As promised, sometime after falling asleep Tara opened her eyes to the little area Itzun met with her in. He gave her an almost proud look.

“You really are making more progress than I expected,” he noted.

“And I can say that you’ve made it more complicated than it should,” Tara responded with a little frown. She stood up, lightly brushing herself off without needing to; Itzun stayed at his usual spot for now. “Do you enjoy watching people get hurt?”

“I can’t make it easy, or there wouldn’t have been a point in making something preventable in the first place,” Itzun said, choosing to defend himself. “As for the blood, consider it a test of courage—a show of willingness to create a new future.”

“Or a way to make people miserable.”

Itzun gave a dramatic sigh. “Why do you have to be so…combative with me? This job is boring, you know—we’re only given a century or so to spend with mortals and decide what kind of place to make our islands, then we’re forced to hide up somewhere in the heavens to either sleep or change fates in lesser ways. We only have a short time to make any meaningful impact or contribution.”

“If you were every truly mortal, I wonder if you would have strived to create a more certain future. I couldn’t even ask you how you would think if a god decided that you were suddenly important and everyone you knew could die if you didn’t do anything about their plans.”

He let out a little thoughtful hum, then began his routine pacing around her. With her point made, she sat back down, albeit slightly annoyed. She still didn’t think she would miss him when this was over; she even wanted to hope she wouldn’t even remember him. Itzun grimly chuckled in response to that.

“How rude! ‘Tara’ wouldn’t have lived if not for me, you know.”

“If I never lived, then my family simply wouldn’t have known me. They couldn’t miss me that way. Chizuru would have died either way, so it fails to be much of a threat.”

“Maybe I ought to have told you I was a god outright,” Itzun mused with some feigned annoyance. He actually seemed to enjoy the banter; he didn’t often take their conversations seriously. “Then you might have treated me with some respect.”

“You look and act younger than Matteo sometimes. I doubt that.”

He cast her an insulted look, albeit without any real malice. He continued walking before taking a seat somewhere behind her.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“…Although you are right,” he admitted somewhat quietly. “I can’t imagine what it must truly be like for you and your family. It’s a lot of pressure, I will admit, but at the rate you’re going now you won’t have any trouble. You can spend a week or so at home before finalizing things.”

Tara glanced over her shoulder at him.

“Are you slightly apologetic, then?”

His cheerfulness returned sooner than she would have liked.

“Oh, barely. I’m just acknowledging your ideas when I should. You can likely read me just as well as I can read you.”

After a second, Itzun stood back up and walked around so he was in front of Tara instead, then took a seat there.

“Regardless, we haven’t gotten to the actual point of you being here yet,” he said. He offered a little smile. “You were very brave to go onto the first island with your brother and that woman.”

“I just felt I should,” Tara reasoned. She readjusted her position a little. “Where do we need to go next? Back to Chizuru’s grave?”

“No; fortunately I thought of the possibility that the leader might not be acting with the whole group’s consent, so I chose a different location. It was in some forest near the center of Dakari, but there might be a town there now—the only way to know for sure is if you looked at a map, and I can let you know where it is.”

Tara nodded. That wouldn’t be as hard as going to the first island; they might still need to prepare to spend a few days there, but it wouldn’t be a great inconvenience.

“And this will be the last step?” Tara asked to confirm.

“Yes. If you do this, that will be the end of the recreation effort.”

She murmured some agreement and recalled her earlier concern. Itzun stood up and gave her a kind of smile that implied he noticed, but of course he chose the more dramatic way to encourage her to say it.

“Now, is that everything?”

“You know it’s not,” Tara replied, frowning at him. “Do you really not care if I have fears?”

“I do, but I want to hear how you would phrase them if you had to put them into words,” Itzun said simply, giving a little shrug.

She sighed and stood up, intending to be a little confident. It came out quiet instead.

“Like you said before, I’m here now because Chizuru agreed to lead a nation,” Tara said. She tried to ask it while actually looking at him, but directed her eyes towards the ground and spoke softly instead. “I’m just…curious, I suppose. When Chizuru’s agreement can no longer be carried through, will I still be able to live?”

Surprisingly, Itzun offered a sympathetic look.

“You won’t need to worry in that regard,” he assured her. “It’s a bit cruel to force a girl to die just because she wanted to save others—it looks good on paper, but in practice it doesn’t exactly bode well for the well-being of those she would leave behind. No matter if the new island is created or not, Tara will live the full life that little Chizuru could not; I’ll do everything in my power to ensure that. I can’t promise that life will always be happy, of course, but at least your brother won’t have to explain why you’re missing when he returns home.”

“Thank you.” She even managed to give him a little smile, which Itzun seemed to take personal pride in.

After a second, the seriousness faded and Itzun returned to some theatrics.

“Okay! Now that everything’s settled, I’ll let you go. Just remember to take a look at a map when you wake up and you’ll be on the right track.”

He didn’t wait very long before letting her slip into a dreamless sleep.