Fractures of Eternity

Rolling his eyes, Loki held onto me tighter, prompting my gaze to land on him again.

“Well, how about you apologize?” The playful vampire snickered, prompting the blond to wince.

“Hey! I already apologized for that!” Lucas squealed.

A small bicker broke out between the two while I pondered on what had happened. In truth, I was luckier than I initially thought when I arrived.

I thought I would be alone this entire time, but now I have a possessive lover and a friend.

Oswald was a temporary ally, and the girls I had come with were more than I had ever expected them to be. Even if Loki and I hadn’t confessed our feelings for one another, every night, we showed it. The passion didn’t change, no matter how many times I kissed him or how many times he held me. No, in fact, with every day, all I felt was that it was getting stronger.

So many experiences are opening up for me, and I’m not sure how to handle them.

Though I couldn’t say that was the same for everyone. Emma and Oz weren’t on the best of terms after that confrontation, as she was usually missing from our excursions to the town, while Zoe would tag along for Leo’s sake. Between the young pup and the witch, a lovely friendship blossomed, and she didn’t seem to be able to say no if Leo was involved. I didn’t know what happened between the two troubled souls after their talk, but it appeared Oswald asked for space, marking the end of that fling.

Unlike Loki, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to pursue a relationship, especially with someone from the organization that killed his parents. He was right to be hesitant, since, unlike me, Emma was fiercely loyal to the coven. Her relationship would always be placed second to the needs of our organization, which meant that getting involved further would probably have hurt both of them in the end.

I know… I should place that line too, but… I can’t push Loki away.

The only times I was able to speak to Emma were when she was leaving to work with Gerta in the morning. She said she didn’t blame me for outing her as the enemy or for putting a strain on a relationship that wouldn’t work out either way. Even though she said everything was fine, I couldn’t help but apologize, which she didn’t accept. Instead, Emma hugged me, smiling brightly before telling me it was unnecessary.

We had come here for a job, and she was determined to see it through, no matter what happened. Her absence from Oswald allowed us to gather different information, as she helped the old maid tend to the king and queen; yet, we had to find anything fruitful. However, thanks to her, we learned the ruling couple weren’t on good terms.

Even though Emma had appeared to have moved on, Oswald seemed to be conflicted about how everything had ended, while Zephier would sometimes stare longingly at the warlock who was out of it at times. I couldn’t help but admire the witch’s finesse and devotion towards our coven, which made me understand why Dad had chosen her.

Hey… Will I have this same strength when I have to leave Loki? Will I have the power to move on like a normal mortal, or is it true that gods could only love once?

Whether my divinity would chain me to this boy or not wasn’t something I could answer until the time came.

Before Fenrir reincarnated into this world, Valdios had once found love with someone else, only to discover it was a facade. Hah… Is what I’m feeling for this vampire real or fake, too? I desire you so much… but perhaps what defines true love from others is how far we are willing to go for one another.

Alijah hated the world after everything that happened to him, but he stopped his vendetta to live an everyday life with Rem. He sacrificed his feelings and trauma to live with the soul of his love in his past life. She would give up her passion to let him be happy with the mortal love he once had long ago. Their story would echo through the ages.

Once gods, now mortals, yet they will always be together. They will always love each other until the end of time, while I won’t be as lucky. Even after this life ends, it doesn’t change that Loki is a mortal boy… which means, I’ll always love him, but he…

There was a story that my father used to tell me every night, about a god who once loved a mortal woman, long ago. It happened at a time before my soul was born, and a story that my mother carried throughout the ages she lived in our world.

One would think it would’ve had a happy ending, since we gods can accomplish the impossible. The laws of the mortal realm don’t define us, but we had other rules to live up to, and sometimes, those were more of a curse when it came to loving a mortal soul.

Although our power was unlimited compared to that of the mortal realm, we lived by different standards. We gods, while in the celestial plane, never aged and could only be killed by another divine.

Some of us could even absorb the dead god’s power for ourselves. Well, somewhat.

It was why the ones in the soul cairn were only a fraction of what they used to be. Luckily, the living gods could only absorb some of their powers before it became too much for their bodies to handle. The reason prison for the dead gods was made was because we could revive if they didn’t separate our souls from our bodies in time.

We were truly immortal beings—a downfall when it came for loving mortals. No matter what we did, they would always die.

Even the eternal witches, who were our shrine priestesses, couldn’t ward off sickness forever. The only reason Edna lived so long was because of our bond, which allowed her to be more resilient than the other witches before her. A god, who had mistakenly fallen for a mortal girl, had forgotten how time worked differently then when he was called back for a task to the celestial plane—a simple mistake an immortal being can make.

Sadly, this meant that when he finished the job he was assigned, it was too late to make any changes. When he returned to the mortal plane, he noticed the woman was gone. The place where they had shared their love was ashes, as if someone had burned it down to the ground. In a state of panic, the god tried to find the woman’s soul, and to accomplish this, he bargained with the god of death for her whereabouts—something the other god couldn’t do.

Even though he accompanied the souls through death, he had no way of telling the souls apart when they were being reborn, which was a big reason why it was taboo for gods to love a mortal. However, it didn’t deter the god from seeking the love he desired, which took him thousands of years. When he finally found her, she had moved on. One life, she had been abandoned by him, and the next, she had continued to build a family.

The mortal woman appeared happy and wishful in her current life, which angered the god, who had sworn his life to her—a solemn vow between us gods, yet at the face of rebirth, those vows didn’t matter when it came to a mortal soul. The woman had wistfully forgotten her previous life, and when the god brought back her memories against her will, she wasn’t pleased to see him. Once a new life had taken hold of the soul, it was impossible to overwrite.

All they would ever experience were moments of a life they would never comprehend, much like seeing a movie where one was the protagonist.

A simple actor… and it didn’t change the current life.

Even though she remembered him, she no longer loved him, as she was entirely devoted to her family, and he was now a stranger she had known long ago. This turn of events made the god rabid with anger.

“How dare she love someone other than me?!” He howled into the night sky before making a vow to change the death cycle, which had robbed him of his lover.

To him, it was unforgivable how she chose the other man even after remembering their oath to one another—a sacred thing to us divines. Turning is rage towards the god who presided over the cycle of life before overthrowing the peaceful god and taking over his realm, inserting discord within the once delicate sequence.

The god that held the balance before did not care who you were before, but what you would become next, as the next life would be a clean slate the moment they were reborn—something that the new god couldn’t, vanishing the peaceful god into the Soul Cairn as one of its first residents.

With this new power, he created his version of the cycle of death, without understanding the souls of mortals, which made them get stuck in our living realm. This part of the story was a warning for me to control my emotions, as I was no different from the god who destroyed the cycle of death and life, turning it into the current mess it was. To fix this, the new god created a daughter in the woman’s image he once loved, creating a new divine being, the flames of rebirth. With her birth, he set her to govern over the souls of the mortals, who had become lost and forgotten. Mortals would see this goddess as a mighty golden phoenix with white flames, who came and guided them into their next life.

This goddess could gaze into the mortals’ lives in ways never seen, allowing her to connect with them in a way the god of death wished for. Sadly, this wasn’t where the story ended, as this ravenous god’s sins continued to grow when he took the mortal girl’s soul for himself, yanking her off the cycle before placing her in a box he always kept with him. No one knew if he killed her to claim her or if he waited for his love to die, as the tale happened before I was mistakenly brought into this world, bringing even more discord into the gods, who ensued to gain the power I possessed.

As an eternal witch, my power had grown in unforeseeable ways, which meant if the gods found me now, there was no way to tell what would happen. I knew Father meant this story to be more about what happens when love goes wrong and its impact on me.

But can it be fake? Is this… real?