The once-sacred temple was in ruin.
Pillars lay cracked and splintered. The marble floor was scorched in places, scorched and torn from divine fury.
The moonlight filtered in through shattered arches, painting pale beams across the floor like silent witnesses.
Rhea lay on her back, breath shallow, golden eyes half-lidded.
Her pink hair was tangled and splayed around her, streaked with dust and divine blood. Her lips trembled, not from pain, but from rage unspent.
She turned her head slowly toward the figure standing in the doorway.
Kronos.
Scratches lined his arms and a bruise bloomed on his left cheek — the shape of a knuckle embedded deep.
His robes were torn at the shoulder, and his scythe hung loosely at his side, glowing faintly.
He stared at her for a long moment before speaking, voice calm as ever.
"You should not have resisted."
Rhea coughed, laughter rasping in her throat.
"Resisted? You tried to eat your own child!"
Kronos didn't answer at first.
He turned away, his steel grey eyes distant, as though looking at something only he could see.
"It had to be done. You heard the prophecy."
He began walking, stepping over broken marble and wilting vines.
His footfalls echoed hollow through the ruined temple.
When he reached the entrance, he stopped and raised one hand to the shadows.
"Find him,"
he said, his voice traveling the whole of Mount Ohrys.
"Scour the mortal lands. The seas. The skies. Tear apart Gaia's roots if you have to. I want that child found."
The air shimmered. Something old and invisible bowed in silence, then vanished into nothing.
Behind him, Rhea groaned softly.
She stared at the cracked ceiling above, tears blurring her vision.
"Wherever you are, little one…" she thought. "Please be safe."
***
The forest was… too beautiful.
Sunlight streamed through the canopy above, filtered through layers of jade and emerald leaves.
Vines hung like silk ribbons between ancient trees, each trunk wide as a mountain gate and covered in glowing moss.
Flowers bloomed without pattern, some shaped like stars, others pulsing gently with bioluminescent light.
The air shimmered, alive with gentle hums and distant whispers — not voices, but the sound of life thinking.
Aetherion sat at the base of a tree, very small in a very large world.
He blinked.
The forest blinked back.
'…Did my father just try to eat me?'
He sat in silence for a moment, trying to rub the back of his tiny head.
His hair — now a bit messier from his sudden trip through the earth — shimmered faintly with gold and green.
'…Yeah. He did. He definitely did.'
He exhaled, a sharp little puff of disbelief.
His silver eyes darted up to the sky peeking through the trees.
'I mean… was I that ugly?'
He thought, trying to humour himself from what had just happened.
He was annoyed, confused, a little overwhelmed — but not scared.
Not anymore.
Truthfully, he hadn't even been paying attention to most of what was said during the chaos.
Rhea's voice, Kronos' commands… it had all been a blur. A wave of energy, sound, and pain. And then — light.
Then roots.
Then this.
Now that things were calm, he was starting to feel it again — the hum beneath his skin.
The divine pressure, the strange instinct that told him he wasn't normal.
Still, this forest felt… good.
Alive.
It didn't just welcome him.
It held him.
He pressed a tiny hand into the grass.
The blades leaned into his touch.
A flower bloomed where his finger grazed the earth.
Aetherion blinked.
'Well that's new.'
Then—he wasn't alone.
From between two trees stepped a figure — tall, elegant, and wrapped in living fabric made of woven leaves and trailing vines.
Her hair flowed like silk, a deep, forest green that glimmered with golden strands where the light hit it.
Her skin was smooth as riverstone, and her amber eyes glowed with something ancient.
Beauty wasn't a strong enough word.
She wasn't just beautiful — she belonged to the world in a way that no one else did.
Aetherion stared, wide-eyed.
The woman smiled softly, kneeling to his level.
She didn't speak for a long moment, only looked at him — not with judgment, not with fear, but with recognition.
"Hello, little one,"
she finally said.
"I have been watching."
Aetherion blinked.
Then his eyebrows twitching.
'…Watching?!'
He threw up his tiny arms in exasperation.
'I've just been born, woman!'