"You give but little when you give your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give."

— Kahlil G.

Crow was dumbfounded, shocked, and he wanted to tell her she was crazy but he couldn't form the words because every empirical evidence to her insane statement suddenly loomed before his mind like a roll of memories unfolding. It was a strong possibility. It would take a lot of research and so many factors to consider in the creation of it but it wasn't impossible. The thought gave him a sudden giddiness the likes of which has never happened since he was a boy.

A gleam of reverence touched his expression, she was confounding he realized. This girl still clutched to him like he wasn't a poisonous viper with a violent past. From the press of her cheek against his chest, her warmth seeped right into his bones spreading across nerves like a holy fire that razed through his sins and regret. The lightness inside his chest felt like he was absolved, unbounded, and free. He had the strongest urge to turn into his black guardian form, let himself open his wings and glide through the sky. He imagined himself as his winged beast without the dilution of poison that has come to fuse with it. But the chaste ancient image was out of reach, it has already been thousands of years since the snow mountain poison has fused with god prince DNA and now all he was and all he ever will be is a monstrosity of poison and curse. The reminder of him being a viper with wings opened a stark emptiness in his chest. There was no one out there like him. Who could ever understand him?

"I can just leave right now." He mused. "There is nothing in it for me."

She stilled, wariness entering her frame, eyes blazing at an intensity and claws digging in his shirt. He had to bite back a grin because he liked what he saw too much. He liked that she was as vicious as him, how strong the fire burned in her in the same way as his.

"Fine, I'll make you a deal." she rolled her eyes. "Heaven forbid I actually force you to do whatever that needs to be done. It's not like we're saving the world or anything. At least, that's what the sun prince prophecy says. We're saving the world but I don't see how curing the snow tribe connects, I don't know! I can't wrap my head around it. The things we set our choices on are based off myths and fairytales. How much of it is really facts, you know? Universal laws can be different around here so I have to think about the ethics. What would Kahlil Gibran do? So far, I'm playing it off based on what my heroes would have done. I'm paraphrasing but I think it goes, 'If you want to save the world, save someone, then save the next someone, and the next and the next and on and on it goes.' Just.. save one then the next one."

Tipping her chin up with a crook of his finger, he inclined his head, lowering "I don't want that kind of endless responsibility weighing on my shoulders. Not for me. And definitely not for you. You're too weak, and I should know your divine luck has a bottom end and its going to run out."

"I'm not weak!" She had to stop herself from huffing like a red-headed bull. Pulling in a deep breath, she continued. "I hiked and climbed mountains with my bare hands, leapt from rock to rock, and scavenged through a goddamned rainforest I did. And that was on the first day I arrived in this universe, Aidan you tell him."

The wolf prince was sprawled across the couch, resting. "The Dumuzid forest? It's trial grounds for young hunters on their 9th year since birth. Basically, it's a rite of passage. It was no big deal. I don't see why you're making a big deal out of it."

Crow felt his lips curve, ever so slightly because River slumped forward and had the tips of her prayer hands against the space between her eyebrows, taking a moment of silence. "Not important." She murmured to herself. With a loud exhale, she said to him with renewed vigor, "I am going to give you this solar-powered golden necklace in exchange for your most capable and dependable services."

"I am the best. In fact, the only one who has got competent knowledge of manifesting your idea. But.." he trailed off, getting distracted by glints of polished gold on her necklace in his hand. "What is it?"

"It's a necklace with a couple of secrets. See, this side? If you press it down for 3 seconds then it lights up."

For the first time in what might be forever, he felt a bloom of wonder that seemed to take a hundred years off him. Never would he have guessed that a necklace can act as a source of light. At the side of the necklace, there was a strip of dark copper gold in a different shade than the front-face design and when he pressed, it surrendered to his touch with a smooth clicking motion. Seconds ticked by, and a golden luminous candle flame sparked from inside the golden necklace. It continued to grow larger than any candle flame he has ever seen.

"Click it again to stop the intensity. And if you want a bigger light—" she paused, Aidan was pressing the front of his chest to Crow's side and leaning closer. "Just click it again to make it grow bigger."

Aidan must have took the magnifying glass off the equipment table because he was using it close to him without any thought for boundaries. His face was literally an inch less to the necklace in his hand. "Where does the power come from?" The wolf prince asked.

"It absorbs and stores power from the sun. Have a look, if you press down the left side and the bottom side together at the same time and hold it for two seconds.." The front face with an intricate design popped forward in a spring board action. Aidan hovered closer and Crow had to pull his hand close to take a good look at it. There was a hollow space carving around the exposed part of the spring, and with it the winding gears were exposed. "Here you can store any dry item inside. Like this tiny vial." She procured an empty vial off the table, and pushed it inside the necklace with relative ease. "Now that it has a secret, you must secure a password by pressing the button; it's this copper strip on the side. Like so: my name is river" she said in a sing-song voice.

Then the front face turned and winded around until it covered the exposed mechanism to a close.

"Why do you have this?" Aidan asked.

"It was gifted to me by my grandmother after the third time I got lost in the forest trails." She lifted a finger, "Just so you know, there was tons of unaccounted mountain trails and wild vegetation at the time. So I can't be faulted for that."

"I would hate to take this away from you," Crow murmured, closing a fist around the necklace in a possessive cage, resting both his hands together behind his back. "But it will be adequate compensation for my time and expertise."

Sul'ahvi turned back for the door, "I'll leave you to it, then."

In a few hours, the chemical fumes in the room had grown stuffy and had to be aired out. Without missing a beat, Crow lifted his hand and the flow of air in the room froze in suspension. Then with a single flick of his wrist, the stuffy fumes blew past the open archways and left the room. Raising his palm higher, all of his fingers bent and curled inwards. Its barest movement inspiring fresh winds to begin dancing into the room, filling up their laboratory space with crisp and dry air.

"You couldn't have done that earlier?" asked River.

A muscle in his cheek strained, "I was preoccupied." He murmured, turning to face a chalk board overflowing with formula scribblings.

River looked up from her delicate work in transferring liquid chemicals from flask to flask and found that Crow has tied his hair in a smooth controlled ponytail that had sharpened his chiseled features. The man was blessed with tall cheekbones and a prominent jawline. He was intensely focused as he stared down his chalkboard. And she couldn't help but grow riveted at the sight he projected. There he was wearing a beige sweater courtesy of the oracle brothers, and yet the fluffiness of his outfit did nothing to diminish the lethality of his presence. Shaking off his spell, she went back to work.

They both fell into a rhythm of routine with River quickly anticipating what Crow needed before he even thought of it.

Aidan immediately dropped asleep on the cushions after he realized he couldn't wrangle the golden necklace into his wolfish hands.

"Bottom flask?" she offered, handing it out to him.

Without turning away from his microscope view, he asked. "How do you do that?"

She exchanged the bottom flask with a used one, taking care to hold it with gloved hands since it has just been from the little blue fire. "I live with eccentric thinkers like you who like to do a lot of extensive research and applied experiments. Most of their work require their undivided attention so it's really easy for them to forget about little details. I help out a lot so I'm used to it. That's actually how I got into my career as.. tech support. It's not a glamorous job but I'm glad I have one. Basically what I do is to document their work, clean up their equipment and with time I learned how to navigate their mercurial moods."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Eccentric thinkers?"

She raised a non-commital shrug. "People who like to do things differently. Like you. You did say you were the first to make an empire out of selling poisons."

"Among other things." he said, "I'd like to ask you a question."

"Seeing as we're almost done, and all there's left to do is wait. Fire away."

He had his arms crossed, facing his chalkboard "Do you think eccentric thinkers like me are bad?"

"Not really? I don't know. Sometimes, okay most of the times, there are big abstract concepts or little minutiae that I struggle to understand and it bothers me. Eccentric thinkers have this way of easily grasping these things and it immediately makes me feel inadequate. To say nothing of your mercurial moods." she chuckled, "But that doesn't make you bad or evil. Just a different kind of perfect that I haven't begun to comprehend." Folding her arms on top of the table and resting her chin, she watched bubbles intensify inside the heated glass flasks, "Thank you for doing this." she finally said.

He smirked. "You know, you would have had me at the golden necklace part before going on a tirade about it with its mysteries. Wait, no that's not actually true." He canted his head to meet her gaze "If you had asked me again, I can do nothing but do whatever you wish. I didn't realize you were really going to throw something in."

"You were—" she stood abruptly from the table, tossing an accusing finger but closed it back in a tight grip. "I deserve that." she said, crossing her arms. "Well played."

His triumphant smirk stayed even as he went back to the chalkboard. Moments after he was staring at it, he dropped an uneasy glance at River and murmured. "My family. We grew up poor. My father inherited a crime ring syndicate, passing it on to me when he died. It barely mattered much as the whole tribal snow villages didn't amount to anything worth the trouble. That's when I realized I needed to do something different. Being mistaken for a behagthi was an accidental coincidence, but back then I had a nasty habit of never correcting anyone so I let them think it. Soon, the rumors flowed and it solidified my empire of selling poisons. In hindsight, I didn't think I would get very far in my business. I like to think that must be why I failed in the end. I was so used to surviving on instinct for my whole damned life that when the cash flowed in so freely, I hoarded every treasures and resources even as snow villages around me crumbled and suffered under the pressure of poverty. Then at a chance encounter, I fell upon a prophecy book in my private library. One of my rarest treasures."

"Is that in your castle in the north snow mountains?" she asked, remembering Sul'ahvi had mentioned it earlier.

"Yes. Fully translated. Well in its fresh mint condition. I was very proud. It took great deal of reluctance to open it but curiosity got the better of me. It told about my prophecy, if you can believe it. A prophecy book that just so happens to fall upon my library was talking about my destiny. I didn't believe it at first. I'm an empirical thinker, it's what always served me well. Invisible dreams and visions aren't something I dabble with. But the more I read on, the more clearer things have come to light. And soon I couldn't deny its credibility anymore. The prophecy book spoke the truth and only the truth."

"What did it say?" asked Aidan, fully awake from his deep slumber. He still wore clothes from the sun tribe even though the brothers had offered him warmer coverings. Red cape over his shoulders and leather hide across his hips.

It hit River as she looked down that she, too, hadn't even bothered changing into appropriate clothing like the comfy sweater Crow wore. Even as she travelled for the snow tribe, she had worn her orange leather dress underneath all the bulk of layers.

Crow nodded at Aidan with a slight tilt, "It said that every death and suffering happening around me while I flourish in a revered position of excellence would sit festering on my soul well after I die. The prophecy said that the gods won't accept my ignorance on the matter as an excuse. When I came to it, I had realized that I indirectly caused thousands of death and many more endless suffering. I told myself it didn't matter. The curse of the god prince was to rot in the fiery pits of hell, anyways. Like my father, and his father before, the failure of being a protector to the god tribe has condenmed them to hell. That was supposed to be my destiny; to burn and rot in hell for eternity. And yet, the book told me how to absolve every sin, how to absolve the damned generational curse by telling me exactly how I can raise my father's soul and his father before him from perdition as well as mine. It foreshadowed what was to come and what I must do in coming to meet my redemption."

"Crow?" she called for him, saying his name for the first time. Before he knew it, a tidal wave of affection came crashing into him. It was not an unusual reaction when it came to River's presence, but her sincere unassuming voice unravelled something inside him making his tongue loose in a torrent of confession.

"It told me to follow a little girl with fires of determination in her gaze. It told me to follow her even as she rained down an ambush to imprison me. It told me to stay put when the walls are built around me. It told me to evade the dreaming sickness, how I must resist the passing temptation to give in to the cool pleasant darkness of slumber. And I waited. And waited. For Brumcia's beloved whose arrival comes in the form of a magnificent starlight."

Her breath hitched, steps faltering backwards when she retreated.

He marched to her with sure steps, cupping her chin in a gentle hold, "You should—" he stopped, swallowing audibly. "You must know, that I would have given you anything, starlight, should you ask it of me. I can deny you nothing."

She licked her lips and caught a deep breath before saying, "Then why fight me in every step of the way? The first time we met you mistook me for someone else."

He gave a wet chuckle, "My mind plays tricks on me. Building up hopes and giving me visions of my greatest desire. Then after all these years you finally came for me, you truly came. I didn't believe it at first and I fell back to my old habits: denial and skepticism. " Shaking his head, strands of his hair falling free to rest against his cheek "Could you blame me? You scare me. I don't like the power you hold, the things you do to me without so much as lifting a finger for it. You give me such hope. Take it away from me, and I'll break in ways beyond anything my tormentors can make. They cannot kill me in a way that matters. But," he rasped. "You can."

"You think me so strong, then?" she asked, breathing in big and standing taller. An aura of strength swarming around her shoulders like an invisible cloak.

"No, I believe you to be too precious."

Pressing her lips into a thin line, she mumbled. "My instincts tell me to be offended, but all things considered, I'm gonna give you a pass on that."

He searched, looking between her eyes, "Are you not terrified of me? I told you my truth. My responsibility in rivers of blood annihilation and multitudes of pain."

"I think you've spent well enough time in that stronghold on your own to properly reflect on your past actions. Where I come from, rivers of blood annihilation and multitudes of pain is a normal day in my world. It doesn't for me, specifically, because the privilege I have affords me to distance myself away from it. But I know it happens to millions of people at every second in every day. You shouldn't be ashamed of what you have to do to keep yourself safe and well-cared for. We all have needs."

"The guilt still clings to me," he said quietly. "What does one do with it?"

She licked her lips and said, "Extending a helpful hand. If it matters to one person, then it matters. Absolution doesn't need to happen right away. What matters is your intent and resolve to become better than you were before. It is all anyone can ask for, really. Just a simple gesture can ripple outwards in a bigger more meaningful way." she said, procuring a filled vial from the table. "A tiny drop of snow can snowball into a bigger one if you give it enough effort and momentum bit by bit. It all adds up." Peering into the filled vial, she asked. "Isn't this the one?"

He gave a deep sigh, "It only works for snow tribespeople for now." turning back to his drawing board, "I'm still looking into sun tribespeople biology to give to U'tu. Then again, I'm not so sure about yours. Take a sip from this vial. And if the poison still puts pressure on your head, take another dose of this."

She received her extra vial of dosage, tucking it safely inside her inner jacket pocket. "Thank you" she said, "And hey, I appreciate you telling me your truth."

He rolled his eyes, "Easy enough to do. Those damned brothers really made it easy for me."

"Yeah, fuck those manipulative bastards. They can eat shit."

After a while, Crow finished a cure vial for U'tu. It was easier than expected since Aidan was already there for samples concerning sun tribespeople biology.

Aidan tapped Crow on the shoulder, "The sun tribe will forever be in your debt for helping out their heir apparent sun prince."

"Heir apparent?" she said, a flare of annoyance shooting through her, then her gaze shot to his, narrowing "You told me nothing about that."

"Did I not? Otherwise, he can't have gone with us on such a dangerous mission."

"Oh you better come here." she fumed, stomping towards Aidan who sidestepped at her ineffectual swings. "You made me worry for nothing!"

"Truth be told, I thought it was sweet that you cared for the little prince" he said, dodging another clawed swipe of her nails. "Didn't have the heart to tell you that the little caterpillar has a pair of vicious teeth on his own. Yet, I did tell you he was a trained warrior." —swipe—

She groaned in frustration, "As if that made sense for a kid his size! Who would ever believe that?" shrieking, she pulled a forceful punch and swung it in the air missing him.

Sul'ahvi appeared in the doorway, looking like he had just woken up. "What's all the noise around here? The children are sound asleep."

She whirled in a fury, facing him. "You couldn't tell, oracle?"

"Of the future." he enunciated bit-by-bit. In a dead-serious tone.

"Don't condescend me." she said, charging towards him with a piece of her mind to dole out when Aidan grabbed her by the shoulders

Aidan grinned, a cocky one at that "We were only excited about the freshly acquired antidotes, that's all."

"I'll show you what I'm excited about." she wriggled out of his hold with little to no effect.

Aidan added, "Also discussing how the sun tribe will be thrilled to have Crow as our very first alchemy elder."

It was Crow's turn to cut the wolf an irritated glance, "Shut that wolf up, or so help me. I'll force him down to a hundred-year sleep."

Na'reem bolted in, "I just heard about fresh antidotes. What is our situation?"

Aidan nodded to the mahogany table where a stack of vials are filled to the brim with fresh antidotes. The oracle of the present fretted over its numbers with delight, "Everything is just coming up roses! Words can't express how grateful we are for such a prized creation." turning to Sul'ahvi, he whispered. "What do you suppose we should set the starting price at?"

River cleared her throat, grabbing both of the oracles' attention. "You are giving it all away for free without charge." she announced. When Na'reem was about to make an indignant counter, she raised a hand, stopping him. "If you want the war to end as soon as possible like you told me then you're giving it all away for free."

Their age suddenly became more apparent when the oracle of the present gave a pleading look to Sul'ahvi, "But the cost of mining and the labor for gathering these compounds!" he said, running a hand through his chestnut brown hair. "We will be losing money."

The oracle of the future remained unmoved. After a long moment, he fell to retreating back into the shadows after saying, "Give her what she wants."