The more Trillia thought about it. The longer a three to four-month hiatus from all things fun and adventuring seemed.

Sure, she had "permission" to go into Red River. But that was one dungeon!

Although...

It did have a bunch of new floors.

She reached over and scratched Ialu's head. The wolf was curled up next to her in bed. "I suppose the dungeon will have to do."

After another hour or so of watching the sunrise, she stood and moved over to the rune-etched basin in the room.

A nice soak, and a few hours later, she was dressed and ready to go.

Eat breakfast.

At this point, the kitchen staff knew her well. She'd help them sometimes, and she had used her divine skill in several instances to help them along in their own life's journeys. So they were always happy to see and feed her.

Ialu gave her welcoming borks as the cooks said hello to the two of them.

"I'm afraid Lord Arlyss has asked me to take a short leave of absence. So I won't be around as much. Is there anything I can do before I depart to help any of you?" Trillia smiled as she sat at the cook's table and watched them prep and clean meat and vegetables.

One of the cooks had skills that allowed them to use water mana to freeze the vegetables and beef to keep them fresh longer. It was a rather ingenious use of his skills. The head chef turned to her and shook his head. "No. I think it's a good idea. A girl your age should be out and having fun, getting into trouble. Yet you are out fighting the undead for us and fighting against those primal creatures."

"[Primordials], Chef!" One of the other cooks piped up to help.

The old chef threw his hands up. "Whatever. The bad guys. My point is she's a kid. Act like a kid." Trillia rolled her eyes a little as he walked over to her table with a plate, a bowl of soup that was heating up as he walked it, and a large slab of some sort of meat.

"Look. Most of us only get one shot at this life thing. Make sure you enjoy every part of it you can. Before you know it, you'll be an old bitter man like me who screams at people all day." The man waggled a finger at her little smirk as she dug in.

She didn't know how he did it. But he made cheese into a liquid and slow-boiled meat into it with some sort of green vegetable. It was absolutely her favorite soup. She had never wanted to spoil herself to the surprise, so she had never scanned the kitchen crew. But she was convinced the head chef was in the high three or four hundreds.

She picked up a piece of the sliced meat and tossed it to Ialu before digging back into the soup.

The head chef chuckled. "At least I know how to keep you from arguing. I'll have to show our young lord that trick."

Trillia would have said something. But the soup. She'd just have to give him that little victory.

One of the ladies who baked bread came around and gave her a loaf of bread before hugging her tightly and kissing her forehead. "It won't be near as fun without you running amuck. You as well, you little troublemakers." The woman rubbed Ialu's head as she finished the sentence. "But ol' Rodge is right. Take some time and get into a little trouble." She brandished a wooden spoon that she had seemingly pulled from thin air, waving it menacingly in front of Trillia. "That don't mean run off to fight more, you hear me?"

Trillia gulped down the soup and managed a meek little nod. Her entire family had always told her that you never messed with cooks. They were in charge of your food. If you made cooks angry... Well, it was just a bad time for everyone.

The woman's warm smile returned, and she hugged Trillia again. She liked the cooks because they all smelled like food. They joked around and always seemed happy and playful. They said it was to help the time go by.

Honestly. When everything was said and done. And she wasn't worried about the world, she'd like to be a cook somewhere. Surrounded by food, good smells, and laughter.

She caught herself smiling in her daydream.

Nodding the reverie away, she finished her food and thanked the cooks many times. Hugging them all many times and assuring them she was only leaving for a few months.

At last, she made her way up to the library that Arlyss was often found in. It was more like his little sanctuary.

The first thing she noticed was Ralrouk, Kismet, and Maldoun all sported glowing runic symbols on their arms. They had all accepted the pact. That made her smile a little wider.

Ralrouk saw her and nodded slightly. "Tormash and Ba'Shoon headed back already. They are the new leaders of our people, so they couldn't dally long. Our first order of business as new pact-mates is to get you through the portal without any distractions. Then make sure to inform some others that you aren't to do any heroing."

Trillia huffed as she approached but didn't bother arguing at this point. "I actually wanted to ask Lord Arlyss something."

Seeing the young deity nod to her, she continued. "I want to borrow some of your books on enchanting and runes. I don't imagine I am going to want to run the dungeon every single day."

Arlyss was already giving her a look. She was starting to not like that particular look. "Is this about the portals?"

Trillia nodded. There was no purpose in attempting to lie to the entity that could read her surface thoughts on a whim. "It is. I figure I will be close to Ba'Shoon. Maybe she and I can work on some things. That's something I can feel like I'm helping and contributing. Something I enjoy, mind you. But it isn't dangerous."

Arlyss sighed and flicked his hand behind him. Book after book leapt from the shelves and into his waiting hand, where he set each down in a stack. "These are all the relevant ones I can think of. If it keeps you out of harm's way and distracts you, I won't complain."

Trillia nodded and walked over to the stack, putting each in a shoulder bag she was packing with her things. It took her a bit of time to fiddle and fight with the pack.

"I need to make you a storage item." Arlyss said it off-handedly as if it was something well within his ability to do. The stunned looks of those around him made him feel the need to explain himself. "Storage items are very easy to make if you have spatial mana manipulation. The problem is making them viable for mortals. Most deific items just require access to divinity. If a mortal were to try and use it, it'd take millions of mana for every use. I'm pretty sure I can lower the cost of that to some magnitude."

"But it's still a no-go for everyone else." Ralrouk finished and motioned to Trillia. Arlyss nodded. "Well, she is your avatar. It would also help her pack and unpack stuff."

Trillia wasn't about to argue that. They had tried to make 'enchanted' hands several times to no avail. Stas had, of course, offered to graft her an extra arm or three, but that would change her species and subspecies to abomination. Which carried a lot of penalties.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Healing was also out of the question. The way her mana veins spliced into...well, the realm's made it so that it just refused to heal right. The running theory was that the mana veins were also why nothing else had worked.

"Well. I'm ready whenever all of you are. I will do my best to not get into that much trouble. I'd like to see you all at least once a month to say hi and check-in. If that's ok." Arlyss gave her a nod and dismissed them with a slight wave. A dozen quills floated around him and began marking various things down in books and on maps.

A new skill he was developing, perhaps. As they all left, they were joined by someone they hadn't seen in a couple days.

Riten began following them down to the portal.

They said nothing, not wanting to assume. But when he joined them at the portal that was being prepped, Ralrouk spoke up. "Will you be joining us, Lord Riten?"

Riten smiled and bobbed his head. "Yes. My brother tells me there is an active mana rift near Lady Trillia's home tribe. I wish to explore it and see if there is anything within its depths that can be used to aid us."

Trillia spoke up at that. "My mother went into it to save me. Maybe you can reach out and ask her if she can give you any tips? Are there no mana rifts where you are from?"

The portal glowed and gave a gentle thrum as the mana took hold. There on the other side, was the mana rift in question. They quickly filtered through as people on the other side were prepping for the return trip.

Riten looked over at the ravine. They were only a few hundred feet from it on a hill nearby. People were instructed to move quickly as mana sickness was a real worry with this portal.

The others gave Trillia a short goodbye and told her they'd see her in camp. She was immune to mana sickness, after all. Riten seemed unaffected as well.

In fact, he had begun approaching it. Trillia was curious, so she followed.

As he glanced over his shoulder at her, he finally answered. "A fleet of dragons stand guard at the mana rift on my home continent. Getting within a few thousand feet, even as a deity, is a very dangerous affair. They have a few immortals amongst them. Which means when I wasn't yet a deity and just a mere immortal, they could have theoretically killed me. It doesn't help that dragons have a predisposition to hate my siblings and I."

Trillia halted as if a memory screamed into her mind. "Wait! Your brother said that you attacked a [Primordial]! That you held a pass for weeks!"

Riten nodded calmly at her outburst. "I heard rumours of a cave that led all the way to one of the sleeping beasts. We traveled downward for five days. After constant attacks from spawn, we were forced to turn back. But my little excursion angered something because the cavern began to spew out these strange-looking six-legged beasts."

Riten now stood on the very edge of the ravine and looked down. "The mana feels so...primal here."

"In any case, the beasts all had the spawn trait. So I stood and fought. I ordered my mortal followers to flee and warn nearby kingdoms and patrols that there might be trouble. After some time, the beasts stopped flooding out." The tone in his voice seemed...odd to Trillia. He wasn't boasting. He wasn't proud. It was like he barely cared that he had managed to accomplish such a feat.

Trillia walked up to stand near him, glancing down into the ravine below. "You are very different from your brother."

Riten nodded sagely at her words. "And you are very different from yours."

Trillia stopped and stared at him.

"Fair point. I guess. I meant that I don't see Arlyss doing such a thing?" That drew a laugh from Riten. A deep belly laugh.

It took him several seconds to recover. Shaking his head and wiping away a tear. "By all that is radiant. Mortals truly are clueless."

Trillia scowled at him. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

Riten smiled and extended a hand. "I could show you. Just a little peak shouldn't hurt."

Trillia glanced over her shoulder. Half-expecting Arlyss or someone else to be standing there, ready to swat her hand away. Seeing no such guard, she nodded and took his hand.

"Take a deep breath. Whatever you do. If you want to live. DO. NOT. SCAN. ANYTHING. Am I clear?" His tone left no mystery that she'd be dead if she tried. With a gulp, she nodded.

She felt divinity wash over her. As she blinked, she saw Alirast fade away. Suddenly she was looking down. She saw their bodies standing there, but it all looked...different. She saw Riten as a brilliant blue ball of energy with a half dozen small glowing threads hanging from it.

Her own body was a much smaller but much brighter ball of energy. A thousand tiny hairs glowed and ran into Alirast itself. A few other glowing threads ran off in other directions.

The ravine...

The ravine stood a terrifying void of all things. It was like all the light and threads that connected everything had just died on the spot. Even after a decade, she could see threads severed cleanly on either end where the ravine stood.

Suddenly her point of view shifted. The ground ran away from her. It moved faster than anything she had seen. Suddenly, within seconds, they hovered over D'Jamu. She saw Arlyss sitting in his sanctuary, the same brilliant blue energy that Riten radiated. But the number of glowing threads extending from him was a thousandfold. Every single entity in the city had its own little thread attached to him.

All of their balls of energy were nearly non-existent. Faint little pinpoints in a sea of darkness. Slowly being pumped energy and kept alive by the ball of blue light in the library. As Riten pulled her further into the sky, she saw Arlyss' threads weave out into every single dais they had put up over the years. Slowly pumping a weave of protection into the very sands.

Then she realized what else she saw deep below the sands. It wasn't that the desert was a void. It was the entity under the desert was so large that its energy seemed to encompass the entire desert. Dark and hungering, slowly eating away at the edge of life and turning it into more desert.

Trillia began to tremble as she stared at it.

Fresh air hit her lungs, she gasped for the sweet breath of life. She blinked a dozen times as she found herself standing at the ravine.

Riten let go of her hand. "My brother has been holding his mountain pass since he was born. Slowly keeping a city alive at the cost of his own divinity."

Trillia shook her head with tears in her eyes. "I didn't know. I'm sor-"

Riten raised his hands and shook his head. "Don't apologize. You couldn't know. Only deities can see those lines so clearly. Arlyss and I are young, stupid, and naive. We want to save all of Alirast from the beasts that are consuming it."

He turned from her and back to the ravine, stepping to its edge once more. Spreading his arms and looking up into the sky. Looking past the sky, she realized. "We want to question why our father made this place. We want to question ⏁⊑⟒ ⏃⌰⌰⎎⏃⏁⊑⟒⍀ as to why he was punished for defending his wife and children. I think...most of all. We want to see our mother."

Trillia froze at his words. She barely managed a whisper. "I thought... I thought you could speak to her? Could see her anytime?"

Riten glanced from the sky to Trillia. "Ahh..."

Nodding, he once more turned to her. "We can visit her kingdom. We can speak through messengers. But we cannot see her. It is forbidden. It's a story I shall tell you another time. All you need to know is that the same rules blocking our father from descending to alleviate the mortals. Split up my siblings and I at birth and now forbid my brother and I from physically seeing our mother."

Trillia clenched her fists. As she was about to speak, Riten was standing there, a finger to her temple. "Don't. This is our burden. I only tell you what I do so that you do not think less of my brother. I know it pains you to think of it like this. But remember, you are a mortal. We are deities. It is our job to help you. The help you provide is more than can be asked of our followers."

Trillia blinked a few times and pulled away. "I just. He's my friend. I don't want him to suffer. I know he's lonely...all the time. I just didn't realize how lonely."

Riten smiled and bowed deeply. "He's much less lonely now. He has you and the other pact-bound. The people of D'Jamu accept him."

Trillia shook her head. "It's not the same. We're..."

Riten gave her a knowing smile. "It's all we can ask for. At least for now. Once this curse is lifted, we will be allowed to speak with our peers. We will be allowed to see our mother and our father. Now. I've given you a lot to think about. I'm sure I will catch a lashing for stressing you more. Go delve into your dungeon. Work on the secrets of the portals. But most importantly, do what my brother has asked."

"Rest?" She quipped back. She immediately felt guilty for doing so.

"Get better. He won't tell you. Neither will the others. I will. You have a trait that helps prevent you from having panic attacks and passing out. You need to take time and really come to grips with everything going on. Understand, no one blames you. You've gone through more shit than Arlyss and I. We are literally cursed by several gods, and you still have us beat on the bullshit-happening-to-us-meter."

She managed to chuckle and rub her eyes. Silently grumbling that her traits didn't keep these emotions down as well. "If you aren't willing to rest for your own benefit. Look at it this way. If you panic at the wrong time, you could lose someone close to you. Someone who really matters. Be better for when that time comes. Because trust me, it's coming."

She took a deep breath and nodded. Walking up to him and giving him a hug. "Thank you. I hope that one day, you and Arlyss aren't lonely. I hope I'm around to see it happen. I'd love to meet your sister and your parents."

Riten returned the hug and smiled down at her. "Maybe when this all blows over, we can have a big fire and a party. My family and yours."

Trillia heard the tone. It was the deity and follower tone. Still, she nodded regardless. She left him to stare into the ravine and began to wander back toward her brother. Her family would be around once it was all over, right?

She shook her head, shaking the thoughts around before they grew to become a problem. For now, the focus was fixing her panic and doing a little dungeon delving.