Before the two Lords, golden gates stood, ornamented with pearls that shined with the lustre of freshly watered flowers. They’d travelled far enough to find their way there, bickering all the way beyond the land Phos lived on—Eos—as they entered Nephele, the land of clouds. Wherever they turned, a landscape of clouds stretched for eternity. Just past the gates, a castle of rose gold overlooked the majestic land.

Phos hadn’t seen this venue for a very long time. When another small group of Lords walked through the gates, chattering amongst themselves, Phos felt even more awkward. He turned to Kass, pretending that they were close friends or acquaintances or anything at all that made him feel less alone, and gestured towards the castle.

Let’s go.

Before they took their first step, an unfamiliar yet unique voice cheered from behind the two.

“My, my. Just as the rumours said, it’s the Lord of Metal and the Lord of Light standing together!” A nasally, cool voice twittered, getting closer. Scarlet eyes looked both Kass and Phos up and down—this was the Lord of Birds, Ornis.

“I wonder what brings you two here on this fine day! Lord Phos, you live quite a ways away, no?”

He was short, half a head smaller than Phos. But dressed in a simple brown attire decorated with white tips, like the Ptarmigan shedding its summer feathers for the winter, Ornis gave off an ethereal air.

Phos didn’t really have much of a recollection of this man, other than that he loved to gossip and listen in on the news. But the fact that Ornis stood there, in front of Kass and Phos, reciting some strange words about the relationship between the two… he’d most definitely seen them together in Phos’s house. Maybe he even spread some rumours.

This was why Phos had shut Kass out the first time. He should have never let him in.

But Phos didn’t feel too threatened with Kass, most likely because the Lord of Metal had granted a portion of his one wish for revenge by kneeling out on the porch. Ornis, however….

Phos pulled out his .22 calibre white pistol and aimed it at the Lord of Birds. The muzzle sat comfortably at Ornis’s head-level.

“Woah, woah….” Ornis’s hands shot up, and his phoenix eyes sharpened. “Don’t shoot me. The Anima Mundi is surely watching this event closely.”

He paused, then brought his arms down and folded them.

“Or, if you’d like, my dear friend. I’ll let you shoot me.” He grinned, intimidating and sly. “Even if you do, I’ll heal quickly. This is the Anima Mundi, after all. But you’ll owe me a favour.”

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Ornis was much smaller than Phos, but the Light Lord still felt unnerved.

“What do you mean? Wounds heal faster in the Anima Mundi?” Probing for an answer, Phos lowered his gun just the slightest bit.

“Of course! Don’t tell me, you didn’t know?” Ornis beamed, taking Phos’s small hesitation to calm his surprise as his eyes narrowed with a smug undertone.

Surprisingly, Phos didn’t. He looked behind himself at Kass, who scratched his chin, also clearly confused. If what Ornis said was true, then the reason Phos’s injury disappeared was due to the protection of the Major Gods Bios, Psuche, and Zoe..?

Then Pyre hadn’t done anything at all! Except for wrapping Phos’s arm like a cabbage with bandages. Now he was mad.

Ornis seemed to have guessed a majority of Phos’s thoughts. He spread his arms out and took a step towards Phos, letting his chest directly hit the muzzle of the gun.

“Why don’t you take this risk? You’ve shot countless Lords before, I’ve seen it all. What are you hesitating for?”

Now, Phos just felt a hint of nuisance for this Lord who looked like a child. One: He only shot Pyre due to his life-or-death situation. Two: Birds were truly everywhere. He drew the gun back, took it off of Ornis’s chest with a click, then shoved it into his pocket. With a huff, Phos turned his head, meeting Kass’s bewildered gaze with a look that said ‘if we don’t leave now, I’ll tell Nymph terrible things about you.’

Kass clearly understood, gritting his teeth resolutely as he pulled Phos by the elbow.

“Good day, Mr. Bird, sir. But light-bro and I have work to do.”

Phos simply waved as he let Kass do his job. They took their first steps past the gates, never once turning back towards Ornis.

Not expecting this, Ornis stretched out a hand to grab Phos’s fluttering scarf.

“Wait! Don’t you want to know about the rumour I spread? I can take it back, too!”

Phos thought Ornis sounded a bit too desperate and tugged on Kass’s sleeve, stopping the both of them. The only reason Phos could think up that a gossiper like Ornis would put this card on the table was due to external forces.

“What do you want?”

“You…” Ornis’s grip on Phos’s scarf tightened. “Help me.”

“In the land of clouds, Nephele, there’s a god I want you to find. She doesn’t like me, and I’m scared of her.”

Internally, Ornis felt that he had never been so frank before. Scared? What a joke.

“But my friend, Erpeto—err, the Lord of Reptiles—recently fell sick, and I don’t know what to do for him…. This god is the only one who can help!”

But as the Lord of Birds reminisced about his friend’s unsteady form, he more firmly steeled his heart.

“She’s very powerful!”

Another image surfaced in Ornis’s mind: translucent, jade-like hair, milky grey eyes, and a paleness that made him think she’d float away.

“Who is it?” Phos eyed Ornis suspiciously. No matter how childish the Lord of Birds looked, he was older than Phos by millions of years.

Scared?

Phos would never fall for that. What a joke.

The Lord of Bird’s lips opened, then shut, then parted slightly, drawing in a thin breath.

“Have you ever met the Lord of Air?”