Sometimes long after they had left the Court of Wealth and its endless echoes of gold and judgment the world slowed.
The Goddess of Solidity walked first.
Lady Senna and Sol moved as one presence, their steps quiet, heavy with meaning rather than sound. Behind them followed the God of Preservation, the Goddess of Nature, Yuria, Raka, and Archangel Graviel.
No one spoke.
They did not need to.
The Holy Sanctuary lay deep beneath layers of divine silence, a place even gods visited with caution. Its air was cold but gentle, like breath held too long. Every wall was carved with seals ancient, overlapping, some cracked, some glowing faintly as if exhausted from centuries of duty.
At the center of the chamber was a bed.
Large White ,Too comfortable for a place meant to imprison sleep.
Upon it lay Erdaline.
The Archangel of Space and Dream.
She did not look like an archangel.
She looked like a girl who had simply decided never to wake up.
Her silver-white hair spread across the pillows like spilled moonlight. Her chest rose and fell, slow but steady. Chains of symbols hovered above her skin—not binding her body, but anchoring her existence.
"She has not awakened," Graviel said quietly.
His voice echoed too much in the sanctuary.
"Only for some minutes," he continued. " But in last 3 years she woke up not even once ."
Yuria frowned. "Then… all those times she spoke to us—"
"Dreams," Graviel replied. "All of them."
The Goddess of Nature's fingers tightened. "Even when she laughed?"
"Yes."
Raka swallowed. "Even when she cried?"
Graviel nodded.
" She can communicate sometimes with the help of divinity of dreams."
Lady Senna stepped closer to the bed.
"I feel it again," she said. "The fracture."
Sol's voice followed hers, layered and calm. "Two divinities No three Pressing against each other, One is clearly Dream."
"And the other?" Yuria asked.
Senna shook her head slowly. "Space and time but distorted , As if it does not belong to this world."
Silence fell heavier than before.
Graviel exhaled. "Erdaline was sick from birth Even before her divinity fully bloomed."
"She was cursed," the God of Preservation said.
"Yes." Graviel's wings twitched once. "The Snow-White Curse."
Yuria stiffened. "That legend again."
"It is not a legend," Graviel replied. "It is a warning."
He turned, his gaze distant, and began.
—
Long ago, before orderly ages, there was a primordial land ruled by abundance.
In that land was a princess.
She had everything.
A kind family. Loving siblings. Endless wealth. Long life promised by divine blood.
Everything except beauty.
She was born exceptionally ugly.
So ugly that mirrors became her enemies.
Every time she saw her reflection, hatred bloomed inside her chest. Her siblings were beautiful, beloved by all. They treated her kindly.
That kindness hurt more than cruelty.
One day, wandering alone, she became lost and found herself before an old house leaning like it might collapse from boredom.
Inside, a young woman waited.
Too young.
Too calm.
Artifacts filled the room. Among them was a single white pill resting in a glass case.
"What does that do?" the princess asked.
The woman smiled.
"It grants wishes."
The price was not money.
The price was something precious something the wish-maker did not yet understand they owned.
The princess thought she had nothing precious.
So she paid.
She swallowed the pill.
And fell asleep.
In her dream, a goddess greeted her.
"I am the one who rules dreams," the goddess said gently. "I will make you beautiful. But in return… you must sleep a little more."
The princess agreed.
She was young.
She trusted gods.
She woke up beautiful.
Beautiful enough to bend hearts, to steal futures.
But sleep began to take time from her.
Days.
Years.
Decades.
Every time she slept, her life advanced without her.
She married an archangel of rock to save herself.
She fell asleep in his arms.
She woke to wrinkles, to children grown without knowing her touch, to a husband broken by war, to parents reduced to graves.
In the end, beauty faded.
Sleep did not.
Her wish cost her everything.
—
"The Snow-White Curse," Graviel finished softly, "is not about beauty,It is about desire."
The Goddess of Nature whispered, "And Erdaline?"
"She wished," Graviel said, "before she even understood wishing."
Yuria clenched her fists. "What did she wish for?"
Graviel looked back at the sleeping girl.
"To live," he said.
"To love."
"And she paid with waking."
Lady Senna stepped back, troubled. "Then why can we not heal her?"
"We tried," Sol said calmly. "We touched her consciousness."
"And failed," Senna finished.
"The divine healer of Soil failed," Graviel added. "Preservation failed,Even Nature can only touch the edges."
"Because the curse is not anchored in flesh," Yuria muttered. "It's anchored in—"
"Dream," the Goddess of Nature said.
"And Space," Sol added.
Yuria laughed suddenly.
It was sharp Wrong Almost inappropriate.
"So she's not asleep," Yuria said. "She's everywhere else."
Graviel stiffened.
"That is why," Yuria continued, eyes narrowing, "she never wakes up."
Silence swallowed the sanctuary again.
Erdaline breathed softly.
Unaware.
Or perhaps
Watching.
—
Far away, in a place that was not a place, Erdaline dreamed.
She thought she was awake.
She always did.
But the ground bent like fabric. The sky folded inward. Stars blinked out like nervous thoughts.
She smiled anyway.
"Good morning," she said to no one.
Something laughed.
Soft , Lazy and Almost friendly.
"Oh no," a voice drawled. "She's still polite That's always the dangerous phase."
A blurry figure leaned against nothing.
Black hair. Crooked posture. A grin that felt like a promise and a threat arguing with each other.
"You really never woke up," he said cheerfully. "Not even once."
Erdaline tilted her head. "Are you… a dream?"
"Close enough," the man said. "I'm just someone who fulfills wishes."
She smiled brighter.
"That's wonderful," she said sincerely. "Then… could you help everyone?"
The man paused.
Then laughed.
"Oh," he said. "You really are kind."
And somewhere far above, a contract trembled.
The memories the she forgot long ago snatched by the shackles of dream.
She realises sometimes that she actually dreaming all the time and next moment she forgot about it again.
The one who grants wishes is one of her most favourite dream because it gives her hope.
A false hope maybe?