Content warning: this chapter contains mild gore and allusions to miscarriages as well as physical and emotional abuse, which might be triggering for some readers. Please proceed with caution. Thanks for reading 💜

The day was fading into night by the time Esmera, Tauram, and Anjarah had descended into the valley. All around them were shadows taking the opportunity to frolic before the stars and moon came out to compete with them. The darkening sky above was like a crack between the jagged peaks surrounding them.

Esmera thought Jammas had fallen asleep in her hair until he rustled in her curls. She reached up to pat his head, as much to comfort him as herself, and he rewarded her with an affectionate peck.

Esmera perched on the edge of a rock to catch her breath while Anjarah surveyed their surroundings for the legend she knew best out of all of them, Samier at attention beside her ankles. Tauram rested beside Esmera, close enough for her to be aware of him, to frustrate her because of the glaring gap he left between their arms. Lundas draped himself over his feet, a real-life hot water bottle.

Esmera smiled down at the clouded leopard as she pulled her shawl tighter around her, imagining how warm he must be. He purred up at her, and, as if he had read her thoughts, he stretched out across her feet too.

She sighed. She could get used to this sort of comfort.

Lundas had hated her, once, but he seemed to have softened toward her. Maybe it was because Samier gave him someone to hate more than Esmera. Maybe it was because he was getting used to her.

The thought warmed her heart. Before she could get too caught up in it, she looked up from the miniature cat and gazed around them at the rocks and plants and shadows surrounding them.

Esmera had resigned herself to not finding Zaha today and possibly resuming the search for her and Nuredir the next day when a large, silvery shadow stirred on a rocky ledge just off to the side of them.

Esmera started, tensing to flee in case the muscular big cat should decide to pounce even though she knew she probably wouldn't be able to outrun it. When the cat remained where she was, simply casting a calm gaze in Esmera and her friends' direction, and Samier and Lundas maintained their positions as well, she took that as a good sign and relaxed.

Esmera had seen snow leopards on TV enough times to recognise one in the flesh, with its patchy dark spots and all the shimmering, silver-grey shades of its coat.

But something about this particular leopard sent shivers through her. She held her arms around herself to banish the chill. She stood, determined to keep looking, but Anjarah gestured at the snow leopard as it crossed up onto a higher ledge, watching them as if willing them to follow.

"Let's go!"

"That's Zaha?" Esmera frowned up at the beautiful cat.

Anjarah nodded, her bun bobbing. "Her all-white eyes make her instantly recognisable."

Esmera studied the snow leopard more closely. That was it. That was what had unsettled her about the magnificent creature's otherwise ordinary appearance. It had no irises, turning its gaze almost spooky, but if this was indeed Zaha, Esmera would have to gather her courage and follow her.

She was their only way to get to Nuredir.

"Come on, before we lose her!"

Anjarah grabbed Esmera's hand. Lundas hissed as he jumped off her feet, taking his warmth with him. Jammas just fluttered his wings like a child on the rollercoaster that was Esmera being pulled after Anjarah.

The snow leopard that they suspected was the goddess they sought moved up another ledge with a flick of her thick-furred tail, still watching them discreetly. Anjarah clambered up to her, tugging Esmera along with her as Samier hopped along.

Close up, the snow leopard's coat was more enchanting than Esmera could've imagined, more ethereal than anything she had ever seen on screen as every strand of it shimmered with magic. The creature seemed to be aware of that, tilting her chin up in acknowledgement of her own majesty.

"Are you Zaha?" Anjarah asked.

The snow leopard rumbled in answer, and Anjarah's face ignited in excitement.

"This is her," she murmured to Esmera and Tauram, who had climbed up after them with Lundas right beside him.

Zaha leaned down to get a closer look at Anjarah, purring as her white eyes took her in.

Anjarah blinked. "It's very kind of you to offer to help us just because I understand your language." She cleared her throat. "Many years ago, your brother Nuredir created an army for the Finnaaz family. The army was destroyed, but it's our only hope of defeating the vile King Ruagu. How can we repair it?"

Zaha considered that for a silent moment then growled, the sound like thunder bouncing off the walls of the valley.

Anjarah nodded. "You were right." She nudged Esmera before turning to her. "Only Nuredir can recreate the army."

Hope flared within Esmera, fuelled by purpose. "Would it be possible for you to take us to him?"

With pleasure, Zaha's feline grin seemed to say as she bounded up the mountain in sturdy and long strides. Esmera and her friends hurried after her, but their mortal muscles made them slow in comparison. Zaha's tough paws simply bounced off the rocks. They had been made to scale mountains while Esmera's soft, human hands were bruised with every contact.

She gritted her teeth to keep from crying out as the mountain face beat at her palm. Suppressing her pain wasn't as hard as it could've been. It was nothing compared to the agony she had already been acquainted with in life.

After an impossible distance, Zaha disappeared over the edge of the mountain overhead. Esmera panicked for a moment until her quivering arms and faltering legs propelled her to the top of the mountain after the snow leopard.

It had been covered in mist when Esmera had looked up at it from the bottom, but now that she was here, she could see the wonderland behind the obscurity.

Yellow raspberries and wild apricots dotted their tree's leaves with brightness. A tiered fountain sprayed water into the air that fell in streams to the earth, running down the mountain in seven different directions, their trickling announcing their impending arrival to the world below.

Figures stood around it, so realistically carved that they seemed equally likely to be real people turned to statues by a god's terrible power as they could be likenesses carved by a god's deft hands. They were made of the same earth that the Finnaaz army had been moulded from, and that was how Esmera knew that they were close to Nuredir's lair.

Zaha turned to the mortals, growling again.

"I understand." Anjarah turned to Esmera and Tauram briskly. "We each need to drink a handful of the sacred water in the fountain, then we will be allowed to be admitted to Nuredir's mountain lair."

Esmera leaned beside the edge of the fountain and cupped her palms, gathering water within them and all too aware of Tauram doing the same thing beside her.

The water was clearer than any she had ever seen before. She raised her hands to her mouth and savoured the sweet water as she drank it, and then wiped away a clumsy drop that dribbled down her chin before straightening.

Zaha led Anjarah behind a wall of trees, while Esmera and Tauram followed. The branches stretched into the sky, losing themselves in the clouds. Esmera had to wonder what they were shielding, but she didn't have to wonder for too long, because Zaha stopped in front of a rock that stood at the centre of the circle of pine trees.

The goddess looked up with her unsettling white eyes, and, observing that her entire party was still present, she rested her paw against the rock. She tilted her head and rumbled.

"Noted." Anjarah took Esmera's hand before looking over at Tauram, who stood once again with his hand in his pockets. "Don't be shy. Zaha would like us all to hold hands."

Tauram took Esmera's hand too readily for someone who had sworn off touching her, but she didn't get to fume at the audacity for too long. At the front of their line, Anjarah rested a hand on Zaha's shoulder. The snow leopard grunted.

Esmera blinked, and their group reappeared in an underground chamber. It looked like a smithy of sorts and smelt like one too, like sweat and eternally burning fires that hissed as they danced in their forges.

The figure standing beside the table looked up at the newcomers.

Zaha could easily be mistaken for an actual snow leopard, but there was no way this man could be assumed to be anything less than a god with his thick biceps and curly hair, even in the limited light that only allowed Esmera an impression of his face. From what she could see, it was as chiselled as the rest of him.

He folded his arms across his broad chest as the mortals approached, led by the snow leopard.

When they arrived opposite the imposing god, the snow leopard elongated into a feminine figure with long, wavy silver hair and white eyes that crinkled with amusement. "Some visitors for you, worour."

"How generous of you to bring me uninvited guests yet again, khour. You must know how much I adore your intrusions." Nuredir rolled his eyes. They were the gold of desert sand, and they might've been beautiful if they weren't so annoyed. "Now that you've had your fun, please leave me alone." He turned back to his work, which consisted of a tray of what looked like embryos moulded from mud.

Esmera's stomach lurched. She had seen her fair share of those at the hospital over the past two years, but they had been red and wet and soft, contorted with their mother's pain. Esmera's pain.

"Nuredir is the creator of life," Tauram murmured in Esmera's ear. He followed Esmera's gaze, but he had misjudged the reason why she couldn't look away from the sight.

As long as she lived, she'd never forget the harsh overhead lights, the pain ebbing and flowing inside her, the heartbreak.

"So, people are literally made from earth?" she asked to distract herself, her voice choked with the emotion tightening her throat.

"Literally." Tauram smiled faintly, as softly as he spoke, but he frowned when he looked into Esmera's face. He might've asked one of his frustratingly curious questions had the goddess not turned into a splash of silver, jumped over the table, and appeared beside her brother.

Zaha's hand closed around her brother's thick forearm, and somehow Esmera knew that as different as they looked, their strengths were equal. "These mortals need your help, Nuredir, and only your help."

For the first time, the god bothered to look at Esmera and her friend. His eyes went wide when they landed on Esmera, his mask of inexpression falling. His mouth fell open when he saw Tauram. He blinked at Anjarah before focusing his gaze on Esmera and Tauram.

"Well, it must be my lucky day to have Prince Tauram and Lady Esmera in my humble abode." Nuredir raised his eyebrows, and Esmera didn't know if he was being sarcastic or if that was just his way of speaking. "What brings you here?" He dusted his hands off on a cloth hanging from a rack hammered into the side of his table.

Esmera had been running through her speech in her head since they started their ascent up the mountain, but now that the god invited her to speak, her mind went blank, and her mouth went dry.

Tauram squeezed her hand before releasing it and steering her forward with a soft smile. She might've shrunk back in his side if his hand didn't remain on the small of her back, a reminder that he supported her even as she stood before a god to speak for them. She took a deep breath and found she could recall her words.

"My family earned your favour once, and you gifted them an earthen army." Her voice quivered. That was obvious to her in a room devoid of any other sounds, but nobody commented. Tauram's hand remained on her back.

Nuredir tilted his head, and his curly hair fell over one-half of his face. "Do go on."

Esmera squared her shoulders and strengthened her voice. She only had one opportunity to convince this god to help her, and she couldn't afford to squander it. "The army was destroyed, but it's the only weapon in existence that can defeat the usurper Ruagu. As its original creator, you are the only one who can rebuild it. Please...this is my request."

The god gazed at Esmera for a moment, his beautiful, unearthly eyes unreadable until they narrowed. "It was your brother who destroyed it."

Esmera's resolve quivered at the accusation in his voice, but she stood tall. She knew what she had seen. Givan had destroyed the army, but it wasn't his fault. "My brother had no choice. He was trying to protect my family."

The god shook his hair out of his face so there was no mistaking that tension in his square jaw. "But he did it willingly?"

"He was threatened." Tears itched in Esmera's eyes at the thought of the little boy who had done his best to save his family, only to be tried like a criminal when he couldn't even defend himself.

"But he made the choice to annihilate my gift?" Nuredir took a step toward Esmera.

It would've been menacing if it wasn't for other mortals in the room, if Esmera wasn't so sure that Zaha would intervene because her brother could smite her for offending him.

"Yes." Esmera's voice shrunk into herself even as she remained straight-backed, as befitted a noblewoman requesting a favour from a god. She didn't like where this was going.

These were like the questions Stephan used to ask when Esmera confronted him in order to convince her that she and not him had started their fight that ended with her sobbing on the floor. Now, the same tactics were being used by a god to convince her that this was her family's fault, that she had no right to ask for his help after what had happened.

She was correct.

Nuredir shook his head, his mouth hardening. "I crafted the original army as a token of gratitude. My debt to your family is repaid, and I owe you nothing more."

He turned away, ending the conversation. Against her better judgment, Esmera tried again.

"Please, I'm begging you. This is our only hope. Milatanur's only hope."

The god glared at Esmera. Tauram's hand curled over her shoulder as if to remind Nuredir that he was here, that Esmera was protected, but she didn't think the god noticed, so fixed was his angry stare on her.

Even so, Esmera stood her ground. She hadn't come this far to fail in her mission. Maybe there was something else they could use against Ruagu, something nobody knew about, but they didn't have time to go searching for it. This was their best bet.

"I'll give you anything you want," said Esmera for lack of anything to offer.

The god's face softened. He took a ball of earth in his hands and rolled it between his palms before looking up at Esmera again.

"Anything?" he asked, and Esmera had the sinking sensation that she, like Givan so many years before her, had walked into a trap.

Tauram's breathed "no" confirmed that, but there was no turning back, so rescinding the offer that would get Nuredir to consider helping them, at least.

"Anything," Esmera whispered even as she wasn't sure what she was getting herself into.

Nuredir appraised her, moulding the clay in his hands into a bean shape. "In that case, I am willing to bargain with you."