Once upon a time there was a brand new world. It was very similar to the one before it, the only real difference was that this one was just starting out. There weren't many people on it yet, but it was definitely time for a government to form around them.

Of course, the gods couldn't do all of that themselves. They had other jobs and would often be too busy to also run their government, at least they couldn't do it directly. Still, they knew it would likely be messy if the humans chose one for themselves when they were at this stage in their development. They needed to pick a leader for the people.

There had been some people who were taking charge of family units and some who had naturally gained some power in their areas. Still, there was no central government, and as the population grew, the people would benefit from having a proper leader. There was one man in particular who had become a patriarch for a few families that he was connected to.

He was kind and fair to them. The man was a hard worker and also quite intelligent. He was also more used to having power than any other person currently living at the time. One day the man was out working in his field and a small ball dropped on his head.

He picked it up and examined it. The ball was about the size of his hand and perfectly smooth. It was red and looked like it was filled with smoke. It was cold to the touch and felt slightly heavier than it looked like it should.

The man looked it over for a few more seconds and looked up to see if he could tell where it had come from. There was nothing above him. It was just a cloudy day. There wasn't any rain coming down, there was no lightning, there was nothing. There wasn't any sun visible, but the clouds weren't particularly dark. He couldn't tell where that orb could've come from.

After a moment the orb started to glow softly in his hand. It got lighter and hovered just above his hand. It got higher and higher into the sky. Once it was about ten feet off of the ground it got bigger. It moved higher into the sky. Once it reached twenty feet, it completely exploded into a smoky cloud that stretched across all of the sky.

"Greetings, Benjamin," a voice said, "Congradulations! You have been selected by the gods to become the first king of your people. Enjoy your new power, treat your people fairly. May your reign be one of peace and prosperity for all. The rest of your people are being informed as we speak that you have been chosen to rule next. Your eldest child will take over when you die. Train each of your children to be great rulers and to care for their people. The gods have constructed a palace for your family to live in for the time being. Enjoy!"

The smoke cleared and Benjamin went inside to tell his family what had just happened. His wife had already been told what happened and ran up to him, overcome with joy. She could not have been more happy for her husband, and was extremely excited to live in a palace and be queen.

His youngest daughter ran in shortly after. She was only five years old, but still understood what this meant. She hugged her father tightly. One by one the older children made their way back to the small house they had been living in. Each was excited to become royalty, especially the oldest daughter who knew she would one day get to be queen.

After they had all gathered in their house and had been talking for a while about their new situation, a small fairy flew into their house. She was just about the size of a mouse and had dark brown skin. Her hair and eyes were both jet black and beautiful to look at. She had a set of two wings that looked very similar to those of a butterfly. They were dark blue to match the flower petal dress she was wearing. They were slightly translucent, and shimmered in the light.

The fairy carried a kind smile and a caring look in her eyes. She wore a bit of makeup that made her face glitter just slightly. Her black hair was slightly curly and cascaded beautifully down her shoulders.

"Greetings, my new masters," she said, "My name is Diana. I am your humble servant and a messenger between you and the gods. I was the one who delivered the orbs to you, and now I must lead you to your new palace. We can wait to leave if you so desire, but I can teleport your things to the palace and then lead you there too. Your animals will also be sent along with you as well as your family. They already know that they will be sent there after you are. Would you like to go now?"

Benjamin looked around at his family and they all nodded that they were okay with it. He turned back to the fairy and smiled at her.

"Yes, miss Diana," he said, "We are ready. Bring us to our new home."

"As you wish, master," Diana said.

She reached into a small bag at her side and pulled out a handful of dust. She instructed the family to all hold hands so it would be easier to teleport them all at once. She blew the dust off of her hand and in an instant, the family was standing in the throne room of their new palace.

It was a large room with high ceilings and had thrones for the king and queen in the center with smaller ones for their children on either side of them. There were large windows on both sides of the room with dark red curtains. The frames were inlaid with gold and silver that sparkled in the sunlight that was visible in this part of the city. There was a large crystal chandelier hanging above the room.

The floor was covered with an image of their family crest. It was a raven in front of a clock with its wings spread wide across the face. Red and pink roses and vines of ivy surrounded the raven and its clock. Above all of them there was a sphere. It had one half of the moon and one half of the sun that were together glowing above the scene below them.

"I have to leave now," the fairy said, "But, if you ever need me, you can always call and I will come as soon as I can. Bye."

She flew out through the window and for a moment, the family was left alone in their new home. This didn't last long, however, because after a few seconds, a goddess appeared before them. She had long blonde hair that fell past her waist, skin that was almost the color of milk, and big eyes that shone like emeralds. She had a tall, slender frame and wore a deep blue dress that set off all of her features perfectly. The woman had a slight golden glow surrounding her that instantly gave away her divine nature.

"My name is Elizabeth. I am the goddess of love and fertility," she said, "I have come to welcome you to your new home. Your family is under the protection of the gods, so long as you remain good leaders and you don't fall out of favor among us you will be invincible to everything except for old age. However, the wood from a hemlock tree can be used to make a weapon that will kill you, also when one of you dies, don't go down to the underworld looking for them. The devil will not like that, and he most likely knows about your weakness. Enjoy your time as rulers, and avoid hemlock trees. Goodbye."

With that, the goddess disappeared into a rain of gold that floated out the window and into the sky.

The family took over without any real fight, and the few who objected quickly learned that the family was indestructible. They ruled happily for years. They chose a few other families to be in charge of smaller things, but they didn't have the indestructibility that the family did. It became a game in the palace when many of the people were drunk for them to attack the family and throw weapons at them to see how bad they could get without killing any of them.

Most of the family thought this was fun. The boys loved showing off their superpower the most, but even the oldest daughter and the wife would occasionally be persuaded to join the fun. The only member of the family that always refused to join was the youngest daughter, named Silvia.

She knew that it couldn't hurt her, but it still made her nervous. She didn't like seeing the weapons that close to her at all. She also tended to avoid the drunken parties completely, preferring to go up to the mountain to more quiet parties with the gods. They also grew to enjoy her company over the years as they watched the girl grow up.

When she first started coming, she was a small, quiet little girl. The gods loved her because she was very sweet and cute despite how little she spoke. As she grew older, the girl became more confident and more comfortable talking with the gods. As she started to speak more, the girl revealed that she was very intelligent and gained an education from the gods. She grew up to be as beautiful as any of the goddesses, but still remained humble and kind to all living creatures. They all loved her, and she started spending more and more time in their palace rather than being with her family during their parties.

They thought it was a pity she would likely never be queen, but were also excited that she would always be able to come and spend time with them. Besides, her older sister would almost certainly be a great queen when the time came, and Silvia could still be an advisor. Her family still loved her despite how different she was from the rest of them. They always encouraged her and her sister had once offered her the throne when she was old enough, but Silvia declined. She didn't want to be queen because she knew her sister would be great, she didn't want to abandon the gods, and she didn't think she could handle all of the responsibility of ruling by herself. There would be so much expected of her if she took it, and she didn't want to deal with the pressure. She would help her sister, but she never wanted to rule herself.

The years went on and Silvia only grew smarter, kinder, and more beautiful. Her only weakness was that she was incredibly curious and occasionally got into trouble by looking somewhere she shouldn't have been. Eventually, their parents passed on and it was time for her sister to become queen.

The people were sad to see the old king die, but they knew his eldest daughter could rule in his place. Soon after her coronation, the queen married a man named Austin. The two had made friends at one of the parties and quickly fell in love. They ruled happily together and one day they sent one of the princes to examine a new area nearby that they were thinking of building houses on.

What they didn't know, was that a man had started to build a house on that land already and made his house out of hemlock wood. The prince asked the man where he got the wood, and the man said he had just found it in the forest nearby that had yet to be explored and was never used for logging before. The prince allowed the man to continue because he couldn't think of a good way to explain why hemlock was bad without giving away their weakness.

He went back to the palace to tell the Queen about the new situation. However, the prince didn't realize that there were a few splinters of hemlock wood in his jacket that he had put back into his bag. He brought it home and a few days later, they were having another party and it was particularly cold outside. His youngest sister had left her jacket in the gods' palace the last time she was there and decided to borrow his for the night, because they were almost the same size and she knew he wouldn't mind.

Silvia had been wearing a lightweight sleeveless shirt underneath the jacket, but didn't notice the splinters at first because she was in a hurry to get away. It wasn't until she was about halfway to the palace that she noticed the splinters scratching at her arms. She hadn't felt anything like that in years, but tried to ignore it until she got inside. Still, the scratching got worse. Soon she could feel burning on her arms as well.

She took the jacket off to see where it was coming from, but this dragged the splinters across her skin and caused her more pain. She started to pick them out of the sleeves because she couldn't take feeling them anymore, but she felt much weaker after she did that. Once she got them all out she decided to walk back to her home because she was closer to it than the gods' palace and just wanted to go to bed for a while.

She got home and immediately put her brother's jacket back before going to her room and sleeping for almost a day. When she finally woke up, Silvia still felt a bit weak and nauseous, but much better than she had before. All of her scrapes had vanished as well.

Her family and the gods were worried about her after they realized what had happened, but calmed down when it seemed she wasn't seriously hurt. Still, much to Silvia's annoyance, they refused to let her do any work for a few more days. The gods sent Diana to escort her to their palace for the next few days.

The gods kept her confined to their best guest room to keep her rested and healthy during her time there. They brought her anything she wanted along with any book they could find that she might like. Even though Sylvia was annoyed at being confined to her bed, she still enjoyed the strange books they would bring from a world long before her own.

Even with what entertainment the gods could give her, Silvia grew more and more bored and restless as the days went on. Still, the gods told her that she was still too weak from the hemlock poisoning. It had done too much damage and even though she felt better now, it was still going to affect her for a while yet. She appreciated how concerned they were, but felt they were being overprotective.

One night she pretended to be asleep and the gods left her alone for the night. She snuck out of her room, careful to be absolutely silent, because she knew they would be close in case she needed anything. She got completely outside of the palace and started running for her home. Once she was out of sight of the palace, she allowed herself to slow to a walk.

She knew there would be one of their parties going on tonight. She still didn't like them, but at least she would get to do something after being cooped up in her room for so long. This way, if she came back fine, it might even show the gods that she had gotten better and didn't need to stay in her room anymore.

She walked into the room and was almost instantly spotted by her older sister, who ran over and hugged her tightly.

"Does this mean you're finally recovered?" she asked excitedly.

"Yeah, I'm all better now," Silvia said.

She didn't like lying to her sister, but if she knew, she would definitely take Silvia back to the gods' palace. She resolved to tell the truth later, after she proved that she was fine.

Despite being a bit uncomfortable at the party, Silvia decided to actually participate in this one. She drank with her siblings and danced just as much as any of them. She even joined in on the party game of trying to harm her siblings, to no avail. This time, partially because she was drunk, she agreed to join in the game too. This was the first time in years, so her siblings went easy on her at first.

Despite this, it quickly escalated until Austin started to join the fun. He had an old set of arrows and a bow that he hadn't used in ages since he didn't hunt much anymore. His father had made these before the family ascended to royalty and they had lived far away from most other people. They were next to a forest that contained hemlock trees.

He fired an arrow right at Silvia's chest and expected it to just bounce off of her like every other arrow had. Being drunk, he missed her chest and hit her shoulder instead. But, it didn't bounce off. The tip of the arrow lodged in her shoulder and hissed as though it was burning her flesh.

Silvia immediately dropped to the ground in pain as one of her brothers came to pull it out of her. As soon as he got it out of her shoulder, he threw it to the far side of the room, because he knew exactly what it was. He took off his shirt and tried to tie it around his sister to stop her from bleeding out, but it did very little. Already weakened from the incident before, and very badly hurt by the arrow, Silvia passed out quickly.

Her brother carried her out to her carriage and tried desperately to keep her alive while Austin drove them to the palace of the gods as fast as he could. Her sister and her other brother sat in the back with them. Neither of them could do anything, and were terrified of what might happen to their little sister.

Elizabeth greeted them at the door and was shocked to see Silvia in their arms. The girl was white as a sheet and the hole in her shoulder had gotten bigger on the way there. She was rushed to the room where the other gods were. They tried desperately to save her, but nothing seemed to work. She only got worse, and no matter what they tried, they couldn't wake her up.

Finally, they knew she wouldn't survive. Her heart stopped beating and she could no longer breathe. Her family cried over her dead body and Austin swore to go and find her soul and bring Silvia back to life.

Alan, the god of death, walked up to him and gave his blessing to try to get her out of the underworld. He gave him hopeful look and teleported Austin to the gates of heaven. Austin ran up to the angel at the desk and asked if she had seen Silvia anywhere. The angel looked through his files for a moment and said that she had been dragged down to hell.

"What?! Why!?" he asked.

"Satan's being dumb," the angel said, "Because she disobeyed the gods by leaving the palace, and she didn't take the throne despite the fact she would have been a better ruler than her sister, the devil had an excuse to take her to hell. She's probably only in purgatory, though. He does have to follow the rules. She'll get let out eventually, but I don't know how long it'll be."

"Can I go in and get her out?"

"If you've got Alan's blessing, then you can at least try to get her out. It might be tricky though."

"I have that, can you send me to hell?"

"Good luck," the angel said before sending him into hell.