Me’ren couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Something was wrong. The fact of the matter was behagthis were not the Great World’s creation. Not even Brumcia’s. If this was true, if River truly was divinity’s daughter then— “No River!” he yelled “Don’t eat that!” But it was too late.

Her face turned sour as the taste hit her tongue. And a lost look crossed her eyes before she swallowed an apple bite whole.

As he called for her, her head turned to him with eyes full blown to pure black as if she had an animal settling home inside her.

Natura Brumcia, a real goddess in the flesh stroked River’s cheek lovingly with the backs of her fingers and hummed with delight. “It sits well with you. An entire eternal soul sitting within this chest I molded for you. How long have I waited, daughter.”

An entire eternal soul? He thought. He witnessed River housed three and guided three more eternal beasts from another universe in her memories. Clearly, she has far exceeded than what was expected.

His goddess beamed with pride, the tips of her mouth tipping up to a grin as she watched River rose up to her full height, limbs of shadows pulsing in the enclosing space as it expanded and threatened to fill up the entire grotto with cold darkness. What she had just ate was an eternal beastly soul that has corroded over since the beginning of time.

The temperature had dropped to sub-zero and he shivered, feeling his limbs growing paralyzed by some freezing cold that tempted to wring every last bit of warmth out of him to dry.

He crossed his arms over his chest, wondering if this was the kind of cold the peak snow tribe has had to deal with on a daily basis. Plumes of fog was billowing out from his mouth due to the sheer cold that he realized he hadn’t understood what killer temperature the other tribes were going through until now. This was new information.

It shouldn’t be.

He knew things, almost about nearly everything. But as the stifling cold shocked him down to his bones, the dawning realization that he didn’t understand the full extent of the big picture struck him.

Was I ever so quick to judge?

Could I have given my decisions more room for doubts?

River’s skin revealed purple veins raising from the surface. And her quick hallowed breaths exposed her present undeniable state. She was in extreme pain. Her shoulders dropped forward before she caught herself again to sit upright. “You will..” she said, her nose flaring up as she filled her lungs. “You will return those we have lost.”

Natura Brumcia’s grin fell as it became clear to all that River’s skin was wilting, turning dry and cracked. More cracks appeared as she continued to breathe through the pain.

A pain he couldn’t begin to understand. Or even empathize.

Sul’ahvi has always accused him of being unfeeling. Unmoved by the slightest display of distress.

How could I?

Millions of memories poured in his mind. History unravelled through him. The emotional weight of it was unfathomable that he won’t even begin to process it. Ever.

If knowing the full history of a whole world ever taught him anything. It’s that emotions never solved shit. What it was good for was beginning an absolute shit storm like starting wars and genocidal horrors.

But emotions never cut tension. It never strengthened the diplomatic ties between tribes that had stopped the wars. Emotions didn’t sway the dark assembly to unite the tribal villages-- into killing the behagthis. It was his logical reasoning that made hundreds of powerful authorities trek through the sound analysis of how a behagthi was the sole reason and cause of their troubles.

He felt his own mouth dry. A clogging force stuck in his throat and it felt like he was choking until hot moisture fell across his cheeks.

He had always believed behagthis were an unfeeling demonic entity. A gargantuan mess of an entity that breached through universes to ensue chaos by starting something wild and new as they invented terrible trailblazing paths for tribespeople to follow after.

But something about her erratic singing gripped him by the heart and made him feel in ways that has never come to pass before. There were strings rooted in his chest and it was getting pulled by River. Her defiance. The small of moments of playfulness before she can retreat back. Even her strange-sounding singing. But most of all, it was her expressive eyes that had done him in. A wealth of robust strength behind those brown-eyed gaze fortified by what can only be described by endless unimaginable pain. The sort of pain he never wanted to find out for himself. The pain of standing alone against an indifferent universe. If he were to lose his brothers, then he’d rather die than live without them.

His body moved without his consent, willed by goddess.

All this time he greatly influenced tribe after tribe to see what behagthis were truly made for. Monsters of unnatural transformation. Demonic outsiders who couldn’t care less for the tribespeople they met along the way. He was wrong and at a big loss.

How does he stop himself from causing more beatings down to her back?

He was splintering. Acids of regret coursing through his nerves. Nothing had ever felt like this. How did it happen?

He remembered River. The way she sang in Sul’ahvi’s room. And her heartrending lyrics she sang portrayed such lonely eternity, he would have sworn right then and there she could have been a princess cursed with eternal life. But she was no appointed curse-bearer of a snow tribe. She wasn’t even behagthi. What was she?

One thing became glaringly obvious. She was human. Someone from the sun tribe would have known right away, but to Me’ren, it was a test to his god-like ability to peruse every corner of her mind.

He wished he hadn’t.

Natura Brumcia had made an excellent ruse of tricking her daughter into the exacting mold she had set. River Florencia at the tender age of 9, a righteous age that would set off a whole tribe to celebration, instead had been subjected to 1000 Battle Trials in mountains that rivalled the size of a continent. The reminder of a 9-year old girl forsaken in the abandoned wilds gave him strength. “Call it off.” His voice broke through the growing storm of shadows that swung from River’s back.

Natura Brumcia turned red, a vicious fanged growl emanating from her as she shifted to him meeting his gaze. Divine unholy aura licked like flames surrounding her, the very visage of a powered goddess in the throes of transforming to animal.

Me’ren got swept up by her presence, and stammered. The undeniable force of divine dominance was nothing he had ever crossed before in his life. “She won’t be taking no more curses.”

“He doesn’t speak for me.” Said River. “Now it’s time for your end of the bargain.”

“Oh that?” She drummed manicured fingernails over her jaw. “It has already started. Just as easy.” Shrugging, “A thousand years is all it takes for the recently dead to animate back again. Isn’t that swell?”

A disgusted look crossed her face. “What?! No. Bring them back now.”

She tutted. “I’ve always believed you would have grown up these past 5 years. Still asking for instant solutions? I thought I taught you better patience than that.”

“I want them revived now. This instant.”

“For a price. Much steeper than before, mind you. Any action you make has no consequence in this universe. But my actions? Well that’s another thing that takes tonnes of re-ordering. Can’t do it without a fair price.”

Her laughter was filled with mockery, “A goddess who can make universes and universes galore. What could you possibly want from a human like me?”

The goddess made a breezy shrug, an air of nonchalance that defied the intensity in her gaze. “Your father.”