The Morning After

The sun broke over the shattered land, Aver's warm rays softly caressing the scars of His now maimed Sister. It had taken much effort to save the mortals who once walked these lands, not to mention the animals and monstrous creatures that had called this world home, but they had succeeded.

"At what cost," He said aloud to himself.

The pantheon was broken, so many Immortals lost in the cataclysm caused by one of the two Fathers of the world. And where was the Creator? How could He allow the Destroyer to finally win out in this ages long battle for these mortals lives? Why had an unnamed, unknown Goddess been the only one to step forward to save what She was able.

"What shall we do now, Valeth?" Aver asked of the Ever-present, the God of Death.

"They are not in my realm," the Ever-present said, for indeed the souls of those mortals who had disappeared moments before the destruction had not passed into the plane of death.

"They are safe," said Nalena, Goddess of Dreams. She materialized from the air around the two Immortals. "She managed to place them all in Sanctuary, a place that was created when Heuron froze time for her."

"What will happen to them?" asked Aver.

"They will awaken in time," Nalena answered. "However, I cannot touch Sanctuary. No one can."

"How many of Us remain?" Aver asked quietly, His gaze falling over the broken world before Him, searching for His Sister's essence.

"We are few, now," said Edora as her essence came forth from the world around them. "But We will survive. We must prepare the world for their awakening."

"Indeed," said the Ever-present. "Seek out those among the planes that weren't severed, we will need their assistance."

"And we must discover Who still lives among Us," said Aver.

The morning after was to become the beginning of the new world, the Shattered World.