pull outward as the planet Earth begins to rotate into view — familiar, beautiful, deceiving.
A voice — calm, distant, ancient — cuts through the silence.
"What if I told you this… isn't the whole planet?"
"That what you see — the Earth you live on — is only a confined space, carefully tailored to make you believe you're alone on the planet."
"You're not."
The globe spins faster now. Clouds swirl violently. Signals distort. Reality flickers.
Then... it happens.
Without warning — not through portals or thunder or ships — she appears.
Across the world, in every city, slum, skyscraper, jungle, mountain, and trench, every human looks up.
And there she is. Floating above the world.
She is small. Barely over a meter tall.
Delicate, radiant, hovering just above reach.
A creature from a dream: glowing softly, with silver hair drifting in unseen wind, eyes like twin galaxies — full of light, but watching.
She smiles.
It's the kind of smile that should be cute — but it isn't.
Something about it is off. It doesn't reach her eyes. It's too smooth, too rehearsed.
Behind it lurks something dangerous, something wrong.
People freeze. Phones slip from hands. Screams rise and are swallowed by confusion.
A billion eyes lock on her.
She opens her mouth and speaks — not in English, or Mandarin, or any tongue, yet every person understands.
"Hello, my fellow citizens of this planet."
"Don't be afraid. I am not here to conquer, to rule, or even to help."
"I'm just here to tell you a story."
The ground trembles.
"You see, I am one of you — a resident of this world we all cherish. Even if most of you don't truly know what this world is."
"I am not here for war, for peace, for politics, for power. Me and my siblings… we have only one role."
She raises her hand.
The sky ripples.
"My name is Zyrah and I am here to show you something. A story already in motion."
"The story of a human — someone who lives among you, unaware of the weight he carries."
"Whether he rises or falls, lives or dies, conquers or crumbles... that is his choice."
Suddenly, the world fractures.
Cracks in reality itself begin to shimmer like glass under strain.
And from those cracks, they arrive.
The Aetherkin
All over the world, before every living human, a being appears.
Small. No bigger than a tablet screen.
They float effortlessly, their forms cloaked in shifting cosmic fabrics — patterns of stars, swirling galaxies, unknowable colors.
Some wear masks. Some do not. Some hover playfully. Others twirl midair like excited children.
But none of them feel threatening. In fact, they are oddly joyous. They laugh gently, wave enthusiastically, and observe each person with a kind of warm curiosity — like a friend arriving to share a story long kept secret.
Each person sees one. Just one. Standing (or floating) before them, matching them with eerie precision.
A child in Cairo.
A farmer in Nepal.
A thief in Mexico.
A dying man in a hospital bed.
Even a lone woman trapped in a snowstorm — all of them are seen.
One Aetherkin for every human being.
"We are the Aetherkin."
"We bring you the Thread."
Then, in unison, before every person on Earth, a tablet materializes.
It floats in the air. Thin, silver-edged, glowing faintly with alien energy.
Its surface ripples, like water under glass.
On it, text begins to appear — translated instinctively into every native tongue:
[Date: 21st April, 2021]
[Location: ??|??]
"The story begins here".