“Why,” The Gem God shook his head. He grimaced, looking down at Belch. The godly being hovered up in the air. “WHY did you let Aidan live?”

“He was threatening Pedr,” Belch defended herself. When she closed her eyes, she still saw the mystical sword in his hand surging with violent sparks of electricity. The Dormoor Lord aimed for Pedr’s neck in an effort to release the blood’s grip from his hand and face.

“The swole?” the god growled. “Who cares! You humans are so clueless! I pulled at your instincts, and I told you to kill him! Do you know how exhausting that was for me to do? I strain myself when I yell that loud, and you made all that for nothing. ”

That’s right! Belch thought. She remembered something from within her instructing her to kill Aidan. She thought it was her rage, but it had been the Gem God’s influence all along. “And I was going to, but I decided I valued Pedr’s life more than I desired to kill Aidan. I’m sorry.”

“Ignorant and naive humans, I swear. The logical choice was right in front of your eyes. A whole lot more people would celebrate Aidan’s death than people who would morn Pedr’s.”

“But it was my choice,” Belch challenged. “I have control over my power. At least we know that now.”

“Do you think that you are in charge, human?” the Gem God scoffed. “Remember, I reserve the right to kill you whenever I please. So be warned, don’t disobey me again.”

Belch sniffed. She plopped down on the liquid floor of her subconscious. “I don’t see why you are so angry.”

“We had a deal, a deal that I would allow you to live so long as you followed the simplest of instructions. How hard could it have been to allow one measly soul to die so that you can fulfill your purpose?”

A lot harder than you make it sound, Belch thought, though she didn’t say. Belch did want to live, and she did believe this god in her subconscious could kill her. But, when Aidan held Pedr as a hostage, she decided that instead of killing Aidan, protecting Pedr was more important to her. It felt rebellious even to fathom the fact that she grew attached to another living life force. It went against her instincts to rely on others, let alone have others depend on her.

Pedr treated her kindly, despite her entire treated like a dog, raised to fight and never question.

Where Corden trained her to fight, Pedr trained her to read. She understood the world better now than she ever did in her life as a beast. The way Aidan carried himself around Belch, she got the same beast-tamer vibes as Corden. Pedr was her teacher, and dare she even think, friend?

“Do you want me to kill him?” Belch asked. “Aidan, do you want me to kill him?”

“No,” he bitterly replied. “He’s going to treat you with caution. Every time they test your powers, he’s going to make sure Pedr is there as a hostage. And if you can’t give him up to die once, I doubt you’ll be able to give him up the second time.”

Belch nodded, somewhat delighted to be let off the hook for sparing Aidan. “What do I do now?”

“Wait,” the Gem God said. “I don’t know if you’ll ever be able to escape. He’s gonna hold you close considering what you’ve just failed to do.”

“What about Pedr?” Belch asked. “Can I ask him for help?”

The Gem God grabbed his chin, staring critical eyes at Belch. “I have doubts of where the swole aligns,” he said. “Part of him seems like he cares about you, but his knee also bends a little too much. He’s not defiant enough.”

Belch frowned.

“He’s not important to our plan—”

“You’re wrong,” Belch whispered.

“Huh?” the Gem God frowned. “Wrong? Me? How outrageous of you to say, do you need me to remind you who I am?”

“A god that is wrong,” Belch said, sitting a little straighter. She wore lowered brows and sure eyes. The white of the Gem God’s skin was ivory and as bright as fluorescent light. Her eyes strained as she held her stare, but she continued. “How can you say that? Haven’t you been watching through my eyes? How come we see him differently?”

“Before I locked myself into your subconscious, I was free to visit any mind I pleased. I’ve studied your kind for centuries now. I know how you all work. And how do you know? You haven’t met many other than your kind, the ‘beasts’ with green eyes. Compared to me, you have no experience with the judgment of others.”

“You seem to have a bad outlook on everybody,” Belch noted. “For the many nights we’ve talked, you seemed to only speak highly of one person. What makes Ranun Spring so great?”

The Gem God smiled wide. “When you can access the inner minds of individuals, only then can you understand the greater motives underneath their skin. Ranun’s mind granted me a hope in humans I haven’t seen in years. An impassioned soul with only love and respect for all living lifeforms. While Pedr still has his biases on humans, Ranun accepts all of Gemkind equally. It matters not if you’re human, swole, or elf. If you are living, Ranun cares.”

“He’ll care about me?” Belch asked.

The Gem God smiled—as he usually did when talking about Ranun. “He already does, don’t you understand? He cares because you are alive. He believes in life and liberty for all and is willing to do anything to protect his dream of bringing peace to his nation and the world, so long as his methods are just.

“Aidan Payne has a similar goal, but his philosophy of world peace is a lot harsher than Ranun’s, his former master. For Aidan to bring the world the justice and freedom he seeks, he first believes he has to rule the world. And to rule the world, in his lifetime, he has to rely on any means necessary. Even if it means burning Valoria into the ground to rebuild it all to his ideal paradise.

“Ranun, on the other hand, won’t resort to raising chaos; it’s below his character to bring ruin or despair into anybody innocent in the affairs of warriors. Where Aidan uses his strength to crush the weak to build a world for the strong, Ranun uses his strength to protect the weak, setting an example many kings would do well to follow.”

“You sound like a big fan,” Belch said. The Gem God sounded like his greatest admirer. Spending the few nights she had with him, he never spoke highly of anybody else.

“Perhaps the one thing I share in common with most humans,” he sighed. There wasn’t much talk of Ranun in Dormoor, so his claim could be unfounded, if not wrong. The Gem God lowered down. “You are to aim to meet him and get on his good side. My main goal is to get you out of Dormoor, but if I could use you to help achieve Ranun’s goals, that’s a double plus.”

Belch nodded. If Ranun is so special, why be in my mind instead of his? “I’ll do what I can. But I must request, let me get help from Pedr.”

“Do you honestly trust him? What about your past? He was there, watching, letting it all happen.”

“My past is irrelevant to your plans, right? I’m starting to understand just how bad my life really was, and I find myself not caring. Is that wrong? It doesn’t seem important now. All that matters is that I move forward. All I care about now is finding my parents.”

“I suppose so,” the Gem God shook his head. He lowered down, hovering inches above the pool of liquid to get on eye level with Belch. “I find it hard to trust anybody, but that happens when my expectations get crushed time and time again.”

“Then why trust me? What do you expect out of me?”

“Not much,” he said flatly. “I can’t say why I decided to have you live where others have died. Perhaps I felt sympathy.”

“Sympathy?” Belch asked. She hadn’t ever read that word before. “What does that mean?”

“Pity,” the god said. He looked at Belch’s confused expression and clarified. “Understanding another through their misfortunes. I suppose I saw you, and I felt sorry.”

“But you’ve seen hundreds tested on before me, haven’t you? Why pick me out of all of those?”

“Spontaneous luck,” he grinned. “Imagine flipping a gold coin, and have it land on heads a hundred times. I picked you off a gut feeling against my better judgment. You aren’t special. To me, you’re just a human. A human I can use.”

She frowned. “How long until I wake up?”

“We’ve only been here for about thirty minutes,” the Gem God said. “So until you wake up in the morning.”

“It feels like only ten minutes have passed so far,” Belch noted.

“Time moves faster when in this realm,” he explained. “You are in a different space. Time and motion move differently here.”

She frowned, not understanding the latter half of what he said. “So basically ten minutes is like thirty minutes? And one hour would be like four?”

The Gem God paused before he nodded. He flew away, hovering from his crisscrossed legs. His image turned smaller as he started bouncing up and down aimlessly like a firefly at night.

Belch sat in the pool. Alone, Belch huddled herself up. She felt cold, so she hugged herself.

Suddenly, the liquid from the pool lifted up her legs in a crawl to cover her body, wrapping around skin like a blanket.

“Whoa,” Belch muttered. “What is this?”

The liquid felt familiar. Had this liquid been more than salty, thick water in this dark void? She started to imagine something; the first thing that came to her mind was the flowers she saw growing up in Dork. The purple petals gave off a slight glisten to the sun rising in the morning. With that in mind, the pool under her started to move. It rumbled and rippled and parted before the liquid rose in many spikes across the void floor. The liquid sprouted into petals, with round caps in the centers.

The flowers were everywhere. Though they weren’t the purple Belch remembered and cherished, they were solid black like her blood. Still, these were what Belch imagined, seeing perfect reflections of what she had in her mind.

The Gem God flew back with confusion showing off of his face. “What in the world happened to the floor?”

“It’s connected to me,” Belch said, amazed. She reached for a flower, touching the black petals, feeling a similar sensation to her first time holding one by the stem.

The god snorted. “What does that mean?”

“The liquid that has been on the floor has been my blood this entire time,” Belch explained. She released the flower, which moved to empty wind from her subconscious. “And it’s a part of me now. I thought it just wanted to save its host. But it wants to please me. These are the flowers I thought of in my mind. It understands me, and it wants to help.”

Belch took a breath. In her mind, she concentrated. The flows reverted to a formless liquid, draining back into the pool. She thought of Pedr, trying to replicate his image in her mind. Can you create him? Belch asked her blood in her head. Can you try? It doesn’t have to be good.

The floor started to shake, and the blood around her concentrated in a large circle in front of her. The liquid raised from the pool to erect a massive glob. Unneeded liquid rushed of the side as the form of Pedr started to solidify before her. Pedr’s large, swole size was somewhat accurately depicted despite the solid black color and shades. The face's bone structure surprised Belch the most with how accurate it was, while his clothes and skin almost blended in, making it hard to differentiate apart from the folds of his shirt and trousers.

“Now, this is intriguing,” the god said. He hovered around it, scanning the sculpture, smiling as he found a decent replica of Pedr. He patted it on the head. The smack sounded more like a thud than a whack, meaning the blood hardened. “Wow! Now, you might be worth not killing after all—”

The statue came alive, snatching the Gem God in its large, swole hands. The Gem God struggled, trying to escape. He cursed, looking around as the statue started to squeeze the Gem God. The blood started crawling up at him, shadowing the bright light glowing from the Gem God’s skin.

The Gem God hissed. A painful expression struck his face as he tried to push and pull himself out. He reached for the necklace concealed under his shirt, though the blood pressed down too tight.

“Stop!” Belch shouted. “Don’t kill him!”

The statue turned, looking at Belch. It didn’t speak—she didn’t think it could—but it nodded, releasing the Gem God from its hand.

The Gem God flew back, raising a little higher in the air. “That… thing almost killed me!”

“You threatened me,” Belch said. “It saw you as a threat. And don’t call it a thing!”

The Gem God lowered himself down, though this time by Belch. “I’m a god… A GOD! And yet… this is the first time since I’ve acquired my power that I thought my life was actually in danger.” He shook his head in disbelief.

Belch walked up to the statue, which looked down at her as she approached. She knew the blood was a part of her thoughts. She understood the blood had feelings.

“What are you doing?” the god asked her.

Are you a boy? She asked in her mind, ignoring the Gem God’s inquiries.

The statue of Pedr shook his head. No.

So are you a girl? She asked.

Again, the statue shook its head.

Are you alive?

She received a nod.

“Are you communicating with it through your mind?” the Gem God asked.

Belch nodded. What can I call you?

Her blood fell from its form, washing down back to the floor. Then, it started to write in the blood, a glistening black over black, barely legible. You can name me whatever you want, it wrote. I am hundreds of souls bonded into one. There are almost as many women inside of me as there are men.

It took her a while to read what was on the floor. The time she spent with Pedr paid off. For two weeks ago, she probably wouldn’t even be able to read half of what was on the floor.

So… you are a single entity, but with the mind and soul of many? Belch asked. The blood wrote out “Yes” on the floor. Can I call you Blood?

The “Yes” stayed on the floor.

“Okay, Blood,” Belch said out loud. She smiled pleasantly. “Nice to finally meet you.”

The Gem God frowned. “I don’t like this secrecy between you two.”

Suddenly, two figures raised from the ground. The Gem God immediately flew away, scared of how Blood would react. There was one stocky, shorter figure with strands of hair on his face, forming a beard. The other was a more slender figure, with long hair stretching down her back. Of course, without any natural colors, they were all solid. But then, Belch recognized them.

“You… didn’t,” she said, approaching the animated statues. They opened their arms, standing together, waiting to embrace Belch. “You… sculpted my parents?”

The statues nodded, giving her a slight sense of fear and fright. The blood was with her back then too, when she relived her birth?

“Why?” Belch asked, inching a few feet closer.

A gift, the blood wrote in front of her parent’s feet. For giving us life again.

Belch walked up, and with a bit of hesitation, she wrapped her arms around her parents, embracing them for the first time, feeling the both of them. Her father’s scruffy beard pricked at her head, while her mother’s back felt soft and comforting. They smiled at her.

She couldn’t help but feel a false reality this brought her. Her parents didn’t even know who or what she was anymore. They probably moved on already, as the doctor advised them to. Belch wanted to find them… but she couldn’t help but think that was a difficult dream to achieve.

Her eyes were tearing up as both parents started rubbing her back. She had never felt affection like this before in her life. Blood must have had memories of parents of their own to provide her this comfort.

“Thank you,” Belch said. “Blood… thank you! I’m grateful for this. I really am. But… the next time I see my parents, I want to see them in color. Will you… help me get there?”

The parents grabbed her shoulder, departing from their hug to look at her. Simultaneously, they both nodded before their image altered back, falling into blood, sinking back to the floor.

Belch smiled, optimistic for what the future held.