5. The Boulder Problem

Feria would not leave Bella’s side. If she were to die alone—no, she wouldn’t think about that. It was not even a possibility! And where were Cosmo and Gulvi? Why was Eeris too heavy to forcefully drag her out of her Withered Willows? Her siblings always said they’d be back the next day, and they never were.

Darus had to execute the plan alone. It was a wild guess, but those were his specialty.

He found his first boulder at the top of his Impossible Wall. A similar stone clearing as Ardex had found was present there, and hundreds of years ago a glowing blue boulder had shown up. The others didn’t know he’d discovered the special clearings way earlier than Ardex, for they had never asked.

Just as they didn’t know he’d accidentally crossed the invisible border once. He was ashamed to say it, to be pushed aside as one big furry joke again. Especially because he accidentally stumbled back before exploring the other side. Keeping this secret, it took him all those hundred years to figure out that touching the boulder probably inspired that freak event.

The blue stone was so hard to dislodge, though, that he used too much power and accidentally sent it rolling downhill this time.

He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

Feria made a simple observation. If the boulder wasn’t there at first, then someone had actually placed it or used it. The same person who had hidden the boulder at the other clearing. She said the stones strongly reminded her of Father, which just confirmed their belief that this cage was Father’s doing. Even after a million years, he would not stop punishing them—and they didn’t even know for what crime they were punished.

Their theory? Father wanted to be able to pass through the walls himself, if need be. The invisible boundaries were the lock; the boulders were the key.

They tried this key-lock solution at the clearing near Bella, but it didn’t work. Maybe because Ardex had destroyed it too much already, or his anger had depleted the batteries there. More likely, the boulders only worked on their original location.

Darus thought their best chance was using this specific boulder to unlock the mountain side. He had made the Impossible Wall, he was aligned with the stone and the dirt, he was certain he could figure it out.

And so he stood at the foot of his mountain, ready to roll a boulder all the way to the top.

Eeris had laughed at the silly idea and refused to help. After much trouble, they explained it to Bella with gestures, but the Goddess of Wisdom made a face that radiated her belief that this plan wasn’t so wise after all.

Ardex returned. His face had cleared up, his anger soothed. It was always like that. Anything you said would just make him more angry, but leave him alone for a time, and he was like brand new.

“Why … why are you rolling that up the hill, brother?” His voice was guilt-ridden. “Is, erm, Bella looked after?”

Darus stopped himself before telling the truth. It would just make his brother go crazy again. He’d tell him that rolling boulders up a hill was a joke. He already envisioned Ardex setting all the boulders on fire or throwing them against the wall a hundred times.

For every fire of his, they knew now, another part of their land would shrivel or wither to fuel it. As usual, Ardex would just get in the way.

“Surely,” Darus said in a light voice, “you remember the match of Boulder Ball we planned for tomorrow? At the mountaintop?”

“This is no time for games!”

“According to you, it’s never been a time for games in a million years! Which makes it the perfect time for games.”

Ardex’ frown deepened. “This is foolish. Why not use your magic?”

“It’s not easier. Using magic takes energy too. Making a boulder float without touching it is harder than moving it by simply, well, touching it. I thought you knew this? When you breathe fire, you always groan as if you’re terribly ill or going mad.”

“I do not. That’s a powerful magic cry.”

“Sure.” Darus grinned. “It’s okay to cry, brother. I would too if I looked like you.”

“Not that kind of crying.”

“Say, if you’re so strong … maybe a little helping paw? Boulders are heavy. And slippery.”

Ardex grunted. Then he put his massive tiger body behind the boulder.

It rolled up the mountain smoothly, but it was still a long way to go. It was not called the Impossible Wall of Darus for nothing. Afternoon came and went, the sun set, and still they kept pushing and rolling the boulder higher and higher.

Exhaustion made them shiver; their strong pushes turned to limping. And all that time they fought gravity. They fought the desire of the boulder, so it seemed, to slip from their grasp and roll back down. As if only the floor was its home.

But they kept going. They could always see the top, always see their goal, and they had each other.

Even if Ardex lamented how weak gods were, dear reader, he was still a thousand times stronger and faster than you would be. The Wall is a proper mountain, make no mistake. Cosmo still struggled to fly to the top. But they were able to push that boulder all the way in less than a day.

“Come on, brother,” Darus said with teeth clenched.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw an odd shadow at the mountain top. An irregular shape that clearly moved. But he was too exhausted, straining too much as he held the weight, to look closely.

“One more push! One more step!”

They made that final push.

The stone inexplicably slipped from both their grasps.

“NO!” roared Ardex.

Stones did not listen to voice commands. It picked up pace with ease and rolled back down again. Pushing it uphill was a constant battle; roaring downhill was what it always wanted to do, and it did so fast.

“Ah well,” Darus said with fake cheer. “Say, let’s try that again.”

Ardex wanted a break first. He studied the clearing of stones up here and found it to be nearly identical. After a long silence, Darus lay on his stomach beside him. As the sun rose, they studied how it interacted with the stones full of warning signs.

“I know what these are,” Ardex mumbled, staring ahead. “These are Marker Stones.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Like you ever believe me,” he whispered. “Like you’d listen.”

Darus bit back a joke and said: “I am listening now.”

“Father keeps watch over the entire universe. He sits in his throne, eyes half-closed, and can see or hear any planet he desires from there. How?”

Darus grinned. “By placing a stone Marker on some of them. Stone—always got your back.”

“This planet was of special interest to him. That’s why it has multiple Markers. That’s why he probably sent us here in a panic and not, well, anywhere else.”

Darus’ grin disappeared. His longing gaze tried to see through the stone, as if it were a portal back home. As if Father would jump out any second and tell them this was all a joke. A bad one. Yes, even Darus had revised his opinion that all jokes were good.

“So you really think he still watches? He returns once in a while to observe us?”

Ardex grumbled. “Animals are easier to observe when caged.”

He could almost understand what his Father had done. He was trained by Him, given powers by Him, and oh so similar to Him. If Ardex could cage his siblings, they would … they might … actually stick together. Not walk away.

But it was this one way in which he’d always differed from Father. Once Somnia teemed with life, once he ruled a beautiful planet, he would never force unjust laws on his subjects or put them in a cage.

That’s what he told himself almost every day, dear reader. Of course, as the rest of this saga narrates, the messiness of life led him down wildly different paths. I sometimes wish I’d acted and saved this dysfunctional family, instead of letting things develop however they develop. Freedom, total freedom, has its downsides.

As the sun rose, they leapt down the mountain with massive magical jumps. Going down was always faster than going up. When Darus lands a jump, he doesn’t break his bones, he breaks the stones.

From the foot of the Impossible Wall, they tried pushing the boulder uphill again. All went smoothly. They cooperated well and doubled their pace from before.

Just before they reached the top, it slipped from their grasp again and rolled back down.

They tried once more. Anger and frustration fueled them more than any lie about wanting to play Boulder Ball with their family. Darus liked his games, but not that much. They had unspoken rules by now about where to step and which dangerous edges to avoid.

They reached the top, made sure to have a firm grasp for the final few steps—and it still slipped away and rolled back down.

They’d wasted so much time and energy on this. Ardex was certain this was Darus’ plan: keep Ardex away from the others, make sure the grumpy firegod didn’t get in the way. But it could anger him no more. He was bad luck.

It was not that he didn’t need them—they didn’t need him.

He strolled away from Darus, head hanging low and lacking a destination. He felt powerless. He was, ever since he learned that to create fire, he had to destroy something else. To create energy it had to be taken away from somewhere.

A theory so inconvenient he still chose not to believe it.

He desperately hoped the others were having more luck saving Bella. He renewed his quest to generate more energy somehow.