Ginny did something that night that she hadn't foreseen herself ever doing on the path of her celestial journey. While the kids were taking their afternoon nap, and Joon was otherwise occupied, she went on a date.

It had started off innocently enough. A gentle request came from local alien Cuewen Aichoid, whom Ginny had the pleasure of meeting her first few nights at Lunar Lakes. Evidently he was not up to date with local town gossip, or simply did not care enough about it - word about Ginny's exploits with local men had managed to get around, and she couldn't go anywhere without a gawk or two. Had it not been for the fact that Lunar Lakes was massive, Ginny would have felt very uncomfortable with the attention. Joon had assured her that she was safe ("They knew that this day would come, trust me," although she wasn't too sure what that meant), but made sure that more exuberant suitors wouldn't bother Ginny nor her children when not needed.

A low-pressure walk around town with Cuewen, therefore, was just the thing she needed. Just as he had when they first met, he spoke again of his home planet, graciously waving towards the skies this-and-that-a-way to illustrate his point.


"You said last time," Ginny recalled, "that you left because of the 'goddess' disaster'. Can you elaborate on that?"

He sighed. "Not much further. Your experience was probably similar. The Goddesses were upset that we didn't worship them properly, and they set about trying to destroy us. A few were lucky and escaped with our lives, and once we landed here, well, the Goddesses had no real desire to track us down. If we ended up in Lunar Lakes, after all, we must have had pure intentions. That's the entire lore surrounding this place."


She stared ahead blankly. "I don't follow."

"Oh, yes. I forgot that you were ignorant to this place's history the last time we met. Have you gotten any answers so far?"

"I've been...busy."

"Well, luckily, you have me! I'd be glad to tell you all about this place's history, if you'd want to listen."



Little did the two of them know that their conversation was breached by an invisible spy. Visio sat silently, eager to report whatever she could make of Ginny to them.

---

"Lunar Lakes has been here for just as long as the Goddesses themselves. Nobody knows quite how many there are, or how they come to be, but they always leave clues of their appearance. See, look," he pointed, looking directly at the bench Visio had found herself comfortable in. For a moment, the Death Goddess felt her legs tighten in fear. But the two looked right through her. "If you notice, there are blackened leaves around that very bench. It seems our Patron of Death has taken bit of a break."

"Could she still be there?" Ginny asked, nervous.

"I doubt it. After all, why would the Goddess of Death be interested in a woman whose entire purpose is bringing life to the world?"

Ginny didn't ask how he knew that much about her. Something told her that Joon would tell her himself in due time, what with how mysterious he had been acting about the ordeal.

"Anyway. Goddesses don't live forever. When they died, they often fell right where they were born - Lunar Lakes. And as their bodies sunk and decomposed into the ground, so too did their stored power, seeping into the very earth around this place and manifesting into the strange trees and wildlife you see to this day. Among those strange after effects is the fact that nobody without pure intentions may enter this place, you and I included."

"How do you know all of this?" None of Ginny's prior knowledge was being sparked by this, but she could slowly feel her understanding of the world around her coming to fruition.


"Well, it's not really my knowledge. Far before humans, or even aliens, or any creature you could see roaming these parts today, there were the Auribs, the goddesses' very first creations. All knowledge of the world the Goddesses created have come from their sacrifices. You see, they were meant to be perfect - perfect slaves, that is. The Goddesses designed them in a manner that would behoof their needs, and forced them into subservience. The problem, though, was that they didn't design them with the mind of a slave."

"Whyever not?" Ginny asked, playing devil's advocate. "That seems like a terrible decision when making your own slaves."

"Well, between you and me, the Goddesses aren't exactly great architects of living beings. But we'll get to that. Maybe they thought that they were being kind, or maybe they simply didn't consider that their very own creations wouldn't want to serve them. But they didn't. And the Auribs were extremely upset. So on a cold winter's night, while the Goddesses slept, they revolted."

Ginny held her breath. She was spellbound.


"Some revolted in fear of their children's lives."


"Others were the children."


"But most were fed up with the reign of their overlords."

"What then?"

"Well, as you might imagine, a group of mortals never had a chance beating their very own creators. And the Goddesses did not take the revolt lightly. In fact, their punishment is one that I'm sure you're very familiar with."

Ginny shook her head. "I don't see how that's possible."



Cuewen barrelled on. "Before killing most of the perpetrators, the Goddesses forced the Auribs' ears to grow forward and out so they could hear everything - every scream of death, every approaching footstep by an angered Goddess, every second ticking down to their end."


"Many lost their lives that day, but not too many - they were sure to strike down just enough to ensure that the Auribs did not go extinct on that very day."

"Why?"

"To leave enough to reproduce, of course - their children and their ears a living reminder to one another of the shame that they cast on the new world."

Ginny was starting to feel a little sick. His description sounded an awful lot like...


Joon.

Meanwhile, the bench behind them had been long abandoned. It seemed Visio had gathered all the information she needed.

Ginny thanked the alien for his information, trying to hide her discomfort. Cuewen, however, did not seem to pick up on that. "You know what they say - the rest is history. After abandoning the Auribs in Lunar Lakes, the Goddesses moved across the land, across planets, sometimes, trying to create a perfect species. And each and every time, they failed. The world fell into a pattern of creation, failure, destruction, you humans being the last of that chain. The fortunate few found their way to Lunar Lakes, where the Auribs waited, imparting knowledge to the new arrivals, before hiding away once again. Goddesses only know where they go."

Her head was spinning with new information. She had no idea how to sort through all of the information she was just given. And what did this mean about her relationship between her and her patron Goddess? Was she really capable of such destruction?


She decided to think it over with a little Woohoo with Cuewen, just as a storm began to brew. Surely, it would sort itself out in time...

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