by M J Marstens
“I don’t know how creating atmospheric phenomena is anything like setting the mood.”
“I feel like there is a miscommunication between us,” Zahra points out.
“Probably,” Merc agrees. “I’m retrograde right now.”
Zahra scrunches up her nose and I can see the gears turning in her head.
“You know, I have always believed in astrology, but more so on a metaphorical level. . . but everything is turning out to be literal with you guys.”
“Where do you think it mostly all came from?” Uran asks.
Zahra just shrugs. Merc speaks up to clarify his powers.
“When I say ‘ambience’, I mean that I created and control the winds and weather.”
“Oh, cool,” Zahra says, finally understanding. “Then you should try making it snow less where I live,” she says.
“No can do. . . we lost our powers when Lina cursed us.” Merc says.
“Damn. Now this bitch is cheating me of tropical weather living.” She turns back to me to ask, “And what’s your domicile called?”
“The Realm of Luminous Spheres.”
“Wow, that sounds pretty. . . like glowing orbs of light or floating, lit candles?”
A chuckle escapes me at her imaginings.
“Interesting theories, but no. I created the directions or movement in space and time. Wherever the light from my dimension travels, it helps create new things elsewhere. Nothing else can move freely through time and space like light. I guess my realm’s light is the catalyst for the other dimensions.”
She looks impressed. “And so you went to everyone else’s realms? What are they?” She asks the rest of the guys at large.
“After Mars’- Caed’s realm is the eighth dimension or Jupiter’s realm.” I answer.
“The Realm of Verdure,” Jupiter tells Zahra.
“And what’s your power, Kane?” She asks him.
“I created land and plant life to grow upon it.”
She lets out a little laugh.
“I guess you really are the Jolly Green Giant!”
Jupiter chuckles, “I guess so. After me is the seventh dimension or Khal’s domain.”
“Let me guess, is it the Realm of Bloodsuckers? Is that where the chupracabra originated? Along with other vampiric beings?”
Saturn snorts at her ridiculousness.
“It’s the Realm of Edict, and it’s an icy wonderland,” he states.
“Icy and wonderland? I think you must mean wasteland,” she mumbles under breath.
“It’s better than northern Minnesota,” he taunts her.
I interject before a verbal sparring match can start. Those two really need to fuck.
“After Khal’s domicile is Uran’s in the sixth dimension. It’s the Realm of Aura and is an aerial world, as Uran’s power is working with ether. His twin is in the fifth dimension, but here there seems to be some sort of bridge where the two brothers could go back and forth. Neither could go to any dimension except each other’s, and both prefer their own domiciles. Illu as Neptune rules a water world, the Realm of Aquae, and his powers are inherently aqueous. Lastly, I found Arawn in the fourth dimension. His domicile is called the Realm of Four Kingdoms because his creatures maintain the system of decay.”
“System of decay?” Zahra asks.
“Yes,” Pluto decides to speak for himself. “I’m the god of death, rebirth, and transformation. From rot comes new life. There are four classes of fungus that make up the ‘kingdoms’ of my domicile.”
“You rule mold?” Zahra asks, looking at him askance. “Guess that explains why you are such a fungi!”
She clutches her stomach as she laughs at her terrible pun. Pluto looks torn between joining her and reprimanding her. . . because what we are telling her is important. But I have learned that Zahra is always listening and is always aware. That is what makes her dangerous. She seems so innocent, so naïve, so. . . well, dumb, that you take it for granted until she turns her hidden brilliance on you.
“Hilarious, you should try standup comedy,” Mio compliments, straight-faced.
“I tried,” she replies, mimicking his manner. “No one knew I was standing.”
What a little wiseacre, alluding to her smaller than normal stature. She is going to start a riot with her antics and we are going to end up screwing her before she gets her answers. I can’t really say I would be too upset with that outcome. I want to bury my dick in her in the worst way.
“So no one but you could move between dimensions?” She suddenly asks me.
Her question brings me back to the topic at hand.
“No one but me,” I affirm. “I left Arawn in his domicile to explore the remaining dimensions. The third dimension was the densest plane I had been in and was mostly empty. The same was true for the second and first dimensions. In fact, the last two were so dense, I could not explore them. I numbered the dimensions as such from my experience in each.”
“You said the third dimension was mostly empty. . . isn’t that this dimension?” Zahra asks.
“Yes,” I tell her. “At one time, it was mostly just empty space. But you are skipping ahead. Let’s go back. We have not yet come to my guilt.”
CHAPTER 9
ZAHRA
I hate how Nyam’s face twists with pain when he says these words. He tries to put on a brave front, but I can see that underneath he is consumed with the burden of his guilt. I give him an encouraging smile and tell him:
“Listen up Sonny, we all fuck up- that’s life. What matters is if you learned from your mistakes. Listen, I’ll tell you a secret-”
“Please don’t,” Arawn interrupts.
I ignore him.
“Once I made these homemade tampons and-”
“Alright, stop right there,” Khal commands.
“I appreciate you trying to exonerate me of my actions with homespun tampon tales, but this is a little different. And it’s not a matter of learning from my mistake. There was nothing to learn from, what was done, was done,” Nyam says. “Oh, and don’t call me Sonny. It’s Sunny with a ‘u’, not an ‘o’.”
How did he know I meant that sonny?
“Well then, what is the big bad deed? What terrible thing did you do to bring eternal damnation upon yourself?”
“Not just for me, mon coeur, but for all my brothers, too.”
“Just spill it already!”
I hate surprises and suspense kills me.
“Patience, kotyonok,” Uran chides me.
“Hold up,” I say, getting completely derailed. “Didn’t you say kotyonok means ‘kitten’?” I ask the twins.
“Yes, a cute, little, mewling bundle of fur that thinks its claws are bigger than they really are,” Illu tacks on.
I frown.
“My claws are big, just ask North Node and South Node.” Hopefully, they never ask those bitches. “Besides, I’m actually not sure I like that nickname now that I think about it.”
“Why?” Khal asks in begrudging vexation, like he doesn’t really want to know. The others are grinning and seem resigned to my inclination to blather.
“It reminds me of my bible studies group leader,” I begin. “Her name was Mrs. Minor. She was super religious and she did not like me one bit. . . she actually kicked me out of bible study, for which I’m eternally grateful. Anyway, she used to tell us to ‘pet your cat, not your date’. I innocently asked if that meant she wanted me to masturbate. . .”
I pause to reflect for a moment.
“But if I had known ‘pet your cat’ meant a set of hot-ass twins double-teaming me while calling me ‘kitten’, I might have stuck around for more of her lessons!” I joke.
I look to the guys, expecting their laughter, but only see heat lighting their eyes.
“And did you take her advice to pet your cat?” Khal asks in a low voice.
“Until it purred,” I rejoin wickedly.
I see him visibly gulp and feel a rush of lust and empowerment. The co
mbination emboldens me to stand up and lean over Khal’s desk and whisper:
“Too bad only the twins get my kitty.”
I’m purposely baiting a monster and do not recoil in surprise when he morphs into his vampiric god form.
“You know, for being the god of discipline, you kind of suck at controlling yourself,” I taunt.
“Generally speaking, that is just the deterioration from the curse. Specifically speaking, you have a tendency of getting under his skin. And right now, the only thing he wants you to be under is him,” Nyam says next to me, still perched on Khal’s desk.
“Huh, well that makes two of us,” I parry back, never breaking eye-contact with Monster Man.
In a fluid motion, Khal shifts back into his human form.
“Be careful, kaṣmīmī, my curse is getting the better of me every day,” Khal warns me.
“And how do we break the curse?” I ask.
Please be by having sex, please be by having sex.
“As you said- by creating balance,” Nyam supplies.
“Huh?”
“Try to focus for three minutes,” Nyam teases, like he knew where my mind had gone. “Do you know what a luminary is?”
“In Astrology? It refers to the sun or moon. They are the only luminaries.”
“And what makes them unique, astrologically speaking?” He asks me.
I think for a moment, sifting through all my astrologer’s knowledge that I had learned over the years. Nothing comes to mind and then it hits me:
“They are the only planets in the zodiac that do not become retrograde.”
Retrograde is the astrological illusion that the planets are orbiting backwards and is a time to review and reflect. When a planet goes retrograde, it causes the extreme spectrums of the planet’s characteristics to become highlighted. For example, Mercury is the most common planet to become retrograde. Being the planet of communications, Mercury retrograde is known as a time of misunderstandings and failed technology. Next time your email does not go through, see if we are in Mercury retrograde. Better yet, just tell your boss that is why the email didn’t go through. I’m sure he or she will understand.
“And it’s because the other planets become retrograde that they cannot leave their domiciles,” Nyam explains. “Originally, I was the only luminary- a being of pure light that could bend the fabric of space. Eventually, I worked it out as to why my brethren could not move from dimension to dimension as I could. For a time, I would travel from realm to realm, visiting everyone and bringing news and goods to one god from another. But Lina became more and more despondent every time I left her. At one point, she hinted that her melancholy had escalated to a level where ‘she could not live without me’.”
“You mean a god threatened suicide?” I interrupt sardonically.
“In a manner of speaking,” Nyam conceded.
“And you fell for it?”
“Why do you think I feel eternally culpable?” He hisses at me.
I draw back, a little stung from his snap.
Ok, so this is a touchy subject: proceed with caution.
“Sorry, go on,” I encourage.
Nyam lets out a hearty sigh. Mio stands and places a hand on his shoulder.
“I’ll explain for a bit,” he tells Nyam. “Lina used all her wiles to inveigle Sun. She pleaded, seduced, begged, guilted, threatened. Eventually, her nagging ways wore him down- for which we do not blame him.” Mio looks Nyam in the eyes when he says this last part. “To appease Lina, because he truly did love her, as we all eventually would, he gave her part of his greatest power. . .”
“He made her a luminary,” I breathe, finally understanding.
CHAPTER 10
ZAHRA
Holy shit, Nyam gave Lina the power of the Sun. Now there’s a hell of a gift. How do you top that later in life?
Answer: you don’t.
And that is how relationships go to crap.
“Yes, I gave her half my power and with it the freedom to travel between dimensions. Whether for good or bad, I realized that my sharing had weakened my ability to do so again without draining me completely of my power. And so, Lina left her domicile to meet the other gods she had only heard about from my travels,” Nyam says.
“She first came with Sun to my domicile, jumping up a dimension.” Mio pauses before continuing, “It was obvious they were a couple, but when Sunny left to go visit Neptune, or Illu, Lina stayed behind. I spurned her initial advances, but Lina told me she had broken it off with Sun and that is why he had left. . . And so, a relationship blossomed between us. After a while, she wanted to go meet the other gods and promised to return soon. But before she left, she made me swear one thing: not to tell Sun about our liaison. Lina said eventually we would tell him, but not immediately after she broke up with him. I agreed and off she went.”
“To me next,” Caed says gruffly. “Although I had never seen her with Sun, I knew they had been together. Lina gave me the same song and dance as she did to Mercury and thus began our relationship.”
“Until she had jumped from one realm to the next, pretending to be single, but wanting to keep everything quiet so as not to hurt Sun’s feelings,” Khal added.
“And she was clever about it, too,” Nyam suddenly says. “After our initial trip to Merc’s domicile together, she never visited another dimension with me, preferring to be in her own realm if we were to see each other. Of course, this was her ploy so the others could not see us together. She wanted to have her cake and eat it, too. And who knows how long it might have gone on that way, if not for the twins. . .”
I look over to Uran and Illu. Everyone’s face is taut with hurt and I ache for what they will tell me next.
“Whenever Lina came to visit me,” Uran began in his heavy accent, “She tried to drive a wedge between my bratik and me. I’m ashamed to say she appealed to my rebellious side and where there was once harmony between Neptune and me, it quickly disintegrated into a competition. A constant fight to one-up each other.”
“Of course, Lina loved when we fought over her,” Illu interjects.
“Yes,” Uran agrees with his twin. “The only thing she loved more than us fighting over her was us being with her together. As we are two halves to a whole, it was natural for us to share Lina and we did not think anything of it. Lina would come and go, as would Sun, but being as Neptune and I could go between our domiciles, we were perhaps not as lonely as the others. But the majority of the time, Neptune and I could not cross into each other’s realms. We never thought much of it, until Sun.”
I look to Nyam, whose face has yet to show any signs of his normal sunny self. If anything, he looks more depressed than when the conversation first started.
“I wanted to join my brothers together. I traveled between dimensions for the sheer joy of experiencing new things, but also, to bring these new experiences to the others, who were so lonely. I understood why I could move back and forth and obviously had granted Lina the same power, but I was baffled as to why the twins could move occasionally to one another’s realms. I assumed it was due to their bond, but why only once in a while?”
“Ah, are you asking me?” I stutter out, confused.
“I want to see if you can figure it out from what we have told you.”
“Alright, let me think. I have been engrossed in the details, but I’m like the Sherlock Holmes of our time.” I spread my hands out, like I’m showcasing something sensational and say in a theatrical voice, “Zahra Delsol: Astrology Detective Supreme.”
“You sound like a bad Taco Bell commercial,” Caed laughs.
“What’s a Taco Bell?” Arawn asks.
“Crikey mate, watch some American TV, would ya?”
“Could you be quiet while I figure this out?” I ask. “Oh, and never look into a Taco Bell, it will give you the Irish squirts,” I warn Arawn.
He just blinks at me in confusion.
I giggle a little at his look and then go back to thinking. Only
Nyam (a.k.a Sun) and Lina (a.k.a Moon) could move between dimensions because they were luminaries or beings of light. The others could not move because they could become retrograde, but Illu and Uran (Neptune and Uranus, right? I’m going to get the hang of their god names, I swear. . . I think I might make them name tags, though) could occasionally go to one another’s realms.
Why only sometimes is the question. . .
I think about the two outer planets of astrology. Along with Pluto, Uranus and Neptune are considered generational planets, as their movements are so slow that they affect whole generations of people, instead of single individuals. When Uranus and Neptune are separately retrograde, it can span years. The majority of the time, both planets are either singularly retrograde or retrograde together.
But only rarely are they both direct, or moving forward.
“Aha!” I cry triumphantly. “Uran and Illu could only visit each other when they were direct or when neither was retrograde! One hundred and twenty points to my house!” I crow.
“You get points as your house?” Arawn asks, even more confused than before.
“Why do you even ask?” Khal drawls, like Arawn is insane for even questioning me.
Which is ridiculous because the other man doesn’t even know what a freaking Taco Bell is.
“Not important,” I say superiorly. “What is important is how right I’m.”
“If there were any doubts you were the Goddess of Beauty, your lack of modesty would really drive it home,” Mio drawls.
“Oh please! Pot meet Kettle or whatever that racist saying is.”
Khal opens his mouth and then closes it again, like he is uncertain if he wants to speak.
“I’m afraid to ask, because I really don’t want to digress from the seriousness of this conversation any more than we have, but what the hell are you talking about now?”
“Ah. . . that saying about the pot calling the kettle black or something,” I explain.
“How the fuck is that racist?” He queries.
“The pot just called the kettle black! That’s not cool. You can’t point out if someone is black or white. Although, for clarification’s sake, I want to point out that I’m peach. Moon is white. . . Dammit, now I sound racist.”