"It was the right of inheritance," the queen frowns, "The late king of gods had always favored Phanes to inherit the throne, but he gave that right without anyone's knowledge.
Because nobody knew, when Phanes ran away, the god realm had concluded that Vita would ascend the throne and Phanes would be exiled.
Nonetheless, during the coronation ceremony, when the powers of the king of gods were to transfer to Vita, something very messed up happened.
She almost turned to ashes if it were not for Erebus's interference. The king of gods gave the right of inheritance to someone else, so Vita was rejected by the will inside the mausoleum where all the previous kings of gods rested. The powers were only transferred halfway to Vita.
The gods immediately understood that the right of inheritance was with Phanes. However, the opinion of the succession was still on an equal split amongst the gods. Phanes was condemned for running away, while Vita was criticized for not being chosen.
However, one tiny idea sparked a wildfire: what if Phanes didn't have another choice than to run away? Since the late king of gods died mysteriously, the entire god realm became more convinced of that possibility. It sparked a war where arguments turned to violence.
Vita managed to calm the realm after a week of interference. Nonetheless… The god Erebus who was supposed to marry Vita...."
The queen stops while biting her lips in distress, "... had fallen."
The queen knew what that meant for Phanes. After all, Phanes and Erebus had loved each other. Phanes told her love story to the queen many times, so hearing from Karta that Erebus has betrayed the god realm, the queen cannot help but feel heartache for Phanes.
"Why? What caused Erebus to turned into a fallen god?" Kyrie asks.
[This does not match up… Why and how? Can a god really go through devastation and turn to a fallen god just like that? There had to be a reason, something that overthrew everything that the individual believed to change so drastically.]
But the queen can only shake her head. She looks over to Imogen, who remained quiet about the question.
Knowing that Imogen would not input more into the story, the queen continues, "The fallen god Erebus was later captured by Vita mobilizing an army of gods. Then, he was confined. Because he was Vita's fiance, the other gods didn't say much over that decision since Erebus was under Vita's control. However, the fact that he turned into a fallen god remains a mystery for me. Karta remained quiet over the reason as well.
Later, after the god realm has stabilized, an enormous search for Phanes began. The complete ceremony of succession had to happen.
There were too many worlds, so it took a while for the gods to find Phanes. Once they located Phanes in this world, they tried to capture her.
In normal circumstances, Phanes would have yielded and let the heavenly soldiers take her. However, Phanes almost lost her life fighting against their aggressive approach. Most likely, they didn't want Phanes to go back to the god realm alive.
Only when the news reached Karta and Vita that the situation got under control. The central suspension was that Vita's faction had sent those heavenly soldiers to kill off Phanes because Vita would naturally not do it since they are sisters.
Yet, the question remained of why her faction would even do that. The right of inheritance had to be transferred when the possessor was still alive. Otherwise, fate would give the right of inheritance to a newborn demigod.
They had to look out for traitors inside the god realm. After all, the king of gods, a deity who should have been standing on the pinnacle, was killed.
Since we were talking next to the bed where Phanes laid, Phanes could hear our conversation. She regained consciousness after Karta poured some essence into her body. We only notice when we saw her staring into space quietly in thought.
She sat up from her bed and greeted her sister with a bow. She felt responsible to the god realm and the Fae Kingdom, so she decided to depart with Karta.
They were planning to stay a bit longer since Phanes wasn't completely recovered. Phanes was really happy meeting my baby girl, Theresia. My husband and I picked the name from the word theros, which means summer. We planned for her to be born in the summer.
But one day, the entire Fae Kingdom shook. The heavenly soldiers seemed to know where the entrance was, roughly. Maybe too roughly… Around the area of two hundred thousand kilometers square…. They were trying to break in by force, so Karta and Phanes had to leave.
To increase the security of the entrance, Karta and Phanes fortified the entrance of the kingdom. Also, they covered the entrance with a poisonous mist so that no one could get in.
If I weren't hesitating that much, I would have adequately apologized. Who knew that was the last time that I would see Phanes.
Even though Phanes left with Karta, the heavenly soldiers never went away from this world. They seemed like looking for something, but what it was, I had no idea. Phanes told me to remain inside my kingdom until the sudden connection between the two worlds gets solved.
Since I didn't keep our relationship, at least, I wanted to keep a promise: a promise that lasted for this long.
Too bad….
Too bad I cannot tell Phanes that I am keeping her promise… Or that I have turned a new leaf…. Or that her goddaughter is doing well….
After Vita came to this world and spread her doctrine, I got to know that Phanes was dead."
"She is not dead," Imogen interrupts.
Kyrie and the queen widen their eyes.
"Wait… You knew she was not dead?" Kyrie exclaims.
"Yeah, but I didn't know that woman was her until you gave me her description. I was only then able to remember her."
[When… ah! Before she entered the first gate with Ian…. So…. Phanes is not dead?]
"You met her?"
"Only once when I was very young. I stumbled into the place she was locked in."
"Locked in?!?!"