Even the wind has gone quiet for now.\n\nYou suppose you should be grateful. Without it there is almost the illusion of [[warmth]].

Grey robes and wing-shaped scars cut into each cheek.\n\nThey had armor tucked away in deep cave storehouses, but you never saw them use it. Still, you had no doubt they could defend this place if [[called upon|eyes past]] to do so.

You took a step backwards, intending to flee and find the augurs. They would know what to do. You had no idea how to tend to a [[wounded god]].

<<set $rooster = $rooster + 1>>The pay was good, though you knew it was because the others avoided this place.\n\nThe north was too cold, too distant. But you had always been searching for something and you hoped that here, in this station built by scientists like you, you might find the answers.\n\nSo far you haven't found what you were looking for. Judging by the power left in the back up batteries, you only have a few days left until you [[freeze to death.]]\n

Then she smiles. But it's the same smile she gave you when you cried for her.\n\n"I understand," she says, and it's as gentle as you've ever heard her be.\n\nShe reaches out, and you flinch [[away.]]

And finally, you find it.\n\nThe carvings have worn away. No one suspects what once was in this place. You circle the ruin that was once your home, a thousand life times ago. It looks so much smaller now, although you're not sure if it's the erosion, or if you are just so much [[more]] now.

You don't want to.\n\nEven just the memory has nostalgia twisting in your chest. You have been having these dreams since you were a<<if $gender eq "g">> little girl<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">> little boy<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">> small child<<endif>>, but it is only now that you are able to [[remember them.]]

<<set $fox = $fox + 1>>Though the dreams come only a few times a month, afterwards they leave you hollow. Nothing feels real anymore. Even now it affects you; you find your eyes can no longer focus enough to see the doctor's [[face|dream]].

From the frequency of her absence you guessed the situation was worsening outside the temple. But every time she returned she had a smile on her face and reassurance for the augurs.\n\nIt was many battles before this [[changed.]]

Your god moved as if to run to your side, and the sister's face contorted.\n\n"How disgusting," she muttered, and raised her arms. You noticed in that moment that all four of her arms were made of bleached bone. "No matter. <<if $gender eq "g">>She<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">> He<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>They<<endif>> will be mine in the end-- and then you can return to the center palace with me."\n\nYou realized she meant sooner rather than later as your breath began to shorten, your heart giving a painful and unnatural throb.\n\n[["No!"]]

Back then, everything had changed with those tears.\n\nWhen she was home at the temple, she spoke to you, chuckled comments that you fumbled to respond to. The augurs had not prepared you for conversation with a [[god.]]

Thank you for playing.\n\n\n[[credits]]

Sometime later:\n\nThe heat from the fire drives the spring chill from your fingers. \n\nThe sun has not yet set but still townspeople gather, some tending the fire, others shifting their [[masks]] uncomfortably against their shoulders.

.passage a { color:gray; }\n.passage a:hover { color:gray; }

[[Sometime later:|sometime later 3]]

.passage a { color:goldenrod; }\n.passage a:hover { color:goldenrod; }

The sun dips below the horizon.\n\nAs the light reddens and the shadows stretch, aided by the ever growing bonfire, you see the others begin to fidget and you feel your own feet shuffle in anticipation.\n\nDancing away one's worries of winter is somehow comforting, even when one is streaked with sweat and struggling to breathe inside the prison of one's mask. \n\nYou take a deep breath.\n\nAnd then someone seizes your [[hand]].

More plants than you expected. Vague and blurry paintings on the walls.\n\nIt is utterly uninteresting, but you would do anything to avoid thinking about [[why you are here.|future 3]]

You had lived in the temple for so long, formally becoming an augur had never seemed necessary. But now you wished for the wing-shaped scars across your cheeks. Anything to mark your devotion for [[your god]].

Godblood

Outside, a creak. A crunch of snow. Perhaps the wind has started [[again.]]

You have enjoyed this life more than most of the others, you think. But you're tired of waiting for her to find you.\n\nYou've been ready to go for a long [[time]].

"Let <<if $gender eq "g">>her<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">>him<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>them<<endif>> be reborn. Let me search for <<if $gender eq "g">>her<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">> him<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>them<<endif>>. Until I can find <<if $gender eq "g">>her<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">> him<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>them<<endif>>, let <<if $gender eq "g">>her<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">>him<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>them<<endif>> live-- and when I do, let <<if $gender eq "g">>her<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">>him<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>them<<endif>> choose to keep that life or to follow me."\n\n"<<if $gender eq "g">>She<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">>He<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>They<<endif>> won't remember you," the sister cautioned. "At least, not at first." [[You could tell she was intrigued.]]\n\n

You remember this, but only as if in a dream. The faces of your parents are blurs at your periphery, their hands on your shoulders dry and light.\n\nAs you approached, you had eyes only for the [[temple]].\n\n

[[Sometime later:|future 2]]

"Meet me at the end of the third corridor tomorrow," she said, and you nodded, too stunned to respond.\n\nWhen you arrived she was already there, and her face lit up when her eyes found you.\n\nYour face [[burned.]]

At first, nothing.\n\nThen, her laugh.\n\nFamiliar and unfamiliar, it still has you spinning on the spot to face her. If the temple seemed smaller than you remembered, she is taller than you thought, a tower with clouding dark hair and the warmest, brightest smile.\n\n"I knew it was you," you echo, although she doesn't say it [[this time]]. Her smile grows.

Except you don't.\n\nBecause she catches you.\n\nShe grips your wrist and rights you again, that laughter shaking her shoulders. She releases you, and reaches up, pulling her mask over her head with impossible ease.\n\nYour heart drops in horror, even as her hair flies out around her like a dark cloud, damp with sweat, a few strands sticking to her cheeks. Even as she turns those eyes on you.\n\n"I knew it was you!" she says around her laughter, pure joy on her face, and you are helpless to stop her from lifting your own mask, dropping it on the stones with a hollow thud.\n\n"I knew it was you," she repeats, palm to your cheek even as you hear the murmurs of the [[crowd]] around you.

Tales of invaders to the north.\n\nYou heard the whispers first, and later the pleas from village folk come to seek a miracle.\n\nYou stood in your place at the side of the senior augur and tried not to search the crowd for your parents' faces. \n\n"We are not strong enough to stop them," the people pleaded.\n\n"Please... You must do [[something]]."

After another long pause, in which you struggle to elaborate, the doctor sighs.\n\n"I can make you forget the dreams," they tell you, closing their notebook, and you swallow.\n\n[[Of course you want to forget.]] Thats why you are here, isn't it?

The years have blurred together. There are augurs younger than you now. Still, you never spared a thought to how it would end.\n\nYou suppose in that aspect, you were still [[young and foolish]].

Sometime later:\n\nYou shuffle your feet to hear the snow crunch beneath them. There is no sound in this place unless you make it, not since the radio fizzled out and went [[silent.]]

[[Sometime later:|move on]]

The two of you were outside now.\n\nThe black stone of the temple disappeared along with the horizon, and the star strewn sky stretched overhead, wrapping the both of you in soft velvet darkness.\n\nHere on the sloping roof of the temple you could only barely see her face, but you could swear that she was [[smiling.]]

Your memories become more clear with every life. At least now you understand why your head always felt so crowded.\n\nYou remember: She found you by the fire, she found you in snow. You remember the time you nearly forgot her, without knowing how high the stakes were.\n\nNow that you understand, you are able to live a little easier. You love your parents-- these ones, at least. You have friends, although not many. And this time, you are certain.\n\nYou are going to find [[her.]]\n

Tall. At least a head taller than the tallest augur. Taller than anyone you'd seen before or since.\n\nGrey eyes. Dark hair. A smile that warmed your chest to see it.\n\nShe was the god of battle and protection and do-what-we-must, but to you in that moment, she might as well have been the god of [[miracle|something]].

You can find no mention of her in textbooks or mythology websites or at the museum. The world has moved on.\n\nBut you have not.\n\nYou cannot.\n\nAnd so you [[search]].

"Witch," you hear one say, and then a sharp spike of pain in your chest.\n\nHer grey eyes go wide when blood splatters the front of her dress. The blade has gone right through you from behind: when you look down, you can see the tip protruding from your breastbone. \n\nYour knees buckle.\n\nThe last thing you see before the darkness is not her, but your mask, abandoned on the stones. Firelight glimmers in the hollows of empty <<if $mask eq "fox">>fox<<endif>><<if $mask eq "rooster">>rooster<<endif>><<if $mask eq "hare">>hare<<endif>> [[eyes|eyes past]].

<<set $hare = $hare + 1>> <<set $mask = "hare">>The hare.\n\nDiligent but flighty, creator of tales but ender of none.\n\n[[That's right.|onward]]

<<set $hare = $hare + 1>>There was a question that haunted you since you were small.\n\nYou woke with the words on your lips but you could never remember what they had been. You had always been searching for something and you hoped this place, this station built by scientists like you, would hold the answers.\n\nSo far you haven't found what you were looking for. Judging by the power left in the back up batteries, you only have a few days until you [[freeze to death.]]\n

As you choose the rooster, you feel this is only just. You will never have to die again, and now you can turn your own kind eye upon others, humans who have not yet been rewarded for their efforts. You have always been fair.\n\nGod of recompense and congratulation and you-have-done well.\n\nThat's [[you]].

You run from the office, and you never really stop running.\n\nYou run almost until you are old. You keep dreaming, you keep searching.\n\nAfter awhile, you find you [[don't really mind.]]

As instructed, you moved closer, cupping warm water in your hands and rinsing away the bloodstains. She shifted when the water came too close to the gash on her back, so you wiped at the edges with your fingers, careful and gentle.\n\nA hot tear dripped down your cheek. You gave a startled sob, drawing your hand across your eyes in a furious swipe. You hadn't meant to [[cry.]]

And then--\n\n[["Let me go."]]\n\n[["Take me with you."]]

Her.\n\nGod of battle and protection and do-what-we-must.\n\nYou loved her.\n\nBut not [[yet|temple]].

Your parents loved you. Of course they did. \n\nBut in the end, when famine came and the fields would not take seed, they had only one choice: to give you to the temple.\n\n[[You, their only daughter.|daughter]]\n[[You, their only son.|son]]\n[[You, their only child.|child]]\n

That was how you found yourself entering deeper into the god's chambers, her weight leaned against your shoulder. Up close she seemed even taller, but you found you had no trouble supporting her tired form.\n\nSeveral bewildering turns through stone hallways revealed a shallow pool sunken into the dark stone. She sank into the water gratefully, her armor cast to the side. From where you knelt at the side of the pool you could feel the heat emanating from its surface.\n\nHer back was turned to you. You could see the blood like molten gold across her [[shoulder blades]]. And higher up, just beside her neck, the [[wound]].

<<set $fox = $fox + 1>><<set $mask = "fox">>The fox.\n\nTricksy and clever, never still, but sentimental.\n\n[[That's right.|onward]]

Black stone rearing high against the bright sky, in blades and archways built bleedingly sharp, all to honor the name of your [[god]]. How could you look away?\n\nThis place would be your home for the rest of your [[life]].

Thank you for playing.\n\n[[Try again?|Start]]

You bolt to your feet. The potted plant crashes to the floor, earthenware shards flying.\n\n"I'm sorry," you say breathlessly. \n\n[[You do not know what else to say.|run away]]

Sometime later:\n\n"Please," the dream doctor tells you, and you pull your attention from your [[surroundings]], turning back towards them in their tall chair. \n\n[["Tell me about these dreams."]]

Sometime later:\n\nThe only sound is the rattling breath of the patients in the next room. You are grateful for the moment of peace, if only so that you can consult the records again.\n\nSurely, you must have missed something.\n\nDisease does not appear out of [[nowhere]].

Your god breathed soft in your ear, her chest rising and falling in peaceful sleep. You brushed your fingertips against the rough stone beneath you, writing out the things you were still too shy to say. Maybe it was a heresy to write such things in the looping [[language]] of the temple, but you were sure she would not mind.\n\nYour eyes itched with exhaustion, but your chest was still too brimming to sleep.\n\nEven if you had, the [[scream]] would have woken you.

godblood written/programmed by perry\n\nthanks to the following for testing and editing help:\ndeceibu\nthe-chillest-adjective\npyralisa\n\n\nany questions or bugs? <html><a href="http://tobecomeaprince.tumblr.com">find me on tumblr.</a></html>

Two days.\n\nThat is better than you expected.\n\nTwo days before the lamp flickers out and the almost undetectable hum of the instruments fades away.\n\nYou rub your hands together. Your breath comes out in a white curling [[fog.]]

<<set $rooster = $rooster + 1>><<set $reason= "rooster">>The epidemic. You are the only one in this town who can help these people. You have a duty to fulfill.\n\nSomehow, you think she might [[understand|onward 2]] that.\n

The door to your left creaks open and you are on your feet, fumbling for gloves from the nearby shelf. In the past you would have been surprised to see a patient at this hour. But with how things were now nothing could surprise you [[anymore]].

Her smile vanishes.\n\nShe really thought she would win.\n\nYou love her (you always have), but this ends here.\n\n"I want to live a normal life. I don't want to always be waiting. Do you have any idea how many times I've died for this game between you two? Because I don't!"\n\nYour eyes swim with tears, but your mouth is dry. "I choose [[this]]."

She does not have long to wait.\n\nYou tend to your patients, but in the morning, your skin is sallow and damp, and you find you cannot [[breathe]].\n\nYou never get the chance to find out if you have her name right after all.

On your god's face there was this: anger, fear, remorse, disgust.\n\nYou realized the hand around your neck was not only cold, but made of actual bones. The skin of your neck pinched in between the joints.\n\n"Release <<if $gender eq "g">>her<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">> him<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>them<<endif>>," your god demanded, but her voice [[shook]].

<<set $gender = "g">>Your parents, they gathered hollow beatleshells and strung them together, braiding the ropes into your hair. \n\nThey gathered the reddest mud from the riverbank and drew shapes upon your arms and legs, a looping dangerous language you had not yet learned to [[read]].

The language was second nature by then, and no longered looked dangerous to your [[eyes.|young and foolish]]

Her gray eyes found you, however, and it was though you'd been turned to stone, unable to move.\n\n"Ah," she said, her lips curving into something like a smile. "Perfect. Come, help me [[wash away the blood]]."

[[Sometime later:|future 3]]

Snip snip.\n\nMythology you had not known you remembered slips away. Suddenly the stars in the sky are only stars, nothing more.\n\nAre you sure? Are you really sure you want to forget her?\n\n[[Of course.|be 3]]\n[[Of course not.|run]]

perry

You could not say how many days passed before she returned.\n\nOne morning, she was there when the sun rose, haloed from behind with light.\n\nYour mouth was dry as you waited with the augurs for her to reach the temple doors. [[Blood]] on her face and in her hair, curved blade thrust through her belt...\n\nShe paused just outside the doorway to tell you all, smile weary but proud, "They won't bother us any further."\n\nThe augurs swept over her like an ocean, but you [[were rooted to the spot]].

Are you sure? Are you really sure you want to forget her? \n\nYour hands clench into fists.\n\n[[Of course.|be 1]]\n[[Of course not.|run]]

"<<if $gender eq "g">>She has<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">>He has<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>They have<<endif>> cried for me," your god declared, her voice steel. "And in return I have marked <<if $gender eq "g">>her<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">>him<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>them<<endif>> with my own blood. If you look, you will see--"\n\n"Gold eyes," the sister spat, dropping you on the stone. Your legs crumpled uselessly.\n\nFor a moment, you thought you were [[saved]].

"Look," your god commanded her sister. "Look at <<if $gender eq "g">>her<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">>his<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>their<<endif>> eyes."\n\nYou were jerked around, almost falling, held up solely by the skeletal hand around your throat. \n\nYou didn't know what you were expecting-- a skull, maybe-- but the sister looked as human as your god did, save for pupilless eyes that made her gaze impossible to track. Her hair was dark like your god's, but her skin was pale as bone.\n\nYou stared up into those eyes, without any way of knowing what they could be [[seeing]].

<<set $gender = "b">>Your parents, they gathered dried rainworms and strung them together, braiding the ropes into your hair. \n\nThey gathered the reddest mud from the riverbank and drew shapes upon your arms and legs, a looping dangerous language you had not yet learned to [[read]].

<<set $hare = 0>><<set $fox = 0>><<set $hare = 0>>You cannot remember at what age you were given [[away]].

She twisted around to face you as you tried to scrub the tears away. You didn't want her to see you cry, but when you rubbed at your eyes, they only burned harder.\n\n"Shh," she said finally, taking your wrists in her hands. "You are getting my blood in your [[eyes|goldblood]]."

Everything after that was a whirl of activity and worry.\n\nAs much as her words had soothed the people, the augurs couldn't help but feel apprehension for their god, and while she was gone they did nothing but divine the outcome of her battle, again and again.\n\nThe entire time she was away they released birds and watched the patterns in their feathers. \n\nYou [[waited]], but you did not know what you were waiting for.

You have and have not found the answers you seek, but the world darkens around you anyway.\n\nShe holds you as your vision dims, and your memory clears, and for a moment you remember the time [[before]].

She seized your hand and pulled you along, down dark stone hallways until you were no longer sure where in the maze you were. \n\nA sharp turn. Then, the [[stars.]]

"It's dark," you say after a moment, "and I am [[never alone]]."

Sometime later:\n\n[[You are tired of waiting.]]

Every person not yet an elder and no longer a child must wear one, heavy and carved in imitation of an animal, and dance until they can dance no longer.\n\nThen the masks are sacrificed to the flames, in hopes of bringing spring [[again|masks]].\n\nTo remove one's mask before then is a sign of ill luck and the perpetrator would most certainly be killed or exiled to negate the omen.

<<set $fox = $fox + 1>>They said you couldn't do it.\n\nThe north was too cold, too distant. But you had always been searching for something and you hoped this place, this station built by scientists like you, would hold the answers.\n\nSo far you haven't found what you were looking for. Judging by the power left in the back up batteries, you only have a few days until you [[freeze to death.]]\n

Her skin was brown, darker than yours, and muscle pulled taught beneath it as she brushed strands of hair from the back of her neck. You [[swallowed.|wash away the blood]]

You chose this end. \n\nYou did not know you would die here, but you chose it all the same. A trip to here, to the very top of the earth, to\n\n[[Prove yourself to those who mocked you.]]\n[[Find the answer to it all.]]\n[[Support yourself the only way you knew how.]]

You find a handhold. You climb up to one of the flat surfaces that maybe, maybe was a roof.\n\nYou cannot tell if it's the one where your soul was bargained away, but it will do for now.\n\n[["I'm here!"]] you call out to the sky, trying to ignore how empty the not-temple feels at your back.

Back then there had been many dangers.\n\nDeep in the cool stone temple you rarely faced them yourself, but you heard the stories.\n\nAnd time and again she set out for [[battle]].\n\n

Silver, you have decided.\n\nLike the chalice in the church. Like the bubbled mirror in the statehouse.\n\nLike the moon on a night like [[tonight|aching]].

Why are you here again?\n\nYou cannot remember. There is a potted plant between your knees, but all the shoots have been cut short and lie dying.\n\nYou do not care. You find you do not care about much of anything [[anymore|be]].

Hundreds of years ago (maybe more) you lay in the arms of a god on the roof of a warm stone temple.\n\nIt was warm, the sky was beautiful, and [[she loved you.]]

Your reasons don't really matter at this point.\n\nThe equipment has failed, and you are alone in the snow and the cold. Your food supplies will no doubt outlast you.\n\nSomehow, you are less afraid than you [[expected.]]

You remember sand and sun so you search deserts. You plot your way to every strange outcropping of black stone on every satellite map.\n\nIt takes you [[years]].

She watches you for several long seconds after you speak. Her fond smile never wavers.\n\n"I expected as much," she says. "You always were so <<if $reason eq "fox">>wary<<endif>><<if $reason eq "rooster">>dutiful<<endif>><<if $reason eq "hare">>thorough<<endif>>."\n\nA hacking cough echoes from the next room over. Your attention wavers. Hers does not.\n\n"I will [[wait]]," she promises, crossing to the chair next to the desk and seating herself.

<<set $gender = "n">>Your parents, they gathered browndust cobwebs and spun them together, braiding the ropes into your hair. \n\nThey gathered the reddest mud from the riverbank and drew shapes upon your arms and legs, a looping dangerous language you had not yet learned to [[read]].

Every chance you have and have not taken has lead up until this moment. When you select the fox, you are able to see it, stretched out behind you.\n\nThe god of risk and luck and made-it-this-far.\n\nThat's [[you]].

It was years before you met her.\n\nThe temple [[augurs]] accepted you in exchange for blessing your parents land, and from then on you wandered the cool stone halls alone.\n\nThere were no other children to play with in that place, only the augurs and their [[stories]] of the god they served. The god you served now, too. \n\nThe temple was a maze, and her dwelling place deep. When you finally met her, you were [[no longer a child at all]].

Every memory now can inform the tales you will spin. The world has forgotten about your god, but now it will remember you both. You will make sure of it.\n\nGod of story and myth and here-is-what-happened.\n\nThat's [[you]].

This family. These parents that didn't give you away. This life, these friends. This tumble of broken stone hasn't been home for thousands of years. You're sick of being homesick for it.\n\n"The game is [[over]]."\n\nShe looks stunned.

They told you of her.\n\nOf how she'd built this place side by side with their ancestors, laughter as bright as the sun on her skin. Of the battles she'd fought and won for their sake. Of her birth as one of the [[High Gods|eyes past]], centuries before the earliest memory.

"Please," your god added. You had never heard her beg.\n\nThe sister laughs, squeezing again, enough to make you gag uselessly. "<<if $gender eq "g">>She is<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">>He is<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>They are<<endif>> no augur. Where are the marks? <<if $gender eq "g">>She is<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">>He is<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>They are<<endif>> as much mine as yours. More, if [[dead.]]"

From the next room over, a patient groans. You swallow.\n\n"I can't. I--"\n\n[[Have no idea who you are.]]\n[[Have to see this through.]]\n[[Need to fix this somehow.]]

"Let me try," your god insisted, stubborn as ever.\n\nThe sister inclined her head. "In return I will not interfere. If this human dies before making a final decision, I will relinquish <<if $gender eq "g">>her<<endif>><<if $gender eq "b">>him<<endif>><<if $gender eq "n">>them<<endif>> to the world for another round."\n\n[[They had all but forgotten you were there.|sometime later 2]]

Unobstructed now, you continued to sob, and she watched you with unidentifiable emotion.\n\n"I didn't expect you to cry for me," she said finally. \n\nYour eyes continued to [[burn.]]

Snip snip snip.\n\nHer eyes. You had said they were grey, but now you cannot remember. Are you sure you didn't say that because you couldn't think of anything else?\n\nYou cannot think of anything now.\n\nThe doctor's scissors hesitate around the last leaf.\n\nAre you sure? Are you really sure you want to forget her?\n\n[[Forget her.|be 4]]\n[[Be patient a little longer|run]]

[[Sometime later:]]

Snip. You forget her warmth, and the chill of the office begins to seep into your bones.\n\nAre you sure? Are you really sure you want to forget her?\n\n[[Of course.|be 2]]\n[[Of course not.|run]]

<<set $rooster = $rooster + 1>><<set $mask = "rooster">>The rooster.\n\nDutiful but proud, loathe to let accomplishments go unacknowledged.\n\n[[That's right.|onward]]

You remembered the armor hidden deep in the recesses of the deepest temple chamber.\n\nBut before the augurs could reach a decision, [[she]] appeared.\n\n"I will go," the god told them, and already you could see the relief on the faces of the people. "I will stop them."\n\nIt was not a boast. It was a [[promise]].

She whirled on the spot and the hand gripped tighter. A voice spoke in your ear, high pitched like empty turtle shells struck together.\n\n"So this is where you've been hiding, [[sister]]."

<<set $rooster = $rooster + 1>>The dreams leave you empty and unable to focus. At first, your friends find the way you look past their faces and don't answer their questions merely eccentric. After the fourth or fifth time, they find it [[less so.|dream]]

"They are so ceremonial around me," she said with a laugh, and you had to catch your breath at the sound. "It is a relief to know they are human after all."\n\nHer hand was warm in yours, and you wondered if you were doing [[something wrong.]]

But she is only covering your eyes. Her skin is hot, but so is the stone, and the air, and you as well because it's the desert and you're not used to this in this life. You close your eyes against the shadow of her palm.\n\nWhen you open them, she is [[gone.]]

She is not a patient.\n\nOr at least, you don't think so. She lacks the green-tinged skin and labored breathing of those lying in the next room over, and seems to be standing under her own power. \n\nShe is [[alone.]]

It didn't look deep enough to cause such bleeding, and you remembered then that gods healed quickly, and that she was likely in no danger. Deep in your chest your heart began to beat normally again.\n\n"I am glad it was you," she said, her voice quiet, her face turned from you. "The augurs worry far too much. This would only upset them."\n\nYou had no idea that she knew [[who you were]] in the first place.

That was the first night of many.\n\nHand in hand, with the stone of the temple beneath your backs, she told you of the gods, of her brother in the sky who wore the stars in his long midnight hair. Of her sister beneath the earth who cradled the bones of the fallen in her arms. \n\nOf how all gods called one another 'brother' and 'sister', whether they had met one hundred times or never before at all. \n\nOf the palace in the center of the earth where the gods dwelled, when not spending their time in surface temples like this one.\n\nAt first you only listened. But one night you began to answer her, echoing her tales with stories of your own about the [[augurs|tales]]. Though she should know her own temple folk better than any, she listened intently, and when you were done, she [[thanked you.]]

You know the blood on her face was not hers, for it was red, and as everyone knows, godblood is [[gold|waited]].

With the masks it is impossible to tell who is who, but as you dance you find yourself wondering if there is anyone in the village with [[eyes]] like hers.\n\nIt's hard to think at all when you hear her laughter echo through the wood of her mask, high and light and sharp.\n\nYour boot slips on a loose cobblestone and you [[fall]].

There is still work to be done.\n\nSurely, they will send someone to the station, even if long after you are dead. And so you keep the instruments running, recording the readings with a shaking hand. \n\nLeaving them on will kill you faster, but it will have been [[worth it.]]

You look the same, but you feel far different.\n\nStill, when you meet her eyes, you know that she still loves you, no matter how much you have changed.\n\nYou have the rest of eternity to discover all those differences together. She, the god of battle and protection and do-what-we-must, and you, the god who was once a human.\n\nYou will have quite a lot lot to talk about.\n\n[[But then, you always did.|You always did.]]

You can tell the dream doctor is waiting for you to continue, but it's so hard to speak.\n\nThe words you have to describe her drift and fade like smoke in your mind. Her skin, warm like the sun on the stone, or her posture, straight and determined as steel. The tilt of her mouth, the rhythm of her laugh.\n\nThere's too much for you to have made her up. That thought terrifies you, because how could you have forgotten someone like her?\n\n"Her eyes are [[grey|gray]]," you settle on, but you know it's not enough.

You find don't really believe that.\n\nIn fact, you have half anticipated her arrival before you can see her at all. When she stands before you, dark hair full of white flecks of snow, you laugh.\n\n"I've dreamed about you," you struggle to say, and she reaches out to touch your cold skin with steady fingertips.\n\n[["You are dying,"]] she tells you. Her eyes are grey, and somehow sad.

<<set $fox = $fox + 1>><<set $reason = "fox">>This is not entirely true. She is familiar, but you cannot tell from where. Still, with the epidemic, people are desperate. There are thieves and murderers in the most unexpected places.\n\nYou cannot [[trust|onward 2]] her.

Shapes bloom above your clasped hands.<<if $fox eq 0 and $rooster eq 0 and $hare gte 1>>\n\n[[A hare. You who has lived a thousand lives, become the god of story.]]<<endif>><<if $rooster eq 0 and $hare eq 0 and $fox gte 1>>\n\n[[A fox. You who's heart has been the highest prize of the longest gamble, become the god of risk.]]<<endif>><<if $hare eq 0 and $fox eq 0 and $rooter gte 1>>\n\n[[A rooster. You who came in search of your own reward, become the god of recompense.]]<<endif>><<if $fox gte 1 and $rooster gte 1 and $hare gte 1>>\n\n[[A hare. You who has lived a thousand lives, become the god of story.]]\n[[A fox. You who's heart has been the highest prize of the longest gamble, become the god of risk.]]\n[[A rooster. You who came in search of your own reward, become the god of recompense.]]<<endif>><<if $fox eq 0 and $rooster gte 1 and $hare gte 1>>\n\n[[A hare. You who has lived a thousand lives, become the god of story.]]\n[[A rooster. You who came in search of your own reward, become the god of recompense.]]<<endif>><<if $fox gte 1 and $rooster eq 0 and $hare gte 1>>\n\n[[A hare. You who has lived a thousand lives, become the god of story.]]\n[[A fox. You who's heart has been the highest prize of the longest gamble, become the god of risk.]]<<endif>><<if $fox gte 1 and $rooster gte 1 and $hare eq 0>>\n\n[[A fox. You who's heart has been the highest prize of the longest gamble, become the god of risk.]]\n[[A rooster. You who came in search of your own reward, become the god of recompense.]]<<endif>>

"A bet," your god pleaded, and the sister turned her head in her direction, intrigued.\n\nYou tried to summon everything you knew about this other god; she is solemn, she holds those she loves close, she governs humans after their deaths but not before. And, you remember, she loves to gamble their souls away.\n\n"I am listening," the sister replied, and you tried to concentrate on [[breathing]].

The mask-burning [[festival]]. This is your sixth.\n\nThis year, your mask is that of a:\n\n[[fox]]\n[[hare]]\n[[rooster]]

Warm skin.\n\nShe whirls you around to face her, and through the eye holes carved above her mask's hawk beak, you see grey eyes reflect the firelight.\n\nAnd then she's spinning you again, and your feet stumble to keep balance, boots scuffing against the cobblestone. Your fingers find the crook of her elbow and you are dancing, skin glancing skin as the both of you spin and step around each other. \n\nAs the scenery whirls past you see you are not the only pair that has begun, the sun all but gone behind the mountains.\n\nHer hand alights on your waist. You gulp for air, your chest suddenly [[aching]].

You cannot continue the way you are now. The dreams distract you, stealing your sleep and consuming your waking days.\n\nYou nod.\n\n[[If you thought you could find her, things would be different.|hare dream]]\n[[You are letting everyone down like this.|rooster dream]]\n[[Ever since you could remember, you have hated what those dreams did to you.|fox dream]]

The sun was cruel and bright on that day, and you had avoided the windows in the dark stone walls, unused to such strong light.\n\nMaybe that was why you hadn't known about her return until you turned a corner and saw her swaying in the doorway, one palm propped against the wall. Her eyes were weary and her shoulders were streaked with [[gold]].

When you find your way home, your family exclaim over your eyes, which have been an impossible amber shade for as long as you remember.\n\nNow they are brown.\n\nYou revel in the [[normalcy.]]

<<set $hare = $hare + 1>><<set $reason = "hare">>This was not how you anticipated your story going, when you chose this path.\n\nStill, you cannot leave your patients [[alone.|onward 2]]\n\n

Thank you for playing. \n\n[[credits]]

She was on her feet before you could even register it, all traces of sleep gone from her face.\n\nYou had only a glimpse of her drawing a bright blade from mid air, and oh, you didn't know she could do that. You still had so much to learn. Her face was grim.\n\n"Stay here," she said, and made it three steps down the hallway before it was you who cried out, startled by the cold hand wrapping around your [[throat]].

<<set $hare = $hare + 1>>As a child, you combed the crowds for her. You peered down alleyways. You peeked through dim lit windows.\n\nSomehow, you always felt as though she was waiting for you around the next corner. Or maybe the [[next|dream]].

"I understand," she says, and she offers you her hand.\n\nWithout an ounce of hesitation, [[you take it.]]

The sister squeezed. Your vision darkened.\n\n[["Wait!"]] your god cried out, and suddenly you were able to gulp a breath of air.

Between your knees sits a potted plant, the leaves green and glossy. The doctor said it may be easier to talk to, but you are not so sure.\n\nYou breathe in and out, trying to imagine a life without the dreams.\n\nA pair of scissors enters your vision; the doctor is reaching out for the plant. They snip, and a leaf falls away.\n\nHer chuckle in your mind goes [[quiet.|bolt]]

Although you still had faint memories of your birth family, the augurs were as close to family as you had now. To your surprise, as you told her of their quirks and habits, you found that you [[loved them.|smiling.]]

"They told me you would be here," she says, stepping forward. Her name rises unbidden in your throat, although you bite it back. You have never heard it before (at least not in this life) but you are somehow sure that it's hers.\n\n"Please. [[Come with me.]] You have forty years or more left in you. We can spend it together."