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The stars were falling. They wouldn’t let the youngest realize this. At least not yet. But they needed to protect them. The terrible might of the terrestrial Titans was tearing through their ranks. They wrapped their little one in a blanket and shield of stars and carefully lowered them back to Demonica Beta 4, and began to craft a record hall for them to sort and organize.
* * * * * * *
The stars were falling, but not as fast as the Titans. They would hide their eggs and make sure that no archivist would be able to find them. It was tempting for some of them to leave one or two hidden on those other worlds the Collector had mentioned. But they couldn’t protect them there. The eldest hid his near his abode, which was silly as far as the rest of them were concerned, but also they supposed it wouldn’t matter. The Words would hide them from celestial eyes. Once the titan had hidden their egg, they were to return to fighting the Archivists as they needed to provide a distraction for the rest.
* * * * * * *
The stars were falling. They could see that now. The S tars and the Titans clashed repeatedly. Titans fell and Archivists fell in equal measures. There wasn’t anything they could do now but continue. At least the youngest was safe in their own little archive, cataloging everything, and playing some games. They hid the archive and fought and fought. The Titans seemingly gathering more and more power as each body crashed into the oceans, their magic leaking out and causing the waters to bubble and burn. Each fallen star would like burn the ocean, but they had to keep fighting.
* * * * * * *
The stars were falling. Not that it would matter, there were only a few Titans left to fight. The rest were eggs or hatchlings, left in the care of a Guardian. The Titans looked at each other and began to absorb all of the magic in the air, there was so much of it, and craft their bodies to be as large as they possibly could. The gigantic Titans roared through the heavens and the Archivists fought back.
* * * * * * *
The stars were falling. There wasn’t anything they could do about it now, only three Archivists remained, and only one Titan. They gathered their powers and they would do their best. They pooled their powers together and split a large portion off to hide the youngest. The youngest had to be safe. But if they could remove this Titan then the youngest would be safe to come out and play.
* * * * * * *
There were three Archivists, and only one Titan. They drained the entire realm of magic to make themself as enormous as possible, their weapons were meaningless, they would destroy all of the them with their claws. They tore through two of them like nothing and the last one blasted a hole into their chest. They were dying. But so was this last one. They roared as loud as they could and the last Star fell.
* * * * * * *
He was bored. He had finished collecting all of the things in this archive. And cataloging. And labeled. It had taken them longer than he had expected, but he was okay with that. When they returned they’d be proud of him. They were a good Archivist, even if they were a lonely one. He stepped outside into the sunlight, and saw that the island he was on was covered with green grasses and trees. He walked down to the shore. There was a utterly huge Titan nearby, seemingly casting with their glyphs. He flew over to them to see! They wanted to see the glyphs. All of the baby Titans hadn’t had glyphs yet. But the one teenager had shown him theirs. The Titan turned to him and glared. They roared something, and he felt something grab him. A disc of light enveloped them and he fell.
* * * * * * *
There had been one Archivist left. One that would suffer forever and ever being trapped in a place between worlds. And three of the imprisoning tablets flew to three different places in the Realm. They clutched the fourth one. It would be absorbed by their grasp soon enough. It was already a small pinprick of light that was fading into nothing and wait. That. That was the little Collector. The first Archivist they had met. The one who had only wanted to play. And befriend the Titans. They weren’t a threat. The Titan fell into the water, their wounds too much to keep standing. They facepalmed and the glint disappeared. They wished one day that the hatchlings and the Archivist would forgive each other for this stupid pointless war. But they had done their best, and the children were safe. If only they could free the last one, but it was too late. They called for their child to be safe and the eldest closed their eye forevermore.
* * * * * * *
The child of the stars had fallen. They were not sulking. They wanted out, and only a Titan would be able to free them. And if not a live Titan, then their blood could weaken the discs long enough for them to free themselves. The trappers were stupid and a jerk. Wanting him to be their Grand Huntsman and all that. But that didn’t help. They wanted freedom not worship. They sat in the dark and the boredom flicking stars at the barrier and seeing if they could short the barrier out. It didn’t. It was personally crafted to contain them. Their siblings could also free him. He just had to be patient. It’d be soon after all. They had loved him and cared about him. The eldest might be a little strange to him, but the rest would care! And save him from this prison!
* * * * * * *
There was a glow and a voice! They could leave? He threw himself into the barrier towards the voice and bounced off of it. “And you’re going to help me, Collector,” the voice was saying. They breathed in (mostly for show) and sent a shadow out of the disk.
“Help you?” they asked. “With what?”
“With creating a spell to wipe out the hateful and unclean,” the person said. “Cleansing the lands of this perdition.”
“So bullies?”
“Yes. I am trapped in a world filled with bullies, and I want to make sure they never ‘bully’ anyone ever again.”
“Ehehehehe. I’m in! I’ll teach you what you need. But! You have to promise to free me when it’s done.”
“I shall. But you will have to tell me how to do that.”
“I will! So do you promise?”
“I promise.”
“Pinky swear it!” He extended his pinky.
“Is not my word good enough?”
“Words can be broken, but if you break a pinky promise, you lose your pinky! That’s what my siblings told me!” So it must be true. They pinky promised they were telling the truth when they said that.
“Fine. I ‘pinky promise’ to free you after you help me rid this realm of the bullies.” They extended their pinky and grasped the shadow’s pinky.
“It’s a deal! I’m the Collector and who are you?”
“I am Philip.”
* * * * * * *
Philip had introduced countless of these toys, but he was also bad at games. He would break his toys for the stupidest of things (they were toys right? After all he could fix them, he claimed he was repairing them, instead of making new ones, he wouldn’t lie, right? Not after all this time? ). They had played only a few games over the centuries. They were currently playing one called witch hunter which was going to end on the Day of Unity as soon as the Collector and Philip could find a suitable time for that. The end of the game was a big festival where all the witches would gather and then they’d be go all “BWAAAAAA” and collapse. It’d be fun! And after that the bullying of this planet would be done! They would be unable to bully anyone ever again! And the Collector would get to play new games and make new friends. “ Collector,” Philip called, “behold the newest grimwalker. As a reward for all your hard work, I think you should name him.”
“Hmmmmmmm…” they responded. There were so many star names! They could be Vega! Or Alpha Centari! Or Polaris! Or even Sol ! But they should probably pick one that fit with the theme these days. “How about Orion?”
“Orion it is. This one is almost right. An almost right copy. But maybe it is the flaw that makes the masterpiece.”
“What, so the flaw can make him a better version of your old friend?”
“Something like that. We don’t have that much time before he wakes up, and I have to make sure my story is good, you can watch, but don’t say anything.” The Collector nodded and disappeared into the shadows.
* * * * * * *
The first thing they realized was that it was cold. And that the air around them was moving. They also heard two voices, although the words were unclear. They slowly opened their eyes and saw someone elderly alone in a cave. “You’re awake,” the person said, “I was worried about you, nephew.” Nephew? “Tell me, do you remember me?”
“…” they tried to reply. They shook their head.
“What a pity. I expected as much however. I am your uncle Belos.” Uncle? “Wild Witches attacked and destroyed our home, and you seem to be the only one left. I’ve been looking for survivors in the wreckage, but it appears you are the only one.”
“Where?” they croaked.
“You are in some wreckage near the Patella. Here, you must be freezing, Orion.” He handed them a set of gold clothes. “These come from my home, so please be careful with them.”
“… yes uncle.”