by Oxford, Rain
“We closed the gates because ancient demons like this one could not be contained with them open,” Divina said, distracting me. “You could open the gates, but you would no longer be the Guardian of Earth, and the Ancients would be free. Modern demons are weak and can be kept in line by Janus, but not the Ancients. Not even all of us together can control all of the Ancients all of the time. Dylan, you have to trust that we know best.”
I didn’t look at them. The demon’s eyes were pleading. Divina wanted to keep me away from the void and had flat out told me she didn’t believe that I could save Mordon. Would she keep Ronez from me just to keep me safe from the void?
“Dylan, trust me,” the woman I loved pleaded.
I kept eye contact with the demon, still trying to save his own life. Tearing open the void with as much delicacy as I could, I called out with my magic for assistance. The tear was visible, spewing vacant light. A black fog instantly reached out of the emptiness and enclosed the demon. I let go, stood up, and stepped back. The demon was dragged, thrashing, into his prison. He told me how horrible the void was and that he wanted to live… after pulling Mordon in to suffer the same horror. It was wrong that Mordon had been forgotten by the mortals for even a second, and now the demon would never ever forget him.
Divina pulled me around to hug me and kissed my shoulder. “Never doubt that I trust you. I don’t always believe you, but I always believe in you,” I said.
“I am glad he is on our side,” Enki told one of his brothers quietly.
“I am glad we are on his side,” Madus responded. “Could you imagine if we had decided to kill him?”
“I think maybe you would have failed,” the god I hadn’t met before said.
I turned to them and Divina let me go. Mordon looked wobbly, but was staying on his feet. “You good?” I asked him.
“Shiny, captain. Rojan is a bit bothered being surrounded by gods, though,” he said. I could tell that it was him who was bothered, but his secret was safe with me.
The god was tall and a little more built than I expected of an Iadnah, and a lot friendlier looking. Almost a bit average; by looks alone, I couldn’t pick him out of a crowd of friendly Texans. He had medium, dirty blond hair and blue eyes. The gods created their own image to suit their needs; this god was a pacifist.
“Avoli, this little mastermind is my mate,” Divina said proudly.
“Little? What about me is little?” I asked, deplored. She hid her face in my shoulder and laughed. “I’m taller than you,” I mumbled.
“It is nice to meet you, appropriately-sized mastermind,” the god said. Pacifist, of course.
“And you. I think I need to get my friend to a place to rest,” I said. I wasn’t sure who flashed us, but Divina, Mordon, Avoli, and I appeared back at the cabin.
“I’m not crippled,” Mordon griped as Ronez tried to get him to sit down in a chair on the porch. He did sit, though.
Edward, Ronez, and Sammy were where we left them. Almost as soon as our flash cleared, Vivian and Nano appeared. Sammy turned to see them and reached out. “Mommy!” he screamed. Mordon looked on reflex, but didn’t move to take the child, currently being held by Edward.
Vivian took her baby and both parents fussed over him. I was sad that I had to say goodbye, but I was happy for him. Vivian was a wonderful woman and would make a great mother. After all, she mostly raised her younger siblings. Nano, I wasn’t so sure about, but Nila had turned out all right, so I figured he couldn’t be too bad.
Edward wasted no time before checking me for injuries. I caught Ronez’s eye and it looked for a second like he was the one who wanted to worry about me. Instead, he barked at Mordon when the man tried to stand.
“What happened?” Edward asked.
“All of the gods showed up and we won.” I said.
“Not all of the gods,” Divina corrected. “Azenoth, Mreje, and Zer are still suspicious of you. Besides, they had nothing to do with you single-handedly defeating the demon. And this time you can’t say I did it, like with Vretial. It is a good thing my oldest brother is gone or you’d be in trouble,” she said. She seemed a bit too giddy, as if she really did enjoy getting me in trouble. “He wanted the gates reopened more than anyone.”
“So he would be one more god gunning for me. Lucky me that he’s gone,” I said, pulling my book out of my bag. I first checked the page that Mordon signed to find three names in addition to his. Throughout my book, names that had vanished were returned. “I guess everything that was misplaced is returned.” The words were barely out of my mouth before Araxi appeared.
We stared at him as he glanced at all of us like we were weird for standing around. “Dylan, I have to thank you for your assistance. I thought my Guardian, Ghidora, had run away, but it turns out he was lost. The poor thing was scared and alone and here I thought he was a coward. Your actions returned him, so thank you.”
“Your Guardian’s name is Ghidora?” I asked with shock.
Divina started to sigh, but it was cut off with what was nearly a squeak. I had never heard her make such a sound, but I also never had a two-headed serpent/cat gargoyle appear a foot away from me, either. The creature was an ugly, monstrous little animal, but when it quirked its heads to the side at me, I had to admit that it was a little cute.
“Oh, no. Hobble, what are you doing here? I told you to fly away, not follow me to another planet.” He tried to sound harsh, but the stone creature hobbled up to him and licked him with two forked tongues while rubbing its little heads against his legs.
To my surprise, Vivian cooed at it. “Hello, Hobble! I’m so glad you didn’t die.” This time, it was Vivian who squeaked when Emrys appeared right in front of her, holding his book and a pen.
“Hello, I am the Guardian of Malta. I am in a hurry and need you to sign your son’s name,” the Guardian said. The mother looked flabbergasted.
“You really need to do that,” Mordon said. “I think you might end the universe if you don’t. Paradox and all that,” he said.
As he insisted, Vivian signed Sammy’s name and Emrys disappeared with no goodbye. He was in a hurry after all.
“Dylan, you never told me your ex was so pretty,” Divina said calmly.
A chill ran down my spine. “Yes, I did. I covered all my bases pretty well.” I knew secrets regarding exes had a history of coming back to bite people, so I made sure to tell Divina everything I could think of about the woman I left on Earth. Luckily, Divina was a god and had nothing to be jealous of.
“Dylan, who is she?” Vivian asked.
“This is Divina, who I told you about.”
“Dylan, there need be no secrets between the people here. After all, she is the only person here who doesn’t know the truth,” Divina said kindly… too kindly
I frowned at her. She was all about secrets. She had been friends with Edward for many years before I was even born and I still found out before him, but I trusted her to know what was coming. I figured if she was willing to reveal her secret that Vivian would remain in our lives somehow.
Or I was wrong and my girlfriend was jealous.
“Vivian, Divina is also known as Tiamat. She is the god of Earth.”
She stared in shock for a moment, then her eyes narrowed. “The god of Earth is a woman?” Suddenly, she smiled brightly. “I won.”
Divina frowned. “You thought the god of Earth was a man?” she asked me.
I could feel my face heat up with shame. “I thought there was no all-powerful god.”
She slapped me in the chest. “You are stupid.”
“I wasn’t atheist or anything, I just didn’t have any scientific evidence whatsoever. I believed Edward just fine when I had proof… which was when I came face to mouth with a giant alien cat.”
“Faith,” she said simply.
I knew at that point that she was just teasing me. Divina had no faith, and I didn’t think she really understood the concept.
“Oh!” Divina said. “I forgot. Vivian
, you need to pop back to Earth and get someone to give Dylan and Mordon dry clothes. When they get there, it is during the rains and they would get hypothermia.”
“What?” The woman was very confused, and not alone.
“When Dylan and Mordon went to Earth, I had shelter ready for them. They were also given dry clothes so they wouldn’t get hypothermia. You were the one who gave them clothes.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
“The man said that a hot redhead told him to give the bag to us. You gave it to the man to give to us. You just haven’t done it yet,” Mordon understood. “I’m so confused.”
Or… maybe he didn’t.
Vivian handed her baby to Avoli, promising to be right back. Divina flashed both Vivian and Nano back in time and to Earth.
“No, hold on a minute, this is important, very important,” I demanded. Everyone stopped to stare at me and I looked at Araxi. “Your Guardian’s name is Ghidora?” Instead of answering, the god disappeared.
Avoli was gaping at the baby in his arms with the deer in the headlights look. “She handed me her baby.” He whispered as if afraid to spook the child. “Quick. Take it before it breaks.” Nobody moved. “Seriously, Dylan, take the baby.”
“He’s your Noquodi,” I answered.
“Here, sister, take my Noquodi.” Avoli said with serious nervousness in his voice. The baby had been peering at Avoli with wonder until he said that. Then the baby glared. When he rammed his head into the god’s chest and Avoli grunted with pain, Divina laughed so hard she had to lean against me. “Why is he so strong?” the god gasped as Edward took Sammy.
“He’s half dile. Human and dile was a lovely choice,” Edward said sarcastically. “I mean no disrespect to you, but you can pretty much expect him to be enormously strong, as the dile are known for, and voraciously stubborn, as the humans are known for.”
“Sounds like an award-winner to me,” I said. Sammy giggled and hid his face. I suddenly got it, and could have slapped myself for not getting it before. “It didn’t occur to me this entire time why Sammy was so physically strong. I should have known; Nila is tremendously strong, and so is everyone else I met on Dios.”
“You didn’t know they were built that way?” Edward asked.
“Not really, no.”
“Before I leave,” Avoli began, “I need a name for the world and I thought it would be fitting that I asked for your opinion,” he told me.
I grinned and opened my mouth, but Mordon, suddenly beside me, slapped his hand over my mouth. “He will name it something from one of his science fiction movies, and you don’t want that.”
The god looked at me and I nodded. It was true.
Vivian and Nano reappeared at the same moment Avoli disappeared. Vivian looked irritated and Nano looked worried.
“It smells like they had just had an argument,” Mordon informed me.
I nodded my understanding as Vivian took Sammy and marched off into the cabin. Nano went to go hide in the woods. As he passed me, I smelled blood.
Before anyone else could move to go inside, there was a loud cracking sound and Blood appeared, wounded but alive. He had blood on his nuzzle, which I assumed was the blood of another animal, and his leg was at an odd angle. The wound on his leg looked pretty bad and I wondered what the poor creature had gotten up to.
“Krayer,” Mordon said. I looked at him. “I remember. I was about four when he told me his name, but I remember it now. Krayer.”
Even as he was remembering his past, I was healing the dragon. When I finished, he tested his leg by putting pressure on it, then rubbed his nuzzle against my chest.
I looked down at the blood on my shirt and sighed. That was the second time this dragon wiped his nose on me and disguised it as affection. The dragon backed away when Mordon came towards us.
“What’s wrong? You know me,” he said.
“Rojan is probably freaking him out,” I supplied.
“Rojan won’t hurt you,” Mordon said gently. When the dragon lowered his head, Mordon held out his hand. Slowly, the dragon crept forward until Mordon could just barely touch him. Blood relaxed when Mordon didn’t move to grab him, but then stretched out his wings and took flight. With no hesitation, the dragon disappeared in the night. Mordon looked insulted.
“He probably has a life to return to,” I said.
When Divina and Edward went into the cabin, Ronez grabbed my arm to hold me back. Mordon stopped, but faced the cabin as if guarding us while not being intrusive. He would always have my back.
“You need to watch Sammy and keep him away from your enemies,” Ronez told me.
I was almost offended. “I would never let him get hurt.”
“That isn’t what I mean at all. He is an extraordinarily powerful person. You are human and sago with Iadnah power. Amazing, yeah, but he is something more; the magic is not just in his mind or blood, it’s in his DNA. You weren’t even able to use your Iadnah power until recently. I think he may actually be part Iadnah.”
“But that’s impossible. The Iadnah are not compatible with people.” If they were, it would be possible to have children with Divina.
“I agree, but there he is, whatever he is, and you do not want your enemies turning him against you.”
“But I don’t have enemies,” I insisted, a little desperately.
He gave me a smile that told me I was being stupid. “You are extremely powerful and extremely kind; you definitely have enemies. Remember that the universe must balance itself out. When you deal with magic at this depth, everything you do has an equal and opposite action. You were born, so I, who was equally powerful at the time, had to die. You became even more powerful, so Vretial had to be destroyed. Unfortunately, that was too much of a shock to the universe. What are the consequences of Sammy?”
When I had no response, he went inside. Mordon waited for me. “That baby adores you, and he’s smart. Nothing could turn him against you. On the other hand, your girlfriend may want to watch herself; he has a habit of tossing people around who mess with you.”
When we were just about to go inside, Edward opened the door and stepped out. Mordon and Edward shared a look, but I was pretty sure it was Rojan who nodded and went inside.
Edward grabbed my arm to pull me away from the door. “I think we may need to talk,” he said gently.
My blood froze. All I could think about was that this was it. After everything that happened this day, he was going to kick me out. Maybe he had already found a new apprentice. Maybe he wanted to be alone. Maybe having Ronez and/or Sammy around made him decide he was tired of me.
“Get that scared look off your face, child,” he demanded severely.
When he spoke softly, I freaked and thought the worst; when he snapped at me, everything was okay. What kind of backwards life had I lived?
“I never thought for a moment that you would fear me kicking you out. I am not like your mother; I will not leave you to fend for yourself. You will decide to go and live with Divina, I know, and it is the natural process of life, but I will miss you when you are gone and look forward to you returning home for visits. You still have to come home for holidays, which may or may not be made up by me as an excuse to make you visit. If you get in an argument with Divina, I expect you to show up in the middle of the night and I will make your favorite for breakfast.”
It was getting difficult to breathe; my chest hurt worse with every word. I think it was with relief, because I felt happy.
“No matter what ever happens between you and Divina or you and me, I am proud of you. You are the perfect son and anyone who ever treated you as less than should burn alive and rot in the void.”
Edward was all about strong conclusions. His words were short and loud and that drove it in even more because while he wasn’t actually yelling at me, I could hear the honesty. My fear of him kicking me out lost all ground and I couldn’t believe I thought he would. I had no right to assume he was like the others. He may have been my uncle, but
he was the closest thing I ever needed to a father. Unlike Mordon’s father, he deserved love and respect.
“If you have no questions, I’m going to go and shame Divina for keeping secrets.”
“Okay. Thank you… for… you know. I have something I need to do real quick,” I said. He nodded and went inside. I closed my eyes and flashed to Mokii. Having been to Mordon’s home once and met his father, I was not surprised by the familiar castle. What I was surprised by was the dreary climate.
Mordon’s father had always tried to appear larger than life. As he lay in his bed, white as a sheet, he was anything but. It was dark since the curtains were pulled closed. There was no fresh air, no colors to liven the room up, not even flowers from well-wishers. And it was silent, as if the kingdom was already in mourning for the death of their king. But the man was alive, if only barely.
I moved closer to the bed and noticed the picture. I had seen pictures of Mordon’s mother before. This was one of her sitting in the grass in bright sunlight and heavily pregnant. She looked extremely happy. Beside her sat a young woman, very similar in appearance. The girl was leaning against Mordon’s mother and smiling just as brightly.
I hesitated. The man in bed looked so horribly defeated. Did he want to be saved? He had lost his wife and daughter, and then his son ran away. I didn’t notice exactly when he woke because he didn’t move, but when I examined his face, he was staring at me. The one time I had met him, Mordon introduced me as a strong wizard. The man pretty much ignored me and told Mordon not to do anything weird.
“He knows about Rojan. He knows you did something to suppress the dragon,” I said.
“I only did it to help him; I did what I felt was best for him.” His voice was weak.
“I know, and that’s why I’m going to help you. Your death is not going to be on my friend’s conscience. However, he will not become king. You may see him again, that is his choice to make, but you cannot trap or guilt him into being king.”
“He will want to be king someday.”
“I highly doubt that, but again; it is his choice. You cannot make him be something he is not. I’m giving you a different choice. I can heal you. That would mean you have a slight chance of seeing him again, but I cannot guarantee it. If I heal you, you must never interfere with his life again. He can come to you, but you leave him alone. He’s happy.”