"Alright it's decided, we're going on a journey! To the biggest city on the Primal! Biggest temple, best food, best entertainment!" Thani was now at the back of the statue, rummaging through her possessions. She was trying to stuff a few dresses, some dried food and a few commodities in a sling-bag. "No more boring forest! I'm sick of trees!"

"Trees are good!"

"Uh...I meant no offense." She had forgotten Oakbud's presence for a moment.

"You not tell Karj you go outside?"

"I'll leave a note. He can't prevent me from leaving even if everyone here comes at me, but at least he won't be as mad. Maybe. I feel like I'm living again, you know? Fourteen years almost never getting out! Never even leaving the town! But now I have a very good reason to get out of here thanks to you, eheh."

After she finished packing with Oakbud splayed on top of her head since Maya wasn't here anymore, she pricked her finger and used the blood to leave a message to Karj on the fountain.

--

The wind felt nice. I had been too long since he last flew. But naps were at least of the same importance, and less tiring. After his last discussion with the God of Elements, the dragon went straight back to sleep for some time. Sure, playing tag with a magical creature sounded fun, but he literally had all the time in the world for it. Unless he got depressed like the Old Branch in his forest and let itself die. Ugh, not again, the God's going to get mad if I don't go.

"Hey, smelly bones, which direction do I go to the forest of your little oak?"

"..."

"Sure, send me on an errand and don't tell me where to go. That's sooo efficient."

"..."

"I know you're not asleep, stop pretending and say something."

"Nyx's Child is below us in the sea, I can feel her pretty close."

"Oh! That's great, I'll go and ask her since you don't want to tell me." He was flapping his gigantic wings lazily, relying on magic to make the winds favourable to him and spend minimum effort.

"Suit yourself. You're the one who said that not knowing where to go was the fun part at first."

"You may be a God of Creation, but you really are a bastard sometimes."

"And you may be a bastard, but you're the only bastard who dares to talk back to me, and that's why I'm still with you."

"Was that a compliment? What's happening today? Did you eat something wrong? Can you even eat something?"

"..."

Leaving the God to his sulking, the Dragon took a deep breath, and screamed at the sea below, creating huge waves with the power of his voice.

"NYX! GET OUT THERE YOU SNOBBISH BRAT! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING DOWN HERE, I DIDN'T KNOW A SHRIMP WAS ABLE TO DRAW!"

"You said you wanted to talk to her, not fight her."

"Isn't it the same? I want to see her now, not in a century, har har" His laugh sounded like pieces of rock rubbing together, a peculiar and disturbing sound. "I'm much stronger than her anyway. She's so proud, I bet she'll prefer a little insult to a full ass-whopping." As he said his piece, he began accumulating magic again, and dove towards the sea. He opened his wings wide to stop his fall, and released his magic. A big chunk of seawater froze, then got covered with sand and gravel, then finally a layer of dirt.

He landed on the strange island-sized floating iceberg, curled himself up, and closed his eyes again."Let's just wait here." He extended a claw over his head and created a huge ball of fire over himself, keeping himself warm.

--

Two weeks after feeling the Stalwart Oak's death, Jack had barely moved, only getting down from the steps under his throne.

"Hmmmm. Has he broken down? Maybe it is time I look for a new Child." After a pause, the God of time thought it wouldn't be so bad of an idea. Touring the realm at a snail's pace was not interesting. He may be the God of Time, but he still felt boredom.

"Not..... Yet....."

"Oh? still able to talk? You impress me, just like you did all those years ago..."

"I... Was so close... I hate you.... hate you..... I will.... break... anything..... you want to find.... make you.... feel what I felt..... when I.... lost everything."

"You are welcome to try, but don’t you know it already? I won't let you in the end. Just. like. before."

As if fueled by his hate, Jack's eyes glowed brighter and brighter, and his so slow it was unnoticeable movement got faster. The air trembled around him, and each one of his slow step took him far, far away, folding the world to his whim.

--

"I knew I forgot something! A tent! I wanted to travel, but sleeping in the wilderness without a roof is a bit unnerving." At sunset, when time came to set up camp for the night, Thani was throwing a tantrum.

"Give seed, me make home!"

"What... how? Uuuuhh, a seed, wait. Dried fruits work?"

"Work, work ♪"

She pulled a ration from her bag and gave it to Oakbud, who dug a hole and planted it. After that, he poured his magic full throttle into the soil, forcing it to grow. Roughly five minutes later, a ten-meter tall fruit tree stood in front of a gobsmacked Thani. The tree's branches were even shaped, creating a platform under weaved branches that would cover her for the night.

"Aldo told me you could make nature grow, but this... this much magic, don't you ever feel tired? We would need two or three people doing the same over a week to get a tree like that at Pilgrim Woods! And there are followers of Nature everywhere there!"

"What is fatigue?"

"... And there I almost forgot you have the powers of a God. You know what? Since you’ve made camp for me, let me give you a little lesson on magic.”

Thani resumed speaking once she finished climbing up the platform: “the rest of us mortals have to deal with mental and physical exhaustion, you know? Using magic to do stuff isn’t that tiring, it’s mainly going to tax your mind because you need to focus hard on it. Of course, it depends on what you do with it. Since it’s everywhere and in everything, anyone sentient enough can learn to feel and manipulate it. You can use raw manipulation, it’s kind of inefficient but it’ll help you in a pinch. It’s mainly about moving it around you to disrupt things, or pushing it inside an object to make it more solid."

“How me make tree grow then?” Oakbud asked, interested in learning how he did what he did.

“That would be typed magic. Most often it’s through a God’s Blessing giving you relevant knowledge of a particular use of magic, in which case you don’t have much of an effort to do. Otherwise, you have to spend years and years researching it yourself... If you can. Some magics were made by specific Gods with specific purpose, and you’ll never be able to cast them without their blessing. Me, I spent time in the temple copying the magic flow of Kali’s blessings I have received; this way I’m able to use them with more flexibility, and ways that aren’t common or expected by general knowledge. That’s the point, though; Gods bestow blessings upon followers, but they’re usually the same for everyone, with a few variations in some regions or circumstances. You can either follow a God and get the shortcut, or toil for years with potentially zero progress. Just know that once you’ve picked the first option it’s both harder and frowned upon to switch.”

“Then people not like Thani?”

“Nah, they just think I’m super strong. I’m completely locked out of every magic that’s not raw manipulation or Kali’s, though that’s the price for four blessings. All in all, there isn’t really a fixed and academic way of learning to use magic, so you’ll have to fool around until you find something that’s right for you. There’s divinity also, a force different from magic, but that’s for the Gods, not mortals. Just keep that in a corner of your mind, don’t think too hard about it. Now that that’s said, good night.”

--

During the evening, Karj went back to the temple in order to report the affair's ending to Thani. When he entered, he performed his usual sacrifice, and approached the fountain. Strange, where did she take the little Oakbud? Looking at the back of the room, behind the statue, he found a mess. Clothes, food, ustensils and weapons were laying a bit everywhere. He began worrying when he didn't see her mat anymore.

"What happened there while I was gone? .... Thani? THANI!" He began looking through the temple, and soon found the message written in blood on the fountain. His mouth couldn't help but twitch in anger and helplessness when he read the simple but ridiculous sentence :

"I'm going to find the Gods with Oakbud, don't break the temple too much while I'm gone, ok?"