Chapter Two: The First Four

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We stayed in the convent for the night

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We stayed in the convent for the night. It was something that I wasn't happy about, but  I didn't want to make a big deal of it.

Ayla offered to bury the dead Mother while I watched the child. I think she didn't want to have to put me through that— though perhaps she also thought she could do it faster. A part of me wanted to protest, to tell her that she didn't know our burial customs, but I refrained.

It was nice of her.

I had given the child a bath, and now that she was no longer covered in blood and dirt, I could see that her eyes were blue and her hair was golden and bounced around her shoulders in ringlets as she ran around the room. It reminded me of Patrice, and of so many others I had seen in the city. 

Eventually, she brought me a book to read to her. It was In The Beginning, a simplified religious text for young children. Perhaps it was familiar, and it brought some sort of comfort to her. 

"You want me to read this to you?" I asked.

"Book." She said with a nod, pointing up at it.

"Ah, alright." I said.

She did not hesitate to climb into my lap and begin to tap her feet together as she looked up expectantly at me. I opened the page in front of her so she could see as I read. 

"In the beginning, there were only four. The god of the Earth, The God of the Sea, The Goddess of the Sun, and The Goddess of the moon."

As I read she pointed to each of the illustrations and said; "Nidos, Alexé, Marié, Lune."

"The world was lonely, and big, so together, the Gods created mankind in all its forms to fill the space.

Before long, there were four more. Death, Love, War, and Celebration. When the world saw how much the people there cared for each other, Love was born, and when it saw how they could hate, so was War.

When The Goddess of the Sun saw how the people of the Earth subjugated each other, and struggled for power, she created Death so all would be equal in their eventual fate. The Goddess of the Moon saw how terrible it was to watch her creations die, so she gave those that followed her with the most devotion immortality.

This upset The Goddess of the Sun, and she-"

"I found some food on the way back in." Ayla said, coming back into the small room. 

She carried a basket of bread in her arm, and at the sight of her the child crawled from my lap and ran over to reach out her hands. Ayla handed her a piece, and she immediately began to devour it. When she handed me a piece, I thanked her quietly. 

We talked for a bit, though not of anything too heavy. She was being careful with me. She always was. It was hard to pay attention, and I mainly focused on the child running wild around the room.

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