(ENG) Lapis the Child of Sea

Chapter Nine: Secret Dealings of the Gods

Lapis was very quiet as she put the bunch of flowers on ground. The graves of Belen and the others were still very new. In a far corner they were burying someone else. "Can I see Fedor?" said Lapis. She looked over her shoulder at Poseidon. Poseidon wanted to finish this quickly and get back. The people around them were began to look at them and talk among themselves. 

"And... Can you talk to Belen? She would be happy to know you're here." 

Poseidon smiled and accepted Lapis' request. "Of course I'll talk to her." He was pretty sure Belen wouldn't hear him, but Poseidon didn't want to upset Lapis. "But be careful when you go to the Baker. And don't leave his side when you get there. I'll be back." Lapis nodded. Poseidon pointed to a few people returning to the town and told her to follow them. It wouldn't be hard to find the Baker in a village where there wasn't much left anyway. 

Lapis said goodbye to Belen and walked away, following the people a few steps behind. As she walked with the others, she listened to them and looked around. Just as David had told her, people were burying their dead and at the same time they were trying to put their lives back together. They were repairing their damaged houses and taking things away if they were still intact. The things to be repaired were allocated elsewhere. Some of the unrecoverable materials were used as firewood and they were trying to cook. With the benefit of being a port town, a few ships coming and going were leaving the necessary needs for them.

 Of course, no one knew that the ships were coming from Atlantis' ports. David repeatedly reminded the captains to be careful about that. Everything should seemed like a coincidence or a miracle. The ships were stopping at every damaged port, finding out what they needed and returning.

When she found Fedor, the Baker was helping to repair the damaged house. He was helping to move and place the stones. 

The gods thought humans were arrogant and selfish, but not all of them were. They knew how to stick together in difficult times. It was very hard to see that in the gods. They thought differently from each other at the slightest thing and could not put their egos aside. It was very strange for Lapis to witness this. What she witnessed was like a unique miracle of humans. Just like gods, humans were full of miracles.

Lapis quietly approached him. Fedor was surprised to see her again. He didn't think he would ever see her again after the day they came down from the temple. He knew they had gone their separate ways. Lapis was going the other way with David when Fedor saw them. He thought it was the last time he would see Lapis, but she had come back to see him and find out what he was doing.

 He took a short break from his work and sat with Lapis. They sat on the piles of stones and he told Lapis what they were doing. He also told her about the ships coming and going to and from the ports. Ports weren't very good and had not yet been repaired. "You see, we're going to recover quickly. Things are getting better by the day. If I can fix the bakery, I can make bread for you soon. Would you like that?" He looked at Lapis with a smile. Lapis was listening to him, but her eyes were still sad. Fedor sighed. "I'll miss Belen too," Fedor said. Every day she would come to his bakery to buy bread and on the way she would pray to the gods that the bakery would be blessed.

Knowing that he would never hear her and her prayers again created a deep emptiness inside Fedor. The feeling of not having other people in thei life, like Belen was a strange one. He buried it inside himself as they tried to put their lives back together. But whenever he stopped working, whenever he laid his head down to sleep at night, this emptiness was haunting him.

"But I'm sure she's in a good place now. They say Hades takes good care of good people. What do you think about that?" Despite all these uncomfortable feelings, he smiled, not wanting to upset Lapis any more.