Valcores the god eternal's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The bond held, but it had nowhere to go. Valcores stood joined across two forms, the red light steady inside them. A god of love needs a mortal soul to bind to. That was how love took root in Valra. But the seal's shard whispered, and every soul Valcores reached for slipped away, unworthy or afraid. Without one heart to anchor, their love had no soil. It could only ache. So Valcores split the joined self on purpose. The tearing love became a cloaked figure in a deep red robe, its hood empty, its edges burning low like coals. This was the Jar of Hearts, the half that carried every parting and every loss. Beside it stood the House of Hearts, small and pale, with two deep purple eyes. This half held the shelter, the place a soul could live. One to grieve. One to keep. Valcores sent them out to search the enchanted city. They walked among the people for days. The Jar of Hearts drifted close to the grieving, its burning cloak dimming their pain. The House of Hearts watched with those purple eyes, testing each heart for room enough to hold a god's love. At a fountain they found her. A young woman sat alone, holding a small pink creature that glowed with soft heart-shapes, the same kind that had swarmed the broken jar. She had rescued it from the gutter. She fed it bread she could not spare. "She kept a dying thing warm," the Jar of Hearts said. Its voice came low and sad, like wind through ash. "She has room." The House of Hearts stepped closer. Its purple eyes brightened. "Then we open the door." Valcores reached for her soul through both halves at once. The Jar of Hearts poured in old sorrow, so she would know love costs something. The House of Hearts built the shelter, a place for that love to live. The woman gasped and pressed a hand to her chest. Warmth spread where the god's love took hold. The bond took root. For the first time since the tearing, Valcores felt their love grow in living soil, not glass. The two halves leaned together and nearly rejoined, whole and glad. Then the shard in the red light woke. Nutra's name hissed through the new bond. The sorrow the Jar of Hearts had poured did not fade. It doubled. The woman's face went pale. She clutched the little creature tighter and began to weep, and could not stop. The love had rooted, but the seal had poisoned the root. The House of Hearts turned its purple eyes to the Jar of Hearts. "We anchored her," it said. "And now she is drowning in it." Valcores had found their worthy soul at last. The shard would not let them keep her whole.