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A King's Legacy

Chapters 35 & 36:

A Sudden Spark / Her Warmth

Stahl was frantic, begging Aster to open his eyes again as the boy faded off in his grasp. Stahl trembled in non-acceptance, ignoring the pain in his arm, desperately seeking some way to do the impossible, to save his mate... with a hysterical shout, Stahl desperately called out for Rust, praying that somehow, the little fox was nearby, that he could hear him... that he could save Aster... Stahl stared back down at his mate in frantic desperation, the beast's panic rose to a crushing level, and Stahl soon found himself doing the only thing that made sense to him in that moment... The wolf howled.

Stahl tossed his head back, and howled desperately into the air of that fallen castle, pleading that somehow, somebody would help him... somebody would be there... somebody-

"STAHL, by- by the gods, I'm so sorry..." Erden had been snatched right into his mind in his overwhelming state of despair, his emotions well barreling past the threshold separating the Aschefell minds in times of dire circumstances. Erden found the situation chillingly familiar, remembering the last time she was forced into a position like this... When Silbern... The elder wolf snapped back to, determined not to freeze like she did back then... determined to be there for her brother the way she had failed to be there for her father. Erden spoke hastily.

"IS HE STILL BREATHING?" Stahl weakly responded mentally, unable to form words without his breath between gasps.

"No..." Erden was trying her best to keep things together.

"YOU NEED TO ACT FAST THEN, START BY-" The older sister stopped speaking suddenly, there was something else lingering there... There was someone else in their link, and it was somebody terrifying.

"You need to hold him tightly for this part." The foreign voice spoke sweetly to the manic wolf, interrupting Stahl's mourning with her alien tone. Stahl blinked in disbelief, Erden shouted to her brother in fear.

"Stahl... Don't listen to whatever that is..." The voice responded with an amused chuckle first, followed by words lacquered with an unbelievably sweet coating that hurt the elder wolf's ears.

"Well that's not very kind of you to say... Don't you want to save that human's life?"

Stahl's breath caught in his throat, and he swiftly pressed for answers.

"How? What do I need to do?" The voice let out an annoyed sigh in response. Stahl prodded again, begging the presence.

"PLEASE! TELL ME WHAT I HAVE TO DO!" Erden cut in once again.

"Stahl, you cannot trust that thin-" The voice cut her off.

"It's actually very easy. All you have to do is what I already told you to do, hold him tightly for this part..." Stahl scoffed in anger, not having the mind for such games. He shouted back.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN? I JUST GIVE HIM A HUG UNTIL HE FEELS BETTER?" The presence responded in a pouty voice.

"Well, if you're going to be mean about it, you can just let him die then." Stahl panicked, he didn't have the mentality or the strength to do this right now... He didn't have the capacity to have such hope dangled before him. He begged in desperation.

"Please... forgive me... just please, whoever you are, please... tell me what I do..." She went silent for a moment more before she responded happily.

"I told you, hold him tightly when it starts, and don't let go no matter what. If it swallows both of you, you may be able to drag him back out. He will be swallowed by it regardless, whether you go with him or not." Stahl's eyes widened at such words. When it starts? Swallowed? He... he could drag him back out? Out of death? Out of injury? What did she mean?

As Stahl was lost in his decision, Erden had taken action, trying her best to push back against that terrible mind feeding off of her brother's trauma. The wolf could get almost nothing from that cold and analytical mind shrouded in mist, but Erden was able to peek just far enough below the surface to realize what they were dealing with. The sister trembled at the reveal, quickly shouting to her brother shrilly in her dark discovery.

"She's fucking insane Stahl! she is manipulative, she is dark, she is broken, and she is the-" The voice cut in quickly, silencing Erden before she could ever finish her warning. The voice spoke directly to the older sister now, hiding her words from the brother.

'That's enough of that... I really don't like being mean to good girls, so why don't you just go away...' Just as Erden was about to make a final, desperate call to her brother, a ringing snap of fingers echoed into both of the Aschefell sibling's minds. That snap slowly built up in volume, the ringing growing louder, and louder, and louder, until finally, with the sound of a snapping cord of twine, Erden Aschefell felt the sharpest pain imaginable behind her right eye, causing her to buckle over and collapse in the middle of both her current affairs, and her efforts to save her brother from the mad goddess.

With a snap of her fingers, the moon goddess responsible for gifting the bloodskills in the first place cut Stahl Aschefell from his family gift. She had him isolated, desperate, and at the end of his rope. She was right to wait so long before making her move on the wolf, only ever "gently," coaxing him before. It would be easy to send him after her sister's light, just as easily as she had commanded him to protect it no matter what all those times. She spoke softly to her favored child.

"You'll need to hurry up with that hug soon, it's about to start you know..." Stahl trembled in place, still just clinging to Aster's body, never even realizing he couldn't hear his sister anymore in his delirium. The wolf answered frailly.

"I just hold him?" The moon goddess cooed reassuringly into his ear.

"Just a nice, big, tight hug, and you just keep holding on when it starts, no matter what. You'll come back just fine." She was a damned good liar, and an even better puppeteer, but being heartless had that effect on mad gods with singular goals. Stahl drew Aster closer into his embrace, the very sword that had taken his life threatening to pierce the beast's own flesh as well in that position. Stahl was only staring down dazedly at his fallen king. The wolf repeated the steps to himself, slowly accepting even the slightest chance, not questioning nearly enough in his ultimate low point.

"Just keep holding him? And that can save him?" She coaxed him a final time.

"That's all... I promise... You two will be together. You can keep her heart safe. You can keep her alive... you have to protect it. I've been telling you as much this entire time." Stahl closed his eyes, easily swayed by the words of the moon goddess in his greatest moment of weakness. He held Aster so close, how could he ever do anything but hold Aster so close?

It burned, it burned the wolf so badly, but that burn was not nearly as painful as letting go would be. Stahl kept his eyes closed, he kept his brow pressed lovingly into his mate's own, and he wrapped himself around his lover the best he could manage in his broken state. The wolf was willing to do anything for his love, even holding on so tightly as the darkness placed inside of the stolen king was freed at long last. That darkness grew, and festered, and soon consumed the wolf and his boy entirely.

===

Aster was having that dream again, the one where he was dead. It was so dark, but it was just so peaceful as well. He was simply floating, suspended in some invisible mass. Nothing hurt, nothing was weighing on his mind, nothing felt like it would cause him any pain or distress anymore. He really started to like this dream. The young king could've stayed there a while longer, but he did feel something a moment later. He couldn't see anything yet, but Aster still heard the familiar voice softly reach out to him in that place.

"Still sleeping late I see... Some bad habits even kings carry with them I suppose. Come now, young master, you still have so much to be done." Aster furrowed his brows in the darkness, groaning as he was pulled away from his rest. The boy softly mumbled out in a familiar, half-dazed state.

"I'm getting up, Javis, just a moment more." Aster felt a caring touch pass over his brow, brushing his hair away from his eyes the same as the antelope always had. The butler whispered lovingly to the boy he had raised.

"I'm sorry, but you already have guests waiting. You can't afford to linger here for longer than needed." Those words finally brought a little more awareness to the young king's groggy mind, and Aster was soon opening his eyes to ask for clarification. Javis wasn't there, but somebody else was instead. Nothing was very dark anymore...

Aster was lying on his back in a field of flowers, staring up at the bluest sky he had ever thought possible. The clouds were all a pure white, not a trace of gray anywhere on the horizon. The splashing current of a smaller river nearby filled Aster's ears, only adding to the wondrously peaceful atmosphere in that place. The aroma in the air was more soothing and pleasant than Aster ever would've believed air could smell. Thousands of different types of flowers blooming all at once made for a breathtaking and enchanting scenery that would've been rather overwhelming were it not for one other thing in that garden...

Aster's head was resting in somebody's lap... Aster was staring up in pure surprise as a stern and piercing, yet gentle gaze stared back down at him. Aster was staring up at another man, one seemingly only a few years older than the boy was.

This man had close-cut brown hair that framed his face well. The man had a thick beard covering his wider jaw, and heavy eyebrows perched over a weathered gaze of eyes more golden than the sunset. That pained gaze simply stared back at the boy resting in his lap for a moment longer before he finally made his move.

A steady hand, one rough and calloused from years of hard work and training was raised by the stranger, and slowly moved forward. Aster watched on curiously as the man made his gesture, and was admittedly even more surprised when the rugged looking human simply brought his touch up to linger on Aster's brow. With a gentle caressing motion, the man brushed the hair over to the side for the boy, just as he had seen the butler do on countless occasions. The man spoke down to Aster in a voice that was steady, and a little on the deeper side.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that... my son." Aster sucked in a breath at the obvious realization. Of course this was his father, Aster saw so much of his own reflection in the man above him. Aster absentmindedly brought his left hand up, and placed it on his father's forearm in disbelief as he just stared back up at the man. Calium spoke once more with a soft smile, so happy he could finally hold his son again after more than twenty years of being just out of reach.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions for me, and that's alright, I finally have answers for you here. It will take you a little while to adjust enough to this place to do what we need anyway, so while we wait, let me give you a gift, my son." Aster only nodded, still just in awe that this was really happening, still just humbled by the idea that he may finally have some clarity, that he had finally seen his father's face, yet uncertain that the hope wouldn't merely be snatched away from him as it always was. Calium continued steadily.

"Don't worry, I made sure we would get enough time. I made sure it was part of the deal. I made sure that I would be able to give you all the answers you seek, and I made certain that you would get to make your own choice by the end of all this without anyone interrupting us... It's time you learn about everything, my son. It is time you learn about the Peacekeeper's duty, and the truth behind the legendary bloodskills. It is time you learned the truth about our broken world, and it is time you learn what trials stand before you should you wish to fight and rectify it. So, my son, let me tell you three stories while we wait, we will start at the beginning." Aster responded carefully, still feeling all of this was too good to be true.

"And what is the beginning? Do you mean my birth?" King Calium laughed heartily, a booming laugh that Aster found amicable and contagious. The older king answered kindly.

"No, my sweet Solis, I mean THE beginning... the beginning of everything. The first story I have for you is one long since lost to time. This is the true story of the birth of our very world. The first gift I have for you, is the tale of the of the gods that started it all...

===

Tyfin was sitting in silence, deeply pondering his resting high mage's statement. "Father..." A topic the young prince himself found his mind returning to the last few days. Tyfin had been thinking a lot on conversations he once had with his father, and the prince had admittedly been distracting himself from really revisiting those memories too much. Tyfin sat his own thoughts of family aside once more, and returned to pondering on who the resting cat could be referring to. Mere moments after she had finally spoken, Lady Alice suddenly went into a seizure.

Tyfin was by her side immediately, struggling to hold the smaller feline's form as she convulsed and spasmed in his arms. The captain was quick to assist his prince, and the two beasts managed to keep her mostly braced until her violent movement finally came to an abrupt halt. Tyfin's eyes went wide with fear as he could only stare at the high mage in worry. He sighed out a shaky breath of relief when he finally saw her chest begin to rise and fall once more, however faint her breathing had become.

Still, she was definitely in worse shape now, gasping and sputtering in her unconscious state... Tyfin looked to the massive bull pleasingly as he quickly began speaking.

"We have to find her some help!" Rix started to respond.

"I-" The frantic lion cut the bovine off hastily.

"I know that you won't want to risk going into town..." Rix tried to answer once more, but the prince only kept on rambling in his worry.

"I know that it is dangerous, and I know the odds of us finding anyone that can help is slim..." Rix started up again.

"My king-" Tyfin only continued his tirade.

"But we can't just leave her like this! We have to try! I know you may not understand, but-" The impatient bull had enough, and firmly cut his prince off this time with his more commanding tone.

"MY KING! SHUT UP... I AM WITH YOU, I AM ALWAYS WITH YOU, AND WE ARE WASTING TIME. COME, LET US GO DO WHAT YOU FEEL WE NEED TO." Tyfin finally stopped talking. He stared at the bovine in appreciation for a moment, never imagining he would miss that louder voice the captain brandished so often before. The young king smiled, helped the bull shoulder the feline, and hastily set off with his guard to seek aid for his high mage in the smaller town of Cayne.

===

Nothing. In the beginning, there was simply nothing. Matter was scattered about randomly, endlessly shifting on the slightest and most unfathomably small scale. There was no sense to it. There was no reason. There was nothing but the most microscopic connections as this matter grazed by other matter. And then suddenly, for a single, defining instant, when everything met the most impossibly astronomical conditions... there was a sudden spark.

Life. It was there in the endless darkness before all else within our grasp of understanding ever came to be. It was there first, it had come to be in this world against all odds, and by the very laws of nature that governed such a world, so was she required to come to be.

The first mother, the caretaker and guardian of life itself; the most impossible, yet sacred force to ever come into existence. It was she who was assigned the responsibility of nurturing such a force. She knew her duty long before life ever even grew conscious. She loved her duty, and she loved nurturing the first spark of life making its way through a dark world.

For many weeks, she watched over her spark protectively, but being certain she let it live and explore, as life needed to. She reassured it when it bumped into something sharp. She soothed it when it felt alone. She fed it her own energy when it hungered. She coddled that spark dearly, and the two were ever so happy to have each other. And then one day, it happened.

The spark had fizzled out. The tiny organism finally reached the end of its limited existence, and it passed away rather suddenly, leaving her all alone. She wept for her loss, and the first of the goddess's tears fell to splash against the space below her. Where they met with the darkness, there bloomed flowers born of her own power and grace. Every flower that would ever even exist began to sprout and overtake the place where the first spark of life was laid to rest, building from the very potential of such floral life one day coming to be. This became known as the garden of life. This became the foundation of the very Afterworld. This was the birthplace of the second god, this was the birthplace of Death.

She was startled when he appeared, her tears finally ceasing as she only watched him perform the duty he had been called forth to bear. He reached down towards the ever-still creature, and pulled something free from the fallen life. Death had formed the first soul from the remains of the goddess's companion. This soul contained all essence of the life's memories, dreams, desires, preferences, and even fears of the things that had harmed it. This spirit contained the very essence of life itself the goddess had thought was lost.

Death approached the goddess of life, carefully cradling the tiny soul as he offered it back up to her. She reached out gently, and gratefully held the soul in front of herself in bliss. The life could return to the spirit, but it would need a new body. That was something she could handle. The goddess drew in a deep breath, pulling in the scattered minerals and elements lying in the space all around her, and exhaled onto the soul, building up an entirely new form around it from the collected ingredients imbued with her power. With that, the cycle of reincarnation began.

There in that garden of endless flora, of endless days, they lived so very happily together; Life, Death, and the first soul. Many times, the creature would perish once more, and many times, the gods would re-forged that life anew. With every cycle, the soul grew larger with gained experiences, memories, and eventually, even emotions. The soul grew larger, and larger, and larger, until one day, when Death had pulled the spirit from the corpse, the gods were left in shock at what they saw.

The soul had split in two. Death and Life were dumbfounded, never expecting such a development, but welcoming it all the same. The goddess cradled the souls, and breathed her life onto them once more. Suddenly, their trio was a quartet, and the gods rejoiced at the development, but only more bewilderment awaited those young gods.

The souls were far happier now. The two organisms went everywhere together, they played together, they rested together, and they loved together. Out of that love, the true nature of Life's power was revealed when a third was born between the first souls, a new soul bearing traits from both of its parents born into a body they had created themselves. Life and Death rejoiced, but they wouldn't truly understand the development until it was time to breathe life into those souls once again. The first of the twins died before the second. Death harvested the soul, and gave it to the goddess as usual. She breathed her power onto it, but it did not reform, it refused to let go of what it had. It refused to reform without its lover. The gods began to worry, the second creature grew more still by every passing moment in the absence of the first. The third creature grew scared of Death himself.

The second of the twins died a few days later. Only the third one, the offspring, remained. Death harvested this second half of the original soul, and brought it before his beloved. She failed to breathe life into it as well. In her desperation, she placed the two souls that loved each other beside one another, hoping that they may choose life together yet again. She didn't expect them to reform into one.

They were simply waiting for each other. Those souls danced around, reunited after death had separated them. All the love between them was finally back in the same form, and the two spirits rejoined into one. Those memories and emotions defined their love, and the love that made up those spirits was mixed and swirled together before the soul split apart once again. They were both different than before, both taking various traits from the other to alter their new appearances. The souls returned to the first mother together, proud of the changes their time and love together had made to their true selves. She held them closely, and breathed her power on them once more. They accepted her gift as they entered the realm of the living by each others side, ready to do it all over again with brand new hearts to shape their next life.

The offspring of the original pair finally passed a few weeks later as well, never overcoming the fear and loneliness it felt before dying. When Death solemnly came to perform his duty, he froze upon pulling the spirit free.

It had some form of corruption on it, some dark mass that clung tightly to the spirit, even in death. The god of death panicked, but the goddess of life soothed the worry of her beloved a moment after.

She began singing for the injured soul, the first song, the song of rebirth. The spirit gained clarity by the melody infused with the very spark of the life goddess, and it finally managed to overcome that pain, shed the corruption caused by it, and chose to be reborn anew.

From that day on, as the souls grew in number, and as more and more of them found their fated pairs, what would one day be the very population of this world of ours began forming over thousands and thousands of years in this cycle of life, love, death, closure, and rebirth. One day, after Life and Death had many, many children between them, Death approached his beloved with a question.

"My love, my light, do they not deserve their own light to guide them? Do they not deserve a home that better suits their existence?" Life looked to her beloved, and answered kindly.

"We all deserve light. We all deserve a home." Death pondered on that answer. Life saw his worry, and she offered a solution.

"Then I will take a piece of my own power, of my own spark, and I will make for us a celestial child to light the way forth for our mortal children." Death was ashamed that she would be sacrificing when he would not, and so, the god made his own counter.

"Then I will take a piece of my own shadow, and I will forge that celestial child a sibling to follow them always." The goddess of life smiled, and the god of death bowed. The third and fourth gods were born soon after.

A scorching sun, a burning beacon fueled by the very spark of life itself to light and warm the new world by day. The sun goddess was born of the life goddess's spark.

A reflective moon, a mirroring entity shining truth on the shadows that try to hide in the night. The moon goddess was born from the god of death's shadow.

Their family had grown, and their daughters were charged with creating a more permanent home for the souls between reincarnation. By the sisters combining their strength, by combining the powers originally based in life and death, the final three of the first gods were born.

The earth goddess. She was magnificently dependable. Her armor shaped the very mountains, her soil guided the very roots, and her body would serve as the children's very home. Her strength was the foundation of all, and her presence nurtured and cradled the children from their earliest days on.

The ocean god. He was imposing, yet graceful. He could strike terror into the children's hearts, or he could bring them all the peace and bounty they could ever want. His power spread the waters of life across the lands graciously, offering shelter to the life that preferred the wet, the dark, and the damp.

The sky, a deity formed of whispers, hopes, and truths. A whimsical god that carried soothing rain and vicious storms alike to wherever he deemed fit. His charge was to maintain the veil between the garden, the earth, and the darkness beyond. His winds brought with them the power to change even the most shrouded hearts.

The seven reigned; Life, Death, Sun, Moon, Earth, Ocean, Sky. They were a family, and they were happy together as they ruled the world they had given shape to. There was quite the learning curve ahead of them, but they persevered the best they could. It took a few thousand years or so, but they all fell into their roles gracefully after a while. Had the gods left well enough alone, they could have likely just stayed with their planet of ever evolving feral children in peace. The goddess of life had other plans, however.

===

It was so dark at first... It was just so lonely and isolating in Stahl's opinion. He didn't know how he even got where he was in that moment, but the beast just felt so... cold. He felt a presence reach out to his mind, and he answered enthusiastically in habit.

"Sister? Father?" Neither of the beasts answered him, instead, another familiar voice rang clearly in his consciousness.

"So, my brother... You're eager to follow my path even here then?" Stahl shuddered out raggedly as he called out in humbling recognition.

"Silbern?" The eldest of the Aschefell children greeted his brother warmly in the afterworld.

"Hey, little brother. It's been a while..." Stahl called out quickly, finding himself with millions of questions.

"Where are you?" Silbern chuckled gently as he replied to the younger wolf.

"Here and there, keeping an eye on things from this side. I've been keeping an eye on you too." Stahl asked longingly.

"Can I see you?" Silbern went silent for a while before he answered.

"One day, I'm certain we will see each other again, but that can't happen just yet. I only came to offer you a little advice before you do what you need to here." Stahl deflated, merely wanting to have a little more time with his brother, time he couldn't have anymore. Silbern continued.

"Given you actually do make it back out of this place, you'll need to bring Loch his key. Our family has dark trouble heading straight for it, my brother, and it's going to take all of you working together to come out on top, and I do mean all of you." Stahl answered the warning warily.

"I am not the pillar for our family that you were... I do not know if I can mend the hurt between them..." Silbern answered as warmly as ever.

"You are so much more than only a pillar, my dear brother. You have no idea of the greatness that awaits you in time. You have no idea of the happiness that awaits you. You have no idea of the strength our family may bear when it stands together... But you also have no idea what is coming straight for our family yet again..." Stahl felt his breathing stop for a moment... "yet again..." did that mean?

"Wait... what do-" Silbern cut his brother off, he had said all he could say. The Aschefells knew how to handle things from there, he was certain of it. The older wolf spoke in finality to the younger one, sending his brother where he was truly needed in that moment.

"Even Aschefell steel may bend, but our steel may always be re-forged into what we need it to be. Don't be afraid to make new steel from the armor you outgrow on your way, my dear brother." Stahl wanted to call out one final time, to ensure Silbern knew all of the things Stahl so desperately needed to tell his brother before letting him go again... Silbern already knew, and Stahl opened his eyes in a field of flowers...

The noble wolf sat up with a gasping jolt, breathing rapidly. The beast took a moment to gather his thoughts and to take in his surroundings before his vision settled on the last person he expected to be running into... It was Jagón Venatus, and the panther was staring intently towards a swirling wall of shadows.

On the other side of that wall, barely visible through the smoldering and shifting wisps of darkness, Aster was lying on his back and staring up at another human. The older human was speaking down to Aster, but the wolf wasn't quite close enough to hear what was being said yet. It didn't appear Aster could see that wall or anything on the other side of it at all.

Stahl staggered to his feet, feeling unusually light in that moment so freshly detached from the mortal realm. The noble wolf slowly began walking towards Aster's adoptive beast father. Jagón certainly wasn't expecting Stahl's company in that place.

Calium almost smiled when that wolf woke up on the other side of that field. It seemed the beast had made his first choice correctly, just as the dead king had recently warned him to. The knight had followed his king to the battlefield.

===

The life goddess called it her masterpiece... The first of man. In truth, the other gods were not so certain. She had been building this soul carefully, merging just what she needed to bring shape to this creation. Her power was always dependable, if nothing else. Man was born by the smallest fragment of her own spark, and she placed him into the world for the first time. He did absolute wonders with it. This soul reincarnated a few times the same as they all did, and each life seemed pretty normal. The human was curious, and incredibly smart, and after being in constant contact with the gods, it didn't take him too many lifetimes to realize what was happening to him, to his soul... His reaction was unforeseen by any of the young gods when he made this unsettling discovery on his seventh reincarnation...

He became violent, hysterical, spouting off about nothing in his existence ever mattering at all... The first man was the very first to curse the gods. He blamed Life above all else, insisting that he was merely some toy for her amusement. He demanded that he be allowed to stay dead this time. He cursed her for ever forging his soul until the other gods intervened, and he cursed her even still until she agreed she would let him rest, that she would not breathe her power back into his spirit this time. The first of man took his own seventh life in anguish and resentment, and the goddess kept her promise, even as she wept for her child.

Death went to harvest the soul, to let it rest in the garden if nothing else, but when he drew it from the remains of the first man, Death witnessed something that truly frightened even him. Encasing the entire spirit, building around it in a spiky, black armor of stone, was the hatred and fear the first man had died holding on to. What Death was holding, would soon change the god's entire understanding of their responsibility to the children they watched over.

Death had returned the injured soul to the garden of life, keeping his resolve on the lost child deserving rest and peace if choosing to sleep eternally was its chooce. The goddess wanted to sing for the spirit, to ease away that blackened armor the way she eased away the lesser burdens her children carried after life, but she hesitated, fearing her interference would only anger the soul further. She let it rest, all of the gods merely let it rest in that condition, and for a few years or so, it did. Then one day, it woke up.

It was eye-opening to the gods, it was what finally made them realize the true seriousness behind their duties, and the fragility of the life they all catered to. It was awful...

The soul of the human had awoken, completely absorbed by the hatred that lingered around it with time. It's newly forming body was twisted by the cruel circumstances of its life that it never could let go of or accept, and where the spirit fused with the armor of hatred, the first of man became the first of the fiends. The fiend feasted in the garden, consuming and absorbing many of the more gentle souls currently resting there. As Life came to face the shadow that remained, she realized the true nature of her purpose, that her song wasn't just something that was optional, but that closure was something those tormented spirits needed to prevent such tragedy and darkness from ever taking root.

The goddess of life struck down the fiend, landing a blow on its corrupted heart, and as the creature crumbled away, so did the very soul that had formed it. The first spirit of man shattered into seven pieces bearing the emotions and essence of each of his past lives fused with the very essence of the souls he had consumed as a fiend. Those broken pieces that remained became the basis for the first seven humans to be reborn, after the gods corrected their errors, that is.

They would hide the truth of rebirth from the children, the ones that couldn't handle it at least. They would keep their distance, and they would not overly interfere with their children's growth in their more true forms anymore. They would need to rule with a bit more distance between the children, and that meant their power needed a mask. From this idea sprung forth their need for vessels. From that need, arose another creation of the gods.

Each would raise a beast, a mythic feral modeled after the favorite of their children. These beasts would be imbued with their own power, blessings, and immortality. These vessels were created as direct links to the hearts of the seven gods in the mortal realm. These vessels were crafted by each to perform their sacred duties for them in lieu of their absence. Should the gods need to intervene for anything, they only needed to inhabit such a vessel.

The sky god decided first; a crimson phoenix modeled after the most powerful ruler of his domain in that era. He added his own touch, paying homage to his sun sister in the creation of his feral beast by imbuing her flames into the very wings and feathers of his masterpiece. It was extraordinary, and it inspired the earth goddess to decide next, giving birth to the largest of the legendary ferals, the beast of the mountain.

The great amber dragon, a form chosen for representing dependability, resiliency, and for the formidable feral dragons that ruled over the mountains of the land. The earth goddess's very ores; her gold, her diamonds, and her topaz the same amber color of her father's eyes were shaped and inlaid into the scales of the incredible beast, forging a dazzling creation any blacksmith would weep to behold. It was the ocean to settle next, choosing to build upon his personal favorite among the creatures hiding in his depths.

The silver hydra, five ever striking heads, each with endless possibility for growth or destruction, each with conflicting minds and desires, crashing into one another until order was finally established among them by the strongest current. Just as the strongest wave overtook the weaker, the hydra was a beast that required absolute command over one's conflicted heart. The ocean chose the vibrant sheen of quicksilver scales to honor the only of his earth sister's metals to retain its fluidity. It was the moon to decide next.

Her favored children were the canines, the wolves, the foxes, the dogs, it mattered not, she loved them all so, so dearly, and they praised her so thoroughly with their voices when she shone brightly through the night for them. She drew inspiration from each, and built the most majestic of all the feral vessels, an ivory beast bearing traits of all her beloved canines, lupines, vulpines, and everything in between. She gave the beast her shine, the pure, ivory fur glowing with the very power of it's lunar mother. She took the tails from her seven favorite canines, one for each of the first gods, and attached them to her beast in homage. The sun was inspired, and in an odd twist of fate, it was her to mirror the moon this time.

She dearly admired felines, and her sister had given her the greatest idea after being so indecisive on which she would choose. She crafted a mighty griffon. She pulled from the lions, the tigers, the leopards, the cheetahs, the lynxes, the mountain lions, and even the more smaller breeds in between. She pulled from coats and patterns of all different styles for her creation. She borrowed the wings of an eagle, to honor her brother of the sky, and instilled her patchwork creation with her air of mischievousness. The result was a winged cat, bearing traces of each of the individual and mismatched patterns and coat colors that had inspired its creation. It was truly the most unique among all of the vessels, but possibly the most magically adept as a result of so many muses.

Death was coming up empty handed, having a hard time feeling any of the ferals really felt like something that would honor his most somber and sacred duty to Life. His beloved saw his hesitation, and Life decided she would help him get started. It was what she did, after all. She chose something that represented him well, she chose the form of the very first feral to become extinct in their world, all the souls of that species changing into something else entirely over the years of rebirth since. She would showcase the beauty behind Death with a reminder of its ability to always keep the essence of his children alive. To remember where one started, and where one might end. She crafted him his reaper from the remains of the last unicorn that drew breath in their world.

"He returned the favor for his goddess, and crafted her something just as worthy in return..."

King Calium trailed off, leaving Aster to eagerly ask the question. This was the best story he had ever heard! Calium was happy to see his son was enjoying it so far.

"So what was the beast of life like?" Calium answered with that warm laugh again.

"I have no idea, he wouldn't tell me. I think he was a little embarrassed by what he created as his tribute to her beauty, between you and me." Aster cocked his head to the side some, raising an eyebrow in question.

"He?" Calium replied softly.

"Death. He has his secrets, but he knows nothing binds me here, so he didn't tell me. I can tell you all I know now, as per our deal." Aster was taken aback by that casual answer. He pressed further, finally sitting up at last as he stared back at his father.

"Wait, you made a deal with Death? Does that mean... you used blood magic?" Calium took on a somber appearance for a while, but he answered his son honestly.

"Yes, I did, and I regret nothing enough that I wouldn't do it again. It is not the great evil you were told it was, it is merely the door for mortals to barter directly with the gods. It only has a bad reputation in this age because Death is the only god still making deals these days, so all the deals are based in his power and domain. All the deals are based in Death now." Aster was stunned, not sure how he felt about that conflicting information. With an alarmed sense of panic, the boy asked his father a question he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to.

"Are... Are you the one that put that darkness inside of me then?" Calium lowered his head, steadied his voice, and stared his son directly in the eyes as he answered him truthfully.

"Yes, I am. If you will let me continue, you'll receive that answer in another story, but I assure you, this first story is important and relevant to my reasoning. May I continue? This may be the only time I ever really get with you, my son, I don't want it soiled by distrust when I haven't even had my chance to finish explaining myself... So please, may I finish? I'll answer any questions you still have afterwards, I swear it." Aster was very unsure of this. He looked to his father, and thought hard about his words. The boy sighed heavily, adjusted his position, and laid his head back in his father's lap, much to the king's delight. Calium picked up around where he had left off as he began idly stroking his son's hair once more.

"Now, where were we..."

===

Cortist came barreling through his portal, calling out desperately to a beast far too consumed by sorrow to ever hear him. The young panther was hysterical and petrified at the very sight at first... His brother lay slain, a glistening sword forced through his back. The ashen wolf was cradling his brother so closely in mourning. Cortist didn't know what to do when he was suddenly thrown into such a situation, so the panther froze for a moment. That is, until he witnessed the change begin...

From the place where the sword pierced him, a shadowy darkness flowed from his brother's fresh corpse. This darkness crawled over the boy's skin like a fog, slowly encompassing the soft flesh as it grew more and more over his form. Where the fog passed over, spiky armor of the blackest obsidian began to rise in its wake, growing to consume his human brother rapidly. Stahl just kept holding on, keeping his eyes closed at he clung to Aster through it all. Eventually, the shadows had no other choice but to take the wolf as well.

A writhing black mass remained, shifting, growing, and shaping itself from the essence that it combined to give it life. The body of a young shield bearer, the soul of an ancient demon bearing the sword, the heart of a king who would risk everything for his children, the dying curses and pain of all the humans killed by King Alocer's genocide... all of these things made for quite a powerful base as it was, consuming the despair and regret of the crushed noble wolf only made the demon that much more impossibly destructive in the end.

The demon was huge, towering nearly twenty feet high as it raised itself up on two legs. There was a large and familiar shadowy sword sticking through the front of this demon's chest, mimicking its host's death with Calium's own sword. The creature's head took on a ghastly semblance, a dark and feral wolf-like face complete with spiraling and jagged horns of blackened stone erupting from the brow. The wispy and unmistakable red eyes of a demon formed in this twisted likeness, and the demon bared it's razor fangs sharply in a snarl as it truly became as alive as you can call such a creature.

The monster raised its right hand up, and called into being a golden shield freshly pilfered from the corpse of the stolen human king himself. It snatched a hold of the larger, golden disk with its clawed right hand, and slammed the edge of the shield into the earth before it in challenge of the young mage. The demon did something after that would forever haunt Cortist's nightmares from that day on.

It roared... The most ear-splitting, hair-raising, and hope desecrating sound that Cortist would ever hear, was the sound of his brother's broken heart crying out in anguish after death. The demon's howl was a vengeful pledge to burn the unfair world which had scorned so many lost souls so thoroughly in life.

The panther nearly wept in defeat at the monster such hatred had given birth to standing before him, standing where his brother had been mere seconds after they were finally reunited. Cortist Venatus truly had an unthinkable opponent to fend off, one carrying more combined and unresolved darkness than any demon that ever came before it. The young panther just didn't think he stood a chance against such a cruel fated abomination... He just didn't see how he could fight Aster, no matter how badly the shadow that remained hungered for the young panther's tantalizing warmth... It attacked.

===

The reborn humans were far more successful with the vessels in place for the new world order, possibly due to absorbing and fusing with more tranquil souls when they were all still part of that first fiend. These humans went far, their ancestors branching out all over the world. All seemed to progress naturally from there, the humans established themselves at the top of the life on earth, and the hunters ruled their prey, as was the basic right of life. The prey certainly fought back, however.

A great war broke out, the ferals and humans battled for supremacy. This war waged on for centuries, the gods themselves growing weary of such endless struggle between their children. Just before they intervened, just before the gods themselves redefined their lost world yet again, a human was born that would soon change everything.

He was a simple boy, holding no real title among mankind, but bearing an unshakeable charisma. The boy looked around his war-torn world, and saw that fighting was all that anyone ever seemed to have time for. He saw that this endless cycle had consumed both his people, and the ferals alike. He decided he would fix it.

The human boy made a bold declaration before his people.

"I will travel to the lands of beasts, I will speak to the dragons that lead the ferals, and I will broker peace between our kinds." The boy was laughed out of his town, but he set out with his heart of gold all the same on his admirable quest. He traveled a long while for great distances, far beyond the lands of men, and well into the domain of beasts. His journey weathered him, and it broke him, and it cost him nearly everything by the end, but the boy arrived at the mountains of the dragons by the end of his long journey with his golden heart somehow still shining. The dragons swarmed this seemingly lost boy immediately when he stepped right into their home.

"Why have you come here? What can a mere human have to say to us dragons? What makes you even believe we want peace?" Their questions seemed as if they would never end, the dragons poking and prodding the boy as much as his own people had, that is, until their young queen came forth.

She was breathtaking, a long body with scales darker than the night. Her eyes were a brilliant silver, and her horns and claws were dipped in the purest white color the human had ever seen in nature before. Her grand wings unfurled behind her, the shadow of the majestic creature engulfing the boy entirely. He could only stare at such beauty in a dumbfounded state. She asked her own question then.

"Do you truly believe we may have peace between our kinds after so many years of irreparable resentment and injustice between us?" The boy smiled his charming smile, and spoke in that dazzling and optimistic tone of his.

"Maybe if we start trying today." The queen of the dragons laughed at such enthusiasm, but believe it or not, the war really did come to an end by their united efforts in changing their own people's hearts. Many years passed, and the boy grew into a man, who in turn grew into an old man. He had spent a lifetime beside the dragon queen, dedicating his shorter lifespan to ensuring peace would remain between their species long after his time had ended in that realm. The young dragon queen would never say such a thing out loud, but she had truly come to love that human with the golden heart. He passed away in the mountains of the dragons, and she never truly stopped mourning his loss for the many years of her long life to come. The memory of that man was carried forth for centuries.

When that human died, and when the beast of Death carried his soul into the afterworld, the soul of that man did something the gods had grown used to; he chose to wait for someone before moving on to the next life together. Ten years passed. One hundred years passed... Nearly a thousand years passed, but that soul with the warm heart only kept on waiting patiently for the one he wanted to reincarnate beside. The gods were stumped, knowing any other human soul from his time had reincarnated multiple times over by that point. The man wouldn't budge though, not until the day that other soul he had waited centuries for finally joined him in the afterworld.

She was as beautiful as ever, she had aged gracefully over the last millennia, only growing more incredibly breathtaking since the last he had laid weary eyes on her all those centuries before. She was so happy he had waited for her, and she had never once forgotten what that boy with the big heart had shown her about the way life should be for all who called the earth their home.

The gods could only watch on in utter astonishment as those two souls started to merge. They did not separate after, choosing instead to retain the very essence of both before being reborn as one. The souls of the boy and the dragon melded together to create something entirely new. The goddess of life smiled blissfully at the result as she breathed her life around the dawn of a new age. The beastmen were born from the joining of those two souls, and the black and golden dragon resulting from that union became the first of his kind to walk the earth. He became a king among men and ferals alike, but there was one major problem with new life blooming at this point in the evolutionary stage... The beastman was all alone.

The goddess of life intervened, desperate to ensure the most beautiful union of her children could find some way to persevere in a world he was unique to. The goddess of life bestowed the first gift to the word in centuries; the goddess gave the dragon the means to create life from any such love he may find. The gift of magical birth allowed the first beastman's bloodline to continue well into the current age, but that is mostly a tale for another time...

What you need to know, is that the humans quickly grew jealous of the favor the goddess of life held for the new species, they were growing weary of the leaps in strength the beastmen possessed over them. The moon goddess intervened with her solution just in time.

She used her power, the power to mirror and replicate other abilities. She copied the gifts and abilities of the gods on varying scales, loosely capturing tiny fragments of their powers. She scattered these fragments of power across the life of the land, fusing them with different spirits of beastmen, humans, and even some of the other species born after the souls began joining in more unpredictable ways.

Bloodskills were gifted of the moon's grace by fusing the power of gods with the spirits of mortals, and as a result, the fears and worries over the gaps of power between species began to fade entirely over time with the balance restored. These fragments of power would often replicate themselves further when an offspring was born of a soul bearing the gift.

Many more years passed, and the species became more and more various in some ways, yet defined and united in others. Settlements shifted from majority human to beastman countless times over as the world grew, changed, and evolved, but eventually, tensions arose once more.

It was long after the spirits choosing to remain feral created a language different from that used by the beastmen and humans. It was long after the orcs emerged and established their place among the other more prevalent kinds of children. It was long after the feral dragons decided to slumber together as a species for a few millennia. It was long after the gods had grown comfortable in their power, that the humans did what they tended to do best; They created a conflict, and they started a war.

Mankind marched against the beastmen without mercy, without provocation, and without dignity. It was sudden, bloody, and brutal. The humans gained the advantage through unthinkably sinister tactics, and the gods of the earth, the sky, and the ocean finally intervened with gifts of their own, taking pity on the beasts attacked so unprovoked.

The sky imbued the magic of healing in the beast children he deemed worthy, giving them the means to preserve the lives of their loved ones in the face of such cruelty. The earth gifted the secrets of the runes to the beasts, so they could protect their homes and their children with barriers of power to ward away those seeking harm. The ocean gifted pieces of the very language of the gods to the beasts, giving them the means to control the basic elements and forces of nature on smaller scales. The gifts turned the tides a little too well in the beastmen's favor....

The humans had fallen on their last leg a few generations later, but the beastmen only kept the pressure on, pushing until fewer and fewer humans remained in the world. The sun goddess heard the pleas of mercy from young human children that never even started such a war, and she begged the other gods to retract their gifts, to return the balance to the way it should have stayed, to broker peace between the species once more.

Her pleading fell on deaf ears, and all of the gods except Life refused to hear her any further. The humans had made their own bed. The beastmen had established themselves at the top of the life on earth, and the hunters ruled their prey, as was the basic right of life...

Five gods voted as a whole that they would not intervene this time, overruling the remaining two. Life reached out to console her oldest daughter when their voices were outweighed, but the sun goddess shunned her, and fled from the garden of life in determination.

The sun goddess was angered the other gods had turned their backs on humanity, and pulled her heart and soul from her celestial form before she placed them into her vessel. The beast of the sun changed when the goddess took control, her power and will completely overtaking the body she had created as the feral's form shifted to better accommodate her intentions. What remained as the last of the feral's wings were tucked away appeared to be your average feline beastman. The sun goddess took up arms in secret to aid the remaining humans in their fight as she held her disguise so expertly. The humans had regained their footing, but the gods were not pleased at her interference.

When she had returned to her home, leaving her vessel behind, her family confronted her over her foolish decision to spare the humans and to meddle even after the vote was cast. The sun goddess tried to make her reasoning heard, but the other gods would not hear it. Their disagreement only escalated further and further, until finally, the ocean, the sky, and the earth found themselves at odds with the sun goddess. They finally came to a decision between the three of them; Were she to meddle in such a way, then they would also. Without ever truly knowing why, mankind incurred the wrath of the gods.

The three gods rallied their feral beasts, the phoenix, the hydra, and the dragon rained down destruction upon the last human stronghold mercilessly. The sun goddess barely made it in time, choosing to inhabit her beast rather than merely command it as the others had. The sun goddess fought bravely with her grand control of magic, but the three gods defeated her in the end with their combined efforts, and humans were nearly wiped from existence as the gods themselves led a crusade in favor of the beastmen.

The sun goddess wept at such firsthand destruction, and in the physical form borrowed from her vessel, the goddess felt her very heart break into many pieces. She saved what human life she still could as she cradled her broken heart in mourning of her failure. She fled with the last of man.

The humans turned to her as their last ray of hope after witnessing her grand control over magic far beyond their reach. It was then that the sun goddess made a decision that has left the world broken ever since... It was then that she created the legendary bloodskills from the pieces of her own shattered heart.

The idea was simple, using a piece of her heart for each, she would craft a set number of bloodskills, ones designed to allow the humans to stand up to the power of the god's vessels themselves, to stand up the legendary feral beasts. She truly had no idea what she was doing, and none of the other gods were ever any the wiser, but she only wanted the humans to have a means to survive.

To stave off the beast of the ocean, she granted one of the remaining humans a trident capable of parting and freezing the waves, and of commanding the stormy heart of the silver Hydra.

To battle the beast of the sky, she crafted a grand bow able to tame the air currents, and shoot down even the crimson phoenix from afar.

To assist with the vessel of the earth, she forged a sword for one of the humans capable of commanding even the most stubborn stone, a sword that could cut its way anywhere. It was a weapon that could bury even the great amber dragon.

Should life and death ride into battle, she prepared two more gifts, a golden shield capable of repelling even the beast of Death's severing assault, and an all consuming breath of vast destruction designed to mimic the one based in creation that Life herself brandished... However...

"The sun goddess had one final measure to take to ensure the humans could survive; a sixth legendary bloodskill designed to counter the beast of the moon." Aster was doing his best to refrain from interrupting, but he couldn't help himself at such a revelation.

"WAIT, THERE ARE SIX? THE STORIES ALWAYS SAID THERE WERE ONLY FIVE!" Calium looked to his enthusiastic son with a smile as he answered that astute observation.

"That is correct, but that's more or less to be expected considering the fate of the sixth..." Aster wasn't sure what his father meant by that, but the boy got the idea, he spoke it so his father wouldn't need to.

"I know... You're getting there, right?" Calium only smiled as he picked back up.

"There was a sixth bloodskill designed to counter the powers of the moon, just in case she decided to step in also, but I can't tell you much about that one, and I'll tell you why shortly."

The sun goddess was exhausted, she had lent out almost all of her heart to craft those living weapons so that mankind may stand a chance, It didn't take long for the other gods to realize what she had done. A final assault was led against the humans of the world, and the results were worse than anyone was prepared for.

The gods vessels were losing, badly. The beasts of the sky, the earth, and the ocean were bested quickly, pinned down by the unexpected and far too powerful abilities wielded by the mortals. The sun goddess could only watch helplessly in her exhausted state.

The bearer of the sword forced open the jaws of the earth by the command of his power. Her mouth was shut around her vessel as she was forced to swallow, and the amber dragon fell into the depths of their master's own stomach.

The beast of the sky was shot down where it crashed into the desert a ways off, the arrows finding their mark no matter how fast or how far the beast had tried traveling to escape. It was swallowed by the raging sandstorms within the day.

The beast of the ocean tried to flee at such displays of strength far too great for mortal hands, but the trident bearer would not allow it. The oceans receded into a large wall, and were frozen in place with a single gesture, barring the hydra's path before encasing it inside of the frozen prison at the bottom of the very seafloor it had once ruled over.

The sun goddess begged for the humans to stop, to know that they had gone too far. The shield bearer tapped against the golden gift made from her own heart in response, and commanded the sun goddess to kneel. She fell to her knees just as the beast of Death finally showed himself on that battlefield, prepared to put a stop to all of this once and for all. He was joined by the beast of life a moment later, who was determined to stop all of this without anymore bloodshed. Both Life and Death had chosen to inhabit their beasts for that final clash with man.

Death stood down as his beloved spoke to all of her children, the mortal and the immortal alike in effort of finding peace. The gods of the earth, the sky, and the ocean listened nearby, their own vessels still badly wounded. The goddess of the sun was still at the mercy of the humans she had tried so desperately to save, but the human children were all well passed the point of caring about what the biased gods that had abandoned them had to say anymore.

The bearer of the breath stepped forward, and inhaled deeply before responding to the life goddess's calls for peace with a blast far more powerful than the sun goddess ever thought possible when she had created the gift. She never would've imagined it could have stripped the beast of life of its very immortality. The vessel of life and the bearer of the breath bloodskill fell simultaneously to the ground on impact, both just as lifeless.

The vessel of Death cradled the vessel of his beloved in disbelief. She was the very goddess of life, she was the very spark that gave movement to all... So why wasn't her vessel moving? Why couldn't he feel her anymore? Why were they able to harm a goddess in this way? Why?

"Why? Why? Why?" Death's vessel was trembling violently, each repetition of his ominous question growing darker and darker. The beast of Death slowly lowered the vessel of his beloved to the ground below. The beasts the gods commanded were connected directly to their hearts... Had they harmed her heart? The beast of Death stood slowly, his golden gaze hardening immensely as he raised his head, sending chills down the spines of the five remaining humans still bestowed with the power to battle against the gods. He was quite the sight to behold in that form.

His golden eyes were glowing brilliantly in their otherwise dark sockets, contrasting sharply against the stony white equine skull that shaped his face. Death raised up a bony hand whiter than the moon itself solemnly to his side. Ribbons of soiled linens clung to his form, as it they were holding together the wispy shadows connecting the more skeletal features of the god beneath his ragged cloak. The vessel brought that hand up to its own brow, wrapping that deathly grip around the long, and regal looking spear of spiraling bone protruding from its forehead. The beast of Death tightened his hold upon the horn, and twisted once, freeing the weapon with the haunting crunch of fracturing skulls.

The jawbone of the horse skull split into two perfect halves, the left side turning out with the attached horn as it was broken free from the rest of the deity's face, still linked by partial fragments of the unicorn skull. When Death pulled once more, half of his face broke away to allow his weapon such freedom. Where the jawbone made a natural curve at the end of the horn-turned-staff, there were jagged teeth still lining the edge. The scythe of Death was always hidden in plain sight on his vessel, a design chosen by the goddess of Life herself, but the humans certainly weren't prepared for such a display. Little did they know this wasn't even over.

The entire scythe began to shift and grow larger with the sound of snapping and creaking bone. The curve of the jawbone defined a little more sharply, and the teeth all grew to become pointed and sharp spears that formed a razors edge along the inside of the hooked weapon. The god held his scythe out to the side gleefully in his moment of rage, smiling madly at his foolish children through a partial skull as the other half was brandished as a weapon against those that had harmed his beloved, a weapon he had never used to harm before that moment...

It was so fast, yet so incredibly slow. It was almost trance like, and none of the humans were really sure if they were merely imagining such impossible silence, or if the god had somehow commanded all of sound to even die in that place for a moment... Perhaps it was the nature of the shield, the ability to counter against Death's intentions that let the bearer of that stolen bloodskill react in time to save only himself.

A single cleave; three humans slain, six and a half hearts cut away, damned by his own hand. Two more hearts were lost somewhere even Death couldn't see shortly thereafter. The naïve second god had made a terrible, terrible mistake that he only realized the moment after he had done it. The world would soon sit broken in its unbalance because of it.

The humans bearing the sword, the trident, and the bow were severed from their mortal existence. Along with those three hearts, all three pieces of the sun goddess's heart gifted to them were sent to the afterworld by their side. The pieces of her heart weren't quite dead, but they were badly injured, and still connected to those human spirits. Had the sun goddess or the god of death realized what she had actually created, perhaps they would have known in time.

She didn't just give the humans gifts that could match the gods, she connected their hearts to the vessels of the gods themselves, she connected the hearts of the gods to the mortal ones... She was partially to blame for the murder of half of her family that day. The god of the ocean, the god of the sky, and the goddess of the earth all fell dormant along with their vessels the moment their father cut their spark away along with those human hearts. The beast of Life never awoke from its slumber, the human bearing the gift of breath had no remaining soul to harvest, and Death would never feel another sign of his beloved anywhere in that lonely, broken world for thousands upon thousands of years.

Death retreated immediately in near madness, freeing himself from his beastly vessel as he fled back to the afterworld, desperate to find some way to repair what he had broken. The sun goddess collapsed at the horrific reality of what she had caused, leaving the first bearer of the shield standing alone in the battlefield of gods and man, still uncertain how he had survived the impossible. He turned to the sun goddess, and feared for what she would do when she awoke.

"The shield bearer made a final, despicable choice that day that somehow ended up buying the world just enough time to scrape by, not that he should ever be revered as a hero for accidentally helping with the unforeseeable mess he helped create." Aster wasn't prepared for all of that to say the very least. The human looked down at his own hands, and stared at them with a sense of guilt. His father spoke reassuringly.

"I felt the same way when I learned the truth. The shield isn't a gift at all, it's a piece of heart stolen from the sun goddess, one crafted into a weapon designed to fend off even Death. We were never the heroes, not back then anyway." Aster recoiled at the news. His father gave the answer to the question building in the boy without needing to hear it.

"You can return it to her some day if you wish, but it will do her little good without the other pieces restored as well." Aster frowned at that statement, but his father continued, "There are ways to fix what is broken." Aster was about to ask how exactly, but then he realized something odd.

"So, what happened to the moon?" Calium frowned before he answered that with a look of sympathy.

"We don't actually know, but it might be worse than even the fate of the dormant gods. When Death made his strike, the human bearing her gift survived also, but nobody can remember how. Nobody can remember what the sixth legendary bloodskill even was anymore, Death included. Nobody else knows anything, and even Death only knows this; The moon goddess did something after witnessing her family fall. She did something with her beast, and she did something with the human that bore the gift tied to her vessel, and whatever it was, she somehow stripped the memory from even her father. What we do know, is that the part of the moon goddess that remains, the empty and broken shell of the moon that still meddles in the affairs of the living world, is absolutely mad."

Aster looked away once more in guilt that wasn't really his to bear. The boy asked his father something in a low whisper.

"So what happened then? What became of Death, of the sun, and of the shield?" Calium continued his story with a heavy sigh.

Death returned to the Afterworld after his retreat from the battle of gods and man, bringing with him the three fallen souls of the humans he had reaped. The dark armor surrounding those three souls was the most putrid, and heaviest corruption the god had ever seen. What the god had created by ending their cruel lives after so many years of unfair suffering, were three very big problems. The goddess of life was gone, and by her absence, her song was seemingly lost to the world. The peaceful souls could still find ways to reform, to still be reborn between offspring of other creatures, because life did tend to find a way...

However, the moment a cruel life or death awaited a soul, the moment it, too, would cling to its hate, remorse, and sin of its last life, the soul would fall from the garden of life after death, weighed down by its own darkness. It would just keep falling forever, never making it back to the afterworld to find peace. It would fester, and rot, and only fuse with the darkest of dreams, desires, and injustices that haunted it as it fell eternally until, (when the soul had warped enough,) it would fall back to the mortal realm, denied rebirth in the afterworld. It would hunger for souls that possessed what it did not; hope, love, and light. It was the birth of a new age when the first of the old gods fell... Fiends started to overtake the land of the living just a few short years later.

Death foresaw the pain and destruction to come through the eyes of his children. The god knew the great suffering he and his daughter had caused. The god knew the world was surely destined to fall, but the shield bearer's final misdeed had quite the unexpected results...

The shield bearer and the last of mankind united to build a prison for the sun goddess, entrapping her inside of her own vessel before she ever recovered her strength enough to fend them off and take back what remained of her power. She was buried, cast into the shadows, and bound in chains where the light of her true form could never reach her, where her strength could not return to her. She was trapped in her vessel alone, hidden in darkness, and forever left to linger on the horrible realization that she was so terribly, terribly wrong about it all... She should have let mankind fall...

The humans took the secret of the shield to the grave, telling not even their heirs the truth. They united behind the last sliver of the stolen power to protect their domain from any who remained that would threaten it while using the story that they were the saviors of the mortal realm for fending off the great feral beasts. Many centuries, many relocations, and many heirs of that shield would come and go in time, but by sheer fate, that piece of the goddess's heart linked to Death always remained beating for mankind, always keeping his daughter alive.

A human city was built upon her stony and dark tomb, sealing the goddess away indefinitely beneath the footsteps of millions over time. As centuries passed, as history repeated itself in an endless cycle above while she remained trapped below, that city fell, and was rebuilt by beasts, and fell, and was rebuilt by man, and fell again, only to be rebuilt by beasts once more.

During that time, the sun goddess had long since abandoned hope in her isolation. She projected what was left of herself back to the three corrupted pieces of her heart resting in the garden. She could rest there at least, she could not truly escape her vessel trapped on earth without first repairing her heart, but her soul could partially linger in the afterworld as she wept for her own crimes.

She escaped her eternal prison the only way she could, that was when Death realized there was some hope, that was when a partial shadow of his daughter appeared in the garden of life through those damaged human souls bearing her heart. The shadow of the sun finally looked to the injured souls too decayed to be reborn. She searched within herself for a trace of the spark that had created her.

She tapped into the spark of her mother, of the very life goddess, and the sun goddess began singing in her loneliness, her voice carrying to even the afterworld by the pieces of her heart that rested there. The song of rebirth had survived through their daughter, and although it was not quite as powerful as her mother's song, not powerful enough to stop the flow of fiends entirely, It could still soothe many of the damned souls. For a very long time, throughout millennia of her imprisonment, the sun goddess stifled the flow of corruption in her mother's absence, torn between two realms. The three human souls bearing the pieces of her heart never healed in the afterworld, but they never hatched or fell either... Not for a long while.

Death was left with no other choice, he had to leave his daughter imprisoned so she would keep singing while he found a way to fix everything. The god dove into his powers, making deals with the living, testing his limits, seeing what his true potential held. He discovered the extent and nature of his strength, and pushed to test and learn even more about the nature of fiends, the sleeping gods, and the three, dark souls trapped in perpetual incubation by the song of rebirth. His years of self exploration were not wasted, and the god made many useful breakthroughs, but never quite enough to fix what was broken, not for a very long time.

"Death would find his answer in the most unexpected, yet obvious way, but the solution would also mean time would start running out for the world once more..." Calium trailed off, Aster asked, genuinely wanting to know how such a thing could ever even begin to be remedied. The king looked away, and spoke in the most respectful tone he could manage.

"Well... That brings us to the second story. Her liberation..."

===

Flames erupted against the wall of shadow separating Jagón and Stahl from Aster and Calium, surprising both knights at the sudden assault launching between them. They quickly turned on their paws, and both were immediately taken aback by who was responsible for trying to break through that barrier. Lady Alice did not look very pleased about any of this. Jagón spoke softly, still assuming she had died back at the arena in the battle that had wounded him, assuming she was simply lost in that place as he was before.

"Alice... I know this all probably sounds unbelievable, but I think we're all dead. I don't believe this is something we can muscle our way out of." Alice responded rather shortly.

"I know where we are...I've been here a while now. The fact that we're all dead or dying is exactly the part I'm taking issue with at this moment..." Jagón sighed, something was bothering the high mage, he had spent enough time around the feline to know that much. He did his best to console her.

"I have a feeling we are all going to get a chance to do something about this when that story is over... So why don't we just wai-" Alice interrupted nervously.

"I don't want to hear anymore of this mere tall tale repeated as fact while we wait around, likely running out of time... Can we just go, Jagón? Can we just go look for some other way out?" The panther looked to the smaller feline curiously, feeling there was something more going on here. Alice didn't seem herself, she was all edge, and none of that playful side was showing through. Jagón knew discovering you were dead could wipe the smile from most muzzles, but that wasn't it...

The panther gazed at the calico cat a short while longer, squinting vaguely as a small degree of familiarity and recognition lingering right outside of his grasp slowly became more and more clear to him as he peered into the eyes of the smaller feline. The general sucked in a sharp breath, and his eyes went wide in recognition as Calium continued into perhaps the saddest part of his story on the other side of that shadowy barricade.

===

It was numbing, she hadn't moved in so long that there was no point in trying to even shake the bindings anymore, they would only remind her they were there, they would only remind her that she was there. Her chains had long since subdued even her fire. She knew her place, it was on that slab, the same as it had been for countless centuries unmarked by any means to measure them. She sometimes wondered if anything before ever really even happened, but she assumed that was simply another round of madness coming on. She discovered something not many ever would, if you go insane enough, if you cannot die for millions of years, you just eventually loop back around to sanity, only everything is a little more shifted each go around.

A rumble filled her hearing, she giggled to herself as she mumbled out into her eternally silent tomb.

"A larger tremor. An offering to the goddess of the slab. Wouldn't sister be jealous?" The sun goddess laughed shrilly, and then she cried desperately, and then she closed her eyes, the same as she did every day. She felt around for that distant part of her heart, and she started singing to herself once again, just as she did countless times over the centuries, soothing the spirits of the afterworld all the while. She only kept on singing in that dark place, paying no attention to the tricks her mind played which she had long grown bored of.

The rumbles she had once always perceived as her tomb opening that were never more than the earth trembling slightly. The voices of her family calling out to save her that just never seemed to find her in the dark, no matter how loudly she tried to answer them... The feeling that the chains had been lifted, only to remind her of their steady presence the moment she dared to move. Yes, she knew of all the cruelties an immortal mind could play in such eternal darkness. As if right on cue, another loud, explosive rumble filled the ears of the sun goddess. The goddess ignored her obviously fabricated madness, choosing instead to sing, because the song was the only thing that ever still seemed real to her at all.

Her mind was being creative that day, the rich voice that called out wasn't even speaking a language that she knew. The boundlessness of madness was truly impressive. She only kept singing so softly, knowing no such hope remained for one such as her. The intelligible voice called out again, closer this time, in a tone that seemed uncertain, or hesitant. Her song hitched in her throat for the slightest moment, she let herself almost believe it was real for a moment... so she kept on singing, desperate not to fall for such a trick yet again.

A warm hand embraced her own, and her song finally came to an abrupt end as she sucked in a startled gasp of shock. The goddess clenched both her jaw, and her weakened fist tightly after, so afraid of how much the awful truth was going to hurt her again, knowing that there was no way this could be real, no matter how warm she was imagining that touch to be. The hand released her own, and she exhaled, grateful the visions had passed her over once more. She had breathed far too soon...

She had imagined someone pulling her blindfold from her many times, marveling at how much the mind could really create and even see after so much time alone. She had imagined all manner of faces staring back at her, come to rescue her, and she had watched them all fade back into darkness eventually, this beastman would be no different.

He was a young and strong leopard this time, his fur a solid, lustrous ebony that coated the large cat entirely in a pelt of his own darkness. The spots of his pelt were seamlessly hidden in such dark fur. She always admired panthers, how just a simple change in color could create such a seemingly different breed entirely. Yes, the sun goddess always loved her felines, so it only made sense she would imagine yet another one coming to her rescue, this was nothing too different than the usual... But his eyes, his piercing and sympathetic eyes, they just seemed so real to her weakened gaze in that moment.

The sun goddess stared in disbelief, still refusing to accept what was happening. Even as the young panther broke her chains, and removed her bindings... even as the handsome beast bent over tenderly, and pulled her from that cursed slab at long last... even as he stared into her eyes, and walked her back up those steps, she was desperately fighting back the assured madness she was letting overtake her once more... She just couldn't accept that it was real, it was never real, it was never-

Warmth. HER warmth... at long last... It danced on her fur where it shone down from above. It blinded her long dormant eyes. It warmed her very breath as she felt the first touch of her warmth, of her power gifted by the goddess of life herself, in centuries... She looked back to the panther in a new sense of disbelief, his dark features shining beautifully beneath her own light... Was he real after all? This was her warmth, not even her madness could mistake that. Had he really brought her back into the light? Had she... Had she finally been freed from the darkness she brought upon herself? As she struggled to accept that this was truly happening, the panther spoke to another nearby beast in words the goddess just couldn't comprehend. Languages do tend to change after a few millennia, after all.

The goddess warily turned her head away from her hero, and squinted towards the other beast, her vision still struggling to adjust after so long. It was another young feline, a very handsome lion. The lion answered the panther in that same foreign language, and the goddess noticed the lion nod towards her. The panther looked back down at the goddess in his arms, seeing just a regular beastman, and spoke to her once more, turning his head a little. The goddess, not understanding, turned back to the lion once more. The lion spoke in words unknown to her yet again.

"My name, is Prince Alocer. May we have yours?" She never understood a word the young lion said, but she really like the sound of one of those words, the way she had to flick her tongue to speak it made her smile as she mimicked the part of the king's name rather poorly.

"Aloce..." The panther looked down at the patchwork, calico cat in his arms, and smiled, speaking softly to her as she gazed back at her savior in both admiration and in the fear that she would soon awaken from this dream on that slab again.

"Alice... That's a pretty name. I am-" Jagón never even finished, she had finally started accepting that this was real, and she desperately needed to know who the beast that had finally come to her rescue was. The very goddess of the sun pulled herself up further in her young knight's arms, and planted her maw firmly against his own. She cast an easy spell, and with a quick, stolen kiss, Alice copied the modern tongue right from the noble panther's own. When she pulled away, she only stared up at him endearingly. It was real, it was actually happening...

Jagón blushed furiously, and meekly looked away from the kiss that burned with the warmth of the sun as a young Alocer laughed nearby. The lion spoke in a language she could finally comprehend.

"Sorry, Alice, but my friend here is a betrothed beast! I'm glad you are feeling better though." Jagón wouldn't dare look at her again, his ears stayed flat, and his fingers only trembled as he held the feline so closely... That kiss... That wild heat... it would tempt even the most dedicated partner to stray. Luckily for him, Alice understood this.

The goddess wanted the panther desperately, but she would not cross any lines, she would respect her hero's wishes for many years. Even still, she would always find her heart lingering on the dark and valiant beast that freed her from her eternal nightmare, no matter how much she tried to heal in the years to come.

She was a goddess, and he was a mortal, after all... She knew it could never work, that she would only ever be met with their eventual goodbye. She knew he needed to live his mortal life, he needed to be with his mortal wife, and he needed to live as mortals do. She would not interfere, a promise born of her love for the panther, but she would still admire him from afar every so often for the years to come. She had her innocent means.

His wife, Felicity, was gorgeous. She was an ebony leopard with a beautiful coat matching Jagón's own, and those two were incredible together, they deserved each other. Alice quickly became a close friend to both as a talented mage, (among other members of the new beast king's army,) and she visited the two often in those earlier years. Sometime later, around three years after Jagón and Felicity had bore their first child, Alice was visiting their town once again.

She visited their home as usual, pestered the object of her affection casually, and she laughed with Felicity as she held their child, Talan. Alice truly was happy for the Venatus family, and she never meant to cross any lines, she had far more respect for Jagón than that.

"However... even the remaining gods would eventually be surprised by what fate had in store." Calium came to another stopping point, pausing in reverence to gaze off into the distance again. Aster wondered what he was looking at, but the king returned his gaze a moment later before he simply continued, his voice held a hint of sorrow.

"She had found a way to see him in the ways she never could."

===

Another blast of flames collided with the wall of swirling shadows, this one far more focused and desperate. Alice was feverishly trying to find some way to stop this from going any further. Jagón and Stahl had to shy away from the intensity of that fire as the sun goddess laid into her assault with every bit of power she still held in her dying state. The two mortal beasts stared at the recently revealed goddess with looks of sadness, empathy, and admittedly, fear. Alice's assault died off a moment later, and the cat fell to her knees panting, never managing to break through that wall. Her voice was shrill, and pleading, calling out in her defeat as she begged for at least her last shred of dignity to be spared in mercy.

"FATHER! I know you're there! PLEASE... Please... do not let him speak on that shame... Allow me this one secret to keep my own... I beg of you, don't let him do this." Jagón softly answered the weeping and frantic goddess, stepping closer as he went to console her. She was still Lady Alice, right? As he laid his hand carefully on her shoulder, the panther spoke in that warm and rich tone the goddess had fallen so in love with in the first place.

"It's alright, you aren't trapped in that place anymore. I had no idea... I can't even imagine... I just, I need you to know that it's alright that you needed to cling to me after so much, I under-" Alice cut him off coldly.

"No... You do not understand, Jagón. You truly never had any shred of understanding about what I had done... about the lines that I crossed back then... Please, just walk away for this part. I cannot stand for you to hate me..."

King Calium continued after a casting an apologetic stare the goddess's way. Jagón heard every word the king had to say.

===

Alice had used a very simple spell, and done a very innocent thing for many years; She would wait until the latest hours of the night, close her eyes, lie down within range, and pass her consciousness from her vessel into Felicity. She would open her eyes in the stillness of the night, and she would simply gaze at the panther in his most peaceful form, when he was fast asleep.

The sun goddess would hold that connection for a while, and she would just quietly thank the knight for what he could never know the truth about, for what he had really done on the day he returned her freedom. Alice would softly thank the panther for returning her warmth to her, she would thank him for everything he had done to make her life in Alora a comfortable one, and she would thank him for allowing her broken heart to feel like it could beat once again... and then she would sing for him.

She would sing so softly, so faintly, as to never quite disturb the resting knight, but as to bring his troubled spirit so heavy with the burdens of his duty some peace as he rested. She would give him this as thanks, and she would rather he never even knew, she would rather he never feel the need to repay her, for this was the least she could do for the one that had returned her to the light. What Death never foresaw, was his daughter, a goddess, ever worshipping a mere mortal so thoroughly.

This night would be no different, she would do what she needed to retain her peace, and she would leave the general with his own bit of peace by the end. It was so harmless, never once did she think that maybe... Never did she consider... If only she had known...

Warmth, burning more beautifully then even her own... Heat, rising through her, no... being pressed into her, his maleness only raking those burning embers mercilessly as it gouged its way through her tunnel. Those eyes, that blackened and dark gaze more penetrating than even his thickness was, those eyes were what truly burned her the most in that unexpected moment. The goddess shuddered, unintentionally interrupting a most sacred moment between husband and wife... She knew she needed to leave, she knew she needed to turn back, and to never peer into their privacy again... The foolish goddess knew what the only decent option left for her was, but she just couldn't let go...

After so many years, so many centuries all alone... After her warmth was finally given back to her... After years of staving off her improper desire for the mortal, the sun goddess finally found herself face to face with everything she could ever long for in such a lonely and broken world... She could only shudder into his heat, and press her borrowed muzzle firmly into his own, a familiar fire lingering behind that kiss just out of recognition of the panther general. The kiss reignited the long patient desire still buried deep within his honorable soul, the desire to taste the wildfire of her magical kiss one more time.

"There was a sudden spark, and that spark grew into the tiniest ember. A warm soul was born of the sun herself, one mortal blessed with the power of a god, bearing the kindest heart forged by her fiery love and gratitude for his father... " Aster's eyes went wide, not certain this was anything he even wanted to know before the deeper implications fell upon the boy. Aster found himself whispering out the answer in utter disbelief.

"Corty..."

===

Jagón couldn't move, the panther general just stayed staring off towards the wall of shadow in a state of disbelief. Cortist was born of Felicity's body, Jagón was there... He was their son... Surely this was not something possible? Surely, the human king was mistaken... Surely...

Jagón finally turned his gaze back to Alice. She was weeping in the most feverish shame she ever thought possible. Her face was buried into her hands, unable to ever look her mortal affection in the eyes after he finally knew the truth of what she had done in her weakness. Jagón found himself feeling oddly dizzy all of a sudden. Alice was trying so desperately to think of something she could even say, some way she could make such a thing less horrible. The goddess could not find any words in that moment, but another interrupted the trio of beasts in that garden with a more consoling approacg. Such a somber tone for such a hollow voice...

"Do not weep, my daughter, were your mother still around to see the beauty of your cub, she would assuredly shed only tears of happiness." Alice, Jagón, and Stahl all quickly found their attention suddenly drawn away from the unsettling reveal, and over towards a patch of the garden a few paces away. The mortals seized in unexpected fear as they first laid their eyes upon the beast of Death. The sun goddess called out angrily to her father.

"HOW DARE YOU SHOW YOURSELF NOW! DON'T YOU SAY A DAMNED WORD ABOUT CORTIST! You just leave him out of this... You leave him be..." Jagón finally tore his eyes away from the ghastly appearance of the god of death, of Alice's father. The panther looked to the smaller feline once more, and was torn by so many conflicting emotions that he wasn't certain if he could ever make sense of this development. He spoke quietly to the goddess, in a more humbled tone.

"Is Felicity the mother of my son? Was he ever even ours?" Death answered the very overwhelmed panther as truthfully as he always answered his children.

"The cub is of your own essence, as well as your wife's. My daughter was simply a third donor in that situation, he just had three souls give life to his own rather than the usual two. Yes, he was always your cub, but he was always my daughter's cub as well... Now, he is my cub."

Alice sucked in a sharp breath as she quickly took a few paces forward, seemingly having no reservations about going swing for swing with the very god of death if it came down to Cortist. She hissed out her answer with narrowed eyes.

"What have you done to him?" Death only chuckled before answering this in truth as well.

"I made a deal with him. I found your lost little kitten stumbling around in the dark where it was dropped on my doorstep, starved for the attention, knowledge, and power his fiery heart so desperately sought. I gave him guidance, I gave him the nurturing he needed, and I gave him what you never would own up to your own mistakes enough to do... I gave him tests, I wanted to see what you really gave that little kitten, and I made sure I had him standing clearly in my view before he ever started his road to growth, to power that actually fulfilled his wanting soul... You truly have no idea what you made, do you? You were always either too ashamed, or too afraid to see what miracle lie in the wake of your creation, weren't you, daughter?" Alice was petrified, finally understanding that her father already had Cortist... Jagón broke his silence at last.

"What do you mean you made a deal? What have you done to my son?" The god of Death looked to the panther with his glaring, golden eyes, and answered with his own question rather smugly.

"Which son? The one I made a deal for, the one I made a deal with, the one I used to make a deal, or the one that quickly approaches a need for one of my deals? I'm afraid you'll have to be a little more specific when it comes to your sons and their business with me." Jagón clenched his jaw, not caring for the idea that a god had been meddling in his family affairs so deeply. The general clarified for the deity.

"What have you done with Cortist? What deal did you make him?" Death's gaze took on a mischievous grin. He answered clearly.

"He agreed to serve me, and I spared your life in exchange. You aren't actually dead, you could've gone back this entire time, she just realized where you were, and came to sing to you once more. Truly, a touching reunion." Jagón was horrified, he quickly asked another question.

"Take it back. Release my son, and I'll stay here instead." Death chuckled in amusement at the offer, but spoke his answer decidedly.

"No. I will never be letting that son of yours out of my control. He needs guidance for power on a scale like his, he needs a mentor, and if I take the role, at least I know he won't be harmed while he learns to control his power." Jagón was almost surprised by that answer, but then the panther remembered something about the god. He was a father as well.

"You care about him." It was not a question Jagón was asking, but a fact he was stating. Death looked away in silence before answering.

"He is the most important, and beautiful thing I have left in this world. He is warm, and budding. He is full of surprise, mystery, and the spark of my very beloved. Even I cannot see his true potential, but I can see enough to know this much; My daughter created an entirely new god, one that was born into its own vessel. However not even I know what exactly he is the god of. I do not know where his power truly stems from or lies just yet, but he can wield the gifts of the original as easily as we ourselves could. Yes, I do care about him. I care for him so very, very deeply, and that is why I couldn't leave him be. That power would have consumed his mortal body in time, but not if he can learn to command it." Jagón gasped in shock, and the panther answer the old god in respect.

"Then you have my thanks for that. You swear, you've no intentions of ever harming him? Swear it to me here." Death chuckled to the panther, and answered rather plainly.

"I have to swear nothing to you... but no, I have nothing in store that isn't for his own good. He will be the only god that remains at all should the shield bearer fail here, after all." Jagón asked another question, never faltering when it came to the safety of his cubs.

"What must Aster do then? Why is he, his wolf, and his birth father here? Why am I here?" Death answered flatly, as if it were no big deal.

"None of you actually matter to me in this trial, and are only here of your own doing, but you're welcome to help him however you want. The boy has to take the same trial all the shield bearer's have, the boy has to face Death."

===

Cortist Venatus, An average mortal beast destined to be born of two regular, mortal parents. Nobody thought twice, why would they? It was such an easy thing, for the goddess to hide what she had done. As the years came and went, she was careful to always keep a close eye on the cub from what distance she could maintain. She made note when he progressed, and she stopped breathing entirely the first time she heard him hailed as a young, prodigal mage. From the day he began his studies, she was always so observant anytime it came time for one of his exams. She breathed out in relief the first time he failed one, assuming it meant he didn't have the entire first language after all.

She was so afraid of what she had done... That night was like a feverish dream after so many years, and while it was enough to know lines were crossed, while it was enough for the goddess to stop what she believed a harmless way of visiting her mortal affection, it wasn't enough to know how much of herself had influenced the cub... She was relieved when he failed, never questioning whether the young mage would be smart enough to know his capabilities weren't something he should flaunt about. Cortist may have had two, mortal parents, but he was certainly more like his celestial mother than the goddess would have ever believed... Cortist was good at hiding things.

"A trait that proved most useful for the mage gifted with a peculiar younger brother." Calium came to another rest, allowing his son a moment to say what he wanted to. Aster didn't know what to say, but he finally came up with something.

"I always thought I just imagined how warm he was... I just thought that was who Corty was..." Calium reassured his son.

"That is exactly who he is. He is the same, kind brother to you he has always been, you both just always held a piece of the same goddess's power. Nothing about who either of you are has changed, only your understanding of it. Your warmth is your own now, just as his is his own. The origins of that warmth before it became yours matters not, it is only what you will use it for going forward that makes a difference now." Aster looked a little stunned for a second, but his expression softened to a meek smile a moment after. He averted his gaze, and casually remarked to himself.

"So this is how Stahl feels when I say something all mushy like that..." Aster had to admit, he could never see his own charm before, but if he shone even half as brightly as his father seemed to, then it was no wonder his wolf was so smitten. Aster was truly thankful he had this chance to see what Calium Aureus was like. The king spoke with a chuckling grin.

"Well, I can't say I completely approve of that wolf just yet, but I am glad he brings you such happiness. Still, I do have high expectations of that beast of yours, he has potential to be revered as one of the greatest knights ever known with a little more polishing." Aster felt that response seemed pretty standard for a parent, but the boy could only smile about it. (Stahl was certainly feeling a little flattered by the human king on the other side of that barrier.) Aster knew his father meant it all mostly as a compliment. It was just really nice in Aster's opinion, getting to have a normal moment with his birth father like that. Calium felt the same, but he had to push the conversation along, there were still things for the boy to learn.

"So, you know of the gods, and you know of the prodigal son, now it is time you know of our place in this story. It is time for the last story I have for you here, my son. This story is yours, my Solis."

===

OK. I can only hope it makes sense. I can only hope it's answered some questions, and I can only hope that it was something you enjoyed. There are a few more chapters coming, but I just played a lot of damn cards I've been holding for a while. I hope Alice's and Cortist's reveals were well received, and I hope it was a good chapter for you. Jagón was always at the center of this story, ever since the prologue, and that holds true for the next reveals as well.

Now, with that pushed along, I gotta say... Some of y'all were pretty damned awful in these last reviews. I know it was a rough and depressing chapter, and I try to take good things from criticism, cause I can always improve on some stuff, but some of yall were just hateful as hell towards me, especially with some of the name calling...I just wanted to say, I don't deserve that. I love hearing constructive feedback that I can take something away from. I don't want to be read as filth because some of y'all never heard of a trial in the afterlife. (And yes, some of this was bad enough for me to even feel the need to say that.)

Anyway, I just wanted to tell a good story. I'm sorry if I bore you, or drag things out, or if I just tried to do too much in all this. I'm sorry if this story is no longer worth the investment it takes to read for you between chapters, or if what happened with the fissure or any other point turned you off too much, or if none of it makes any sense. I really do hate if I ended up wasting anyone's time with all this, but I guess there isn't much I can do about that now except thank you for reading this far.

Thank you to those choosing to keep reading, I do appreciate you more than you would know. I'll see you next chapter, happy to hear your thoughts as long as you don't try to make me cry please. Lol. Hope you enjoy what comes next.

-Pup Bayou