Suddenly, he heard someone yelling. “Father! It’s so good to see you!”

Galatea smiled. “Would you like to meet my son?” 

“Son…?” Jan repeated. “Well, I suppose…” 

Somehow, he felt a surge of jealousy at doing so. She picked him up and led him outside the Room of Reverence. Outside, a young man was hugging Shiske. The young man pulled away after a moment, revealing a brightly cheerful, beaming face. He was fit, with long hair tied up in a bun, wearing armor and carrying a helmet in the crook of his arm. His face was painted–a black stripe on his forehead and cheeks. 

“It is so good to see you, Andreimela.” Galatea said, bowing her head. “My heart is always heavy when you return to the war.”

Andreimela, grinned and threw his arms around his mother. “I missed you so much, mother! I must say, the battlefield is not a fun place, and I am always relieved when I return home. Something was deeply wrong when I left the field, though… the Goddess of Love normally blesses us, allowing us to match the strength of the elves, but this time, we did not feel her love. We lost many battles…”

Jan heard the sadness in his voice, and became concerned. “My mother normally helps you on the battlefield?”

“This is the little god you found who you wrote to me about?” Andreimela’s smile spread from cheek-to-cheek as he crouched down to look at Jan. “You are the son of the Goddess of Love?”

“I am… you say my ma normally helps you on the field?” Jan asked.

“Yes. She protects us--empowers us, but recently, she has stopped.” Andreimela replied. 

"She's stopped..?" Jan echoed. But then, he beamed. "That's amazing!"

Adreimela blinked rapidly. "How is that amazing?"

"Don't you see what this means?" Jan asked, looking from Adreimela, to Shiske, to Galatea. 

They waited for him to continue. "Something must have happened to her in Paradise! That means she still loves me, but that she’s in trouble!”

“She’s in trouble?” Shiske said. “You know Paradise better than we do. What happened to her?”

Jan frowned and murmured, “I don’t know… but I think she needs help. The last time I saw her, the other gods were hauling her away.” 

Everyone surrounding him exchanged glances. Shiske said aloud, “This is the most I have ever heard about Paradise… is there anything we humans can do to help your mother?”

Jan’s eyes felt heavy, and he sniffled. “I don’t think so… unless you know of a way for me to get back to Paradise?”

Galatea shook her head. “In order for you to get back, a whole god needs to take you back up.” 

Jan was silent for a time. “Then… I guess there’s nothing I can do.” 

The moment was wrapped in silence as all of them hung their heads in sadness.

“Wait.” Galatea said. “Your twin, Kaz… his father sent him down here, by his own admission. What if we could get him to bring him back up?”

Jan considered that. “He did… maybe if we hurt him enough, his dad would bring him back up to Paradise to keep him safe?”

Andreimela smiled a little, putting a hand on the hilt of his sword. “I can beat him up plenty.”

Shiske shook his head. “Something tells me he will come under the protection of the God of Thunder’s acolytes… if we try something like that, we have to act fast.”

“You have to try!” Jan begged. “Please, follow him, and tell him maybe we don’t even have to beat him up. Maybe you can just ask him to check in on ma?”

Shiske ran a hand through his hair, grumbling. “I don’t know…”

“Shiske. Our patron goddess is in trouble. We have to help her.” Galatea pleaded. 

Andreimela chimed in, “Father, I’m fast and silent. I can find his twin, and maybe force him to tell us what has become of the Goddess of Love.”

“He is very dangerous. I don’t want you to go, Andreimela, you will probably be killed. I will go. Stay here and help Galatea look after Jan while I’m gone.” Shiske grabbed his jacket, and was heading out the door, but Galatea grabbed his wrist. “Honey, you’re not recovered from your previous fight with Kaz, and you’re going out to fight him again?”

Shiske looked down at his bandaged arms and lowered his eyes. After a moment of silence, he placed a hand on his wife’s cheek and said, “You’ll be here for me when I come back, won’t you?”

“Of course. Always.” Galatea assured him.

“Then, you know I will come back alive, because I will always want to see your beautiful smile.” Shiske kissed her forehead and headed out the door. 

Galatea stood there motionlessly with Jan in her hands for a time. She cleared her throat, and Jan looked up to see her eyes were glassy. Jan, who had only ever read books about pain and tears, and had only recently experienced such things for himself, didn’t know what to say to her. 

“He’s doing a good thing. He must find out what happened to my ma.” Jan said weakly. 

Galatea smiled at him, and then turned to Andreimela. “Can you please look after Jan for a moment? I am going to pray for your father.”

Andreimela pulled his mother into an embrace, and patted her back. “Of course, mom. I got this. It’s not too late… I could follow dad.” 

“No. He will be fine. But prayers can’t hurt.” Galatea said. 

As she went to the Room of Reverence, Jan called after her, “There’s no point! My ma can’t hear you right now since she’s in trouble!”

Andreimela raised an eyebrow and stated without humor. “You have no bedside manner, do you, Little God?”

Jan pursed his lips. “Stoip calling me that! I am the Goddess of Love’s son, and I deserve the dignity of a full god!”

“But you are not a full god.” Andreimela said. He carried Jan out to the garden, where the sun was setting and sat on the ground, looking at the sunset fondly. Andreimela admitted, “Still, I must say, it is fantastic to know the son of the goddess. What is she like?”

Jan considered that. He saw his mother infrequently in the time he was in his paludarium, but… he did know how he felt about her. “She was incredibly kind. She would steer me away from dangerous things, make sure I was fed, give me new toys, read to me, and say I was the best person ever.”

“She sounds as wonderful as I thought she was… how wonderful, to meet her son on my Birthday.” Andreimela smiled with a sigh. 

“You said ma helps you on the battlefield. How does she do that?” Jan asked. 

“We pray to her, and she blesses our armor, invigorates us, and gives us inhuman strength to defeat the elves. Elves have powerful magic that would obliterate us without the help of the gods. It is in her name that we are able to defend ourselves.” Andreimela said.

Jan sighed heavily. The only thing he knew about elves was what he read from his books. He knew they were long lived, and had incredibly powerful spells and magic, and were shorter than the average human, but didn’t know much else. In fact, he knew very little about anything.

Jan brightened. He looked up at Andreimela, whose face was now swathed in purple from the setting sun. “What’s a Birthday?”

Andreimela blinked rapidly. “What do you mean, ‘what’s a Birthday’?”

Jan was embarrassed by his lack of knowledge and went silent. He thought a Birthday was something that was not common knowledge. 

Andreimela’s face softened and he cleared his throat. “A Birthday signifies a passage of time in a person’s life. A year, to be exact.”

“A year…” Jan repeated. He thought he had read about what a year was in a book once, but he couldn’t remember all the details. 

Andreimela couldn’t hide his shock at Jan’s lack of knowledge, and his eyes were wide as he explained, “There are 365 days in a year.”

“Oh… of course. I knew that.” Jan averted his gaze, thoroughly embarrassed. 

Andreimela went silent for a moment, a completely relaxed look on his face. “You know, Little God… when you’ve been at war for so long, you can appreciate small things like a sun setting so much more.”

Jan barely heard what he said, as he was on the verge of tears. How am I going to survive in a world where I am so undereducated? If I admit it, they may not think I’m worthy of worship anymore…

“Little God, I have heard demigods in Paradise are raised with their parents until they come of age and they become full gods. Is this true?” Andreimela asked.

“Well.. we don’t live with our parents, no…” Jan was uncomfortable speaking about his upbringing. 

Somehow, admitting that his mother left him unarmed with vital information about the world felt like betraying her, which he could never do. 

"Then, where are they raised?" Andreimela asked. 

"None of your business!" Jan replied. 

"Alright, alright! Cool off, little guy. I was raised here, as you know. Growing up, I had so much fun, watching worshipers come and grow. It's a complete dream to meet you!" Andreimela said cheerily. "What's your favorite food?"

"Chocolate."

"Your favorite season?" Andreimela continued.

"What's a seaso--" 

"Your favorite book?"

"Slow down, you human ingrate! You can keep asking questions, and I'll never answer them!" Jan yelled.

"Sorry! I just have so many questions!" Andreimela said excitedly. 

I have no idea how to answer them… I have no idea how to do anything… Jan thought to homself bitterly.

Unbidden, tears came to his eyes. He covered his face in his palms and wept heavily. His throat and eyes stung from the unexpressed emotions. He howled his pain, wondering why he could not stop the flood of tears. 

Andreimela 's eyes widened. "What's wrong, little god? Are you disgusted so much by living among humans? Fear not, my father will get you home."

But Jan continued weeping like a helpless child. "I miss ma! I want to go home!" He spluttered.

Andreimela listened to him weep, mouth twisted in concern. Eventually, he said, "You need to take action, Little God."

“Take action?” Jan repeated. “All I want to do is sleep. I don’t want to do anything else!”

Andreimela tsked. “I think that is your problem, Little God. You feel helpless. If you wish to not feel helpless, you must take action. That’s why I joined the war.” 

“What sort of action could I take?” Jan asked. 

Andreimela smiled. “Would you like to follow my father, Jan? We can assure that he can capture your twin.”

Jan’s tears flowed awhile longer. The idea of leaving the temple was horrifying, but the only thing more terrifying was staying immobile and helpless, unable to do anything. He returned the smile. “I’ll go, but you have to protect me.”

The pair snuck out the door while Galatea prayed, and followed Shiske at a distance down the mountain.