The Root of All Things.

I paced quietly along the gilded plane. "It is true." Spoke this radiant figure who had come, offering such wisdom. "As hard as it is to hear, it must be so."

"But... " He ran a hand through his erhereal hair, breathing. "What of this knight? Has she not succeeded?"

"She has. She has shown all she must."

"You... still are not satisfied."

"You have seen what she wrought. No amount of goodness can forgive her of those crimes."

"Then what was the point of it all!?" I shouted. "All this... this pain! All you have shown me. Of the knight, of mother."

"Her lesson. When it is all over, she shall be reborn anew. Replaced in the cycle of life and death.'

I quietly rubbed my face, knowing in my heart how true her words rang. "Mother..." I whispered somberly. "Surely, there must be another way!"

"Yes. We can grant her mercy, and watch her fall down the exact same patterns again. Only death, true reset, can undo the burdenous evil in her soul now." She sighed, a quiet and sad sigh as if she too was hurt by such a decision.

"Lady Skithistalia..." I murmured sadly. "I..." I closed my eyes, thinking on all the ways we could chanlge things.

I saw Leyndell in its glory again. Shimmering alabaster towers and grand libraries bursting with knowledge. I saw vast paved roads where children laughed and danced in the sunshine as their toys clacked like make believe knights. He saw homes built by the hundreds, thousands, stretching across farms and countrysides as far as the Liurnian lakeside, where vast gardens met alchemical study. A world where lines on a map no longer divided. "Why..."

"Because that is not the future she would forge." A hand gently rose the chin of the godling. "But it is a future, waiting to be forged."

"By who...?"

"You, My child."

...

"So." Marika took a bite from a piece of beef as they relaxed in the wagon car. "Why don't you finally start telling me more of your kinsmen?" She smiled to her knight. Radahn walked along the road, treating the weight as effortless as can be as he wrote very carefully in a small journal.

"My family?" She looked up with a bit of a blush, settled against Marika's chest as they had prepared for a long ride.

"Yes." She stroked a few fingers through the knight's hair. "Perhaps your parents?"

Luna sighed as she settled in. "Well. That's a list to go down."

"I had assumed..."

"But. If you mean who raised me, that's three folks. My birth folks and my sort of adopted mom."

The queen chuckled. "Well, that does seem best."

"My birth mother's name is Skith, but we all just call her Mom. She's.. complicated. She means well, and she tries to be a great mom, but she can be a bit controlling." She smiled awkwardly.

"Hm. I see."

"A-anyway! Then there's my other parent, Chrona. Very stoic, very quiet. Mother may seem rude and distant most days, but she used to be Death. She has a lot on her plate."

"Hard to believe there is a... cosmic, Death, aside from my own former shadow." She smiled, remembering Maliketh fondly.

"Then there's Abyssa. She raised me in a placed called Lilium, in a chateau with thirteen amazing sisters." She took a small bite of her own snack. "She is a good mom, through and through."

The gilded queen started to look away, but a warm hand touched her cheek. A gentle thumb stroked her face, turning her as the knight lightly sat up to gaze down into her eyes. "You will be, too." She whispered, planting a soft kiss on her lips to reassure her as she held the queen's head close to her chest.

"Please... Go on." She whispered, hugging to her beloved's chest.

"She is a lady of royal bearings, but she does not carry it's royal baggage. The last in a bloodline nearly destroyed, she has spent her rule rebuilding both Lilium and her people. My sisters are the first generation of their people."

"With a single man?"

"Gods, no." The knight chuckled warmly, stroking Marika's silky hair. "Her people are one who love openly and deeply. She has had many husbands across the millenia, many she sadly outlived." The queen gave a gentle nod of understanding.

"She was an incredible leader. With a word, she could turn the entire path of history. I have seen her build entire cities that stand eons later, exploded our land's furtherance in science and magic purely for the good of healing, and actively used herself as a political pawn to dance amidst thrones of wagging tongues to create a better future. She is attentive, kind, war, supportive, insightful." Luna gave a long sigh. "She taught me what it means to have a home." Marika smiled tenderly at that. "One I shall someday bring you to."

"How excited I am to see this Serenity, and the numerous loves within. How many ladies, hm?" The knight cleared her throat, blushing. "Surely not that many???" Marika's eye brows perked.

"Well, ya see..."

"Just how old are you, anyway?"

"Uh. Chronologically, literally, or...?" Marika raised just one brow, looking her over for a moment.

"Chronologically."

"307."

"Huh. But, wait..."

"The actual number when you count that I love to jump around dimensions, timelines, even multiverses... Gets closer to like, a googol."

"A... what?" The knight explains.

"WHAT?!"

She chuckles warmly. "Yes. That old, by my guess."

"Truly... an insurmountable gap..."

"Not so." She adjusted, placing a hand to her queen's cheek. "Would you.. like to see what I see?"

Marika observed her lover. "My eyes are special. My family sees existence a little differently."

"Oh, do you now?"

"Mhm."

"What, is everything spotted? Black and white?" She sassed lightly, smiling to her love.

"So much better." She smiled warmly.

...

Marika

"Well, let's s... see..." Her voice trailed away as she felt the shift in her mind before her eyes. There was this subtle hum, like two minds briefly syncing, as the entire world changed. Everything shifted in the span of a single heartbeat.

Everything became bathed in a purely unknowable shade of blue. This great force traveling through every single thing down to it's smallest possible part, flowing and moving like a great tide. Every person became a glow of endless lights, their bodies lit by some power she could not fully understand. Colors differing in every body, yet a single constant remained. Within all laid a glowing core, dancing green, yellow and pale teal around a shining white center.

"I..." She was in awe. Even at the pique of godhood had she not truly witnessed existence like this. It was so vast and deep, down to an infinite level that briefly sent her reeling at the sheer scale. Her senses became intense, and she turned to her lover. Her eyes widened much further.

Sat therw was not the knight, draped in the trappings of her latest armor scavenge. She was fire, flame of the blackest kind that danced in a form almost like that of a woman. It crested into almost antler like horns above her head, and her hair was the ignited atmosphere that billowed off of her with such a natural curl as to resemble a twisting braid of molten slag that exuded fire. Her back had erupted in a way, as vast plumes of smoke only Marika could see that seemed almost like grand and powerful wings. Deep in her center, she did not see a single one of these lights. She saw... trillions. Perhaps far more, but her mind struggled to comprehend what she was wotnessing. Deep in the very center lay a black Thing. Inky, twisted and swirling like madness personified in a dripping sphere. Her eyes drifted slowly to the glacial blues, now six on a featureless face that hummed with power.

"I know." She did not speak, but her words and intent were felt within Marika's heart. "I am a Monster... bu-"

She silenced her knight with a warm kiss as flame soon became flesh again. Her mind regaining sense of this world as she cupped her lover's cheek. "No. You are not some hideous thing." She stroked her cheek, casting aside a tear as her mind sought for the right words. She witnessed the depth of her, but she had witnessed her actions in full. She had come here with no doubt the intent to drag the gilded queen like a dog through it's own filth, and had instead given this unworthy woman the strength to see the shine in herself once more. "You may be these... scars upon you. Built out of their... cruelty..." Her hand tenderly pulled close her knight. "But they are no master of yours." She whispered, sealing any rebuke with a soft, loving kiss.

Her knight's face was awash in brief, hot tears as their bodies fell together to the rocking of the tumbling wheels. Between them, the seeds of their love blossomed.