While Aaric was occupied falling for a goddess, his girls Luna, Daphne, and Fleur had gathered on the sun of Syntheia to acclimate to their increased strength.
They soon discovered that they now possessed divinity comparable to that of lesser gods.
And they had a higher authority over the fundamental pillars of order, chaos, fate, and destiny.
As they delved deeper into the nuances of their abilities, they realized they could directly petition the deities of their new pantheon if they ever found themselves in peril.
Such a petition would allow them to draw upon the full, unbridled power of whichever god they called upon.
"I was wondering something," Daphne muttered, casting a sidelong glance at Fleur as they walked across the blazing surface of the sun.
"What is it?" Fleur asked, tilting her head with curiosity.
"You know that Aaric loves you, right?" Daphne asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"Yes, of course he does. How could he not?" Fleur replied with a confident nod, gesturing to herself with her chin held high.
The display of arrogance caused Daphne and Luna to chuckle, earning them a playful scowl from Fleur in return.
"Then why haven't you made it official yet?" Daphne asked, finally reaching the question she had been leading toward.
"Well," Fleur began, resting a finger against her chin as she thought. "To be honest, I was simply waiting for the right moment to ask the two of you." She admitted this with a shy, genuine smile.
"I think you can assume our consent is given, seeing as you are still alive and well," Daphne said with a playful smirk.
Both Luna and Daphne were perfectly comfortable with the idea of Aaric dating them together, and they had long since accepted Fleur into their circle.
This did not mean they were entirely immune to jealousy, however. Daphne in particular would not hesitate to teach a lesson to anyone who dared to drive a wedge between her and Aaric.
"I will take that as a yes," Fleur said, nodding firmly before reaching out to pull Daphne's cheeks apart as far as they would go.
"How about we go exploring for a while? I want a magical beast companion of my own," Daphne suggested, her smile turning into one of pure excitement.
Luna already had Noctelle in the waking world as well as the dreamlands. Her other companion, Cherry, preferred the dreamlands and would only manifest in the waking world when Luna specifically invited her.
Fleur had her phoenix, which she had named Moon. She had previously asked Luna for some of the sand of Morpheus to bring the phoenix into the waking world, where it now stayed in her home.
"There are many powerful magical beasts here," Luna said, pointing down toward the planet below the sun they currently stood upon. "You could just choose one from there. The creatures on that world are blessed by a great number of gods." she added.
Every living thing on Syntheia had received the blessings of the four new demigods, Cherry had also added her own blessing, and several other gods had contributed their blessing to some creatures they took a liking to.
This had turned every creature on Syntheia into something divine in its own right, to the point that even other gods would likely covet them as mounts or beast companions.
"I just wanted to make a real adventure out of this," Daphne protested.
She harbored a desire to bind herself with a mythological creature of great legend. More than that, she simply craved the thrill of a challenge. With the immense power she had recently gained, there were very few things left in the world that could truly test her.
Luna and Fleur shared a look of shared exasperation before turning back to Daphne. They gave a collective shrug and called for the winged stag to serve as their mount.
"There was a time when she was the most mature of the three of us," Fleur whispered to herself, giving Daphne another look of exhasperation.
The massive winged stag materialized before them in a sudden flash of light, immediately nuzzled its head affectionately against Luna.
The beast had evolved significantly, now possessing burning red wings and eyes that blazed like twin suns.
Its strength had increased to a point where it was almost divine in nature. The three girls mounted the stag and formed a portal in the air before them, leading out of their isolated dimension and into the vast expanse of the main dreamlands.
They roamed across the great sea of the dreamlands, passing over numerous islands.
Whenever they approached a new landmass, Fleur and Luna would look to Daphne. She would decide whether they should land or continue based entirely on her gut feeling.
They encountered a wide variety of magical and divine creatures, but none of them felt right to Daphne. Instead of bonding with them, the girls simply sent the creatures to Syntheia to provide them with a safe and prosperous new home.
Eventually, they came across a floating island characterized by four moons and a single sun revolving around it.
The moons were positioned below the landmass while the sun hovered above, indicating that it was currently daytime on the island. Although it was described as an island, the floating land was so vast it felt more like an entire world.
"I am certain this is the private heaven of some other panthoen. We should probably not intrude on their territory," Luna suggested. The others nodded sensibly and began to nudge the stag to turn away.
"You can come closer, we truly do not mind the company," a voice called out from the island.
They looked over to see a god beckoning them to approach. He was a towering giant, standing at least eighteen feet in height with dark skin and eyes of fiery red. He was leaning casually against a tree while smoking a cigar, a wide grin fixed on his face.
"Let me guess. He is a trickster god," Daphne whispered to the other two with a deadpan expression. She received immediate, knowing nods in response.
The god seemed to have overheard her, as his grin widened and he let out a booming laugh.
"You are sensible girls," he said, leaning forward as he took a long puff of his cigar. "And I am a sensible giant. I am sensible enough not to provoke you, or rather, the gods who have chosen you. You can call me Kapre." He added with a shrug.
Fleur recognized the name Kapre from her studies of mythological texts. She looked at Luna and Daphne before nodding to them as a sign that it was safe to proceed.
They moved the stag toward the giant and offered him a respectful bow, introducing themselves and the name of their pantheon.
"Would you girls mind telling me which pantheons you belong to?" Kapre asked as he sat down on the grass, resting his back against a sturdy tree.
He could sense the divinity radiating from the three of them. It was powerful enough that he assumed they were the chosen representatives of several distinct and ancient pantheons.
He was intrigued by the idea of three chosen ones from different divine families traveling together. His eyebrows shot up in genuine surprise when Fleur explained that they were all chosen by a single, newly created pantheon.
A healthy amount of fear gripped his heart as he imagined what such a concentrated force of power could achieve.
He considered himself fortunate to be among the first gods to learn this information.
Fleur had briefly consulted with Eilistraee in her mind to ask if they should hide their origin, but the goddess had told her to be open.
Eilistraee knew that with their current strength, no other pantheon would dare to antagonize them. There was no benefit to secrecy, as their existence would instead encourage other gods to seek friendly terms with them.
"It seems you three are in search of something. Perhaps I can offer some assistance," Kapre offered. He was not an idiot and knew the value of helping the children before him.
"I am looking for a magical creature to bond with," Daphne explained.
The giant placed a large hand on his chin and hummed in thought. "There is one," he muttered after a moment. "There is a serpent here by the name of Bakunawa. Perhaps he may be of interest to you." He offered this with a mischievous grin.
"You see, we used to have seven moons here. This beast ate three of them because he found them too beautiful to resist," Kapre added with a slow shake of his head.
"Could you not have stopped him yourselves?" Fleur asked, tilting her head. Bakunawa was clearly powerful, but he was not a god.
"The gods Sidapa and Muhen deemed that the beast cannot be killed by us," the giant explained. "You are not bound by the rules of our pantheon, so you may be able to subdue him."
Sidapa and Muhen were the gods of fate within his pantheon.
Just like in any other divine hierarchy, the gods of fate held immense influence over the decisions of their peers.
They were the primary reason the local gods had not stopped the moon eating serpent.
They were bound by the threads of fate that their own gods had laid out for reasons known only to them.