Dolya loved Veles as only a child can love their father. She had admired his realm from the Underworld, sighed when he talked of creating beasts and plants, and frowned with him whenever they saw the humans wreak their destruction. She trusted him and believed that his work was beautiful and great, and his intentions were nothing but pure.

Having listened to the stories told to her by the humans, however, she began to see her memories in a different light. The looks that Veles had given Mokosh, once mild and gentle, became sly and lustful. His fights with the humans were no longer about nature but about conflicts with rival gods.

Dolya had disdained her father while she pitied her mother’s fate, and she felt a strange longing for Praboh that mixed with a pang of guilt. She felt sorry for all of them, and at the same time, she was angry at them because all of the creations that she adored, they, the creators, had treated them merely as toys and tools and had abandoned them entirely with no care whatsoever.