The time had come for Ua to give birth and she asked to be taken to her old home in Central Hatua which had been turned into a temple for Sav’taists.

The Umande would come and give thanks for the blessings they accredited me for. They thanked me for their big houses, bountiful harvests, good health and of course, they thanked me for Glass.

The Chofumah, however, came to the temple with pleading prayers. Asking for better housing, more food and cures for their ailments or disabilities.

I, however, was not their god so I wouldn’t be answering any of their prayers.

The temple had been closed off entirely for her child’s delivery and several Shangazi attended her as she laid on her bed with a face covered in sweat.

They all sat by her side in silence and watched anxiously as the evening sunlight from the window above bathed her exposed belly in a brilliant pillar of luminosity which was also the only source of light in the now-darkened house.

The rest of her body was covered in a single purple piece of silk.

Purple was significant to those in Hatua because, after seeing my doll wear its tunic, Mlezi and his family had spread the idea that purple symbolised divinity, purity and regality.

Ua took deep, effortful breaths and the Shangazi all rushed to her side as she let out an agonized groan.

They all comforted her all while Jua sat on a balcony in the palace that overlooked Hatua.

His baggy eyes focused on central Hatua which stood far in the distance.

Standing next to him were Pele and Heziyn.

“It’s time,” Jua whispered making Pele and Heziyn turn to him with weary expressions.

“Get the horn.” He instructed and Pele complied.

He left the balcony only to return shortly after with a large horn in hand.

“Aunty,” Jua called making Heziyn kneel by his side.

“Thank you... For everything.”

Heziyn’s eyes quaked as they filled with tears.

Jua then turned to Pele before nodding once.

Pele nodded back and, after taking a deep breath, raised the horn and-

“AHHH!” Ua screamed as her labour continued.

To ensure her delivery went without issue, the Shangazi all cycled Life Energy through their bodies so that, if an emergency came up, they could swiftly heal Ua or her child.

That said, no exterior Life Energy was to touch her or her child so long as everything was going well.

The sisters all softly sang a certain song as they tried their best to comfort Ua whose face was contorted with pain.

They had altered the lyrics to better suit Ua’s situation and they swayed from side to side with every word they sang.

“Come now, sweet child

Show us your smile

Your mother yearns

To see your face

Bless her with love

And joy and light

Come now, sweet child

And bless this day.”

Jua closed his eyes all while his hair glowed dimly green.

I then watched as he drained the life energy from his head all while Heziyn loudly wept and Pele repeatedly blew his horn.

A legend had begun to spread among the people in recent times.

It was said that the sun would one day set, marking the closing of an age. On that day, signalled by the first, which could be blown from atop the mount, countless horns would be blown and they would send pleas to Sav’ta who would offer the Chofumah people deliverance. For enduring years of hardship, the Chofumah would be blessed with a new home that was beyond the northern horizon. One wherein they could live freely under the leadership of a great warrior of Chofumah blood.

This place was to be called Y’shuah.

Countless horns were blown across all of Hatua and as the air grew to its fullest with sound, Thabiti had his men guide the Chofumah who wanted to flee to the northern border. They would be met by more warriors who would guide them to Abanafash where they would be guided into Jua’s hundred ships.

Thabiti had spent the better part of a year secretly getting other high-ranking Umande individuals to see the plight of the Chofumah and they all agreed that it would be acceptable if the Chofumah went their own way and they didn’t feel particularly threatened since they controlled all of the Glass on the southern continent. The Chofumah leaving just meant there’d be fewer mouths to feed even though this went in the way of Ua’s plans.

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After travelling to the northern coast, the Chofumah would surely let out cries of relief and hope but as their journey began, a different cry filled the air.

Ua gasped for air as her child was carefully retrieved by the Shangazi.

The little boy was then handed to his mother who gently hugged him all while the song of the Shangazi reached its loudest in tandem with the horns.

Ua then began to cry and although the Shangazi all celebrated her seemingly joyous tears, her face was still twisted as though she was in nothing but agony.

The mother and child were eventually cleaned and taken to a separate room where they were allowed to sleep in a comfortable bed but before the last of the Shangazi left, she turned around to face Ua once more.

“May I ask what his name is?”

Ua turned her sleepy eyes to her sleeping child who clung to her tightly.

“His name is one that of one who loved... Musa.” She whispered.

The Shangazi warmly smiled before leaving the room, allowing Jua and her son silence as the air returned to a state of stillness.

At this point, Jua’s death had been discovered by the servants in the palace but while Heziyn was crying next to the young man’s corpse, Pele made his way north.

After a couple of days, he would eventually reach the city of Abanafash and be announced as leader of the Chofumah with Imani, Emunah and Ayit acting as his advisors.

The Chofumah would be quick to accept him since he was a legendary figure and his name only grew when he helped Jua heal the sick and wounded.

He would enter one of the ships and lead the Chofumah on their voyage north.

But there was a problem.

Out of a desire to help, I had tweaked my moon’s orbit and used Gravity Magic so that a northward current would form in the Ocean Makor and although this was successful, it also brought new weather cycles to my equator.

Ever since the adjustment, I had been bombarded with massive storms every summer which even drove the dragons away!

Now they spent most of their time at my northern pole!

In order to reach me, Pele and captains of the hundred ships would need to carefully navigate through the storms lest they be driven far off course or worse, be torn to shreds.

I could have easily returned my moon to its original orbit but I thought that this would be an interesting challenge for them to overcome and so I watched.

.

..

Ua’s face was completely without expression as she sat next to a bed where Jua’s corpse laid.

It was covered in a purple silk cloth and was in the palace’s Central atrium.

Several men stood around the bed and although they were supposed to take Jua to the summit, they found themselves standing completely still as Ua refused to move from Jua’s side with a sleeping Musa in hand. He was wrapped in a soft purple blanket and wore a thin lace headband around his head which resembled Ua’s doubled crown.

“Mmm...” She sounded in the sunlit space.

She then let out a soft chuckle before turning to one of her men.

“Go get one of the Shangazi, please.” She instructed prompting one of the men to leave the atrium.

He eventually returned with a Shangazi who knelt by Ua’s side.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“The land to the north that he discovered... The large shard of Glass... That which Our Lady forbade us from touching... Do you think that it may very well serve as a bridge between worlds?” Ua asked.

“That’s what the rumours say but we have no evidence that Glass has such a power. Although I suppose we don’t know enough about Glass in the first place.” The Shangazi answered.

“I see. Well, even if it is baseless, send one of my a man to follow the tails of the Meerkats. Have him gather information on the-“

“Oh- while I do that, should I also send someone to the Mbegu tribe? I heard long ago that their great tree holds mystical properties although that may also be baseless.”

“What properties does it supposedly have?” Ua asked with a raised brow.

“According to them, the Mti sprung forth from the dawn of time and blessed all of creation with some divine vitality. Some accounts on our side say that the tree may have been touched or even planted by Our Lady herself. And as for its properties, it is said that it is the central anchor between this world and the next.”

Ua’s eyes narrowed.

“Send someone there as well and learn what you can.”

The Shangazi nodded before leaving the chamber.

Ua then let out a sigh before standing up, allowing the men to carry Jua out of the palace and up the mountain.

Ua followed closely behind them and watched as they placed Jua in a grave next to that of Mlezi.

No one other than them was present and so the summit was mostly silent.

Jua was buried in a grave without a tombstone.

Ua turned to her newborn child as he awoke, revealing to her his pale grey eyes.

She brought his head up to hers and gently touched his forehead with her own.

The men, after completing their task, made their way down the summit, leaving Ua in silence.

A silence that had fallen over most of Central Hatua ever since True Exodus began.

South Central was mostly abandoned and the few who remained were either injured or were too afraid to leave even though no one has been punished for doing so.

Abanafash’s population had also drastically lowered after the Chofumah began their journey north.

It was so empty that warriors didn’t even bother patrolling its streets.

And as for Pele and the hundred ships...

Err...

Well...

Due to the severity of the equatorial storms, three of them had sunken, killing hundreds of people and the remaining ninety-seven went so far off course that they ended up on the Northern Continent.

But this is for the best! I thought while trying my best not to think about all who had died in my storms.

My interactions with Mlezi’s family had already resulted in more change than I could have ever imagined so I reasoned that it would be better if they walked a little further on their own.

I couldn’t really think of what I’d do if I met them either.

I didn’t want to influence them beyond aiding them in surviving a little longer so then being on the Northern Continent, or Y’shuah, meant that they would maintain their autonomy.

Unfortunately, Y’shuah was far more dangerous than the Southern Continent and so before they even made landfall, the ship which Pele was on crashed into some rocks and those that made it to the shore encountered a group of large, land shrimp which resembled the one I’d seen all that time ago.

Those things had punches that could blow a man to bits and they had hard exoskeletons, so the people fled back into the ships and drifted fearfully along the shore.

As for Pele, he had washed up in a system of underground tunnels which were spread across the continent.

Bizarrely enough, they received water from a mountain range at Y’shuah’s centre.

It fed fresh water to the land and the tunnels below and the reason why Pele washed up on the inside was because it was a lower part of the tunnel system from which water fell from above.

He had been dragged onto an elevated ledge by a woman who had also washed up in the tunnel and it seemed as though she was a Blessed Sister because she absorbed Life Energy from the moss that lined the tunnel's dark stone walls.

She managed to save him but I wondered if she or Pele would be able to save their people before the Northern Continent took their lives.