Out of all the wondrous places she had seen until now, this was the most peculiar. Curious, breathless, awed and delighted she stepped into the shallow waters and watched the sky ripple and contort around the feet. The horizon was no more, swallowed by this hazy world where up was down and left no different from right. Fascinated the child set off in graceful leaps and bounds, the vigorous display of life and youth rupturing the seams of the world. Gathered into glittering, shimmering droplets of light it rose and fell and shattered against the shifting sands below to reform the perfect balance once more.

After a minute she was dizzy, and in a heartbeat she was thoroughly lost. Yet she could not find it in her to be concerned or frightened, because the beauty of the vast panes were graceful and eternal, and she was no longer in pain. Dark winds had dried out the infection in her left eye so that it no longer oozed and throbbed. What few issues that had remained after her encounter with Bear and Wolf were gone as well, and fatigue had been left behind along with the boring, constantly grazing mother. The only thing left to disturb her now was the ink-like substance that leaked from orifices, dribbling and smudging the white of her frame until her appearance became like that of an angel fallen, her pure light dimmed by infinite darkness...

It sullied the perfection of child and world as it dripped into the clear waters and expanded. The magic of the shimmering illusion became disrupted, fading at the presence of midnight tears which marked the path of the winter child. Yet... surely this marvelous place was less fragile than it seemed. A polished steel plate rather than fragile glass, supple water over shattering crystal. How could ever such a small, frail existence as this passing dove forever destroy the face of such wordless beauty. Come a quiet springtime rain and the trace of small feet upon the sand would disappear, gone in a fairy sight.

Yet, even this peaceful, tranquil world was to be torn asunder by pain, sorrow and all the evils of war. She knew it as soon as the mirage of horses appeared before her, and the child felt unease clasp tightly around the porcelain heart, threatening to break it. Would no place be spared the madness, the chaos? A full season had almost passed and yet she had already seen more war and brutality than many adults. There was a pain and a knowing in her eyes that did not belong to one so young, and as the moon-blessed girl stopped to watch the gathering from afar it was with resentment and judgment.

How was that regal, blazing furnace of a stallion any different from his siblings? The flavor of his presence was that of divinity, and the air around him filled with the same fluttering, dancing, swarming black butterflies she had begun to see once the mucus rose in her eyes. A side effect from being exposed to such extreme levels of magic perhaps, or maybe no more than the awakening of an innate ability... Then again, Erthë might just be going crazy. They did not appear everywhere after all, only here and there and around random horses. A few kept fluttering around her own feet, and around Father and Vlasi, and in this empty land of revolving sky they drifted back and forth on the lazy breeze as if they belonged there.

Oh, they seemed to very much like the strangers that followed the God through the flaming portal as well. The air was thick with black, swirling flapping fluttering black, in such quantities that she found the beauty of them faded, a touch of nightmares and wolf breath setting her on edge while chills crawled up and down the spine.

Carnage would stain these fair lands... could she find it in her to participate again? The black fang resting against the thin chest seemed to growl to her, reminding of the prize for peace and health.

Would she have to pay again today?