The camp was silent. Not in reverence, not in fear. This time, it was uncertainty.
Word had spread quickly of what had transpired. Of the blood-soaked ruins left in their gods' wake. Of Elena, swollen with impossible life, eyes like lightning and lava still glowing beneath her skin. No one dared approach the cottage, not even to offer food or prayer.
And when Elena finally emerged, slowly, barefoot, one hand on her tight, overstrained belly, people turned away.
They bowed their heads. They whispered. But no one spoke to her.
She tried not to limp, tried to hold her chin high. But each step was agony, her hips already fighting the weight. Her eyes searched for the one face that could tether her.
Esperanza.
Aurora saw her first, sitting near the field where the other children played. But the toddler's normally radiant face turned solemn the moment she saw her mother.
"Esperanza," Elena whispered, taking a step forward, her arms opening slightly. The serpent inside stirred, sensing a familiar soul. A pull.
But the child flinched.
"No," Esperanza whimpered, shrinking into Aurora's arms. "Not mami. That's not mami."
Elena froze mid-step. Her breath caught.
Aurora tried to coax her gently. "She's just confused, mi amor- "
But the toddler cried louder, her tiny voice trembling: "She's scary. Her belly is glowing. That's not mami!"
Elena's knees buckled. She didn't fall, but her body folded with the weight of it all. She turned without a word, face blank, disappearing into the cottage with slow, wooden steps.
And then she broke.
It wasn't the silence of the camp.
It wasn't the pain in her bones.
It was the look of fear in her daughter's eyes.
Inside the cottage, Elena collapsed onto her knees and wept, clutching the life growing within her. Raw, aching, wordless grief tore from her chest. The serpent stirred. Not in anger, but disapproval.
"You dare mourn this?" the goddess hissed from the depths of her soul.
"You weep because they fear what you've become? You offered me your body. You BEGGED for my return. This power, this child, is your due."
"I'm a monster," Elena sobbed into her hands, barely able to breathe through the pain. "I didn't know this would cost her."
The snake recoiled, snapping its tail through her ribs, coiling around her spine.
"She will learn to honor you. They all will. You are my vessel- "
"Elena."
Niegal's voice, low and clipped, cut through the air like a blade.
She looked up. He stood in the doorway, still shirtless, hands clenched at his sides. His eyes shimmered silver, his face unreadable.
"Elena, enough."
She stared at him, stunned.
"I know this is hard. I know your body hurts and your mind is breaking," he growled, stepping closer, "but you're acting like a child who didn't know fire burns."
"My love, I didn't know- "
"YOU DID." His voices raising. "You made this choice. You dragged us into this. And I followed, willingly. I love you. I love this child." The lion growled in warning, but he ignored it. He was straight up yelling now, unable to stop. "But you do NOT get to fall apart and ABANDON US NOW!"
Silence.
Elena couldn't breathe. First Esperanza rejecting her, now her own husband rejecting her grief? The serpent within coiled, stunned, hissing in deep displeasure. The pain worsened even more.
Aurora and Alejandro, who had quietly entered the threshold, froze in place. Aurora had tears in her eyes, she shook her head in disbelief. Alejandro said nothing, but the tension in his jaw was a warning.
No one dared speak.
And then, Elena's violet eyes flashed and she blinked just once.
Thunder cracked overhead.
With a blink of lightning and a hiss like an opening wound… she was gone.
Niegal's heart dropped.
"Elena?" he whispered. The serpent had pulled her out of the room like breath from lungs. He felt it, even before Aurora screamed- she wasn't anywhere. Just a scorched mark left in the floor, simmering in violet embers.
Not the sanctuary.
Not the war camps.
Not even the caves beneath.
Gone.
But the lion knew.
His blood stirred. His body shifted again, tail lashing once behind him.
He ran.
Through the misted woods. Over roots and stone. His lungs burned, his vision blurred, but the lion led him true. He smelled her tears on the wind. Felt the pulse of divine despair in the soil.
Until-
The wellspring of Coabey's Tears.
The ancient pool deep in the jungle, where spirits were said to come and bathe before being born into flesh. Or so the story went.
Niegal fell to his knees at the edge. The waters shimmered gold and violet, unnatural and glowing with heat. The storm clouds above circled the clearing like a crown.
"Elena," he breathed.
Then he heard her.
Sobbing.
But her body wasn't there.
Only the water moved like a heartbeat. The tears that filled it were hers. Her pain echoed in the ripples, and her voice, somewhere beneath the surface, was crying, begging.
The serpent was making her feel everything. Grief. Rage. Terror. Regret.
And when the lion stepped into the water, she was gone. Swallowed whole. Silence echoed amongst the lapping waves.
Niegal dropped to his knees, shaking. His claws dragged through the water as if trying to scoop her back out.
"Elena…" His voice cracked. "Please… come back."
But the water only shimmered.
And the storm above grew darker still.