The goddess Oloro looked into her mother's lifeless eyes. Both were in a cozy cabin on an unknown branch. She placed her hand on her chest. bump. bump. bump... Her heart was still beating. Oloro waved her hand in front of her face. No reaction. She pinched her cheek. No reaction. Bereginiy sat motionless in the chair, staring into the void for hours.
'Is it possible she's still messing around with those mortals?' Oloro criticized her. She took a deep breath and sat in the chair opposite Bereginiy. She focused, transferring her consciousness into her mother's mind palace. That was where she last saw her consciousness.
Whiteness. Oloro entered the palace.
The once pure white infinity had now vanished. Pieces of whiteness peeled off the walls, falling to the floor. Behind that whiteness, nothing could be seen. Not black. Not white. Nothing. An absolute lack of vision that only the blind can experience.
The consciousness of the nature goddess lay on the ground, dead. A pool of blood spread from her head, leaving a red stain on the perfectly white floor. Oloro knelt beside her mother. 'What happened here?'
The daughter ran her fingers over her mother's deformed face. Her nose was broken, bloody, and bent to the side. Her jaw was dislocated to the opposite side of her nose. Bruises around her eyes were covered in dried blood. Oloro ran her fingers over her own face. 'Gods bleed...?' Oloro reached her first conclusion. She began shaking her mother, trying to wake her up. Oloro started to cry. 'Gods die...?' the daughter of the nature goddess, Oloro, came to her second conclusion. She placed a finger on her mother's forehead and tried to access her memories.
The prince jumped out of his bed. He was drenched in sweat. He lit a candle and illuminated his bed. The blanket was marked by a huge stain of the Prince's sweat. He had a bad dream. A nightmare. Prince Veteres slept naked, as it was the only way for his body to get used to European beds.
He sat on the bed and crossed his legs. He rested the lukewarm candle on his bare thigh. Even when he was alone in the room, he didn't lose his inhuman smile. He grinned cheerfully at the candle flame. "Ater succeeded," he said to the candle. "My father is dead. Which means that Ater absorbed Eldricka. And now he will bring her to me," the Prince explained to his wax interlocutor. He decided he had slept enough. He put on his lavish uniform and left his chambers. His room was right next to the Queen's. He knocked on her door. Midnight had just passed, and the whole castle was asleep.
There was no answer.
The Prince, without changing his smiling and cheerful expression, began pounding with his right fist until the sleepy Queen opened the door. When she recognized the grinning figure of her husband before her, she immediately woke up. "What do you want?" Theresa hissed. Without a word, the Prince pushed her into the room and closed the door behind him. The Queen stepped back from him. She couldn't perfectly explain it to herself, but the Prince was… different.
"Does a good husband need a reason to visit his partner?" joked the King of the Holy Roman Empire. Theresa felt smaller than a mouse next to her husband. Since Ater's departure, the Prince had slowly brought life back to normal in the castle. New servants had replaced the old ones, guards were once again stationed at their lookout posts, cooks were once again working at full steam, and diplomatic visits had resumed. No one minded the new king. They knew what would happen otherwise.
"Uhm…" The Queen retreated to the very corner of her room. She was wearing only a nightgown. The Prince stepped toward her. He still held the candle from his room in his hand. The candle's flame illuminated his face from below, giving him an inhuman, eerie look. The Queen sat on the floor, trying to hide behind herself. The Prince loomed over her. "You can expect Ater in the next few days," the Prince said with a smile. The Queen's eyes lit up. 'Finally,' she thought.
"'Finally,' you must have thought," said the Prince, moving away from her. He sat on the Queen's bed. "Arbor didn't manage to trick my father. That's why he killed him. Oh, well… Everyone gets what they deserve, I suppose. But now the question is who will be the next Great Chieftain." The Queen was still huddled in the corner. That's where she felt safest.
"I suppose I'd be a good candidate. Although, I have my hands full here. The Mundi will manage without me," the Queen felt like the Prince was talking to himself. He wasn't even looking at her. "The main thing now is for Ater to come back as soon as possible. I'm sure you share my desire… When I finally get Eldricka, I'll be the King of Europe! The King of the world across the ocean!" The Prince shot a piercing look at Theresa, "And you will be the Queen of Europe. Caesar is no match for us! Justinian is shorter then my knees!" the Prince babbled, evidently ecstatic about the pleasant turn of events. "But…"
The Prince got up from the bed and approached the Queen again. "But when I get Eldricka, I won't be absolute. I won't be invincible. The man who is in love with my wife. The Dark Doctor, Ater Arbor. My long-time friend. The only one who can get under my skin…"
His grin was now animalistic. By the candle's flame, Theresa's disheveled figure on the floor looked pitiful. The King towered over her. He grabbed her by the elbow and threw her onto the bed. The Queen screamed.
GRUSH! A burst of flame blew the room's door off its hinges. Antonus burst in with fire in each hand. The fire illuminated the Prince as he lay next to the crying Theresa. She was trembling like a leaf. Antonus shot a stern look at his master. "I'll ask you to leave now," Antonus's cold gaze was in stark contrast to the fire he held. The Queen jumped off the bed and retreated behind Antonus. She peeked over his shoulder to see what the Prince would do. He laughed out loud, slowly got up from the bed, and adjusted his robe. "Ater is no fool…" said the Prince, leaving the room. As he passed Antonus, he gave him a sidelong glance.
"Thank you… Oh God, thank you!" the Queen thanked the master of fire, hugging him. Antonus lifted her by the waist and placed her back on the bed. "One day when I'm not sleeping in this room, the Prince decides to visit you. Luck? Or something else… Sorry. I won't leave you again. Sleep. I'm here," Antonus's deep voice soothed the Queen.
The Queen thanked him again and turned to the other side. Antonus dragged a small stool next to the bed and sat on it. The Queen imagined that instead of him, Ater was sitting there. It calmed her enough to fall asleep.
The prince lay in his bed, twiddling his thumbs. He couldn't understand the desire that had suddenly overwhelmed him for the Queen. Also, Antonus had gotten in his way? 'How loyal are they to me, really?' the Prince wondered. The walls were watching him. He felt their gaze on his forehead. The world started to move, and the Prince was at the center of the stage. 'The gods looked upon brave Alexander with favor when he conquered Persia. They will look upon me with fear in their eyes as I conquer the heavens,' the Prince imagined with his eyes closed.
The next morning, the Queen and Antonus didn't go to breakfast. They stayed in her chambers and chatted. The Queen sat on the floor, her back against her bed, next to the warrior who was still sitting on his stool. "…an incredible doctor, really. When the sea nymphs tore off my arm, Ater managed to reattach it masterfully within a few days. There is simply no better healer in the world. He truly is a miracle worker," Antonus praised his friend.
"A doctor and a warrior… How did that happen?"
"Ater should be back soon. Let him tell you, I've surely forgotten all the details," Antonus dodged the question with a smile. Ater had told him about his past in the utmost confidence. He didn't want to betray that trust for anyone, not even the Queen.
knockknockknock! Someone was knocking on Theresa's door. Antonus opened it.
"Oh, Frejo! Good morning!" Antonus greeted him. "What happened last night? The Prince is nervous," the Prince's Advisor asked without responding to the greeting. Antonus recounted what had happened. "Oh… So Ater asked you to guard the Queen? Foresighted of him." Frejo nodded to Theresa in greeting and left. 'That fox… Is it possible he foresaw the Prince's change in behavior? Or maybe he's predicting something that is yet to happen…'
The daughter of the goddess of nature, Oloro, sat at a long table made of clouds. On the right side of the table sat the gods of the sky, and on the left, the gods of the underworld. A few more figures stood around as there wasn't enough room at the table for everyone. The deities argued among themselves, shouting over each other, pointing fingers, and shoving... The atmosphere was like a chicken coop into which a wolf had entered.
"tsk," clicked the god sitting at the head of the table. Rest of the gods froze in place. The only thing they could move were their eyeballs, which they rolled around frantically, trying to see what was happening.
The Supreme God, Amatus, put his feet up on the table. He leaned back deeper into his chair and began nervously running his tongue over his teeth. Everyone except him stood still like statues.
"Okay. Okay. So… Bereginiy is dead. Gods are mortal. Now we need to figure out why, and more importantly, how?" Amatus's voice was like the chirping of birds. A pleasant string chord accompanied every spoken word; it sounded like he was singing. He clicked his tongue again, and Oloro fell to the floor. She quickly stood up, adjusted her dress, and bowed to Amatus: "Sorry for the noise! We got carried away."
"Who do you suspect killed Bereginiy?" the Supreme God ignored the apology. Oloro waved her hand, and above the table floated two dolls made of leaves and grass. The tall doll wore both a coat and a cloak, along with gloves made from different shades of leaves. On the shorter doll, the only distinguishing feature was a captain's hat made of vines.
"Ater Arbor," said the Goddess, pointing to the taller doll, "And Captain Edward," she said, pointing to the shorter one. All the eyes of the frozen gods were fixed on the floating dolls.
"tsk." The gods started moving again. They sat down and calmly looked at Amatus.
"Our life comes from the jurisdiction we control. The personification of divine power is directly proportional to the concept one governs. You cannot kill a god any more than you can kill an idea," the gods nodded; they knew that much themselves, "but…" Oloro fidgeted nervously in her chair.
"But! What I said is a fact. But Bereginiy is also dead. That is also a fact. How?" The God stared at his colleagues.
One god raised his hand: "Are you sure Bereginiy is dead? I mean… Nature still exists? Wouldn't the death of the goddess of nature mean that nature also died?"
Oloro quickly responded: "Her heart still beats. They killed her consciousness, her soul, her essence. They killed the part of you that makes you more than a pile of flesh... She is dead, Reginald, stop acting like a pussy." God Reginald looked sadly at the ground after this remark.
"I have a theory," Amatus said after a long silence. The gods were all ears. "Humans give gods strength. The more people believe in the power of something, the stronger the god of that thing will be. But what if a god meets a non-believer?"
"Bereginiy is the goddess of nature. What, he didn't believe in nature?" Oloro commented sourly.
"No… Not that he didn't believe in nature, but that he didn't believe in its power. This man, Edward, you said he was a Captain? A sailor then."
"A sailor! That means he has firsthand experienced the destructive power of nature! Every storm, every wave that capsized every ship! All are proof of the power of the goddess of nature!" Oloro retorted boldly.
"But he survived it. Countless times he wrestled with the sea, and countless times he won. Wouldn't that, at least subconsciously, give him the belief that he is stronger than the sea?"
"The sea is not the entirety of nature! What about earthquakes? What about diseases? Events that take hundreds of thousands of lives!"
"But not his… Every city that an earthquake destroys, people rebuild like ants. Every disease that the gods send, humans eventually develop immunity to it. If I were in his place, I would also think I was stronger than nature."
The gods shuddered. Could that really be it? Such a simple way to die? Amatus noticed the negative looks the gods exchanged.
"So every madman who thinks he is stronger than the gods is stronger? Every fool who thinks the sea is shallow can kill one of us?" Oloro wailed.
"No. If that were the case, we would all have been dead long ago. But if enough members of the same group believe in the same thing, there is a good chance it will come true," concluded the Supreme God, "after all, that's how we came into being, isn't it?"
"But what could have led a sufficient number of people to think they are stronger than nature?" the daughter of the goddess of nature asked desperately.
The Supreme God Amatus laughed diabolically. "When was the last time you descended among the mortals?"