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The Story:

What is happiness?

Is it the power to conquer whole dimensions? To make weaker deities tremble before me? To carve out a space in the multiverse, and claim it for my own?

I have all those things.

And yet, I am empty. Purposeless. Alone.

What is happiness?

It’s another’s joy and relief, pouring into me.

Strangers invaded my domain: four hunters aglow with the same orange War magic I was born from, and one wounded prey flickering desperately with the yellow flame of Emotion, filling the cosmos with their fear.

Something stirred in me, a new battle cry ringing in my core. A side of myself I’ve never felt before.

The desire to protect.

The other War spirits fell to my blade, and as the Deity of Emotion looked up at me, their magic flooding my heart with their gratitude, I saw for the first time what I could be.

No longer a destroyer, seeking violence without meaning. Instead, a protector whose power had purpose, whose strength could do good.

An enemy to some, but… to others, a friend.

What is happiness?

It’s being surrounded by fellow deities who admire your strength instead of fearing it.

It’s feeling the magic your body is made of entwining with another’s, combining into something new.

Emotion and I didn’t know what would happen when our dance began. Didn’t know that the parts of us that had mingled would become incompatible with us, and split gently off into a life all their own.

But as our newborn daughter looked up at me, her magic flooding my heart with her confusion, curiosity, and trust, I knew I’d discovered a joy that I had to share with all the other deities.

What is happiness?

Is it taking pride in your child? Then I might never feel it.

I should never have left my daughter alone. She shares my violent nature, and unlike me, she didn’t choose to restrain it.

She forced the Goddess of Memory to mingle with her, while Memory’s first newborn watched in terror. And then, she attacked her own daughter.

Now, my granddaughter quivers in the arms of the son of Healing and Memory, snarling and threatening any who approach. And the other deities speak of banishing our children to other dimensions, for fear of their power and the evil they inherited from me.

I thought I’d overcome that side of myself. Instead, I passed it on to my descendants.

What is happiness?

It’s seeing your granddaughter conjure a blade to defend her half-brother, then hold back the killing blow when he seeks mercy for the towering beast whose eggs he’d approached.

It’s seeing him fall asleep in her arms.

It’s seeing her admired instead of feared.

My daughter, trapped alone in the Farthest Reach, has yet to be redeemed. But if my granddaughter can control her violence and earn her vulnerable brother’s trust, perhaps there’s hope for my child.

Perhaps there’s hope for me.