There was a stone staircase heading down so we followed it.
“How come it’s not dark down here?” I said looking around. I realized then that it was the same sort of twilight here as it had been everywhere we’d been so far, even when we’d gone into the building.
“I don’t know. Something to do with everything else running down I guess. Didn’t you notice that there weren’t any shadows anywhere outside?”
“Actually I hadn’t,” I said looking around, there were no entries to either side of the stairs and it went down a fair ways. When we got to the bottom there was another gate, but this one had been broken off of its hinges. In front of us was a large room, it had an open ceiling to let light in, and there were several passageways leading off of it.
“What is this?” I asked looking around. There were faint signs of images on the walls, and the bases of a number of statues that apparently had been destroyed.
“It’s the temple of their gods,” Stephanie told me looking around.
“Only one temple?”
“It’s the only one where they all existed together. The gods in this sphere were all part of a group, a pantheon. They each had temples of their own, but this was the big one, the main one, where they all worked together and their high priests and priestesses lived.”
“So less infighting then?” I said looking around.
“Not really from what I understand. There was always a certain amount of competition in the middle and lower ranks.”
I walked up to one of the altars and was looking at it when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of my head and passed out.
‘Damn, what happened?’ I thought to myself. I was in a dark place and I didn’t think I was conscious.
“Cen hit you in the back of the head with a rock. He was sitting on the roof at the opening above you.” Fel told me.
“Shit, am I dead?”
“Fortunately, no. You’re just unconscious. But you’re pretty messed up.”
“So now what? I can’t heal myself here.”
“Actually, there is a way.”
“Oh? How?”
“I can’t tell you.” Fel said sounding oddly contrite.
“Can’t or won’t?” I asked just to clarify.
“Can’t.”
“Rules?”
“Yup, rules.”
“Can I ask why you’re able to talk to me while I’m unconscious?”
“Of course you can.”
“Then I’m asking,” I would have sighed if I was conscious. I hated this rule stuff.
“The sphere you are in is almost dead. While it is still connected to the rest of what some like to call ‘the Infinite’, it is only connected at that one point, the gateway you entered by. Because it is only connected at that one point, its borders with the void are rather weak.
“All gods have a connection to the void. So I can send to you and you to me rather easily here when you’re not awake because of that connection.”
“So why can’t you send me my powers via the void?”
“Only thought can travel the void. No powers. Gateways are tunnels through it, which is how the many spheres that make up the Infinite connect to each other and exchanges power.”
“So your power can’t flow through the gateway into here to help me.”
“Exactly.”
“Because it couldn’t flow into the last sphere to help me.”
“Correct.”
“Can I open a gateway to you while I’m unconscious?”
I heard Fel laugh. “You can try!”
“Well let’s try then.”
I did my best to concentrate then and after a period of time, I have no idea how long, I felt the gateway open.
“Heal me please?” I asked as I felt my powers return to me.
“Cen is no longer a champion, he has quit his god. Go stop him.”
“How is Stephanie?”
“Fine, now go!”
Fel must have healed me then because I came to, laying face down on the floor. I could feel blood running down the side of my face.
Getting up slowly I used my sleeves to wipe my face off and checked the back of my head with my hand. I couldn’t really tell where he had hit me, but I saw a rather large and bloody rock lying on the floor.
“Shit,” I swore to myself looking at it. Looking around I didn’t see any sign of Cen or Steph, but I did find another bloody rock on the floor. I had a feeling on which way to go and I followed it.
The feeling led me down one of the corridors that left the room. It wasn’t the one for the god that was the leader of the pantheon, but the one that was his wife or consort I guess. I moved as fast as I could, but I couldn’t run because I didn’t want to give myself away. As I got closer to them I heard voices, or more to be more accurate I heard Cenewyg voice.
“All my years of faithful service and you think I’m just going to pass up on a chance like this? What are you, stupid? Maybe if you hadn’t taken up with that lick-spittle Will and left me turning in the breeze I wouldn’t have thought about this.
“Tell me, what’s it like having your little man-friend turn into a Mary on you? From a bull to a cow, that must have been quite the experience!”
Cenewyg continued on more in the same vein, I really hadn’t realized just how much he hated me, thought I had to admit listening to some of his nineteenth-century curses was rather humorous.
“Well maybe if you hadn’t run off to go get laid leaving me to rely on him back in Scherie none of this would have happened!” I heard Stephanie tell him, then a sound like someone getting slapped.
“Watch your mouth, you little whore! You were showin’ him the goods long before that night! You could have picked Dez to do it; she’s quite the bootlicker after all.”
I heard her mumble something as I snuck closer.
“What was that? You say something?” I heard another slap and I came around the last corner in the passageway as it opened up into a room and there they were.
I took stock of the situation, Stephanie was bloody and had her hands tied behind her back, of course he’d hit her with a rock as well. She was stumbling along, and that gave me an idea. I stumbled out into the room looking like I was barely able to stay on my feet.
“Well, speak of the devil and he appears,” Cenewyg said laughing. “Having some problems there are we, Willie boy?”
I stumbled and looked up at him, “Wha....wassa matter, shorty? Too af... afrai... to face me?” I fumbled with my sword, trying to draw it.
“Oh I’m going to enjoy this!” He laughed and shoving Stephanie down onto the ground he strode over to me, drawing his sword.
I got mine out and waved it around in front of me, making him stop and laugh. “Not so big and powerful now, are you?” He laughed and knocked my sword to the side, I took a few steps back, drawing him further away from Stephanie as he followed. I drew him back as far as I could, then I attacked.
“Shit!” Cenewyg swore as I came at him, nearly gutting him and landing a cut on his arm.
“Oh, I’m sorry; did I hurt your little arm?” I said smirking.
“I’ll teach you, you fucking whoreson!” He yelled and attacked.
I had to admit that Cenewyg was a better swordsman than I would have thought; he was holding his own against me, even with my superior reach. His sword work was impressive and I debated drawing my second as we fenced and fought around the room. I just didn’t think that would give me much of an advantage as I’d have to turn more of my body to him to use it and he’d already scored hits on me twice.
At least I’d scored an equal amount on him.
“Not as good as you think, are you!” Cenewyg laughed as he lunged at me and forced me to take a step back.
“I don’t know, for a guy who has been doing this for decades you sure aren’t doing well against a guy who only learned last year!” I said smirking at him.
Cenewyg lunged again, kicked a rock up at me, lunged and then suddenly
threw his sword at me, causing me to have to jump to the side. His sword missed me, but I lost my foot and scrambling I ended up on my ass sliding backwards.
I still had my sword but rather than press his attack he was just standing there, with a startled expression on his face. That was when I noticed the dagger sticking out of his back.
“Bastard,” Stephanie swore. She was standing up now and didn’t look at all dizzy. I saw the ropes at her feet; she must have freed herself while we were fighting.
“All that time I spent with you, all those years of being your lover, your friend, and this is how you repay me? Repay Aryanna for all she’s done for you?”
I got up grabbing the rock that my left hand had landed on when I fell, more out of reflex than any other reason.
“If you start running now, Cen, maybe we won’t chase you down and kill you. I hear you’re no longer a champion, so if we kill you now, you’re dead!” I growled.
“Yes, run, and keep on running you....” Stephanie stopped and looked at me, “what’s that in your hand, Will?”
I stopped and looked at the object in my left hand; it just looked like a small statue that had been carved from some sort of black rock. The shape was that of person, man or woman I couldn’t tell, wearing some sort of gown. It was warm in my hand and heavier than I would have expected from something so small.
But I could feel its power, it was pulsing with it. And suddenly I knew what it was, why Stephanie was here for it, why Cenewyg wanted it so badly.
It was a god-stone; it could make me a god.
That was why we were here! Stephanie was going to ascend to the next level, she was going to use this to become a goddess and join that bigger game that Aryanna had mentioned and Fel had hinted it. Only instead, it was now in my hand instead of hers or Cenewyg’s.
I looked up; Cenewyg had turned and was running away as fast as he could, a trail of blood running down his back from the dagger sticking in it. I was surprised he was still on his feet. I knew that he could not take the stone from me, no one could. I guess he knew that as well.
Stephanie was looking at me with a mixture of sadness, anger, and frustration. To have come so close and at the last moment to lose out to someone else, and accidentally at that, must have hurt quite a bit.
“I don’t want to be a god, Stephanie.” I whispered looking up at her.
“Well, it’s too late for that now!” She said glaring at me.
“No, really! I don’t want this! Please take it!” I said and thrust my hand out at her.
“What?” she said looking at me shocked.
I opened my hand and it slowly dropped into hers, as if it didn’t want to leave my hand. She closed her hands over it almost convulsively and gasped loudly as she did.
“Will! You, you didn’t!” She said looking up at me in shock.
“I don’t want to be a god, Steph. I don’t want any of that. Not now, not ever. Besides, I know you want this, how could I take it from you? You know how I feel about you, Steph. It’s yours, you earned it.”
“You, you really do care, don’t you?” She said smiling at me.
I smiled back, “I thought that was obvious.”
“You better gate out of here, when I use this it will destroy everything still in the sphere, even a champion. Now go.”
“I love you Steph,” I said.
“I know. Now go, Will, please, hurry.”
I nodded and opened a gate back home. It took only a moment and I stepped through, surprised by how fast it collapsed behind me.
Fourteen
“Welcome home, Will,” Fel said.
I looked around; I was in the temple in one of the private rooms. No one else was around.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Stephanie just ascended.”
I nodded, “I sort of figured as much, but what happened to the sphere? Was everything in it destroyed?”
“Yes, it no longer exists. The gate you had taken to get there was the last gate left.”
“What happened to Cen? Did he get away?”
“He got picked up by another god, but he did get caught in some of the backlash.”
“Which means?”
“Which means it will be a while before he shows up anywhere.”
“Well, I guess that’s something.”
“Aryanna thanks you for giving the stone to Stephanie, and I’m glad you did as well, though my reasons are a bit more selfish,” Fel said with a laugh.
“Well my reasons are pretty selfish too,” I said smiling. “So is that how you and Arayanna became gods?”
“For me, yes. Once centuries ago, I was Aryanna’s champion just like Stephanie was. That’s why we’re friends and why we’re allies. Aryanna took a different route, a longer and harder one.”
“So what made that stone? And why was it there?”
“Just as spheres are created, spheres can also die. Troy was on the end of a branch, without a lot of connections back into the rest of the tree. Normally branch ends like that are where new spheres get added on, but nothing was happening with that one. So the gods that had held sway there engaged in some desperate measures in an attempt to tie themselves into the rest of the spheres.
“Unfortunately for them, they angered enough of the other gods by their actions that what you know of as the ‘Trojan wars’ took place and all of the gods in that sphere were destroyed. That led to the collapse of the sphere and collapsing spheres create a god-stone.”
I nodded. “How did Aryanna find out about it?”
Fel shrugged, “That I do not know. She has access to sources of information that I do not.”
“I’m going to miss Stephanie,” I sighed, “I hope she’s happy though, wherever she is.”
“In time I’m sure she will be. It’s hard when you first ascend. It takes a while to understand the differences and to be able to start your new existence.”
I nodded again and healed my wounds, and used a few cantrips to clean myself up. “I guess we can talk about it later, but if you don’t mind Fel, I’d really like to go see Rachel.”
“Of course. We’ll talk later Will.”
I then left the Temple and went and found Rachel, nodding and greeting the people in the streets as I passed. It was nice to be home.
# # # #
I spent two months with Rachel, helping her settle a few disputes and just basking in the glory of her presence. Fel warned me that come next spring he’d have some tasks for me that would take months to complete. With that information, I bid Rachel good bye for a while and went back to Riverhead to see Darlene.
Darlene was incredibly happy to see me of course, and I would soon have a daughter to go with my son, she was very pregnant when I got home, I’d been gone over eight months and she delivered not long after I returned.
Aryanna was currently without a champion, but I was sure she probably had someone lined up to replace Stephanie. I’d gone to the local temple and asked about where Stephanie was now, but she wouldn’t tell me, all she would say was ‘in due time I would find out.’ When I complained about cryptic answers, she laughed and asked if I would want an old girlfriend hanging around if I was building a new religion.
I had to concede the point. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what Stephanie was dealing with right now.
Surprisingly both Joseph and Dezba showed up two months after Darlene gave birth to visit. Both had been rather pointedly asked not to go to Fel’s sphere because he didn’t think the other gods would appreciate two powerful champions showing up in his domain.
They only stayed for a day; mostly they just wanted to discuss Cenewyg and talk about what had happened to him.
I told them what happened after the fight on the boat, my suspicions at that time, and everything else up until Stephanie had knifed him in the back. I didn’t tell them about my finding and picking up the god-stone first or what it looked like; or even my giving it to Stephanie. I didn’t think that was any of their concern
.
“Well here is what I learned from talking to Aryanna and Diannion,” Dezba said, “Cenewyg found a new god and gated out just as Stephanie ascended. However,” she smiled then, “he wasn’t as quick as he should have been, so it’s going to be about twenty years real time for us until he can be reincarnated. If he’d been a bit quicker, he’d be back out there already. If he’d been a bit slower he’d be dead and beyond the ability to be reincarnated.”
“I bet his new god must be pretty pissed about that!” Joseph laughed. “He gets a champion and he can’t even use him for almost twenty years!”
“Well at least he’ll be out of our hair until then,” Dezba smiled.
“It’s just too bad he wasn’t a little slower!”
“Hear, hear,” I said and we all clinked our beer mugs.
“If he’s going to hold a grudge against anyone, it’ll be me,” I sighed. “He really hates me.”
“Yeah, Cen could be pretty petty,” Joseph agreed. “Do we know where he’s gone?”
Dezba shook her head. “Aryanna only knows that he’s not in any of the spheres we’re champions in.”
“Well,” Joseph said hoisting his mug, “here’s to hoping we never see the bastard again!”
“Here, here!” We all laughed and clinked our mugs again and then took a long pull from them.
“So anyone know where Steph went?” Joseph asked.
“Aryanna told me to mind my own business,” Dezba laughed, “How about you, Will?”
“I was asked if I’d appreciate my ex looking over my shoulder while I tried setting up a new religion,” I grinned a little sheepishly.
“She’s probably worried you’d both run off and go to work for her,” Joseph laughed.
Dezba shrugged, “When the time comes for me to move on, I will definitely consider it.”
I shook my head, “I do want to visit her someday, just to see how she turned out, but I don’t know. Would be kind of a weird situation if you asked me.”
“Yes well, I never slept with her,” Dezba said smirking at me.
Portals of Infinity: Book Two: The God Game Page 17