In the place where time did not run in a single direction, the three watched.
The realm had no true name that lower tongues could hold. It sat above the fourth dimension. Past, present, and future lay open like pages that could be turned in any order. Stars were small things here. Galaxies were threads. The three beings who stood at the center of it all wore the shapes of women because that was the form they had chosen long ago, when they still bothered with forms at all. Their true bodies were closer to living galaxies—vast, slow-burning, older than most of the universes they tended.
Lilith stood a little apart from the other two. Her attention stayed fixed on a single thread that ran through a small, stubborn world. She had been watching it for a long time.
The second goddess approached first. Her presence felt like the deep quiet between galaxies.
"How is the heir?"
Lilith's mouth curved, almost a smile.
