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I am the betrothed of Norman Ellison, the War God. For three hundred years I followed him, through heaven and earth, through three lifetimes of mortal trials.
But when the third life of trials was over and we returned, he had fallen in love with a demon-clan woman named Moira Sullivan.
He even ignored the counsel of every god, set on bringing her back to the Ninefold Heaven.
My father, my mother, and my sister went to demand justice for me.
But what came back was only a torn, ruined scrap of their robes.
Not even a trace of their inner cores remained.
I stormed the Ninefold Heaven to confront him, and found Norman gently wiping the corner of Moira's lips.
That smear of blood at her mouth belonged to my sister, Nerissa Rivers.
"Norman, give me back my family's lives!"
I threw everything I had into a killing strike. But how could I ever be a match for the War God?
He beat me down and spoke, light as air. "Stop overreaching yourself, Larkin Rivers. That your family's inner cores could nourish my Moira is a blessing they should be grateful for."
"Submit to your fate like a good girl, and I can promise you'll still be the honored wife of the War God."
He crouched down and wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth.
"Go home. And if you keep throwing these tantrums, I can't promise this inner core of yours won't end up on Moira's plate too."
But Norman had been deceived. The Moira Sullivan at his side was no ordinary demon-clan woman.
She was the four-legged beast that has devoured men since ancient times: the ram-beast Tulou.
The day they threw me back into the Rivers, I was drenched in blood, yet my fist stayed shut tight around that faint, glowing spark of phoenix blood in my palm.
"Norman, bewitched by a demon-beast, you are no War God!"
"You harmed my family. Demon or beast, I will drag her down into the Eighteen Hells!"
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When they heard me rave like that, everyone in the Rivers tried to talk me out of it.
"Larkin, why not just let it go!"
"Your father, your mother, your sister Nerissa dead without a whole body to bury, that was their fate too!"
"Moira Sullivan was a demon-clan woman to begin with, all crooked ways and evil arts."
"And besides, with the War God Norman shielding her, there's no way you could ever be her match!"
My people were not cold or heartless.
They had simply grown too used to being trampled on.
Their first instinct was to bow to fate.
I lowered my head and looked at that little spark of phoenix blood in my palm, glowing like a small flame beginning to burn.
They did not know I was not born of the Rivers water clan.
Five hundred years ago, my father and mother were traveling abroad and found a phoenix egg they carried home, and from that egg I hatched.
They searched everywhere for my origins and turned up no clue at all, so they simply raised me as their own.
And fearing that my origins might draw the envy of wicked people,
they fed me a breath-masking pill from the time I was small, all through my growing years, to hide the phoenix aura on me.
So everyone believed I was only an ordinary water-clan girl. Only my parents and my sister knew the secret.
Later my parents retired, and the throne of the water deity passed to my sister.
I had thought Norman the War God and I would marry before long, and that my parents could finally roam the mountains and rivers and enjoy some time to themselves.
I never dreamed that Norman would come back from his trials and bring home a variable like this.
They only went to ask for an explanation on my behalf, and they never came back at all.
Remembering Moira's vicious face, I clenched my fists until the bones creaked.
"All things in this world balance one another, one thing conquering the next."
"So what if she's a demon-clan woman protected by the War God?"
"I refuse to believe there's no way to bring her down."
I sealed myself away for half a month, healing my grave wounds, and all the while I never stopped searching for where my parents and sister had gone.
But the more I searched, the more frantic I became.
If it were truly as Norman had said, that Moira had torn out their inner cores, then they would still be alive.
Then I would surely be able to find some remnant of their breath.
But now their breath was gone without a trace, as if they had never existed at all.
Then, on the night of the full moon, I drew the thousand-year divine sword up out of the Rivers.
This was the ancient divine sword my parents once sealed away.
It could slay immortals and destroy demons.
I ran my hand lightly over the scabbard. "Tonight, I'll have to ask you to fight one battle at my side."
They say the demon clan's power wanes sharply on the night of the full moon. Perhaps tonight was the best moment to strike by surprise.
I lifted the sword, my eyes cold, ready to storm the Ninefold Heaven.
Behind me came a shrill, desperate cry.
"Larkin, don't do something foolish! That's the War God Norman, you can't beat him!"
It was the Land Warden of the Rivers.
He was old now, and still he held his post at the Rivers, guarding the people of this land.
The last time the Rivers village was struck by flood, even the Land Warden's shrine was washed away.
Yet he had used his true form to shield the whole village, and not one soul was lost.
Everyone marveled that the Land Warden had shown his power, but no one knew that to ward off that flood he had nearly spent every last drop of his divine strength.
"Land Warden, don't try to stop me!"
"My sister Nerissa was your goddaughter too. She was killed and left without even a body to bury. Can you truly accept that?"
The Land Warden covered his face, and grieving, bitter tears ran down between his fingers.
"Larkin, of course I can't accept it. But I can't stand here and watch you throw your life away too."
"Even if the War God Norman is your betrothed, he's been bewitched now by that demon-clan woman. If something should happen…"
I lifted my eyes coldly toward the Ninefold Heaven.
"If I die, please remember to find my parents' and my sister's remains for me."
"And if you cannot, then take my soul as the offering. Let me be forever denied rebirth, and buy justice for my parents and my sister with it!"
