William
The giant's head turned, the light of the sea of stars behind the dwarves illuminate her face. 

Oh, she was definitely not human.

Below the snowy hood lay not one, not two, but one and a half faces. The face of a human woman in her thirties was cut off at the mouth by the forehead of a second face, this one of a child. The adult's eyes were closed while the child's eyes were wide open. 

The creature stared down at the dwarves for a moment before shifting to lean down over the mortals. The whole root seemed to shake from the impact of the giant's movement, and the world only seemed to stop rumbling when she stopped to observe them.

Then came her voice... Or perhaps, voices. A gruff old dwarf rebuffing an arrogant apprentice, a human child on the verge of sobbing, the laughter of a Trixie, even the roar of a dragon. All of them spoke at once in a strange and unnatural harmony as this creature addressed the small scouting party.

**"You..."** The voices whispered, screamed, cried, laughed. **"You are Pyralith's children."**

The hulking figure tilted her head a bit. It was only now that she was facing them that the dwarves would notice that she was covered in eyes. Eyes peered at the mortals from everywhere. One of the titan's wrists, another on her chest, even one on her shoulder. 

Normally, Triticea would have made herself more presentable to mortals, but they had caught her in a moment that she had been meaning to spend with herself. This form was closer to her true shape than the one that she usually adopted for mortal convenience and formal events, and that was clearly showing to the dwarves.

Even as she began to speak again, the dwarves' minds would be straining to comprehend this creature. She seemed to be the giant before them and as large as the World Tree itself and as small as Jak all at once, and their minds would pound as their mortal brains tried to process this being before them.

**"For what reason do you disturb my peace?"** The being asked.
Vera
She was *So* Beautiful.

So beautiful it burned. Her appearance shined and shimmered and shifted and changed and it *Burned*, itched something in their minds, *Pushed* And pulled and warped and changed and every glimpse of Triticea that the mortals could see was like something that had leaked into the folds of their brains and then pulled out, laced in thorns. What a horrific thing, to see a God- to see even half a Goddess as they did not, in her form not meant to be seen. The three stood, as if frozen under the weight of her many infinite voices and the great complexities of her existence, something they had not been designed to comprehend.

Brick led the way, as he seemed fond of doing, whipping his head away and towards the bark beneath them, averting his gaze so he could spare himself *Some* Of that pounding acknowledgement, which beat in on itself like a paradox, tore itself apart like a contradiction. Hamm followed suit, four eyes set downwards in a position that almost seemed reminiscent of reverence. Yet, a pair of eyes lingered, glowing softly under the strange lighting of the roots, reflecting the ambient lighting back like headlights.

She was *So* Beautiful.

The dreamer's eyes shimmered with what could only be tears, glimmering and warping the light that reflected as her eyes flicked between those that had set upon the Goddesses' form. What an amazing thing, to see her. What beauties and horrors sat just beyond the veil of Lithos. For the briefest of moments, she wondered why exactly they had ever restrained themselves to the stone. What a small existence, in such a *Vast* And impossible world. It felt.. Defeatist. Once more, the young woman was snapped from her thoughts by the voice of Brick.

He sounded small.

He was. They all were.

"Only by happenstance, divine mistress." A bow, his arm folded to his chest. Sloppy. Afraid. "I offer my apologies. We will leave immediately."

His heavy boots stepped back across the root behind him, thick arm coming to press against the torsos of his travelling scout companions and guide them quickly away. Brick was simple. He was not like Jak. He could not see things the way she did, he wouldn't try. Her eyes focused, unfocused, staring and flickered over the shifting shape of what was before her. It would click, with time. If she let that comprehension seep, maybe then she could explain the pull she felt to it. 

She did not look away. She could not. Even as Brick and Hamm both turned to guide her away, to try and turn her from the being she was not made to comprehend.
William
The goddess, because a being like this could *Only* Be divine, considered the mortals as they offered her apologies and promised to leave. The dwarves would know, as sure as they knew they were dwarves, that she was looking both at them and through them. 

Something was... Odd, though.

Although only the child's eyes were open, her gaze was vacant. If anything it felt like it was the woman with only half a face that was truly looking at them, yet it was this was the face with eyes sealed shut. Then again, when did beings like this one need to obey the laws of a mortal body? They would know that this was a being equal to their World Smith, a sibling to their Pyralith. 

Two of them made to leave.

But one... Did not.

One remained staring up at the Satiety, with eyes of wonder that refused to comprehend the being before her no matter how hard she stared.

That wonder reminded her of something.

**"Wait."** The Hunger did not move to stop them, yet her words rang with the absolute authority that over the worlds beyond number that dotted the roots of the World Tree. 

The Harvest was looking through them all, their instincts would scream. Not the dreamer nor her simpler comrades was spared the divine gaze. 

**"Children of the World Smith, creations of my sister."** The divine voice spoke calmly. There was no shout, no scream, no demand. She did not need to do either for her words to feel like they needed to be heard.

**"Before you go, answer this question."**

The silence that could only have lasted for few seconds seemed to stretch out for hours as the air grew so thick with tension the mortals would find it difficult to breathe.

**"What would you say your purpose is?"**

It was a question that she had posed before, not that any of these three would know that. She had not been satisfied with the answer before, but had let the mortal who had given her the answer go.

The gods had their purposes granted to them.

So what guided mortals without Gaia's guidance?
Vera
Jak couldn't fight against Brick and Hamm's combined strength, her feet scrambling back as they tried to gently pull her away from the confounding and mesmerizing sight that was Triticea. How could they turn their gazes away before knowing what they were looking at? How could they not try to understand it, to know it as they knew themselves? How could they not *Ponder?* Even as they moved her backwards, she would not let them turn her away, making it as difficult as possible for them to try and spare her from that madness.

*Wait.*

It was a sudden stillness, a response to her single uttered word. The push and pull of limbs stilled into an uncanny freeze. As if they were simply too *Still* To breathe. How incredible, what instinct could do to a mortal, what it made of them when it was felt necessary. Like animals. In a way they were just that. Talking animals. Beyond even simple comparison to the infinities of godhood, they were *Just* Animals, with and without the deity before them. The Wheat Mother's words were felt the way a doe felt an earthquake before it came, the way a wound felt a storm. 

Her words came *Through* Them. It was remarkable. They were not being spoken to, they were being spoken, and it was a horrifying experience. The words did not sound, they did not echo or trickle- they were not *Heard.* They just were, and they were felt to the very core of each dwarf, as certainly as the electric signals down their spines. 

*Before you go, answer this question.*

That impossible silence stretched on, and in those many moments, the dwarves finally felt the need for breath. Sharp intakes, one by one, as Brick and Hamm turned back to the Goddess, their eyes set at their feet. Jak had never looked away, eyes still wide and reflecting that awful, awe-ful thing back at it, gaze glimmering with wetness. Not fear nor sadness, but.. Her. Through those windows, this mortal was presented plainly.

*What would you say your purpose is?*

Jak blinked, finally, drawing in a series of short breaths. It was a staggering question, and seconds passed in the silence that followed. Quiet usually felt like a heavy blanket. Something that was comfortable, but easily removed it necessary. It was *Optional.* Crystalcreep was a loud place. Existence itself was *Loud.* The beating of hearts, pumping of veins, creaking of bones and the shifting of movement. It was horribly loud. Here, silence was an absence. While a blanket was smothering, an absence suffocated. Nothingness. It was a contrast. 

Brick spoke first, his eyes moving up to gaze up once more at the Goddess so he could present his simple truth.

"My purpose is to protect those weaker than me. Keep them safe." Brick said, his eyes shifting to Jak briefly before gravitating down like an apple fallen from a tree. Still, the young woman did not speak next.

"I want to take care of others. Feed them, bandage them. Whatever it takes. Whatever makes it easy." Hamm spoke in a shaky voice. Unlike Brick, he did not lift his gaze. He did not have that strength. Maybe it was pride. What was the difference to a dwarf? 

Finally, it seemed all eyes were on Jak. Her stare, as it always had been, was set forward in that warbling beam. Even now, the image before her refused to line up, but every second it felt as if it *Might.* Sometimes, it almost seemed to. In those many complexities, was there even an answer? And if there was, to what question? Jak had always been searching for answers to questions she'd been too scared to ask. 

"Maybe we're just here to exist." Jak whispered out, voice trembling with an emotion she wasn't quite sure what to label. "Maybe we're here to know what existing means. Maybe.. Maybe- Maybe- t.." Her words trailed off, for a moment. "Maybe we just exist to see things, right? So we can give everything around us meaning. So the unseeable things can be seen regardless, so they have context for what 'unseeable' even means. Maybe we exist to be small people in large oceans."