by Loki Renard
“Very well,” I say. “But first, we need to find shelter and food for you. You cannot exist in the ether as I can. You will need something more tangible to sustain you.”
“Can you whip us something up? A quick palace?”
I start to laugh, then I realize that she is completely serious. This half-human demigoddess doesn’t know what it means to be on the planet of her origin.
“Like I can on Okeanus? No. This is Earth. Miracles are limited here. My power becomes indirect, though no less strong. But we have to rely on material construction. Which means finding somewhere out of the weather, and tracking down some food to satiate your hungers, which will be amplified here.”
“I am hungry,” she admits.
“Then come with me.” I take her by the hand. I have always had all the power in our relationship, but now I have even more. She is lost on this planet. Without me, she would find it difficult to survive, even as a demigoddess. She still has a mortal side, a weakness of the flesh. She can die here.
I do not intend on allowing that to happen.
There are still buildings standing from before humanity retired into its pods. The cheaper concrete and steel buildings have degraded, rusted metal sticking out askew where it was once clothed by man's interpretation of rock, but there are other places built more strongly. Older places from a time when humans still valued longevity.
We retire to a little stone structure with a pointed roof. It still vibrates with old power. This is a place of worship, located at a point of earthly intensity. The main window faces towards the rising of the sun.
“I like this place,” Raine says as we step through the dusty remnants of yet another lost faith. “It feels a little like home.”
“Home is made of what this used to contain,” I tell her. “Belief. Okeanus is made of the same material.”
“It’s colder though," she says. She is shivering. The sun is falling toward the horizon, and her body, unaccustomed to having to adapt to the variable temperatures of a true Earth evening, is already showing signs of strain.
“Let me see if I still have any tricks up my sleeve,” I wink. I take several pieces of splintered old wood littered about the place where they has fallen or been thrown by some conflict or other, arrange them in a circular triangle, and snap my fingers at their base. A flame appears, small, but effective, catching the dust and curled remnants of what must have been carpet at the base of the thing and setting the wood aglow.
“Better?”
“Much," Raine smiles, warming her hands.
I feel a strong protective urge washing over me. She is in real peril here, on this planet. Having the blood of her father will help her, but it will not save her from all dangers. I have taken her from a place where she cannot die, to one where death is almost inevitable. It was selfish of me, but I saw the rage in Helios’ eyes. He was not going to tolerate our coupling. Taking her from Okeanus was the only way to keep her by my side.
“I never thought I would see Earth," she says, her eyes fixed on the fire. “It isn’t what I thought it was.”
“What is it?”
“It…” she wrinkles her nose up. “It smells. Kind of bad. Everything has a smell. This fire has a smell.”
Okeanus is a place of near perfection. It is a highly edited version of human reality made for gods who do not have to undergo the formality of experiencing it for themselves. I’m not surprised she doesn't particularly care for Earth. This is an inconvenient planet for anybody with even a hint of mortality about them.
“You’ll get used to the odors,” I assure her. “I’m told some of them are quite pleasant.”
“I’m hungry,” she says, reminding me of the reason we moved from the outside to the inside in the first place.
I am not sure where we will obtain food. I am not sure how many animals there are left to hunt or trap. We may have to resort to less palatable options than she is used to.
“I’ll look for some food.”
“I’m not hungry for food,” she clarifies with a little smirk. “I’m hungry for you.”
Her human passions are flaring higher than ever now she is grounded on Earth’s soil. I can smell her desire, the viscosity of her need soaking her sex. I know what she must look like beneath the modesty of her robe, how her lips are no doubt pouting and swollen, craving the thrust of my cock.
But she does need to eat. Real food.
“Stay here,” I tell her. “There has to be something you can eat. I know you said you're not hungry for food, but you will be soon enough, and the pain of starvation is worse than the anticipation of pleasure.”
Raine
I feel a little pang of rejection when Tanuk refuses my advances, but I trust that he knows what he is talking about. I feel like a whole new animal down here. It is as if parts of my body which were always there suddenly have a purpose. My sense of smell, which I barely used on Okeanus is being assailed here. Everything is richer, realer, deeper, and harsher.
He’s right too, it’s not just my loins which are in need of filling. My belly is growling too. I don’t think I’ve ever actually been hungry before. Not really. We used to pick at food all day on Okeanus. Anything I wanted could be magicked up in a moment. Here, that is not the case.
I should be afraid, but I’m not. Tanuk won’t let real harm come to me. Even though he’s left me temporarily alone, wet with desire, body humming with excitement, I can feel his protection spread over me. I am safe. Always safe with him.
Slow realization comes to me as I stare into the flames. I am the rebel now. The black sheep. I have been cast down from Okeanus to live on Earth — or rather, taken from it by my lover. I have disappointed Helios and probably angered Ragnar, and I would care more about that if it wasn’t for the fact that they made my recent days on Okeanus hellish by something worse than cold and hunger: being treated like an eternal juvenile.
Now they know I am my own woman. They know I have broken the seal of innocence and claimed my femininity along with my adulthood. They may not like what I chose to do, or who I chose to do it with, but they cannot deny that the choice was made, and their approval is incidental.
I know Tanuk isn’t what anybody would describe as good. He's barely nice. But he is taking care of me, and his possessive desire makes me feel more alive than I ever have. He wants me with more intensity than anybody ever has. I’m not a second thought to him. I’m worth losing everything for. His place on Okeanus might be forever gone, but he doesn’t seem to care. He is out foraging for me, undertaking human tasks though he himself is a god incarnate.
I warm my hands by the fire and huddle down into my robe, wondering how long it will take for Tanuk to return to me. I listen to the sounds of the Earth night. I hear fluttering of birds. Chirping of insects. Crackling of flame. I sit through them all, enjoying the aural tableau.
But footsteps make me look around. They do not belong to Tanuk. I know that instantly. Tanuk does not scuff along with heavy feet. He steps lightly, with a strength and elegance which makes this human’s gait seem animal by comparison.
Someone has walked into our shelter. Someone who stinks like an animal. Even at a distance, I can smell his sweat and his musk permeating his clothes. There are other smells too, sweet smoke and something floral. I sit there, sniffing curiously like a small animal as he draws closer.
“Who are you?” The voice belongs to a man with long blond hair wrapped into braids. He is wearing a thick shiny sort of material which covers him head to toe like a close fitting sheath. I suppose his appearance could be loosely described as frightening, but this is the first human I have ever met besides my own mother. I am fascinated. Far too much so to be afraid.
“Uhm.” I don’t think I should say who I am. I’m not actually sure I know who I am down here.
“First night out?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t take you with me," he says, more to himself than to me. “There are already too many of us.”
> I have no idea what he is talking about, and say as much.
“This is not a place for wanderers,” he hisses, his voice soft with worry. “Entity will find you here. The scan is planned for tomorrow. Be gone by morning, or you will be either incinerated, or worse, taken back into the hive. Entity is not kind to defectors. You won’t be linked back into the neural network. You’ll be used as meat labor or turned into nutrition. Your freedom is all you have. Guard it well, sister.”
With those words, he leaves as quickly and quietly as he came. I’m still processing what happened when Tanuk wanders in with a big smile on his face. The difference in gait between a god and a human is incredible. The man I saw was bent with fear, but Tanuk strides freely about the place, unconcerned with the prospect of impossible death.
“I’ve found what might be food,” he says. “I believe they’re old military rations. I also found some water, and a pot. I’m rather good at this survival lark.”
He looks thoroughly pleased with himself, far more so than he did when performing any of his tricky wonders on Okeanus. I wonder if it is not more satisfying, even for a god, to submit to the dumb mechanics of mortal reality sometimes than to have everything be instantly perfect.
“Someone was here…” I say, but he doesn’t hear me. He’s too busy talking.
“We’ll place this pot on the embers," he says. “Boil the water nice and hot and put the foil packet inside it. Then you can eat it with this.”
He holds up a little tool, then hands it to me. I get the sense I’m supposed to know what to do with it, but truthfully I have no idea.
“What is this?”
“It’s a plastic spoon," he beams. “These things will still be here at the end of time.”
We settle down by the fire and make the food as he says. I don’t know what I’m doing, so I’m happy to follow him, even though I am also pretty certain that he doesn’t really know what to do either.
The smell which emerges from the packet when we open it is enough to make me recoil. I poke at it, half expecting it to start moving and talking, but it doesn’t. It just sits there all sludgy like.
“It’s like meat, but somehow worse?”
“It does not look very tasty,” Tanuk admits. “But you should try to eat it anyway.”
“What if it makes me sick?
“That’s a good point. Maybe don’t eat that. Or maybe eat just a little and see what happens…”
“Being a human is hard,” I observe, picking at the mess inside the foil packet. “Everything can get you. What you eat. Or what eats you. Or Entity…”
“Or the gods who will eventually track us here,” Tanuk says. “We won’t be able to hide forever. Sooner or later, Helios and Ragnar will work out your location, and they will come for you. Or more likely, send someone after us. Helios isn’t going to get his hands dirty down here.”
“They won’t get me. I’m not going back to the palace.”
Tanuk’s brows rise with surprise. I’m also surprised to hear myself say that. This is not a pleasant planet. I know life is going to be hard here. I’m already cold and hungry, and the people here are frankly, kind of gross. But they're people. They’re not gods. And I’m starting to think that I should be with people. If Tanuk can slum it down here, then maybe we can be happy.
“You’re determined to stay with me?” Tanuk reaches out and tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear.
“I am,” I say, nibbling on a very small piece of meat. It tastes a little better than it smells, which isn’t to say much. There’s a granular, gritty texture I don’t find terribly enjoyable, but I’m not going to complain. Gross food is the price of freedom, and I’ll pay it.
“Why?”
I look into his dark, mysterious eyes, and I realize that I am a mystery to him. He doesn't know what I think or feel. He knows that I want him physically, but he doesn't know that it’s more than that. That I’ve fallen in love with him. That I’d rather be in the worst hell with him than in paradise forever alone.
I don’t know if I want to tell him. It feels like the last little piece of power I have would leave me if I did.
“Because I am my own woman. I can make my own choices. I wanted you, and they tried to stop me. They have to learn not to do that. Lucy and I are more than their daughters. We are our own people.”
“There’s a lot of bitterness inside you, isn’t there, Raine.”
“There would be a lot of bitterness inside you too if you were always nothing more than somebody’s sister, or daughter, if you didn’t exist outside how you were related to somebody else. You’re Tanuk. I don’t even know who you’re related to. Nobody brings it up. You’re judged as your own person.”
“True, I suppose,” he admits.
I yawn.
I have never yawned. I've never been this kind of tired before. I was the only one who ever got tired on Okeanus besides my mother, but this is a different kind of exhaustion. It’s a tired that starts in the middle and kind of works its way out toward the edges. My eyes are heavy and start to close of their own accord. Before I know what I am doing, I am curling up in Tanuk’s lap and leaving him to defend me while I fall into the deep sleep of a runaway.
8
Tanuk
She trusts me so deeply. It is a precious gift, this trust which allows her to fall asleep in my arms. I have taken her from everything she knows. I have trapped her on a planet she does not know how to leave. I have hidden her from her family, and I have put her in mortal danger.
Semi-modern humans have a term for people like me. I always though it was rather colorful, but quite apt. Asshole.
I may be an asshole, but I am her asshole.
In the small hours of the morning, I sense a disturbance in the near region. It feels like something very large and very powerful moving toward us. I wonder what could have such a mass. It almost feels like another god, though I do not think it is. It is certainly no god I have ever encountered. There is a coldness to it, a mechanistic purity which almost makes me think it is not conscious.
I pay a little more attention and realize that I’m wrong. It’s very conscious. It is mind. Almost pure mind. That is what is unique and machinelike. I watch it, without moving, observing the energy patterns of the being as it moves through the world.
This must be the Entity which Raine’s mother fled, the Entity which stacks humans tens of thousands high and keeps them captive. When Raine wakes up, I should draw the comparison between the way Entity shields humanity from the world and the way she was raised inside Helios’ palace. She’ll like that. Or find it hugely offensive. Bit of a gamble.
It seems to be looking for something. It moves in a grid-like pattern, extending its influence over small areas of land at a time, deep searching them for… what? I suppose I will find out when it finds what it is looking for.
I suspect that it is carrying out a mission of order. I’m surprised the shoddy old chapel we are resting in has been allowed to remain standing. It is a remnant of the old chaos of humanity, precisely that which Entity wishes to erase. Clearly, Entity cannot sense the power of gods. It knows only its own magnificence.
Its quest is futile, though it does not yet understand. It believes it has already won, that the people sitting compliant in their chambers are under control. I know better. Humans are never truly under control. Entity contains within itself billions of seeds of its own destruction.
But that, for now, is a philosophical opinion. It will not keep my Raine safe. Entity stops at a distance. I can feel it, not see it, but seeing is a formality reserved for animals. It is not necessary for gods. I understand the nature of the nearby without the need for anything so simple as the five senses mortals are stuck with.
I draw Raine a little closer, sensing the danger. I have never had to fear before, at least, not within memory. But I do fear for her. She has the curse of mortality upon her. If her physical form is overly disturbed, her divine nature will be set free into the univers
e. It will be as if she had never existed.
Entity moves. Quickly, and without warning.
I feel a slight tingle. Something is passing over us. A beam of highly refined light which moves through me without interference, but which is broken by Raine’s body.
This, I sense, is not a good thing.
Surely enough, I hear a sudden whine, as if a million little rotating magnets suddenly burst into life. I look up and see Entity represented by a horde of flying eyes breaking through the roof of the chapel. The broken rafters fall like sharp staves towards Raine’s tender body. She's barely awake as I pull her into my arms and rush to a safe distance.
My powers are limited on this Earth, but they are still greater than those of a mere human. Within seconds, we are several hundred feet away, observing what I can only describe as a total incineration.
The eyes are a swarm, banding together to pour fire from their collective ocular maws into the interior of the holy place. I’ve seen scenes like seen this before, long ago. This is not mere destruction, it is a deliberate purge, an attempt at crushing any rogue humanity.
Raine comes to full consciousness, stares, and prepares to let out what I am sure would be a blood-curdling scream. I clap my hand over her mouth before that can happen, whispering in her ear that she needs to be quiet.
“What is happening?” she asks the question softly when I release her.
“Death is happening,” I tell her. “That is Entity.”
Raine
“That is Entity.”
His words send a chill of fear through me which does not originate within my own mind. This is a memory of fear inherited from my mother. This is the one true fear all humans of our time have.
Entity is truly monstrous. There is nothing human about it. It is a flying mass of pure fiery destruction. I know that this is not all of Entity. I know that these are appendages of the beast which wrap around the planet and holds all in its sway.
“Is that real?” I whisper the question.
“It is the sum of all human sorrows and rages, the mechanical, spiritual binding of all that has come and all that will come,” Tanuk says.