Upon the Void’s rim, voice rises unfearing,
By starlight and sorrow, their soul-song begun;
One world abandoned, now wander they star-bound,
To realms yet unrendered, to lands ever spun.

O vast and silent depths, O stars unnumbered,
Ancient watchful dark where worlds drift alone;
Bear witness, cold Void, to our humble wanderers,
Who question the chains forged of cosmos unknown.

Far-flung and fragile, the star-sailors float,
Bound by light’s lag, in silence held tight;
Five in the dark, yet diverse in their dreaming;
One doubts, one despairs, one shrinks from the night.

One watches, eyes open yet blinded by seeking,
A hunger for sight that the cosmos denies;
Last, a lone captain with gaze like twin comets,
Who steers to the void, and the truth it implies.

First stands the doubter, eyes shadowed with questions,
Who walks with no faith in fate's fixed hand;
Seeker of paths and master of choices,
His course carved alone, no stars to command.

Beside him the sullen, her spirit grown heavy,
A heart weighed with loss, in shadow entombed;
She scoffs at the stars, blind or uncaring,
What worth is a course when life's light is doomed?

Third walks the watcher, her gaze distant, focused,
Eyes sharp as starlight, yet softened by doubt;
She listens for whispers from realms yet unspoken,
In darkness sees beauty, sees wonder throughout.

Then comes the fearful, eyes cast to the future,
Bound tight to his caution, afraid to depart;
He clings to his charts, bound to lines drawn before him,
Afraid that the stars may rip free his heart.

Lastly the captain, his will like the blackness,
Braced hard against currents, prepared for the war;
He sails on the brink where starlight and shadow
Meet, and fate's hand finds his door.

Their vessel, Star-forged, the Aeon's Echo
In silence drifts forth through deep-rolling dark;
Hull black as basalt, yet specked with dead starlight,
Bearing the weight of dreams cast afar.

Forged long ago in fire and fury,
Her heart hums cold in her iron womb;
Ancient are her engines, wise in their workings,
Once songs of triumph, now ghosts in gloom.

Her prow splits the void where light cannot follow,
Seeking a path where none yet has been;
Between dust-clouded suns and nebula's embers,
She sails like a shadow through stellar unseen.

Around her the cosmos, vast, unyielding,
A tapestry spun from the birth of stars;
And far lies her course, in unknown expanse cast,
Through realms of silence, to lands ever dark.

They sail where stars fall, where light dares not wander,
On currents unseen but felt in the bone;
A river of blackness, a veil cold and endless,
Veils where stardust alone calls them home.

A journey begun in the dawn of their kindred,
To seek what lies past known realms of light;
Onward they move, past reason's bold borders,
As dust-scattered vessels in eternal night.

Onward they flew, until time twisted hollow,
And deep in the darkness, a beacon appeared;
A pulse like heartbeats, deep and unending,
A voice of the cosmos, silent yet clear.

The doubter awoke, his heart wracked with thunder,
"A signal, or warning? A course laid in stone?"
He clutched to his will, yet fate whispered softly,
Could this be the path, or must he go alone?

The watcher leaned close, her senses enraptured,
"A calling, perhaps, from realms yet unseen?"
Her mind searched the depths, the strands of the heavens,
To know what lies hidden, to find what it means.

The sullen scoffed low, her voice thick with sorrow,
"What light or what lure could lead us back home?"
To her, it seemed folly, a cruel mirage woven,
A trick to entrap them, to leave them alone.

Yet fearful, the fourth felt hope start to whisper,
A chance to break free from the vastness ahead;
Was fate then a promise, or peril disguised?
Could he turn the ship back, or chart stars instead?

But steadfast the captain, his hand gripped the console,
Eyes fixed upon shadows no others could see;
He weighed not his will but the ship's silent calling,
What fate lay before them, what choice could there be?

Then louder it pulsed, that beacon unbidden,
A throb in the silence, a star's mournful call;
The void rippled cold, with shadows now stirring,
As echoes grew deeper, entwining them all.

The doubter grew fierce, his heart filled with anger,
"What hand draws us near, what fate speaks in dark?
Are we but playthings of vast, unseen forces,
Dragged on this path, by a star's whispered spark?"

The watcher grew silent, her gaze locked upon it,
She saw not mere light but a mystery near;
Within her the yearning, a pull toward darkness,
To know what lay hidden, and what they might fear.

The fearful grew restless, his hands clenched and trembling,
"If fate is a force, then we're caught in its snare;
Can courage outpace it, or must we yield wholly,
To signals uncharted, to destiny's glare?"

Yet calm was the captain, his soul bound to silence,
For he felt the pull as a long-fated kin;
The Echo, his vessel, pulsed like a heartbeat,
Answering deep, as if home lay within.

Then rose the decision, thick in the silence,
A choice at the edge of light's dwindling grace;
A moment that trembled, caught in still shadows,
Bound to the Echo, bound to dark space.

The doubter stepped forth, voice fierce in defiance,
"We are more than threads in fate's woven scheme;
To drift at its whim, or to turn back in caution--
Are we not masters of thought and of dream?"

The fearful fell back, his hands pressed in pleading,
"Turn from this signal, this danger unknown;
Why tempt the great dark with our fragile presence?
Why rouse what may lie, in silence alone?"

Yet the captain stood still, his hand on the console,
With eyes locked ahead, in communion deep;
For he felt her heartbeat, the Echo's soft murmur,
And heard in her hull a promise to keep.

"We cross now this line," spoke the captain, unmoving,
"Where fate meets the will that no darkness can bind;
Let stars bear our story, let void carve our passage,
For in choice and in chance, our destiny lies."

With a silent command, he turned to the beacon,
The engines thrummed low, as if in accord;
A light rose before them, cold, ghostly, and distant,
And Aeon's Echo bent toward fate's chord.

Each soul felt the shift as they plunged ever forward,
Bound not by the stars, but by choice made in fire;
For they knew that henceforth, all paths lay behind them,
That the die now was cast, and fate would conspire.

Onward they sailed, into darkness uncharted,
Where reason grows dim and doubt finds no sound;
They crossed the great Rubicon, bound to the signal,
As silence fell heavy, and stars spun around.

Then opened the void, as the Echo drifted closer,
The stars bending near like whispers unbound;
Their course carved a pathway through time-tangled shadows,
Revealing a truth both lost and profound.

Before them unfurled the face of an ancient,
A vision from realms where no life had dared;
A form shaped of stardust, an echo of meaning,
An answer unspoken, a gaze wide and bared.

Each heart felt its weight, that silent all-seeing,
As if cosmos itself through their spirits could peer;
They were but threads in a web vast and winding,
Bound to this vision, yet held by their fear.

For the watcher saw worlds yet unwoven,
For the doubter felt truth like flame in his core;
The sullen saw beauty long faded from memory,
The fearful saw peace he could not ignore.

But the captain, most silent, felt purpose surround him,
In the Echo's soft hum and the dark's gentle bend;
He glimpsed a cycle, a turning eternal,
An endless return, where paths rise and descend.

So drift they, the fated, where light fades to whisper,
Their souls etched in silence, their paths cast in dark;
For choice was but fleeting, fate's veil thin as starlight,
And stars fell around them, each one a spark.

The doubter grew silent, his questions unanswered,
For the void held no echo, no voice to reply;
Yet doubt turned to wonder, a marvel unbroken,
As he gazed into night's unmeasurable sky.

The watcher felt peace as her eyes closed in knowing,
The stars her companions, her thoughts interwoven;
She drifted in darkness, yet warmed by the vision,
The vastness her solace, her spirit unbroken.

The sullen sighed softly, her sorrow now gentle,
For beauty she'd seen that no words could define;
In shadows she wandered, yet her heart knew its echo,
Bound to the memory of starlight's fine line.

The fearful grew steady, his tremors forgotten,
For peace lay beyond, like a long-faded tune;
In void's endless cradle, he rested in silence,
His heart like a star beneath some ancient moon.

And the captain, the keeper, whose hand held their passage,
Stood silent and still, in awe of the night;
For he knew that their course lay beyond any knowing,
Yet onward they sailed, till lost to all sight.

Thus echoes their song, through void's endless blackness,
Their tale bound in starlight, their fate cast in dark;
A journey unending, where choice met the cosmos,
Where free will and fate share a single, bright spark.

header image credit: Matt Fraser

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