Yba arrived before Tva, a giant shadow covering the sky, giant fins gracefully directing her flight over the city. She was so massive, outside the dreaming, Iseult marveled. How would she ever fit through the gate? Orikka and Iseult went up to meet her, comparatively tiny bodies, floating mystically for Orikka and on Shaia’s back for Iseult and Mejias. Mejias was lodged nervously tightly between Shaia’s wings whereas Iseult was loosely holding on behind her, comfortable by now on the vulture’s back. Shaia had grown since she had first joined Orikka as her acolyte, and she hadn’t been small before. The pair fit comfortably. ‘Yba, my child! You’ve come!’ Orikka called, delighted with the arrival of their newly found daughter. The whale gave a moan, a groaning mighty sound, and Iseult realized she was communicating with her parent. It seemed she was only able to understand godspeak inside the dreaming, now she was once again sidelined in their conversation. ‘The gate is by the shining palace, please follow and I will guide you there,’ Orikka said, turning to float in the direction she had indicated for the sea god, who followed behind along with Shaia, a faintly green-faced Mejias barely holding it together as they wheeled a turn.

‘I need to land, now,’ Mejias said, insistent, as they arrived in the airspace above the gate, ‘Orikka can talk with Yba, they don’t even really need me to be here, and I can see just as well from the ground.’ They landed with less grace than Mejias likely appreciated. She jumped off before they had even settled, bent over with hands on her knees, ‘Ugh, I’m alright,’ she wheezed. Catching her breath, she joined Iseult in looking up at the sky, watching Orikka converse with their daughter. With what seemed to be a final thought, Orikka descended, gracefully lowering themselves to the ground, alighting delicately. ‘Yba will begin,’ they said, their voice serene.

The whale gave a sudden burst of song, a trumpet heralding her dive down, circling lower and lower to the gate as a trail of bubbles was left lingering in her wake, the gate a small shining beacon to a great creature such as her. She bore down on the soulgate, down down until the tip of her great nose made contact. A burst of star bright light erupted, a volcano of energy spurting from the site of contact. A flush of ghostly light surged over Yba, a wave surging over her skin. She gave a quiver as it rippled over her, steaming souls like water off her back, leaving her body to spiral, dispersing to reincarnate at their convenience. Her body got smaller and smaller like a heavy sigh, shrinking like a deflating balloon as the souls were freed. Soon she was to size, still large, but with the normal dimensions of a humpback, though her spiny lionfish appendages remained, increasing her overall measurements slightly. Her voice decreased in magnitude, projecting still but not at the bone breaking resonance previously. She gave a great breath, spirits bursting from her blowhole, as the last of the excessive souls departed, the weight of her own damaged soul relieved.

‘So if they don’t have damaged souls any more, what makes them gods? Like, just having godseed without the kin sacrifice should make them a demigod, so do they all become Orikka’s demigods, or are they just unaffiliated demigods, somehow, or do they stay gods?’ she leaned her head against her shoulders, trying to ease the strain on her neck as she watched Yba. ‘Are their abilities demoted because of the loss of souls?’ She turned to look at her sister, ‘are you still technically a god, now that you’ve been purified, through the resurrection not the gate, I mean? Can you tell?’ Iseult asked, curious about how the gate actually worked, now that they had seen it in action twice, the gods still alive and coherent after the process. ‘Hm’ Mejias contemplated her rapid fire questions, watching Yba circle the skies once more before drifting away, back to the sea she had come from. ‘I can’t answer for sure, but if I had to guess, they’re something like lesser gods, now? They don’t seem to be dependent on Orikka in any way that I can see,’ she answered, shading her eyes to watch Yba fade into the distance. ‘She didn’t even say goodbye,’ she grumbled. ‘Do you feel unappreciated?’ Iseult teaser her. ‘Actually, yes. It was super hard to form the gate, gods are so entitled.’ Iseult was quiet for a moment. ‘Do you think about what you’ll be like, twenty years from now, a century from now. You have eternity in front of you, it’s an awful long time to hold a grudge.’ Mejias turned to her, dropping her hand from her eyes. She looked thoughtful, her eyes distant. ‘I haven’t really thought about it. I guess it’s futile to hope I don’t change, huh? I don’t want to change my mind about the gods as a whole, I think their way of thinking is really toxic, so self-centered, self-indulgent. But I suppose I will eventually lose touch, stop identifying with humans.’ Iseult nodded, she had experienced a similar existentiality at the onset of her ghost-hood, was still going through it, actually, worried about who she was becoming the further and further she got from life. ‘I don’t know what I’ll be like later. I hope I still like myself.’ Iseult wrapped her hands around her little sister, her ghostly head on Mejias’ shoulder. ‘No matter what, I’ll still like you.’

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‘What are we going to do about the dispersed corruption, like what came out from Yanus,’ Iseult asked later, as they were walking back home, strolling along as people whispered and waved at their presence. ‘Speaking of, does she still talk to you?’ she turned to Mejias, who nodded, resignedly. ‘She is kind of annoying, really. I’m kind of surprised I’m still sane with her constant whispers in my head.’ Iseult looked at her abashed. ‘Have you tried passing through the gate yourself?’ Mejias sighed, ‘yeah, I was hoping she might be released, but no such luck. I guess she’s here to stay. And honestly, it’s not all bad, she has told me some pretty useful stuff.’ ‘Oh? Like what?’ Iseult wondered what a half-crazed spacetime-jumping rabbit god could possibly offer. ‘Well, she helped me learn how to actually use spacetime, which was kind of key for making the gate. And she knows a lot about gods. But other than that it’s a lot of paranoia as well as some pretty deranged stuff. I’m pretty glad she’s only real in my head. I wouldn’t want her of all gods out in the world.’ Poor Mejias, Iseult thought, sympathetic.

‘But as for the dispersed corruption, I’m not really sure. I guess we could hunt for it? Were you able to see the corrupted souls, when Yanus was destroyed?’ Mejias asked. ‘Oh yes! I can probably still see them, if we run into any, but I haven’t seen them around. I wonder if they are absorbed by the gods in the same way ghosts and pure souls are?’ Iseult replied. ‘I don’t see why not.’ Mejias opened the door, letting the ever quiet Orikka pass through before her. ‘Oh, by the way, have any acolytes or ghosts passed through? I mean, I know what happens with devotees and gods, but I haven’t really seen the effects on other designations.’ Iseult wondered, walking with Mejias to the kitchen to prepare dinner, despite the early hour. The day had been a long one, with the hours stretching longer than normal, and it was pretty late despite still being light outside. ‘A acolyte did go through, but only one. It turns out that passing through for them results in severing their separation from their god, kind of like the plague and the devotees. I don’t think the acolyte that passed through was super pleased, they ran right back to the temple of Vanya.’ Iseult leaned against the counter, watching Mejias measure out chickpeas.

‘Vanya, Vanya, is that the sea iguana god?’ she sounded out the name, remembering, ‘the one with albinism and all the anemones and sea grass growing on it?’ Mejias hummed an affirmative, setting a pot to boil. ‘That’s the good rice, what are you using that for?’ She asked, watching Mejias measure out and pour rice into the cooker. ‘I forgot to tell you, Zichu is coming over for dinner, she said she’s bringing a guest interested in the gate. I assume she means another god. Even if I don’t like them, I can’t let them look down on my cooking, it goes against my principles to be a bad host.’ Iseult shook her head, ‘you are so weird, just recently a god and already with a weird sense of morality.’