I sat on the stairs leading to the throne, still trying to process the whole I was touched by a goddess thing, when Gamma exhaled sharply, rolled her shoulders back, and gave me this look like she was about to ruin my perception of reality even more.
"Alright. You want to know where this all comes from? The whole system? Your Flux? Your impossible survival? Sit tight, Permonelle. You're not going to like it."
Great. She already bit my neck. Now I was about to get mentally decapitated.
"The origin of the Flux… is still unknown," Gamma began, pacing across the throne room like it was her classroom. "But the earliest record of it was on Earth, two thousand years ago. That's when the first rain fell."
"Wait," I said, blinking. "You're telling me the blue rain—"
"It was always here," she said. "We call it the Ashven Blood Rain now. But back then, it was just strange rain. Only a few noticed it. It didn't even cover the whole planet. But when it fell… some people changed. They gained abilities. Not unlike what you've experienced."
"Some survived. Some... didn't. The Flux warped bodies and broke minds. It gave gifts but those gifts weren't meant for everyone. And those who got them? The ones who survived? They were hunted."
"..."
"All those so-called witches, heretics, monsters across history? Many of them were just early Flux users. The rain had touched them and given them something the world wasn't ready for. But religion? Politics? Fear? That was ready. So, humans did what humans usually do. They burned what they didn't understand."
Dryad muttered, "We've always suspected that."
Gamma nodded. "But it didn't stop there. In the year 46 AD, a specific being, one of the earliest awakened, was touched by the rain when he was just a boy. Unlike others, his Flux matured fast. Gave him control over space travel."
"…Like portals?" I asked slowly.
"Exactly. His name was Jlenas. And what made him different wasn't just his Flux. It was the fact that he never aged. From 46 AD to 150 AD, Jlenas traveled across Earth, identifying other Flux-bearers. Most of them were hiding, being persecuted, or dying."
"So, he created a bridge. A literal, living bridge. He found that Earth was connected to another world, Erae. Like a twin vein buried beneath a heartbeat. The connection wasn't random. It was designed. And Jlenas used his Flux to create portals, to bring those affected by the rain here."
"To Erae," I whispered.
"To safety," she corrected. "Religious zealots had declared them spawns of the devil. Ancient governments wanted them for experimentation. They weren't human anymore in Earth's eyes. So Jlenas gave them a new home."
"What about the ones who stayed?" I asked.
"They became your ancestors on Earth. The ones who still have dormant Flux. Who still pass it down through genetics or chance."
Phaser finally spoke, stepping in with a tired sigh.
"Some Flux-bearers couldn't escape. Others didn't want to. They believed they could wait until the world changed. But Earth didn't change. The ABR continued. Generation after generation, it leaked into the bloodstream of humanity."
"And then…" Gamma waved her hand. "We had the First Thauma."
I froze. That word had haunted me for years.
"The Thauma didn't create the ABR," Phaser said. "It just amplified it and made it more obvious. It stripped the rain of its subtlety. Before, only the rare, the unlucky, or the 'blessed' were touched. After the Thauma? Everyone had a chance. Or a curse."
I whispered, "That was a decade ago…"
"Exactly. Humanity didn't gain new powers from the Thauma. The rain had always been there. What changed was that hiding became impossible. Fluxes were visible. People exploded, mutated and awakened. The ones who have been hiding for generations became leaders, warlords, even faction founders. Just like the Marimus Faction you used to guide tours for."
Dryad gave me a weird look. "You gave tours on Earth?"
"It was a job, okay?" I hissed.
Gamma ignored that.
"So here's the bottom line, Permonelle. You're part of a bloodline that spans back to the earliest days of the Flux. You survived the rain. You awakened. And now, you've been touched. Not just by any divine entity but by the Goddess of Alteration herself. The same goddess who created Reversal Cradlepoint. She was the one who made the Goddess of Space give him the Concept Flux."
I blinked. "Wait, I thought he had the Space Flux?"
Gamma smirked. "Space travel is a subform of Concept. He didn't just move through space. He redefined it. That's Concept Flux. And that means he was chosen, just like you were. His goddess was Space. Yours is Alteration."
Phaser added softly, "Every person in the Eresnae cities are descendants of those Jlenas brought here. Every structure, every system, every Faction... built on divine legacy."
I looked down at my trembling hands. It was too much. Too loud in my head.
"So this whole time…"
Gamma nodded. "And now? The ABR is more intense than ever. The Thauma might not have been a mistake. Maybe it was permission."
"Permission?" I echoed.
"For humanity to evolve," she said. "To become more. To wake up. I think the gods did it for a reason."
Gamma didn't stop there.
"Jlenas didn't come to Erae alone forever," she said. "After several years of building paths, moving thousands from Earth to here, he settled. Not just in location but in heart."
I watched her profile shift, her jaw tightening like she was fighting memories that didn't belong to her.
"He fell in love with another Flux bearer. She had the Flux of Teleological Enhancement, a rare variant of Psyche. Together, they had five children. And those five became the first Supremas."
Dryad blinked, stunned. "The original rulers of the Eresnae…"
Gamma nodded slowly. "Each of them inherited a sliver of Jlenas's Space Flux and their mother's gift. They ruled the five regions of Erae as we know it. They shaped the foundations that the rest of us walk on today."
My mind spun. "So the current Supremas—like you—they're all his descendants?"
Phaser stepped forward, arms crossed. His face was more serious than usual.
"Yes. But not equally."
Something cold curled in my stomach. Gamma glanced at me.
"You're putting the pieces together, aren't you?"
I nodded slowly. "Reversal Cradlepoint… One of Jlenas's children ruled over it. And you—"
"—and I," Phaser finished for me, "are his direct descendants. Gamma and I are the only living beings with his untainted bloodline. The original blood. The true blood."
"What about the other Supremas?"
Gamma turned to me.
"They're related, yes. But over time, their lines diluted. Intermarriages, politics and power struggles. The blood spread, weakened and stained with other legacies. But ours stayed pure. The ruling line of Reversal Cradlepoint has never intermarried and never diluted. Our ancestors guarded that blood like a goddamned relic."
Dryad let out a low whistle. "So you two aren't just Supremas. You're practically divine royalty."
Phaser rolled his eyes at that, but didn't deny it.
And me? I couldn't even speak. The enormity of it pressed against my ribs. All this time, I thought Phaser was just powerful. That Gamma was just brutal and efficient. I didn't expect them to be walking pieces of living history.
I looked back at Gamma, who now stared at me with eyes that burned with knowledge. She tilted her head.
"You see now, Permonelle. Your awakening wasn't just random. You weren't chosen by accident. The Goddess of Alteration marked you. And now you stand here, not just as another awakened but as someone who might be more dangerous than even we can predict."
I swallowed hard, heart thundering in my ears.
"Why me?"
"We don't know. The gods don't talk to us anymore. But you've been touched, Permonelle. And that means the gods are watching."
I looked at my hands again. They didn't look different but they didn't feel like mine anymore. Phaser rested a hand on my shoulder. His touch was light, but it grounded me.
"From now on," he said, "you need to understand something."
I met his eyes.
"From the moment you met Sera, your life turned upside down."