His eyes were open, but he wasn’t awake. No, this was something else, something different. One moment he sat at the side of a lake, the next he camped in a tranquil forest, a moment later he tumbled off a cliff. Familiar visions, not quite memories, streamed through the backdrop around him. People he recognized flitted in and out. He saw things he did, things he wished he did, and things he wished he hadn’t done. They flowed around him, suffocating. He closed his eyes to drown the images out. When he opened them again, someone stood in front of him.

She, at least he thought it was a she, stood perhaps ten feet away from him. Or was it five feet? Thirty? Everything felt off. His mind struggled to grasp the illogical world he’d woken in. He focused on her and only her. She was surreal. Her face had two distinct parts. One side was that of a beautiful girl with black hair and stunning blue eyes. There was something off about the beauty, though. She didn’t seem to quite add up. It felt more like a compilation of pretty features than an actual face.

The other side was even more disturbing. It was the same girl, but it was broken, twisted, and warped. More creature than woman. It haunted the mind. Sought down its greatest weaknesses and pried them out one by one.

Dere looked down and shook his head, trying to clear his mind. The girl still stood there when he looked back. However, her face had changed. It had the same dichotomy as before, but the features shifted. The hair went from black to blonde, eyes from blue to green, face structure from sharp to soft. Different girl same unnatural split.

Dere stared her down. “Kniama, right? Goddess of Dreams?”

“And nightmares.” Her words echoed in the back of his mind similar to how he might recall a voice from memory.

“Ah, yes, how could I have forgotten?” He defaulted to his usual tone, hoping it would bring some normalcy to the situation.

He thought she smiled at his response. Her two-faced appearance made it difficult to judge any kind of emotion. “So, you’re Dere, the God of Shadows.”

Something about the way she said it made him look down at his own body. He saw an ever-shifting mass of multicolored shadows in the shape of a man. It was his natural form. Intrigued, he peered closer at his right hand. For some reason the living shadow felt so odd to him now. “Not much of a god anymore, I’m afraid.” He eventually responded, still gazing at his shadowy hand.

“So I’ve heard.” She tilted her unnatural face to the side to observe him from another angle. “Forgive me for my curiosity but to see the God of Shadows, the personal assassin of Ilu, the feared Killer of Gods in such a state is… intriguing.”

The way she spoke unnerved him. He knew almost nothing about her, yet he already didn’t like her. She set him on edge more than any other god ever had. “Why am I here?”

She tilted her head to the other side, seemingly unbothered by Dere’s abruptness. “Someone wants to talk to you.”

He narrowed his eyes, though the movement wouldn’t have been visible through his shadowed face. “Who?”

This time, he knew she smiled. The two faces curled in different ways. The woman gave him an almost flawless smile, marred by an imperfection he would never be able to pin down. The monster’s smile was far less perfect. The curl of the lips, the number of teeth, all wrong. But, even despite the horrific face, something about the smile felt comforting. It felt natural, somehow. And then, in an instant, the smile was gone. She was gone.

Dere blinked in surprise. Someone else stood in front of him. She had a feminine face, beautiful beyond compare, golden eyes, and hair made of flowing sunlight. Her presence felt warm, uplifting. It pushed away hatred, fear, and sorrow. It whisked everything bad away and invited you into its warm grasp. It wanted to help you, to lift you up. Dere could only stare at her. If he had a visible mouth, it would have been agape. He managed to whisper out a single word. “Reyn…”

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“Dere.” Her voice was surprisingly deep. It always had been. “Are you alright?”

In an instant, he snapped out of his daze. Reyn always had a certain effect, especially on him. He took an unnecessary breath. “I’m the same now as I’ve been for the past few weeks. Hurt but alive.” He knew his voice sounded cold and distant.

She met his eyes, and he was forced to confront the pain she felt at his animosity. “I don’t think you did it, Dere. I know you’re innocent. Someone else killed Ko.”

He hated that her opinion meant something to him. That it meant everything to him. He fought down the wave of feelings. “What do you want Reyn? Why are you here?”

Sad, golden eyes, bright enough to hurt if you stared at them long enough, held his gaze. “I need your help.”

The world around him shifted and showed a memory. There Reyn was, eyes spilling golden sunlight, begging him to help her, to save him, to save everyone. It was the only other time she had ever asked for his help. She didn’t need it often. He focused back on her, unwilling to dwell much longer in the past. She was looking somewhere distant, probably seeing the same memory. The one that changed Dere’s life forever. “What is it?”

Golden eyes looked up and down his imperceptible form. She ended up where she assumed his eyes were. “Banto Re is missing.”

That took Dere off guard. “Missing or…”

“Don’t get your hopes up. He’s not dead.”

Dere ignored the millions of flaming eyes that suddenly filled the world around him. He had seen those furious fires enough. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” She sounded frustrated. “The other gods assume it’s nothing, but I think differently. Something happened to him. I don't care what the others gods say. I don't care that it has only been a few days. He wouldn’t disappear now, not in such a chaotic time.”

“Maybe he just finally got what he deserved?” One could almost feel the chill in Dere’s tone.

“Dere… he’s my brother.”

Dere’s hands clenched. “I remember what happened after Ko died. Amongst the confusion, your brother was always in Ilu’s ear, whispering, planting seeds. He saw it as an opportunity to take me down, and he succeeded.”

Dere’s anger and callousness didn’t dissuade Reyn. Golden eyes flashed brighter. “That’s the thing. Banto tried to ruin you, but, in part because of that, he’s one of the few gods who knew you were innocent.”

“What do you mean?”

“My brother has known you a long time and hated you for most of it. He also knows you better than almost anyone else. He knows what you’re capable of and what you will and won’t do. Yes, he tried to sow seeds of doubt against you, but I think he was surprised when it worked. How easily they lapped up his lies. How willing they were to pick a culprit. That’s how he knew you were innocent.” Dere didn’t say anything. He was immersed in his thoughts. Around him memories and visions swarmed. A man of fire and a man of shadow, fighting, bickering, yelling. “So,” Reyn continued as Dere reflected in silence. “He started looking into it himself. He knew someone else did it. Maybe he found something. That might be why he’s gone.”

“Another mystery.” Dere whispered. He knew Reyn was right, even if he didn’t want to admit it. Her logic was sound. He sighed. “What do you want me to do? If I were up there, I might be able to help. Down here, though, as I am right now, I don’t know if I can.”

Reyn closed her eyes for a second, and Dere realized something. She was scared. Not for herself, never for herself, for her brother. Thousands of years she had watched over the all-powerful God of fire. Chided him. Cheered him up. Soothed his all-consuming rage. And now, he was gone. Sunlight eyes opened once again. Whatever fear he had detected didn’t show in those balls of glowing light.

“I know you’re looking into something Dere. Something going on in the mortal world. I see you from time to time, when Afre doesn’t obscure my vision with her storms and clouds. I’ll do my part up here. All I’m asking is for you to look for the connection. Try to find out what happened to him. If his followers feel a difference. You’ve always been good at this stuff.”

Dere hated the way she looked at him. The way she found the best in him and everyone else. The way she made him want to be better. The way she knew he’d do the right things. He groaned. “Fine. I’ll do what I can.”

Her smile lit him up. Even in this nightmarish dreamscape, it seemed to brighten everything, make the world less scary. He used to live for that smile. “Thanks, Dere.” She said, hair and eyes shining bright. “Take care of yourself. I’d hate to see anything happen to you.” She stared fading away, and the dream world faded with her. “Oh, and take care of Marcella for me. She’s a good girl.”

With that, she was gone. The world felt colder without her presence. Not that it seemed he’d be here much longer. Cracks began spreading out around the fading world. His brief time here was at an end. As the dream collapsed around him, Dere thought he spotted a two-faced figure in the distance, smiling at him. Then, all went black.