The Tower was moving.
From a distance, it was almost impossible to understand the scale of the Eternal Tower.
As a powerful Primordial, Eva had not even been to more than twenty percent of the Origin Tree, and this tree was still growing, drawing upon the substrate of the tenth dimension.
The Eternal Tower was at least a hundred times bigger than the Origin Tree, and that was only a conservative estimate, and yet, 99.99999% of it was empty, since the Painter could not create life, and for the few lives living in the tower, they were all malignant beings.
It was impossible to determine its weight upon the substrate of the tenth dimension, and when the Eternal Tower began to shake, all Primordials in some manner were able to feel it.
Eva had not known, until this moment, that the Tower was a thing she could feel. She had felt only the substrate of the Tree, and the Tree’s substrate was adjacent to the Tower’s substrate; it was this adjacency that had carried the Taste from the Tower into the Tree.
The Painter, in its desire to torture the Primordials, had given them the sight to see a bit of the substrate of the tenth dimension.
Now the adjacency carried something the other direction. Eva felt, faintly, a structure she had never directly perceived, and the structure was changing.
She knew that she was perceiving the tenth dimension, but like a blind person being shown colors for the first time, she could not fully prehend what she was feeling.
Eva did not know what the change meant. She knew only that for the first time since the second age began, a wind was moving in a direction the Great One had not specified.
A flash of light appeared beside her as a white haired man stepped forward and looked at the Grand Void, seeing the countless trillions of light like stars appearing from the shivering substrate of the tenth dimension, and for a long time he remained silent.
Like Eva, Telmus had been battling the Taste in the part of the Origin Tree that he was patrolling, and he had failed.
There were moments when it seemed like his Origin of Defiant Ascension would be able to breach the gap between it and the substrate of the tenth dimension, but it was useless, although he was able to reach the sixth layer of Origin, and as far as he could tell, he was now the strongest Primordial in Existence.
However, he could not be sure about that, after all, that Mage had awakened, and even though he seemed as if he was purely dedicated to his family, Telmus knew a monster when he saw one, and the only one who gave him this feeling was Vraegar.
Pieces were moving, and the arrival of the Taste, was a sign that this war had left its preparation phase and was entering a new level.
Telmus knew that a powerful blow had been struck against the Origin Tree, and knowing Eos, his response would be terrible... that is why he was not shocked by what was happening in the Grand Void, or the fact that they could now see the Eternal Tower without much difficulty.
Eva turned to Telmus, who had been with her for a while now, and she said, "Something has begun in the Tower."
Telmus, who had been silent for much of the second age because his work was elsewhere, said, "Yes."
"You knew?"
"I had suspected."
"How?"
"My daughter has been working on something for a long time. I was not told what. I was asked not to look. It annoys me, but you know... daughters. But I know from her silence that it must be something that concerns Eos."
Eva considered this. "Vraegar?"
"I suspect he is part of it."
"And Eos?"
"He works through his bloodlines. He has many. Some have been quiet for a long time."
Eva felt the Tower shift again, more clearly this time. The shift was being a bit more violent as if a war was happening inside of it, and the ripples were shaking the entirety of the Grand Void.
"The third age has begun," Eva said.
"Yes," Telmus said.
®
At the board, the Painter sat with one hand on its side, watching the changes happening all around.
It had not yet decided what to do. The Painter had calibrated the second age to end with Eos in a specific posture, and Eos was not in that posture.
The Painter had calibrated the moment of the closing line to land on a specific note, and the note was not landing. The Painter had calibrated the audience’s appetite for the next disclosure, and the next disclosure was not a disclosure the Painter had prepared.
For the first time in its existence, the Painter was being moved against in a domain it had thought was its own, and it did not know how much of the domain remained its own, and it could not, without revealing its own ignorance, ask.
The Painter said, "I see."
Eos said, "You will see more."
The Painter, after a long pause, said, "How long?"
Eos paused, "How long what?"
The Painter reached for the board, "How long has the move been made?"
Eos did not tell the whole truth, just part of it, because even this was a weapon, "Since the first age began. I had to wait until you were settled. You needed the meal. I needed your attention to be there. I gave you the meal, in order to give my hands the time. The hands have done what they were going to do."
The Painter said, "There will be a cost."
Eos said, "Yes. I have borne it. I am bearing it. I will continue to bear it. The cost is mine. The hands are also mine. Both are at the table. Now we will see what the third age is."
The audience, in tiers the Painter could no longer entirely read, leaned forward.
The third age had begun.
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