It was perhaps one of the longest hours that Trillia could remember having.

  No one broke the silence.

  It was just a lot of angry looks thrown at Cordaos, who had finished cooking and served himself a bowl of stew.

  The Queen returned to the clearing and seemed far less unhinged. "Everyone take a seat."

  The woman raised a hand, and Trillia felt a wave of pressure. "I am not here to discuss. I am here to explain. Please, I will answer your questions after. For now, sit. Cordaos, is it ok if I tell them everything?"

  "Of course, Queen Alliyah. It may do little Amy some good to hear it as well." The minotaur king looked over to his daughter with a look of guilt on his face. "I hope you don't hate me too much after you hear, little one."

  No one had any other objections, or if they did, the Queen was silencing them ahead of time. The group all sat across from her with bowls of food in their hands. Alliyah sat next to Cordaos with her own stew. She chose to stare into it while organizing her thoughts.

  "Miah. Connect to your brothers. I want them to hear this as well."

  The Goddess, who had sat down on a mossy log with the rest of them, nodded. The deities couldn't communicate directly with Kadessa, but with Miah's recent ascension, it seemed she could circumvent that, at least a little.

  A dome of mana appeared around the camp, and the Queen finally looked up at all of them. "Kain and I were attacked by one of the dragon gods. It was in the space between realms. Not only was it a Primordial class dragon deity, but a dozen or so other deities. I was their target."

  Trillia felt the ground tremble briefly under them. Something prickled at her senses.

  "I was heavy with child. Kain had probably told me a dozen times that it was safer for me to give birth in an immortal realm. When immortal children are born, their souls take a heavy, heavy toll on the area around them. They suck in mana like a vortex, not only from the Aether but also from whatever realm they are born in. That mana determines whether or not they are native to a given realm. The rules are very different for a deity that is born in a realm and one that is not."

  Trillia knew at least some of this so far. The looks on the General's faces, and on Miah's face, said that they knew some of this as well.

  "Fighting in the void, especially with so many heavy hitters, wasn't safe. Most of Kain's energy and perception was dedicated to keeping me and the kid's souls safe. I have no idea how long the fight lasted...fighting at that level is more ideal than reality. I just remember feeling terrified. Everything in my body felt wrong. Like I had trespassed in a dungeon that was meant for deities, not for some angry pregnant woman."

  The Queen sat her stew down and pulled her knees up to her chest. "Kain spoke words that I had never heard before. Just hearing the words ripped out tiny pieces of my soul...your soul as well." Alliyah now looked at Miah.

  "All of the gods stopped attacking him immediately. Their anger turned into terror. Their curses turned into pleas of mercy. It was the first time in all my life that I remember looking at my husband in terror. The darkness that had welled up inside him could swallow all of Alirast, and he would have never noticed. It was a true deep-seated hatred."

  "He reached out and grabbed the soul of the dragon god and without thinking about it ripped it from it's host. I watched the words he chanted crack and bend the universe itself."

  The feeling of dread only deepened in Trillia. It was the same feeling of dread she got when she had visited Lethe in the past.

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  "He sent me here, to Alirast. Some of you may be too young, but the Cataclysm is the night that I was returned. There were blue orbs that raced across the skies."

  Amara looked ready to speak, but Alliyah shook her head. "Soon...my dear friend, soon."

  "The kids and I were separated. Arlyss' soul found its way into a stillborn in D'Jamu. Thankfully, there were enough people there that his soul formed fully without much damage."

  Tears filled her eyes as she forced herself to press on. "Riten wasn't so lucky. His soul found its way to an already inhabited child, being born at the same time. Riten's soul was obviously much stronger and devoured the soul of the infant...but the little town he was born into wasn't nearly as large as D'Jamu. There weren't nearly as many people. An immortal's soul was being born, and it would not be stopped. The templars in my employ said that when they finally found the city, every inhabitant seemed to have simply died where they stood."

  "I'll let Riten tell the rest of that tale if he ever chooses to...but Miah....my sweet little Miah was with me. I wouldn't let my people suffer, so I did my best to channel all the power she would need to be born. Between the fight with so many deities around me and her birth. I ascended."

  A familiar sense of unease had also crept into Trillia. She was trying to place it and failing.

  "But I couldn't ascend. Scorned Divinity was in place, and my connection to my husband and my patron was severed. My soul was torn into ribbons. I should have died then and there, but Dawn stitched most of me back together."

  Alliyah took a deep breath and tried to wipe away the still-flowing tears. "She told me that I couldn't stay on Alirast. That I had to ascend, that the rules of the universe weren't broken so easily. I told her that she'd have to rip my soul back apart if she thought I was going to abandon my children and my people. That even if it meant oblivion once the connection was restored, I wasn't going anywhere."

  Trillia glanced at the others, most of whom also had tears welling in their eyes. Most notably, the Generals.

  "And so, here I sit. I don't belong. Dawn has come to me more than a few times, pleading with me to let go and go with her. Anytime I use too much of my power or come too close to something too powerful, I can feel her fraying away at my soul. Taking tiny little bites of it and putting it in Kain's care."

  The Queen looked over at Cordaos and took another deep breath. "When the breach happened under God's Watch...Cordaos was at the epicenter of it."

  A bitter little smile found its way onto her face. "You all know Cordaos well." Those words were aimed specifically at the other generals. "There is no force on this fucking realm that could take him away from the people he loves...but the [Primordials] enraged by the cataclysm tried. He fought...and fought...and fought." Each time she said the word, more emotion fell into her voice.

  "He also ascended...at least, the Universe tried to ascend him. Tried to give him to Kain so that he could take his rightful place at his patron's side. After centuries of service...but the ascension and the backlash came at the worst possible time. His city was still swarming with creatures that most of them could never hope to beat."

  Amelia sniffled and had tears streaming down her cheeks. Stas couldn't bear to look in their direction anymore, especially not after his earlier outburst.

  "Maeve took his place holding the breach. She ordered the others to take his body and flee to the Grand Chieftain."

  Cordaos poked at his stew with a spoon in silence. There was a torment in his eyes that couldn't be put into simple words.

  "Dawn had to stitch him back together as well. The Universe was already reeling from the carnage that Kain had delivered to it when we were attacked. Dawn didn't want to find out what would happen if the punishment for his crimes cost any of us our souls...none of the other gods seemed to raise any objections either. But Cordaos had ascended, and just like me, he was too stupid and too stubborn to go with Dawn. She can't just yank us out of the realm without breaking the rules herself. So she frays at the edges of our souls and psyche. Trying to push us over the edge. If we do, she can intervene."

  Alliyah finally motioned to Amara. "You wanted to speak?"

  Amara nodded. "First. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that while we are sorry you faced this, we are furious you didn't tell us. We could have helped. Secondly...I think I may know something concerning the cataclysm."

  That seemed to surprise Alliyah, who perked up.

  "A dragon's doing, failed words of creation. Divinity lost, the universe quakes and mourns. Deities shed their own and fall to their knees, desperate for their own masters to save them."

  A loud snap startled the group. The Generals all had weapons in their hands in an instant. As Trilla looked up at the source of the sound, her blood ran cold. A familiar face stared down at them as a dozen hands with long talons were being dragged across the barrier. Four white faces with beautiful golden eyes stared down at them.

  "Now, now, little human. You were warned...were you not? You were told to not nudge the rules." Trillia felt liquid running down her legs as she stared up at the Immortal Caelum.