Before time began, before the worlds we now know came to be there was only Va’alkaraanas and Maz’dovonixyr, two dragons who circled one another in an endless loop as they chased one another across the emptiness of the voids – what we now call the kai’mai. 

It is said that upon the day of creation Va’alkaraanas' and Maz’dovonixyr’s breaths met for the first time, molten flame rushing across the universe to collide with liquid ice. The two opposites – forces that should never have met – coalesced together, forming a catastrophic explosion that rippled across the kai’mai, tearing at the walls of the emptiness. The eggs of the two dragons (and many of their children too) were sent careening through the barrier even as howling winds were sucked in.

As the raging, swirling conglomeration of fire and ice subsided, there was in its place something new: a strange sphere so large that the dragons could not touch each other even if they lay flat across its surface and stretched out around it. And something happened then that the dragons could not understand. Things had started moving. Time had begun. 

Confused, the dragons began to swirl around this unknown factor. They named the thing Slormandalyvr, which when translated into draconic means “frozen fire”, and waited, watching to see what would come from it. 

Va’alkaraanas noticed that Maz’dovonixyr became more sullen, less enthusiastic about the orb as they followed it across the cosmos. When questioned, she responded that she worried for her missing children, their lost eggs. Some of their spawn had returned, escaping the exodus from the kai’mai, but many that should have come did not. Va’alkaraanas promised Maz’dovonixyr he would find their lost children, would hunt every missing egg and bring them back to her. 

The eons passed by slowly for Maz’dovonixyr, who remained behind to watch their new creation. Eventually, when too weak with grief to continue flying, she landed upon the Frozen Fire and wrapped her titanic wings about it, feeling the heat trapped within and remembering her lost companion. There she slept, her children returning to her when they could also fly no more. As she began to wither, her scales fell from her, floating away across the darkness of the kai’mai, her flesh coated the sphere and her tears filled the  vast depressions. And, with her final, mournful cry, she sent a final orb of ice to hover over her, to continue her vigil and wait Va’alkaraanas’ return.

The dragon of gold, meanwhile, had spent the interceding years searching for the lost eggs, his lost children. Strangely, Va’alkaraanas found pockets within the walls of the kai’mai, safe havens from the voidwinds where he found more chunks of frozen fire, pieces that had broken off the whole upon the day of creation and had fallen through the walls like his missing spawn. Life seemed to have appeared on these pieces, watched over by one or more of his surviving children. These refused the father’s summons to return home, claiming it was their duty to watch over the tiny lifeforms upon the rocks of frozen fire. 

Va’alkaraanas heard his beloved’s final cry from the opposite end of the kai’mai. He returned to her at once only to find the remains of his beloved wife spread out across its surface whilst tiny things walked across her back. Above, her sphere of ice remained watchful whilst her lost scales glittered and twinkled in memory of her. He beat his wings and tore a hole in the fabric of the kai’mai, pushing the sphere out into the space beyond, just as he had seen with the other pieces of Slormandalyvr. This would be his beloved’s final resting place, a safe haven from the voidwinds and the cold of the kai’mai. Her icy orb went with it, to stand vigil over her.

In his grief, Va’alkaraanas let out a ferocious cry and from it came a much bigger golden orb to match the silvery one that was his wife’s last breath. It remained within the kai’mai, a marker so their children could find their mother and visit her, to light this part of the darkness for eternity. Va’alkaraanas then fled the site, for the grief was too much to bear.

AN EXTRACT FROM
‘VA’ALKARAANAS AND MAZ’DOVONIXYR’
 BY TARRHETHKET RASSETHZADAAR
(892 OF THE BURNT SKIES)