The First Lie

In the beginning there was only darkness, not a single star in the universe, if the infinite void could even be considered as such. There was nothing but millions upon millions of kilometers in which absolute nothingness prevailed.

But then, out of all that darkness, a small point of light was reflected. A light which you could say was about to die, for the darkness swallowed it to the point of making it almost imperceptible... Although that thought could not be more wrong.

That point of light was made of pure matter, which condensed more and more... Perhaps by the whim of a superior being, perhaps because destiny demanded that something must exist, perhaps by pure chance, the truth is that the reasons do not matter. For, ignorant of the reasons, that point of light compressed itself more and more over who knows how many thousands of years until, finally, it happened.

At first it was a simple explosion, whose expansive wave was larger than any galaxy. But, as this expansive wave made its way into the infinite void, a miracle occurred... Matter was created in its path. The light, the same that caused an explosion that could be considered more powerful than any weapon, chose to create instead of destroy.

From there, stars, planets, moons, asteroids, galaxies were formed... The universe as we know it was formed.

And so it remained, with life forming on certain privileged planets with optimal conditions... But there was still a price to pay for this miracle.

After hundreds of thousands of millions of years, perhaps much longer, the light that gave life began to compact again. The process was slow and, by then, most stars had already died and there was no intelligent life left on any of the planets... The universe had become a cemetery and matter, following a capricious cycle, prepared to compact and start over from scratch.

But things were not the same as before.

Now, in the infinite void, without the miraculous light around him, a new life was found. A life made of what, in times past, made up the entirety of a dead universe.

This being did not know any language, nor did he need one. He simply observed his surroundings, the void, unable to do anything and without any real consciousness.

And, although he did not know it, he waited. He waited until, after millions of years, that light once again formed from nothingness itself.

For the first time he could feel something, he felt an incalculable curiosity for that small being that had appeared. Thanks to the light it emitted, he also became aware, for the first time, of how vast and enormous that darkness was... For, in comparison to that small point of light, even he could be considered a giant.

He surrounded that glow with his hands, without touching it and, with an almost paternal feeling, decided to accompany it and live for and through this miracle.

The years were like seconds for this being, without real consciousness of time, for him the millions of years he spent observing that light meant nothing... But the light made of pure matter was already ready to repeat the cycle, so when the time came and without warning it exploded.

That being fell into a state of hibernation because of this, and remained that way, while the miraculous light brought life once again.

A new universe had been born.

He eventually awoke, to observe in wonder what surrounded him. Although he did not yet know it, he was sad moments before the explosion because he thought his light would disappear... But, instead of that, he received a beautiful gift, he received much more than he could have lost in the first moment. His light had grown, until it became something much greater.

He spent thousands of millions of years observing the stars, the different planets and, to his surprise, the first seeds of life. Captivated by the rapid advance in this aspect of a certain planet, he put all his attention on this one.

He observed how life advanced, how the most insignificant animals grew until they became intelligent... At that time he played an active role on the planet, helping them advance and teaching them about the wonders that surrounded them.

This being, who would receive the name Cosmos in a very distant future, met a human woman named Julieta... By then he already knew the art of communicating perfectly and had learned, to his regret, the crueler side of the humanity he had so cared for.

He observed how, as the years passed, they created different weapons that threatened to destroy everything he loved... But he did not dare do anything to them. When attempts to convince them failed, he decided not to hurt them and let them be, for the universe was his child, and they were part of that universe...

Despite this, Julieta was his hope. A sweet, intelligent woman with a hunger for knowledge. A lover of literature and the arts, a person who, with some effort, understood the descriptions he gave her. With her he was able to share what he had learned in all that time... In the few years of a human life he felt more than he had felt in all his eternity.

But human life is fragile and Julieta grew old. She was no longer that young woman full of energy and hunger for knowledge he had known, becoming an old woman who, on the brink of her death, was only filled with regret and fury towards him... Cosmos did not understand, for him that change had been very sudden.

80 years were but a breath of his life, but it was not so for Julieta... A woman who loved literature, love stories, fantasy, curious about the universe and that eternal being, reached an age in which her dementia had made her forget everything... She only remembered her most mortal and cruel regret, for she never fell in love. All for having dedicated her body and soul to knowledge, faithfully devoted to her curiosity.

It is most likely that Julieta would have discarded these regrets immediately, or so it would have been in her youth, but her brain was not in optimal condition because, unlike Cosmos, humanity aged and deteriorated with the passage of years. And so it was, until the inevitable day of her death came.

Regretful and hurt by this situation, Cosmos committed a terrible mistake... He altered the natural cycle of the universe and, having understood the secrets of life, decided to concentrate the entire current universe and part of his own being into Julieta's body.

His idea was to take only a little, enough to bring her back to life, but his ignorance about the passage of time played against him again... For him they were only minutes, for the universe they were thousands of years.

In his desperation Cosmos had extinguished the healthy life of everything around him and had concentrated that infinity in the young woman before him.

Another god had been born.

Over time Julieta awoke, in an eternal body created in the same way as him, but with a component that Cosmos had always lacked... Julieta still had her humanity and hunger for knowledge.

Who am I?

Were the first words she spoke, to Cosmos' surprise and sadness.

Having already learned the consequences of intervening in the natural cycle of the universe and being unaware of whether it would be reborn, he decided to block from his mind all the memories he had obtained. Cosmos knew that he was incapable of lying, much less to Julieta who would now have the same abilities as him.

He implanted a false memory within himself, which he transmitted to Julieta, with great pain in his being for he knew that they would spend the rest of their eternal lives living on something he considered unforgivable...

They would live on the foundations of humanity's worst sin, the lie.

We are... Observers.

He responded with complete certainty, for it was the only thing he remembered. "We have the duty to watch over the immense void, to study it and, when the time comes, watch over the life that appears."

I see...

Was Julieta's response.

And so, together, they lived to await the birth of a third universe.