Four suns were engraved upon the sky, blazing, radiant. The grass beneath Dahli's feet was golden and blew whichever way, tickling her feet. She'd been summoned, as night set in and sleep found its way to the top of mortal desire, the Goddess Meena took her chosen ones into her domain and communed with them.

Dahli tilted her head to either side, looking for Masutap, her half sister.

"She's not here." The Goddess Meena spoke from behind her, Dahli turned to regard her deity. Dressed in a flowery dress that dripped off her body like liquid, it was golden in color to resemble the suns and the ground of her domain. The symmetrical features of Meena's face put everything mortals regarded as beauty to shame. Those full lips spread into a coy smile as she regarded Dahli with red irises. "Masutap doesn't answer my summons, she rejects my presence and uses me only as a siphon for power."

Dahli gripped the hem of the white dress she wore in the domain. "Masutap is wayward."

"She worships hate." The Goddess opined.

"A result of servitude to grief."

"Her purpose is to see Binoria fall."

"Yes." Dahli said with a sigh. "That seems to be everyone's wish." She recalled the mad Kolotian, for some reason he always found a way into her thoughts, she saw his eyes glowing amber, riding upon a Telinete Rhino. If he wished to snuff out Binoria's light, who could stop him? She doubted she was strong enough. And if Masutap joined him...

"Your fears are misplaced." Meena said, voice as lilting as a bard's lute. "Binoria's foe isn't the Kolotian, neither is it Masutap or Mairek or Rehny, though the Champion of Love plays a pivotal role in what is to come."

"The foe—"

"The foe I speak of isn't defined by race or borders, neither is his objective to conquer or to subdue. What he wants is death, what he serves is death, what he offers is death. And with death there isn't any respite from pain. No. Those he will claim join him in the void, to forever suffer." Meena turned away from Dahli. "You must warn them."

"How?" Dahli wondered. She knew the other nations were preparing for war against Binoria. If she told them there existed a greater evil within the realm, would they heed her warning or would they cut off her head and have it upon a pike placed above Binoria's gate to mark an end to tyranny? She wanted to cry out, to shout that the deeds of her people weren't as a result of nurtured cruelty, but the deeds of a single man whose ambition drew the eyes of a Goddess.

"Selarch was from another time." Meena spoke, Dahli faced her, taking in the pristine curve of her chin and the point of her nose. The way the Goddess read her thoughts, knew her in and out. It unsettled her. But she took comfort from it, she had nothing to hide, for once. "Selarch came from a time that knew only war, their language was brutality and their religion was cruelty." Meena continued. "I made a mistake, prolonging his time upon the realm didn't bring about evolution but a complacency in barbarism."

"But you had to," Dahli said. "You loved him."

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Meena balled her hands into fists. "I thought I did. But with Nyawe's return so did love's revelation avail itself and it was different from what I believed."

Dahli took a moment to ponder. "You love another." Meena didn't answer. "A God." Ishar came to her mind, the young Kolotian who had no filter, who spoke what came to mind, who thought of her as beautiful. Who is his God?

"His God is Ovek, the God of Chaos." Meena said, unclenching her fists.

"Ovek is the one you love." Dahli said. She balled her hands into fists, mimicking the Goddess. "The thoughts of Ishar that plague my mind, this state of being besotted by him, this desire to have him for my own. It doesn't stem from me but from my bond with you." She felt relieved, as if those idle fantasies she found herself entertaining weren't her fault.

Meena cocked a smile. "If that was the case, then wouldn't Masutap feel the same way? And I assure you she doesn't. All she feels is rage. She said she wanted to bring an inferno. Heat, she reminds me of Sin."

Dahli's trail of thought started to wander, as order willed it. She was made aware of the structure of Meena's words, the subject, the purpose and the diversion born of the purpose. She saw herself at the brink of a trail of thought, born of the curiosity to who Sin is. But she held herself back, she knew that her question would be answered if she asked but Meena's answer would birth more questions and she would be lost. No, the question I ask will be the one she's avoiding. "Tell me about Ovek." She said, unclenching her fists.

Meena smiled. "You understand the mental strands of order. Good."

"Don't change the subject."

"Ovek," Meena started. She turned to face Dahli. "We are old, us Gods, we've been around for so long and in that time as the Goddess of Order, I was able to understand my fellow deities and their roles. All of them except for one."

"Ovek." Dahli whispered.

"I am Order, he is Chaos. I try to grasp the purpose behind his actions, I asked myself where his zeal comes from and from what well does his thoughts sprout from. I found no answer, the more I quested to understand him the more I felt I was wandering through a labyrinth whose purpose is lost to me." She smiled. "But the more I sought to map him out, the more I found myself drawn to what he was. So opposite from me, so different from what I stood for. An escape from who I am."

"Chaos." Dahli uttered the word, her mind held the gaze of amber eyes.

"I thought order can't exist in chaos, but it can. I found the path of its existence paved with love." Meena concluded.

"The Kolotian, I must speak to him. I must warn him of Leba, I must have him on my side." Dahli said the words but even she knew them to be untrue, well, partly false. She did want him on her side.

"If you die in Ovek's domain you'll die where you sleep too. And the Kolotian is in love with another, the odds are not to your favor, being besotted would give you no upper hand. He is in love, Dahli," Meena said. "Neither does he believe in order. The last time he was here," She raised a hand, motioning to the four suns upon the sky. "He beat me. Such a thing has never been done."

Dahli's mouth hang open, aghast. "But how? He is a mortal!"

"Ovek played his game well, each piece set in a place that would guarantee his victory. I threatened his lover, and Ishar plunged into the depth of madness to achieve the unthinkable. A mortal beating a Goddess." Meena said. "I cannot bring him back to this domain, he will wage war against me without a thought, but I can send you into his domain where you will be at his mercy, and the mercy of his God. I will not be able to rescue you and if you die there, well, you know."

"You're afraid of him" Dahli said and Meena flinched. "Can I beat his God? overpower him as Ishar did you?" Dahli asked.

Meena shook her head. "No, you cannot."

"There must be a way." Dahli said. "There must be a way I can plunge into the depths of order."

"To do that will only heighten your sanity, and in so doing you'll grasp how pointless total abandon is. No, what you need in order to be as Ishar is, is madness. And I hold no say over such a wretched seed of chaos."

Dahli understood the Goddess's words. She cannot beat Ishar's God, Ovek. Not in his domain, where Ishar currently was, a man prone to madness. The returned Legions. She remembered how they screamed, mutilating themselves, cursing, always cursing and yelling. Ishar could order his God to kill her, and what would stop him? She stood for his opposite, Order in every sense of the word. She made up her mind, abandoned security. I need to tell him about Leba. He needs to know.

"I will do it. Take me to Ovek's domain." Dahli said.

Meena shook her head. "I will not lose you to Chaos."

"I will not die." Dahli retorted. I have to find a way to live. "I am not afraid." She added.

Meena cocked a smile and pushed her. ”Ovek, take my gift." Darkness engulfed Dahli as she fell, sprouting from the edges to cover her entire periphery and when she touched the ground, it wasn't golden grass that cushioned her fall, but black sand.

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