The realm of the Gods

A few days prior, somewhere far, far away, a lone phoenix arrived back home, for the first time in years.

As a Great Spirit connected to the Moon God through a Pact, Ceres could come and go as he wished from His realm. An endless expanse in the night sky, adorned with stars and clouds, from which one could see the world below.

“My Lord”, Ceres started to talk as he landed.

“Ah, Ceres, good timing!”, He beckoned the Spirit. “Look at this, quick, come, come.”

He was about to complain, until he realized what they were looking down upon was the clearing where they had left Helia. She was still alive, but probably, not for long. And Arthem had joined her. Ceres dared hope he could help her, save her. 

Instead, the Spirit witnessed as he, too, betrayed her, horrified. Admittedly, he had never fully trusted the young man, but it wasn’t personal. Ceres never fully trusted anyone, other than himself, Helia, and the Moon. He chose not to dwell on the fact that he thought about her before Him.

“That boy is so interesting”, said the Moon, giddy with excitement. “I did not see that coming!”

“My Lord, please!”, pleaded Ceres. “Why?”

The God sighed. “You, too? I just explained it, did I not? Am I not making myself clear enough? I simply do not wish to wait any longer!”

“But, my Lord, the humans”, continued Ceres.

“What about them?”, He asked, smiling as He still observed the world below.

This question surprised Ceres. “They will all die. Forever. You do not have a Priest anymore.”

“Aaah, right. That is a shame, is it not? But, oh well. Usually, they tend to come back. Maybe not next time, but they always do, eventually”, He did not even look at Ceres as He spoke.

“My Lord. Please. It is not too late”, Ceres bowed with his whole body, begging. “Allow me to return to her, we can form a new Pact, my power will bring her back to life. I will teach her. Give me some more time. I beg.”

His God finally turned his gaze to the Spirit, looking unamused. Ceres continued on, through the fear. “I know this is not what You really want. My Lord, You will regret it.”

“What do you think you know, Spirit?”, the voice of the God echoed through the endless realm like thunder. “My answer is still no. You may have gotten attached to the girl, but you will get over it. Now, leave.”

The Moon turned His focus to the mortal realm once more, changing the view with a wave of His hand.

Ceres rose up from his almost kneeling position with eyes full of determination. “I will”, he responded. “You may have forgotten, but I have not. I will not let You do this.”

He gave the Moon one last look, and severed their Pact without another word.

With a powerful flap of his wings, Ceres took off, flying back to the mortal realm as fast as his body and the Wind allowed him to.

“Well, that too was unexpected”, said the Moon. But there was no one to listen.

Ceres darted through the night like a shooting star, hoping with his whole being that it wasn’t too late. The frontier being the mortal realm and His realm was not a physical one, but it still took Ceres more time than he would have wanted to travel between them.

He landed on the clearing with a strong gust of wind, violently displacing the camp they had set up, all of Helia's belongings scattering everywhere. Leaves flew into the air, illuminated by the light of the Moon, who was probably watching, he thought. But Ceres had no time to dwell on that.

“Helia! Helia!”, he frantically looked for her.

He found her laying on the floor, with her back turned to the sky, immobile. He scrambled to her position and turned her around, gently.

Helia’s colorless lips didn’t usher a word, but Ceres thought he saw them form the beginning of a smile through the dark hair covering them. With immense effort, she moved her eyeballs up towards his face. She tried to raise her hand as well, but it didn’t answer her anymore.

She looked at him with such tenderness. Ceres’ heart was overwhelmed with guilt and regret. How could he have let this happen?

He lowered his head, until their fronts touched, trying to form their Pact once more. But Helia didn’t react. He tried once, twice more, but he couldn’t feel anything other than her skin, much too cold.

“Please”, he begged, to her, to himself, to the Gods who had abandoned them all, to the Mana, to anything and anyone who could hear him and would be willing to help. But, they were alone. Tears started falling from his eyes, landing on her face.

All of a sudden, he felt it. It was extremely faint, but unmistakable. Ceres recognized this sensation. Helia’s Soul was reaching out to him, accepting his offer. Holding her tighter, he took it all in, gently, too scared to break her while it was still not done. This was why he had been chosen by the Moon to accompany Helia, this was something only Ceres could do. Through their Pact, he would accept and cherish her Soul, and in return, like a phoenix, once more, she would raise.

Slowly, color returned to Helia’s skin. Her breathing steadied, and her gaze focused in on Ceres. She lifted her hand and stroked the Spirit’s head as he cried.

“Helia, oh, Helia, I’m so sorry”, he told her. “I had no idea, that’s not what was supposed to happen, I swear, please, believe me. I broke my Pact with the Moon and came back as fast as I could. Our Pact, this time, it’s just you and me, I promise.”

“Ceres”, she said softly.

“Yes, Helia, what is it, tell me everything, I will accept it all, it was my responsibility”, he responded.

“I can’t breathe”, she gasped. Ceres moved away with a surprised squawk.

Helia inhaled, sitting up. Her body felt fine, but that was not the case for her heart. She was still dazed, trying to make sense of everything that had transpired. But, before that, something was more important.

Standing on her knees, she broke into tears and embraced Ceres, who held her once again, this time a little bit less tightly. “Oh, Ceres. Thank you for coming back.”

“Of course, my dearest Helia”, he cawed. “You are my Handler. My partner. Screw the Moon, the Sun, and all the Gods in between!”

Helia sat back down, snuggling up to Ceres, who pushed her even closer to him with his wing. “I will need some time to get used to the hair, though”, he added, and she hit him playfully in response.

“What will happen now?”, she whispered after some time spent in silence, enjoying each other's presence.

“He will force an Eclipse, both Him and the Sun will refuse to let go, and the world will end”, sighed Ceres. “I’m sorry, Helia. This is not how it was supposed to happen, I swear.”

“Then, tell me”, she responded. “How was it supposed to happen?”

“In about thirty years, a total eclipse would have happened, naturally, just from the movement of the celestial bodies”, even though Helia already knew about eclipses, there hadn’t been one throughout her life, yet. Guessing this wasn’t the same thing Ceres was talking about, she let him continue without interrupting.

“During that time, the Sun and the Moon are able to meet. Usually, the eclipse ends after a short while, and They each return to Their respective realms, where They wait once more as They reign over the world. But, after some time, They cannot accept it anymore, and just… Don’t let go. An endless night covers the world, plants and animals die, the oceans flood the land, until everything and everyone returns back to Mana. But They do not care about such things. They only care about Themselves", Ceres looked at her with an expression she couldn’t totally decipher. "They love each other, Helia."

It was a lot, but one implicit information jumped at her. “Why…”, she started, and she almost dismissed her impossible conclusion. “Why do you say that as if it has already happened?”

He locked eyes with her and nodded. “Because it has. Many times.”

She was about to ask a million more question, but he stopped her as her mouth opened. “Let me explain, Helia.”

“There have been many worlds before this one, all of them similar, yet unique. And in each and every one of them, the Sun and the Moon have been up in the sky, watching over it together, yet apart. Every time, without fault, They meet during eclipses, They fall in love, and over time, They have a harder time letting go of each other. Until eventually, They don’t.”

“After some time, the Mana takes form once again, the world starts anew, and so it goes, round and round. Only, sometimes, there is life in the world. Humans, usually, but not only. However, humans are the ones who caught the attention of the Moon. Such short, unpredictable lives, lived with such intensity. As you know, He loves watching you all.”

“Eventually, in every world with humans, you always end up worshiping the Sun and the Moon in the sky. This gives Them power, accelerating the whole process. After all, They might be older than existence itself, but They are still Spirits.”

“Spirits…”, repeated Helia incredulously.

“Ancient, extremely powerful, but still, Spirits, just like me”, Ceres nodded. “The Sun doesn’t care about much other than Him, but slowly, the Moon started feeling regret every time They destroyed the world. Especially if there were humans living in it.”

“Unlike Spirits, your Souls do not return to the Mana as a single entity that persists as a unit. This allows you to bond with the Mana and give us bodies, and in turn, use the Mana through us for Handling. But it also means your individual identities are spread and lost forever when you die.”

Helia felt her head spinning further because of this revelation, but Ceres didn’t concern himself with that, and continued. “After some time, the Moon found a way to conserve your Souls through the worlds. This is where you come in, Helia. I was supposed to teach you how to carry the Souls over to the next world, just in case the next Eclipse was the last, to ensure humanity would be once more.”

“Me?”, she exclaimed, surprised.

“Yes, you”, he responded, unfazed. “But the Moon got impatient. You were too powerful and tempting for Him. With the power He extracted from you, He can force an Eclipse right now. He has lived in solitude for eons, it has driven Him mad.”

“The Solarists’ prophecy was somewhat right”, he added. “The world would end shortly after the Moon Priest appears, but normally, you were the one who was supposed to save them all.”

“Technically, it was entirely right, was it not? The world will end because of me”, she paused, looking remorseful. “Is there nothing we can do about it, Ceres? Is it too late?”

Helia guessed what the answer to that question was from just his sad eyes. However, she did not want to give up just yet. She was about to ask about the prophecy itself, and the Solarists, how they fit in all of this, when they heard a vicious growl coming from beyond the trees.

“A Shadow!”, yelled Ceres, standing up. Helia managed to not fall and got on her feet as well. She looked for her bow and arrows, but they had been blown up and scattered when Ceres had landed.

A menacing Shadow, its shape vaguely reminiscent of a very big cat, got into view, ready to pounce at them any second.

“Quick, get on my back, let’s flee!”, panicked Ceres, lowering his body. Helia looked at him, confused.

“Why would we flee from a single Shadow?”, she asked, pointing her hand at the creature.

“I can only grant you the Wind, Helia. The Divine came from the Moon, you just didn’t know you had a Pact with Him. I’m sorry for that lie too, now let’s go!”, he cawed desperately.

Helia closed her eyes and called for the source of her Handling, the Wind blowing from her other half. Ambient Mana drew near Ceres, using their bond as a conduit to reach her body.

She smiled. “You’re wrong, Ceres”, she told him as a torrent of light surged from her hand and hit the creature. It hissed and growled in pain, desperate to get a hold of Helia, but she didn’t allow it. One by one, rays of moonlight spawned around her, mercilessly assaulting the Shadow, until it withered and disappeared. Ceres looked at her in awe, his beak wide open.

“The Divine might be the Moon’s element as a Spirit, but it is also mine, as a Handler”, she declared, clutching her chest.

Everyone had always assumed that a Handler’s element was tied to the Spirit they had formed a Pact with. This was, technically, not true, even if it was an understandable misconception. Any regular Handler who would call for a Spirit to form a Pact with, would naturally get a response from a Spirit whose element matched the strongest affinity of their Soul. This meant that, yes, most Handlers were accompanied by Spirits of their own element, but the Spirit didn’t limit what they could Handle. That would be their own Souls. Spirits are merely conduits through which Handlers are able to manipulate Mana.

Like most people, Helia’s Soul had an affinity for more than one element. They simply were not aware of it, Handlers or not. In Helia’s case, that would be Wind and Divine. It was a logical assumption, really. Even Helia had been surprised when she had felt the Divine after regaining her Pact with Ceres, available to answer her call. But she had known where to look for it, where most Handlers would not even imagine such a possibility.

Helia started to collect and put away all her belongings, ready to leave this cursed forest with Ceres as quickly as possible. Behind her, the Sun was rising, welcoming a new day.