The mortal girl only had a single word to ask.
"Why?"

In a time before, the Deerfolk roamed the world as its explorers. In an era before, the Deer were the masters of the world. In the age of today - the Once Great Deer truly live up to their title. Shattered remnants of the greatest empire that blessed - or was it cursed? - the planes of Aezilan lay dotted throughout the world. Ruins of strange, esoteric technology - wriggling flesh and bone constantly seeking to expand, held back by slowly-failing drones.

No two deer are alike. There are deer that are warriors - berserkers, that fight until their death - and even past then, as their spells reanimate their corpse for a second wind, turning on friend and foe alike. Some deers are scholars, explorers - there are deer that are Prophets, particularly ironic considering the King of Utan's crusade against prophecy.

Their numbers are thin. While few know exactly what the Fall of the Once Great Deer entailed - the deer remember. Most take a vow of celibacy so that their race might die out within the coming generations.

But there is one thing that all deer have in common - from the refugees and workers in Utan to those who worship the Eldest Daughter and perform the most profane acts in a futile effort to gain her favor, to those who live under the rule of Lady Thaola in the woods to the west. From the youngest to the oldest - the cruelest to the kindest - no deer can speak. Their tongues are cut out at birth, their vocal cords carved up and burned - before sealed with Cruel Magic of the Once Great Deer so that they may never heal.

Aezilan has attracted attention. The Children are drawn from all corners of the universe - the Demon Queen, the Eldest Child - sealed underneath the churning waves. The Youngest Child, locked in a cage of stone - and the Immortal, not quite a child - but close. They move slowly towards it - and two have recently arrived.

Celestia sleeps peacefully in Castle Canterlot. She is unaware of the creatures which lurk in the gardens below - she is unaware of the true scale of damage that the creature wrapped in a bundle of limbs with her is capable of. For the time being - she is young, infantile. She hasn't realized the true scope of her potential - the true role that she has to play in nature. Those who her soul touched remain scattered - two in the castle, two in the Jungles of Panthera - and another, in possession of the most dangerous being in the universe.

So, for the time being - the two are not here for her.

The first creature is strange. He is skeletal and stands on two legs - taller than any mortal, even taller than the gigantic wolf-once-deer. He stands draped in a cloak, and upon his head, there is a set of antlers - great, ornate things that reach towards the sky like clawing hands and gnashing limbs. Green embers dance along their length, a deep glow within the black pits where his eyes would have been if he were to have had flesh.

Yet, if you were to ask the two which was stranger - both would agree that the other was. She was beautiful - a truly striking deer with a coat the color of wheat and eyes the color of grass. Her antlers are beautiful - and decorated with golden threads that curl between their ever-stretching branches. Their colors shift, depending from which angle you look at her from - they are every color that Is and every color that is Not. One of her antlers is malignant though - a cancerous growth of pulsing black void grows along with its mass, slowly consuming the bone.

The strangest thing about the deer, though - is her mouth. A fang juts from her lip, long and curled - and her tongue is left unmarred and whole.

"He truly is bound." The Deer speaks. Her voice is beautiful and strange - it thrums with power, and yet the world weeps.

"It would explain much. The deities truly don't understand what they are doing, do they?" Her companion speaks. He is the Watcher - his voice soft like velvet, intoxicating to listen to.

"You forget yourself, Watcher Nekrasis. You are still a child yourself. To the universe, a thousand years is nothing." The Deer rolled her eyes.

"I may be a child, but I have Watched where you can not, my Lady Faulyn. I am not so uneducated as to deem any random millennia worth note. This millennia, in particular..." Nekrasis shrugged.

"The millennia of the past are not the millennia of the future." Faulyn tilted her head to the side.

"Yet - with his involvement, perhaps this whole mess could've been resolved, ahead of time." Nekrasis offered.

Faulyn's eyes flashed for a moment, and she shook her head sadly. "I have seen that path, and it leads to ruin."

"Truly? Worse than what is to come?"

"The world would rot and putrefy. It would grow stagnant under anarchy, and so it would not temper the steel of our blade."

Nekrasis shut his eyes. The equivalent of shutting his eyes was the orbs that floated in his skull "turning off," so to speak. "How regrettable."

"Fret not, Watcher Nekrasis. My vision is blurred. The outcome may not be so grim as it seems. Regardless, I believe we've dallied enough. How long do I have?"

Nekrasis tilted his head to the side as his orbs re-lit. They flashed a deep shade of blue. "Within three minutes, an earthquake will kill us both. Be swift."

"Three minutes is plenty," Faulyn spoke as she trotted off into the gardens.

"Hello, brother."

"Are you here to gloat at m- Fate?"

"Hello, little brother. My time is short - but I would be beside myself if I were not to stop by you, if only for a passing moment."

"You're - alive? I thought-"

"I am not dead, Discord, if only just. There are fates worse than death, and truly - this is one of them. Yet, I am confined to my role, and so I must respect that."

"That felt almost like a jab at me."

"Good. My ability to use sarcasm has not faded with my death."

"You're here for the child, aren't you?"

"No, Discord. As always - in the absence of our Mother, it falls to me to baby-sit our Eldest Sister. I am here to prevent her from Ruination."

"Ruination? Truly? She'd go that far?"

"She'd go further, Discord. She is dark, and twisted - beyond any conceivable repair."

"...It should've been me."

"Yes, little brother. It should have. And yet - you denied your Fate."

"I would not make the same mistake again."

"You would, little brother - and it is no fault of yours."

Then, Faulyn chose to turn to her companion. She nodded - and the two creatures left, narrowly dodging their fate.

Of all the Children on Aezilan, Void was perhaps the most alike to Faulyn.

Unlike Discord and the Eldest Daughter, he was not a creature that had cast off his chains to assume a new role. No - the Void felt nothing for his part. He knew the purpose he served, and he would serve it. He would act as he had to when he had to - and not a moment before.

Thousands of feet below him, his son was being tortured within an inch of his life. It was most assuredly excruciating - but the Void did not so much as blink.

A few feet behind him, Faulyn stood. She stood by her lonesome - the two locked in a single instance of time, with no Watcher to listen to their conversation. Their conversation would be short and to the point - for their conversation had to be short and to the point. They were two actors on a grand stage - reading, reciting their lines with a gun held to their head.

Faulyn was a very good actor. Void was better.

"I greet you," Faulyn spoke.

The Void nodded as he glanced at her. "I greet you. You are here to inquire about my progress and the result of my search beyond your sight."

"I am. The picture illuminates itself, even as it grows muddier. I request the information."

"My son and the Terror-Touched deity are on the path to meet. They will interact - and there will be blood. The remnants of your work walk this world in the form of the Lady in Lavender's mother. They wear her skin like a sick puppet - and she will bring out the worst in her, or the best in her."

"And what of the cultists?"

"The cultists that worship the Eldest are being kept in check. Their efforts will remain stagnant for as long as necessary. I have made liberal use of my talents to ensure the capture of my son to the Moon. Their meeting is essential."

"Indeed. You have a new assignment."

"Do I?" The Void stood up. He looked much like his son - save for being a head shorter and pure black instead of a soft snow white.

"You will attempt to use your abilities to hinder the effort of the Iampex." Faulyn stated.

The Void nodded. "Then I shall do as such. Will my efforts bear fruit?"

Faulyn shook her head. "No, cousin. They will not. But you will buy precious time - and hopefully, the other machinations that I have put into play will come to fruition."

"I will depart. I greet you luck, Lady."

"There is no such thing as luck, Void." And she was gone.

A little over five thousand years ago - the Eldest Daughter walked on Aezilan.

The ruins where she touched are known as The Desolate Wilds. They are in the far south - and since her arrival there, no creature - mortal or divine has walked there since. In a single day, she reduced a country to little more than ash - and it was only through the near-death of the Youngest Child, the sacrifice of the Greatest Mortal Mage alive, and two hundred dragons that the world narrowly managed to escape annihilation.

Her cage was chosen precisely. The dragons are her oldest foe - and so, they know how to deal with her. In the far north - isolated from any reach of society, her cage is locked beneath the churning waves and hissing sea. A plateau of ice to keep her docile - no wandering minds for her to whisper her sweet nothings into for her entertainment or a chance at freedom. A creature known as the Cracken, created by Discord once he had recovered, guarded its entrance - tearing apart any ships that come close.

The reason it's called the Cracken is that it is not the Kraken, but rather - a facsimile, made out of ice, that makes a rather amusing cracking noise whenever it surfaces.

The Watcher and his Lady touch down above the ice. Faulyn doesn't waste a moment.

"Hello, the creature that wears my sister's flesh."

"It's Kesmera now, actually."

"Ah. Not Viola?"

"I do not wear Viola's flesh anymore, and so I do not don her name. I wear the flesh of the being who called Me into existence."

"You do not wear the flesh of our mother."

"I'm not talking about that stupid rotting corpse. I'm talking about the creature who truly personified destruction. Oh, my beautiful Kesmera - her spells were so - beautiful."

"I see the spells you are talking of," Faulyn thought as visions flashed through her head. There were visions of destruction, of hellfire - of flesh that continued to grow no matter how much fire it was exposed to, of the shadows themselves being weaponized..."Beautiful, they are not."

"I suppose there is a reason that I am Destruction, and you are Fate."

"You were not always destruction, Slate-Cleaner. Once - you were Renewal."

"I am not beholden to that name anymore. I recognize it only as the chains that I have long cast off. And soon - my dear sister, I will help her cast her chains off."

"You speak of the girl in riddles."

"I do. Isn't she beautiful? Such capability for destruction. And it's in her nature - as she grows, she'll only lust for blood more. Her chains are strong - but they are not the Adamantia of the World."

"Ruination, Arlanarlia!" Faulyn cried, and her voice was terrible. "You will bring it about in your hubris, your arrogance - your actions the downfall of us all! I should kill you now, crush your mind to a pulp under mine!"

"And yet, you will not, sister! For as much as I hate the filth you have cultivated and allowed to fester in our mother's beautiful tapestry, for as much as I hate this world, for as much as I hate YOU! You love me!" Kesmera cried with a hint of smug victory in her tone.

"I do," Faulyn whispered. "And for that - I hate myself."

Faulyn turned to the watcher with a resigned expression on her face. And the two were gone - and Aezilan was a little lighter.

-

Author's Note

Thanks to iAmSiNnEr for editing this (rather unorthodox) chapter.

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