Archive of Our Own ^beta

In the beginning, there was a river.

Its waters shimmered under the burning sun, softly carving out its place, the slightest displacement of sands carried by its currents over time building into something great. It ebbed and flowed, streams cutting through rock and soil, breaking itself into the land to become a permanent fixture.

The river was born with a name, a form that shifted throughout the centuries, taking on the images of its favourite inhabitants. Jinx, she called herself.

The first life that sprouted out of the ground came almost in tandem with her, growing out of the rough soils as she was first taking form. It was not one of her creations, but a spirit born out of resistance, much like her, it forged its own path of existence. Over time, Jinx began to feel its presence, far enough away that she could not investigate, but close enough for its magnitude to move her, to keep her thoughts on the spirit that grew without any sustenance, one born from struggle and persistence.

As it grew, Jinx kept watch. It started off as a magical seedling with impossible odds, but with her waters just beginning to seep into its soil, it latched onto anything it could get, growing into a sapling, then finally, a tree, standing proud among a land of dirt, sun, and water. The first life.

Jinx watched curiously, until one day, the trees spirit took form in front of her. It stood just far away enough so they could not touch, but their voices would carry, allowing them to converse. The tree gave Jinx her name, Ekko.

Ekko was everything Jinx was not. Where Jinx was an unpredictable spirit, the river that would flood, rush, and still without much pattern, completely subject to the environment and her own whims, Ekko was a spirit that stood strong. Through wind, through storms, through quakes, she endured, her life a show of strength.

She grew fruits that fell to the ground, seeping into the soil, their seeds blown away far enough that she could not see. When the cold came, she shed her leaves, little wisps of her spirit that would land in the river and make Jinx smile, a brush, a glimpse of the touches they could not share.

Jinx pushed herself to the very edge of her limits, getting as close to Ekko as possible, and the other spirit did the same. They sat next to one another, and the first conversations spilled from their lips, pondering what they could only voice to the other when no other lives graced them.

It was a lonely existence, but they lived side by side, and spent it together.

Ekko was beautiful, she was all Jinx knew, her spirit shaped itself into a form with arms, legs, and a face. She had dark skin, absorbing the sun's rays like her tree, eyes green, the colour of life, and short twisted hair, white as the petals of Ekko's spring bloom. Jinx watched her curiously before she, too, took a similar form, gazing down at herself. Her long hair, as endless as her river, her pale skin that reflected light like the glistening surfaces of water, and eyes through which she gazed at Ekko tangibly for the very first time.

"Your eyes." Ekko breathed out, mesmerized. "They're like the skies reflected on the river, just as limitless as you."

Jinx smiled at the compliment, wishing to get closer, to embrace Ekko, to bring their spirits together in every way, to finally be able to touch her, but she couldn't. Somewhere between them, an invisible line was drawn. Jinx could not leave her waters, Ekko could not stray past her roots, so instead, she responded with her own reverent words, hoping that they would be enough.

For centuries, it was just the two of them, until an idea began to form in Jinx's mind.

The river, lively and youthful, spread her energy to the dreary wasteland that surrounded it. It seeped into the soil, flooding it with its sparkling life, season after season. It expanded and contracted, depositing the building blocks of existence, turning what was once a desert into an oasis, home to creatures that she nurtured, that in turn, worshipped her.

The life she gave was a labour of love, creations of her brilliant mind, who drank from the river, who flourished under her care. Ekko watched on happily, her fruits feeding them, and her seeds sprouting new trees, a forest taking form. Together, the spirits watched a new era unfold, an era of life, of love, of balance, and in the centre of it all, was them.

Jinx danced amongst the fish that swam through her waters, legs shifting into a tail to match the way swam, the oxygen she provided keeping them alive. She helped otters wash their fur and birds drink. She brushed her hair perched on a rock, currents rushing around her as she watched Ekko race with squirrels and feed fruits to foxes, looking up to smile at her.

They were happy, but something was missing. Jinx yearned to get closer to Ekko, the spirit just barely out of reach. She wished to taste her fruits on her own tongue, to weave her fingers through Ekko's hair the way birds did through her tree's branches. She wished to wrap around her like the flowing embrace of her river, to feed her life through her lips the way her waters had brought her into existence.

Ekko voiced Jinx's desires one day, a confirmation of reciprocation that somehow only made their distance more torturous. Why, when they had been given such a blessing as to know the other, why were they kept apart? Why dangle the passage to heaven in front of their eyes, knowing they'd never be able to reach it? It was nothing but horrible luck, their fates not destined to intertwine in any physical way. In all aspects but material, they were together, and in no aspect but the one they so longed for, they were separated.

"I can't imagine being made for anything but you." Jinx admitted to her one night, keeping herself afloat in her river, stars twinkling above them. Ekko sat among the branches of her tree, staring up at the sky with her. Jinx was closest to Ekko during the spring, when melted snow and rainfall would give her more water to expand, the edge of her restraints just barely missing Ekko's. From so close, she could make out the flecks of brown in the field of Ekko's green eyes, could almost feel her skin under her fingers.

Ekko hummed quietly. "One day, we will be together. I promise."

Jinx chuckled slightly, watching Ekko's chest rising and falling with every breath. "Oh yeah? How are you going to manage that?"

"With time." Ekko told her simply. "The soil will break down, you'll gain more water, my roots will grow, and one day, with just a small touch, the boundary will break. When that happens, I can finally be in your arms."

Jinx smiled at the thought, though it was a little pained. "You have a lot of faith in time, I wish it could be now."

"What else is there to have? The time will pass either way, spend it worrying less about when it will happen and enjoy this." Ekko told her fondly, eyes crinkling with love.

Jinx snorted. "Easy for you to say. Your entire existence is built on time, you grow with it, you're used to waiting. Time doesn't do much for me."

"But you'll wait with me anyways." Ekko said.

Jinx's breath caught in her throat. "I'd wait forever."

It was the truth, because as time passed, Jinx found herself doing nothing else. She spent her days with the wildlife that lived around them and her nights in endless conversations with her love, Ekko's voice a sweet lullaby that kept her going. She tried to remember what Ekko had said, to enjoy every moment, so even with the thrum of longing lacing every beat of her heart, Jinx did not waste what she had, she wasn't so ungrateful.

When the humans first came, Ekko had been curious. They settled around Jinx, building a small village. For the first time, Jinx carried boats through her waters, the humans transporting things to places the spirits could not perceive. She was wary of their existence, sprouting to life in a way Jinx hadn't intended, but Ekko had been enchanted by their innovation, by their heart and their joy, so she kept quiet, letting them build their homes and use her waters to grow their food.

The humans were interesting, she had to admit. They were strange, unlike her other creations, they did not acknowledge her presence, or Ekko's, or the spirits of any other living thing. It was like they lived in their own world, like they believed themselves to be the only beings in existence. Jinx disliked their exceptionalism, and even Ekko grew to question their methods, but she insisted that Jinx let them stay, let them learn and grow, and that with time, they would fall into the natural balance of things, as all living creatures did.

And how could Jinx deny Ekko?

But the humans never seemed to learn. Their village became two cities, the forest that had grown over centuries under Ekko's careful touch rapidly being destroyed so they could build their lavish homes. Jinx watched in anger as they plowed through the beauty of her home, destroying it for the sake of "progress."

They gave her a new name, the Pilt River.

Jinx despised it, she despised them. She hated the way they took her water without thanks, the way they ran her children—her birds and cats and foxes and rats—out of their homes and took over as if they were owed the land, as if it wasn't something to share.

And Ekko, well, for all her positivity, she began to hate the humans even more. They took, and they took, and they continued to take without care for the way the oasis was turning into an artificial replica of what it had once been. They took without caring for the way they dumped nasty poison into the river, and by the time Ekko finally agreed that the humans needed to leave, Jinx was too sick to do anything about them.

If Ekko had only listened when Jinx had first warned her, maybe none of it would ever have happened. Instead, she'd held onto hope, to trust, to love, and it had only gotten them into a nightmare they never could have imagined. Jinx's waters were no longer clear, they were polluted with murky substances and she watched in horror as the birds that once perched on rocks to drink died from drinking the poison. She watched in horror as the humans infected everything around them, as their poison seeped into the very ground they lived on.

Jinx spent her days lifeless, questioning how she could live on. Her own creation, the life she had provided for had turned on her. The humans continued to destroy, while even their own people were dying, yet none of it mattered to them.

"Jinx!" Ekko called to her worriedly one day. She tried to muster a response, tried to wave or speak or do anything, but she was sluggish and useless, every drop of energy drained out of her body, replaced with the poison that was beginning to kill her. "Jinx, my love, please speak to me."

Jinx groaned, the weight of her limbs too heavy. She wanted to throw up, to flush all of the garbage out of her system, to see her waters clear once more, to hear the birds sing and dance with the fish, but all that came was the buzzing of the humans.

"Ekko." She said weakly.

"I'm sorry." Ekko told her quietly. "I should have listened to you."

"Don't be. Your bleeding heart…is what I love about you."

She expected to die. Without her river giving life, what more was left for her? She could barely make out if she had more water or poison, she barely had anything left that she'd started with. Every day, she grew weaker, yet for decades, she lived on, barely alive, but her heart was beating as the river kept flowing, pollution and all.

Until one day, Ekko began to cough.

Jinx's heart sank. She knew almost right away what was happening, could feel the worst of her fears begin to come true. Ekko insisted she was okay, dishing out smiles to keep Jinx happy, but Jinx had known her too long to fall for her lies.

Ekko was sick. The poison was seeping from Jinx into the soil, and Ekko's roots were beginning to absorb it, desperate for the nutrients Jinx had once provided. It was…Ekko was dying, and it was happening a lot faster than the way Jinx had deteriorated.

Her leaves turned sickly, going from green to brown, then falling off one by one even in the middle of summer. Her trunk became weak and dry as she lost the ability to get energy from the sun without her leaves, and her roots had nothing to give her in Jinx's state.

"I'm sorry." Jinx told Ekko this time around. "I wish I could help."

"Don't be." Ekko gave her a weak smile. "You're just as screwed as I am."

"What about your promise?" Jinx asked, eyes watering slightly. "You can't leave me, we haven't…"

"I won't." Ekko told her firmly. "It'll be okay."

But even Ekko couldn't say such a ridiculous thing with a straight face, her frown betraying her doubts, her worries, her fears.

"Promise me…promise me that you'll live for me." Ekko told her one day.

"Don't say that." Jinx told her angrily. "I won't live without you."

"You'll have to—"

"No." Jinx repeated firmly.

It happened without warning, on a day that should been like any other. Ekko tried to climb down her tree, but Jinx watched her lurch, watched her lose her balance and flail, eyes falling shut.

Ekko was strong, she stood tall, she stood proud, she never lost her balance.

And that was how Jinx knew.

The tree snapped in half, millennia of growth dying in one instant as Jinx swam to the edge of her river, catching Ekko in her arms.

In her final moments, Ekko's eyes fluttered open, a bittersweet smile taking over her face as Jinx sobbed, taking in her lover's face, memorizing it as they bodies twisted together for the first and final time.

"Jinx." Ekko breathed out, eyes wide with adoration. "Kiss me, won't you?"

When their lips met, Jinx could only bring Ekko closer. She tasted sweet and citrusy, like the fruits of her tree. Millennia of loving one another, millennia of being apart, yet Jinx didn't think the cost of one kiss would be Ekko herself. She would trade that kiss for another millennia with Ekko in a heartbeat, would trade her own life for Ekko's if she could, but they were all just dreams. Jinx never should have created anything, she never should have let the humans live, maybe if she hadn't been so stupid, Ekko wouldn't have been dying in her arms.

Ekko kissed her fiercely, soft, loving, passionate, a promise and a goodbye sewn together.

"I love you." Jinx mumbled into Ekko's lips, hoping it would be enough.

Jinx's tears dripped onto her face as they parted, and Ekko gave her one final grin. "Don't cry, love. I did promise you we'd be together, didn't I?"

Then her eyes fluttered shut and her breathing froze, body going limp in Jinx's arms.

"No, no, no, no." Jinx sobbed, pulling Ekko's body closer as she did the only thing she knew how to do—cry. She held her lover's body as her grief took over her, the tears spilling and spilling until she didn't know how much time had passed, but they refused to stop.

She was going to die, soon. She could feel it in the way her heartbeat slowed, knew it in the way she couldn't live without Ekko. They'd gotten those final moments together, she'd gotten to finally have Ekko in her arms, but they'd been robbed of their lives, of lifetimes more with one another.

Robbed by the very same beings Jinx had given life to, robbed by the beings they'd graciously let into their homes. They'd been robbed and trashed and killed all for their kindness and the humans' greed.

Jinx her river expand, and as her tears continued to fall, streaming down her face, Ekko's tree floating sinking beneath the murky waters of Jinx, completely destroyed, something in her snapped.

The humans screamed as her tears turned to waves, as the river began to grow, her homes flooding as they desperately tried to run out of the way, seeing her for the first time. She was completely outraged, taken over by grief and anger and the humans would suffer for it, it was time they were finally exterminated, they needed to feel the consequences of their inhumanity, they needed to feel even an ounce of the pain they'd pushed onto her, they needed to die.

Jinx watched as her tears flooded their streets, as they drowned, as their buildings crashed into one another, every surface filled with water, every human begging for mercy as she continued to cry until finally, finally, their voices stopped.

She could feel it in the eerie quiet of the aftermath, only her hiccuping sobs sounding—echoing—through the ruins of humanity's final stand.

She looked down at Ekko, brushing her hair out of her face. She looked around, seeing nothing but water as far as her eyes could reach, her tears slower, but still pouring out of her eyes rapidly.

She swam to the very edge, found the final patch of lands left, a small hill that rose above the sunken city. Gently, she set Ekko down on the ground, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead before she dove under the water, searching for something, anything.

She found it at their old spot, where they'd spent millennia so close, yet so far. A single seedling under the water. Jinx cradled it, carefully swimming back to Ekko with the seedling in her trembling hands, breath shaking as she sank her nails into the soil and planted it as carefully as she could. Her tears streamed over the spot and for days she sat next to her deceased lover, singing quietly, just the way Ekko had so loved.

Then, one day, the seedling became something more. It sprouted out of the ground, standing proud, alive after all of the disaster that had been intent on keeping it down. In her arms, Ekko opened her eyes, a relieved, knowing smile on her face.

"You really couldn't live without me, huh?" She teased, and Jinx couldn't laugh at the incredulity of Ekko making jokes after literally being brought back to life. Instead, she pressed their lips together a second time, a new beginning, a promise for a life together, not apart. At the end of the day, the humans had only gotten themselves killed. They were together once more, stronger for it, and Jinx would be damned if she let Ekko get away from her ever again.

"I guess you were right about time."