kweenjaded

For as long as the stars have burned, she has existed. She has been called many names—Gaia, Lilith, the First, the Eternal Witness—but time has eroded meaning, leaving only silence. When the sun finally devoured itself and Earth drifted into the abyss, she closed her eyes, expecting oblivion.

But she did not die.

Eons passed, and Earth—no longer Earth—was reborn in a distant galaxy, reshaped by her unconscious will. Now a training ground for civilizations across the cosmos, the planet teems with life once more. And she, no longer Lilith yet not fully something else, awakens in a body that is hers but unfamiliar. She knows everything yet feels nothing. Memories exist as echoes, not experiences.

When a young explorer, Tilana, stumbles upon her, she is given a name—Lily—a word tied to a flower that no longer exists. As Lily navigates a world both familiar and alien, she must relearn what it means to feel, to connect, and to exist. But something lingers in the depths of this reborn world, something that calls to the remnants of who she was.

To see tomorrow, one must kill yesterday. But what if yesterday refuses to die?.

Lily: The last lily of a forgotten world.

"Icarus, heed my words: fly too low, and the waved will claim you; fly too high, and the sun will burn you. Keep to the path I set."

— Daedalus to Icarus, Ovid's Metamorphoses

The universe had a twisted sense of humor.

One moment, Zane was on the precipice of something—a revelation, a truth buried beneath layers of deception. He had spent weeks pulling at invisible threads, convinced that he was close to unraveling a secret no one else had dared to touch.

Like dominoes, his entire life fell apart piece by piece, so seamlessly orchestrated that it was almost artistic.

His uncle—one of the most respected figures in the Intergalactic Council—was unceremoniously fired, stripped of his position, his assets frozen, his influence shattered.

His own standing in the academy—gone. The student council revoked his position under the guise of an "internal investigation." They called it a suspension, but Zane knew better. He was done.

Then, his dorm caught fire. Not a minor accident. Not some electrical malfunction. A full-scale inferno that left nothing but ashes. His belongings, his research, his personal data drives—all reduced to blackened ruins.

A kid so insignificant, so invisible, that Zane hadn't even registered his existence until a week ago. And now, somehow, he was accused of being the one who killed him.

Where was the whole innocent until proven guilty thing?

Zane had spent his entire life being raised as his father's successor, trained since childhood to navigate the complex and brutal world of interstellar politics. He had been taught that power wasn't about strength—it was about perception. About knowing when to speak, when to listen, when to strike.

And yet, despite all that training, despite everything he had learned, he had still underestimated the sheer ruthlessness of the people pulling the strings.

And whoever was behind it wanted him to understand just how little his so-called power meant.

His father visited him in the cell.

Not as a grieving parent. Not as a concerned father.

Zane had expected anger. Disappointment. Perhaps even the usual cold silence that carried more weight than any reprimand ever could.

Instead, his father only said one thing:

"This is your lesson. You flew too close to the sun, and now you're burning."

The message was clear. The higher-ups—the ones who decided the fate of empires—had crushed him with the same effort it took to swat a fly. He had meddled in something beyond his comprehension, and they had swatted him down like the insignificant creature he was to them.

What was worse? Even his father didn't know what it was that he had stumbled upon.

Zane's stomach twisted at that. Because if his father—who was powerful in ways most men could only dream of—was left in the dark, then whatever this was… it was far, far beyond the realm of mortal understanding.

He wasn't just up against men in suits and council chambers.

He had wandered into a battlefield where gods and monsters played their games.

And he had been reminded, in the cruelest way possible, that he was neither.

The guard came to escort him out of his cell.

"Someone's here to see you," the man grunted.

Zane didn't bother asking who. He had no allies left. No one who would risk associating with him.

So when he was led into the visitation room and saw her sitting there, waiting for him—

For the first time in his life, Zane was truly, utterly shocked.

Chapter 16: Icharus