Heralfia was fully absorbed in the sight of her beloved daughter crafting a magical artifact. She was so absorbed, in fact, that she even forgot to breathe and blink, the functions that her body was used to do in order to imitate humans.

It’s not surprising that she was so interested in the sight, Lavenna at this moment was absolutely magnificent. She was holding a shining metal shard and staring deeply into it. Her eyes were fully immersed in the shard and it was obvious from watching her that nothing in the world occupied her mind except for it. The way she looked at the little piece of metal seemed to reflect countless years and endless experiences, Heralfia knew that her daughter had lived another life before and had probably seen much more than Heralfia could ever dream of seeing, but looking at the profound gaze of Lavenna she understood just how wide the gap between their experiences was. Lavenna stood in the middle of the study without moving, but to Heralfia it seemed that Lavenna was standing amidst countless stars, alone and was the sole ruler of the universe. There was nothing that could escape her gaze and countless worlds and beings could do nothing but tremble at the grandness of the awesome power looming over them. Whenever she put her gaze a planet would crumble and be reborn, if something even slightly attracted her attention, it was put in the centre of the universe, either worshipped or detested by all, ultimately doomed for destruction in chaos, the only fair end in the world. She was so great, so beautiful and so so far away, so unreachable, like the endless void above. The sight of the little six-year-old girl with her golden smooth hair, a brightly-coloured dress and a precious shard that was radiating all the colors of the rainbow was supposed to be enchanting, inspiring, heart-warming, and it was, but somehow behind it all, it felt incredibly tragic and cold and lonely. Heralfia couldn’t tear her gaze away, she wouldn’t dare for the sight was so ephemeral that it seemed that a slight shift of attention and it would disappear like a dream…

Conflicting emotions gathered inside Heralfia’s heart: she wanted to rush over to Lavenna and console her and say that everything is fine, that she’s with her, she wanted to hold her close to her, to feel that Lavenna was there. She stood and looked at her daughter and saw how far away from her she was at the moment and that even if she got closer it would still not change the distance between them. She wished for nothing more than to be of help to Lavenna, to be relied upon but she also felt absolutely worthless under the gaze that wasn’t even directed at her. Heralfia swore to herself that no matter what she would protect her daughter, that she would be her strength and it didn’t matter what were to happen she would be there for her treasured child, but how can she be relied upon if she’s smaller than a speck of dust before Lavenna? Is she even needed?

An intense battle of emotions was going on inside her heart and she didn’t pay much attention to the servants that would occasionally come into the study, breaking the rules of the mansion to also look at Lavenna, being completely captivated by the sight. None of them understood Lavenna as deeply as Heralfia did anyway, so all they could do was being struck by the unearthly beauty of the scene. They didn’t, no, they couldn’t see any deeper than the surface, for them, the young girl with the old soul was too grand to fully understand.

After a while, Lavenna came back to her senses just for a moment. She took a quick look around and stared at her mother, who was standing in exactly the same outfit and exactly the same place as before they began.

“Mom, have you been standing here all along?”

“Eh? Yes, I’ve been here all the time.”

Lavenna showed a troubled expression but there was a trace of appreciation on her face too.

“I must’ve been boring. You didn’t have to…”

At this moment Heralfia understood. So, she shook her head and said

“No, not at all! Watching you doing something so seriously is the best thing I’ve ever seen! I would never want to miss even a second of it!”

The corners of Lavenna’s lips twitched for a split second but she immediately assumed a troubled expression again.

“I see… You don’t have to wait though, so if you get bored or tired feel free to go and rest.”

And she resumed her activities.

But Heralfia understood her daughter, who seemed so distant, just a bit better than before.

Lavenna would always try to show off in front of Heralfia, she would nonchalantly speak of deeds and things that seemed impossible, she would always try to inject little bits of how amazing she was whenever she had a chance, smugly talking about what she was capable of. Why would she want to do it when most people don’t even get in her eyes,? She was never the type to care about the opinions of others. She cried when Heralfia accepted her. But she would always act strong and confident, as if she knew and expected, no she probably did know and expect whatever came to her. So such a show of weakness was uncharacteristic of her. She fell in love with a person who initially came for her head, though from what Heralfia understood, Lavenna was not nearly that forgiving of a person. She was acting troubled when Heralfia was showing her concern for her but inside she felt happy. There was only one reason for it all, Lavenna wanted to be loved and cared for, she longed for attention of those she loved. She didn’t want to be a celestial in the skies, she probably didn’t even care much for her titles, even though she would show them off so smugly. She just wanted warmth and love and attention of those she cared for. A little selfish desire of hers.

Now that Heralfia understood that she was needed, she felt much calmer and happier. She continued to stand close to her daughter and wait for her to finish and Lavenna felt, even if a little, closer to her.

******

The Pantheon.

The place where gods from all over Almertia gather. Today a few mid-level gods with a single high ranking one in the lead came.

The spokesman began the talk in place of the leader:

“Friends, we have all felt the strange movements from the Extererr mountain a few weeks ago, isn’t it right?”

“Yes”

“Definitely”

“I too was aware of them”

“I have taken upon myself to investigate it and have found some disturbing news…”

It seems that a small storm is brewing.

******

“Are you finished, Lavenna?”

“Fuaa, yes, I still need to make some other things but right now I can’t find the motivation to continue. I’ll take a nap.”

Lavenna took a small orichalcum shard with many small scratches all over and floated back to her room.

“I see. Um, do you want anything?”

“No, thanks, I’m just a bit tired.”

“And what does this… artifact do?”

“Well, it does many things. I’ll explain later. Right now I’m a bit too tired. Please make sure that I’m not disturbed?”

“Yes!”

Heralfia answered, with a bit more vigour than before.