Light was seated at the far end—nearly a world away from where they stood—on a throne awash with the sunbeams streaming through an open window behind him. The ceiling of the great hall of the gods was so tall that the columns supporting it disappeared into the clouds, emerging again among the stars higher up, and stretching beyond into the night’s blackness.
On the opposite side of the room, a balcony stretching outward into thin air. Here was the ether of their divinity, where the gods could descend to the world of mortals. Without a thought, Creation headed directly for it.
At some point, he must have said his goodbyes to Life and Carver, for they were gone, and he was alone when a voice stopped him.
“You must be the new one.” A woman with wild black curls leaned against one of the pillars near the balcony. Her hair was barely contained by a thin gold band across her brow. Her tunic was a slip of a thing, ending mid-thigh and bunching around the thick band of a quiver she wore at her back. A wolf slept curled at her feet.
“You must be Hunt.”
The woman nodded. “Good luck with actually completing that task of yours; she’s willful. Even more so than her counterpart, in some ways.”
Creation merely nodded. This was what he was made to do: seek Destruction, be with her. The notion that such a thing couldnotcome to pass was a foreign concept.
“Don’t take it too hard if you fail, however,” Hunt continued. The wolf stood, shaking out its haze of sleep. Hunt soon followed, pushing off the column. “If that happens, know I’m working on my own plan just in case.”
“I won’t fail,” Creation said after the goddess.
She paused, turned, and gave a sly little grin. “Men. Always so sure of themselves. Let me give you some free advice: meet the woman and get to know her before you lay claim to her. Last I heard, she was spotted in a scuffle in the northeast most forests of Aristonia.”
Creation watched Hunt depart, not bothering to stop her. Why would he not be sure of himself? He was made for this. Surely, Destruction would be of the same mind. They were destined for each other.
Fighting would be futile.
He went unhindered to the balcony. Standing at the edge, Creation peered down over the earth with a vision that those below could not even begin to comprehend. All mortals went about their lives beneath him. At one curve of land, he spotted a dense stretch of viridian. Darkness pooled between the trees, obscuring his sight, harboring a secret within.
Creation stepped into thin air.
He fell to the earth in mere seconds, the pillar of the gods which supported their world at his back. His knees were bent, easing his fall, and grasses tickled up underneath his tunic. All at once, the edge of the dark forest he’d been looking down on stretched out in welcome.
Without hesitation, he passed its threshold and began walking.
