They stepped out of the rainforest together. The sounds of birds, insects and distant waves had quieted now as they walked through the moss-paved trail carved between cliffs and shallow hills. Vastarael casually brushed his shoulder, letting flecks of wood dust drift off.
"So… I've been meaning to ask."
Annierouge didn't stop walking or even glance at him.
"Are you my cousin?
This time, she slowed down.
"Yes. Our mothers are biological sisters. The other Goddesses are not though."
"So that makes my mother, Lysameria Plenituse, the eldest of them?"
"The eldest of seven. She's the Third Hydroborn, third after her parents. The title passes not just by birth but by merit."
He hummed thoughtfully. "She once told me only three beings ever had absolute control over water. Her, myself… and someone else."
Annierouge gave a quiet scoff.
"That 'someone else' is me. Your mother is the first. You're the second. I'm the third. The other Aquatic Goddesses have divine authority over water but not to the absolute degree. That gift has only ever belonged to the three of us."
"That's… specific."
"It's beyond specific. It's intrinsic. Even among the Aquatic Goddesses, only two have ever commanded water like we do. The others manipulate it, bend and shape it but we own it."
There was silence again. Vastarael let out a slow breath.
"You really like talking yourself up, don't you?"
"Confidence is not arrogance, cousin. Especially when it's earned."
He rolled his eyes.
"I'm still surprised you're cold to me, even though we're blood."
"I do dislike you and I'm also indifferent. That's more mercy than most get."
"Mercy. You make it sound like I kicked your beloved or something."
"You exist. That's close."
Vastarael exhaled loudly through his nose. "Okay, damn. Fine. You win this banter."
They walked a bit more. The ocean wind picked up as they neared a cliff's edge trail that wrapped around the coastal hills toward the beach.
"Tell me something. Since you're so full of wisdom. What's the actual origin of the Hydrangea?"
That stopped her. She turned to him fully this time, her lips twitching with a cold smile.
"You're asking me that?"
"Yeah?"
"You're the son of Lysameria Plenituse, literally the direct descendant of the Third Hydroborn and one of the most terrifying beings to walk Spheraphase and you don't know the origin of your own people's title?"
"I didn't say I didn't know anything about it. Just not all of it," Vastarael shrugged. "We don't exactly sit around the campfire having family history lessons."
Annierouge tilted her head, the disdain subtle but not hidden.
"That's just sad."
"Look, I know Spheraphasian history. Don't make me sound like a damn idiot."
"Then tell me," she challenged.
He raised his chin and spoke without hesitation.
"There are five recognized Eras of Spheraphase: Beginnia, Organisa, Generation, Destras, and Post-Apocalyptica. Beginnia was the rise of the Supreme Entities, those above the Nexuses. Organisa was when the First Generation Deities came to be and gave sentience to the world together with the Supreme Entities. The Generation Era marked the time when the Second Generation Deities inherited divine rule and the Supreme Entities gave full control of the world to the First Generation. Destras was the Era of divine war as all races fought for supremacy. That war led to the Destras Cataclysm for four thousand years. And the Post-Apocalyptica Era began after that."
Annierouge's eyes twitched just for a second.
"So you know the names. Color me impressed."
"I know more than just names. I've lived through enough pain to care about the history that caused it."
Annierouge's voice turned slightly amused.
"But you still didn't know where the Hydrangea came from."
"I didn't say that. I asked if you knew, because I wanted to hear the version from someone who was actually proud of the title."
She folded her arms and walked beside him again, muttering under her breath,
"You're so full of poetic bullshit."
"I learned from the best," he grinned.
"You really want to know?"
"I do."
She tilted her head slightly and then gazed out at the glimmering ocean visible between the trees.
"Then listen carefully because this isn't something written in any book. Only the Hydroborn and the oceans remember this story. And only the Hydrangea are allowed to speak it aloud."
She took in a slow breath and began.
"In the Beginnia Era, before even the First Generation Deities were born, there existed many Supreme Entities. Some of them ruled over the skies. Others shaped the earth. But two of them chose to dwell in silence. They weren't like the others. They didn't fight, didn't seek war or seek dominion over all. They found peace in the waves and hid themselves in the cradle of the oceans. The world called them Veurymeon and Alhalysira."
Vastarael blinked slowly, taking in the names.
"Veurymeon, the Sculptor of Tides and Alhalysira, the Heart of the Abyss. He was the ancient silence and she was the first current. Together, they created every living thing that crawled, swam, glided, or sang in the oceans of that time. But the greatest of their creations were not fish or reef but their children. The two gave birth to twin Nexuses, beings born from Supreme Entities who wield unimaginable power from birth. Their names were Lysameria and Yumeran."
Vastarael's chest tightened slightly at the sound of his mother's name spoken like a divine echo.
"They raised them in silence under the deepest trenches where even time was still. Veurymeon taught them to sculpt tides. Alhalysira showed them how to hear the ocean's memory. They were happy. At least, for a time. The other Supreme Entities grew afraid. The ocean was too quiet. And quiet things are feared because they might hide something more powerful than all of them."
Annierouge's eyes narrowed, anger showing in the depths of her gaze.
"They attacked. They killed Veurymeon first and dissolved him into currents so vast they cannot be found even today. His body became the sea's eternal depth. Alhalysira fought back but they didn't kill her. Instead, they tore her divinity away, shattered her memories, and remade her into something else entirely."
"What?"
"She was turned into a Primordial Goddess. Her memories were gone and her legacy stripped. She was adopted into the Mopheria Pantheon as the first earliest seat of First Generation Deities to lead them."
Annierouge said the name like it burned her tongue.
"And what of the twins?"
"They escaped into the darkest reaches of the ocean. But only one stayed behind."
He looked at her.
"Yumeran."
Annierouge nodded.
"Lysameria did not wish to hold dominion over the ocean anymore. She had seen what divine titles cost. She left it to Yumeran and disappeared and became a wandering Nexus who was feared, unknown and untouchable. But even without the title of Ocean Nexus, she still commanded water with more mastery than her sister ever could."
There was a bitterness in Annierouge's tone at that, like a wound too old to heal but too raw to ignore. Vastarael felt it.
"Yumeran took her title seriously. She swore no god, no entity, no deity would ever control the ocean again. She used her Nexus authority to raise seven sacred islands from the bottom of the ocean. And she called this domain Inexpelcae, the Uninvadable. And then she created a race."
Her voice dropped into reverence.
"She used the full power of the Ocean Nexus and her divine authority to birth the Hydroborn. They are born Divine from the very beginning. The curse of mortality and the limitation of Ascension… we are untouched by it. Even the Destras Curse, the one laid by the First Generation Deities during the war, didn't affect us. That's why we are who we are. Why we don't age, why even our infants are born as Divine and why all of us are beautiful not out of vanity, but because the ocean doesn't make anything ugly. We are the only living legacy of Yumeran, the first and only race still alive that was created by a Nexus."
Vastarael was silent for a long while.
"So… the Hydrangea."
"We are her chosen seven," Annierouge said. "The seven strongest Hydroborn, each to govern one of the islands she made. We are the current heads of her legacy. So no, Vastarael Richinaria. You're not stupid. But you are woefully unprepared for what your bloodline means."
He walked with her now, eyes deep in thought, one hand resting on the haft of his sapphire axe.
"But you're learning. And if you really are Lysameria's son... maybe you'll earn my respect."