If Penelope had heard Priya's thoughts, she would have been disgusted. She was her own, independent person who didn't need anyone else's help or guidance. She especially didn't need random people to offer her food. She may have been homeless, but she was not a beggar!

Penelope had long ago learned that the only way she could guarantee that things were done right was if she did them herself. She hadn't had any parental figure since she was four, and that was a-okay with her. She didn't need or want ANYONE'S help, so parents were as unnecessary as strangers who pitied her and gave her quarters.

(The only good thing about quarters was that she could use them to buy candy. She didn't need to use them to buy anything else, because she could get that on her own.)

There was a forest nearby where she hunted and gathered. She had a swiss army knife that was more useful than anything else she'd found in the woods. There were plenty of other children who were homeless like her, and very few had a weapon, which automatically gave her the authority to claim leadership. She was infamous in the eyes of the police, but they couldn't arrest her because she was still only twelve. Ha!

Besides, she didn't hurt anyone, so although she was infamous, she was second-tier infamous and didn't matter much. There were so many murderers and muggers and other people to find. In short, Penelope's world was waist-deep in chaos.

Her particular band of children was situated on the east side of the city, just across the river from the forest. There were a lot of abandoned factories and warehouses there, which made for easy shelter. But still, sometimes it was too risky and they had to stay out on the streets.

Tonight was a good night, though. The stars just barely shined through a dirty skylight and Penelope was warm, cozied up in her sleeping bag after a long day of hunting and a long night of telling stories. She didn't need the help or whining of the tribe, but she did appreciate the feeling of safety. If she was on her own, she wouldn't be able to get to these places, these safehouses where there was shelter and warmth and a constant supply of food and water. So she could appreciate these children. She could even admit (only to herself, of course) that she depended on them. But she could not open up to them. She could not tell them her secret.

She would take it to the grave.

Summer had begun.

Yesterday, they had celebrated the Solstice with the Feast of Aarush, God of Summer. There weren't many male deities, but Aarush was still one of the most important gods. Summer was one of the best growing seasons during a good year. But if they angered Aarush, it would be too hot for crops to grow. The solstice was when they made offerings and held grand parties in his honor.

According to the old legends (the gods hadn't touched Earth in centuries), Aarush was also Seleniah's wife. Aarush himself didn't have any special worshippers like his wife did, so the moon goddess's priestesses were in charge of his ceremonies, too. A priestess from the nearby village of Liret had come to help Priya, Maria and Callisto, since it was so important that everything be right. While they worked, the Priestess, an older girl of about eighteen whose name was Zia, told them about Liret. It was a large village (Will would have called it a city) on the banks of the river Lira. The Tinja priestesses knew about Lira, of course, but the part of the river that ran just south of their village was so skinny and slow-moving they couldn't get a boat through if they wanted to. The people of Liret, though, knew the river as a great force of nature. It was to be respected. It had its own god, a river guardian named Liro, who had his own small temple that flooded once a year.

But the best part, Zia informed them, were the boats. Amongst the people of Liret were great travelers who had been all the way to the ocean. To Maria and Castillo, the ocean was a whole other world, a world that the gods still touched down on. Priya, too, had been told of the ocean's sparkling blue waters, but she had seen them for herself in Will's world. But it was still exciting for her that people in her world could go so far.

According to Zia, it was very hard to get to the ocean, because they had to go upstream, against the current. It was easier to go downstream, and far more exciting, in her opinion. This confused all three girls, because what could be more exciting than the ocean?

"The Great Fall."

The Great Fall. Oh, that was more exciting. That evening, as they feasted with the rest of the village, Priya told Will that you could take a boat from Liret all the way to the Great Fall!

"What is it?" He'd asked. "A cliff?"

And Priya was astonished. How had she never told him about the Great Fall? It was so special, so important, that she had to have mentioned it in the five years that she'd known him. Right?

But evidently she hadn't, because he had no idea what she was talking about.

So she explained to him that it was more than a cliff, it was a waterfall, and that if you were to fall from it, you would fall two thousand feet down and then straight into the abyss. Will knew that the abyss was a forever fall through darkness and evil. But in Priya's world, they didn't call it evil. They didn't have that concept, it was something else…

Priya was still going on, though. The Great Fall was the most majestic waterfall in any world (emphasizing the any so that he would know that it was better than the best in his world), and if you stood at the top and looked down, you would become one with nature, one with the gods, and a miracle would happen.

"What sort of miracle?" Will had asked, and Priya had responded, "Anything. Some people float. Some see the faces of gods. Some just… fade."

"Fade?"

"Slowly disappear. I saw it happen once, right in the middle of town. It was an elder. I think that's what happens when the gods choose you to serve at their palace."

"Do you want that?"

She'd pondered the question, before answering "Maybe someday. But if you go there, you leave your body behind. You escape destiny. If you haven't already, you might never meet your soulmate. So maybe when I'm an elder. But I don't think that fading would be my miracle. I'm a priestess, so I'll serve Seleniah, at least, when I'm dead. But I don't know…"

Today, though, was a new day, a new festival. This one wasn't for a god. It was the celebration of the day that Tinja was named, making it a village. The local authority, a man named Toreen, told the story. It wasn't a very interesting story, but Priya still liked the festival because she didn't have any duties.

Will liked listening to the story. In some ways, he still felt like this town was a strange, new place. But when he listened to the story and feasted with everyone else, he felt he was part of the community. He fit in. This strange world was as much home as his own world, with Mary and Elaine.

But it didn't always feel like that. When he hadn't known what the Great Fall was, he'd been mortified, because it was obviously important, not only to Priya, but to this place. He hadn't grown up here. He didn't know the customs. Sometimes, he felt like he was the child and Priya was the parent, teaching him how to be a person in this world. And yet it wasn't as if he could copy what Priya did, because she was different, had special duties and privileges. The only thing he could learn without her specifically instructing him was religion. He knew the names of the gods and he knew when all the important festivals and celebrations were. He could cook the important dishes and sing the important songs. He knew the stories, too, of the gods and of Tinja and of the River Far.

But it wasn't just that he wasn't accustomed to this culture. His and Priya's little family was as strange as the word television to these people. Orphans would go to family members who their parents trusted and loved. Adoption the way it happened in Will's world was unheard of. A child didn't live with anyone their parents hadn't specifically requested. Especially not a random stranger they'd met on the street. People had a hard time understanding the relationship Will and Priya had, even if it was just the same as any other father-daughter relationship that they could see in this village.

All in all, he felt out of place. He was twenty-five years old and didn't seem to have any interest in looking for his soulmate. He and Priya would disappear for months at a time and return wearing strange clothing. He would sometimes sit with his feet dipped in the river Lira and stare at his scrap of leather from the sheath of the subtle knife.

He wanted to be a part of this community that had already built their own Republic of Heaven.

And maybe that's why, when Priya proposed a trip to the Great Fall, he said "yes!" without a moment's hesitation.

A/N: Sorry that it's late (and also pretty short), posting this totally slipped my mind. I'm still going to post chapter three on saturday, though :)

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3 Ivy