by Chris Fox
“I CHOOSE YOU.”
I gasped, with shock at the words and the meaning behind them, but also at the rush of power coming through His hands and pouring into my body.
My eyes rolled back in my head, and my body thrummed with the energy it provided. I had never known more pleasure than I did in that moment, never known anything to feel better than the sense of His power flowing through me.
If it were not for His hands, I would have fallen to the ground from the force of it all, but He held me in place until my body began to adjust to the power, as if I were growing to contain it.
I felt that, then, the sense of my body changing.
I had always been tall, but now I was growing ever taller, my muscles strengthening, and I knew in that moment that I contained the power to change the very nature of the universe.
I had the power of a god.
6
No one dared to look at me.
The change had been obvious the moment I had returned from the rooftop. I burned with a vibrant blue light now. No longer was the hue of my skin muted to represent the balance of my emotions. Now, I was the fabric of the universe.
Tixa had commented on the sight of my eyes. She said they seemed to glow, to burn, as if the stars themselves were inside my eyes.
She had only looked for a moment, and others had followed her example to avert their eyes after that. But not in the way they had before. Now, I could feel the awe in them. It was as if they had finally realized my worth beyond a shadow of a doubt.
No one could question the will of a god. If Vivoth believed in me, then they had to as well.
He knew all. He had looked into my heart and found me worthy.
But I did not have time to think on the change in their hearts; I had more important things to do.
Zvarr.
I would find a peaceful resolution to all of this. I had the power of Vivoth at my disposal, there was nothing I couldn’t do. I would make Zvarr see the folly of his ways, and he would return to me.
He has the power of a god, too. You cannot force this on him.
I shoved that thought aside, because it did me no good to dwell on what I could not do, when I could instead focus on what I wanted to do.
The light of dawn showered upon me as I stood just outside the doors of the High Temple. They were shut—and sealed. No one would come or go until I lifted the seal.
I had to make sure they were safe.
The waiting was the worst part. Zvarr had said I had but a day to change my mind, and that meant he would come soon to see if I had done so. Then we would find out where we stood on the matter, and find out if he could change.
I would wait the rest of the day if I had to, but I would not seek him out. He would meet me in the seat of my power, or he would not meet me at all.
As it turned out, I did not have long to wait.
He flew through the skies and landed in front of me, making a dent in the ground with the force of his landing.
The temple, the trees, the ground—everything shook. Everything except for me.
His lips twisted into a snarl when his eyes alighted on me.
“You have betrayed me, sister,” he said.
“You chose this path. I have only done what I must.”
He laughed. “This is what they always intended, isn’t it? A mortal champion for each of Them, that Their final fight might play out before Them while They sit back and watch.”
I remained silent, waiting to see what he would choose to do. I didn’t like his talk of final fights, or his blasphemous tone—I wanted to resolve this without combat.
“You must know, sister dear,” he said, his voice utterly soft and dangerous. “Your choice is a declaration of war.”
“It does not have to be,” I said. I held my head high and kept my eyes locked on his—only now did I realize that his eyes burned brightly just as Vivoth’s did, as brightly as my own.
We were once again mirror images of one another, down to the bioluminescent markings on our bodies.
If he was right, if this was what the gods had intended, then They could not have chosen a better pair.
Twins.
Who better to represent the dichotomy between the gods?
After all, the legends said They had been one once upon a time, before the dawn of creation.
They had split, much the same as we had in the womb.
“Please, Zvarr,” I said, dropping my voice to a hushed whisper. I was not ashamed to beg, just this once. “Please, see reason. This is not how it has to be. We can be as we once were. Think. The gods were one once, perhaps They wish to be once more. This could be the opportunity for a new era, one of peace. Come back to me, and we will find a new way.”
An emotion passed across his face. For the first time in my long life, I was not able to identify it.
It looked as if he was conflicted, but there was no way for me to know for certain.
“No, Xiva. It will never be. Nytoc’s day will come; I will see it through.”
He jerked his arm straight and to the side, palms wide, and a sword of dark energy appeared out of thin air, the hilt wrapping around his forearm.
So, this was how it would end.
Battle.
I drew in a deep breath, holding myself upright, and called my magic to me. It came in vibrant golden energy, coalescing about my hands but also setting my whole body ablaze.
I was well versed in sword play, and several other forms of battle, but I chose not to meet him sword to sword.
We might be equals, but we would not fight on the same ground.
His nostrils flared, eyes narrowed, and without further ado, he launched himself at me.
I stepped to the side a click before it would have been too late, sending him barreling into the impenetrable door of the High Temple, following it up with a blaze of golden energy to his backside.
The scream of pain that erupted from his throat was heartbreaking, but there wasn’t anything I could do now.
He wanted war, so he would have it.
We clashed together, his sword bearing down on my open palm, my magic the only thing keeping him from slicing right through me. He brought his sword down again and again, on either side of me, then at my throat.
Still, I blocked him, reluctant now to openly attack him. I didn’t see what good it would do me, though I knew the fight needed to end.
“Give up, little sister,” he mocked me. “You will never have what it takes to win this battle.”
I looked at him with a serene calmness I hadn’t realized I felt until now, swirling my hands in a complicated gesture, ending with my palms facing out. A blast of energy rocked him back on his heels, but he maintained his balance.
He swore, spitting blood onto the sacred ground.
“You always were so difficult. Why should it be any different now?”
Do not respond. He wants to draw your ire, and conversation will accomplish nothing now. Maintain the course.
I told myself this, but in truth, I didn’t need to. Battle was something I was very much accustomed to. It was all a matter of allowing myself to fall into the head space required, to allow muscle memory to take over and carry me through this.
He raced forward, sweeping his sword at my feet, and I jumped into the air, somersaulting backward to land a few feet away from him.
I raised one arm to curl behind me and over my head, the other held straight out. Energy blasted from one hand through the other and arced into his chest—but he blocked it with his sword at the last moment, sending it harmlessly into the ground.
“I know that trick, sister.” He grinned at me. “Father taught it to me, too.”
And that was the crux of the matter.
We had trained together, fought side by side, and drilled against one another. We knew each other’s moves like the back of our hands. There would be no triumphing over the other.
Not like this.
He seemed to realize it at the same ti
me as me, because he turned to the doors of the temple and swung his sword at it.
With eyes wide, I raced forward and grabbed onto his arm, yanking him backward.
“What? Afraid I’ll hurt your precious people?” he sneered, disgust evident on his face.
“You will not touch them, Zvarr,” I said, breaking my silence at last.
“Enough of this. We will see who is better.”
And with that, he launched himself into the skies.
The challenge was clear. He wanted to fight me above all of Eyrus.
He had more experience with this than I did. I didn’t know how long he had been holding Nytoc’s power for. Most likely he had been gifted it some time ago so he would have time to train.
I had one night with it, and no training.
What else could I do?
I closed my eyes and willed myself into the skies, felt the rush of the wind around me, and opened my eyes to see the ground far away from me.
Delight arced through me briefly at the sensation of flying. Of being one with the universe, feeling the pulse of life all around me, and knowing I was a part of all of it.
My joy was short-lived, though, as my brother appeared shortly thereafter.
We came together in the skies, energy blasting left and right, and coming to literal blows at one point.
His fist caught me off guard, slamming into the side of my head and leaving me blind for a moment.
On instinct, I sent a bolt of golden energy to the right and heard his gasp—I had connected.
A small smirk curved my lips. He always did go to the right like that, even as a child.
My vision returned to me just in time to bend backward and dodge the strike aimed for my head, then I brought my leg up high to connect my foot with his chin.
He went spinning backward in the air from the force of it. I was still learning my new strength.
Without hesitation, I shot after him, sending bolts of energy ahead of me.
We tore into each other like this for what felt like ages. His pain battered at my soul as much as my own did, and I could feel my will flagging. It tore at my heart to battle him like this, more so than the tears in my skin he had brought about.
My skin was blackened from his blows, I was bleeding from almost every surface of skin I had, and my willpower was rapidly fading.
Why did it seem like every blow only made him stronger?
7
There was no end to the battle.
That much was obvious, and I knew something had to be done about it now.
We were equally matched, as we had always been, and neither of us would come out of this triumphant over the other. The gods had never been able to subdue one another, so why should we think we’d be able to?
Zvarr was psychotic to think he could accomplish such a task, and I liked to think I wasn’t quite so psychotic as he was.
I had to have a little more brains than that, right?
With a shuddering breath, I locked eyes with him. A horrible, terrible idea had come to mind, but I could see no other outcome.
Not if I didn’t want to kill him.
And in my heart, I knew I could not.
His eyes widened, as if he sensed it.
“Sister, no. You cannot!”
“Ishmentus, Vivoth. Timos, Nytoc. Vasmoto ma vivo en te o te en ma, sumas stememas o seze sen—”
He came at me, delivering blow after blow that I took without so much as shifting. I did not allow him to break the chant.
“Tona a custis te sen a custis vit.”
My back arched, and so did his, as invisible cords knitted the two of us together, our souls binding until it was as if they were one. I bound him to me, his life to mine, so that what happened to one of us would happen to both of us.
“So it must be, brother,” I whispered.
I dodged another of his blows, then shot through the skies away from him. Away from the battle over the capital.
I hurtled through the skies into the wilderness, aware that he did not follow. He did not know what else I planned, he couldn’t, but I had to do it. There was no other way to save us both and save my people from the danger he presented to them.
I could see no other option
Tears burned my eyes at the thought of what was to come. It would be painful, awful, but there was no recourse.
At last, I landed amid the thickest section of the forest out in the wilds. There was no indicator of life beyond the animals out here. No people could settle this forest.
The trees were practically on top of one another; there was almost no place to stand. Only the animals could navigate it, for we had long ago forsaken the wilds and our ability to survive here.
I checked the skies to see if he followed, but still there was no sign of him.
This is how it must be.
I flicked my wrist forward and poured my magic into the ground, sending dirt flying as it chewed through the planet.
Farther and farther down it went, and I watched as the hole deepened, felt the power seeping out of me. I had used so much of it, fighting Zvarr, and now my body betrayed me. Exhaustion shook me, and my eyes drifted closed not once, but three times as my body sought rest.
I could not rest. I forced myself to look down at the hole I had begun.
Not far enough.
I threw myself down the hole, my magic ahead of me so it went deeper and deeper.
To the core of the planet.
Somewhere in the distance, I felt a howl of rage.
Zvarr’s rage. He would be yanked into the pit of the planet with me, wherever he was.
With an upward glance, I lifted one hand and motioned to the side.
The hole sealed.
Buried deep in the bowels of Eyrus, we would both be caged, and he would never harm another.
It was the only way.
I murmured the words to one more spell, to seal myself and all my power beneath the surface.
And felt the pain of a thousand nations cry out just before my eyes closed.
8
Meanwhile…on Earth
“I don’t care what you say, Jax, there’s just no way it’s true,” I said, taking a swig of my drink.
The alcohol burned on its way down my throat, but I didn’t mind. I’d drunk worse things in my life than this, though it was nowhere near good shit. It was better than the piss water at most bars nowadays.
Everything had gone to shit of late. Alcohol was hard to come by and worth more than gold. But that was just because it wasn’t quite possible to numb the pain of destroying your planet with gold. Alcohol, on the other hand…well, alcohol could numb just about anything, right?
“I’m telling you, she had three!” Jax grinned at me over the top of his mug before throwing his head back to down a gulp of the amber liquid.
Jax had been a buddy of mine for years now. We had served together in the trenches, so to speak, and we knew each other better than probably anyone else knew themselves. He had saved my skin more times than I could count, and I knew I had saved his at least the same amount.
Had to keep it fair, after all.
He had been with me through the experimentation, too, and that meant a helluva lot more than dodging bullets together.
You shared an experience like that with a person, and it changed you.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if that became more common these days,” I murmured more to myself than to him.
“What are you talking about? No one on Earth is going to end up with three vages like some alien chick.” He barked out a harsh laugh, but immediately sobered. “Oh, that’s what you meant. You know they aren’t doing that shit to the women. Sexist, is what it is. Women are in the military, so they should be subject to this shit the same as we are.”
I arched on eyebrow at him. “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone else.”
“Really? I mean, some of it’s good…. We’re stronger, after all. Longer lives.” He had lowered his voice to meet
the gentle murmur of mine. It was a loud, rowdy bar and no one was paying attention to us. We wouldn’t be overheard even if we were screaming, but it was still good to be cautious.
“Yeah, but I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t ask for some scientist to play god with my genes, did I? Fucking bullshit is what it is.”
“Hey, you know how it is. You knew how it was before you signed up. It’s not like the old days, when we had rights. You join up and your life is the government’s property.” He shrugged. “I’ve come to terms with it.”
I glowered at him, but didn’t say anymore.
He didn’t know the other changes that had come with the manipulation for me, and I didn’t know if he had experienced the same. Truth was, I was afraid to ask.
I had first discovered parts of it in a fit of rage. That was when the claws had burst from my knuckles, long sabretooth-type things that could cut clean through a person, I was pretty sure. Not that I had tested that theory; I wasn’t trying to get locked up.
The fangs had been there, too, and then the scale-like armor had sprouted all along my skin.
I tested a hammer on that; hadn’t been able to feel a thing.
Much better than any of the high-tech shit they gave us these days. But I was also certain they hadn’t meant for these things to happen to me. They hadn’t meant for me to be able to hear a conversation in the building next door, or to see in the dark. They hadn’t meant for me to be this efficient of a killer.
They just wanted stronger, tougher soldiers with longer lives, so they wouldn’t have such high turnover. That was all, or at least, it was what we’d been told when we’d come out of the operating room.
It wasn’t like they gave us a rundown before it happened. Just poof, one day I woke up in a recovery room with some doc telling me what had happened to me.
Bullshit was what it was.
No point in arguing with anyone, though. It wasn’t like they could undo any of this. I just had to learn to live with it.
“What are you thinking, Kaidan? I can see those gears turning over and over in your head.”