Reyna crossed her arms and sighed. Umbra was as vague as ever.

"If you have something to offer, do it now. We don't have time for your empty words," Verden said.

Umbra slithered over to the fountain, circled its base, and stretched its head to droop over the fountain's polished top. "You remember the story of the earth's creation, correct? How demons gave their life and magika to create a new world for their children to live in. That created the balance you are trying to restore now. But what if we retrieved that magika?" A dripping black head twisted to face Verden.

His expression was indifferent, but Reyna saw the bubbling anger in the tiny wrinkle between his brows. She felt Umbra saw it too.

"The raw magika has been restored to the two worlds. If earth's power is retrieved, you can not only create a new balance under your terms, but also help this one heal faster."

"How?" Verden sounded as he looked: irritated.

"Bring all the magika, all the demons, all the humans, all the spirits and it will flourish."

"That much you already made clear. Stop spewing ambiguous nonsense and tell me how we actually do it."

Umbra recoiled and froze. Blinked. Reyna never recalled seeing those jade circles close before. They were always plasted and penetrating disks on a dark bust.

"Of course. Forgive me. It is difficult sometimes..." Umbra said and fell from the fountain like the splash of ink it resembled.

They all stared at the spirit on the floor, a sad splatter of darkness.

"What is wrong with this sad creature?" Radi asked.

Umbra shot up to the ceiling as if pulled upon by some invisible force only to trickle down like a melting candle. The spirit giggled, whispers in the dark. "Do excuse me."

"Enough. Are you going to help us or not?" Verden snarled in a way that reminded Reyna of Mundus.

"Yes. Yes, I am. I am going to need all of you to help, starting with Radi and ending with Reyna." Umbra slithered next to her.

Reyna stared. For being told she wasn't supposed to be on this fountain-finding journey, everyone didn't hesitate to tell her to do things. She suddenly felt really tired. "What do I have to do?" she said.

"Something you've done before. Remember when you created Mundus a body out of mud?"

It felt so long ago. Before she had ever stepped into the demon world. Before she had realized the severity of what that meant. She knew what Umbra was going to ask her to do and her heart was a hammering fist jabbing her ribs. Reyna watched, tensed, as the spirit's dark fingers phased through the ground and pulled out a two fistfuls of black dirt. Umbra dipped the soil into the fountain before plopping the two balls of mud on the floor next to it.

"You know, I can barely remember the name of all fifty states, so I don't know how you expect me to perfectly replicate two worlds," Reyna said as she stared at the clumps of mud.

"I will help you, dear Reyna," Umbra said, but Reyna wasn't thinking about that.

"You said we can change the balance now. Last time that happened was when earth was created but the ones that were involved in that died." Reyna looked at Umbra dead in the eyes. "I don't want anyone to die here."

Umbra's answer was immediate. "They won't, Reyna."

She exhaled and nodded. Something in the way Umbra answered her provided comfort.

"You need to solidify this balance before even starting a new one. We must start by passing your status to Radi, Reyna."

"Yeah. I'm going to need help doing that one."

Verden pulled a flower from the fountain with an audible pop. He shoved a petal on Reyna's lips. "Kiss this."

Reyna looked at the flower long enough her eyes crossed.. She blinked. "There's an awful lot of kissing in this pillar stuff."

He laughed. "It's something we can address as we create our new balance."

She kissed the flower, feeling more awkward kissing it than she had Verden.

"Now." Verden held the purple and orange cluster up to Radi's face in the same fashion he had with Reyna. "You just have to eat it," he told Radi.

She took the blossom, admiring it for a second before placing it in her mouth. She grimaced before swallowing with a shiver. "I believe now we have our long anticipated kiss?"

Verden didn't speak or nod but the answer was obvious.

Radi placed her hand behind Verden's head and brought him in with the swift intention of a brief peck. Reyna knew better. She saw as the two tried to part from one another, but the channels of magika held them together, twisting and joining inside the two like rivers of stars caught within the swirls of a galaxy. Watching it happen was more embarrassing than actually experiencing it.

"Now imagine what I am reliving with such a sight," Mundus said.

Reyna almost snorted. "Sorry, but I don't want to imagine it."

He gave his usual staccato chuckle.

There was a click. That was the only way she could describe it. Reyna felt she was the only one that sensed it. It reminded her of a seatbelt snapping back, releasing a passenger.

"Reyna," Umbra said.

She recoiled, forgetting the spirit had been standing by her side.

"It is your turn."

Right. She looked at the two fistfuls of mud Umbra had left on the ground next to the fountain. Only it didn't look like mud anymore. They had taken on the strange but familiar texture of ivory clay, the same one she had used to create Mundus' temporary body. Reyna glanced at him and felt a dull heat throb over her heart, one she knew had warmed him too.

"Is it okay if you guys leave me alone while I do this?" she asked her companions in the room.

Radi left without answering followed by Mundus. Verden placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. Reyna knew he was trying to comfort her, but the raw weariness on his face pained her.

"Let's hurry this up," Reyna said and picked up one of the lumps. She released her own magika and her right arm manifested, crude and dirty blue like the limb of an alien.

"I'm going to guide you. Please don't be afraid," Umbra said.

Before Reyna could ask of what, the spirit's hands melted into her own. Her whole left hand pulsed with a smokey mist while her right hand appeared like fog captured in a glass bottle.

"Why don't you just do this on your own, then?" Reyna asked.

"I can't create as you."

Reyna's arms ran cold as she crafted a miniature earth in her hands. It was faster and easier than when she had made Mundus' body no doubt because of Umbra's help. Her right hand held the sphere as her left fingers embedded details she didn't know existed until that very moment. Reyna felt the strings of Umbra's magika beat veins of power into her. They were giving life to the planet she called home. Reyna could feel the countless lives currently inside of it, could picture all the hearts that had once nested within. By the time she finished, the tears that had welled in her eyes streaked down her cheeks.

The demon world was crafted quicker. It was a ball of mostly smooth land with a single but large sea Reyna didn't know existed. It stared at her like a giant, pale eyeball. However, the magika running through this model planet was giant and unbelievable. It was obvious why it would be the surviving world.

"Done. Now what?" Reyna whispered.

Umbra's hands emerged from Reyna's arms like dark ghosts. They solidified as one brushed Reyna's cheek, wiping a stubborn tear that hadn't dried. "Reyna."

She swallowed.

"We'll need the rest to help us now."

Reyna sat with a mini planet nestled in each hand. The heat from her palms did nothing to disturb the perfect spheres. She stared at the ground, hearing the sharp footsteps of the others as they returned.

"This shall be simple," Umbra said. "Mundus shall draw out the magika from the human world. Verden and Radi, you both have the heavy task of receiving and distributing that energy into the demon world. Reyna will keep our connection. I will guide you all in your roles."

Radi eyed the clay globes. "Those are simply white balls of mud with lines writhing on the surface of them. How can they hold what you say?"

Umbra didn't have a face, but Reyna saw what she thought was a smile. "At the moment, they are vessels holding the energies from each world. They may as well be the actual planets. You shall sense it once we start."

The she-demon still held her skepticism as Umbra guided them around Reyna. She was on her feet now, staring at the demons that were going to destroy her home. And a small part of her, the part that had sworn to protect the earth, was going to go with it. She closed her eyes, but it hardly made a difference.

The flow of the magika painted on her eyelids like they were the very veins carrying her blood. She saw two pulsing orbs swirling with vines of power, coiled and alive. Until one started to fall apart. The tendrils unraveled, strings of waves pulled into the second sphere. The new coils were slow to take, dissecting the globe of vines like needles piercing flesh. It felt like days, years, decades had passed, but Reyna had counted her breaths, and she had stopped at 47 when the new planet had absorbed all the strands of magika.

Reyna opened her eyes, and the sphere in her left hand was a pile of dust.

"The people..." Verden's question faded from his lips, his wide eyes on the crumbled earth.

"They are safe," Umbra said. "They are on this planet now. All of them. The animals. The plants. Everything that holds the life of magika."

Relief eased the hollowness in Reyna's stomach, but it felt foreign, and she recognized it as her taken piece that had also turned to dust on her palm. Her fingers parted, watching as the dirt filtered through the gaps to drop on the ground.

"I will take this for now," Umbra said and plucked the sphere from Reyna's right hand. It was vibrant with colors, indecisive on which one to showcase. A swirling gasoline rainbow. "Now that the pillars are set and the flow of magika is contained, create your new balance. Speak what you want to these flowers and it shall be set."

"Just like that? Tell the flowers what we want?" Reyna pulled back her armor and her right arm disappeared.

"Yes, but know there must always be one constant. There shall always be two pillars with dark blood in their veins. The rest is up to you and we will follow it."

"We?" Verden asked.

"Yes." The newborn demon world floated above the spirit's pointed fingertips. "Umbra and Lys."

The spirit left.

A heavy silence gripped the room. It was Radi's short but harsh sigh that reignited the urgency.

"So how are we going establish a new way to balance an entire world? How do we know what we're going to need?" Reyna asked.

"There is no way we are going to make this perfect. We can't predict the future and what it will need, but we can change it for the better," Verden said.

"It will help that we will all be alive for quite some time," Mundus said. He stared at the flowers, one less now, twirling on the water's surface. "We can address the issues that arise and aide those that will eventually replace us. I believe between the four of us there is an abundance of experience. However, there is also foresight to know there is more to be learned."

Experience. That's a nice way to put it.

Reyna leaned against the wall, allowing her body to slide down to the ground. The headache that squeezed her brain and hazed her vision was enough for Reyna to understand why Verden fainted. Now, however, he was a quiet detonation of poise, a needle held to the light that cooly and sharply gleamed.

"Are you alright, Reyna?" Mundus' voice came from above.

She nodded.

Despite the increasing pressure clamping down on her temples, Reyna had joined in the discussion of the balance. Some elements were obvious. Unanimous. Others aspects were thrown in for speculation, for future hope of preventing what they were patching up. Reyna couldn't remember if the conversation had been long or short, but she did have everyone's voice, including her own, swimming in her head.

By the time they were finished, Mundus was sitting next to her, chin resting on his arm that was draped over one knee. Radi was leaning against the short wall of the fountain. Her head was thrown back, flame colored locks hovering over the water. Reyna wondered if even those waters could put out a demon's fire. Verden was the only one standing. His arms were crossed, leering at the blossoms as his jaw set and unset.

They had decided simplicity would be best: establishing how the pillars were chosen and the significance of the dark blood power were the two most crucial components. The dark blood power would no longer be privy as a family heritage. It would no longer be a sign of power and dominance but one of balance and life. Candidacy for pillars would be taken, and both humans and demons could apply, all knowing full well the effects that came with the position.

A pillar had the option of stepping down and passing his status to another candidate. Previous pillars would choose the new ones, aided by Umbra and the new Lys--much discussion went into that decision. An equal amount went into deciding they too would keep the fountains holding the dark blood power locked away. Its power was too dynamic and compelling, especially during the period of intimidating adjustment that was to come.

It was not perfect, but it was at least better than what had been before, what had led to annihilation.

Verden and Radi spoke to the flowers. Reyna giggled at the sight of it, but she questioned if she was half laughing at nothing, at how this was all nothing and centuries and centuries in the future there would be others like them doing exactly what they were like the promise of orbit that brought all to the same point eventually.

Her head really hurt now.

"We're done here," Verden said.

He was out of the room before his words finished bouncing in her mind. Reyna watched as Radi followed him as she asked him something she couldn't hear. She sighed and massaged her temples which surprisingly eased some of the tension. A hand appeared in front of her nose. She stared at black claws before meeting Mundus' equally dark eyes.

"I'm fine," she said and rose to her feet. "I'll be out there in a minute. I just need to catch my breath."

He bore into her. "Of course."

She waited until his diminishing essence told her he was a good several yards away. Reyna plucked the closest flower to her and shoved it into her pocket. When she caught up to Mundus and the rest, it felt like they knew what she had done. No one said anything though, and they exited the castle. A sickening golden glow greeted them.

Reyna's spine was a rod of ice. "Lys."

"Wait." Umbra manifested like a twister of ink next to the luminous spirit. "This is our new Lys."

"What does that mean?" Verden asked.

"The Lys you fought has returned to the flow of magika and no longer exists."

Radi's fingertips drummed her sword's hilt. "How do we know this Lys shall not be a repeat of the last?"

"Because I am not like the last," Lys spoke a glorious melody.

"You sound like the last."

A hymn hummed. "We heard your balance and are here to comply. We come to seal this fountain as we will also seal the original one. I am here to help you."

"Wait." Mundus stepped forward. "There is something I wish to know. Earlier we encountered what appeared to look like my mother. I am certain it was not her. What was it we saw?"

"The world's freed magika took on the form of someone you all knew and projected it," Umbra said. "She was a twisted memory and nothing more."

"Come." Lys extended a palm that radiated light. "I will take you to where those who are real and alive await."

Reyna inhaled, her chest expanding with excitement at the thought of seeing Dante soon. She headed toward Lys but a cold band around her left arm stopped her. She turned to find Umbra.

"Reyna, please wait," the spirit said in the softest tone she ever heard.

"What do you want?" she asked pulling away.

"They will all come back. Everyone that died will be reborn now. I have collected them all and returned them to the stream of rebirth."

Reyna narrowed her eyes, not knowing how to respond.

"As long as the balance remains, they will all have multiple lives and multiple choices. All of them will have several opportunities to find happiness. Please, Reyna." Umbra's hand caressed her cheek with frost. The other hand swept across a single green eye. Half of Umbra's dark facade fell and revealed another face behind it.

Reyna's mouth opened. Her headache returned as an explosion of thunder between her temples.

"Please Reyna," Umbra said, recognizable traces of a voice that froze her blood. "Don't be sad."

"I thought you were gone," Reyna croaked.

Umbra's inky skin overtook the exposed face that held a sad smile.

A name almost escaped her lips, but Reyna decided to say his real one. "Aleric."

Adorable Reyna made by the talented @LadyofthePond