Spherus Imperus: Dawning Glaze

PRINCIPIUM
An elderly man sat in a dimly lit hut. A small campfire threw jagged shadows across the room, and his creased features were gently focused on a small girl sat beside him, whose eyes reflected the embers dancing upon the flames. Both possessed skin of a grey hue, and although the man had long since lost his head of hair, a meagre white beard adorned his chin, and the girl possessed vibrant blue locks. Atop a table, one of the only furnishings in the simple hut, was a plaque with the words, written in Matoran, "Token of Honour-Toa Korlas, Hybrid of Hydrogen". The stamp of Turaga Nokama signed underneath it.

"Grandpa, how did you become a Turaga?"

The old man chuckled, and looked upon the fire fondly. "Oh, you don't want to hear a bygone citizen ramble on about his exploits, honey. I have a much more interesting story for you."

The girl titled her head, and her delicate hair flitted over to the left. "Is it about how Matoran are made?"

The old man's turquoise eyes glinted with mischief, and he said, "Oh, that's simply far too boring for you, too! Besides, I'm sure your mother could answer that far better than me...No, I have a story how the first Turaga was made, honey; the first of everything, in fact. The stars, the moons, the planets, the Rahi, the oceans-"

"The first Matoran, grandpa?"

He smiled softly, the gesture coming naturally to his worn face. "Yes, honey. The first one of you." He sat back, and put his hands in front of him to make gestures. "In the times of legend, legendary-"

"You already said a word like legendary, grandpa."

He huffed, then said, "Yes yes, well, how about this: In the time before time..."

She giggled, and said, "Turaga Vakama tells us stories beginning like that when he comes to our school."

"Yes, and he told me stories like that when I was a Matoran too, as he did many Matoran before me."

She pushed his knee, her dainty hands and fingers barely budging the cracked, unpolished teal armour. "Come on, tell me the story before mother comes back and makes me go to sleep!"

The old man chuckled, then said, "Alright, alright. In the time before time, legendary lifeforms, greater than any we could imagine, made our worlds, with all our powers, our society, and our people. We named them Great Beings, for indeed, any thing capable of achieving what they did must be great indeed. Some say we would have known them today, but there were...complications."

PRIMUM: Quod Antequam Factum, Carissimi...
Heremus stood facing his workbench, several vials of strange liquid in racks hanging from the walls. He had a ragged sheet of papers beside him, lettered with complicated calculations and words bearing no significance to anyone not well-versed in biological research. He tinkered with some mechanical parts on the workbench, occasionally referring back to his notes, and aggressively mashed together the components haphazardly strewn across his station. Without warning, an orange light flickered on, and the creation beneath him slowly tilted its head, before the light flickered off and the head disconnected from the body.

"Fa'shaya, callandous meridaxi..." Heremus angrily uttered, and a head appeared around the entrance to his workshop.

"Heremus, you really shouldn't curse like that, you know. If Zenus were here to listen to that..."

"Yes, well, luckily for all of us he never leaves that colossal throne of his."

The other being shook his head disapprovingly, then sighed, and ambled in. "Still working on your plans for biomechanical life?"

"Barkas, you needn't tell me for the eighth time that it won't work."

"I might not need to, but I will anyway-It won't work."

Heremus looked up at Barkas with a scowl on his face, and the standing Great Being attempted to hold back an amused smile.

"I just know I can get it to work. All I need is more time..."

"You know that if you don't make some results sooner or later, the Divine Council will cut support and they'll go with biological life after all..."

"Bah, biological life is so boring, so simple, and so...lazy. The modus operandi of our people is meant to be innovation, not slacking."

"Sure, but I don't see any other elemental beings in this universe just yet. Do you?"

Heremus sighed, and squeezed his eyes shut in frustration. "Dammit, man, why do none of you understand that this is to be our legacy to the universe? This life will seek us out, try to figure out who we are, and maybe when they're ready for intellectual ascendance we'll actually meet them. What if they learn they could've been so much more, but were left as so little?"

Barkas picked up an arm, wincing at the grotesque imagery. "You know as well as I do that it won't be us ascending them. We'll just be in the background, making it seem like being one of us is normal and that we don't do anything special."

"All the more reason to make the most of what we've got. Besides, several million cycles is long enough for a Multiverse Master like Zenus to make up his mind, isn't it?"

"Could've fooled me."

"Could've fooled us all."

The two turned to the doorway, with a third, much smaller Great Being idly leaning on the door frame. "Velika, no one asked for your wit. If you start spitting riddles or prophecies at me whilst I'm working again..." Heremus warned, but his threat went completely unnoticed.

"Crafting the future begins in the past. The Veins predetermine all, and cause sometimes comes after effect."

Heremus groaned, and hit his head on his desk.

Hinc Illud Una
"Grandpa, isn't Velika who used to be the avatar for Toa Pohatu before he...died?"

Korlas nodded gravely, remembering many years back. "Indeed, at the Battle of Midnight Ridge, both Velika and Pohatu met their deaths. I'm glad you weren't alive then, honey-it hit us all hard, least of all us hybrids, as Pohatu was the only one of the Nuva who accepted us unconditionally and fought for our cause."

"We're safe now, though, aren't we, grandpa?"

"Yes, honey. Things changed, like they always do. Now, as I was saying..."

"Grandpa?"

Showing no signs of exasperation, Korlas said, "Yes, my dear?"

"Don't we have mech...mechan..."

"Mechanical, honey?"

"Yes. Don't we have mech-can-ical things today?"

"Of course, but they aren't like what Heremus had in mind. The Vahki are robots, and they aren't sentient-I mean, they can't make their own decisions."

Understanding dawned on her face, and she said, "Oh."

Korlas itched part of his beard, then said, "Now then...On with the story. Some time later, Heremus found himself dea