1 My Tortured Lady

"Pelagus…", a voice whispered.

The weary and tired heavenly being looked around the sea of clouds and buildings of gold.

A voice.

A whisper.

It taunts his very sanity, day and night. He squeezed his ears shut with his calloused palms. Palms that used to soothe his loved one as the lower gods would ravage his loved one's holy temples with fire and earth. Her sweet voice became merely a whimper to his ears as the centuries went on. Her sweet smile has faded into a wail of despair. The sad god looked upon as his lover slowly lost her sanity.

"Save me..", she whispered again.

The heavenly being looked around once more, but she was nowhere to be seen. He fell to his knees and mourned her death once more. Nothing but steady white clouds around the darkened soul of the sorrowed being. "Amatora…" He whispered back at the voice in his head. "I am sorry, my love…" He shuts his eyes once more, closing off the world around him

Shouts and riots were head in the distance. The lost being stumbled towards the sounds. His eyes fell upon a miserable sight. He gasped and took a step back. There, where his lover's statue once was, were only shambles and debris of what it once was. The flames of the temple extinguished. The walls of the one beautiful porcelain walls were adorned with blasphemous graffiti, written in pig's blood. The cheers and jeers of the crowd below grew louder as they finished their job.

"Beloved…", his lover whispered from the unknown plane.

Her heartbreaking voice ringed in his ears once more. No longer was there sorrow in his heart. No longer was the numb feeling that allowed gravity to pull him to his knees. He stood firmly on his legs that shook with anger. His furious eyes swept across the crowd of malicious intent. These lower beings that were supposedly his subjects have destroyed his lover and everything that she loved.

"Beloved…", he whispered as he took off his ring that has creased his fingers from years of joy and sorrow. He yelled loudly onto the heavens and onto those down below. As he shouted, he could hear his beloved Amatora echo in his mind.

"I promise you this ring.", He recited loudly, as his lover echoed in his mind. He dropped his ring to the lower plane below and the shouts of the damned were heard from the heavens to the fiery pits.

The lower heavenly beings screamed and screeched in pain as they felt their very being split into two.

Their bodies. Their souls. Their power.

All splitting into two.

And so, Pelagus made the world anew.

"Humanum, that is what I will call the punished." Pelagus mused with satisfaction. Humanum will be lesser beings than what they once were. The only heavenly being split all the other lesser beings into two to limit their power and control.

But there was something Pelagus hadn't predicted. From every direction, he saw that they passed away too quickly. Some live less than a century or a decade. He pondered on what must be done for them to live longer.

Pelagus remembered the ring that he used as the embodiment of his resentment. And so, he bestowed upon rings to the humanum. With these rings, you will be able to find your other half like the unknown invisible force of gravity. If the other half is no longer in this world, the half that is left in the visible realm will have a ring as dark as the void that will soon fade away quickly, just like the unfortunate half that was left behind.

For centuries, the humanum studied these rings. Those who have devoted their lives to this study are called, "Ring Seers". They question all they could be questioned of the ring. They answer all that could be answered. That is their purpose. Ring seer's efforts have earned Pelagus' favor and have been bestowed upon the vast knowledge of the ring. Their purpose is to help the humanum live longer. They have been gifted as well the ability to interpret and change the abilities of the ring to help the humanum more.

But not all abilities must be changed…