The Flood - Courant's Strife

The horses seem to line up for miles, looking for more power, for more elements. They worked hard to gain the power, sometimes without even a visit to their new gods before they came back here, to her cottage, looking for more. In her time spent among the mortals, she had learned one key thing: to be mortal was to want. She had witnessed great things come from them - wars won and Crusades fought. They all had fought in the name of their temples, some belonging to more than one, some guardian more than one.

It made no sense to her.

It seemed to make no sense to the Water Goddess either, her troubled mind filling Delphiniums as she tended to her garden. “You must be careful, Goddess, or you’ll drown this whole place.” She spoke without looking up from her work, the steady breathing of the white mare mixing with the storm brewing in the sky. “They use us like puppets, as if we are here to serve them Oracle. How can you stand it?”

Looking up, Delphinium met the dark eyes of one of the only deity she had granted their powers to in order to save them. Too many of the gods were bound to their temple by chains, a punishment for their mortal sins. But Courant? She had given her life for her father’s. Paudan had given his life for Courant. Altus, oh darling Altus, longed to be with Courant forever in whatever way he could.

“It is our duty to them, to keep the world in order. I give them their stones but their powers are drawn from you, your fellow gods, your temples...” She paused, standing up and brushing the dirt off of her skirt. “But they do seem to be getting greedy lately. They all want power, to be the Opal god. To be an Ancient... A legend.”

Courant snorted, hooves digging into the earth as she grew irritated. “Fools. Do they not know how lucky they are?” Thunder rumbled in the distance, her feelings flooding through her and reaching out into the world. “How trivial their lives are! To be a god... Why would they want this life? Chained to our temples, gods with no followers. It is us who is serving them.”

Delphinium looked at Courant, the same storm brewing in the sky now brewing in her heart. She had been given the power to harness the elements and she then had given them to those mortals who couldn’t be controlled: it had been her way of controlling them. As she looked at the Water Goddess, she wondered if she had made a mistake. Could any of them really be controlled? “What do you plan to do about it?” She asked, a bit uneasy. She had taken a neutral stance on most of the matters of both gods and mortals, only offering advice when she saw fit. It would be interesting to see what the Water Goddess would do to get the attention of the mortals.

Sweetly, Courant responded. “I plan to remind them who are the gods and who are the mortals.”