“Excuse me?” there was a low threatening growl, coming from his throat as he stared at the back of Ava’s head. The warm eyes he showed me were no longer there. His brows creased with anger, fists balled up claws digging into his palms. 

Oh that hit a nerve. 

There was a long silence between the two and when Notos went to open his mouth again, Thea butted in, “alright that’s enough, you’ll scare the child.” 

Do they not like each other? 

“He wants us to begin,” Notos blurted out and Ava nodded, shuffling away. “Who?” I whispered, watching as everyone seemed to be in a rush all of a sudden. Some of the animals carried buckets of water in their mouth while others had lotus flowers, all different colors and sizes. “What’s going on?” I went to ask Thea but she was gone. Where did she go? 

Notos kneeled down with his hands out, a sweet smile on his face, “may I?” 

Once I nodded he lifted me from the ground and carried me somewhere. “Why is everyone in such a hurry?” Notos answer was simple yet it didn’t give me anything to go off of. “Preparations?” the word fell from my mouth as my feet touched the cold ground. 

The animals around me were laying down, like they were waiting for something. Thea placed the last flower in the pile, slowly stepping backwards. “Lotus, close your eyes,” she said, kneeling with her head low, staring at the ground. 

Glancing around, the atmosphere shifted in the room. A strong presence came closer as the air seemed calmer. Notos was the only one that had his head up, his eyes sparkled as he stared at whoever it was that appeared. A bright smile on his face, reminding me of Amelia when she saw our father on the day of my birthday. 

“I see you’re not a good listener,” a dulcet voice said from behind me with a chuckle following his words. Tilting my head, I turned to look behind me, but he pressed his fingers to my cheeks forcing me to face forward. “Don’t,” he warned, his hands dropped to my shoulders, a soft sigh escaped his mouth before he began speaking again. “I’m so sorry you have to go through this at your age,” he apologized, squeezing my shoulders. 

“Who are you?” 

His cold fingers pushed my hair out of my face as he hummed, like he was thinking. “I’m Cyrus, the sixth divine one,” I couldn’t see his face, but from the sound of his voice he was smiling, it was one of pure kindness, but his eyes weren’t matching up. If anything it sounded like guilt or sadness. 

The only reason I was able to guess was because of my hearing, his voice wavered a little bit when he answered me. It sounded like pain, he must’ve lived a hard life. 

“My apologies in advance, but please bear with the pain,” he muttered, pressing his hands against the sides of my head. “What–” my sentence was completely shut off as a sound I didn’t know I could make punched its way out of my mouth, my hands instantly going up to grab his and pull them away. 

“Help me,” he demanded. A sharp pain traveled up my spine when hands grabbed my arms and forced them down. With a deep breath I tried to grab at whatever air I could, my eyes shutting on their own as the pain was becoming unbearable. Salty water leaked from my eyes as I cried out, this was the first time I had ever experienced real pain in this world. 

My fragile body struggled to place the torment it was going through. It was so overwhelming to the point where all I could do was cry in an awful attempt to nullify what was happening. 

This strong force blew through where my mana seed was planted and my head fell back as my eyes flew open. Tears rolled down the sides of my face as I stared up at Cyrus. Seeing his face for the first time. I was in too much pain to process what I was seeing, but he and I had a similar outer appearance, though my hair was curly and unkept compared to his long well groomed hair. His luminous eyes were the last thing I saw before a bright light blurred my vision forcing me to shut my eyes once again. 

The pain nullified itself and I genuinely thought it was over. That was until the tearing happened, much like pouring alcohol on a wound, it burned like no other. The only difference was it didn’t stop, it kept burning, each second becoming worse as time passed. 

Soon my body gave up, having enough it went numb. Traveling throughout my body, my legs gave out only for Cyrus to let go and I fell into Notos, trying to grab at whatever air I could. 

“Are you alright?” Cyrus asked as he placed his hand on my back. Do I look alright to you? “I’m sorry.” 

Thea kneeled down, tilting her head, “how do you feel?” Taking a deep breath, I glanced at her, just leaning against Notos. “Like I almost died.” Cyrus chuckled, “you’ll be alright, the pain will go away once you wake up.” 

Shutting my eyes, I clung to Notos, he was very warm. Plus, his steady heart beat was calming to my racing one and ragged breathing that didn’t seem to want to go away. Cyrus, rubbed my back as a way of comforting me, his voice was equally calming, “your awakening will be complete once the burning stops.” 

I couldn’t open my eyes or move to look at him when he removed his hand. I could tell he was walking away because his voice was so distant now. 

“Please be careful when you go back, we want you to live a long and happy life, ninth.” and just like that he was gone. An empty void replacing where he once was. I could feel it, the place was empty now that he was gone, the atmosphere shifting back only made it more evident that they all missed him. 

Thea placed her hand on my head as Notos placed his hand on my back replacing the warmth of Cyrus. Ava softly hummed, lulling me to sleep, while Thea spoke in a low soothing tone, “when you awake embrace your mana, become one with nature and everything will be fine. It was nice meeting you young Lotus, grandchild of Talitha.”