Decades later, they were buried side by side on the land they had worked tirelessly on to leave a lasting legacy to their children. The secret had been sworn on and died with them, and the threat to humanity lost for all time. Mankind would never know of how close they had come to extinction, nor of the sacrifices made by the man and woman who died protecting the secret.

Fate was given the duty to watch over their children, carefully monitoring how the gifts were used by the couple’s progeny. As new generations were born, Fate came to Mother in concern that their gifts made other humans fearful of them and were seeking to destroy what could not be understood in the human realm. Mother began watching them herself to see what consequences the gifts had wrought, making adjustments when needed. She might have created Earth, but it was still a work in progress.

From Hades, they had been given the gift to create and manipulate fire and to astral project themselves through the Shadow realm of time. Wisely, Mother had deemed this gift too powerful for one mortal to hold, splitting the gift into two. One to be given the power of light, the other of the shadow realm, capable of walking between Earth and Heaven. Both must be born at the same time, for light must keep darkness from consuming the shadow realm.

When their progeny nearly died out from disease, Mother called on Zephyrus to bestow his gift of wind on a descendent. Fire cannot breathe without air.

Rocque, the Lord of the Forests, had been given the gift of controlling nature. Mother watched those who welded that power closely, as the gift almost rivaled her own power over Earth. Jealous, she decided to finetune that gift, limiting the recipients of that particular power of Earth, only allowing them to wield it within their own domain, and able to shelter and protect those they love within the boundaries of the mountain they called home.

When one unexpected gift came to light, Mother could only shake her head. Her son, Poseidon, had snuck the power of water on the woman, as a reward for protecting the stone. Water can give life or take it away with a fury that could mimic her own when she was angry.

Shaking her head in amusement at some of the progenies’ misdeeds, Mother didn’t let her growing affection for the family sway their punishment when Asclepius’ gift was misused by one of the female descendants, by saving a life meant to be taken. Sadly, Mother had Fate intervene to break the family line in two different directions. The repercussion was severe in which any of the descendants gifted with the healing arts were separated from the main trunk of gifts, which were becoming more powerful each generation.