Opehlia cried as she fell, her hair whipping up and impeding her view of the sky.

She didn't want to give those bastards any satisfaction, but an overwhelming fear tore through her body and forced itself out of her throat.

"AAArrghhh!"

The links of her chains rattled and clanked together as the whizzing of the wind and crashing of the waterfall drowned out all other noise.

'This is all unfair, so unfair!'

Tears welled in Ophelia's eyes as the sky above grew further and further away. Her impending doom closer and closer.

Then, in a single moment, a piercing pain whipped her back, and water filled her lungs. Followed by a dreadful, all-encompassing cold. Immediately, her body was repeatedly battered and barraged by the flowing water from above, forcing her deeper under.

Opelia coughed up a spout of blood, and a torrent of water shot into her mouth, stealing all of the remaining air.

Ophelia tried to gain control over her actions and swim, but not only did she not know how, but her body was screaming in pain and refusing to listen, and the raging waters were way too oppressive. She was still by the impact zone of the plunge basin and was still being kept rotating and underwater by the constant smashing of the waterfall.

More and more water and blood dripped into her lungs and began choking her. She didn't even know where up, down, left, or right was.

She just continued to flail uncontrollably.

But, by some miracle, the current eventually carried her away from the impact zone and into the calmer, but still churning part.

Ophelia's face surfaced for a moment, and she drew a painful breath, but was immediately swept back under. Even worse, this time the current had pushed her down, and the chain around her ankles got stuck between two rocks.

The upper half of her body was continuously pulled by the current and whipped around while her lower half was held in place; cutting her off from even the hope of another breath. Ophelia possessed neither the means nor the might to free herself.

Underwater, and her breath and power fading, Ophelia simply gave up trying.

She started crying while thinking of the terrible fate of her brother she'd caused. The terrible fate of the others sacrificed, whom she'd turned a blind eye to. The terrible fate their terrible tradition perpetuated that nobody seemed to have any gripe with. The terrible fate she'd now been left to.

Terrible, terrible, terrible.

The world grew quiet and slow. She no longer felt her body as it whipped around. The cold was starting to feel… warm. The waterfall sounded distant despite how close it was. The surface above seemed unnaturally far.

Ophelia just helplessly stared up at the sunlit reflection of the sky.

She felt like she was sinking.

Was she?

Maybe.

'Ah.'

She tried to think of something, anything. But, nothing. Blank.

Opehlia blinked.

Ophelia blinked.

Ophelia closed her eyes.

Ophelia opened her eyes weakly.

Ophelia blinked.

Ophelia…

***

Ophelia felt the refreshing light of the sun as it bounced off her skin. She weakly leaned to the side, and a torrent of water and splotches of blood unnaturally surged out of her mouth in a steady stream.

Dazed and confused, after the last drip of water had spewed out, she fell back down on her back, her entire body in immense pain. But…

'What's going on?'

'Am I dead?'

Surely not. Such pain didn't exist in the afterlife, right? Well, if it did, she felt she deserved it. But either way, she recognized the sky above and the waterfall right next to her.

"My influence is limited. The rest is up to you."

At the same time…

She was still in the middle of the rampaging river… yet, she was held aloft by an unnaturally raised column of water. Ophelia weakly looked around and, from her elevated position, saw the riverbank.

At the same moment, she saw hope.

A weird power trickled into her body, reacting to and reinforcing her will.

The weird water dais fell and gently lowered her back into the waters. It was only when her body broke the surface again that she noticed her restraints had been cut off her.

She was free.

Ophelia couldn't form much thought at the moment, but her will remained steadfast as it always had. As her body once again began to be whipped around, Ophelia fought the current and the pain and slowly paddled herself to the side.

She kicked of rocks when she sank to the bottom, she whipped her broken bones and forced herself toward the edge. Despite the waters forcing her under repeatedly and trying to end what little life she had left, Ophelia struggled.

After an arduous effort, she'd felt a wall of rocks. She didn't even know it was the bank until she forced her eyes open. When she saw where she was, Ophelia gripped, held on weakly, waited a moment to gather her strength, then pulled with all her might.

Ophelia dragged herself out of the water, then crawled away and lay sprawled out on the uncomfortable rock, taking deep, pained breaths and coughing up more blood. Then began shivering from the terrible cold.

"Hello, Kindness, I've been waiting for you."

Unable to formulate anything, let alone a response, Ophelia just tilted her head toward the source of the noise… the waterfall. Well, something hidden behind it.

The voice was calm and tranquil, sounding like that of a refined woman; it was soft and quiet yet could easily be heard over the constant crashing if spoken right in her ear.

Speaking of her ears, they were ringing all to hell, and she could barely hear in general.

As Ophelia lay sprawled on the ground, she dragged her eye around and spotted the countless, beautiful flowers on the edge of the basin. The Lilac Liora'fen bloomed.

Ophelia weakly reached out and tried to touch one, but the voice calmly warned.

"I wouldn't do that. While your resistance is high, it isn't absolute."

Ophelia's hand dropped to the ground, and her head swiveled to the other side.

'Laertes…'

Her thoughts took effort to shape, but they grew proportionally purposeful in return.

'Brother…'

'I lived. Did he too?'

Spurred by hope, Ophelia fought to stay alive.

As her vision unblurred and returned, she noticed a dam. A human-made dam. Well, quite literally human-made.

Countless corpses and bones were stuck together and held in place, forming a blockade.

Ophelia weakly cried as she looked for her brother's corpse in the mass:

"Laertes."

But she was too far to make out a single face.

Then, spurred by a foreign power, Ophelia clawed the ground and pushed until she stood. She obviously had multiple bone fractures, contusions, hemorrhages, and god knows what else. But her body moved as she willed… spurred by a foreign, but at the same time familiar power.

Instinctively, Ophelia gripped onto this foreign power and began directing it. Slowly but surely… her body was being healed.

In a little better state, Ophelia followed the riverbank and sauntered over to the dam, dodging the Lilac Liora'fen, and eventually, after a couple of minutes, ended at the edge of the dam.

She looked and looked, but no matter how much she scoured, her brother's corpse was nowhere to be seen. She did recognize many faces, but those faces were not Laertes'.

Did his corpse fall over and get swept further downstream?

Was it trapped underneath?

Hidden in the mass?

Or…

"Your brother is alive…"

The voice spoke again, the same cadence, tone, and volume.

Opehelia weakly turned toward the noise.

"Find somewhere nice to sit, I have much to talk about."

Ophelia weakly dragged her broken body away from the disgusting, smelly corpse pile and shuffeled back toward where she'd initially escaped the water's clutches.

Opehlia asked quietly, a level that the woman behind the waterfall shouldn't have been able to hear:

"How… Who?"

Nonetheless, the question was heard.

The voice responded in a placid tone:

"I've been watching over you for quite some time… As for who I am…"

The voice paused for a moment, then continued:

"First, I was simply Leila; then I became known as the Butterfly of Liora; then the First Shrine Maiden of Liora; then one of the Heroes of Virtue, Diligence. But you would better know me as… Goddess."

'Goddess…?'

'You were real…'

'But…'

'Our First Shrine Maiden is our Goddess?'

'Another Hero of Virtue?'

'Diligence?'

Ophelia didn't know whether to curse or thank the voice for saving her.

"As for your brother… he lives, but not for long."

Ophelia's eyes widened, and tears she'd thought she already cried began to swell.

"Lust has him in his clutches and will soon execute him."

Ophelia tried to scream, but all she managed was a weak whisper.

"Save… can you save him, Goddess?"

The voice was silent for a moment, then finally spoke up.

"I'm sorry, but his fate is sealed."

'Fate…'

Ophelia staggered to her feet once again.

"But… he's still alive…"

"I'm sorry, Kindness, but no weave of fate exists where your brother lives to see tomorrow. And not in all do you survive, so I suggest you stay where you are."

Opehlia, cold and wet with water and blood trailing down her body, stared over toward the waterfall.

"I'm an oracle, you can trust in my words… however despicable they may sound or how hard they are to hear. Sadly, I can promise you they are true."

Ophelia tripped and fell to her knees.

She'd already resigned to the fact that her brother had died. But this fleeting raft of hope that he may somehow be alive had immediately been sunk.

After all, was she going to doubt the mystical voice of the Goddess?

Of course she was…

Her Goddess watched happily as people killed themselves for some sick and twisted desire.

The voice of Diligence grew solemn.

"I can tell what you're thinking… But perhaps you'll calm down once I explain my own predicament to you. Stay where you are and chat with me for a bit. I'll tell you all about how Sloth imprisoned me here three hundred years ago, and how that awful tradition started, and our righteous sect of Liora turned despicable. As well as why everyone was so complacent with such depravity…"

'Three… hundred?'

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.