Keiko slowed down the car and parked in the middle of a meadow. In the middle of the flowered field, stood a tall, gnarled, wooden ladder.


    She unbuckled and turned to check on her sleeping daughter. The teen slept, leaning against the window, behind Marika.


    "Wake up honey, we are here," She spoke softly to the child.


    The girl shifted and reached up to remove her blindfold, brushing away her pure black, wavy hair. Marika stopped the child''s hand and chastised her, "It''s not time yet, I will lead you outside. Once everything will be ready, I will remove it."


    "Okay, mom." Keiko breathed out and rested her hands on her lap. Finally, she would learn the secrets of her adopted mothers. Ever since they adopted her, she wondered through what nefarious means they amassed their wealth. Were they the heads of a yakuza family?


    She thought back to her fears, when she learned the two couldn''t have afforded their luxurious lifestyle with their simple voice-acting jobs and occasional miko performances. Still, they gave her a better home and more love than she could have hoped for. She would accept whatever cruelties would be required of her.


    The girl was interrupted from her thoughts, by a pair of gentle hands holding onto her arm, to lead her out.


    Marika led her child to the edge of a circle, surrounding the ladder and raised Kaida''s head. "Keep your face at this exact angle, once it will be time, I will remove your blindfold."


    The woman grabbed her partner''s hand and looked towards the sky, waiting.


    <hr>


    Katya looked towards the Milky Way stretching across the sky. With the help of her husband, she could barely perceive the branch that recently connected to the centre of her home galaxy. Yet, her human eyes, would not see the spectacle for another hundred thousand years. She wondered just how would the mortals below react to the changes that would fuck them up in the coming days. Would their varied religions survive the coming revelations? Would their fragile governments hold on to political power, as personal power would gain a much more tangible meaning?


    She shook her head and tried to relax her face. It wouldn''t do to show her son, the excitement she felt. How long she had waited for this. She was merely a shaman of her tribe, when the Chaos crawled to them, in the far north.


    The woman patted down the leather dress from her mother and pulled out her phone. The device had no reception, so she walked closer to the Ladder to Heaven and picked the contact named "Marika".


    After a couple of beeps, her daughter picked up the call. "Hello mother, what is it you need?" The girl''s sickly-sweet voice came.


    "Wania and Sophia will be coming down soon, are you ready to receive them?" Katya asked, keeping her voice even, despite the disgust she felt towards her youngest daughter. Why couldn''t she start a proper, traditional cult, like her older siblings? Infiltrate their popular culture, what a silly idea.


    "Yes, we are already waiting for them by the Ladder," Marika responded in an even, deeper voice.


    "We?" Who could her wayward daughter bring to receive the children? She wouldn''t say "we" if it were just some sacrificial mortals.


    "Keiko and our daughter Kaida Aia." The girl chuckled and continued before her mother could respond. "I''m sure you didn''t worry, but nonetheless. Keiko will not have any troubles and Kaida, fittingly wants to face the truth about her family. You did time everything correctly, and the little ones will come through just as the branch will connect, yes?"


    "Of course, I''ve been perfecting these calculations since I met your father. Well then, receive your brother properly." The woman raised her hand to end the call but paused. "We will visit you, once things calmed down up here." Finished with the conversation, Marika hanged up and secured the phone back in her mother''s head-bag.


    The woman glanced down at the Blue Planet and left the immediate vicinity of the Ladder. She took on the form of an old, weeping willow and waited for the children to come.


    <hr>


    Wania took one last look around his room and took all of his furniture and belongings into himself. An orb of bitterness spread through his throat, as he looked at the fake-window he painted as a child, on the wall furthest from the door. He hesitated for a breath and cut the picture out. He would hang it at his new place.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    The boy shifted a couple of times, making sure everything was properly secured within and left the now empty, wooden room. His father stood by the suit rack, his form hidden within the yellow robe he wore during special occasions.


    Many voices reverberated through the young man, cutting to the core of his being and skirting around it. "Leave as you are, you do not need to hide your form today until you''ve arrived on Earth."


    "Yes, father." Ivan bowed to his progenitor and stepped into the exit-circle.


    <hr>


    Sophia looked around her small room. It would be the last time she would see it like this, as it would likely belong to a new sibling, once she returned. The girl sighed and after a flash of green, all of her belongings floated safely within her.


    She withdrew the small statue of her mother, she carved out of moon-rock as a child and hugged it to her chest. Holding her favourite toy, she stepped out of her room.


    Her mother squatted in her true, bloated form by the suit-rack. Despite the tiny size of their house, the monster had no trouble fitting, ordering the space around it to bend.


    The draconic squid wiggled its tentacles into simple words, "Go child, do not hide until you came down."


    The lesser creature bowed to its progenitor and stepped into the exit-circle.


    <hr>


    Wania and Sophia met half-way between their houses and crawled and sloshed beyond the grove, towards the Ladder.


    Just in front of the circle of light around the ancient artefact, stood a monstrous weeping willow, its roots steeped in a pond of blood, seeping from the tree''s low hanging branches.


    "Is everything alright, mother?" The boy sent towards the ancient shaman.


    The willow''s bark cracked and formed a warm smile. A kind wind reassured the children and hurried them to climb the ladder. It was important they came down on time.


    The two young adults felt images of two women and a child waiting for them below.


    <hr>


    Marika held onto her daughter''s head and steered it back into proper position. She felt the girl tremble a little and stroked her hair. "It is almost time, be calm." She let out a soothing voice. Keiko took the child''s hand and squeezed it.


    Marika''s younger brother and his friend were climbing down the sky-high ladder, almost reaching the point Kaida''s head was facing.


    The mother''s looked towards the Sun, calculating when the ginormous branch of mana would hit Earth.


    The crawl of Marika''s many limbs froze and with many swift moves, she ripped the blindfold off her daughter''s eyes.


    Kaida froze, her mind not comprehending the sight before her and her body fell apart as dust. Just at the mortal witnessed the descent of the impossible, the life-blood of existence struck through Earth.


    The teen returned before her clothes could deform and the sight no longer pierced into her. She also felt something else, if she wanted, she could leave.


    The girl spread her lips in a wide toothy smile and cracked towards her uncle and aunt. The mass of tendrils and the draconic, green blob, descended in the same space, carefully taking steps down the gnarled ladder, stretching into the heavens.


    She felt the sight should break her, that her mortal mind should not be able to comprehend it... and yet, the sight was just so... ordinary. With a laugh, she cracked back towards her mothers.


    Keiko stood the same, as she always was. A prim and proper office lady, a slight smile in her eyes. Her other mother on the other hand... Countless black tendrils slithered out of her official, yellow robe, something as if a face smiling brightly down on the child.


    "You''ve succeeded." Came voices of civilisations long lost. "I am so proud of you, my little spider." Came the images of future possibilities, black cities floating over many mortal worlds, bloody feasts entertaining countless spiders, glass forests bringing calm to ancient deities. "Let us welcome your uncle and aunt. They will be joining a university soon."


    "What just hap... It''s not what I... Where are the yakuza?" the girl blurted out, biting her tongue.


    "And event we came to this corner of the Universe for, just came to pass. New civilisations awakened to their true potential and we were here to witness it." Marika explained, shifting without moving.


    Keiko took a step towards her daughter and put a hand on her shoulder. "You, along with a small portion of humanity, gained the initiation advantages."


    After a short moment of hesitation, the short Japanese woman fixed her daughter''s favourite, white shirt. "I will explain our family circumstances later, maybe over dinner?"


    "Sister!! I am so glad to witness you!!" Wania boomed.


    "Brother, you are speaking father''s tongue. You will need to control yourself, once we leave the Ladders bubble." Marika chastised her younger brother and crawled to hug him. "And Sophia, I am happy to see you." The older woman enveloped the immature Elder Ones with her giant form and brought them over to the car.


    "Let''s go Kaida, we need to get to the airport before the mortals become too chaotic." Keiko urged her daughter and giggled at her own joke.


    <hr>


    "How about now?" Wania spoke in Greek while shovelling a ladle of tender mammal flesh into his maw.


    "Seriously Wania? You write that blog of yours in English..." Sophia exclaimed and let out an annoyed sigh, before drowning her frustration with a glass of vodka.


    "I write in it, but I never spoke it." the writhing mass of tendrils blurted out an excuse and tried a bottle of sake.


    "Mom, what is this meat? It''s delicious!" Kaida tore into meat on a large bone.


    "You remember that creepy neighbour of ours? He plumped himself quite well, didn''t he?" Marika happily explained and sucked a couple of plates worth of side dishes through her tendrils.