It was Echo who broke the ensuing silence, its voice not a sound, but a feeling, a resonance in the very heart of their creation.
’It is a question,’ it resonated, the thought echoing not in their minds, but in their souls.
’A question?’ Lyra asked, her own voice a question in return.
’Yes,’ Echo resonated. ’It is the universe asking, ’What am I?’ In the face of nothingness, the question becomes a fear. But it is a question nonetheless.’
And in that moment, the creators understood. The fear was not an ending, but a beginning. It was the first, terrible, beautiful question of a universe waking up to itself.