Ava, Watcher of Dying Stars

Thread II: The Silent Stars

High above, far beyond the reach of any world, Ava floated among the stars. She had journeyed through the emptiness for eons, a voyager of forgotten worlds and dying suns. In the vastness of space, she had seen civilizations rise, burn brightly, and then fade, consumed by their own hunger for progress.

The stars, once her guide, had become her tormentors - each one flickering out like a candle snuffed by the wind. The light she had once trusted was now a reminder of fragility, the cold reality that nothing could endure forever. She had spent lifetimes seeking knowledge, hoping to transcend the limitations of her people, but now she knew the truth.

It was not knowledge that would save the multiverse. It was something more fundamental - something lost.

As her ship drifted toward the last flickering star, Ava moved with a sense of solitude. She realized that the answer was not in the stars she had studied for so long, but in what she had failed to see. The price of progress had been too high..