The first year after Lilian’s death was spent on icy shores and then on a slow ship going back home.

Thar had used everything in his power to keep his eyes from closing for too long. He spent the first few months sleeping more than he was awake and taking as much of the cold as he could in him. It had taken too long to replenish the mahee that D’Argen had taken from him and used up, but the others were astonished that he was so strong so fast.

Haur had barely spoken to him in that time outside of news of when the ship would be coming and who was coming to get them. Yaling and Abbot ran themselves haggard taking care of D’Argen’s unconscious body when his mahee was so weak that they barely felt it and it focused only on healing itself.

The second year after Lilian’s death they returned to the known shores of their land and were greeted by the First Five, then they spent the rest of the year and a few months to follow in the statue hall at the castle of Evadia.

All the Never Born gathered and searched for Lilian’s mahee to call it home. Abbot cried his way through making Lilian’s statue even as every single born helped him and guided him and added their own touches. It almost became an argument on what Lilian’s statue should wear but, in the end, they decided that Lilian was still the God of Spring. It was Hiras, the one who now held that title now and the one the mortals worshipped for the spring rains, that suggested it.

Lilian’s statue wore a beautiful long robe that revealed their chest and stomach and they wore a crown of flowers. Their feet were covered in even more flowers and vines climbed up their skirt and twined around their hands.

The third year after Lilian’s death, Haur agreed to be read by Zetha and the First Five learned everything they could about what happened in the north.

Thar left the castle with Darania and her followers, sticking as close to D’Argen as he could without ever actually being near the runner’s unconscious body. He woke many times in the middle of the night in a panic, afraid of the pain inside him intensifying to a point where it meant death, but it never did. Instead, he searched for the ocean waves lapping against the ice of his mahee and he calmed before going back to sleep.

Darania spent most of that year hovering over D’Argen’s body, much as she had over Delcaus when the God of Earth had exhausted almost all of his mahee millennia ago to move a mountain and try to kill most of the demons. It was the same now, she assured the others and all they could do was give D’Argen’s mahee time to replenish itself.

The fourth year after Lilian’s death, Vah’mor called Thar back to Evadia and then immediately ordered him to go north. The implicit command to stand away from D’Argen was heard between both of them even if never spoken aloud.

Haur and Nocipel had gathered more mortal support from their lands including alliances with two of their neighbouring kingdoms and had built an entire fleet of ships to carry them and their supplies all to the northern lands.

The mountain where Thar and D’Argen had been locked inside was finally silent and Haur had taken to building a city in its skirts. With all of the snow that had fallen before, so little of it gathered now on its peaks that it served as a perfect defensive hold.

That year, Thar finally reached the summit of the mountain and looked out into the vast unknown to the north where all he saw was white, white, and more white. He could not tell if it was more of the same land that they had travelled before or if there was another ocean beyond that would not stop churning. The waves lapping at the edges of the ice inside him did not answer him.

The fifth year after Lilian’s death, Thar returned to the Rube Islands and with Darania’s wrath as she screamed at him from the shores before he even got off the ship.

Darania had found something strange in D’Argen’s mahee. She had felt something that should not have acted the way it did and she was worried that it could mean for the runner. When she touched it, she felt Thar.

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Thar had felt her probing, the fresh spring grass that tried to root itself on the ice and failed, and dismissed it as her healing the runner with her mahee. That year, he learned better. Darania let him see D’Argen only after she probed his own mahee and found the same strange anomaly.

Thar refused to tell her what it was and she finally gave up. Instead of sitting beside him to ask for more, she joined the singers outside as they sang hymns and prayers that danced through D’Argen’s rooms. The runner’s mahee collected the sound as if it was his own, feeding on it, but D’Argen did not wake.

The sixth year after Lilian’s death, Thar was once more sent to the north to help with the construction and returned to Rube Islands barely a few months later.

A day sitting beside D’Argen and he was recalled to Evadia. After a day of waiting for Vah’mor’s orders, he was sent north. After a month of waiting for Haur’s instructions and he went back to the Rube Islands before he was recalled to Evadia and sent north again and again. Vah’mor did not give him any time to spend by the runner.

The seventh year after Lilian’s death, Thar went to visit D’Argen and Darania turned him away. She refused to even let him go near the complex where D’Argen had been staying to heal.

“Is your mahee okay?” Darania asked him just as Thar went to push past her orders anyway.

Thar stopped pushing and looked away in answer.

“Are you in pain? What is it?”

“No pain,” Thar answered only in part.

“What happened?”

“It does not matter.”

“Yes. It does. And it matters to D’Argen too,” Darania said, using his weakness against him. “What happened?”

“Something,” Thar answered without lying.

Darania rolled her eyes to the sky and prayed for patience. “Let me check,” she ordered and motioned to his neck. Thar responded by ducking his chin down, blocking the entrance to his mahee. “Thar, I have done this for you before. What is it?”

“I told you. Something. Happened.”

“What was it?”

“I do not know, but I am fine. I am not in pain, my mahee is working fine, and it is full,” Thar listed but did not lift his chin. “Leave it be.”

“You know I will not,” Darania responded and crossed her arms over her chest. “Look, I gave you some time. I understand that what happened up there those years ago was traumatizing, but even if you do not want to tell me, I want to make sure you are alright.”

Thar shook his head and said, “No.”

“I will not let you go to his rooms until you do,” Darania threatened but it sounded weak.

Thar looked over her head to the path that led to the complex where D’Argen stayed. The mortal singers were gathering once more. This is where each day they started their rounds and where they ended them.

“Not until you promise.”

“Promise what?”

Thar hesitated and looked away.

“Nobody can know,” Thar finally said in the silence. “Not until… not until D’Argen consents.”

Darania frowned but nodded.

Then Thar lifted his chin to her, out here in the middle of the open space with only vines above their heads to protect him. She reached out with a single digit. The moment he let her into the entrance of his mahee, Darania gasped.

“It is different,” she said and then dug deeper, down his throat and to his chest, feeling around his mahee. It was strange, it had been years since she had done this to him, but Darania was his leader. She was the strongest in his aspect of magic and his ice welcomed her touch.

To him, it was strange, but everything felt normal. When she reached for his mahee and where the chains should have been, he expected her to stop and question it. Instead, she continued as if she did not notice their absence.

“Something is off,” she said and reached further into him.

And then… then he felt her mahee touch the lapping waters of the ocean. She pulled back so suddenly that the disconnection actually hurt. When he opened his eyes to look at her, Darania was staring at him in horror.

“How?” she whispered the single word out.

Thar did not answer her.

“How did this happen?” she asked again, her voice more forceful now.

Thar copied D’Argen’s action and let his shoulders rise and then fall slightly. She continued to stare at him in horror but there was some amazement creeping into her eyes. “My mahee was almost dormant. D’Argen tried to replenish it,” Thar finally said.

“He did not replenish it! He split the both of you in two!” Darania almost screamed. “I have… no… I have never seen or even heard of something like this before. Never. I have tried so many ways to try to find how to—Vah’mor! Vah’mor is the closest to a connection like this we have ever seen but even then…” she trailed off.

“May I see D’Argen now?” Thar asked in the silence, waiting for her permission to move.

Darania visibly flinched and Thar narrowed his eyes. He looked back at the complex but the singing mortals were long gone. Too fast. Before, they would stay there for hours as per Darania’s instructions so that D’Argen’s mahee could replenish with their songs.

“Where is he?” Thar asked, afraid of the answer.

After a moment of silence, Darania dropped her eyes to the ground and said, “He woke up and left.”