“Okay, this is getting ridiculous!” Pelos exclaimed, peering down at Dargon, “Garyth has meddled too much!”
“Not according to the balance,” Aeliyas said with a sigh.
The balance was a tentative idea—a concept that had existed since the beginning. Incorporeal and intangible and the mortals knew nothing of it. It was like a scale of sorts, and it periodically shifted. If it deviated far from the middle to either side, Dargon was in need of some sort of godly intervention.
As the seeing pond showed the arid desert of Anhua and the ensuing battle, the sibling gods and other curious gods gathered around it.
“The balance is wavering,” Aeliyas said, her eyes wide but unseeing.
Through the seeing pond, the gods could all see that the keyguard was awakening, her power rippling the mana currents and conjuring up a magical storm above Anhua.
Pelos replied quickly, “Well, if the balance is wavering, surely I could descend!”
Gialan looked at his brother like he was crazy and cried, “Have you taken leave of your wits, brother?! If you descend you will send the balance spiralling into chaos, and you will only give Garyth the upper hand!”
“Besides,” He continued, “Now that the keyguard is awakening, her power will keep Garyth in check.”
The gods watched with avid fascination as the battle unfolded in Anhua and Garyth’s response to the keyguard awakening. When they saw him bring out the silver manacle, Pelos jumped up in a fury and Gialan frowned.
“HE DARES TO USE THE MANACLE WE USED ON HIM?!” Pelos yelled.
When Garyth had been imprisoned, his powers had been sealed using that manacle. It was specially crafted to be impossible to remove when locked in it, but it also caused the wearer no harm—just sealed their powers.
“We should have just killed him,” Gialan muttered.
As the manacle slipped onto the keyguard’s wrist and snapped into place, her powers vanished instantly, leaving only a small ripple in the mana to show its disappearance. And as Garyth carried her away, Aeliyas sank to the ground with a muffled cry, two crimson tears trailing down her face.
“The balance,” She whispered, “The balance has been shifted.”
Pelos quickly stepped over to her and helped her back on her feet, asking, “How badly?!”
She looked up into his eyes, her crimson eyes regaining focus and she said solemnly, “Nearly to the point of no return.”
Aeliyas continued, “All three of us will descend to Dargon. Immediately.”
Gialan’s head snapped up and he looked incredulously at his sister, “Are you being serious? The three of us?!”
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
She nodded and said, “Dargon is on the brink of self-correcting. And I suspect that only by self-destructing can our world restore the balance.”
There was a tense silence in the air, like the calm before the storm. Father Haert was the primary god who maintained the balance—at any cost. To avoid his discovery of the worlds that the sibling gods had created, they made certain that the worlds would self-correct to restore the balance before he sensed it.
“Will Grandfather not notice if we all disappear?” Gialan asked hesitantly.
Pelos answered, “I doubt it. He will remain in deep slumber unless the balance is shifted more.”
Aeliyas hastily said, “Quickly, find a compatible mortal vessel and descend. Time is of the essence.”
“Of course, sister,” Pelos gave her a small nod and stepped away before vanishing in a blink of light.
Gialan rose from his seated position and also disappeared quickly. Aeliyas quickly followed suit as well, leaving the other minor gods to continue watching the seeing pond.
<--<< >>-->
Down beneath the temple of Esover, Halian, Aidan and the Blackroses were left behind and dumbfounded when Garyth disappeared with the guardians. Halian peered around, his anger cooling as the subject of his hatred had disappeared right in front of his eyes.
“Where’d he go?!” He asked, looking at the others left in the room.
Then, a thought occurred to him and he pointed to the only person in the guardian party who hadn’t been warped with them, asking, “Who are you?”
“Aidan Illuen,” Aidan answered, saying, “And I think I wasn’t invited to the party because I’m not a guardian.”
Leyon looked thoroughly confused and Adrian hesitantly asked, “So… they were… the guardians?”
Halian shrugged, “I guess so… I mean, they wore circlets.”
He felt very confused by the whole situation and was unsure of what to do.
All of a sudden, Aidan dropped to the ground like a sack of grain and lay motionless, face down on the floor. Zaiela quickly rushed to his side and turned him over, checking his pulse.
“He’s alive…” She said, “But I have no idea why he suddenly collapsed.”
Before their very eyes, his shape began to morph—his hair lengthening and turning white and his complexion paling. A crimson jewel shaped like a teardrop emerged from his forehead, embedded into his skin. His eyes opened slowly, his previously grey eyes now a striking emerald hue.
He sat up, taking in the incredulous expressions on the faces of everyone in the room and smirked, saying, “Hello, I’m Cress—Aidan’s other half.”
<--<< >>-->
In Sanobar, the Peloan temple in Kenstel was home to two acolytes. There was a small room to the side of the main temple, where the two acolytes slept. It was modestly furnished and there were some cracks in the walls and roof that occasionally let in a draft of wind or rain. This was the view that greeted Pelos as he sat up, finding himself in a child’s body. The boy had been quite compatible and a devout follower of the Peloan order. He’d been blind, but upon inhabiting the body, Pelos’ natural magic had healed the eyes. Pelos stretched, clenching his fists and peering around with an idle curiosity, noticing the stench in the room. Watching Dargon from above was a vastly different experience to feeling it.
To the north, deep within the woods of Silvardor, Aeliyas found an elven female that bore striking resemblance to her chosen godly form, as well as being highly attuned to her unique magic.
A little further south—at the edge of Silvardor—lay the town of Ni’aad, where Gialan found his vessel. Each vessel willingly ceded control to the god, almost as if even the mortals on Dargon could sense that it was a matter of utmost importance.
As the three sibling gods descended upon Dargon, taking mortal forms, the scale of balance shifted once again…