A golden thread slipped through the air, as quick as lightning, threatening to cut the beautiful man’s head off. His skin was liquid ptinum, his veins like streams of gold. His eyes held the wisdom of the greatest elders, swirling with all manner of colours. He held a pocket wat one hand.

  He clicked the sedary button on his pocket watch, the tiny red hand spinning quickly across the entire face, making a full rotation in a single sed. As it spun around, he bowed his head iing, before the thread whipped across empty air where his head had been a sed ago.

  “Good afternoon, sister,” Klok greeted, smiling warmly towards his sister, with that very same smile. The miimer on his pocket watch tio tick down, the seds passing by as time remaiill all around them.

  “What are you two doing here?” Uveil asked, as though she hadn’t just tried to kill her brother. She pulled the golden thread back with a pull of her fihough Klok clicked the sedary button of his pocket watce more, dug uhe thread.

  “Haven’t I bowed enough?” Klok asked, fshing another smile towards his sister.

  Uveil’s brow pulsed upon seeing that smile of his, and she darted forward towards the spinning , but she found her brothers oher side of her. Klok pressed the button on his pocket watch, managing to freeze the golden thread in pce more, while their brother, Ono, tried to grab her to freeze her ih his godly strength.

  Ono’s form was far taller thaher of them, and though he was quite thiill held great strength within his divine form. Yet, even he uood how foolish it was to grapple his sister like this, especially since she had that.

  The ring of the scales echoed through the air, and the pair of gods found their strength fading. Uveil grabbed Ono’s head, and with her new found strength, smmed it into the earth beh them. The dirt kicked up all around them, the earth beh crag.

  “Using the scales against us?” Klok chuckled, as though he wasn’t uhreat of being killed by his sister’s hand. “Mother will tell you off.”

  “I don’t want to hear it from you,” Uveil almost growled, f Ono’s head deeper into the earth, before, somehow, her hand slipped across the back of his head, and the God of Luck quickly rolled aside, catg his breath. “When mother finds out what you two are doing, don’t expect to be able to take sus again within a thousand Great Twilights.”

  Uveil was acutely aware of the flipping , which was slowly making its way to the earth beh it, as well as the pocket wat her brother’s hand. Fag against just one of the greatest artefacts was difficult, but two? Without the scale, she would have had no ce, but right now her ces were even.

  “Sister, please, if mother spots us fighting, she’ll be upset,” Klok said, bending backwards to dodge the golden thread, which was nowhere near as great as the three artefacts in their possession, but was still more than enough to maim a God for a few millennia.

  “Adam is my charge,” Uveil snarled, barieeth towards her siblings. “How dare you barge in!”

  “You won’t share your toys with us?” Klok asked, clig the sedary timer again, but found the form of his sister above him, bringing the bottom of the scales down upon his head.

  A red thread slipped out of the scale and ed Klok’s waist, pulling him aside, the scale narrowly missing him. Uveil’s brows pulsed again, as her gre fell upon Ono. “I should have known it was you!”

  “There are beings and matters beyond any of us,” Ono said, calmly. “This is merely one of those things.”

  “This isn’t any fool you’re messing with, brother,” Uveil said, staring into her brother’s eyes, but she could see the flipping still makings its way down past him. “If he finds out you were the oo make him miss his children’s birthday…”

  “It is unlikely it would move into the Divine Realm,” Ono replied.

  “The word unlikely is infinitely different to the word impossible.”

  Ono remained silent for a long moment, a moment that erfectly as long as Uveil would wait before she would act. “How would he know it was us?”

  “Why wouldn’t I tell him?”

  “e now, sister,” Klok said, holding his pocket wat his left hand, daring not to use it as a on while his sister possessed the scales. “You wouldn’t.”

  “To think that the pair of you would work together,” Uveil said, the golden thread beginning to float into the air, slowly shifting like gentle waves as she readied herself. She didn’t have much time left, and if she wasn’t able to stop the …

  “Don’t remind me,” Klok cackled, before he stepped forward. “I never want to hear about it again!”

  “It must be done,” Ono said, stepped forward as he called forth a golden staff from nothingness, g against the scales. His golden staff shook violently, threatening to shatter as it came across an artefact that was beyond even its own might. His staff could guarahe existence of aire empire for its wielder, but it was nothing more than a toy against the scales.

  Klok did his best to deal with the golden thread, making sure it didn’t around any part of him, while using his pocket watch to freeze it in pce. He couldn’t make to attack, but he could keep Uveil pinned here while the tio flip.

  With every roll of the dice, with every flip of a , a imeline would form. Adam’s as, whether he did something or nothing, ged the world with eastance, in the same way that every being’s as helped ge the world.

  Justinian Bckwater was the King of Aldnd.

  It was not because the Bd Yellow ships had stopped a rebellion due a disease spreading like wildfire.

  It was not because the Iyr had assisted the Kingdom during the Demonic Devastations.

  It was not because Solomon the Wise releo the Iyr’s demands.

  It was not because the first treaty betweehe lo standing alliao date, was fed.

  It was not because Kal Bkvatr slew the Dragon which pgued their nd.

  It was not because the enter ented the bde with specific properties.

  It was not because the smith whed the bde had tempered it so perfectly.

  It was because all of these things, and the tless little deade by many others, were true.

  Yet, if the smith had not tempered the bde well enough, then the enter would have decided against enting the bde. Then Kal Bkvatr wouldn’t have had the ce to face the Dragon, and perhaps this nd would have been full of the Iyrmen, or the Drakken, or the Aswadians.

  Adam had e across an insurmountable foe.

  Adam had deyed more of his adventures due to gaining children.

  Adam had deyed assisting Dunes properly during the year.

  Such a timeline poio misfortu was not because Adam, a single person, held so much power. It was just that, if all of these things were true at o meant the world was heading towards disaster.

  Uveil inhaled deeply as she mao dodge catch the golden staff with her golden thread, keeping it pinned. She had also mao pin Klok’s foot into the earth with the bottom of her scale staff. She let out a soft sigh, before her entire body glowed gold.

  “I knew I smelled you rats!” the Goddess excimed, filled with a passionate fury. She had been far too calm during the bout, and in order to maintain bance, she allowed the fury to overwhelm her.

  The scales shook violently, bang themselves stantly as the trio of Gods engaged in battle. The staff met the scales, still barely managing to remain intact against the artefact. Klok bobbed and weaved through the golden thread, spinning and flipping around as he tio freeze it in pce for a sed at a time. He could barely mao keep it from slig him apart, but it was all that was required of him.

  “How dare you interfere with my rights!” Uveil tio press Ono backwards, having forced his Luto Bah her scales. Klok tio try and bother her while his siblings fought seriously.

  Klok froze the golden thread in pce, panting as he found the effort of dealing with a God far more troublesome. ‘You should have called for Sekond instead.’ His entire body began to grow heavy as he dodged the thread, freezing it as it almost cut his neck off, bowing once more. However, as he froze the golden thread in pce, he watched as a small golden bead pierced through his chest.

  Klok fell before his sister, coughing up blood as the bead settled itself within him, and begun to poison his body with its magic. His entire body tensed up and vulsed, but he mao nd in such a way that the pocket watch was covered by the rest of his body, proteg it from Uveil’s wrath.

  With his brother downed by Uveil’s bead, Ono called forth divine magic. Golden light surrounded him and began to engulf Uveil, but it was torn apart by her golden thread, before the scale struo i, and his entire body rocked with pain as his bones shattered.

  As Ono stumbled backwards, Uveil struck the earth with the staff of her scales, with a dome of light beginning to expand towards Ono, and made its way towards the behind him.

  As the fell to the earth, the light began to near it, threatening to force it upwards.

  The light stopped a mere hair’s width away from it, and Uveil turo see Klok wiping his blood across the pocket watch’s face, while he smiled in the way that he did. She heard the drop, and her eyes darted towards it.

  Tails.

  “Mother damn it.”

  ‘I prob-,’

  Adam gasped as the earth beh his feet gave way, and the entire group fell within the newly formed hole which had appeared in the blink of a wasn’t dark as one might have expected, but rather full of colours mingling together. Golden light fshed nearby, but before they could see its source, the colours engulfed the group as they fell.

  Adam’s mind was bnk as he fell into the sea of colours, his entire body tingling as the magivaded the area around him, fshing hot and cold repeatedly. Adam was ready to cast his spell onto the teens as Kitool’s voice rang through the air.

  “Grab onto someohe Iyrman cried, grabbing onto Jaygak, who was closest to her.

  “By the Gods!” Remy shouted as the colours struck him all over, and began to pull him away like a river. Jeremy fared er as the sea of can t him down.

  Adam swam through the colours, which ran all across his body, before he grabbed their wrists. “Calm down!” Adam shouted, though his ow pounded wildly with uainty.

  The Half Elf gnced around to see the teens grabbing onto each other. He heard Vonda praying as she held her shield, calm iorm of colours, but Jurot grabbed her and swam towards Adam.

  “Jurot!” Adam shouted. “What the fu-,”

  The sea of ced around them, before dragging them under, until all was bck.

  Of course this was going to happen.