“And this one is the race that split.”
“Correct. We let them grow, learn, and create, all in line with our will. There were no surprises. They could never act against our desire, and as I’m sure you can imagine, it grew boring after a time. The search for novelty led us astray. We used the power of our Thrones to reach outwards, past the barrier.” A sweep of his hand brought a galaxy of sparks to life. “With a wealth of opportunities before us, what did we do? We returned to our previous mistake. Our curiosity led us back to the world we had abandoned.”
“Did they remember you?”
He shook his head. “Remember us? The power we used had scoured their world clean. Almost all evidence of their previous civilization was gone. Not just destroyed or buried. Not sunken beneath new oceans. Unmade entirely. The world itself was no longer the same cradle of life, but a different one. Life had come about without our intervention, similar to what we had created long ago, but different in infinitely subtle ways. Lucifer and I walked that world for many years. Everything was a sad reminder of what we had created before, similar, yet different. And then we came across what we had both feared. Our scouring was incomplete. The race we had sculpted lived on. They had changed with our departure, but they were still recognizable. They were primitive hunters and gatherers, but they still had a spark of greatness within them.”
“You’re fucking kidding me,” I said. He gestured again and a textbook illustration of early man appeared in midair. “This isn’t even funny.”
“We weren’t amused by it either.” He wiped everything away except for the two motes of light, slowly spiraling around each other. “And this is where we disagreed. One of us wanted to intervene in their development and make sure they would never threaten us ever again. The other wanted to watch them and only act as needed. We argued this for tens of thousands of years while humanity evolved.”
“Which one was which?” I asked.
“It no longer matters.” His tone was final. “Our argument extended throughout the new race on our new world. Our separate wills clashed. Some obeyed my will. Some obeyed Lucifer’s. They began to act upon the violent impulses we thought but never voiced. One day, the argument reached a crescendo, and Lucifer finally raised his will directly against mine.”
One of the sparks of light stretched, twisted, and split. Two motes spiraled close, one orbiting the pair, just like his original sketch. “The Schism,” I said.
“He took his Throne and those who supported him to a new world. With only one Throne, he didn’t have the power to create an ideal world full of life and potential. His world could support life, though it would be an endless struggle for his people to survive.” He pointed to the new spark. “Hell divided itself from Heaven. So, your Host was correct in conceding that point to the Choir. Congratulations.”
“I’m sure everyone will be happy to hear that,” I said. “So, I guess the rest of the story is similar to what I already know? The races diverged over time while the humans evolved. The First Celestial War started while they were still working on basic agriculture and ended five hundred years ago with the Exile. This brings me back to my original question. We wouldn’t be able to fight your will, but it’s not the entire reason why you gave up, right?”
He shook his head. “While you fought, we negotiated. Humanity grew in ways we hadn’t anticipated. They fought among themselves, they discovered magic on their own, and they wanted their own power individually, not power for their entire people. The worst of our fears did not come to pass.”
“Until now,” I said.
“Which is why you’re standing here,” he said. “We agreed the only way to atone for what we had done to all three races would be to allow them to seek their own paths. The ideal situation would be cooperation, so we would encourage it, but in the end, the final decision would be yours. The only way to truly atone and make sure our will no longer dominated would be for us to die. So in the end, yes, it was to release you from our will. Now you understand why.”
I rubbed my forehead. I’d been on this single step for a long time now and my legs were heavy. “Great. We’re on the right track for cooperation. Wonderful.”
“Take your time to think it over. We have all the time in the world.”
“You make it sound like you’ve spent a few infinities hanging around here. What’s it like?”
“I could answer it, but I don’t think you’d appreciate the answer until you sit down and understand it for yourself.” He shook his head and kept on smiling at me. “Really, once you’re done with this little task, you’ll have all the time you want to investigate.”
“Once I’m done with this little task, I’m done with this power.” I stopped resting and took a step up.
“Oh? Why?”
“First, I agreed to a contract,” I said. “Second, I don’t really want it. Third, I can still die, and I don’t want to tempt anyone into trying to kill me. I’m tired of it.”
“You won’t want to die for a rather long time,” he said. “But it’s up to you. You’ll be able to redefine everything, so there’s no reason to consider yourself bound by a contract with mortals.”
I stepped up to the ninth step. Each movement was heavier than the one before. I felt as if days were passing with every step I took. For all I knew, they were. The Throne was timeless. “What do you mean, redefine everything?”
“Just as it sounds. If you don’t like the terms of the contract you signed, change them, and they will be changed. No one will be aware except you. The power of either Throne can touch all three worlds.”
I considered his words while I rested. “So I can retroactively change it? You make it sound like I’ll be able to give reality a suggestion. No thanks.”
“Why not? You’ve done it with humans.” He floated upside down in front of me. “No one would know, Zay.”
“I would. Why are you tempting me?”
“Just seeing what type of person you are.”
“Why bother?”
“Why do you think the Gates only open under certain conditions?” His voice was suddenly behind me.
“You already told me. You want us to work together.” I turned my head to see him nod and gesture for me to go on. “I guess the point of the Gates is to see just how far along we are.”
“Not quite,” he said. “The first Gate was to determine if you had advanced enough to work together, yes. What of the second Gate?”
I considered the near-disaster. “Whatever happened to the Horsemen?”
“They’re enjoying their retirement.”
“Well, say hi to them for me if you see them.” I shook myself and tried to advance to the tenth step, but something held me down. “Come on, let me get moving.”
“Answer me first.”
“The second Gate was to see how we dealt with power. It was some sort of test, right? If we misused or misjudged the power of the Horsemen, we’d have been killed at some point.”
“Very good.” I felt the hold loosen and made it to the tenth step.
“Did you set the Betrayer up?” I asked. “If the angels couldn’t resist your will, how did he get through to you?”
“I willed him to. Obviously.”
I slapped my forehead. “Obviously. So they were turned into the Four Horsemen and sent to us. Pretty shitty of you if you ask me.”
“The souls of the Betrayer and those four demons with him were imbued into the Horsemen,” he said. “Their contract has ended and they enjoy freedom in a world we have never touched. Do you think we wouldn’t reward them? They live on, completely free of us.”
“Well. I guess you won’t be able to say hi to them. Death believed he’d meet you in the afterlife, you know. He’ll be disappointed.”
His smile was kind. “Perhaps he will. I don’t know what became of me, or of Lucifer. Did we even have souls? An interesting thought. Now, what do you believe we designed this final Gate to discover? Recall
this time, only one of you has passed the threshold, and I am not required to let you sit upon my Throne. There may be others.”
“Can you actually stop me?”
“A fraction of infinity is still infinity,” he said. “And this fraction of my will is enough to overwhelm you if I so chose. We can spend a long time here if I want. You would be a delightful conversational partner, I’m sure, but not for too long. I’ve heard it all before. Once I get bored, I’d just let you fall down the steps and shut the Gate behind you. No second chances.”
“Well, let me think about it for a moment.” Give to receive, stand to sit, love to love. The plaque’s inscription ran through my head. “Give to receive, you wanted to see what we’d give up to open the Gate.”
“So far, so good.”
“Stand to sit, it’s what I’m doing right now. I need to stand up to you and your temptations and opposition to prove I’m worthy to sit up there. For the record, I think it’s hilarious you’re in the role of tempter this time around.”
“Close enough. Now, love to love.”
“This is the one I don’t really get,” I admitted. “There’s the human conceit about how you need to be able to love yourself in order to love others, but I don’t think you’re looking for lame platitudes.”
“No. Let me ask you in a different way. Zay, why are you doing this?”
I grinned. “I want to end this stupid war and let all our people live in peace and harmony.”
“Be honest with me.”
I pushed through resistance and the eleventh step felt like it was about to crumble under me. I paused to keep my balance. “I am being honest.”
“Not completely.” I could barely lift my foot to the twelfth step and he was no longer smiling. “Tell me the truth, Zay, or you get to fall down those steps and everything’s over.”
I looked over at him and sighed. “Because I love her and I want all this shit to be done with.”
“And?”
“I want to protect her and keep her safe.”
“And?”
“And what else?” I spread my arms wide. “I don’t want to lose her. Come on. Give me a break. That’s why I want to give up the power once I’m done with this. You can’t have a romantic relationship with a deity, Greek mythology notwithstanding.”
“What if you can’t give it up?”
I shook my head. “Then I’d seal it off forever and do my best to never let it out again.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not willing to sacrifice her love or mine. Not for anyone or anything.”
His smile came back out. “You’re a good man, Isaiah.” My foot shot up to the final step, and then I stood on a circular platform a few feet away from the Throne. “I have to ask you this final question, though. Are you willing to give up everything making you who you are?”
I stepped up to the golden seat and turned around. Heaven stretched out in front of me, impossibly distant, as if I was in orbit. He stood on air. His eyes stared into my soul. I met his eyes with my own. “Are you fucking nuts?” I asked. “The Gate wasn’t fooled and neither were you. My body makes blood as well as ichor. I can’t give up being a halfblood. It’s who I am. Why would I ever give that up?”
He laughed, long and loud, until the entire world boomed with his amusement. “My young friend, this is the entire reason we tested you so sorely over these years. It was never just a question of what you were willing to sacrifice. We also needed to know what you wouldn’t sacrifice.”
“Oh, is that all? And here I thought it was something serious.”
I bent at the waist to sit, but something arrested me just before I touched the Throne. I looked up into his eyes. His gaze turned sorrowful, an infinity of sympathy in his eyes. “Oh, Isaiah. I’m so sorry.”
I fell ass-backwards into the Throne of Heaven and became God.
Chapter Twenty Four
I rose from my Throne. All the knowledge and power of my predecessor existed in parallel with my own, with just one piece missing. I knew exactly what it was and exactly what I needed to do. Only one thing could stand in my way, and it wasn’t the contract binding me to the war effort. I strode down the steps easily, my body light, almost weightless. I touched the Gate as I walked through. It swung shut behind me, sealing away the torrent of power from the Throne, leaving only a trickle.
The trickle was enough to give me the strength I needed, without risking a direct confrontation destroying all we had worked to achieve. I reached out with both hands and pulled the boundary apart. A portal opened in front of me and I stepped through.
She lay still and silent in front of the closed gate to the Throne of Hell. Her golden hair floated around her head like a halo, tossed by uncaring winds. Her eyes stared eternally upwards at the endless red storms of Hell. Scarlet blood pooled around her body, stemming from a long, deep cut across her throat, but none of her blood touched the Gate itself. This Gate had accepted a different sacrifice.
I knelt beside her body, already gone cold. I could return her to life with the power of my Throne. It would be such a simple thing, but it would also set in motion the end of all things, and I was not yet prepared.
I brushed her eyes closed and scooped her up in my arms. She was no burden, none at all. She never had been. I gazed up at the Throne of Hell. Did he hide there, behind the Gate? Had he fled? It didn’t matter. Something more important waited for me.
I turned my back and stepped back through the portal into Heaven. The Gate opened at my unspoken will. I carried her up the stairs to the platform holding my Throne. Flowers bloomed from the raw stone around us with every step. I laid her to rest upon my Throne. A touch of my will swept away the blood staining her clothes, another touch sealing the wound across her throat. If not for her translucently pale skin, she could be only sleeping. I stared down at her, my throat tight with all the things I hadn’t said.
It took only a moment to know what I needed to say now. I stood before her and placed my hand over her heart. Ichor and blood soaked through my skin into hers. “By my blood, I bind you,” I whispered. “By my blood, I invoke a contract.”
Heaven became silent. The world held its breath. “By my blood, I bind you. By my blood, I invoke our eternal partnership.”
My Throne obeyed. My hand grew warm where I touched her. “By my blood, I bind you. By my blood, I invoke your soul and seal it to me, to stay by my side, to be with me always, until and beyond the end of all things, until justice is found, until you live again. I, Isaiah Bright, do swear to abide by the terms of this contract.” I looked up at the Throne. “Witness.”
The Throne witnessed. The warmth beneath my hand ignited into an inferno, yet burned neither of us. When I lifted my hand, a tiny golden gem rested upon her chest. I picked it up carefully, gently, as it was the most fragile thing I had ever handled. I touched the gem to my ear, sealing it within a setting, then sealing the setting to my ear.
I backed away from the Throne and called upon its power to preserve she who sat upon it. Neither time nor nature would touch my Tinkerbell, not while I still breathed. I called upon the Throne one more time to complete the contract, invoking Project Purgatory. My will sifted billions of souls until just one shimmered in front of me. I took it up and sealed it within her gem.
She stirred within. I brushed my finger over the warm surface of the stone, imagining it was her skin. It would be some time before her soul and presence were capable of speech, but our bond still existed, as if it had never been broken. I could sense her question, the same question as mine. For all the knowledge stored within my Throne, it couldn’t answer. It didn’t need to. I already knew the answer.
I turned away from my Throne and looked ahead. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I knew where my path began, though I knew not where it would end. When I finally asked, all of reality echoed my question. “Why, Caleb? Why?”
To be concluded in the final book,
The De
mon Subsiding.
The Demon Behind Me Page 30