[Cyril]

That evening after leaving the Ark, Selene took us to a bathhouse and provided clean clothes, a comfortable tan shirt and brown trousers for me, and long beige tunic dresses for Kit and Ophelia. I felt refreshed and more hopeful than ever now as destiny unfolded. Dash munched hay in a nearby corral, seemingly unimpressed with all that had gone on. Kit grinned as I relayed Selene's earlier description of Dash as 'cursed'.

The open-air stacked-rock bathhouse sat on the edge of a village behind a small ridge, hidden from view. Had Selene not led us here, we might not have known of this town.

"How many live here?" I asked her as we walked into the village.

"We are over a hundred strong." She continued, anticipating my follow-up questions. "We all fled the Gods' control, seeking our own destinies. Most arrived by boat across the southern sea, only a few survived crossing the Piso Dráckos Mountains like you did. Nyx protects us here." Selene paused, scanning me with her eyes. "I see the resemblance. Be you really her son?"

"I believe so."

A morose expression came over Selene, and she gazed off toward the setting sun, casting reds and oranges across the high clouds. "The southern straits were treacherous, and I was the only one of my family that survived the sea voyage. Nyx took me in as a young girl. She is like a mother to me."

"Then I suppose you are my sister, like Kit, bound not by blood, but by compassion."

"I suppose so." Selene's face brightened with a smile. "Here we are."

We stood before a stone and adobe house with a flat roof, typical of the surrounding dwellings. On one end, a twisted vine grasped the house like a giant hand. We walked along smooth stone steps to a weathered wooden door. Selene opened it without knocking and beckoned us within. Hesitating, Ophelia grasped my hand and bit her lip, and I realized she felt most like an outsider here. I nodded with a smile and squeezed her hand, silently affirming that she belonged with me.

The inside had a comfortable feeling, like a home. Small flames danced in a rock fireplace at one end of the main room, chasing away the chill of early evening. Three long padded benches lined one wall, each beneath a hinged window. Gentle light illuminated the room from strange panels mounted on the timber ceiling, like those on the Ark.

Mother walked into the room carrying a bowl from a kitchen area. A bright smile warmed her face. "Welcome to my home! Please sit." A man with a long gray beard followed her, carrying another bowl. "This is Tamir, the senior magistrate of our village. I invited him to join us." The man bowed graciously.

We gathered around a low circular wooden table in the center of the room, sitting on cushions placed on the smooth stone floor. Ophelia sat on one side of me and Kit on the other. A selection of foods adorned the table top in colorful ceramic bowls: breads, meats, cheeses, fruits, and jugs of wine or water. My stomach growled, reminding me of my hunger.

As we passed around the bowls and ate, I told the tale of our journey to a rapt audience, periodically signing with Kit so she might take part. The tale ended as we arrived at the Ark.

"What is the Ark Hope?" I finally asked.

"The origin of men on this world and the change of everything," Mother replied. "I have my own tale to tell. Let me start at the beginning.

"For eons, long before the Ark, Chaos and Order existed on this world in balance and harmony, each consisting of many beings, separate individuals among the whole, like people in a village, but without physical form." Black tendrils rose from her raised hand and swirled around the room as if in a choreographed dance. Ophelia jerked with a faint gasp, grabbing my arm. Seeing the reaction, Mother recalled the tendrils. She continued. "To human eyes, those of Chaos appeared like amorphous black smoke. I was such. Those of the Order appeared like white smoke and light, similar to the Moirai today."

"How is it you appear as human now?" I asked.

"I will get to that. We subsisted on the consciousness of the Cosmos itself, an energy, you might say. Then, over a thousand cycles ago, the humans arrived on the Ark Hope. We know its history because we were able to retrieve the journey logs," she explained. "It is a ship that sailed the vast Cosmos, coming from a place called Earth, one of many worlds scattered among the stars."

I nodded. "That word was written on the hull."

"Yes." She nodded. "The Ark was not meant to come here though, rather to another world the humans called Paradise, but something struck it in the darkness between the stars, damaging the ship. They drifted for many cycles, only just making it here. Nearly half of the four-thousand souls it carried died during the journey and crash landing.

"Our world was very different before men arrived. Much of the plants and animals we have now they brought with them, intended to create a world to their liking, something they called terraforming. The survivors did so on our world."

She took a sip of wine. "Unknowingly, men also created the Gods. The human's highly concentrated consciousness proved intoxicating to those beings of the Order. Initially, the Order helped men survive and assisted with the terraforming, but eventually sought to more closely control them. They became the Gods."

My mind swirled. I knew of the stars in the night sky and that they existed in some sort of vast Cosmos, but a ship that sailed it from other worlds? Consciousness energy? Beings of Chaos and Order? This was all so confusing, but I could not deny the existence of the Gods, of Chaos, and the Ark itself. I tried to convey what I heard to Kit via signing, but gave up with a shrug. In return, she wrinkled her forehead at me. 

Mother rose and retrieved an ancient-looking book from a wooden chest, placing it before Ophelia and me. In faint letters, the cover said 'Greek Mythology'. She carefully turned the fragile pages. "We found this old book preserved on the Ark." Ophelia pointed to a printed list on one page: 'Gods of the Pantheon'. The names of the Gods appeared: Zeus, Hera, Athena, Ares, and all the others. "So you see," Mother said, "The Gods took their present form from the myths of men. Even I took my name, Nyx, from that."

Ophelia and I stared at each other in shock. Could this be? Kit tugged at my arm, and I signed the revelation to her.

"And the texts of the Canon?" I asked.

Mother narrowed her eyes. "A false religion created by the Gods to keep men under control, to keep them in worship. It is by the worship that the Gods exist as they do, the source of the power needed to maintain themselves and the realm they built. The Ark held truths they did not want men to know. Many hundreds of cycles ago, the Gods led men away from here, past the mountains to the Lands where they now live, and forbid them to return."

"Soon after the Order became the Gods, we of the Chaos understood that this was wrong and a war broke out. The Gods won, casting us into the Cosmos. But we did not die, rather bits of our existence became scattered between the stars, like dust within the wind. Over countless cycles, I reformed myself from the bits, and about forty cycles ago came back to this world in human outward form, here near the Ark where it all began. I believe more of my kind may yet return.

"It was so lonely. At great peril, I traveled to the Lands, but nearly perished crossing the Piso Dráckos Mountains." Her gaze caught mine. "But by a stroke of good fortune that I do not understand, your father discovered me near death in the foothills to the west. Pedar nurtured me back to health, and eventually, we fell in love. You, Cyril, resulted from that."

Tamir spoke up. "We have been able to reactivate parts of the Ark and learn from it. It contains a wealth of lost knowledge and technology that would benefit humanity. Cyril, you experienced part of this with your healing. The Gods claim to bless men with bounty, but in truth, they added nothing to what was already here, holding us back from progress."

Ophelia trembled, then dipped her head into her hands. "As Moirai, I was part of the Gods' deception, snipping the threads of any man deemed a threat and keeping mankind in servitude." A tear traced her cheek.

Mother rose, coming to embrace her as more tears fell. "I am sorry, Ophelia. This must be difficult for you. But like all of mankind, you did not know any better, and the Gods used you. What is telling of you, though, is how you responded to truth revealed." Mother put an arm around me, hugging us together. "But with your arrival and defeat of Nemesis, I fear now that the Gods will come soon for retribution. The only thing delaying them is the enormous amount of energy it takes to transport themselves to our realm. It is only a matter of time."

A bitter taste of guilt came up in my throat. "And I brought this upon you and the people of this village by coming here. I am sorry." Had I doomed another village by my presence?

"No, Cyril." Mother leaned her head against mine. "With the map, I invited you here. This moment was inevitable." She stood up. "The Gods' dependence on mankind is their vulnerability. The power and control over men funnels through one complicated machine of their making."

"The loom!" Ophelia exclaimed.

"Yes, it is so." Mother nodded. "That is the key. If only we could destroy it, the Gods would fade away. But it exists in the Gods' realm and we have no way to get there."

Ophelia narrowed her eyes and set her jaw. "I do."