The scent of mud on that stormy night was 's earliest memory of the world. To , it was merely another string casually plucked over the course of her long existence.
was the first consciousness to awaken among The Enders. From their mindless, perpetual instinct to destroy, she alone carved out a sense of self. While the rest of her kind still fed and killed on biological impulse alone, had already learned to observe. She watched stars collapse, civilizations burn to ash, and even witnessed the vast, cold Mother Matrix that brought her into existence.
To humanity, she was a nightmare descending from above the clouds, the mastermind seated aboard the colossal mothership known as the Storm Citadel. She moved with effortless calm and grace, for she had no need to set foot on such an insignificant world herself. Whenever the dark clouds of the Storm Citadel spread across the land, its magnetic storms brought disaster to humanity in an instant. Amid that deathly violet glow, a slight lift of her finger was enough to command storm and lightning, bringing one effortless massacre after another.
"Destruction is simply the start of a new cycle."
Yet having absolute control brought no satisfaction. Instead, it gave rise to a nothingness that followed her like a shadow. She watched with indifference as her kind were born into slaughter and perished in ever-ending war. In time, she began to ponder a question that even the Mother Matrix could not answer: once Planet Dawnbreak had been reduced to nothing and human civilization had been completely "cleansed," what then? What fate awaited The Enders when they no longer served a purpose? Would it be an eternal slumber, or an endless cycle of self-annihilation?
Driven by an almost clinical curiosity, conducted an experiment many years ago. During a heavy downpour, she placed a young Ender specimen now known as —the first to possess a perfect human form—into a human settlement. From the edge of the Storm Citadel, she watched with keen interest as the humans took into their arms a seed capable of destroying their entire civilization. She did not care whether would betray them. She only wanted to see what kind of twisted yet magnificent flower would bloom when an Ender's core is steeped in human warmth, selfishness, and ambition.
Years later, when that child began making a name for herself at Selrick Academy and even tried to resist 's recall signal, was not angered. If anything, it only made the game more interesting. 's little schemes, her ambition, her absolute hunger for freedom... all of it brought a rare flicker of amusement amid the vast nothingness.
The girl thought she was deftly playing at infiltration and betrayal. She thought building the "Silverbolt" mecha suit would give her the leverage she needed to reclaim her freedom. But to , every carefully planned act of defiance was merely a puppet's final dance before the strings tightened.
To make the performance even more entertaining, played along, deliberately leaving flaws in her own plans to lead toward the most complete act of "betrayal."
She needed a lieutenant capable of seeing through the game, or perhaps an opponent capable of posing a genuine threat. She wanted to see just how far could go. Only a betrayal powerful enough to shake the board was worthy of becoming an uncertainty in 's long existence.
But how could a puppet ever act beyond the will of the one pulling its strings?
charged toward the Storm Citadel, streaking through the storm like a bolt of lightning. stood at her throne, her inhuman, mecha-like shell gleaming with a cold sheen amid the crackle of electricity.
She looked down at the girl coming straight for her—the pawn she had placed with her own hands, watched grow, and now saw turning against her.
parted her lips. As she studied 's face, filled with defiance and an unyielding will, she felt a pleasure she had not known in a very long time.
"Look at how much you've grown, my child."
Her voice remained perfectly calm, but the violet light in her eyes burned with a fervor more intense than ever before.
If could usurp her, or create a third possibility beyond the choices already on the board, then the catastrophe unleashed upon Planet Dawnbreak would finally have meaning. still believed everything was under her control, yet what she truly sought was to see the entire game fall apart at the very end. She was the Imperatrix of The Enders, the ruthless mastermind. But her madness ran deeper—a desperate desire to witness "a different ending."
