They came not as exiles, not as survivors, but as explorers.
Their ship was unlike any I had seen before, a vast crystalline monolith, its surface absorbing both light and darkness, rendering it invisible against the void of space. They traveled not in desperation nor in conquest, but in pursuit of something greater, something intangible yet undeniable.
They came seeking destiny.
I felt them before I saw them, their ship piercing the outer sphere of Axiom's sky. The moment it breached my world's atmosphere, the light of my sun struck it for the first time in centuries. And the sky ignited.
Rainbows unfurled across the heavens, cascading bands of color that spread from the horizon to the clouds. The ship, no longer hidden, descended upon the land, its crystalline form embedding itself deep into the ground. It did not rest as a ruin but as a seed, its very presence awakening the growth of crystals across the continent, stretching and weaving into a luminous landscape of refracted light and spectral beauty.
The Chromati emerged from their vessel, their vibrant skin tones flashing in the reflected glow of their new home. They did not hesitate, nor did they falter. They simply arrived and began to adapt. They intertwined with the energy of Axiom almost instantly, as if they had always belonged here. Their presence felt inevitable, as if the world had been waiting for them.
They tried to explain destiny to me. They spoke of paths that must converge, of fated pairs drawn together by forces unseen. They spoke of the certainty of fusion, the unshakable pull toward one's destined partner.
I dismissed it at first. There is no force in the universe that dictates inevitability. There is cause and effect, choice and consequence.
And yet…
The Chromati challenged that notion. Their nature defied logic, yet it was undeniable. Every Chromati was born as a pair, and every Chromati would fuse with the one meant for them. There was no alternative. It was not a choice. It was simply what was.
Perhaps, then, destiny was not an illusion. Perhaps it was simply a pattern I had yet to quantify.
As they spread across their new land, shaping cities of shimmering glass and kaleidoscopic towers, I observed them more closely than the others. Their instincts, their bonds, their inevitable fusion, it was not random. It followed laws I had not yet grasped.
Could destiny, then, be measured? Could it be understood?
I did not have the answer. But the Chromati, in their nature, in their certainty, made me wonder if I had been wrong.
The fifth of my children had come. And for the first time, I questioned whether I truly knew everything.