There was only blackness in this place. As far as the eye could perceive, the infinite darkness stretched out for infinite eons and distance. It reached out across that which could not be measured, but nothing was felt. There was no hand, no limb, only the crushing weight of emptiness.

And in a moment, it became they; one became two. Now there was emptiness, but emptiness with a companion by one's side is an emptiness that sits tolerable in the solace of one's mind. They spoke, no longer as thought, but existence given breath, given form. Only they sat alone in the abyss. They talked for an incalculable time; what is time to the omnipotent but the passing of movement; hands, hearts, suns. But in this time there were no suns; no hearts.

The brothers smiled upon one another, though neither could see the face of His sibling. They reached out again, and the darkness disappeared, replaced by a paradise. Neither knew what the other had done, but light had finally dawned upon the expanse they settled into. The forms of each was given shape, articulated in the silence of vision upon one another.

They were two flawless beings. Jovial, with a bond unbroken and unbreakable by the weight of existence they bore. Divinity had no need for games or food. They felt no urge to abandon the comfort of brotherhood. But each brother hoped for more; their debate shattered that primeval construct they had unwittingly made with the furor of their earnest words, and when their hands touched again, the heavens exploded, cascading in vibrant colors until one's body scorched with the heat of creation and the others form lie drenched in the first water. An animus had attempted to separate the brothers, and they swore with softer words never again to raise their divinity against one another. Brothers can disagree, but the squabble which shatters the family will shatter those apart of it.

They shared an embrace of agreement, and for the third time their hands touched it was not in mystery or anger, but that same bond from which duality emerged. Fire and Water surged in the empyrean touch, and they rebuilt that which had been destroyed. An understanding formed from their mistakes. There is light and dark, fire and water, brother and brother. Duality governs all that exists and has.

But brotherhood still keeps the sparks and currents of competition within those adjoined to it. Yet the reconstruction never faltered. Upon it's finish, they looked together upon the boundary of eternity which they alone decided, and realized that competition could not be had without audience to its glory.

With the fire of creation, one forged reality, expanding beyond the Paradise they had inhabited and built. With the waters of life, one made the embers cool, planets lie raised, and slashes in the veil of darkness from which they had emerged and all will return were cut by each; incalculable lights within the darkness of primeval birth.

But life was not as easily made as that with no soul. As a smith makes many attempts before he forges his first good work, the First Smith too required knowledge. That which is born with abundance of power and time knows not the feeling of that born with little of each. With every construct, he understood mortality. Yet on the Sixth, his work lie perfected.

The brothers rejoiced, now with an audience to witness the divine.

And yet, in every six, there is three twos; formed from the First Two. And when time has run its eons beyond its ability to sustain itself, the Fire and the Water will unmake creation to form it anew, and life will continue.