The Ascension

Aftermath

 It didn't take very long for the world to learn what had happened to the north, a fact greatly helped by the new 'lack of the north'. There were a great deal fewer people left to learn about it.

Rumors were spread as equally as knowledge, but the core concepts- everyone was dead, the great gods had walked on land- got through. Unfortunately, many of the people who had witnessed the initial event had later died in the subsequent flooding, so the true accounts were hard to find.

Most people knew that the sea god had bested the earth, though a popular telling claimed they had killed each other, as to explain where the sea god had gone off to. The majority of the southern nations- Se-oh, the kingdom of Iixo, and the republic of Leian- were land worshippers. They weren't pleased to hear about their patron god's defeat, so the myth spiraled into claims that the land god had won, and any alternative claims were false.

In two months, it became apparent something had gone terribly- really quite awfully- wrong with the world. It wasn't a conclusion anyone living would have come to, really, because it all happened so gradually that it nearly snuck up on the general populace. But from the perspective of an outsider- say, Artemis and Eii, sipping hot drinks on the deck of some long grey spaceship somewhere else- it was really, really clear Daliis was doing poorly.

The first sign, besides the instigating event of 'everyone in the north dying', was the weather. It was bad. It was winter in the south, supposedly on the cusp, and the the weather was simply bad. It wasn't too harsh, or frightening brisk, or painfully humid. It was simply poor, and in any of the grand cities of Aeis people would chat meagerly about how awful the weather had been. Too hot for winter, but not really, and painfully windy.

Next was a simple eerie feeling in the air. The country of Se-oh, two peaceful islands that prided themselves on agrarian life with little amenities, found their dogs nervous and their forests suspicious. Perhaps quiet, or restless, but anytime someone went into the woods to listen, a bird always seemed to be chirping, as if to maintain the facade that nothing was wrong- because no matter what was heard, the hunters were having poor luck trapping anything.

Nearly next, perhaps unfair to even include, came the strange feeling of serenity among the ever-troubled nations of Sved. The war-torn land bridge suffered little from odd weather and missing animals, but most from the destruction of the north. The larger collectives had had their trade ties to Stemale and Renen, and now were forced to look for other solutions to maintain stability. The poorer parts of the country could offer little, but they would have to suffice until the ashes cooled in the north and the country could push its borders further.

There was peace in Sved. It was uncanny. Next.

The air, all over, was heavy but not humid. The wind was strong and always hot. The animals took to making noise and the humans started to give odd shadows second glances.

Then the weather got silly, or at least nearly, as it would have been humorous if it didn't ruin so many lives. A blizzard came to every country that still had inhabitants. It was never determined if it bothered to visit the ones where most of the people were dead.

It lasted a few days, the snow, seeing as this winter had been fairly warm, and it wrecked the season's crops. But people would survive- after all, they had been expecting winter. It wasn't a total upset.

Then, a week later, a blizzard came again and failed to stop. There was snow, and ice, and it generally did not let up. Countries unused to heavy snowfall had houses collapse. People were dying from the cold at first, then dehydration, and soon starvation.

Some were fairing well, of course, but it has to be noted that the minority was not of much interest in this scenario.

Certain poor farmhands were fairing especially badly.

"Dehydration is welcome after non-hydration." Aster said proudly.

"Are you honestly saying that with a straight face?" Senya said.

"She doesn't want to admit she might have made a mistake." Wren said.

The three of them were living in a hayloft with about twenty cows, five goats, and three horses. They did what work could be done for a food, and since the blizzard had set in, had been holed up with very little. In fact, they had run out of food the day before, and had no sources of water- all they could do was collect snow in a barrel and heat it up by holding it in their laps. Despite being semi-clean water, it did not seem to hydrate well, and was always painfully cold. Everything was painfully cold, and miserable as well.

Especially Aster, who had no warm clothes, a heavy sense of pride, and a distaste for watching animals starve to death.

Still, she didn't make any efforts to wish for anything else, and considering she lived in the same cramped space as them, neither did the boys. They were not content, or particularly happy.

And that feeling persisted, even when Artemis stopped by with a couple cups of water and a lovely new winter coat for Aster to wear.