“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

The figure was very much a child, no more than eight if I had to guess, with a slender frame, pale skin, dark hair, and hazel eyes that seemed to see into infinity from under the dark hooded robes he wore. But he still unsettled me.

Because he was dead.

No heartbeat. No qi. Not even a real body, the corpse he inhabited was just a constructed puppet. But I hadn’t been this genuinely afraid of anything since…

“Since you awakened, yes. I’m the only thing since that day that could actually end your life, though you shouldn’t be afraid. I have no intention of doing so.”

I gulped, and nodded. “So… you’re a god, then.”

The child nodded in return. “My name is Arawn.”

Death. Total, inevitable, unbreakable. The very essence of mortality. The one known as The Stillborn God, who watched over the balance of our world and any others his mother had created.

Fuck. That his very name told me so much about him pretty much confirmed he was a god. I don’t think those under Elder rank could’ve heard it spoken from his lips and survived the visions. Even now, I didn’t see the pale boy. I saw the child’s skeleton I’d passed when I first entered this dead city.

I tried not to be afraid, but this… this was facing an incarnation of fear.

Arawn smiled… I think. Hard to tell with a skeleton’s face. “You’re holding up well enough. I wanted to personally thank you for dealing with my four new pets.”

He held up a cage, holding the images of a chicken, a baby turtle, a newborn kitten and…

“A seahorse? That seems extra-humiliating.”

“They’ve earned worse for their actions, and shall receive it over the eternities their souls persist. The land will recover now, and I didn’t have to get personally involved as I’d once feared I must.”

Another vision, of the entire land becoming like the south, an infinite desert where nothing would ever live again. I shuddered, seeing he’d had to do it before, and would have to do it again.

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“It is a final option I do not like having to employ, I admit. But the direct interference of gods does more harm than good at the best of times. Now that it’s safe for a fresh dispensation, my mother is going to spread her word.”

His mother. I didn’t know her name, but sensed that him uttering it would come with visions of their own. So I didn’t ask. I knew enough of her nature through this incarnation of death to know who she’d pick to speak to.

“They’re well-suited to each other. Glad ascension’s going to make her even harder to kill, she’s going to want to stay as pregnant as possible.”

Arawn just smiled.

“Could you put the skin back on, please? The skeleton look is creepy.”

Did he… laugh?

“Sorry, forgot the revelations that come from speaking my name come with a few layers of reality being applied.” A shift of light, and he was a creepy corpse-child again. “Better?”

“Marginally. You like pulling those tricks, don’t you?”

The smile was now a smirk, simultaneously cruel and innocent.

“Now you remind me of Guiying.”

“We share a temperament. I might borrow her for another world’s troubles later, if it’s alright.”

I shrugged. “As long as she’s willing, and you let me know. I’ve been a lousy mother to my kids, and I’d like to correct that.”

Arawn nodded. “Thank you. It won’t happen for a few years, don’t worry. As for the rest…” He looked out on the empty lands. “You know what you need to do. Help rebuild the land, found the Xiangli Empire with your husband.”

“No.”

“The name’s already decided on, I’m afraid the people won’t give you a choice.”

I sighed. “Really?”

“You’ll have to be responsible for a time more, yes. But I promise you that it won’t be forever. Endure for a time more, and both you and your husband can retire in peace, vanishing from history. You already know how.”

I did. I’d been planning it for years, and would be happy to do so. Meanwhile…

“I do look rather hot now, don’t I? The pink markings are a nice touch.”

Arawn… Really? He looked grossed out?

“I’m about as old as I look, in terms of maturity. Technically, I’ve never actually lived. From your perspective, I’ve lived forever. Attractiveness… isn’t something I understand.”

I laughed. A true god, an avatar of mortality and cosmic balance… was still in the “girls have cooties” stage?

“Cooties are not a thing. And I’m done with this conversation. Make sure I don’t need to visit again.”

I laughed, and waved at the empty air where he’d once stood. The ruined city was gone now, replaced by a desolate plain.

Well, time to get to the actual work, I suppose. Can’t just destroy an entire set of kingdoms without building something to replace them, after all...