8. The Heavenly Palace

Ardex didn’t know to where he was walking, or for how much longer he could walk. He wanted to stop the lava. He didn’t want to leave his family, the only thing he had. But his power was nearly gone. It wouldn’t be long before his head crumbled away too.

He’d never had to think about it before: dying. He had seen other living creatures to whom it happened. As the god of destruction he had often been the cause! And now he was nearly a victim himself.

Later they will tell stories about me, he thought. To emphasize how stupid I was and how I got what I deserved.

At first he didn’t know how to feel. Now he knew was sure about what he had to do with his final hours.

He had found the center of his tectonic plate, with no edge in sight. Here, the rocks were the tallest, the ground at its most solid.

So he started building.

With his final pebble of strength, he built a staircase to this highest point. He pulled magma from the earth until it cooled and became rough black stone. That’s how he built one wall. And another wall.

And another, the front wall, which received a gaping hole that was meant to be a gate.

A shock went through him. His front paws, his tail, everything grew back. He felt strong, mighty, like the fire god he was meant to be.

That feeling disappeared immediately when a teeny tiny red panda climbed over the walls and stood before him. He knew right away who she was.

“Hanah! You’re safe. And you’re here.” Ardex walked toward her, but she leapt away and scampered diagonally up the new wall.

“Great, you hate me too.”

“We still can’t touch each other,” she said. “It surprises me you even remember my name. You didn’t search for me, not even a heartbeat, because my powers aren’t useful enough, right?”

“We were busy not dying. Still are, actually.”

Hanah rolled her eyes. “You’re never going to say sorry, are you?”

Ardex sighed deeply and tried his most innocent face. “Sorry. How can I help you?”

“Not at all. I’ll manage by myself. I’m coming to help you all.”

The red panda didn’t seem affected at all. No parts were crumbled or weakened. Or maybe she was so small and so young that there wasn’t much to crumble yet.

“I mean,” she continued. “I don’t want to help you, but I have to if we want to survive this.”

“You don’t want to help us? You’ve only lived a few weeks and you already hate us?”

“No. I love you. That’s the problem.”

Ardex didn’t understand any of it. It seemed like he was always the last to understand. He didn’t get what anyone wanted from him anymore.

“Why did you come to me? I’m useless. My powers are gone and I can’t lead this family. I tried being their friend and cheering them on—didn’t work. I tried commanding and taking charge—didn’t work.”

Hanah’s tail curled over her head. Everywhere she walked she, left a panda print from pebbles and grains of sand. “I know you want to go back. I know you want revenge on Father, but you can’t do that all alone.”

“I can’t do it with my family either. Everyone ignores my commands and does their own thing.”

“That’s how it’s supposed to be! Not them ignoring you, of course, but everyone doing their own thing. Father made us less dangerous by giving each a small power. We can only defeat Father if we get all those powers to work together and trust each other. Not if one of us shouts orders from a high tower.”

“Well then,” Ardex yelled, “I’m a failure even at that.”

“You did just fine.”

“They hate me. Darus literally broke the planet!”

“And still you did fine. How boring would it be if everything worked perfectly the first try?” Hanah smiled. It was cute enough to melt most of Ardex’ anger.

“Boring, but nice.”

Hanah shook her whole fur coat. “You all want to go too fast. Zyme, remember? Look at this house you’re building. Those walls over there are crooked and have uneven heights. You could never put a roof on top. The slightest gust of wind would blow it away. Some of the steps on your staircase are so far apart I can’t take them.”

Ardex fully understood how Darus felt when everyone told him he was useless, over and over. But he held it in and let Hanah finish talking. Because every time he yelled at Darus, it only led to more fighting.

“If you want to build a good house, don’t you draw up blueprints first? Don’t you build stairs step by step? Why are you trying to create a planet full of trees, and rabbits, and all life … within a single day?”

“Because we need life force to survive. Fast too.”

“Ah, and that’s why I’m here.”

“You’re the goddess of arts and love,” Ardex said in surprise.

“No, that’s what you all call me.” Hanah came as close to Ardex as she could. “This planet is gigantic … and yet it’s made of teeny tiny particles. Hydrogen, carbon, oxygen. What you’ve all been desperately searching for these past days.”

Ardex felt his power fade again. His body had just been repaired—and now it was breaking apart once more.

He was growing frustrated. She had wasted time. He could have finished building the house in that time! But he knew she was right: if he had made the whole house in that time, it would have been shoddy and crooked.

A house built within a day would have collapsed within a day.

Hanah smiled again. “Start small. As small as you can. I think your Green Sisters already invented that DNA. Make sure it works. Because life doubles and grows, those little pieces will stack up. If you just wait long enough, they’ll become more and more like trees and rabbits.”

She glanced upward. Ardex followed her gaze. Cosmo floated through the gray sky.

“You did good, Ardex. It’s not your fault we were banished. It’s my fault.”

Cosmo crashed down in the middle of the house. The gust of wind he caused blew all the walls apart.

The red panda was nowhere to be seen.

“Why does this always happen to me?” grumbled Cosmo. “A bird with one wing and a fear of heights.”

His brother said more but Ardex didn’t hear it. It’s not my fault, he kept hearing over and over. It’s not my fault. It’s not my fault. I did good.

With renewed energy, he destroyed the staircase and built the house a second time. He used a lava flow to polish the rock until it was a smooth slope, after which he jumped down and placed the first step.

Not rushed, but calm and satisfied.

Cosmo found it much too calm. “Pardon, Ardex? You’ve been staring at one step for fifteen minutes now?”

“It’s finally perfect.” He started on the next step.

“In what way?”

“Exactly like the Heavenly Palace.”

Cosmo fell quiet. Just for a moment, he could look at the slope and see the beautiful stairs from his home again. Laughter brought wrinkles around his bird eyes.

“A nice gesture, brother, but is this the best time?”

“I have nothing else to offer. You all need to let that one thing you invented grow. I can only give this family a place. A place Father took from us.”

Cosmo laid his wing over Ardex’ broad tiger shoulders. He could see it too. On that high rock, it would fit just right. A shared throne room with a throne for everyone, designed to match their powers. A playroom out of which Bella could shove Ardex. A grand hall where they played Godsball.

“Shouldn’t you fly further?” Ardex asked as he started on the third step.

“No use. Those mountains Darus accidentally made are too high. I call it the Impossible Wall. And something in the south stops me: I’m not allowed past it by some invisible force.”

“Then go back to the others. Tell them what I told you. Don’t try to go too fast. Zyme, remember?”

Ardex scratched a floorplan into the stones with his claws.

“When I get my powers back, I’ll calm the lava. And you’re all invited to my Heavenly Palace.”