Amara saw the black birds before she saw Chuck. They pulled her gaze to a distant rolling rise in the prairie that held a few small trees and some lichen-covered sandstone ledges. She could see Chuck's silhouette. He was sitting on a large, flat slab of stone, head in his hands, shoulders bent. His shoulders glistened as if they were absorbing the light of the full moon. Amara stopped and stood silently, watching him from a distance.

He is so sad, she thought. I ache to ease his sadness.

Amara had just begun to close the distance between herself and Chuck when a figure moved in the upper corner of the Goddess's vision, drawing her gaze from the immortal. Above him, on an even larger outcropping of sandstone rock, a feather-bedecked old man had appeared. He stood, slowly straightening his age-crooked body. As he straightened, Amara could see that he was not alone. A woman was with him—a girl, really. She was wearing an elaborately decorated dress of tanned hide, which Amara thought was quite lovely. Actually, even from a distance the Goddess could tell that the maiden was spectacularly beautiful.

Amara recognized the girl as the daughter of the human royal family. Her name was Neena and she was the daughter of Izayoi and Samael, crown princess.

The old man began to chant a wordless, rhythmic melody. His voice was hypnotic, and Amara felt her own bare feet begin to move in time with it when Chuck spoke.

"Shaman, enough! I have endured too many miseries today. I do not need your unending song added to them." He raised his head, and Amara could see his body jerk in surprise. "Why have you brought a child here?"

"I do only as my dream commands. This girl, her name is Neena, she will be the first of many."

"About that dream, you could have told me that—"

The old man's voice cut across Chuck's. As he sang his song, the timbre of his voice changed, magnified with a strange power that glowed from the center of his forehead in a pure, white light the shape of a crescent moon.

What I do, I do for two

One for her

And one for you

Take this maid

Her blood runs true

Sacrifice for two

One for her

And one for you.

Mesmerized, Amara watched and listened, but as the Shaman's song progressed, a terrible sense of foreboding filled the Goddess and she began to move forward, slowly at first, and then more quickly, until she was running.

Balance hold

New and old

Scale of two

One for her

And one for you!

With the last line of his song, the Shaman lifted his hand. Amara saw that in it he held a long, sharp obsidian blade.

"No!" the Goddess cried.

The Shaman's blade did not waver. It slashed the maid's throat, releasing a torrent of blood. She fell to his feet, gasping her life's breath and flooding the sandstone with a crimson tide.

"Why have you done this?" Amara rushed to the maid, pulling the dying girl into her arms.

"The sacrifice was for two. One for him. One for you. Forgive me, Goddess. I did only what I could do." Then the old man's eyes rolled white. He clutched his chest and fell into the grasses, breathing no more.

Amara looked up to see that Chuck's face was as pale as moonlight. "What madness is this?"

"I-I do not know. I thought the old man deluded, misguided even. I did not think him capable of this."

"Have he and his People been worshipping you?"

Amara saw genuine surprise in Chuck's expression. "They left me gifts, and the old man often chanted and smudged around me. Is that worship?" Chuck shook his head, staring at the dying maiden. "I am a fool. I am to blame for these two deaths."

"No!" Amara said sternly, not willing to allow Chuck to fall into despair and guilt. "He was an old man. His heart failed him. That could not be changed and is not your fault. But this girl, this child, he so mistakenly sacrificed to you, she still clings to life. We can save her, you and I. Give me your borrowed gift of creation, and invoke Spirit. What would please me most is that your power save the life of this girl."

Chuck bowed his head to her. "Yes, sister."

I call you, Spirit, Power Divine, and creation magick as well.

I have one more test to pass, one more tale to tell.

As the Goddess commands, so mote it be,

However she wishes to use you, with her I agree.

Chuck bent and kissed Amara gently on the forehead, and as the Goddess accepted his kiss, she drew within her body Spirit, the magick of creation, and the power of the Divine.

Amara lifted the obsidian knife from where the old man had dropped it, quickly slashing the blade across her own aura. Then she held the oozing line of her Qi to the girl's pale lips, saying:

"Qi of my Qi, you shall ever after be.

Take, drink. From this night forth your new life is my decree."

The girl's eyes remained closed, but her lips opened against the Goddess's wound, and she drank as Amara commanded.

The Goddess bent and blew gently on the girl's bleeding throat. The torn flesh instantly began to mend.

"For my daughter, this creation of mine,

I give the gift of Night Divine."

Amara kissed the girl's lips, breathing the last of Spirit within her, and then she kissed the middle of the girl's smooth forehead, touching the child with a Goddess's Old Magick, whispering, With this Mark tattoo, your life begins anew.

In the middle of the girl's forehead a sapphire-colored crescent moon appeared. From it, spreading down either side of the girl's face, grew an intricate series of filigreed swirls and mysterious signs that held symbols of each of the five elements, magickally mirroring the tattoos with which Amara so often chose to decorate her own body.

The girl opened her eyes. "Great Goddess of Darkness, tell me your name so that I may worship you."

"You may call me Amara. You are a new species, called, Yokai. And you deserve a new name, as you have a new life. You shall be called, Selenity Erinna Inukimi."

Selenity then fell into a deep slumber.

Amara's gaze went to the maiden. "Sister, will you be watching over your new daughter? She is a new being, and the only one of her kind. She will need special care."

"My brother, I am afraid that I will be her mother and Goddess as you are to the humans. Now, I will create once more."

Chuck was confused for a moment, and then he understood what Amara intended. "You will create more like her!"

"I will, though their creation will be more difficult than was hers. She is not truly a new being, but rather a mortal made more. I will sow humanity with the seeds of what she is. I do not know how many of them will be able to become more."

Chuck clasped his sister's hands. "Thank you, Sister. Thank you for making sure this child will not live her life alone."

"Do not thank me yet. I do not know how many like her will survive."

"Humans are strong and brave. There will be many who survive," Chuck said. "And you will be their Goddess of Darkness!"

"Yes, my brother. Yes," Amara agreed. "Now, embrace me again, I want no sadness or regret between us."

Chuck hugged her tightly. "I will visit your children, and I will watch over that which is eternal within them for eternity."

Amara took his hand and said, "Follow me." The Goddess lifted her hand and a slender silver thread appeared, as if the moon had lent her a beam of light. She grasped it and smiled at the immortal who was studying her with a look of apprehension. "Don't worry. If you know the way, the journey is not far. And I will show you the way, so that ever after you will never be far from me." Then the glittering ribbon went taut, lifting the Goddess into the night sky. Chuck took to the sky after his sister.

Amara didn't let loose the glittering silver thread until, out of the complete blackness that exists between realms, a patch of hard-packed earth suddenly appeared. She stepped on it and turned to face Chuck.

"Is it a piece of Earth here?" Chuck asked, bending to touch the ground that looked so very much like the red dirt from the tall grass prairie.

"There's more of it in there," Chuck said, pointing at a seemingly endless grove that stretched before them.

"No, there is nothing of Earth here," Amara said. "Though you will see many sights that will remind you of her."

Amara thought Chuck looked curious. "What is that tree?" he asked, starting to walk forward toward it.

Amara stepped before him, blocking his way. Chuck was now looking at her curiously.

"That tree has many names in the mortal realm, Yggdrasil, Abellio, Hanging Tree, and Goshinboku are but four of many reflections of its Old Magick. Here, I call it the Wishing Tree, as I have filled it with ribbons of Divine Energy in which I have woven wishes and dreams, joy and love. It stands at the entrance to my realm, the Otherworld. This is the place you and I built for our first creations, Aether and Micheal. We called it Heaven then. I have done a lot of building since then. I intend to share my realm with you, but before I allow you entrance I ask you to make me one promise—that no matter what the eternity to come brings, you will never again speak of the events of this night. My daughter, and those who come after her, must never know that they were mistakes created because of superstition and madness. Do you agree?"

"I do, and you have my promise," Chuck said.

"Then I gladly bid you enter the Otherworld, and wish that together we will all blessed be!"