Blossom Fable

Chapter 21

"I feel like I made a grave mistake."

I whisper the words before falling asleep, hoping that Juno would hear them. At the same time, I dread the moment if he were to find out. I imagine that I would break every single thing that I have built with my party, all of the walls and the fine architecture that we've made with our very hands, carved with all of our hours and hard work.

All crushed—thanks to meeting one tempting brother god at the sauna.

"I feel like—" My words flow out of me, drifting into my subconscious. It mixes with my dreamscape, and soon I open my eyes to a dark river that bleeds through a field. Above me, the moon hangs like a teardrop, bent out of shape thanks to the complex of my dreams. I walk for several minutes, shivering at first but then growing used to the cold and the light layer of snow at my feet. I was naked at first, but I forced my imagination to conjure up a thick layer of clothing, including my trusty coat.

"You feel like it was a mistake?"

I turn around. Sitting on a rock by the river, holding a stone in the middle of trying to skip it, lies the brother god. Unaffected by the cold, he's dressed in a light layer. His trousers hug his waist, and his shirt flows out from him like liquid silk.

"Why are you here?" I ask, panic rising in my voice.

I knew it was a possibility, of course. The brother god shares qualities with his sister—and the goddess was known for jumping from one place in Blossom World to the next. Unaffected by the constructs of space.

"I'm always watching you," the brother god says. He stands up, turning around the pebble in his hands. He creeps closer, watching me like a snake.

"Why would you need to?" I ask stupidly.

"I like to keep track of those that give me their soul," the brother god says, inching even closer. His water-like eyes shift in the moonlight, dancing as if having souls of their own. "In fact, it's one of my favorite pastimes."

"You already have what you want," I say, not even fully understanding what exactly he took from me—or at least, how much. "You can leave me in peace."

"Peace?" The brother god scoffs. He digs his sandals into the grass by my feet, and I feel the vibrations travel up all my limbs. "No, that's not how this works. How I work."

I swallow, trying not to show my fear—I have the visual of the brother god smashing me entirely into pieces, and I will forever lose the ability to be the mage that I want to be. "I'm here with you now, then," I say. "Why did you come into my dream?"

"This is reality as much as it is a dream," the brother god says. He angles his chin toward me. "I'm not here for more of your soul. But I only sought you out because I noticed something interesting with you and your party member. I would like to offer you some sage advice."

"Advice?" I picture my party members, them coming under harm thanks to the brother god. I try not to show my fear.

I know it leaks out of me anyway. The god sniffs, his mouth curling upward. "Don't worry, they don't know about me, and I have no plans of appearing to them. But you're different, Hope. You're a part of me now. That means that your business is my business."

The river beside me increases in speed, as if after a heavy rainfall. The coldness of the air bites me, even through my thick clothing. Even though it is still, I can feel the energy of the god traversing like wind, uncurling beside me like tendrils.

"I still don't understand why you would stick around," I say. "It was a transaction."

"I don't make transactions," the god says. "I make oaths."