Despite all the bravado Vivian showed in front of Aria and Ethan, she was still human like everybody else. She could get bewildered just like everybody else.
That was the exact feeling she had as she now stood atop a massive mountain in a range that went on for as far as she could see.
The wind howled around her, cold and sharp, tugging at her clothes as though it wanted to peel her away from the stone beneath her boots. Clouds drifted far below, turning the world into a sea of shifting white waves, and for the first ti in a long while she felt small.
"The world is vast. Isn’t it? It never grows smaller, only your perception changes."
Gravela’s words echoed in Vivian’s ears. She had no idea what they ant or the intent behind them.
That was until she blinked. She felt a rush of air passing by her and when she opened them again, she was standing at the base of one of the mountains.
A bold laugh bood in Vivian’s ears as an Amber eye opened in the sky. It was Gravela looking at her.
Even now, that small child like form that she had once displayed to Vivian was a stark contrast to the behemoth like eye staring down at her. The iris glimred with molten light, swirling like a storm contained within glass. Vivian’s knees almost buckled, not from fear alone but from the sheer weight of being seen. It was as if the entire mountain range leaned in to listen, waiting for what would co next.
Her mouth felt dry. She wanted to shout, to demand answers, but the words clung to her throat. Gravela’s presence was so overwhelming it left little room for defiance. Yet deep down, a spark of stubbornness still burned. Vivian clenched her fists at her sides, forcing herself to stand taller.
"Why show this?" she finally asked, her voice trembling against the vast silence.
The eye narrowed slightly, and the laugh that followed rumbled through the mountains like an earthquake.
"Why?" Gravela’s voice rose, tinged with indignation. "Because you are my apostle, child. Do you think that ans nothing? You cannot stumble across the land like a lost wanderer. You must know the Earth as I do. You must move through it as easily as you draw breath."
The ground quaked beneath Vivian’s feet, the stone vibrating in answer to Gravela’s words. The goddess’s voice sharpened, her tone carrying both rebuke and command. "What use is an apostle who cannot stand upon the very bones of the world? What use is one who quails before mountains and valleys, who looks upon distance and calls it impossible? If you would bear my mark, then you will learn. You will walk as the Earth itself walks, unyielding and eternal."
Vivian stared up at the massive eye, her lips parting but no words leaving them. Her mind wrestled with Gravela’s command. Walk the Earth as easily as breathing? She wanted to understand, but the aning slipped through her fingers like water.
"I don’t... I don’t get it," she whispered, her voice barely audible against the rumbling of the mountains.
The eye did not blink. Instead, a sudden rush of air slamd against her body. Vivian gasped and instinctively shut her eyes. When she opened them, the world had changed. She was no longer at the mountain’s base but standing on a cliff edge halfway up its jagged face. The ground beneath her was narrow, the drop below dizzying.
Her heart pounded as she clung to the rock wall, but before she could steady herself another rush of air struck. Again she blinked, and when her eyes opened she was on a grassy plateau, the sky vast and open above her. The cliff and valley she had just seen were now miles away in the distance.
Vivian staggered back, confusion flooding her chest. "What... what’s happening?"
The air stirred again, tugging at her hair. She blinked, and this ti she was high above the clouds, standing on a frozen ridge where the wind cut like blades. The horizon spun with endless white peaks, each more imposing than the last. Her legs trembled, yet her feet had not once moved.
Blink. She was at the foot of a roaring river, the water thrashing against stones the size of houses. Mist clung to her face, chilling her skin.
Blink. She was among a field of jagged spires of black rock, the ground cracked as though lightning had split it apart.
Every ti she opened her eyes, the scenery shifted as though the world itself was pulling her from place to place. The sensation of movent without motion made her stomach lurch, but Gravela’s voice cut through the disorientation, deep and commanding.
"This is the lesson, child. The Earth is vast, but it does not chain you. An apostle of mine does not crawl across it. She flows with it, she breathes with it. Until you understand this, you will never truly stand upon my world."
Vivian blinked again, her breath ragged. She now stood at the peak of the tallest mountain she had seen, the land stretching below her in every direction. Her hands shook as she whispered, "How am I supposed to do this?"
The eye burned brighter in the heavens, as if waiting for her to discover the answer.
Vivian’s breaths ca fast and uneven, but through the dizziness and the shifting landscapes a thought began to form. The Earth was not dragging her, nor was she truly moving. Each ti the rush of air passed, she had felt it differently. Not as wind, but as a pull, a tilt, as though the world itself was leaning her into place.
Her eyes widened.
It was not the land that shifted. It was her.
Another blink carried her to the banks of a canyon, the river below glimring like molten silver. She staggered, but this ti she did not panic. She bent her knees and pressed her hand to the rock. The pull was there again, subtle, like an invisible thread tugging her downward.
Vivian closed her eyes and willed herself not to resist. She leaned into it, the way one exhales without thinking, and the world folded.
When her eyes opened, she was standing at the opposite rim of the canyon. No gust of air. No jolt of nausea. Just arrival.
Her lips parted in shock, and a disbelieving laugh escaped her throat. "I... I did it."
High above, Gravela’s eye flared, the molten iris spinning faster. For a mont the goddess said nothing. When her voice ca, it was heavy with astonishnt. "Impossible. You should not have reached that truth so soon."
Vivian clenched her fists, exhilaration surging through her veins. "It’s not just distance," she whispered, realization clicking into place. "It’s weight. It’s pull. I can feel it, like gravity bends when I ask it to. That is what you ant, isn’t it? Walking the Earth as if it breathes with ."
Silence stretched over the mountains. The only sound was the wind howling past the peaks. Gravela’s voice finally returned, quieter now, but carrying a note that almost sounded like pride.
"You have grasped more than I intended to show. To bend the pull of the Earth itself is no small gift. Even among my chosen, few have touched that truth so quickly."
Vivian lifted her head, her confusion replaced with fierce determination. For the first ti since the trial began, she did not feel small.
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