Anathema - Losing Faith

The flood waters remained stagnant, their levels never raising or lowering. So many lands had been filled, histories erased as the waters filled the spaces between memories. Since the Time Warp, so many things had changed - even the gods themselves felt different. They were acting differently than they ever had before, their mortal selves so shallow on the surface of their minds. They were taking lovers, holding grudges, acting out in ways they never had before. It was as if Aprillia had unlocked some new part of them, a part that made them more like their followers than ever before.

It was these gods, the gods of Hoof Prince, that the white mare who moved into the Grove had a quarrel with, their elements leaving her with nothing but a civil war brewing in her heart. The white mare’s history was known by little, her quarrel with the earth god remembered not even by the god himself. It did not matter, though - a scar now remained where her emerald once lived. Marara was glad she had forsaken the earth; she did not have to hear the Earth’s pain is it drowned by Courant’s hand.

Where had the Water Goddess been with the rivers flooded? Or the Fire God, to evaporate the rain as it filled the lands? She could feel both of the elements in her body, moving through her, causing her more pain. She couldn’t understand how they could have let this happen - or how she could follow such monsters.

In a swift motion, the two stones were ripped from her neck, the fresh wounds dripping blood onto Brighton’s Earth.



At the edge of Hoof Prince’s boundaries, the desert mare allowed curiosity to get the better of her. She had followed the Stars, letting them lead her over the mountains and into a strange land. She had heard many things about the creatures who lived here, the way they abused the earth and tried to tame the elements. She had also heard of great kings falling, succumbing to the powers they so desperately tried to harvest.

As she entered Hoof Prince, no elemental stone appeared on her body. Marara had been the first one to reject the elements, and now Alona was the second.

And soon more would follow.