The throne room pulsed with quiet starlight.
From where I sat — high above the glasslike floor of the celestial hall — I could see everything. The great pillars of the palace shimmered like frozen light. Veins of raw energy pulsed through the walls. And far below, stretching outward into the false night sky of my private dimension, the empire I had built breathed in silence.
A world untouched by time.
A sanctuary I alone commanded.
And yet... not one step echoed until I allowed it.
I leaned back into the velvet throne, head tilted, eyes half-lidded.
They were waiting.
Five divine beings stood at the base of the stairs — perfect, still, glowing with unmatched presence. Goddesses. Queens. Fallen divinities bound by their own desire.
They watched me.
And waited for me to speak.
I didn't.
That was the game.
That was always the game.
The first to move was Kaelira.
She strode forward with the heat of a sun — her long crimson hair whipping behind her like fire given form. Her golden eyes blazed with pride, and yet... they softened the moment they met mine.
"Your silence wounds me," she said, dropping to one knee. "But I would rather burn for you than shine for another."
She lowered her head, jaw clenched. Her voice was rough, restrained.
"I've conquered gods in your name. I would raze a thousand worlds if you whispered it."She looked up, gold eyes desperate. "But you never whisper. You never... ask."
I let the silence hang.
Kaelira bowed deeper, her voice falling to a whisper.
"Please, my King... say my name. Just once."
I said nothing.
And yet she smiled — because I had let her speak.
Next came Selphira, the time goddess.
Where Kaelira burned, Selphira floated.
She glided to the base of the throne like moonlight across water, her silver-blue hair trailing behind her in liquid strands. Her bare feet left no mark on the floor. Her gaze was vast, ancient.
"I have seen every path," she said softly. "Every future you allow. Every possibility you never walk."
She folded her hands over her heart.
"And still... not one of them ends with you loving me."
A pause. Her voice cracked faintly — the first sign of her fraying.
"I accept it."
She smiled then — fragile, radiant.
"But may I stay, just long enough to believe that maybe you could?"
I didn't move. Didn't blink.
Her smile widened, brittle as glass.
"That's a yes... in your way," she whispered.
The third goddess was Nyxara.
She didn't walk — she appeared.
A shimmer of dark light pulsed near the column beside me, and from it stepped the goddess of illusions, shadows clinging to her form like lovers.
She didn't kneel.
She draped herself along the arm of the throne, her fingers barely grazing my shoulder.
"You know what I am, don't you?" she whispered. "I make lies beautiful."
Her breath ghosted near my ear. "But you… you're the only lie I can't unravel."
She leaned closer.
"I want you to hurt me," she whispered. "Break me. Tear away the masks. Just see me."
I turned my head slightly — just enough that she saw my eyes.
That alone made her breath catch.
"I'll take that as mercy," she said with a trembling laugh.
And vanished into smoke.
Luneth came next.
The starborn goddess of knowledge.
She said nothing as she approached — her glowing white eyes staring straight into mine, as if they could pierce the walls I never lowered.
She stopped two steps short of the throne and knelt slowly, head bowed.
"My King," she said. "I know you hide your truth."
A pause. Her voice was gentle — not begging, not bitter. Just aware.
"And I know you never will share it."
She looked up.
"But let me be the one who waits longest."
I held her gaze for several long seconds.
She bowed her head once more.
And stepped aside.
Last came Virelya, the goddess of life.
Her presence was like a summer wind — warm, golden, intoxicating.
She didn't speak at first.
She simply walked forward, knelt, and placed her forehead to the floor — her long green-gold hair spilling around her like roots seeking soil.
"I don't care if you love me," she whispered.
"I just want to matter."
A tremor in her voice.
"I want to be the reason you come back here. The one you visit when no one else sees."
She looked up, eyes shimmering amber and wet.
"I don't need your heart. Just your time."
I reached forward — and placed a hand lightly on her head.
She gasped.
Her hands clutched my leg. She closed her eyes.
And wept silently — from joy, not sadness.
The hall fell into silence once more.
They stood around me — five divine beings brought to their knees by nothing more than patience, silence, and absence.
I never made them love me.
They chose to.
Because I gave them nothing.
And nothing… is the most addictive thing of all.
I rose from the throne.
They didn't follow.
I walked through the golden archway behind the dais — into a corridor where starlight bent unnaturally.
At the end of the passage was a sealed chamber — one only I could open.
Inside, I would catalog more of the new arrivals. Slaves collected from collapsing timelines, lost civilizations, alternate futures.
Each selected. Marked. Frozen in stasis.
I would awaken a few.
Assign their roles.
Evaluate their potential.
But none would understand why I chose them.
Not even the goddesses could see this part of me.
Beyond that chamber, deeper still… lay the heart of my empire.
Spanning continents, cities, and landscapes crafted by my hand — where time obeyed my will and reality twisted to my needs.
It wasn't power I sought.
It was order.
I didn't rule with cruelty.
I simply existed above them.
Even now, as the five goddesses returned to their personal sanctums, hearts full of longing and eyes full of dreams…
…they never asked why I never stayed longer.
Why I never looked at them the way they looked at me.
And they would never know.
Because my truth wasn't for sharing.
Not with them.
Not with Elira.
Not with Airi.
Not with the world.
Because even gods don't understand silence.
End of Chapter 7