POV - Libiac
Siempre pensé que la eternidad sería aburrida o monótona.
Pero desde que Dievas se reencontró con el plano mortal, mis días —o lo que sea que consideremos "días" en esta dimensión— se habían convertido en una montaña rusa de gritos, lágrimas brillantes y reacciones demasiado teatrales. Y todo, todo giraba en torno a un solo nombre.
Luahn.
"¡Le están dando una paliza otra vez! ¡¿No pueden dejarlo solo ni cinco malditos segundos?!" gritó Dievas, revoloteando sobre los lagos astrales con el dramatismo de una deidad en pleno colapso emocional.
La observé con los brazos cruzados desde lo alto del acantilado brumoso. El paisaje estaba agitado por su energía inestable. Columnas de luz se retorcían. El cielo no tenía un color definido. Todo vibraba con su caos emocional.
"Dievas", dije con siglos de paciencia.
"Respira, querida, vamos..."
"¡NO PUEDO RESPIRAR SI ÉL NO PUEDE RESPIRAR!" —gritó, y una constelación entera se apagó.
—De todas formas, no respiramos. No tenemos pulmones —le recordé, sin éxito.
Dievas se zambulló, se dejó caer de bruces sobre un campo de lirios flotantes y empezó a golpearlos con los puños.
—¡No es justo, Libiac! ¡No es justo! Solo quería protegerlos. Y esos humanos asquerosos, cobardes e infames, hijos del caos... —¿Del
Caos Primordial?
—¡No! ¡Del caos sin clases! ¡Del caos vulgar!...
Mi raza humana es igual a la tuya, incluso con sus defectos —me miró mortificada—.
No te pedí que me usaras de inspiración para tus creaciones —dije—.
Pero era solo la raza humana, ¿vale...?
Mi Luahn... ¡
LUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHNN!
Ah, estaba en modo «poéticamente indignada». No cabía duda de que era una joven diosa, pero esto era demasiado. Me senté en una nube baja y la observé rodar un rato.
Después de milenios juntos, ya sabía que esto duraba entre tres y cinco minutos. Pero esta vez... no se detuvo.
"¿Cuántos años han pasado ahí?" pregunté finalmente, en voz baja, sabiendo que estaba haciendo una pregunta capciosa.
Se detuvo, levantó la cabeza y me miró como si acabara de recordar.
"Ocho". "
¿Y cuánto tiempo llevas espiándolo?"
"Ocho". "
¿Sin descanso?"
"¡Claro que sin descanso! ¿Y si parpadeo y pierde otro diente? ¿Y si parpadeo y se cae en una zanja? ¿Y si alguien lo empuja? ¡No! ¡No puedo perderme nada!"
Suspiré. Dievas era un desastre. Un torbellino de emociones que nunca antes había sentido, y eso era preocupante.
No por ella, sino por toda la situación.
"Dievas... te estás encariñando demasiado", dije con cautela.
Me fulminó con la mirada.
¡¿Demasiado apegado?! ¡Es mi alma gemela, Libiac! ¡Mi compañero eterno! ¿Cómo no voy a preocuparme si lo tienen encadenado como a un prisionero? ¡A él! ¡El único humano con energía dual estable en sinergia conmigo! ¡Mi Luahn! —me
gritó mientras, por alguna razón, montaba guardia frente a mí—.
Todavía no es tu Luahn —dije con firmeza—.
Está creciendo. Está tomando decisiones. Y no deberías interferir.
Dievas se levantó bruscamente. Los lirios a su alrededor brillaron en destellos dorados.
—¡Y si lo matan! ¡¿Qué voy a hacer si lo matan antes de que recuerde quiénes somos?! ¡¿Antes de que pueda decirme que me odia por haberlo dejado allí?!
—Guardé silencio un segundo—.
Bueno... probablemente me odia, sí.
—Dejó escapar un grito dramático—.
¡Lo sabía! Me odiará, y no podré hacer nada porque estaré aquí, atrapada por las estúpidas reglas de los dioses.
"Diosas..."
"¡Voy a bajar allí! ¡Lo juro! ¡Si lo tocan una vez más, bajaré y los desintegraré a todos! ¡Los convertiré en polvo de estrellas! ¡Aunque sean mis hijos, mis creaciones!"
Ella ya estaba enardecida. Se arremangó la túnica de energía y comenzó a dibujar runas arcanas con el dedo. El avión comenzó a temblar, las líneas del firmamento parpadearon, el río del tiempo se detuvo brevemente.
"¡Alto!", grité, agarrándola del brazo.
"¡Estás a punto de romper el límite de la realidad!".
"¡NO ME IMPORTA!", gritó, pero su cuerpo temblaba.
"¡No puedes!". La miré a los ojos, seria.
"Si cruzas al otro lado... ya no tendrá elección. Y si lo amas, de verdad, lo suficiente como para vivir con él, debes permitirle levantarse de la adversidad por sí solo... no obligarlo a salvarlo".
Dievas me miró temblando. Sus labios se curvaron hacia abajo. Parecía una chica rota por dentro.
"Pero no quiero perderlo..."
Y por un instante... dejó de ser la diosa del equilibrio cósmico en su universo.
Era solo una chica con el corazón roto.
"Lo sé", susurré. "Yo tampoco querría, pero es algo que debemos respetar, ¿de acuerdo?"
Nos quedamos así un momento. El mundo volvió a latir con normalidad, las estrellas dejaron de titilar, el caos se disipó un poco.
Dievas sat on the edge of the floating lake and looked down at the stream of time where Luahn was.
"Do you think he... thinks about me?" she asked quietly.
"He thinks about many things. But he feels you. Even if he doesn't know why in the first place."
She smiled, very slightly.
"Do you know what the worst part is?"
"What?"
"That every time I see him... I fall in love all over again."
I rolled my eyes.
"You're a mess."
"I know! What's wrong with me, Libiac?!"
And she rolled around on the bright grass again, covering her face with her cloak. This time, I didn't interrupt her.
Because, well, everything happened to her.
And I, as her companion, sister, and closest friend, was ready to stop her if necessary.
But I was also... beginning to understand her a little.
After all, it's not every day you see a goddess tremble with love.
*
POV - Dievas
I didn't know it could hurt.
I mean... I'm a goddess. I've been one since form had a name, since balance was necessary.
I was created to maintain the cycle, to observe, to sustain my worlds and prevent them from collapsing.
Not to feel this.
This... this animal desperation, this rage I can't contain, this anguish that twists me inside as if I had a heart that could break.
I saw him, I saw him again.
Luahn... chained, dragged by human hands as if he were a burden, as if his existence could be reduced to something as miserable as a cage.
"Why isn't anyone doing anything?!" I shouted, and my scream twisted the astral rings around me. "Why can't I do anything?!"
Libiac appeared as he always did: floating, impassive, with that calmness that sometimes gives me peace... and other times, like today, makes me angry.
"Dievas," he said in a serene voice.
"Breathe, dear, come on, ina-."
"I CAN'T BREATHE IF HE CAN'T BREATHE!" My words echoed like thunder. I could feel the constellations trembling.
My voice broke. So did my form. My body fluctuated between light and shadow, between wind and crystal, I couldn't hold myself together.
"It's not fair, Libiac! It's not fair! He just wanted to protect them. And those disgusting, cowardly, infamous humans, children of chaos..." My energy fragmented and a field of blue lilies around me disintegrated into floating petals.
Libiac said nothing. He waited. He always waits.
"How many years have passed there?" he finally asked.
"Eight," I replied with a trembling voice.
"And how long have you been watching him?"
"Eight," I repeated, lowering my gaze slightly.
"Without rest?"
"Of course without rest! What if I blink and he loses another tooth? What if I blink and he falls into a ditch? What if someone pushes him? No! I can't miss a thing!"
"Dievas... you're getting too attached."
"What if they kill him!" I burst out.
"What am I going to do if they kill him before I can remember who we are?!
Before he can even tell me he hates me for leaving him there?!"
My chest, the one that doesn't exist, burned.
Libiac looked at me with that expression of hers, a mixture of patience and pity.
"I'm going down there! I swear! If they touch him one more time, I'll go down there and disintegrate them all! I'll turn them into stardust! Even if they are my children, my creations!"
The words came out unfiltered. It was as if something inside me had been screaming for centuries. And for the first time... I wasn't ashamed.
"Stop!" she shouted, grabbing my arm.
"You're about to tear the fabric of reality!"
"I DON'T CARE!" I screamed, but my body was shaking.
"You can't!" she looked me in the eyes, serious.
"If you cross... he will no longer have a choice. And if you love him, truly, enough to live with him, you must allow him to rise from adversity on his own... not have you save him by force."
Dievas looked at me, trembling. Her lips curled downward. She looked like a girl broken inside.
"But I don't want to lose him..." I replied, and threw myself back on the ground, as if my body were melting into the cosmic earth.
Then... I felt something.
A heartbeat.
Weak, but there.
Him.
Despite the pain, he was getting up. He was breathing. He was moving forward.
He smiled, at nothing, at a memory, perhaps... at me.
My eyes filled with tears again.
Tears that shouldn't exist, but did anyway.
"Do you think he... will think of me?" I asked in a low voice.
"He thinks about many things. But he feels you. Even if he doesn't know why in the first place."
She grimaced, very slightly.
"Do you know what the worst thing is?"
"What?"
"That every time I see him... I fall in love again."
She rolled her eyes.
"You're a mess." She looked at me exasperatedly.
We looked at each other.
I was trembling.
And she... too.
Because I knew she meant it.
Because, for the first time in eons... a goddess was trembling with love.
And I... I was willing to lose everything for him.
*
POV - Aramazd
I was sleeping.
Or what we gods call sleeping.
At the root of everything, beyond the cycle, my consciousness was immersed in a pause that only those who shaped existence can know, not because my body demanded it, but because order, even the order I myself wove, demands rest.
But balance does not sleep.
And when it is disturbed... I awaken.
My perception rose like a halo above the planes. The multiverse had an unmistakable pulse, and today, that pulse was trembling. Something had gone awry, not enough to break everything, but enough to attract my attention.
A single name resonated like a taut string about to snap.
Luahn.
The third turning point in his life had just sprouted.
I saw it.
Without needing to look.
Kneeling. Wounded. Chained by humans who fear what they do not understand. Breathing like a child... and resisting like a god without knowing it.
It was not his death that was coming.
It was his mutation.
A soul torn between two worlds.
A spirit that does not yet know that it is a mirror of many ages.
And yet... the flame was still burning.
And that fire... attracted my own kind.
The conversation between my daughters had already ended when I manifested myself.
Not because they called me.
Not because they invoked me.
But because I am me.
And I see everything.
Dievas still floated above the astral fields, her form kneeling, her light shattered, her aura broken like a sustained scream. Libiac watched her with duty in her eyes, silently, like someone watching over a dam about to break.
I did not descend. There were no lightning bolts, no thunder, no sacred flames.
Only a voice.
Only my consciousness enveloping everything.
"Dievas."
The energy in the plane contracted.
Her form trembled like a star about to implode.
She did not answer me with words; she could not.
But I felt her chaos.
Her desperate love.
Her fear.
Her fury.
Her helplessness.
And her decision.
"You love him."
It was not a question, it was a statement.
She did not answer, but her universe, through its vibration, gave me the answer.
"And if he dies... you will save him."
There it was, the risk.
Divine love that has not learned to wait.
Passion that, instead of creating, could consume.
And most dangerous of all:
The impulse of a young goddess... willing to tear apart the fabric for a single soul.
"No."
My voice traveled through the threads of the cosmos.
Firm. Inevitable. Absolute.
"Not yet."
Dievas lowered her aura. Like a scolded child. Like a star that wants to scream but doesn't dare.
"Mother..."
"The pact stands. Do not interfere. Do not break. Do not save."
Her tears were light. Not because of their beauty, but because of their weight.
Each one, a spark that could set a cycle ablaze if I allowed it.
"And if he dies before choosing me... what will become of me?"
Her voice was barely a broken thought.
But I heard her.
And I understood her.
"If he dies... it will be because he chose sacrifice. Not because he was abandoned."
Then I turned my gaze to Libiac.
I didn't need to say anything to him.
But I did anyway.
"If your sister falls... you stop her."
Libiac nodded, without moving a single atom around him.
"I will."
My presence began to fade.
Not because of weakness.
But because it was no longer necessary.
The warning had been given.
Dievas trembled, but she backed away. Not out of submission. But out of restrained love.
And Luahn...
He still resisted.
And as long as he did, the pact would hold.
Because balance is not protected by impulsive acts.
It is protected... with faith.
And even though she did not yet understand, I knew the oldest truth:
If the love of a god is born without control, it becomes ruin.
But if it learns to wait... it can become the weapon that saves everyone.
Including her.
Including him.
Including this world that...
Very soon... will be stained with darkness once again.