‘...And I saw myself repelling a massive typhoon, just like, beating my wings and rebuffing it completely from the city’s shores.’ Sym listened to her with a hand propping her head, a slightly bored look in her slit yellow pupils. ‘You didn’t see any more of me or Hiru or Iseult?’ She asked after Alene had talked herself out. ‘Unfortunately not yet, it seems a little chronological, like, I saw the city progressing, so maybe if I keep going I’ll eventually see you all.’ Alene said, hopeful, slightly chastised. She knew Sym really just wanted Alene to remember her so she could be adequately reproached. It hurt a little, knowing her closest companion held her in such low regard. Her cat had disappeared after she had started spending more time with Sym, he didn’t seem terribly fond of her, and avoided her mother’s island altogether, refusing to go anywhere close to it, turning up his nose and walking in the opposite direction whenever they got too close.

‘I kind of agree with you now, about the catacombs and the swamp being a part of the city’s destruction, I’m not sure Una would have done it on purpose.’ Sym looked at her askance when she referred to Una as separate from herself, but didn’t say anything, used to it by now. She had even called her Alene once, though she had quickly and aggressively corrected herself, glaring at Alene as if challenging her at the rectification.

Sym snorted a little, ‘you could have done it by accident though,’ her opinion of gods never high, ‘but I still think it was something to do with the catacombs.’ She flopped onto her back, arms folded under her head, staring at the sky, bending her neck back a bit to look at Alene before looking up again when she was done speaking. Alene moved from her cross legged position to laying down on the mossy bank, her head resting on her crossed arms, near Sym. ‘Why are you so certain about the swamp and the catacombs anyway?’ Sym’s tail waved gently in the muddy waters, stirring tiny whirlwinds of current full of debris as she thought how to answer.

‘There was this story, about the city. That it was built on top of the ruins of an older city, one that had been destroyed in an apocalypse by a god-king. Me and Iseult were super into his myth,’ she said, an aside, ‘he was this sort of zombie-god that had tried to raise an undead demi-god army to wage a holy war against the other gods and all of creation. He didn’t succeed, obviously, but the process caused a massive explosion, sinking a lot of the old city in a sort of sludge of toxic waste and residual godseed.’ She paused, turning to Alene, ‘it was true. Well, probably…the important part is that the godseed was discovered by Hiru’s mother, in the catacombs under the city. And she…she was, not exactly evil, but very…well, driven. She wanted to change the world with it. She couldn’t quite become a god, but she definitely gained some god-like powers. So, I can see her trying to do something to the godseed in the catacombs and causing a calamity like the last one.’ Sym swished her tail morosely, a weary, heartbroken look on her face. ‘No matter what it was that happened, how the apocalypse came to be, everyone is gone. Everyone I knew or cared about. Just. Vanished. And I may never know what happened to them.’ She took a deep, gasping breath, her eyes glazed as her third eyelid held back her tears.

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Alene sat quietly, not wanting to interrupt this private moment she was privy to. She had never heard Sym’s sadness before, just her rage. It was much more vulnerable than she was used to seeing the other girl. She wondered if Sym had fully processed her emotions, had been able to move from anger to sadness or acceptance. Was she one of those people that needed someone to talk through their feelings with? She felt saddened all over again for the other girl's loss. She was struck suddenly that while they had both been alone this whole time, that Sym had been experiencing for much longer the sense of loss she had experienced when Ceit had left - the loss of knowing exactly what was missing when without companionship. Her heart went out to the other girl. Sym sniffled, wiping her face with the back of her hand roughly, grumpily huffing away the rest of her tears.

Alene remembered Ceit had talked about something similar, a god-king that grew a demi-tree army. And the old story was based in fact. She shuddered, an entire army of gods, no matter their godly designation, demi or not, was not something that should exist. It was too dangerous, too volatile, too much power for one already powerful being to have. And apparently too much to contain. And he sought to wage a holy war on the other gods? What could have prompted him to take such radical action? Was Alene’s mother one of the gods he intended to eradicate? Alene couldn’t think of anything her mother could have done to warrant such a fate - even her mistreatment of Sym seemed insufficient to permiss that response. What had happened to that god, Alene wondered, idly. Had he been defeated? It seemed unlikely that such a driven being would succumb to the cradle of eversleep no matter its allure. Perhaps he had been destroyed in the backlash. Though it must have been some explosion to take out a god.

They sat in silence for a while, before Sym, seemingly realizing she still had a visitor, slapped her tail against the water and sat up. ‘So anyway, there wasn’t a swamp here in the city before, ergo, something created it - some sort of godseed explosion from the catacombs like the one that ended the zombie-king’s army. And that something must have destroyed the city, like it did before.’ It wasn't the most compelling hypothesis, and Alene privately felt there were some serious assumptions requiring quite the suspension of disbelief, and several big logical leaps of faith, but Sym said it with such confidence Alene found herself nodding along.

Alene sat up as well, crossing her legs once more to face Sym, leaning back on her palms to better look at Sym. ‘What is godseed? You said it a couple times, like you thought I should know what it was.’ Sym looked at her, slightly surprised. ‘I forgot you wouldn’t know. It’s so weird to be telling a god this. It’s like, one of the things that makes a god. You have to have godseed to become one. I’m not really sure what it is or what it's made of, but the one I saw was a sort of crystal, it sort of looked like a really glittery, glowy geode. I’m sure Mother could tell you. I’m surprised she didn’t, actually.’ Alene smiled, a little rueful, ‘as you said, she’s not much of a conversationalist.’ Sym barked out a laugh.