As the first hint of memory came trickling back to her consciousness, River eventually realized how far she had come since then. Dr. Malia had been her solid rock, the unflinching paradox of facts and wishy-washy hopes which should have put her off but it constantly astonished her how could a scientist of the mind can have such fantastical faith over daydreaming nonsense. Both she and her husband’s marriage was an astonishing spectacle of sparks, hopes, and dreams realized. If it weren’t for them as visual testament, she wouldn’t have made her way this far.

Taking a deep calming sigh, she felt for the corners around her mind. Various scents hit her, adding extra pressure like drills bearing down inside her head. Me’ren, El’rra, Lann’a and even the villagers had a scent to their presence but no Maksim. She can hear the snow prince breathe, listen to his heart beating, the rush of blood pumping against his pulse but the scent of his mind was nowhere.

Her eyes popped open at the discovery.

Natura Brumcia’s true form looked painfully perfect, not a hint of scratch nor dirt on her. “What would you have me do in return for the safe homecoming of those we have lost?”

“Easy. I want you to live up to your full chaotic potential. Actualize it to its fullest possible capacity. It will only take about 4 years?” She chuckled, waving a hand. “Nothing but a blink away.”

For a brief glance, River had seen a complete scope of infinite dimensions. If she acquired what Brumcia wanted in over four yours, the deaths that happened today could still be reversed. “But Maksim.. he needs to be here. He’s almost healed. Almost. Can’t you do something?” The thought of his tribe suffering under his absence didn’t sit well with her.

An annoying tic wrinkled her temple, “Patience, dear. What have I said about paying for your mistakes?”

She bit her lip. Different face. Different form. Still the same devious anger.

The goddess trailed a finger down her cheek, “It’s always like that with you. Always impatient. You have always needed to be done as soon as possible. That mountain should have taught you a ton or two but it seems like you have reverted to your old foolish ways.” Her voice turned mocking. “Oh poor River, your parents couldn’t take you back to the big wonderful city. Why do I have to stay in the farm? With the rest of the broken war-torn children?”

“You left me with those children. They bullied me, and were so mean—”

“Of course they hated you. You had a grandmother who gave you luxurious gifts and a grandfather who keeps you safe. You, a painful reminder of what was torn away from them, of what should have been theirs.”

“You knew! You knew they would reject me from the start. How could you? I was just a kid. I didn’t have to be so.. so hungry and thirsty for a real sliver of attention. You wanted me suffering. Deliberately put me through the dark conniving tunnels you built when I haven’t..” her shuddering breath was followed by shivers along her spine, a familiar chill drenching her body in numbing grey “When I haven’t seen the light day. I was only a child. And you forced me to go through those mountains, alone! And when I got out of it, no one would believe me.” A barrage of childhood memories circled “None of my friends believed that you left me for dead in that dark insidious mountains. You— you have done more damaged than those mountains ever did. You isolated me. After I told my friends growing up what had happened, nobody believed my ultra-protective grandfather could abandon me to those tunnels in those damned freaking mountains, and that— that” her eyes snapped to Brumcia’s face, a sudden clarity “My grandmother. Kind though, she was. She... You were complicit. You never stopped him. I was in those mountains for days. I could have died. Over and over again. You let him dump me in there.”

“Ungrateful wretch. Get it through your rotten human brain. I raised you, forged you in the fires of hunger, made you strong at the wild Ylein mountains we used to call home. I was never complicit on anything. It was my plan all along.” A slender finger reached for River’s neck “Have you never doubted the magic within this necklace?”

Dumbfounded, jaw slacking open “I— uhh technology” she said weakly.

A knowing grin stretched on her perfect lips, “Magic and technology. The line always blur, don’t it? Until it doesn’t.” Her arm swept upwards, fingers growing transparent until it disappeared to stubs. The disappearance trickled down from her fingers down to her shoulders until it looked like half of her was non-existent.

With great exertion, the disappearing act faded away in a snap revealing her true perfect form: translucent dress made out of smoky wisps, an otherworldly-dress spun by a web of cosmic proportions and black long curly hair glowing iridescent under the grotto light. A surge of her cosmic energy pooled like waves of light.

There must have been a heartbeat because River heard it close, faint as it was. A maddening drumbeat. A drumming thrum that left echoes in the corners of her mind like an open call for help. It was Maksim. She was sure of it.

She stumbled to him, fully-healed and lying peacefully on the hardwood floor off the pier. He wasn’t there. Not here in his mind. He was somewhere else, and the wrenching call of him to her had distressed a lonely part in her heart like it always does when someone makes a cry of help.

Natura Brumcia stood over him, “His soul will come. Not soon. It will come back, he has a long journey to take.”

She peered up at her, “He doesn’t have long. He has got a whole fucking tribe relying on him. Doesn’t that matter to you at all?”

Waving a non-committal hand, “I can make one after it.”

“How can you possibly say that? These are people with lives to live, a whole life ahead of them. Don’t you care? They are your creations!”

Her pretty nose scrunched at the thought, “I know which universe he came from. It isn’t really my favorite. Didn’t put the right stuff in it, retrospectively. The balance gets wonky but don’t fret. Once a tribe falls, everything else will follow after. We can pick up the pieces after it.”

“Can you even hear yourself?! Save them now! Get them back. Get them all back.”

“See this pride, it burns bright, daughter. I’ve never been more proud of my entire existence. I made this. I made you. Perfectly fit to hold in an eternal soul. With time, you will be able to hold in more. I just know it.”

She stood up in a huff, rising to her full height “These disguises. This deal you held over my parents to get their hands off me. And all you wanted from me was to eat a bunch of apples?”

She bent down, holding River’s jaw to level their gazes “These apples are life’s primary sustenance, their eternity means unbreakable spirit and you, my dear daughter, had just broken one down and took it in your body.”

“This is important to you? There are people who are losing lives, and suffering for your poor judgment!”

Like an avenging wraith, she lunged towards River, trapping her head between manicured hands. “Careful, now. Your brittle temper— you get that from me.”

“For a goddess, you sure do have quite the number of flaws.”

“Not a flaw. This sensational emotional centre— it lights you up at a moment’s notice. It’s what the eternal fruits can sense, what it needs from you. Their very essence flows through you, transformed. Can you feel it?”

“It’s hard to sense anything else when I got a bunch of voices in my head, calling out for help.”

Surprise quickened in her features before it disappeared. “Well, now.”

“Please. Just help my friends get back to where they’re needed. I’ll do anything you want.”

She rested a hand against her hip, “You’ll do whatever I want, regardless.”

River’s eyes narrowed, a challenge at the tip of her tongue. “But there are things that you don’t know?”

“Teh? What is that?” Amused.

“Aren’t you a goddess—”

She raised a hand to stop her, “Isn’t that such a mouthful? It ain’t even the worst one they called me. The Great World, a moniker I despise. Hush about my titles, you’re my daughter. You can call me, God.”

Undeterred about her egocentric rant, she continued “Aren’t divinities all-knowing and omniscient?”

“With all my creations, of course. Everything from the fabric of space down to the thread of grass, not one single detail unaccounted for.”

“And yet you registered surprise over this one detail about me. Tell the truth for once and give me a goddamned straight answer. Did you plan for a universe to call me behagthi?”