Fana died at sixty-three years old. It wasn't a surprise to anyone. With old age came feebleness and Fana was no exception. As he and his wife, Mana, got older and started displaying signs of age, the nagas all started asking me questions about life and death.

Of course I had already explained to Fana and Mana why I created them, but the other nagas never really wondered until now. I did my best to answer all of their questions. It was mostly just three questions. "Why did you create us?" and "what is my purpose in life?" and "what happens when we die?"

I told them that I created this world and all life on it because I did not want to be alone anymore and that I wanted to make friends. As for their purpose, I created them so they could live life and be happy. I didn't have any other purpose in mind besides joy for them. The nagas teared up and bowed down to the ground.

"Thank you, Lord God!" They cried, "Thank you for your endless generosity!"

Not all of the nagas bowed and thanked me, of course, because not all of them believed in me. It was just the "Devout," the ones that worshiped me, that thanked me. The non-believers couldn't hear me but some of them, once they heard of the new teachings, became interested in the "devotion" and soon they were able to hear me. I was quite pleased with that.

As for their last question, "what happens when we die?" I told them to wait until after Fana died, as I was confident that he would die first. He was already on his deathbed.

"My Lord," Fana asked, laying on his mat of woven reeds, his voice hoarse and weak. "When I die... will I be with you?

As I pondered his question, I analyzed everything that had died before. All plant life and animal life that had died never left behind a spirit or anything. Their Wills weren't strong enough to hold their divine sparks together, and so they died both physically and mentally... I guess they died spiritually as well. It's just that their spirit never formed after death. Anyways, by analyzing their deaths and the strength of their Wills and the brief instance of struggle to maintain a form of divine sparks, I was able to compare that to Fana's strength of Will and can confidently say that he would be able to maintain a spirit.

So, I'm pretty sure he'll become a spirit, but will he be with me? He seems to think that I live in the sky... which is kind of true... and that when he dies he'll come up and live in the sky with me... which isn't true. What should I say? That, no, he won't live with me? I can't say that... that's like his one true wish. Fana has dedicated his life to me.

Wait a second... He loves me... and so does Mana...

I was ashamed that I only realized it when Fana was on his deathbed. He loved me. Mana loved me. Most of the Devout love me. Sure, some are a part of the devout because of fear of me or because of social pressure, but most love me. In fact, now that I noticed it, most of the beastkin loves me as well. Yes, they worship me, see me as their creator, God, and Lord... but they also had a form of love toward me. It wasn’t familial love, and it certainly wasn’t romantic love, but one of deep loyalty, faith, and devotion.

How have I never noticed this before? I can feel everything in the universe! I see everything! Hear everything! I know their thoughts! Was I so distracted by my newfound role as father to Fael and Mael that I just didn’t pay mind to them? Or was I just put off by them worshiping me that I just decided not to develop any relationship whatsoever? No! I can’t just ignore this! I have to do better. I don’t know if you can be friends with someone that worships you, but that doesn’t matter. These people love me, I’ve got to do my best to be deserving of that. I’ve got to try to develop personal relationships with them.

With that realization I looked at Fana and, for the first time, accepted that I was their God and embraced their worship. I knew, logically speaking, that I was their God, but because I wanted friends I almost ignored those that worshiped me... That was wrong. I shouldn't have given them basic advice and attention just because their love was different from what I expected. Of course, I did love them. The sight of them brought me joy, but how exactly did I show them my love?

I took a deep breath---not really, I was in space after all and there was no air---and said, "Fana, you have shown me great love and devotion your entire life. Thank you. Do not worry, I will always be there with you from now on and for the rest of eternity."

Fana grinned up at the ceiling of his mudbrick home as tears of happiness spilled down the sides of his face. Gana, one of Fana's youngest sons, rushed to Fana's side, asking what happened. Fana patted Gana's hand saying, "Lord Creun, the creator of all, has thanked me for my devotion and said that he will always be with me for the rest of eternity."

Gana stayed by Fana's side for a while longer before slithering off to tell the rest of the devoted about what Fana said. A few of them asked me directly about it and I told them that I would always be with them as well.

That night, Fana peacefully died in his sleep, next to his loving wife, Mana.

While it was a bit sad that Fana's life was over, it wasn't really the end. As I suspected, at the moment of death Fana's Will left his body and tried to drag every single spark of divinity with him, but the atoms of the body refused to be left sparkless. The only sparks that went with Fana's Will were the sparks that Fana had accumulated during his life. And even then, most of those sparks dissipated into the surroundings, Fana's Will was too weak to hold it all. What Fana was able to hold onto wasn't much compared to the quadrillions in the body, but it was still enough that a faintly glowing white form of Fana formed next to his body. The form was made entirely out of divine sparks and was almost completely see-through. Fana also looked as he did in his prime, well-muscled and non-wrinkly. Surprisingly, he was also dressed in the clothes I had created him in.

The whole process was done unconsciously. I bet that if Fana was conscious while it happened then he would have held onto most of those sparks that he lost... but I would be surprised if anyone could actually remain conscious as they died and became a spirit. I mean I saw Fana's brain shutdown completely during death... the amount of sheer Will needed to do that... they'd have to have at least five percent of the amount of Will I have.

Something that was very interesting was that as soon as Fana’s spirit formed, there was a... tremble... a flicker... a shift... something like that in the divinity of both Corprimal and in Fana’s spirit. It was like some sort of wireless connection formed between the two. Maybe it had something to do with the name I gave that ball of iron. Its name is Corprimal’memil’bemisa. The bit I thought did the thing here was the “Memil” part, which I said meant “Memento of the Dead.”

Is it because Fana is the first spirit to form that I’m noticing this now? Is the spirit a form of memento of the dead? A memory of the person he used to be?

I sent that train of thought to run in the back of my head and turned to Fana.

Fana was drifting in the air above his corpse. He was unconscious.

“Fana,” I said via divinity transmission. He stirred slightly, so I called again.

“Huh?... what?” He groggily woke up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, then looked around. He saw the window lower than it should be, the roof close enough to touch, and his glowing white, see-through form. He took a deep breath and looked down. He saw his bed. On which was his wife, still peacefully asleep, and he saw himself, unmoving and with a gentle smile.

After a brief silence he spoke, “I’m dead aren’t I?”

“Yes,” I said.

He looked around the room. “Where are you, my Lord?”

“I am floating above the world, looking over everything.”

Fana jolted. “What was that!”

That was unexpected. Fana actually saw my transmission. Is it because he is now entirely made of divinity that he can see my divinity transmissions?

“This is how I talk to everyone. I call it divinity transmission, but this method was actually invented by the fairies.”

“The fairies?” Fana asked.

“Yes, they are another race that I created. They actually live on the same continent as the naga. They live in a forest south of the desert you are in.”

Fana just hummed while staring down at Mana. He was thinking of their life together, all the good times and the bad. He was also wondering what was going to happen next.

I was about to send him another transmission when I noticed a singular spark of divinity leave Fana’s spirit... it was no longer held back by Fana’s Will. Why did that happen? I looked closely at Fana and compared his strength of Will that he had now to when he first formed his Spirit. It was almost unnoticeable, but his Will was getting weaker with time... eventually his spirit would fall apart and his Will would vanish.

At the rate it was going, Fana would vanish in about ten years. Of course, that is only if the rate of decay remains the same. But it was certain that eventually the spirit would decay and vanish.

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What can I do about this?... Wait a second. Corprimal’memil’bemisa. Memil. The connection... Will Corprimal help Fana stay together? Will it stop the decay? A memento preserves the memory of something and Memil a memento of the dead... Fana is dead... So it should preserve his memory... Would that help preserve Fana’s Will and thus his spirit?

I studied the divinity of the dead iron core and the connection... It would, but Fana would need to be on Corprimal. But how will I get him there? Even Bri could only be pinched between my fingers if I wanted to grab it... So how can I grab someone off of its surface? They’re tiny!... I guess I have ten-ish years to figure that out. Right now though, I’m concerned about...

Corprimal, the ball of superdense iron, was in orbit right next to Dopprimal, the star of the system, which meant that Corprimal was glowing with heat. That wasn’t the only issue, Corprimal, because it was superdense iron, had 100,000 times the gravity of Bri. As a being of pure divinity and Will, there wasn’t much that could affect Fana, but I couldn't be sure until he got there. Gravity still affects him somewhat, or else he would have flown off into space instead of floating around his bedroom, so the 100,000 times gravity was my main concern. Light also kind of affects him as well, it just passes through him but the photons that pass through his eyes do get analyzed, that's how he can still see. Heat, though, was just the movement of atoms and if everything passes through the spirit then the movement shouldn't affect him.

In the morning, I'll just ask him to stand near a fire. As for the gravity and light... Why am I even worrying about this? I can literally say “let it be so” and BAM!... no more problem.

I sighed and turned my attention back to Fana. He was still watching Mana, lost in his thoughts.

“There’s no need to worry about Mana, she will join you soon. If you want, you can stay by her side until then.”

Fana nodded. “I would like that.”

The next few days passed quickly. The village of naga grieved Fana’s death. The devoted asked me what to do with Fana’s body, I told them to cremate it with the palm wood and the oil from a specific plant I led them to. The funeral was held and Gana, who the devoted looked to as their semi-unofficial/semi-official leader, gave a few words about Fana and about me. The day after Fana’s funeral, Mana, who had been bed-ridden since Fana passed away, died in her sleep as well. Fana, who had stayed by his wife’s side the whole time, gently shook her sleeping spirit awake.

“Mana, my love, wake up.”

She stirred slowly, her awareness coming back to her. Fana, as a spirit, didn’t need to sleep, but both Fana and Mana were unconscious when first becoming spirits due to the toll that dying had.

When Mana finally woke and saw Fana floating beside her, she tackled him in a hug. Their tails wrapped around each other, refusing to let go.

Now that both husband and wife had died, it was time to take them to Corprimal.

"Fana, Mana, come outside," I said.

They both sheepishly let each other go, but kept holding hands as they drifted through the door to come outside.

"Yes, my... God..." Their mouths gaped open as they, for the first time since their deaths, looked up at the sky. They saw me. And I saw myself from their eyes. I was a massive glowing figure that blocked all the stars in the night sky, arms that stretched from horizon to horizon and held out as if welcoming a hug (I was really just letting them drift naturally in space), and a warm smile. My purple shirt was drifting loosely around me. I looked so, so far away, but at the same time I also looked super close due to how big I was. It was kind of trippy. Only my waist and up was seen, my legs were below the horizon. There were also thousands of beams of white light coming from the center of my forehead. The beams were closer together near my forehead so they were easier to see, and as they split apart they got harder to see... because of that, it almost looked like I had an intensely glowing third eye.

Alright, let’s do this.

“Let it be that Corprimal’memil’bemisa will not harm beings of pure divinity and Will in any way.”

Divinity pulsed and it was so... At least I was pretty sure that it was, nothing changed. Does that mean that Corprimal wouldn’t have hurt them? Well, better safe than sorry.

Now, how do I pick them up?

I could just reach down and try to pick them out with my fingernails... I’m worried I’d squish them though.

Hmm... maybe I can...

“Let it be that I, Creun’losinu, can grab anything and/or anybody that I desire without grabbing or affecting anything and/or anybody else, and I can do so without causing any damage unless I wish to.”

Divinity pulsed and it was so.

There, that takes care of that. I thought, reaching down to pick up Fana and Mana. I pinched Bri between my index finger and thumb. I lifted my pinched fingers up to my eye-level. Bri started where it was, unaffected by my fingers, but Fana and Mana were carried up to my eyes.

They were scared when they saw my hand getting closer and closer until they could see nothing but my hand in the sky, but they took a deep breath (though they can’t breathe as spirits) and trusted in me. They were not squished by my fingers at all, they... Stood? Lay?... on the tip of my thumb while my index fingertip only just touched the top of their heads.

Seeing that they were fine with my own eyes, I drifted through space a little to get closer to Corprimal, then placed them as best as I could onto the surface. They ended up “falling” a mile before “landing” on the surface. Whoops. But they were fine of course, even if they couldn’t float as spirits, the gravity of Corprimal wouldn’t have been able to cause harm to them because I said so.

“Welcome to Corprimal,” I said, “This is where all the spirits of the dead will come. There’s no one else here yet, as you are the first to die, but others will be coming soon.”

The first of the dead... That sounds name-worthy. Should I add it to their names? The name would be “pri” for the first and “il” for the dead, so “priil”... that doesn’t sound right. Pri’il? Yeah, that sounds better.

“Fana, Mana, as you are the first to die and come here, I wish to give you both an additional name. Will you accept this name?

They both looked at each other then back up at me. “We accept,” they said.

“Fana, Mana, from now on your names will be Fana’pri’il and Mana’pri’il.”

Divinity pulsed and they both received the new name.

When the rush of getting named faded, the two naga spirits looked around at the perfectly smooth and glowing white surface. They were a bit confused but said, “Thank you my Lord... but... is there anything we can do to serve you?”

Ummmm... I can’t think of anything... Also, it would probably be rude just to leave them here with nothing. Should I make them a house? Yeah, I should.

I pictured a house in my mind. It was two stories with lots of windows. I pictured large double doors in the front and everything that one would want or need on the inside. Couches, cushions, curtains, and corridors. There weren't any kitchens or bathrooms because spirits didn’t need those. There was a bedroom though, because even if they didn’t need sleep, they still could if they wanted to. To get to the second floor, I imagined a long, gentle ramp instead of stairs.

“Let a house, made out of pure divinity, be made right behind Fana.”

And it was so.

“Let a house, made out of pure divinity, be made every time a new spirit arrives on Corprimal’memil’bemisa next to the house that was made previously.”

With that done I turned my focus back to the nagas. They were staring at their new home in awe. Really, it was more of a mansion than a house.

“This is your new home,” I said, startling them out of their thoughts. “Go ahead and explore it. As for something for you to do... there is nothing for now, but when I bring others here you can help them get adjusted here. For now, you can just relax. If you have any requests... Well, I will be over by Bri, but just speak and I will hear you.”

“My Lord!” Mana shouted, her fear and worry clear in her voice. “Will you not stay with us? Why are we here and not on Bri? Can’t we stay there and be with you?”

Oh... I never explained it to them did I? I just went and brought them here... Kind of rude of me huh? I sighed at my lack of communication skills and then started explaining to them how spirits worked. How they were made of pure divinity and were held together by their Will. How they were slowly decaying and would eventually vanish and die forever. How this place, Corprimal, stopped their decay forever and that’s why I brought them here.

As I was explaining everything to them I noticed something else. Divinity begets divinity, yes, but apparently not on Corprimal. Fana and Mana's amount of divinity didn't change at all. Even on Bri the sparks of divinity that made up their spirits slowly multiplied and even some sparks from the atmosphere joined together with their spirits, it's just that the rate of decay was greater than the growth. Here on Corprimal there was no decay, but there was also no growth.

A memento huh?... It preserves... meaning that it stays the same. How didn't I catch that earlier?... Should I even care? For some reason it makes me uncomfortable. I mean, if they keep collecting those sparks of divinity then that means they would eventually end up a god like me right? Is that how I became a god? Did I just live long enough?... No, that wouldn't happen. Even if I gave Fana, or anyone else, all of my divinity, they wouldn't be able to hold it all together. They need to have a Will to match the level of divinity... So how does one gain the Will required?

I turned to face Bri.

Through living. Passing through hardships and coming out the other end better... I guess that answers my question on whether or not I should stop crime from happening... I won't stop it unless I know they won't come out stronger because of it. I will warn them, of course, and try to stop it from happening in the first place, but if they ignore my warnings then... I hate this. Why are hardships necessary? Why can't we all just dance and sing and all become gods together?

I sighed to myself and shoved those thoughts away.

I could make it so Will increases with time... but what would that do to a person's character? And also, becoming a god... that seems like a great achievement, I don't want to diminish that. I also don't want to mess around with people's Wills... that is one thing that I won't tolerate. If someone tries to violate someone else's Will I will step in immediately... Anyways, back to Fana and Mana. How can I help them grow? The only way I can think of is if they return to Bri, but they’ll cease to exist... maybe I can place their spirits into a fetus before it gains its own Will and let them be born again? Reincarnate them? Yes, that’ll work. I’ll do that later though when there’s more spirits.

When I finished explaining why they are on Corprimal, I left Fana and Mana to explore their new mansion and returned to Bri’s side. By the end of the first century many nagas had died and I carried them over to Corprimal to join their parents. Interestingly enough, they were all wearing the same clothes as the clothes I had created Fana and Mana in.

By the time the first century was over I realized something. Soon, people are going to start doing bad things. In the first few generations everything was going alright because it was just parents and their kids, now though, there are multiple families. Communities. There’s not just one father (or mother in the harpies’ case) to tell people what to do...There needs to be some form of law for people to follow. I’m able to talk to most people on Bri, but I should provide some form of teachings to be a sort of moral guide for the public.

I need to give them some commandments.

What should the commandments be?