endbook_rogue_5_4_1

The sky shimmers as a giant meteor falls.

Sui lifts Its head, watching the visitor from the stars beyond approach the ground.

Whenever a meteor's arc streaks across the heavens, It is the first of Its herd to raise Its head.

Curiosity, cognition, consideration. What Its herd lacks, It had already evolved.

It believes It knows everything there is to know about everything: Its origin, Its species, Its land.

And thus the only things left that bring It pleasure seem to be these rare gifts from the cosmos.

The meteorite lands, then spreads across the ground. In the time it takes Sui to take one insignificant breath, a huge ring is born from the stone, floating in the air above the northern reaches of the land.

This time, the ring catches the interest of the herd. They see a radiance gather within it, which then displays a bizarre, alien vista. Within that sea of thousands of floating rocks, a great boulder shaped like a cube appears, coming to a stop above Their great land.

A 'ship'. That is the name the lifeforms named 'humanity' call the stone they live within.

A yawn, and a blink, and the environment They inhabited for countless eons has changed—

Countless structures have been defined and become a part of Their cognition.

Yet another ring, a gate used by humanity to come to this place, lands in the far south.

Amidst the lava flows in the deepest depths of the sea, that substance so hostile to Feranmut life, a cluster of steel constructs develops.

By the side of the moon, a miniature companion comes to completion in its shadow.

As for Its kin, those who were first to establish relations with humanity already have a herd of descendants, a people who are half-man and half-beast.

Sui did not reject communication, but It would not participate in this so-called 'research' and 'experimentation'. Up above the rapidly changing land, It holds onto Its dispassion, sensing the transformations wrought by supernatural evolution.

Would humanity's development be able to aid Its own evolution? Sui considers the possibility, but after countless years of inertial thinking, a rather more warped, impractical idea begins to take shape within Its thoughts—

Humanity can become <i>tools</i> for Its evolution.

It believes that with another hundred years, or a thousand, It would be able to raise Its head high above all of humanity without a care, just like how It did amongst the herd before they arrived.

Sui looks towards the sky. Within the distant void, a few stars are consumed by the darkness.

Wang pauses the memory here.

As humanity follows the scroll into the depths of the Tomb of Sui, Wang walks along the other side of the scroll.

It was he who made it, so naturally it will loyally adhere to his strategy: humanity will stir the memories of Sui, and leave behind that trace of ink upon the scroll, priceless beyond measure.

At the same time, by being within the Tomb, he must join in this game as well. From Sui's truest, naked, unadorned memories, he will find the key to defeating It.

But at this precise moment in time, he does not follow that particular path of obsession.

He follows Sui's gaze out of the corner of Its eye, steps beyond the boundary of Heaven and Earth, enters the cold companion in the shadow of the moon, then walks to the side of a researcher in a heated debate with colleagues.

Wang stops here, taking in the scene for a moment. He then turns his head, his eyes fixed on the thing in front of him.

It is an ordinary tree. A curved one with jade branches and green leaves. There is no glass enclosing it, nor is it suspended in any medium. It grows here in accordance with the laws of nature, in the middle of this place filled with inorganic artifacts. Perhaps the only reason for its existence is to remind humanity of the thrum of life amidst all this steel.

With a wave of his hand, Wang places this moment into his sleeve, then disappears from the memory.

It was part of a scene Sui had only inadvertently glanced at, a mere set dressing for the ancient civilization's ingenious superstructure, but it afforded the chance for a Sui proxy to be born.

From the tree within that vague memory, he makes a treasure, one he will always keep by his side.

Wang decides to entrust this truest of memories to him. With the help of his power, Wang will be able to leave an eternal mark within the Tomb of Sui.

Surely, the eighth sibling, will also be ecstatic upon seeing this gift.