Silen Nubiana

Silen Nubiana

Silen Nubiana gazed out across the Circinus Galaxy. The stars and constellations had once felt a part of her but now seemed dimmer, less vibrant. She could still feel the ebb and flow of the cosmos, but her experience of it was dulled, like it had lost some deeper meaning. She could sense the others revelling in their juvenile consciousness, pushing the limits of their tolerance, searching for greater and greater stimulation. She was not like them. She did not feel delight. She did not feel elated. A hollowness grew inside like a hunger, unable to be sated. She felt completely alone. She longed for companionship. The others were already beginning to descend, manifesting in time and space of their choosing, where civilisations were ripe and hungry for knowledge. As if guided by the void left by the others, Silen Nubiana found herself shrouded in clouds atop the Kunlun Mountains. The ancient Chinese worshipped her as the Primordial Divinity, P’an Ku, the source of the universe and the ‘Great Energy’. They told stories of the universe as a giant egg filled with chaos and a mixture of Yin-yang. P’an Ku burst from the egg, pushing the shell apart, creating the heavens and the earth. Loneliness tormented Silen Nubiana. In the depths of her despair, she drove her hands deep into the hollowness inside her and, with all her longing and love, pulled a flower from her breast. She cupped it tenderly in her pale hands as she knelt and planted it in the soil of the Kunlun Mountains. The ground shook as energy flowed up and into the flower, it grew and bloomed in radiant light, huge petals embracing the figure within. The petals, gently blown by the wind, fell away. Silen Nubiana was no longer alone. The mountainside fell away leaving enormous stone fingers stretching skyward. Clouds swirled in and around the circle of soil held in their cold, granitic grip. Silen Nubiana sat cross-legged, arms outstretched. She wore a goat helm of white fur. On the right, a horn curled upwards, on the left, the remnants of a broken horn. The right eye gleamed with a purple gemstone, in contrast to the empty void of the left socket. The ‘Yin’ symbol scorched black in the forehead. To her left an ethereal figure reached out and laid its hand on her shoulder.