Sterling

Sterling's story begins with that of another: Lore. It was Lore who found Sterling - and in turn received some insights about himself.

- * -

Lore loved the world he'd named "The Observatory." The titular observatory was currently that world's only feature (thought he hadn't been able to explore much of it). Lore could see so many different places within it's lenses. So many places and sights to choose from... yet he always came back to one.

The Ruins.

He'd named it for the destroyed structures littering the ashen surface, a hellscape as treacherous as it was morbidly enticing. Lore had only accessed this world willingly twice, in his memory: once during a moment of self-pity, and once to seal an Emperor inside it. This Emperor he examined now. Three Imperials made up it's monstrous form, the center head taking the lead on everything and the others following suit. The Observatory's illusory viewing felt a little too real when it used an airborne view like this one. Lore felt like he was about to fall at any second. "Let's lower down a little," he said aloud, and the Observatory obeyed.

"Standing" on a vantage point not far from the Emperor was a different point of view, for sure, one that threatened flashbacks. "What did you expect?" Lore asked himself. It had been months since the Emperor attack but he could still hear its un-draconic roar in his nightmares, still see how raised it's claws over him, still feel the tremors of falling-

"Raaaa!"

Lore froze. That sound was hard to mistake: a hatchling's cry. A strange reverberation marked the sound, so it was definitely caught by the Observatory. With a claw, Lore spun the viewing station slowly.

"Raaaa!" There! A little Nocturne with eyes just like his, crawling through the rubble.

"How in the Arcanist's name...?" Lore shut down the Observatory and leaped through a portal, landing just beyond the hatchling. It immediately hid behind a nearby rock. "It's okay. I won't hurt you," Lore tried, eyeing the Emperor. It was destroying a tower. Good. As long as it was destroying something it wasn't focused on him.

The hatchling refused to come out. Any coaxing only caused it to press itself harder against the rock. A roar caught Lore's attention. The Emperor had finished with the tower, and now zeroed in on another target.

"Oh, nonono." Disregarding the hatchling's fear, Lore jumped the rock and grabbed it. A sudden portal took them both far out of reach of the Emperor's grasp.

Lore and hatchling tumbled apart on a field of sweet-smelling flowers. "That wasn't my portal." The hatchling scrambled away from him, burying it's head in meat that appeared out of nowhere, as if by wish.

Lore stayed still.

He'd seen this world before: the Observatory. It stood on the slope above, sedate as ever. But this world was his, right? Yet it obeyed the hatchling's every whim, as if catering to it.

As if catering.