God of the Abyss (46 page)

I had my hand on his bad leg before I realized what I
was going to attempt. Vretial said I was becoming a more powerful healer. I let
my energy flow through the stone, but it came back confused, for it didn’t know
how to heal stone. “I will keep trying,” I whispered to the little guy. He
rubbed his heads against my stomach. I tried to pet the left head and the right
head nipped at my fingers. The right head was often jealous of the left one.
Weird
little beast.

“What news do you have about the gates?” Shiloh
asked.

“They’re opening, but we have what we need to close
them. We just came by to check on you before getting started. Or figure out how
to get started anyway. What have you guys been up to? It doesn’t look like any
of you killed each other. I might be wrong, though… math wasn’t my best
subject.”

“Meri and I have been teaching these brutes how to
talk,” Vivian said.

“We have made a lot of progress in the Guardian
council,” Emrys said. “Shiloh and I plan to start right away on creating a
necklace that each of us can wear that will alert everyone when one of us needs
help. We are currently stuck on what to call the council.”

“You’ll think of something. By the way, sorry for…” I
waved at his head.

“I doubt that, but don’t worry about it.”

“What are you talking about this time?” Mordon asked.

I grinned at him. “You haven’t figured it out yet?” I
asked. He rolled his eyes. “Emrys disappeared from his tent in the middle of
the night. He reappeared weak and injured some time later with wounds too
shallow to have caused the blood we found in his tent. And he had to be
terribly wounded because otherwise the story wouldn’t have held on Lore. I
realized it when I healed him after we got back from Lore because the injuries
were the same, just more severe. I suppose we will, at some point, go back in
time to kidnap him from his tent and ask him to find us on Lore.”

“But… I thought we were trying to avoid a paradox.”

I nodded thoughtfully. “Of course we are, but I’d
also like to live and not be trapped on Lore. Now, is there any food left?” I
asked.

“Dylan, we have work to do.”

“And it could be hours before we get to eat again. I
can’t do magic on an empty stomach,” I said. He sighed.

*          *          *

We joined the rest of the group to eat. It seemed
that Guardians could be worried, but they didn’t show it on their faces. They
just talked a lot. Mostly it was Rasik and Rilryn who regaled us with their
adventures and unusual missions. When they spoke of demons and monsters they
fought, I watched Ghidorah’s face. That was a man who had seen the most
horrible of horrors, and the most horrible of horrors were never beasts.

He caught me staring at him and put down his plate.
“Have you figured it out yet?” he asked me. Everyone else focused on us.

“I’m not sure what to call you, but I know what you
do. Do you have wings?” I asked. He stood and stripped off his shirt. Across
his back was a tattoo of wings.

The lines became defined and developed color. It was
weird; as the wings separated from his back, they were iridescent, not
feathered. They were as much ominous and forbidding as they were majestic and
beautiful. There was nothing dainty about them, either. In fact, the wings
looked like they could be used as weapons. Ghidorah stretched them out to about
four feet across before folding them back against his back. The lines of the
wings shrunk back into his skin to become a tattoo once more.

“What do they call angels on Skrev?” I asked.

He didn’t the typical description of an angel that I
was used to, but I figured that was because he was a being of Skrev. It was
possible that Ghidorah, or whatever creature he was, was where humans god the
image of angels.

“How long have you known?” He put his shirt back on
and sat.

“The demon squeaking like a dog toy when he saw you
kind of gave it away. You kept talking about judging and punishment. The
closest human reference I can think of is an angel, because I know you’re not
Anubis. I mean, you got the attitude of a jackal, but not the head of one.
Besides, finding Anubis on Skrev would be like finding Arthur in Camelot or a
cop at a donut shop. On the other hand… Am I rambling?”

“It’s okay. Nobody’s listening anymore,” Mordon said.

“Oh, good.”

“I think I understand you, now,” Ghidorah said. “You
forget that others are not as powerful as you, and you forget they are not as
smart as you.”

I scoffed. “Smart? How do you figure?”

“You have been two steps ahead of everyone, friend or
enemy, your entire life.”

“Hardly.”

“Believe it or not, you see connections that nobody
else would. You figure out the answer and then find your pattern, when the
reality is that no one else would have figured it out given the clues.”

“How can you say you know about me when we only met a
few days ago?” I asked.

“I can see your soul. I cannot judge you because you
are a Guardian, but I can still see you. The only person I cannot see is your
son, Sammy.”

“Oh, he wants to be called Hell, now.”

“Hail,” Mordon corrected me. “He is protected.”

“By god magic, I know. God magic coming from his
little brother.”

“What happens when you judge someone?” Mordon asked.

He shrugged. “That depends on what I judge them of. I
can decide that someone needs to be punished and how severely, or I can decide
they need to be rewarded. Sometimes I judge that a person can never repent or
learn from their actions, and they must be killed immediately. Sometimes I
judge that a person is leaning towards a destructive path and I push them
towards the right one.”

“Back in the cabin, when we first met, you said only
the gods could strip someone of their magic. You lied.”

“I could not be sure who you were yet. I didn’t trust
you. Besides, I wanted to kill that man. There is little worse in my opinion
than a coward who uses magic to control someone’s mind. I let my disgust get
the better of me. Had I been thinking, I would have stripped his magic and left
him imprisoned; it is a fate worse than death.”

“Have you tried to judge me?” my friend asked.

“You have two souls that are fused into one. Your
soul and Dylan’s are also connected. No judgment I could make on you would be
correct.”

“So you can see what I am?”

“You are both a sago and a dragon. I’m sorry, I
realize you want a long lost name that describes people just like you, but you
are the only one of your kind. There has never been someone who was both man
and dragon before, not even on Skrev. In time, you will see that you have the
greatest advantages of being dragon and being sago, and few of the weaknesses.
Most of them involve protecting your family.”

“We should get back to it,” I said, standing. “We
have to get these gates closed.” Mordon and Edward stood. “Besides, we need to
see what Divina did to Emiko.”

“Dylan,” Nano said. I paused and looked at him. “My
magic is weakening.”

“So is mine,” Samorde said. “I think the gate to Enep
was the first to open.”

I frowned. If it was, Regivus would have known, and
he would have told me. At least, I thought he would have.

“Regivus would be the last to complain. He may treat
me like a pet, but he holds himself to a higher level of responsibility than
anyone I have ever met. My god would never share his problems.”

As often as Regivus helped me and my family, that
really bothered me.

I looked at Edward and he nodded. “I am powerful
enough at my age, but the connection with my book has already begun to fade.”

Perhaps Regivus, like Edward, had too much pride to
complain.

“We have all had warning dreams,” Azyle said. “We all
sit around here, supposedly safe while our worlds are in danger, because we
have faith you know what you are doing. If the gods trust you, we have little
choice. Please don’t let us down, because our trust is difficult to earn.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

I flashed the three of us home to find Divina and
Emiko sitting at the table reading tarot cards. They weren’t Edward’s card or
playing cards, but actual proper tarot cards. Sammy and Ron were reading on the
rug in front of the fireplace.

I stood behind Divina and kissed her shoulder. “We
need to figure out what to do with the artifacts,” I said. “Ron, show Mordon
and Edward how to control the fire wand and pantacle like you showed your
brother how to control the cup.”

“Air and water are easy to control. Fire and earth
are not; they need strength. I don’t know how to control the wand or the
pantacle. I do know that these artifacts are each meant to match the user’s
magic. Dragon fire is stubborn, so Mordon will have trouble.”

I knew it was. I had felt his fire many times… and I
knew how to calm it. Where his fire was volatile, my energy was calm. Except
sometimes it was reversed; when I wanted to destroy, it was him who was calm.
We were balanced.

“Edward, do you think practice will help you control
the pantacle?” I asked.

He nodded. “I have been using magic for more than two
thousand years. I can manage.”

“Good. You practice.” I picked up the fire wand and
lotus wand before flashing Mordon and I to the springs. It was a very good
place to practice magic. “Sit.” He sat and I sat across from him. I set aside
the wands, took his hand, and closed my eyes. “Let me see your fire.”

I felt the heat creep into me through my hand, not
enough to hurt, but it was uncomfortable. His fire was calm. I opened my eyes
to see what I thought I would. I was seeing through dragon eyes while his fire
was inside me, so I saw everything that my friend was, because dragons could see
a person’s soul. How Divina ever could have thought the universe would survive
without him I would never know.

I picked up the fire wand and held it out with my
other hand. He touched it and the fire reacted instinctually as if he were
being attacked. My vision reverted to normal because I couldn’t hold his fire
in me as the dragon magic tried to use the wand as a weapon. The wand was a
tool of focus, specifically created to focus dragon fire. His fire must have
assumed that since he was using the wand, he was being attacked.

But he already showed me that dragon fire did more
than destroy; it could also heal. As the fire flared out over the springs, I
pulled the dagger out of my boot with my free hand. Before Mordon could do
anything, I made a thin slice along my arm. He tried to let go of my hand and
pull the dagger away, but I tightened my grip. As gently as I could, I poured
my energy into him with no intention, just calmness. Or as calm as I could have
it when my arm burned.

His fire did not calm, though, I could feel that
much. Instead, he turned the wand on me. Having been burned literally and
figuratively many times in my childhood, it should have been instinct for me to
run… but this was Mordon. Not even his fire would ever hurt me. My wife could
hurt me on accident or in anger, and so could my children or Edward. They were
all powerful and anything could happen. But not Mordon.

Instead of burning heat, healing fire rushed through
me, not only healing my arm but old wounds that had healed incorrectly. Now, it
did hurt, but I was alive. After what felt like hours, when the fire
accomplished what it thought its goal was, it calmed. The fire settled back
inside of Mordon to wait.

“You’re going to make me kill you one of these days.”

“As if you could,” I panted. “Now, I need in your
head.”

“It is private property, you know,” he said, setting
the wand aside.

“Since when?” I put my hand on his forehead. “By the
way, I have no idea what I’m doing,” I said.

He glared at me. “Isn’t this dangerous then?”

“I don’t know. Probably. Now hold still and remember
what you saw. Remember every word Vretial said in Enochian,” I told him. He
nodded and closed his eyes. I focused my energy on his thoughts. Within a
minute, his memory played like a movie in my head.

It was a little blurry in the dark, but I could make
out Vretial. He looked bigger from the eyes of a child. His words and mine were
clear, and they were Enochian. Everything I had thought I heard in English was
correct… until the very end. When I thought I heard “There’s something in the
dark,” I was wrong, and for good reason. Enochian was the language of the gods,
a language of power. For some words, there was no English equivalent.

I let go of Mordon.

“I know what I must do. I know what choice I have to
make.”

Vretial

The story of the gods is not as mighty as we tell it.
We embellish our greatness, seeking fear and respect from the people because we
are so much more than them. The fact is that our great power does not come with
the wisdom to use it. I am the oldest of my siblings, and we may very well be
the last of our kind. So it is my story that I keep secret, even from my kin.

In the time forgotten by all but myself, we were a
mighty people. We were powerful, we were unstoppable, and it rained blood. Our
blood. The Land of the Gods, the place outside any universe but protected from
the void, was once beautiful. It was a magnificence that could never be
matched.

In order to live in this exquisiteness, the gods
chose a form to enjoy it in. Some gods were beautiful, some were strong, and
some could slip away without being seen. Some could change their appearance,
but most became a part of it. This developed into tradition. But by the time of
my creation, the end was already in sight.

We were powerful. There was nothing in any universe
or the void that could rival us, and I grew up believing this. When I looked
out over the lands of death and blood, my father put his hand on my shoulder
and told me we fight for this. We fought, not for rights, but for more power
than we ever needed. However, he did teach me two things that others did not
believe in; responsibility and wisdom.

There were many universes that Iadnah used to
experiment with or even just to play in. Several had created living souls in
their image, souls that would grow and experience whatever the gods gave them.
No matter how the gods created these souls, something happened. Once they were
alive, they developed a will. Whether it was a will to live, a will to thrive,
or a will to conquer, the Iadnah had very little control over them. Some
decided these souls were a poison and killed them off, and some feared the souls
because they were unpredictable, which wasn’t the fault of these mysterious
living creatures; they never asked to be created. Yet others were fascinated.

The gods experimented with the intelligence and power
of these creatures. It was then that I became intrigued. I convinced my father
to teach me how to create them myself, but souls were a tricky thing, and life
was difficult to construct.

Many universes were destroyed as the Iadnah grew more
determined and bold in their struggle for power. The more powerful they were,
the more power they wanted. I thought it was pointless, but I felt more regret
for the souls that were extinguished for no reason at all. Life was all they
had, and to have it torn away seemed sad. I was young, though, and my mother
told me I would have to learn that nothing was worth the weakness that was
regret.

My brothers were all born of different mothers and I
barely knew them. There was no family among the Iadnah, because the forms we
took could bleed and blood was the same color whether it was from friend or
foe. Our forms did not make us mortal or weak, although we could be destroyed
with the right magic. Iadnah magic, which is all that we were, could not be
destroyed, only disbursed, so when a god managed to kill another, it was everything
that god was that the victor absorbed, not just magic. Including their
weaknesses, as they realized too late.

Still, I was amazed by the souls, so fragile, that
seemed to want life more than power. Why were we working so hard for power when
they were so happy without it? Others asked that question too, and were
jealous. I was jealous of their happiness, but not enough to give up my power.

The Land of the Iadnah was dying; it was starved of
magic by the death and corruption that the Iadnah became. And still they would
not stop. They would never stop. In the end, my father taught me the lesson of
responsibility. He was against the war, as many were, but unlike our kin, he
knew the way to end it. He knew there could be no end until the greed was gone.

Universes could not be created even by the immense
powers of the Iadnah; they were mistakes of the void that could be exploited by
us. There was one odd occurrence that was true in every universe; there was a
balance that acted against us fiercely. Sometimes the universe would have to be
eradicated because of it, but usually the gods could hold it off.

In the height of the war, a new universe was torn
from the void like a hiccup. I knew it to be a baby universe of unimaginable
potential, for there would be no war to disfigure it. My father brought my
brothers and me to the crack between the void and the new universe. It was in a
valley; the last piece of beauty left. We were told to go and rebuild the Land
of the Iadnah in the universe. When he left us, I saw to it that my siblings
did as they were told, and then I turned back. I felt there was nothing I could
give to the universe that was good when in my existence, I had only ever seen
destruction.

Then my father returned with Tiamat. She was not his
daughter, but he found that she had been lost in one of the universes at the
moment of her creation. What kept her from being destroyed for the earlier part
of her childhood nearly got her killed with the other souls. Half dead, the
little goddess wobbled from my father’s hands into my arms. She had been
injured by a god that had tried to syphon her power, but she was young enough
to recover.

Her form was beautiful, but it was her eyes that
convinced me to take her with me. Her eyes were the same as those with mortal
souls, but behind them there was power that would tempt any god. I took her to
this new universe because she was everything the Iadnah had unintentionally
destroyed with their greed. Behind me, my father obliterated the Land of the
Gods and everything in it.

I taught my siblings to make souls, and especially
the fascinating people. They enjoyed experimenting with life and while I found
it amusing, I never did it. They soon lost the memories of the land we were
created in until only I remembered our kin. I told them we were the last of our
kind because I hoped we were. Still, I told them of our traditions, including a
fairytale my father would tell me about mates. It never made any sense to me
then because I always thought we were the most powerful thing in the universe.
I was wrong. We were all wrong.

While we ruled the place of our creation, life was
the most powerful thing in the universe.

When the memories were truly gone for all but myself,
I revisited the Land of the Iadnah to find it as vast and empty as the void.
All the beauty was gone and forgotten. When the foulness of the void tried to spoil
what we created in our new home, I closed the gates between the worlds and
created items of power instead. With my sister’s advice, I created them as
books. It was an odd request, but I could never deny her anything.

I tried to guide my siblings when it came to their
animals and worlds, but I was not very good at it. My siblings disagreed with
me at every turn. It was a matter of opinion, which I had not yet learned. On
the other hand, my youngest brother was even worse than me. He thought that
giving his people everything they could want would make him more successful. He
thought if they had more power, they would be happier. Even I could have told
him it was a mistake, and I tried to. Unfortunately, all except for Tiamat
doubted me. I was more powerful than them and for that, I was the enemy in
their eyes, excluding Tiamat, who understood life like none of us could.

Avoli’s people were about to commit nuclear war and
destroy the entire planet. I didn’t want to see the death of all those souls,
so I did the only thing I could; I used my power against my kin. It was no
better than what the other Iadnah had done, but I didn’t destroy him.

And I realized then how badly power could corrupt. I
was so much more powerful naturally than my siblings that I couldn’t handle any
more. The balance would not allow me to remain as I was, and I could not give
up the new world without risking myself anyway. So I had a choice.

I could take the balance inside me, fuse my power
with it, or I could risk destroying everything my siblings and I had built. It
was difficult to see disgust from my own kind, but I could not explain my
responsibility to them. I was the oldest, the most powerful, and the only one
who remembered what must never come to be again.

For once, I was glad that I only had one sister, and
that she would never be willing to procreate. I could not foresee the future as
they could, but I was happy for us to be the only Iadnah left.

The balance inside me was too strong a force to
fight, so I was compelled to act against my siblings, even to reopen the gates.

My siblings created servant/warriors to guard their
books from anyone who wished to take its magic. They exiled me for taking
Avoli’s world and when I left willingly, they thought I was overcome by their
power, but it was the fact that the balance wanted me to destroy them. The
balance took so much of my will and mind, forcing me to seek out and thwart my
siblings. They were constantly upsetting the balance.

Until one day, I faced a young, mortal boy and realized
the story was no longer mine. The fate of this universe was no longer mine. He
looked into my eyes, at all the power and hatred in me and all the choices that
I had made… and he was not afraid. He was not afraid of me because he was not
afraid of the balance. And he would make the same choice.

The mortal that produced Iadnah energy called upon
the very magic of the universe to destroy me, and as he did, the balance
released its hold. In that moment, I was shielded by the balance and I could
escape. What better way to do so than by becoming what I was always fascinated
by? I became alive. From then on, I did my work from the shadows. I also had to
repay the boy who saved me.

If his lack of fear in me and the balance wasn’t
enough for me to understand why he was the one, Dylan himself was the answer.
It wasn’t only the fact that he was Tiamat’s mate. The mortal’s entire life had
been a test of strength, willpower, compassion, courage, and wisdom. From the
moment of his conception, he was fighting to live. Even the other gods had felt
his power and wanted to kill him.

They would have killed him for just being born what
he was.

At first, I thought my goal would be easy to
accomplish. Equilibrium was required, so I needed to create a soul to balance
the tiny infant that faced the universe. Unfortunately, I underestimated life;
a person could not be born for the sake of another that easily. Then the
universe helped me for once. The soul I created was joined with the strongest
kind known; a dragon. The new life was now strong enough to adapt as Dylan had…
but it was still not enough. They were separated by much time and space and
their powers were still undiscovered.

I was not the best seer, but I had an understanding
of magic that the other Iadnah could not have even begun to imagine, including
time. No longer was I working with the balance, which Dylan freed me from, so I
had to save him from it in return. Throughout his life, I thwarted the acts of
nature that would have otherwise killed him. I was not alone; his father was
there as well. Still, it was difficult, and the boy suffered from every kind of
pain.

Soon I realized how strong his soul really was. The
things he saw and heard should have made him into a jaded, cruel person, but
instead he just turned it around. Every obstacle he faced became a tool, a
lesson to be kind to everyone. He learned from every mistake, whether it was
his or someone else’s. One thing I never understood was how he protected his
mother. I understood that souls had emotional attachments to their parents, but
this particular woman was exceptionally cruel and did not deserve his kindness.

I also faced instances where I had to step over my
own timeline. One such occasion was when my servants were searching the worlds
for the new Noquodi. The young Guardian had not yet learned of his Iadnah
energy, and he was not ready to face me. In order to avoid being detected by my
unsuspecting self, I had to wait until he signed a book to another world. As
soon as he signed his name in the book of Dios, I sent Dylan there, which had
already been searched and cleared by my servants. Thankfully, my conceited
brothers were easily fooled.

The circumstances regarding his father were
inevitable and for the best. Ronez had served the purpose of creating Dylan,
but he was then an obstacle in the boy’s way. Once Dylan was old enough to
become what he was meant to be, Ronez needed to be factored out.

Finally, everything I created and everything that had
happened came together in peace. Dylan saved the universe from the ripples in
the balance… for a while. There was too much acting against the balance,
including decisions that had not yet been decided. I had to make a decision
once again.

There was another child who was neither mortal nor
god. We were supposed to be the last of our kind, because Iadnah could not
procreate with mortals, but there was always something different about Tiamat.
She and Dylan defied the balance again and created a life of a new kind. I knew
he could destroy everything I had worked so hard to construct.

However, I had a plan to stop him. Once again, I
created life, but this time, I thought it through. There would be no dragon
soul to cover for my mistakes, and there was only one moment in which I could
do it.

The mother and father had to be known well to Dylan,
and so when the opportunity presented itself, I took it. I made the soul to be
the balance of Tiamat’s child … but instead of leaving his life to fate, I
assured it. He is the child of a human and dile, but also mine. He would have
the powers and immortality of a god, because otherwise he could never balance
the son of a god.