Na'reem met River at the shop's foyer, "Here you go." he said to her, handing over a pouch full of eureka berries. "Take two of these a day, three if you have to."

"What's it for?" she asked. Cool light from the windows rested on her form and Na’reem found there was a weariness in her stature that hadn't been there yesterday

"It's to help with the pain. The sun prince used to take it for his."

She held the leather pouch tight against her chest, "They're not a curse. The healer El'rra said she found no corruption in me."

"What happened earlier says otherwise.” He shrugged as she dipped her chin in embarrassment. “It takes a while. I don't know how you managed to do it but killing our dark majesty last night was stupid. You shouldn't have done that."

A cute pinkish bottom lip pouted. "I didn't kill him."

"Didn't you say you did?" For a moment, he was distracted. Sul'ahvi, in that instance, had breathed life into his mind after years of absence. His youngest brother's hopeful presence injecting more light into his life.

"I never said I killed him." said River, brows lowering. "You guys assumed on that all on your own. I wouldn't hurt anyone. That's not who I am."

He let out a disbelieving breath, a smile quirking on the corner of his mouth. "How did you get the three tribal curses? Aside from killing our dark majesty himself?"

"You won't believe me if I told you."

He stared at her for a moment, wondering how much time the curses would take before total madness consumes her. Earlier, he had attempted to strike a bet with his brother Me'ren but he dismissed him with a berating glance.

Sometimes, the poison of corruption strikes deep at the DNA like how it happened with snow tribe: the blue of their eyes, the whiteness of their hair and the pale complexion that didn't receive powerful rays of the sun so well.

By the looks of River's white decaying hair, it would seem like a year or two. But who really knows? Behagthis can be unpredictable.

Before she can turn the knob on the front door and leave, Me’ren appeared in the foyer quick as the wind “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I'm gonna go find Maksim before I leave."

In the moment she said those words— Sul'ahvi started sending him urgent visions of what he saw in the near future. The visions showing strong potential of their work unravelling in a matter of months.

An organized file of events unfolded like paperwork inside Na'reem's mind. His youngest brother had pieced it all together and he was projecting the tiniest evidence for details to what might trigger such unfavorable events.

"Na'reem? Na'reem!" called River. Once she got his attention, she asked. "I want to know where Maksim is right now."

Diving deep into a present oracular vision for the first time that day, he announced. "He is at Lumino lake." It seemed the snow prince had found the prison cell for their most dangerous eternal beast. And he was attempting to communicate with it. The present oracle was about to pull away from the vision before it got too much for him but he caught wind of the snow prince's one-sided communication. The more he heard, the more it appeared that someone on the other side of the conversation was answering. Was this madness? No, that was a god prince's curse. To a snow prince, it would be the curse of eternity. "Strange. He's talking to someone but I can't see who he is talking to."

"Could be madness." muttered Me'ren.

He turned to him "He's a snow prince. No madness touches him."

"Who do you think he is talking to?" she muttered while securing the stray strands of her crown braid.

Na'reem scanned the entire surroundings where the snow prince was perching on. A broad sweep of a yawning cave with half a lake overwhelming the area. "No one is there in the Lumino area. No one close."

Me'ren said, "You don't think he could be possibly communicating with it?"

"He is a snow prince." he replied. "Attunement from a snow prince to a watery eternal beast isn't a difficulty. At least, on principle."

"Eternal beast?! Are you kidding?" said River, shock transforming her features.

Na'reem grew quiet "We don't joke about the predators."

Her mouth fell open. "I gotta get to him now."

Me'ren nudged his brother by the elbow "Accompany her."

He straightened, "It's happening." his back turning ramrod-straight in a snap.

"Fuck." she muttered, a frown marring her pretty face "Is it that bad? Come on, let's run to him. Can I hitch a ride on your back?"

"It's U'tu." he muttered, distracted from several information coming into his skull.

Just now, Sul'ahvi had successfully finished his search for the trigger response to an array of apocalyptic futures.

Na'reem caught a meaningful glance to Me'ren, nodding at him to acknowledge what they had just both seen. "I have to go." The present oracle said, then he ran towards the stubborn idiot boy in full speed. Quickly coming in between a terse heated argument between him and Lei'la at the kitchen. He knew there was an expensive poison taken from the shop's pantry hidden in the weaver girl's pockets and the idiot boy had his hand inside his own pocket holding a sedative on his palm. Sooner or later, the two of them were going to make a terrible decision.

He kept this oracle knowledge at the back of his mind as he berated the hot-headed children from going a step further whereupon none of them would ever come back from. Tribespeople children at their age are expected to kill, maim, and hunt. An important rite of passage that dictated who is fallen prey or alpha predator.

But this was a trained heir apparent whose mantle of power and responsibility could easily break tribal unity from repercussions of his own death.

And this was an elder weaver whose special abilities could make or break a tribal village.

Elder or not.

Tribal leader or not.

These two were still children at a prime biological age when survival instincts are at their strongest. Hot passions ruled when the mind should be. And more notably, they were at an age for poorest impulse control.

The consuming passion that emanated from them fighting could fatally be the undoing of a millenia's worth of tribal unity. And in so doing, bringing the apocalyptic chaos of destruction that Natura Brumcia had been baiting ever since the dawn of time.

The apocalyptic red-fire chaos that will ultimately bring back the first behagthi, her one true love and long-lost husband. Xiankere.

**************************

River threw out her arms in surrender. "Me'ren. I think you should go after Na'reem. Help him out. I know things with U'tu and Lei'la aren't doing so well right now. It could be dangerous."

"Bull-headed tribal talk." He stared down hard at the floor, taking a moment with hands resting on his hips. "Fuck. The history around those two."

"Go." she urged. "Both of you should talk to them. I can't think of anyone better than the oracle brothers helping them out."

He narrowed his gaze at her. “You are not from around here, you won’t know where to look for him.”

“Lumino grotto, right? It’s close by. At this time of night, the cave walls in that area will shine the brightest.”

A sharp exhale. “You’ve seen my memories.”

“I’ve seen your memories. I know where to go.” she said, infusing the words with confidence she didn't feel.

A muscle twitched in his cheek, his tone growing husky “Fero fore gllirohm nertium rateh?”

Strange how his words were alien to River but his meaning settled into her mind like some strange long-forgotten music she has heard before but had just remembered “Piltabel humna deri de kelortto.”

He hurried her out the front door, “Luna thella mu teh.” he demanded, flicking a finger on her nose.

Come back sun tribe girl.

Then closed the door behind him before she could have time to reply.

The guy just called her sun tribe. She checked the crown braid if she had it on before shooting forward, running past by busy streets. Stalls abound. The entire settlement in the throes of a bustling market overflowing with supplies and resources. In the west side, she went straight for its exit while avoiding an event with pets and their crowd-pandering performance. She bobbed and weaved through the crowd, finding the exit that had no guards. If there were dangerous predators outside, who was protecting them? Was it a job or is it as Lei’la said that it was up to everybody to keep themselves safe?

The winding tunnel on the west led to a divergent path ahead. Sparing no hesitation, she pivoted to the left path of the tunnel. This grotto area was new. Recently discovered some years ago when an explorer by the name of Jain’evel found a small stream of water leading to a huge pool they now call their Lumino lake. What made it more surprising was at the time of discovery, they found wildlife thriving next to the pool. A family of Kerama, deer-like creatures with their fur glowing with phosphorescent light.

The memory came to her like a movie unreeling bit by bit followed by a surge of flight bursting through her system, almost like feeling gravity grabbing her by the pits of her stomach. Suddenly, she was overwhelmed by a powerful compulsion to indulge with as much information as she needed. Great yawning hunger opened up and took massive space in her guts. She was almost starving for more information. As much as she can get. No matter how much time it took. Just enough to create a sense of safety in her place at this massive multi-dimensional universe.

But it had to wait, Maksim was closed like a locked door and she was hard-pressed to reach him like usual. Why is he keeping her out? They needed to be in this together.

She burst out running from out of the tunnel where it reached to a cavern space with a lake receding to the side. Multiple boats hung on the edge of the lake, anchoring to a wooden pier. At the end of it sat Maksim whose feet dangled inches above a phosphorescent pool of lake water.

“You disappeared and you didn’t tell me where you were? I was worried!” she yelled as she strode up to him on the long wooden pier.

The question took him by surprise. It didn't seem like he had heard her coming even as she stood next to him. “How long has it been?” he asked, his eyes appearing like it had its gaze trained towards a far away universe.

Her lips thinned, not liking the bruising spots blooming across his pale complexion. “You went off yesterday and I couldn’t reach you with mind-speak.”

He seemed frightfully calm, staring down at the water surface catching reflected light off the cave walls. “You can’t reach me." he rumbled. "Not when I’m like this.”

“What’s going o— what the fuck? Maksim!” She dropped down to her knees beside him, helpless “How can I help? Tell me how can I help?”

Under the pier, rose up huge trunks of large tentacles colored in slippery black. Its long black tentacles slithered up Maksim’s leg, wounding up to his thighs which were burnt black, rotting and smelling like rusted chemical poison in the air.

“It speaks to me, but it takes some time to form its meaning. I’m afraid I’ll be preoccupied for the rest of the week?”

“Week? You will stay here for a week while this thing from the water hugs off you?”

“It won’t finish me off, not truly. I can withstand it." He tilted his head. "Do you hear that?”

The tentacles around his legs made slippery sucking sounds but outside of it were slow clear bells ringing. “That sound.” Said River.

“Ever heard it before?”

“From the orchard. When we ate that apple.” Bells had rung from a far away distance.

“It’s the language of an eternal soul. All hunger and desire. It’s hard to make sense of their ramblings underneath their desperation.”

“What does it hunger for?”

“Connection." he drawled out the word in his worn-out, lazy voice. "An eternal soul buoys for a millennium of years as a single wholesome entity. It hungers to hold its hands to another, to share bits and pieces of itself to nourish others. However, it is hard to chip off parts of itself by its own effort. It can’t willfully serve itself to give to others. It has to be—“ he stopped. “It has to be—“

Silence stretched between them, she watched how more tentacles rose up to his hip “What is it?”

He struggled, “It's a long word. Its meaning too hard to comprehend.” One of the large tentacles made a loud sucking sound as it pulled back from his skin and lunged forward again to wrap around his throat.

She debated prying off the tentacles with her hands. “Get away from there. Tell it to leave you alone.”

His white opaque eyes turned inky black, “Defeated.” he wheezed “It has to be defeated.”

At the next second he was dragged into the water, disappearing under its blue murky glow.

River removed her shoes and stripped down to her bra as she watched black tentacles slowly receding deeper underwater.

“You are not seriously going to go after him, are you?” His sly tone dripping with dry irony.

She turned around to see the dark tribe king in his full regalia. Russ’lo standing by the entrance as Holden leisurely walked the pier towards her.

“If you die, I won’t be able to bring you back again. Even my power has its limits.”

“I think I can follow. He and shared an eternal soul. Whatever it is, it should be able to talk to me.”

When she stepped on the edge, Holden appeared besides her in a frightening display of speed, holding her back by arm. “That snow prince is cursed with eternity. He won’t die.”

A rising panic settled between her shoulders, “That’s just it. I cured him. He doesn't have eternity anymore.” Thinking about it, he did arrive here from another universe. That travelling feat would have cost his death but he came out over here all right. "I cured him. Yet he was still able to pass through dimensions." She was already scratching her head. Nothing in this tribal universes ever made sense. They speak of power like it was common sense.

Holden placed his hands on her shoulders, twisted her around to face him. “Cured him how? When?”

She licked her lips, “I s-sang to him. Weeks ago. He and his viper got separated then re-combined again. It must have cured him like it did for the other princes. Like you.”

“By Brumcia. This isn't happening.” He mumbled, pacing around. "It can't happen."

“Why even keep an eternal beast this close to the settlement?! This is crazy.”

He speared fingers through his curly hair, “This is exactly what I was trying to avoid.”

“What is it?”

“There is more to this tribe. More to what they are doing than arranging festivals near a goddamned death trap for entertainment.”

"What a fucking nightmare. I mean I know people who willingly go to haunted houses but this just takes it to another level."

Rubbing a palm over his nape, "I haven't heard from the dark assembly since I arrived here in this universe. They're being incredibly tight-lipped about the whole united settlement situation. Either that, or they're avoiding me." his mouth clucked an annoyed noise. "We have to leave this universe right now, River. They're planning something big. And it's happening right here. I don't want to get caught up in this mess."

"I'm not abandoning Maksim. He came here because of me and now he's in trouble. I'm not leaving a guy behind, Holden. No way. No how."

His cheeks creased as he clucked another noise from his teeth. Upper lip snarling back revealing his enormous teeth of a beastly bear. The man bounced on his heels, shaking his head in impatience. "Fine. We're getting the snow princess. She should be able to pull his rotting corpse out of the water."

By some intuition, River pulled at an invisible string that tied her to Maksim and found it taut and strong. Soft music resonated as she touched their connection. "He isn’t dead." she mumbled, distracted by the strange music.

But Holden was already marching over to Russ'lo. “We’re going to see the snow princess” without waiting for an answer, he took her in a fireman’s carry and pounced hard on the gravel.

“Wait I’M PRACTICALLY NAKED!” she shrieked, holding on tight to him as the biting winds pricked at her skin.