Since a young age, humans learn to respond to situations in particular ways. Initially, it is nature which moulds them as they get older it's the society. They learn set of behaviours that are most appropriate for situations subconsciously and use them unknowingly, thus saving time analyzing every situation.

But such simplified natural response systems sometimes fail. What entails is an inability to form any timely response, even shock.

Many people can pass their lives without ever coming across such a situation. Not Evelyn. In sixteen years of her life, she had already come across such a predicament twice. And the second time too, her mind had still not been able to process an appropriate response for such a distorted reality. All she could do was watch.

The White God looked at everyone simultaneously. His face had the same sharp features, his skin faintly illuminated. The eyes emanated white light, and yet the expressions could be read with a brilliant clarity. His robes shimmered a faint turquoise blue that complemented the river water. With such natural ease they flowed that it seemed they were made of the same water.

Or perhaps, the water is made of his robes.

He turned his head towards the people standing in front of the temple. It seemed for an instant to Evelyn that he was looking at her. But her misconception was short lived as she realised it wasn't her that God had eyes on....it was Edwin.

She looked back at Edwin as did the whole town. Edwin matched the God's gaze with failing red eyes, his body still limp from the fall. His eyes widened, pupils dilated and the veins on his neck and head strained. A muffled scream escaped from his clenched teeth.

"Edwin?" mumbled Evelyn. She looked back at the God to notice the white glow in his eyes had sharpened many fold, his gaze unflinchingly at Edwin.

The white in his eyes started taking over the black, till they shone like those of the White God. But the pain was intense, so extreme that Evelyn could feel it from afar. He screamed in a bloodcurdling tone, his face reddened from the strain. He arched his back and placed the palm of his hands on his eyes, as if trying to resist the change.

What a quintillion of water could not do to Evelyn, was done to her in that moment. She ran to him and fell to her knees, monotonously chanting, "Edwin? Edwin! Edwin!" Hot tears streamed down her eyes.

Through his screams, she faced the White God. As was her habit to do things no sane man would usually do, she screamed, "What are you doing to him?" Evelyn raised the pitch of her voice as a child back answering a parent, "What have you done?"

A little girl had asked God what he had done. The people in the town gasped, their ability to question anything seemed lost, but they knew one could not question God.

Perhaps, that was the reason they never did question anything. But they awaited the revered God's response.

The horse gave a soft neigh, and a faint smile escaped The White God's lips. Edwin's agony stopped, his eyes closed, leaving a trail of vapour rising from his eyelids to join the clouds above, his mouth open, and body lifeless.

Evelyn checked his pulse through the sobbing. "What have you done?" she asked again, softer this time. She felt the throbbing in his veins but she understood not the nature of his plight. Her throat was now flaring up with the pain of choked back sobs.

The White God simply looked away at the General on the other end of the river and instantaneously the force returned, objects, or what was left of them, started turning to dust. The ground reverberated and the townsfolk all started kneeling down fearing what the White God might do. The Priest seemed afraid rather than happy, he too knelt chanting incessantly under his breath, occasionally looking up at the skies.

Fool of a Priest! What heaven is there but that on Earth?

Evelyn did not kneel. Her question had been unanswered. If she was a child of that same God, and he was her Father in true sense, the White God owed her an answer. She would not kneel until she had her answer, at least that she deserved.

Answer me, O God.

The force intensified. Little waves rose from where the horse stood, from his very hooves. That petrified the people more. "Kneel down, girl! You must not anger the God!" Someone said from the crowd of kneelers.

"He did not teach me to kneel the last time. He taught me to stand," Evelyn replied. "So here I stand."

A little column of water leapt at the opposite shore where the General and his men stood, it did not recede rather it looked eerily like a hand. And from the river water a form emerged. Evelyn realised that the shape that was emerging was of a woman, about six feet tall, made completely of water. Her form seemed beautiful, and translucent, throwing multicoloured shadows from the light of The White God.

The woman with the body of pure river water started walking slowly towards the General. Graceful was her walk, but Evelyn had her attention elsewhere. Several such figures had started emerging from the river on either shore. Some had the form of men and some women. Water flowed from their body, but their form held firm.

The whole of temple lit up flamboyant, with rainbow coloured shadows thrown by the water creatures.

The woman who had first emerged from the water stopped in front of Glinrin and raised her hand. She thrust it forward to his face. The arm changed shape as it covered the whole of General's face like a helmet. The General started struggling to breath, trying to shake her hand off, but the lady just stood as any and all of his attempts met failure. Wherever the General tried to attack, the form gave in to pure formless water that the lady was made of. Glinrin tried to move his face from one side to another trying to free himself. It seemed the water woman could change her form as she pleased, and summon more water if need be. It was impossible to physically attack her. They were reduced to nothing beyond a splash.

He can't even use his alchemy there, no use his expensive armour. Humans, stand no chance against this creature summoned by God. The General may as well stop struggling against this wonder.

In moments that passed like blinks, the strongest man in the Empire had been subdued to absolute defeat. His body lay limp in the grip of the woman. The form of her hand returned as the Gladinstone armour produced a violent clang on hitting the street. Glinrin's lifeless form lay at the feet of the lady from Sirgon, water escaping through his lungs and open mouth as his chest hit solid concrete.

She walked through his corpse to the partial rubble of the structures behind. Evelyn noticed the lady had sucked every last bit of water that belonged to her, Glinrin was left completely dry, eyes rolled up in his head.

Evelyn looked at the water creatures that had materialised on her side of the river. They walked towards some of Glinrin's soldiers that stood there. They received the same treatment that Glinrin did, their pleads and cries drowned by the water. Some tried to run.

Apparently, you can't outrun water.

Now that the creatures were so close, Evelyn got a chance to observe them. They had eyes, ears and a nose, just like humans, only made of translucent water. Ever their stature was only slightly more than that of an average human. In fact, the forms were so similar that she could have sworn she saw eye lashes in some of the women.

Some of the soldiers had been spared; most were kneeling down, shivering with fear.

The lady from Sirgon returned from the rubble with an unconscious three year old boy in her hands. She held him with the tenderness of a mother. Walking towards the shore she passed her left hand across the boy's face, tilting her head to a side. Evelyn could hear his actual mother's sobs as she witnessed her son fainting.

She dove in the water with the child still in her hands. The boy travelled through the water within what seemed like a bubble. Amidst the chaos the kid silently drifted on the other side. Near the shore the Lady materialised again with the boy still in her arms. She handed the boy to his crying mother and disappeared in the flow of Sirgon.

She saw the water men saving all those that had been drowned or otherwise by the destruction caused by the force and killing some of the higher order soldiers. The lower ones were afraid out of their wits but the watermen did not as much as look at them.

Literal Divine justice!

The beings from water disappeared just as swiftly as they had come. They did not leave a single trail of water behind as Evelyn had expected.

The horse started galloping up the surface of the river, the surface of Sirgon rippling with current. A reverberation resounded through the whole city as blue rays filled the sky. Light reflected across the spires that still stood tall, and glowed brilliantly across the same blue tint of the walls. Every inch of the city began shaking as if a massive earthquake was about to split the earth wide open.

Details played with Evelyn's mind as the dust starting lifting first, going across in directions followed by larger rocks. The White God had moved up the river beyond her line of sight, but his all powerful presence could still be felt all around her.

Everywhere.

Pieces started assembling themselves in channels affixed for them. 'Just like our destinies and lives,' mused Evelyn, looking as a torn cloth 'untore' itself and went back to the barber shop it was once a part of. All around her chunks enormous and extremely miniature in size moved with a mind of their own. The whole city clicked and whirred like a giant clock turning back time rather than forward. Towers, ships, docks, spires, all returning to the place they once were. The dust on her dress rising and moving back to the place it emerged from.

The White Horse came in sight again as it swooped past them galloping towards the ocean in smooth strides. Only that they were in thin air which failed to astonish Evelyn after all she had seen that day. The White God's had a serene expression as he looked towards the wide expanse of sea that lay ahead of him. A warm glow filled Evelyn as she felt her worries disappearing gradually. A singular feeling of fulfilment encompassing her in the blue rain.

Even though the horse was many feet above the sea water, he still created ripples as he passed it with blinding speed. Brilliant white light filled the horizon that sealed the morning sky and the ocean. Parts of the town were still clicking back in place. As the figure of the God melted in that same horizon it seemed like the moment stretched to eternity.

That's when Evelyn calmed down, that's when she knew with ample clarity and unwavering certainty. She kneeled down still looking at the horizon for one last chance to catch the White light.

God had answered her.