If she could choose to erase one moment of her past, it was the memory of meeting death earlier in life when she was young. Maybe then, she wouldn’t feel so damn cold and unaffected right now. Her body went stunned, paralyzed by cold wash of ice. The realization of so many deaths hitting her with the force of a freight train.

Did she feel a thing?

No, she felt numb. Incredibly numb.

As if parts of her brain were immediately shutting down, locking up and tearing her away for protection. From what?

Me’ren’s fingers wiped a hot stream of tears past her cheeks, and the sight hitched her breath. She didn’t realize there were rivers of tears flowing free from her eyes. Every part inside her was drenched cold in anguish she could barely feel her face. What tears that fell had went unnoticed until Me’ren wiped it away.

Words were hard to past her throat, and once she did it came out as a small breathy squeak “H-holden?”

“Didn’t you see?”

“M-my eyes can’t follow when y-you move that fast.”

His arm tightened around her, pressing her firmly to his front. “He followed after the beast when it charged for the children, but it was far too faster than him. He couldn’t stop it from passing through.” He paused. “You do not want to look down.”

“I-I’ll take your word for it.” She muttered, pressing her eyes close. On barefeet, she could feel the wetness of hot blood pooling against her skin.

Me’ren didn’t spare a moment longer and in the next second, they winded together to the front door foyer. A dark tribe stone hall languished with refined art and carved marble. Heavy draperies the color of forest green adorned the walls, enclosing them to a much more intimate space.

To River, it was suffocating. Like the room was ready to collapse in of itself and crash down on top of her. “Me’ren?”

“Teh?” He said as loosened the green scarf off his neck.

“W-what happens..” she cleared her dry throat, searching for words “the black beast with tentacles on his back? How is he so different? F-from the others?”

He affixed his scarf over the coat he gave her, a disagreeable sound leaving his mouth “His name is Cerberus. Brumcia’s most trusted creature before he was sacrificed by the first tribespeople. The most favored one of all her creatures. It was told that Brumcia’s grief was too great for his loss that she vowed to never make another like him.”

“B-but he’s right there.”

“You think she never tried bringing him back?”

“Let me guess.” She said, finding her voice. “It only caused more corruption.”

“Unbelievable corruption. It was because of Cerberus that the wild beasts eternal took root in the tribal lands, forcing tribespeople to sacrifice a man to bear a tribe’s entire corruption.”

She let out a dry chuckle. “And yet you call him prince.”

“A most noble burden to bear and deserves our most highest honor.”

She shook her head. “Maksim is still out there. We should get to him fast. Now. Wind to him. Come on.” Her hands visibly shook, grabbing onto him.

He pushed her forward until her back hit the wall, both his arms resting on the wall besides her head. “I should have sent you the earliest memory of our prince. The first one. Ever. In history. It was a sun prince. Fucking overachievers, aren’t they? Always getting head first over anyone else.” Regrets came flitting across his face, eyes a mile away.

“Me’ren listen to me. I don’t want to leave Maksim all alone out there. Now that the beast has gone. He needs us more than ever. Please I’m getting worried.” Her voice dwindled down to a careful whisper “I-I felt something snap within me. I can’t—”

“Foolish behagthi. This is what you were sent here for. To incite a chaos so great, it incites all corruption up to the fore. I can’t believe I let you distract me with your abominable antics. With your voice—” he shook his head in disappointment. “Now the real work begins. Carry this universe to a brighter future. The god tribe oracles will you help every step of the way, should you need it.”

A large dose of memory reeled inside her head nearly splitting it open from its sudden headache.

River doubled over, her cheek pressing against his chest. “I see it now,” she said quietly. “The fuck was that?”

“The mess that Brumcia started. What the Great World failed to manage. It’s up to you now.”

“Is it too much to hope for that any council or empire can be more capable to do this than me?”

“They bear no nobility. Not like the princes do. And there is no one left but Lann’a.”

He knelt down to strap in long boots for her feet. Her cheeks blushed, embarrassed that she couldn’t do it herself as he wiped her feet clean of blood in quick efficient strokes.

“I’m sorry” she said. “I took matters into my own hands. I should have known better.”

He stopped, then rose up from his knees. “No power in this galaxy ever understood what a behagthi can do. We only felt and benefit from it but no one fully understands. Yours is a contradiction just like those who came before you. I don’t blame you for not understanding either as no one does.”

“Fine. Then you need to stop blaming yourself for what you didn’t do. For what you should have done.” River remembered the tragedy that tore his family apart. The guilt and regret he harbored in his spirit over these years was like a huge ocean bearing down on him. Cold and massive, threatening to drown him. “Blame me. You can do that. I kind of strong-armed my way into this. And look where I have gotten us. I failed them. A whole sun tribe.”

An amused smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Science, isn’t it? A school of thought from your own world you said earlier. In my tribe, we call it cruelty and ruthlessness. Don’t blame yourself for the consequential deaths of a tribe. My tribe made hundreds of random tribes disappear with just as much efficiency as yours did. And the god tribe certainly don’t blame themselves.”

“Is that why you hide under a false identity from dark tribe?”

His voice lowered to a whisper. “No one would have wanted anything to do with us otherwise.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I get it.” She pulled on the hand that held her cheek, and kissed his palm. “Not good for business, teh?”

The sides of his mouth tipped slightly. “Here I thought I would never get surprised in my age. You prove me wrong. At times, it seems you’re completely clueless and in other ways, you understand completely. I can’t wrap my head around it.”

“I’m one of the weird ones. It takes time to get used to me.” she said, tugging on his sleeve “Come on, let’s go see Maxi.”

Unmovable, “You’re right.” Pressing his palm against her cheek, he pulled her closer until she had no choice but to look into his black shark eyes “But you are not god tribe. You’re not built to be cruel as we are. I will not hold it against you. Feel what you have to feel. You’re safe with me.”

She pressed closed her eyes from the bubble of tears threatening to spill again, “I feel restless. I can’t.. I felt something break. Maksimo Descansos,” as she said his name, the tears broke free “Let me see him. Make sure he’s all right. He has got to be, right? I mean..” licking her lips “Teh?”

He nodded. “You hold on to me.”

It was a flash, a single second. A mere blink of an eye until she saw the blue luminescent grotto with a wide large pool. Its pier banked with rows of fishing nets tied to pillars. Soon as River touched her boots on the ground, she raced towards the edge of the pier.

Across the pool had a charred black object floating on the surface. A gust of wind flew past her as Lann’a winded just as she arrived at the edge. “There!” River pointed to the charred foreign object floating in the middle of the pool.

Lann’a stretched her arms, bending her fingers into claws. Sighing, “It’s too heavy.” she shook her arms loose and tried again. As an effect, the surface rippled with gentle ease. Then, she pulled her hands closer to her chest as if she was dragging a heavy object by a small thread of rope. She did the gesture over and over again until sweat covered her skin. Surface waters continued to ripple wildly, the charred object dragging forward to them. As it came close, River kneeled at the edge and reached for it. But Me’ren had a longer reach. He grabbed onto it, pulling it out of the water soon as it came close enough.

It was Maksim. A charred decaying remain. Her senses shut off, hand shaking. Even her vision became blurry as she hovered over him, knees kneeling beside his body lying across the wooden pier. It was the length of his shoulders, the sharpened angle of his nose and everything else was dried up and wilted charred black. Her chest felt too big to bursting. As she opened her mouth to speak, no bloody sound came out. Her breath was lodged in her throat, threatening to choke her. Lann’a kneeled down across. When River looked up to see the girl’s mortified expression, that’s when everything broke through for her.

A scream ripped through River’s throat, a shrill vibrating sound that echoed throughout the cavernous grotto. There was a bubble of heaviness that seated itself right inside her guts and it won’t go away. When the screaming didn’t help, she held his cheeks with both palms and rested her forehead against his. A wealth of tears trickling down to his burnt face. The horrifying deaths from earlier replaying over and over again behind her closed-pressed eyes. The stillness of bodies lying lifeless on battle arena grounds. Their blood. Bloodshot eyes hanging open as though they were stuck frozen in time.

Her breath hitched, snapping her gaze to Lann’a who had schooled her features to indifference. “Lann’a—” voice hoarse from screaming, she whispered to her “Do you know who I am?”

Nodding, “Galiyo luna” She said the sun tribe welcome meeting. That’s when she realized her white-grayish hair was in a wiry disarray around her head. The consequence of winding too much in a single day.

Suddenly, a white viper the size of a giant anaconda slithered its way up to the pier. With eyes blown black, taking its sweet time with no hurry to catch up to them.

A horde of concerned tribespeople followed on the heels of that white viper, they held longbows and knives at the ready. Me’ren stopped them from going further beyond the pier.

“You took your sweet time” River said to the viper, just as Lann’a pulled out the knife hidden in her sweater sleeves.

The white viper darted its head between Lann’a and River then back again, confused. It must be Lann’a’s viper, the cursed beast that used to live inside her.

“River!” Mer’ren shouted, “Get away from that!”

“It won’t hurt me.” she murmured. “Hey you. Beautiful creature.”

Right away, it opened its arching feathers like a preening peacock in full display, swinging its head side-to-side.

Lann’a gasped, “I know you.”

The proud viper swung its head to her, slithering closer.

Lann’a clutched her knife tighter to her chest, “When I bore the curse at the lake of sorrow, you were there. I remember.”

River watched its scales glistening under the light, a rainbow refracting colors as it bounced off its body. “Of course,” she whispered, brows lowering as it dawned on her. “Of course!”

“What is it?” asked Lann’a, her expression terrified and panicked.

“I don’t think a single random person can take on corruption of a whole tribe. Not by their own, certainly. No, there must be something else stabilizing the corruption to keep it inside you. When you get the curse, you also get the gifts, don’t you?”

Her eyes shifted as she backed away, “Y-yes. By the Great World’s balancing law. It’s merely natural.”

The viper had feathers adorning its spine, thin colored feathers that had a shade from red to pink. River thought she had seen a viper beast before but this one didn’t have wings for flight which seemed odd since Crow had a full set of them strong enough for gliding through skies.

She turned her attention to a confused Lann’a. “Did you eat anything when it came to bearing the curse for the first time?”

“It was an orange procured from the Ensign Council. Why?”

She held up an index finger, “One more question, please. Please answer truthfully.”

Her glance fell down to Maksim, “This is hardly the time fo—”

“Venemundo.”

Tilting her head upwards, “Don’t interrupt me when I talk.” the viper looked on to River, its eyes beginning to glow in vibrant rainbow colors.

“I apologize. I won’t do it again.”

Lann’a watched the horde of tribespeople, there were about 40 of them waiting by the shores before the pier. “Ask me your question. I’ll answer by it in a way I see fit to a sun tribespeople.”

“Once you ate the orange, did you get this undeniable truth? Like an absolute iron-clad certainty that will ring true across time and dimensions?”

She stared down, her long lashes resting upon rosy cheeks. It took a long moment before she responded, “It had an immediate effect after I had consumed the whole entire orange. I sensed the grand enormity of eternity passing in mere blinks of seconds. The feeling was unlike any other. After that, there was certainty and I knew it from my bones and my heart that it was legitimate. I had never been more sure of anything in my life. It’s an indescribable feeling. Once I recognized its truth, I got this huge rush of joy flowing through my body. The truth was..” she hesitated, glancing at the viper “the truth is that I belong to someone. A greater being much powerful than the planet itself. Its name—“

The viper hissed angrily at her, flailing wildly.

Lann’a put a hand out to rest her hand on the viper, giggling “Her name is Lann’a Peruvo from the peak snow tribe. A snow princess now and forever.” As she said it, the viper turned to smoke, disappearing into Lanna’s body. “Interesting.” She hummed. “The gift of eternity. I can take hold of it, feel it, control it as I have always done. However, the curse that comes with it. The eternity curse. It doesn’t bear down on me like it used to. Why is this?”

“Your powers are in tact. The curse broken.”

“That is beyond sane. The Great World’s balancing dictates a curse for every gift.”

“It doesn’t apply to me,” she said quietly “I am behagthi. I make it so.”

She frowned, “You have certainly disrupted its balance.”

“Lann’a, your viper. She’s an eternal soul. And that black dog was an eternal soul, too. How could you have taken on two of them?”

“What?! No, that can’t be.”

“Both of them came out of you when called.” At the princess’ disgruntled frown, she said. “Believe it. Unbelievable things happen all the time. Princes and their curses. Tribes suffering the grief of their goddess. Reaching into minds..”

Lann’a’s eyes widened, glowing incandescent as it darted from her to Maksim “Vella kiniste mue.”

“I may be behagthi but even I...” she paused. “What makes you so sure it will work?”

“My viper told me.”