Flying up into the clouds didn't scare Ymir as much as she thought it would. What had scared her, however, was how comfortable her angel was with touching her. Her new skin felt warmer as Elizabeth encircled her pale arms around her waist, murmuring assurances before she propelled into the sky, beating all four of her wings against the wind. It was beyond exhilarating – nothing like what she felt when she was in her titan form. Instead of everything just looking small to her, it continued to shrink as she got higher and higher, before it all disappeared entirely when they flew through a cloud. And shockingly enough, clouds felt like nothing. As a titan, what she saw were Fritz's enemies, and her own limbs as she went to crush them beneath her body. It was a one-sided massacre; no one had called it a war in a long time. There was no glory in being sent to fight a battle you had no chance in winning, and knowing that, Ymir could never appreciate the new perspectives being able to shift into a beast gave her. From up here however, she looked at everything. When Elizabeth had noticed her eyes for the first time, she had slowed down, allowing Ymir to fully take in the colours of the sky, and watch the birds she used to envy fly below them. To her left, the sun was just rising, and before they passed through another cloud (that wasn't fluffy as she used to imagine), Elizabeth stopped completely, slowing the flap of her wings as she too stared at the slow rising sun.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" she asked. She looked down at the girl in her grasp, but almost gasped at the wideness of her eyes. Before now, Ymir had gone out of her way to shield them with her hair for whatever reason. But right now, so many emotions were swirling in them, and her pupils wavered as she stared so intently at the blue-orange sky around the sun. Despite her looking like she might cry right then and there, Elizabeth was half tempted to switch the object of her question.

The eyes were the first part of the girl Elizabeth was able to recover. Once she had gained full consciousness, Elizabeth had started working on rebuilding her body, feeling it safe. Her mentor, Ophelia, had only started teaching her how to enhance her Invigorate – a spell that was only taught to goddesses of higher ranks - a few decades ago, and she had worried she might mess it up. She had been informed by Jelamet back in the Silver City that her mother wanted to speak with her. Apparently, she had been trying to pinpoint the location of someone particular for quite some time now, and tonight she had received a prayer from a pile of bones, thrown out into the corner of some castle's courtyard many miles off of Britannia. Rearranging the bones had been hell. When failing to understand which bones went where in the human body, she had almost given up. But then she recalled what it was her mother told her she had heard – 'Just grant me this mercy. I no longer wish to be a part of this world'. ' Elizabeth had expected a body on the verge of death, not a fleshless handful of bones. She almost couldn't believe that their soul was still in there, a blue glow only visible to certain species shimmering dimly. What had this person endured for them to not want to cling onto whatever little life they had left? Or maybe this state made them lose faith in a recovery. It was reasonable – a human would have already decided they were dead. But what had stunned Elizabeth, and had her thinking about her mother's intentions, was that this person had given them-self an undying soul. Whether or not it was their intention, it was their own self and ability that refused to let them die. Whatever happened to them, they seemed to lose consciousness from, and must have woken up unable to see, feel or hear. Elizabeth had reached her in a matter of minutes after her mother's request, the goddess realm possessing portals that allowed you to travel anywhere you wanted immediately.

It was when she had picked up a broken piece of bone that resembled a vertebrae, did Elizabeth see everything. The lifetime worth of memories from the owner of this bone. The soul continued to speak as Elizabeth had tried not to cry out and alert one of the humans that could be nearby. It proved to be very difficult, and she had to cover several sobs with her hands. The soul spoke very occasionally and very spaced out as Elizabeth had sat there for hours trying to piece together their skeleton. But it was only once Elizabeth felt as though she had gotten it close enough, had she chosen to respond.

"Then sleep, child." She had communicated with her mind, soft to not unnerve her. What she had gathered from this girl's memories were that in human years, she was only twenty three. She was beyond young, and hadn't experienced a single good thing her life. The skull had been barely touched, so it wasn't difficult to figure out where eyes were meant to be. She envisioned eyes in the hollow holes and placed her thumbs on the edges. She felt her power pulse in her fingertips and circled the holes with her thumbs, a holy light filling them.

Eyes.

She made eyes.


"You have very pretty eyes, Ymir."

Only then did the girl meet the goddess' gaze, and her mouth formed an 'o' shape when she realised her angel's eyes had gone from an orangey-gold colour to a sweet blue, much like what the sky was doing. She mentally noted that she couldn't pick a favourite between the two eye colours, because each suited her angel perfectly, and did nothing to dimmer the glow around her Ymir decided she loved.

Thank you.

Ymir wasn't sure how long they had just looked at each other's eyes before Elizabeth must have noticed what she was doing and cleared her throat. "Right," she looked away. "Are you ready?"

Ready for what? Ymir tilted her head at the goddess, whose arms were still hugging around her stomach.

"This cloud is a gateway to the goddess realm. Humans don't notice it, but cloud gateways are normally whiter than normal clouds. I'd tell you to brace yourself, but nothing's really going to happen when we go through it. I just think you should close your eyes."

Ymir had... many questions. The first of which being why Elizabeth was even taking her to what she kept calling the 'goddess realm'. The second was what even was a goddess realm, but she wasn't stupid and could make some educated guesses. But even that seemed bizarre to Ymir. Forgetting that she could turn into titan over two hundred feet at will, the idea of there being a winged humanoid species living above the clouds just didn't seem believable to her. Her third question would be, why did Elizabeth's voice sound higher than usual all of a sudden?

She nodded and closed her eyes, realising she trusted Elizabeth completely. She felt her feet rise higher and higher then, and listened to each thrust of wings beating against the air at an increasing rate.


The winged humanoid species living above the clouds became all too real when Ymir reopened her eyes. Elizabeth was right to tell her to close her eyes, because even opening them slowly seemed to hurt, and she immediately squeezed her lids shut again. It was far too bright.

It look at least two minutes of opening and shutting her eyes for them to finally adjust to light, and she didn't miss Elizabeth's amused smile when she did. When Ymir looked back over her form, she realised that the glow from before didn't seem as prominent here. She'd be lying if she said that didn't disappoint her in the slightest.

It took Ymir another full minute for her to realise that she was stood on clouds too, which, considering how Elizabeth had flown straight through many of them on their way here, unnerved her a lot. It was almost comedic how she scrambled for Elizabeth's arm wordlessly, her eyes large and frantic. This time, Elizabeth couldn't hold back her laugh.

And for lack of better words: it was enchanting.

Despite Elizabeth's assurances that she wasn't going to slip through clouds at any moment, Ymir refused to let go of her arm. Since she was the one who had brought her here without informing her there was a possibility she could slip, fall and die immediately, she could at least hold her hand for the duration. And so she did.

It was a short walk before Ymir laid her eyes on two other beings with wings like Elizabeth. Try as she might, she couldn't take her eyes off the wings on their backs, looking back at Elizabeth's and noting how hers were bigger in size and more in amount. She briefly wondered why, until she realised she was being addressed,

"Good morning Izreus, Hector!" Elizabeth beamed at the two celestials stood in front of a gate so unnecessarily large to Ymir. And far too white.

The shorter one that had what looked like like a bow and arrow load of… light? strapped onto his back dipped his head, "We aren't worthy of such familiarity from you, Lady Elizabeth."

The taller one did the same, him carrying a sword made of the same as the bow and arrows.

"Pssssh," Elizabeth sounded. "always wanting to alienate me from the people, don't you Hector. Accept my good morning and let us in." a light, amused edge to her voice.

Hector snorted and raised his head. "Maybe one day you'll realize associating yourself with just anyone will reflect badly on you, princess." Despite the humored way he said it, Ymir sensed he actually meant it. Elizabeth, however, remained oblivious as ever. This boy looked to be youthful in appearance with strawberry blonde hair mussed on the top of his head, wearing a white cowl with an oversized hood over his head.

The other one Ymir guessed was Izreus spoke next, dressed in similar attire but with long blonde hair that reached his elbows,

"As easy as it'd be to just let everyone in who asked, we do have protocol to follow." This one seemed to be acquainted with Elizabeth too, but lacked the humor the other boy expressed if his serious tone was anything to go off. "Whose the kid?"

That's when Ymir checked back in. The celestial's vibrant golden eyes stared straight at her, unblinking. It was unnerving frankly, and had her lowering her head so her pale blonde hair could cover his view of her face. She felt Elizabeth squeeze her hand.

"She's not a child, Izreus. She's from the human realm."

"That wasn't an answer," he said, not even sparing Elizabeth a glance. Ymir squeezed Elizabeth's hand back.

"Izreus." Elizabeth said now, commanding attention away from the shy girl holding her hand. The celestial met her gaze.

"My mother sent for her. You wouldn't want her to wait around any longer than she has to, would you?"

Hector watched with mild surprise when Izreus didn't immediately back down, and met Elizabeth's gaze with misplaced suspicion. Eventually, Hector's surprise changed to entertained, and he watched with an unsubtle grin the staring contest between the two godly beings.

Like always, Elizabeth won. Izreus backed off.

"Right." He said. Then he stepped aside for Hector to open the gate with a wave of his hand. "I'll send for pegasi to escort you to country's capital, Lady Elizabeth."

"Always appreciate it, Izreus." Elizabeth said, her voice far too sweet to be genuine, and much more smug.

"Welcomeeee to Heofon country, your majesty!" Hector announced with an exaggerated bow. Elizabeth gave an unlady-like snort, tugging Ymir gently through the gate when she didn't immediately follow. She patted Hector on the hood as she passed him,

"It was nice seeing you guys."

She missed the way Hector immediately flushed, and turned to Izreus with the dopiest grin the celestial had ever seen.

"Y-you too! Enjoy your stay, p-princess!" he quickly turned to say, but Elizabeth and her friend were already yards beyond the gate.

"Damnit. Missed my chance. Again!" He pulled at the strawberry blonde curls beneath his hood.

Izreus' attention was clearly not entirely on him, but he responded nonetheless,

"Try again the next time she comes to Heofon."

"So you mean next century, right?" the boy groaned.