Eiya
Legacy Name: Eiya

I have lived for a very long time. Long enough, I think, to have seen everything. To have learned everything. I have lived for every year ever recorded, and a thousand times over for the ones forgotten.
But I have not seen everything. I have learned very little. I know only what I know, which seems to be much less than I originally thought. I thought I knew of my only duty, which was to love my children. To love them forever, unconditionally, until the end of either of our days. And then some.
I was wrong. My son taught me that. My second son, specifically. Truly, all things are my children... but there are two who are very special. Were very special. One is, one was.
The one who was went by the name Lifesmith. He was a wonderful child in his beginning years. I gave him a planet all to himself, in a quiet little realm. With his hammer he created life. It was an amazing thing to watch, even though I was so far away. I saw him bring creatures - no, people - to life with such love. Each one was truly crafted, and carried a bit of his spirit with them. His face would glow with joy and pride in his creations. His own children, he considered them.
I don't know when he changed. I cannot know whether it was all of a sudden, or if I had simply not seen it. All I know is that, during his final visit to where I was, his eyes were different. It didn't matter to me that he had crafted his own body out of the materials of that planet - he called it metal. Appearances have never mattered to me, as I can have whichever one I desire. But it was his eyes that scared me.
Scared. I had not even thought of that word before that moment. It suddenly came to me, that feeling, for the first time, when he looked at me and said my name. He did not call me Mother, as he always had. He called me by my name. His unfamiliar mouth opened and the unfamiliar sound tumbled out of it, and I was afraid as I looked into his red, red eyes.
"I brought you a gift," He said to me after he spoke my name with such an odd tone.
Of course, I accepted it. It was a beautiful thing - a golden staff, topped by an open circle with only a couple plain ornaments hanging off it. I admired it and thanked him, telling him that I loved it. As I loved all things, unconditionally, for all of time.
He told me the staff had a name - Luto. He named all of his creations, he told me. "Even the ones I don't like."
I was confused, but for some reason, did not want to say anything. He created something he did not like? The thought was foreign to me, as was the increasing, creeping fear slowly consuming me.
"I have more to show you." He said, and so he showed me. Before me there were creatures, all of a sudden. I knew they were ones he had created.
I did not know how else to describe them. They did not look like the people he had made before, that I saw and loved, the ones that brought such joy into his beautiful face. They all looked and felt very cold, and shared the same look his eyes held then. Not the joy, pride, or anything like that. They all held that same intense, vicious stare.
New words poured into my mind to describe what I was seeing, and I didn't like any of them.
"Well, Mother?" Even his use of my title didn't comfort me. "Do you like them? Aren't you proud of my work?"
I couldn't answer. I clutched the staff - it felt warm, and made of love, like his other people - and backed away slightly. All I could say for a moment was "No", and found myself struggling to respond to his inquiry of why. After searching through them with my mind, I found the words.
"They have no Heart." I said. I wasn't completely sure what it meant, but my son certainly was.
He scowled, the first time he had ever made such a face, that I had seen. "Who needs that?" He growled and moved toward me. "They have power. Strength. They are strong weapons, and can do so much."
Weapons.
"Weapons?" I didn't know the word at all, and something told me I did not want to learn it.
"They destroy. Conquer." His voice rose high and wild. His eyes flashed with an emotion I could not place. "Think of all the worlds you could have, Mother! I could conquer them all for you!"
The meeting was going badly, I noted. To calm myself I thought of how I had expected it to go; Lifesmith, my most special son, had someone new to meet. I wanted them to meet so badly. I knew, or I thought I knew, that he would be very excited to meet this new person. The one his caretakers called by my name, or otherwise, "Little One", out of respect. Only when thinking back to how things could have gone did the word come to me.
"Come on," I would have asked, had things gone right. "Don't you want to meet your new brother?"
"I don't like them." I finally said, holding the staff before me defensively. "I will take the staff, it is beautiful and warm, but I want nothing to do with these other things you've brought me. Please, take them away, my son. I don't like them at all."
It was the wrong thing to say, though it was the truth. My son, the Lifesmith, wore an expression of absolute rage, which introduced me to the emotion.
The next moment was a blur. I recall the creations coming toward me. It was perhaps due to an order by my son, an order to attack me, though I disbelieved in the fact so intensely that it could not possibly have happened.
Of course they could not hurt me, of course they were destroyed with a wave of my hand. A hand that shook and ached from the pain it had inflicted, after the fact. I looked at my hand, the one that had just caused destruction for the first time. It was my left hand, the one below my blank but endless eye.
Lifesmith looked, specifically, into that eye. He spoke to me: "Mother. You have all of the cosmos in there, staring back at me from within your left eye. You have knowledge of all existence, and yet, you cannot see what I see? You cannot see the good that I've made, and instead, you destroy it?"
It was not good, what he made. I tried to tell him, but I could barely look away from my shaking hand. My voice shook just as badly.
When he again moved toward me, I moved back. For a fraction of a moment I saw in his face something like sadness. His own mother had just moved away from him in fear. Instantly, though, it was washed away by that rage.
I demanded he leave. He refused. I struck out my right hand, clutching the staff named Luto, and forced him away. I sent him back to his world, but immediately regretted it. I thought of the people that lived there. I wondered if he would send his new weapons to them, after them as he had just done to me.
I often heard from his people in their wishes. They did not truly wish for much, only that their ruler would continue to be so benevolent. I thought quite a lot about the wishes, and felt pride for my son. He was a good leader, and loved the children he had created.
But something had made him change. What it was, I could never know, though I had once thought I knew everything. He was no longer what they all probably still thought he was. And I had sent him back to them, in his new state, full of horrible thoughts and emotions I did not want to recognize.
I feared no longer for myself, but for them, and only for them. I wanted to rush to them, suddenly, and protect them from the creature that had once been my son.
No, no. I scolded myself. I was not allowed. That creature was my son, and always would be. I had created him. He was special and could give life. He was my Lifesmith, my wonderful son whom I loved. It was my responsibility only to love the children I had made, not to interfere with any other matters.
It was in that instant of hesitation that he destroyed his world. The mystery of time flowed so differently where I was. From within my left eye, I saw it all go by in an insignificant fraction of time. I had done nothing, and so, those people suffered.
I saw them. They were not all gone. Many survived, and I saw the Lifesmith leave the world in haste to a place that I could not see.
Against my better judgment, I looked. I looked after him and saw him go to another world. Again, my hesitation was only for a moment, and again, I was too late. This time he was much more thorough. Everything was gone when I took the time to blink my other eye, the one that was not watching.
I went there. I went to that newly destroyed world, though my goal was unclear. Would I confront my son, would I betray everything I thought I was and interfere? It did not matter. He was gone when I arrived there, and only one little creature remained where her world had once been.
I gathered her into my arms. I saw through her mind and felt the despair, the ultimate fear, that consumed her as she watched everything she knew disappear. I saw the weapons my son had created. I watched them take lives, like the ones their creator had once been known for cherishing. I learned the poor creature's name and I held her so close to me. I whispered to her that, as she drew breath, she was a child to me, and I declared to protect her.
I thought very suddenly of my younger son, and rushed as quickly as I could back to my home.

My fear dissipated as the universe quieted. I had not heard from my son, the Lifesmith, for quite some time. I also did not look for him. No part of me wanted to see him.
It hurt me to feel that. A mother's duty was always to love, unconditionally, for all days. That is what I had believed for all of my existence. But my son...
I forced myself to ignore it. I had taken to watching my younger son. His people called him "Little One", and sometimes my name, though much shorter. I liked the shorter version quite a lot. Though I did not speak with any other living creatures after my first son left, I began to call myself by the shorter variant.
Little One was very good. As I watched, he became an adventurous one who wished to explore his world and become something more. His people treated him very well. Perhaps too well. They guarded him a little too much. Did they not know that I was protecting them? I should not have been, in accordance with my neutral duties, but I could not help myself.
The guarding tired me. In my neutrality, before my other son did what he did, I was able to rest. But it had been a very long time since I had last rested. After a long while of watching Little One down in the special place that was my Heart, I wanted to rest. Little One was safe in my Heart, I told myself. His people were watching him. They were all very safe, in that special place...
They gave it their own name. They called it Star Road, and I thought it sounded lovely. It was at the very center of the universe, though no one else could possibly have known. It was a magical plane where the voices of everyone in the universe could be heard. Anyone who turned their voice to the sky and spoke would be heard there. And the people living there, the kind and wonderful people who called themselves Star Spirits, would do everything they could to help. Sometimes, they could only listen. But sometimes, listening is all that is needed.
I decided to rest. The Star Spirits had been living there for a very long time, and had always been safe. Little One was safe in their care. Everything had been so quiet, and I had become so tired.
I forgot about the mystery of time. I forgot to think of how differently it flows for me. It felt to me like only half a moment that I closed my eyes - both of them, which was such a rare thing. So for only that small piece of a smaller moment, I had my left eye closed and could not see anything in the entirety of the Cosmos.
It was all he needed.

Like my brief hesitations before, it became the undoing of something. This time, it was me. Not another people, someone distant and unknown. No, it was I who was undone. It was I who was broken.
First there was the fear. I had heard something, my name, perhaps. Or my title. I couldn't be sure. Despite everything, I was excited to hear the voice of my son, the Lifesmith. But I could not turn fast enough. If I had, perhaps I could have moved away, as I did on that day when he showed me his infernal weapons.
But I did not.
So many thoughts went through me at that moment. Despite everything, I still held faith in my son. I thought, perhaps, he would have worked out his rage and returned to me gently. If he had, I would have accepted him into my arms as I had that last surviving creature from the world he destroyed. I would have been so happy to see him, to hold him in my arms as I had when he was first brought into life.
My Heart broke. It felt like a thousand pieces, but in truth, it was only seven. One for each of the Realms, for each of my cycles of life. In one moment my Heart was whole, a beautiful thing that protected Little One and all the ones he called family. But in the next, it was nothing but seven little pieces, split apart by some monstrous creation.
It was the last thing I saw before it all went dark. It was a huge thing, and I knew that my son, the Lifesmith, and all his other weapons were within it. It brought them at such an intense speed toward me, through me, and onward. It headed down to the world below.
I feared for it, but could do nothing. Before the shards of my broken Heart even reached that world, my own existence faded. I shattered with my Heart, and closed my eyes in deepest despair.
My last thoughts were of Little One. I used my final strength to speak to him, to will him to go after Lifesmith. I had no time to explain anything, and could only tell him to go. I could not even tell him who I was, and I wondered if he would ever know. If I would ever see him again. If, when he was grown, he would become something like Lifesmith.
Was I destined to only bring monsters into this world? Was that my true duty?
I could not ponder it further.
The world turned black, and very quiet.

Please, Little One, I begged to the nothingness that could not hear me.
Please don't become like him. Be strong. Be proud. But do not be vicious. Love and be loved. Remember and be remembered.
But most of all, please, my Little One...
Be good, and do not even have a blind eye to turn away from those who are not.