"The Seventh Prince of Cretea arrives in the throne room of His Majesty." A servant announced his presence. Raphael arrived at his father's throne room and saw the older man sitting on his throne silently.
Despite the number of festivities and banquets held in his honor, the King of Cretea didn't seem to pay much attention. The only indicator that his father was celebrating was the presence of a wine goblet in his hand.
For a moment, Raphael waited and saw his father make a motion with his hand and a servant suddenly declared. "The King of Cretea permits the Seventh Prince to ascend up by 1,444th steps of the Pantheon."
There used to be no need for any formalities between a meeting of a father and son. However, this time, there was some distance. A certain gravitas in the atmosphere dictated whether or not a god or goddess could approach their King.
Raphael didn't want to get distracted as he slowly ascended the steps towards the king of their kingdom. It was possible to simply teleport up there if one was powerful or it was permitted, but most gods and goddesses paid respect by doing it on foot.
Once he finally reached the place, Raphael immediately knelt down and lowered his head.
"Raphael. You may lift your head," the king spoke.
Raphael did just that and narrowed his eyes on his father. He spoke slowly and did his best to keep his voice modulated. "Father, I've come here to talk with you."
The King of Cretea finally placed the goblet of wine down. He looked down on his son. "I can see that it is not to wish your father good wishes, is it?"
Raphael took great effort to hold back his anger. "No. I wish to greet you with good wishes, but I actually come here for another reason."
"Is it for the incident that your wife caused earlier, Raphael?" His father asked in a knowing tone. "It is not easy to overlook such incidents, even if it came from your wife, my son. Tell me, what has caused her to ravage?"
"You know very well what you have done!" Raphael bursted.
"Calm down, Raphael." the older man said. "If my own flesh and blood raises his own voice at me, it simply shows how lenient I have been and it would reflect badly on me. I do not understand what you are referring to."
"The spell that you've casted on my wife is too much for her." Raphael said.
"And so she is lashing out in anger at my very own celebration?" The King of Cretea raised a brow. "As usual, her temper is outstanding and it does not reflect kindly on you, my son. Is that not enough proof of her character to you?"
"You've been putting Rowena in a difficult position, Father," Raphael shook his head. "I do not see how this is a test but simply a way of showing your disapproval with whom I've chosen to love."
"If she is finding it too difficult then it goes to show that she may not truly love you as much as you think."
Raphael stared up at his father and clenched his fist. "No. Rowena loves me… and if you truly have no intention of lowering the punishment, may I simply ask for more time, father?"
"One month seems like plenty enough time, my son," The King of Cretea said. "The two of you have already known each other long enough."
Raphael thought so too, but it wasn't working and the deadline was coming fast. He needed more time to help Rowena get used to the new things that she was seeing while still making a strong connection with her. He was desperate for time and other options.
"Father, can't you just turn me into a monster for real and remove the spell on Rowena's eyes?" Raphael asked. "I do not mind taking on a monstrous form for the rest of my life to prove our love."
"Then you will truly make yourself vulnerable, Raphael." the King of Cretea said. "If you become a monster, you will be stripped of your powers and cannot protect yourself. What will happen then?"
"Please, if you can't let that happen then please reconsider the deadline." Raphael pleaded. "The two of us will need more time."
"If you insist again, Raphael. I will banish you, my son."
***
Rowena's heart pounded in her chest and she froze. Raphael and the King of Cretea were so high up on the stairs and she was still at the foot of the grand staircase that led to the throne, but she heard it clearly.
The King of Cretea was going to banish his son?
It was obviously because of her.
"Father…"
"If you truly insist on being with your wife, Raphael. I will make it easy for the two of you." The King of Cretea's voice echoed across the temple. "I will strip immortality and banish the two of you from Cretea."
Rowena's eyes widened and she immediately backed away. She looked up the thousands of steps that led up to the King of Cretea and ran away. She was weak-kneed, faint from the news as she heard His Majesty's words.
It rang across her ears like a death sentence.
She didn't care about herself. No. No. If she was going to be human again then she did not mind it. There was nothing wrong for Rowena to be human again or be banished from this place.
However, could she do that to Raphael?
"No, he doesn't deserve it." Rowena darted across the streets of Cretea and ran as far as she could. She didn't know where she was going, she just knew that she needed to be away. As far away as possible.
The air around her was so suffocating that she longed for a chance to… breathe? Recollect her thoughts? No. Rowena was already guilty and terrified of the King of Cretea's ultimatum. She would never want Raphael to suffer.
"He can't accept that. I'll refuse it." Rowena said to herself. "But… as long as I'm here, it will loom over him constantly."
She knew her mortality right from the start, but for someone like Raphael? No. She couldn't take that away from him by being here. The hideous witch that appeared at their house was right, Rowena was Raphael's downfall.
"I…I can still prevent this." Rowena muttered underneath her breath as tears stung her eyes. She knew that Raphael was going to hate her for it, but she was going to do it to prevent him from getting harmed.
There was no way that she'd see the love of her life suffer.
Rowena left the utopia of Cretea and ended up in the wilderness that didn't seem to end at all. She traveled as fast as she could to the place that Raphael once took her before when she first arrived in Cretea.
It was a place that took her breath away and it was what created the paradise of this god realm. Mountains and hills that reached the sky, a dense forest that one could get lost into, and a wonderful valley filled with flowers of countless varieties.
Rowena ran past all of them until she reached what could have been the end of the place. It was the most important part of Cretea's nature. She saw the multitude of rivers that ran across the land and eventually disappeared into a thick fog.
She heard that if you kept swimming, you'd be able to leave Cretea and end up in a multitude of destinations. Rivers that allowed one to arrive in other realms.
"River of Life. River of Death." Rowena recounted two of the most important rivers she could think of. They were the main rivers that kept the cycle of life in a constant flow and with Cretea being the land above the cycle.
Raphael once told her that and her own father taught her that before. Rowena didn't think that there would be any use for her, but she took the step towards the rivers and tried to identify them by how they flowed.
"The River of Life is like a bubbling brook, it's continually leaping and bursting forth with energy." Rowena eyed the river on the right and saw the golden stream of waters which bounced off and scattered sunlight.
Finally, Rowena glanced at her left and realized it was too easy to distinguish between the two of them. "The River of Death is still and has no need to move for everything eventually comes to this place, and so it is far deeper than one assumes."
The river was pure black and there was no ripple whatsoever in the water. It was where one's life ended.
Rowena gulped slightly and glanced at the other rivers farther away from where she was standing. There were a lot of them and she couldn't even describe all of them at this moment.
Some were sparkling blue like a normal river, others shimmered like rainbows and there was even a river of flames which shocked her… but she couldn't take her eyes away from the River of Death.
It beckoned to her.
She just needed to step in.
