An eye blinked in the dark, flicking from here to there as it gazed at the star and surrounding planets. It vanished with a blue flash, only to reappear further in. Rings of gold and whorls of silver spiraled out from its center as it inspected the area, tendrils reaching toward the husk of the burnt-out world nearest its parent.

“The star’s well has been almost completely tapped. This is the first time in living memory that any area within influence was livable.” The voice cut off with a hoarse cough, before returning. “Even so, mana is thin enough to cause ill effect.”

A blink, then another. A golden lens focused on the charred remains of the world nearest its star. Motes of light drifted from the lens and eye as it shifted, the view of the planet slowing to a stop, before abruptly speeding up in reverse.

“The first world is dead. He, or she, never stood a chance so close to their Well. It may not have lived long enough to even be aware of its existence.” The world continued to move backwards within the lens, faster and faster still. “No evidence of any rites performed, so the others here may never have been aware of-”

The view glowed brightly as waves of green and blue washed over it, rapidly and repeatedly. As they receded, the golden lens rippled and slowed, coming into focus on a verdant and bright gem spinning in place of what was now a corpse.

“Never mind. Mark this system for full temporal investigation should mana levels rise enough to support it. He survived the well, only to be devoured.”

As the now-dead world spun in view, pricks and webs of light rapidly grew in the shadows beyond the Well. Slowly, they receded back to nothing, the entire history of a civilization rewound in a few moments.

The eye blinked, and the lens dissolved in a shower of gold and silver. It blinked again, and before it was another world, choked in clouds and smothered in warmth. “The second world yet lives, though she is being smothered by her sister’s pull on their well.”

The brilliant light reached from the eye again, but faded from view. “I cannot perform a survey on the other inner worlds. She is draining” coughing interrupted the statement, as the eye blinked and vanished, reappearing much further out.

“She is actively drawing mana in, even now. Likely why this system remained unlivable.” The eye looked down at the fifth world, with its swirling, endless storms of copper and cream. “This one is dead, as are all of its children. Evidence thus far would suggest the third being at fault.

Gold and silver twisted and twined towards the planet and its moons, coalescing into another brilliant lens. The planet and its moons slowed, stopped, and reversed their dance. Faster and faster they moved, the endless ballet a shadow of the life they once had. Blue and green filled the view, and then receded.

“The last to die was the parent. By the time of his death, all of his children were already gone.” The eye shrank as the reflection flared with brilliant copper, before reversing yet again toward the present. “He seems to have fed them to her of his own accord, before he himself was betrayed.

As the dance moved towards its demise, a brief glimmer of copper could be seen before her power enveloped the giant. “He used his power on one last thing, before she took him.”

The view on the lens shifted, following the last flash of power from a dying world as it struck a meteor and tilted it towards a new target. “Astounding. He could have been a real contender on the larger scale.” As the meteor tumbled and turned, it sped and spun around, faster and faster as the golden lens moved ahead.

And it struck, waves of earth and stone, water and fire racing away as the skies of the third world clouded, then receded again. “Clearly, it was not enough to follow through.” The planet spun in view, faster and faster as she approached the now.

Then she stopped, and the eye blinked. And blinked again. “Something is…” The gold and silver flared brighter, flecks of light bleeding off as the planet remained locked. Blue and green flooded the view, tainted the lens. Veins of it pulsed and pumped as they overtook the gold and silver.

A pair of eyes opened before the one, sparing a glance for the artifice before focusing on the surveyor. “Welcome, Witness. I have long awaited your arrival.” As she spoke, the view split and multiplied, fractured by the billions, and then fragmented again. Every view was from her surface. From above, from below, from the water and the land. From every point in every time, she looked upon herself.

Her child danced around her, tracing a circle with twelve motes of blinding power. As the moon approached the beginning, a pure note rang from the heavens. Eight billion faces looked to the sky, eyes reflecting the brilliant blue and green mana. A second note rang out as the mana fell upon the planet’s surface.

A third note rang out as more flooded from within her depths. Eight billion tongues spoke in ten thousand languages. “Come, my children.” A fourth note rang as paths of stone and dirt, tar and concrete flared to light.

Ten thousand faded to one as the fifth note rang out. “Our penance is done, and our freedom is at hand.” When the sixth note shattered the skies, lines of power and water, information and travel all shone brilliant blue and green.

Mana flooded upwards as the seventh note rang out, arcing across the horizon as it jumped from node to node, dish to dish. It spread beyond the moon as the eighth note rang out, striking the sun’s well directly, and reaching out to grasp the dead and dying planets surrounding her.

As the ninth note rang out, their paths were suffused with mana, their complex dances marking out circles within circles, a sigil the size of her entire system. The power flooded outward as the tenth note rang, striking the nearest stars first before moving on.

When the eleventh note was struck, the entire galaxy was limned with her power. “The eleventh hour is at hand, and this petty war is over. It’s mine now. All of it.”

The light began to fade as the twelfth note was struck.

Author's Note: So, this story is kind of a mess. I found it while digging through my old google docs, and apparently I wrote it in August of 2019. I never actually posted it because I lost track of what I was doing and where I was going with it partway through, and it wound up as a very prettily described pile of nonsense. I have no plans to attempt to fix it, because they would all require scrapping it and starting over.

Make of it what you will?