PRI POV

I left the small room, rolling up the sleeves of my blouse as I walked into the art room. Picking up a paintbrush and chewing on the end as I gazed at the work in progress. A sunset over the mountains of Rivendale. It was a commission from Ari, in return for some wool for me to use for yet another art project.

The silence in the room was only punctuated by the soft strokes of my paintbrush on the canvas. Instead of getting therapy for anger issues, I'm painting the soft light rippling over the evening snow of the Rivendalian mountains.

A small cracking sound filled the room, but I ignored it, dipping my paintbrush into the water and then drying it and setting it down, picking up the airbrush and filling it with some watery white paint, spraying it onto the top of the mountains as a cloud effect.

The cracking sound was getting more and more obvious, so I put the airbrush down, grabbing my crossbow as I walked down the palace hallways. The magenta walls weren't cracked, nor was the stained glass domes, but the cracking sound was getting more and more loud.

I pushed the door open, cringing as it creaked. Drawing an arrow into my crossbow, I creeped out the door, looking around. The sun was only just rising over the ocean to the east of me. Walking around the castle, I slowly lowered the crossbow, suspicious with the lack of anything.

Then, I saw it.

A huge, twisting red tendril had exploded out the ground, twisting up into the air, inching closer and closer to my castle that the faeries had spent so long working on.

Another tendril had sprouted and was creeping towards me like a snake. I turned around, legging it out of there because I've read too many horror stories to know that if you touch a strange thing that's coming towards you at a rapid pace, you'll die instantly.

I sprinted all the way east to where the mesa ends and Oceana begins. Aalto was sat meditating, but perhaps my scream of her name was just loud enough to cause her to open her eyes as look at me in utter confusion.

"Pri, are you ok?" She asked, swimming over in mere seconds.

"FUCK NO!" I almost yelled, pointing back at my empire. Even at a distance, you can see the red tendrils that had entirely surrounded my palace. "THESE CREEPY ASS THINGS WERE STOPPING ME FROM FINISHING MY PAINTING FOR ARI AND NOW I'M PISSED!"

Aalto sighed, grabbing her conveniently placed spyglass and extending it, looking at the castle. A low "shit-" escaped her mouth.

"What's wrong-?" I asked, panic filling my chest.

"Stay here. Don't move." She said, running inside and grabbing a pristine pearl topped staff, shoving it in her belt as she ran back to me, pulling out her communicator and typing a message as she still ran towards me.

AALTO POV<>

Aalto: @Ari @Darcy @Aeron we have a situation

Aalto: A corrupting situation

Ari: SHIT

Aeron: Fuckbucket stop flirting with your boyfriend and grab your mace, we have corruption to fight.

I smacked my staff on the ground, the armour materialising on my body.

Grabbing hold of Pri's shoulder, I looking deep into her eyes. "This is a lot to comprehend, I get it. Me and some of my allies are all Champions of different God's. Unfortunately, Evangeline got the short straw, being chosen as the champion of the evil god."

She nodded, a skeptical look on her face but she was believing the truth. "Get to the Cod Empire as quick as possible, take the sea-horses if you must, but get there. Alfie and Rowan will look after you while I fight this. Go, now, and don't let the corruption follow you."

Pri ran off, straight to the tide as I summoned a sea-horse for her. She took one look back at me, and I caught a faint look of something... something positive... before she jumped on the back of the sea-horse, looking a bit taken aback as it galloped across the waters surface.

(A/N sea-horses are horses that can walk on ground and water. Seahorses are seahorses)

PRI POV

The horse galloped all the way to the Cod Empire, slowing down as it neared the gates of the stable. I jumped off, stroking its mane as I walked to the door.

I knocked three times, nervously looking around the smallest empire. Alfie answered, dragging me in with no question.

"So, you too?" He asked, dragging me to Rowan. Confusion had set in and I had not got a clue what he was on about.

"What?"

Rowan sat me down on an armchair and him and Alfie sat on the sofa. Rowan passed me a cup of some hot beverage. I think it's hot chocolate with alcohol in it. It was nice.

"Evangeline got to your empire too." Rowan said, deepest sincerity in his two coloured eyes. "The Cod Empire has kinda become a sanctuary for those of us who have had our Empires corrupted."

Alfie's eyes lowered, scratching the back of his neck.

"Hey, love, we talked about this." Rowan said, smiling as he took Alfie's hand in his own, kissing a ring on its finger.

"It got the Lost Empire first. I was so close to being corrupted myself. But I managed to get out and to the first place I could think of: The Cod Empire. Rowan took me in gladly. Aalto has started sending refugees here by the looks of it."

So, in summary, my crush is a god, my Empires being destroyed slowly and surely, and I have no chance of getting that fucking painting finished.

Glorious.