White gloved paws carried the Empress over the beach of the island. She shared this place with her husband, children, and their servants. At the beginning she had felt conflicted about taking up the palace as her home but these days she was thankful. It was private and there was room for her growing children. They reached their six month milestone and she could hardly believe it. Far too soon they were going to reach the one year mark. Like they were growing so too was she. Venom was no longer a green thumb leader, she had experience beneath her and loyal support within. Her visions as a young child were realized, she was the Empress she always saw.

Those thoughts lingered in her head as she walked along the chilled beach, the sun was setting but it still made the evening warm. Vibrant colors spread across the sky as the Empress began her patrol.

Ikigai... cried. The pearlescent girl sat at the edge of the surf, the whitecaps kissing her paws, and she cried. Not ugly crying or loud sobbing, just falling tears and light, catching breaths. Even her crying was delicate and beautiful. She was upset at what she'd been told during her aunts sermon. Not for herself, but for her father, her brother and sisters. For her uncle Chimera and her aunt Siren. The girl was afraid for all of them. If what her aunt Toxicity had said was true, then they were all cursed and damned.

The crunch of paws on sand brought Ikigai's head turning, her spine going straight as she looked to see who had caught her crying. It was her mother walking towards her. Tears filled the girl's metallic eyes and she moved towards her mother, pressing her crown delicately against the larger fae's chest. "Okaasama..." she spoke with soft, wavering tones. "I don't want our family to be cursed and damned." It was obvious that she'd been thinking about this for a while, and after a time, thinking about it had resulted in this eruption of emotion from the otherwise well put together child.

As Venom walked she noticed something else, it was hard to mistake the sound of her child crying. As soon as the Empress saw her daughter she rushed to her, helping to close the distance between them so she could comfort her little princess. Venom wrapped white cloves arms around Ikigai’s shoulders, holding her to her chest and mumbling softly as she tried to soothe the girl while she cried to her.

”Shh… Iki. It’s alright.” She cooed as the young girl spoke her fears. She had recently been through the three sermons, the same as she had received as a young girl from her father. ”Our family isn’t cursed, or damned.” She reassured her, rocking slightly while petting the soft fur at her neck. Venom kissed her forehead and held her tight.

The warm, loving embrace of her mother only brought more emotion welling up within the normally even tempered child. Venom soothed her and Ikigai pressed her face against her mother's pale chest. The woman spoke reassuring words, stating that their family wasn't cursed. Iki looked up, her silver eyes filled with tears. "But Aunt Tox is so sure! She said that Aunt Siren and Uncle Chimera were cursed. She said that anyone who doesn't believe in her god is cursed." Huge tears rolled from the child's wide, metallic eyes. "Mom," she was so shaken up by this whole ordeal that she'd forgone the honorifics. "I don't believe in her god." The girl admitted in shaky vocals. "Am I going to be damned?" Iki had been obsessing over this so much that she was sick to her stomach. Pushing away from her mother roughly, Iki turned away just in time to throw up on the sand. She never, ever, ever got this worked up over anything. Obsidian paws did their best to push sand over the pile of regurgitated meat. "Mom," she spoke once more in between little gasps as her stomach clenched and roiled. "Don't let Toxicity hurt me if I don't believe in her god."

Venom held her daughter tightly to her, seeing her so absolutely unsettled tore her cold heart apart. This was not Ikigai, and she hated that she had to experience this. That she had gotten so worked up. She didn’t have any desire to tear down Iki’s trust in her aunt, but she also couldn’t stand to see her like this. Her whole life she believed that she was a goddess in mortal form, but it was more of an afterthought to Venom. She hadn’t devoted her life to living in Abraxas shadow, she had taken her opportunities to lead the pack and create her own greatness. She didn’t need her godly roots to do that.

Ikigai continued, releasing everything on her that had been welling up inside. She didn’t want her family to be damned for not believing in the being those of the Abraxas name followed. Venom too had her doubts, which had been quelled when she had met her father in a dream. She knew her father’s spirit lived on, but she had never been certain about the god’s existence. Abraxas was cruel; he was never there for her when her father died, he hadn’t shown himself as she grew into the Empress she was now. She believed more in her own divinity than a god who abandoned her.

”No, my sweet girl.” Venom lifted her cat like paw to gently rub her daughter’s back as she recovered from being so upset. She leaned down to kiss her brow. ”You make your own divinity, some controversial god can’t decide that for you.” She tried to soothe her more, trying not to reveal her own doubt in the belief passed down to her. Venom had never attained the devotion that Toxicity held. ”If you do good during your life and live in light, then the afterlife will be similar. If you live a life in the darkness and in evil, well, your afterlife will be the same.” Their whole family had that decision before them, believing or not believing in Abraxas wouldn’t change that.

”I won't let anyone hurt you, Ikigai. At least for now. That’s what I’m here for, to raise you into a wonderful young woman, who does good and is independent. Who fights for what she knows is right.” Once she was older and grown she would have to fight her own battles, but as long as she was under her care Venom wouldn’t allow her to be hurt.