It wasn’t like she had anything against Young Death. From what she’d heard, the younger goddess was kind, polite, and fairly quiet. However, Zephyra couldn’t help but ponder all of the possibilities, most of which were horrible. What if something went wrong and something happened to Young Death? What if she somehow managed to offend her? Not only were Death and Life the parents of Young Death – which meant that Zephyra was so, so dead if anything happened to her – but Young Death was already incredibly powerful despite her youth. In fact, Young Death was already considerably more powerful than Zephyra was, which wasn’t too surprising since both of her parents were Greater Gods. If Young Death decided to misbehave, could Zephyra actually do anything to stop her? Probably not. Zephyra also didn’t know the first thing about Young Death’s hobbies or what she did for fun, nor did she have much experience babysitting other gods. She was the youngest of her siblings. They’d been the ones babysitting her.
But in the end, no matter what misgivings she had, she didn’t have a choice. Death had asked her to babysit his daughter, so that’s what she’d do. She’d simply have to make the best of it. Yes, she thought, nodding to herself. She could do this. She was the patron goddess of raccoons, and although that wasn’t the most illustrious title, it was better than nothing. There was no way Young Death could be more troublesome than her raccoon. On the upside, things were already going reasonably well. Young Death seemed to like her raccoon, which made this the first time he’d done something useful since she’d gotten him. Or not. He had proven to be quite handy to have around when she’d been coming up with pranks to get back at her siblings, and it was kind of amusing to chase him around whenever he tried to swipe another one of her possessions. Her raccoon’s craftiness made her wonder if he’d been blessed by Mayhem, Mischief, and Rabble. The best thing about him pranking her siblings was how good he was at looking innocent. Nobody – except her – ever suspected the cute, cuddly raccoon.
“So… um… what do you want to do?” Zephyra asked. “I don’t have much more work to do in the mortal world today, so if you want to do something…?” She trailed off and winced. This was so awkward. On Young Death’s shoulder, her raccoon gave her a look that clearly expressed how little he thought of her attempt to make conversation. Who knew a raccoon could be so good at conveying disappointment?
Young Death reached up to pat the raccoon. He had changed position to cling onto her back instead of perch on her shoulder since her small stature made it difficult for him to keep his balance. Naturally, he hadn’t relinquished Zephyra’s apple. He was still clutching it possessively in one paw. “Could you show me some of what you do in the mortal world?” she asked. “I haven’t gotten a lot of chances to see other gods going about their own duties before.”
“Well, I don’t know how interesting it will be, but I don’t mind showing you some of what I do.” Zephyra launched herself into the air. “Uh… wait… you can fly, right?”
“Yes.” Young Death shrugged. “But I can open a door for us if you want. It’ll be faster than flying there. Just tell me where you want to go.”
Zephyra drifted back to the ground. Teleportation was still something of a work in progress for her. Oh, she could teleport if she needed to, but she was still working on the whole subtlety thing. The surge of divine energy that occurred whenever she teleported was bound to catch the attention of every mortal in the area, but Young Death’s door should be different. Her father had told her about Death’s doors, and if Young Death’s were anything like those, then no one would notice a thing. “Good idea. We’ll use one of your doors.”
Zephyra described where she wanted to go, and Young Death’s brows furrowed for a moment. The younger goddess gestured with one hand, and a door of infinite darkness appeared beside them. The door swung open, and Young Death took a step before she stopped and gestured again. The door had been big enough for her but too small for Zephyra. She must not have been used to taking other people with her since her father could make doors of his own. The door expanded, and Young Death glanced back at Zephyra.
“Ready?”
Zephyra gulped. Using one of Young Death’s doors had seemed like a great idea only a few seconds ago. Now, she wasn’t so sure. She’d never stepped through one of Death’s doors before, and her father hadn’t explained how they worked. What if she ended up being catapulted into Death’s realm to get to their destination? Would she have to wade through the screaming, tormented souls of the damned? She grimaced. She’d asked Young Death to make the door. She couldn’t back out now. If this took her somewhere strange or terrifying, she’d simply have to deal with it as best she could. Naturally, her raccoon didn’t look the least bit worried. In fact, he seemed amused at her trepidation.
She glared at the sneaky creature, prepared herself for the worst, and stepped through the door –
And then she was at their destination.
“Huh?” Zephyra blinked. She hadn’t felt anything, not even the odd but fleeting sensation of being in two places at once that usually accompanied teleportation. One moment, she’d been in the forest, the next, she was floating over the ocean. She looked to the side. Young Death hovered in the air nearby while the raccoon maintained a firm grip on her cloak. Unlike them, he couldn’t fly. “Oh…” She shook herself and smiled at Young Death. “Thank you. That was… fast. Now, how about I explain what I’m going to be doing?”
“Okay.” Young Death plucked the raccoon off her back. She shifted her cloak to one side, and a pocket large enough to fit the animal appeared. The raccoon quickly climb inside, his head poking out of the top of the pocket.
Zephyra had begun to relax. Now that she thought about it, this wasn’t so bad. Young Death was as nervous as she was. As she explained her duties, she soon realised that Young Death was a very attentive listener. The young goddess asked several questions, and all of them showed that she had a keen mind with a gift for detail. It was almost like having a pupil or an apprentice, and Zephyra grinned. She couldn’t wait until she was old enough to begin training and mentoring other gods. Her oldest brother was an instructor for young gods, and she hoped to work alongside him one day. She could use babysitting as practice. If she couldn’t handle one young god, how would she ever handle a group of them?
“That should cover the general gist of what I do. As for why we’re here, I’ll keep it simple. As the daughter of the god of the west wind, one of my responsibilities is mortal shipping. As you know, mortals can’t fly or teleport although they have made some fairly… painful attempts at both. Instead, they have to rely on ships to get across large bodies of water. Oh, sure, some of them have tried to swim across the ocean, but they don’t usually get far.”
Young Death scratched the raccoon behind his ears. “Most mortals think the ones who swim out to sea get eaten by sharks, but most of them drown after getting tired. Not very many of them get eaten at all. Well, not while they’re alive. Most of them get eaten after they drown.”
“Uh, right.” Zephyra pointed at the surface of the ocean. “Ships usually rely on either sails or oars to move. See that ship?”
With her divine eyesight, Young Death had no problems seeing the ship despite it being hundreds of miles away. She frowned. Her eyes showed her something else too. “Tomorrow, they’re going to be shipwrecked in a storm along the coast. None of them will live.”
Zephyra’s jaw dropped. She hadn’t realised that Young Death had the same eyes as her father, eyes that could see the beginning and end of all things. To have an ability like that at such a young age – no wonder she didn’t talk much. It was incredibly morbid. “Right… well… anyway, as you can see, they’re trying to use sails, but there’s not quite enough wind. If I send more wind…” She trailed off. “Wait. Are you sure they’re going to be shipwrecked tomorrow?”
“My eyes do not lie. Unless another god or something of similar power interferes, they will be shipwrecked tomorrow.” Young Death’s voice turned sad. “All I have to do is to
look at something to know how it will end. But if another god interferes, things can change. The stronger they are, the more they can change things.”
“Another god?” Zephyra pursed her lips. “Does that mean they’re going to die because I increase the wind? Is that how they’ll run into the storm?”
“I don’t know. Fate would know.” Young Death sagged. “Maybe they get caught in the storm because they use their sails, or maybe they get caught in it because they don’t.”
Zephyra cringed. “You make it sound so complicated.”
“It is complicated.” Young Death reached down to pat the raccoon on the head. She seemed to find it comforting. “I can’t use my powers properly yet. My father would be able to tell you exactly how and why they will die – even which gods were responsible and which could have saved them.” She sounded so sad that Zephyra couldn’t help herself. She floated over and reached into Young Death’s hood to ruffle her hair the way her father had always ruffled her hair whenever she was sad.
Young Death froze, and for a split-second, Zephyra could only stare at her traitorous hand in disbelief. Had she actually just done that? Young Death hadn’t said anything. In fact, she still hadn’t moved. This was bad. This was very, very bad. What if she’d breached protocol? What if Young Death asked her father to smite her –
Young Death reached up and tugged lightly on Zephyra’s wrist and encouraged the other goddess to continue ruffling her hair.
“Don’t worry,” Young Death murmured. “My father does that sometimes, my mother and brother too. I don’t mind.” She paused. “Nobody else touches me though. I think they’re scared.” She smiled. “Can you show me more of your powers? I haven’t seen a lot of the other gods use their powers before.”
Zephyra breathed a sigh of relief, and her thoughts shifted to what Young Death had said. When Zephyra had been younger, she’d experienced no shortage of physical affection. She’d been a scrappy, little goddess, always looking for adventure and always trying to act like an adult god. Other gods had never hesitated to hug her, ruffle her hair, or simply lift her up onto their shoulders. But things were different for Young Death. She was the daughter of two Greater Gods. Except for her family or the other Greater Gods, who would have the courage to touch her or treat her normally? It was sad, and it explained why Young Death seemed to get along so well with the raccoon. The raccoon hadn’t hesitated to treat her normally. He’d even taken the time to show off his most prized possession, the apple he’d stolen from Zephyra.
“Sure, I’ll show you what I can do.” Zephyra grinned and reached out to the winds around them. “But you might want to stand back a bit. Keep an eye on the raccoon too. It’s going to get windy.”
After showing Young Death her powers – the younger goddess found her ability to manipulate the wind fascinating – Zephyra was feeling very confident indeed. It wasn’t every day that she got enthusiastic praise from the child of two Greater Gods. They still had hours to go before sunset, so she led them down into the ocean. Gods could travel through water as easily as they could travel through the air, and there were bound to be interesting things to look at. According to her father, Oceanos, the Lord of Waters, was always asking Life for new, suitably awesome creatures to fill his domain.
Zephyra used her powers to provide her raccoon with a cocoon of air, and he clung tightly to Young Death as the two goddesses sped through the water. They caught a glimpse of a pod of whales, and Zephyra had to bite back a laugh as Young Death immediately went after them doing her best to imitate the strange sounds they made. Despite her fearsome name and ominous powers, the younger goddess was actually quite adorable. Not far away, a kraken stirred. The whales were about to flee from the titanic beast, but Young Death simply turned and directed a stout glare at the kraken. The creature gave a low rumble and then slunk off. It might not have known exactly who Young Death was, but it could sense her power. Not even a kraken was foolish enough to fight someone who felt so much like Death. Zephyra was about to lead them back up to the surface – she’d spotted a pod of dolphins leaping in and out of the water – when she felt it.
There was a crack in reality nearby – a widening fissure in Creation itself.
Zephyra spun and extended her divine senses as far as they could go. This was not good. Her father had warned her about something like this. It meant the Void Born were coming. Their goals and the locations of their attacks were unpredictable, but some of their methods remained fairly consistent. When they entered Creation, they usually did their best to separate the area they were attacking from the rest of Creation using some kind of Void-based barrier. Once it was up, the barrier could repel almost any form of attack, and it would take a while for anything – even a god – to get inside. The Void Born usually used that time to call forth as many of their brethren as possible to slaughter anyone and anything they could find.
Only a powerful god could break one of those barriers in a reasonable amount of time, which was why the gods, led by the Greater God named Wayfarer, usually did their best to intercept the Void Born in the strange, unfathomable realm known as the Between. It was a strange place, inchoate and confusing, and it separated Creation and the Void. Unfortunately, the Void Born were as cunning as they were cruel. Now and then, they found ways to slip past Wayfarer, and it seemed like now was one of those times.
“We have to get out of here!” Zephyra shouted. “Come on!” Young Death began to open one of her doors, but Zephyra shook her head. “Don’t! We can’t risk using teleportation or anything similar. We have to fly out of here.”
The barrier the Void Born used to split off part of Creation made it all but impossible to teleport out, and anyone who tried was likely to regret it. She was confident that someone like Death would have been able to manage it, but Young Death had already admitted that she didn’t have full control over her powers. If something went wrong they could end up stuck in the Void or the Between. They might even get flung off to some other realm far from Creation without any way of getting back. They could also end up badly wounded – possibly even dead – from the backlash of trying to teleport through the barrier unsuccessfully.
They burst out of the water and raced through the sky. They needed to get clear. Once they were clear, they could relax. She’d let the other gods deal with the Void Born. Oh, she knew how to fight, but she wasn’t stupid or arrogant enough to take on what was likely to be a whole horde of Void Born without any help or even a way to retreat. She also didn’t know how Young Death would react to the Void Born. The younger goddess might be powerful, but the Void Born could inspire fear in even a god.
Zephyra glanced back. Young Death was falling behind since she couldn’t fly as quickly as Zephyra could. The wind goddess doubled back and wrapped her arms around Young Death before pouring every iota of her divine powers into flying the two of them – three, if she counted her raccoon – through the air as quickly as possible.
CRUNCH.
She slammed into an invisible barrier and reeled back, clutching at her face. What? Oh no. She gasped and moved forward, touching the air in front of her. Her hand ground to a halt in mid air, and the world beyond it seemed hazy and unclear, as if she were seeing it through a pane of foggy glass. Her gut clenched. They were too late. The Void Born had already managed to seal the area off. She flared her powers in a bid to draw the attention of any nearby gods, but she wasn’t going to get her hopes up. The Void Born were cunning. It wasn’t unusual for them to launch several attacks at the same time to try to distract the gods, and some of them were even said to be skilled and powerful enough to hide the fact they were putting up barriers. If one of those monsters was here…
“Stay behind me!” Zephyra ordered.
She was glad that she’d gotten into the habit of carrying her favourite weapon with her everywhere. She drew a pair of butterfly swords that could channel her divine energy and augment her control of the winds. They’d been forged by some of the gods of smithing and blessed b
y her grandfather, the Lord of the Winds. Another burst of power summoned her armour. She scanned the area around them, her gaze flicking from the sky to the waves below. A chill crawled down her spine. There was always energy of some kind flowing through Creation, but there was something wrong with the energy flowing through the area around them. It had to be the Void Born. It felt like wading through a murky swamp.
Her hands tightened on her swords. There were countless different kinds of Void Born. Some of them preferred to fight in the sea, but there were just as many that relished aerial combat. If they were lucky, there wouldn’t be too many fliers. If they were unlucky, well, she’d heard stories of how the Void Born had blackened the skies with their numbers
“There are Void Born coming. Do you know what the Void Born are?” Zephyra asked. Young Death nodded silently. “Good.” Zephyra did her best to give the younger goddess a comforting smile. “Help will be here soon, so stay behind me. I’ll protect you… and the raccoon too, I guess.”
Young Death frowned. Through her divine senses, she could feel the wrongness in the air that accompanied the Void Born everywhere they went. She drifted behind Zephyra and ran her fingers through the raccoon’s fur. For once, the animal was still and quiet. He could sense the danger they were in. Something stirred in the water below them.
Young Death pointed. “Down there. They’re here.”
The surface of the ocean erupted, and Zephyra’s blood turned to ice. The Void Born were nightmares made manifest, hideous impossibilities that had no right to exist in the sanity, order, and beauty of Creation. Their very presence was an insult to the Supreme Mother and Supreme Father, and simply looking upon them made her soul ache. Each one of the Void Born was a mass of warped, twisted flesh, an echo of the madness and ruin that characterised the Void. If she had to guess, she would have said that most of them were made of teeth, tentacles, and claws, but their forms kept changing. The eyes of a god could see past the paltry horror of their flesh to the true horror of their real nature. The hideousness of the Void Born was a result of Creation itself trying to reject their existence, and with good reason. The Void Born left gaping wounds in Creation, oozing scars that spoke of the endless nightmare that had existed before the Supreme Mother and Supreme Father had awakened and brought light, reason, and order to Creation.
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