Cruel

Cruel precedes Reaper to the homes of the dying. She steps unseen into the homes of the ill. She listens to their fevered breaths, to their pain, and when she can, she takes it away gently. When she can, she whispers to broken bones to teach them how to heal straight, or talks sternly to lungs until they finally let their owners take full and deep breaths for the first time in months. When she can, she's the unseen presence that supports the injured and ill as they try to relearn how to live, now that their body has changed.

And when she can't, when she steps into the home of someone too far gone, Cruel makes their end as peaceful as she can. She whispers to their pain and tells it it is no longer welcome in their last hours. She gives lucidity, where she can. And then she gives an end.

Ironically, Cruel--named for how she is perceived by others--is the kindest of the gods.

In a pantheon of young gods, Cruel is the god of illness and injury, who cries for the dying and never gives up hope for the living.

Circle: Second. Draws power from the gods of Beginnings, Endings, and Decay.