It was difficult to keep up with the stride of a being that stood over 10 feet tall. Each step intimidated the pursuer just a bit more as they traversed over the clouded hard floor. All of her senses being pushed to the brink was even more intimidating.
Walking on the blue sky with clouds swirling at her feet, but still clanking her steps on a hardened, unseeable floor was a test of her touch. Her sight was next as she walked the corridor in the sky. The stars and darkness of space hovering above her until the two mixed at any point of the walls. It didn’t make sense that she could see outside so clearly, but if she focused her eyes a bit, then the lining of the walls and floor became present. Even the curved high ceiling like the one at the castle was faintly shown through strange contour lines. It was as truly a moving painting. Every attempt at a relaxing deep breath would bring a bombardment of any fragrance that she could imagine. She learned to think about one whole heartedly but that was easier said than done. It was only her hearing that didn’t betray expectation, only receiving the sound of their footsteps. But was that what she was supposed to be hearing? Why were there no other sounds in the home of the gods.
What was that even supposed to sound like? It was clearly a place that humans shouldn’t be, but she asked for this. She was gifted this. She had to hold her resolve.
Another deep breath attempt. The smell of dust and ink swept her nose. She squeezed her eyes and tried to embrace the happy fragrance, ignoring the clicking of her heels. Her eyes opened to meet the beautiful, light silver eyes of the deity that she was trying to walk closely behind. The calming, but worried, light silver eyes constantly glanced at her. She was glad to stare at the gorgeous pale face, spotted with deep grey blobs but it was missing the usual bashful or excited smile.
She may be intimidated, seeing her at her full, massive size instead of the miniature spirit that she loved since a child, but it had to be this way. The world might be over soon, and both of them needed to be as brave as possible. For each other.
Footsteps cut her thought and thankfully her nervousness, as they both turned to see a woman in a flowing white dress and purple skin barrelling at them. The woman had no pupils to indicate her point of interest, but they could tell that it wasn’t them. A step to the side confirmed it as she zoomed past them, only to slide her heels on the hard clouds before turning back to them.
“Moon! Tesas! You got her already. I was surprised you wanted to visit up here. You are the second person to ever ask. I was just on my way to see Chaos, come come.” Order took their hands and led them a few steps before she inched ahead with a chipper march.
It was only a couple more steps until Order stood facing the right. Looking at a drifting cloud under a star, she pushed her hands forward. The same imagery remained, but suddenly they could faintly see a round table and chairs, and the black leather shoes flowing into a—
Tesas quickly closed her eyes to avoid the nausea rising in her throat. She would just process the image when the magic was done. It should be easier if she does that.
“Chaos! Chaos! Ugh, do you have anything cooking up that can stop him? Who would have thought that it would be one of mine that kills everything?” Order’s tone didn’t match the subject. Tesas finally opened her eyes to the invisible room, but it somehow seemed more visible than the hallway.
“Ha, that is pretty funny. You really flipped the pine tree on that one.” The massive man with red skin, and long white hair said. His eyes glowing the same as Order, but he outfitted himself with a grey three piece suit and black shirt and hat.
“That isn’t what they say, and forrealsies. Anything that can beat Surica?”
“Tennebrae might jump into action. I am curious myse—” Chaos dashed from his position at the end of the room, directly past Moon and onto one knee in front of Tesas. His massive fingers enveloped her hand as he gently as he raised it towards him. He was still slightly taller than her, even on one knee. “Tesas, my darling. I heard you would be entering our humble abode on this fine evening. May I present to you something that suits your tastes? What are you craving, sweetheart?”
“Huh!” Tesas backed away as Moon stepped in between. Her silver eyes couldn’t contact the gentleman, but he smiled and stepped back nonetheless. “You are nothing like I thought you would be. Are you really Chaos?” Tesas had hesitation in her voice.
“I am, in the fleshy fruits.”
“It’s just ‘flesh’” Order mumbled from her floating seat.
“I take any form that may bring forth Chaos. What do you think is more disorderly? If you are at a school dance and all of a sudden a crocodile scuttles in, then it is wild, sure, but once everyone over comes it then there is a stronger bond. That’s short term chaos, but what if there was a new student from another town, that was suave and gorgeous and he decided to befriend people individually while spreading small rumours as if he heard it himself and then let others believe that they all gossip as the ideas and taunts fester in their mind, lingering and disrupt—”
“I never went to school and definitely not a dance,” Tesas quickly said.
“Oh. Well short term it is.” The deity walked towards the faint table while his suit evaporated. By the time he plopped in the invisible chair and placed his bare feet on the table, he wore swimwear made from patches of every colour imaginable and labels of all kinds of kitchen appliances. His red skin remained uncovered to show off a muscular body. Tesas was stunned but didn’t quite regret her response. “Who is she here to see? You?”
“I am here to see both of you, for the same reason that Order just mentioned. How do we stop Surica from ending the world? I figured that since I am the Moon Eternal, and the sun and the moon are sometimes seen as opposites, that I might be able to…” Tesas held her tongue when she couldn’t help but see Chaos stifling his laugh. He finally let it escape with a bang on the transparent table.
“Tesas, sweety,” Order took over. “The world won’t end. Just everyone will die, I don’t plan on stopping it.”
“And no way I will stop it when it is her fault.” Chaos laughed harder. This was much closer to the vision of disorder she thought, and it stung.
“But…but.” Tesas couldn’t help reverting to her usual demeanour. It wasn’t supposed to go this way. She looked to Moon and forced through the words. “You just wanted to stop Surica. If the world ends, then…WHAT WOULD YOU EVEN BE GODS OF!”
“Look, look, you are getting another Eternal all riled up, Order. That is twice this week!” His laughed brought an annoyed look on the purple deity’s face.
“I wanted to stop Surica so that I wouldn’t lose technically. I mean, look at him, I don’t want to deal with the hundreds of years that comes with him reminding me of it.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Lose? LOSE…IT’S JUST A GAME TO YOU? Surica was right. I knew the truth about the eternals but…everything…else.”
“It was you all that decided to lie about the eternal contracts.” Order looked towards the girl, but her eyes were focused on the clouds below her. Order appeared in front of Tesas, now the same size as her, and took her hand. The glowing eyes locked with the tear forming ones. “We didn’t lie about anything. We would have answered questions at any time, but people found their own answers. I didn’t want to explain to everyone today because I wanted to see Surica’s understanding spread. Maybe if you understand what happened, then—”
“I can do that! I can definitely tell that story.” Chaos spun in his chair. “Order burst through those same doors, however long ago that was. Thousand, Ten thousand years ago?”
“I do burst in here pretty often, don’t I?” Order chuckled. Tesas felt her heart wanting to burst while listening to the two.
“And she was hyper about humans and them getting better and making tools, and they did cook something that day, but this led to that and I decided she was wrong and I made the monsters, and oh there was that one conqueror that fully transformed, and now she is losing.”
“Oh, you are so terrible at telling stories.” Order shook her head before facing Tesas again. “I was interested in humans for quite some time. People take what is around them and create more, they use it for more, they invent, but they cannot truly create. I super couldn’t understand it, so I talked to a couple, and while they had amazing imaginations, it always felt like their creations were in relation to things, no matter how creative, it could be described by comparing other things. For us deities, it worked a bit differently. Our thoughts bring forth new creations in the world, once we wish it. It is how all the deities are created. Me, Chaos, Death and a few others never met our creators, and well some others are born from our creations. The three of us created the five eternals and those guys worked with us or together to create the other deities.
“Do you understand? My fascination with you all. We can’t think like you, so I was curious to know as much as I could. We are just observers here and for a long time we only talked to each other about it, but fresh companionship was exciting. I came to propose an idea to Chaos and—”
“It was the dumbest idea I ever heard. All the rules and planning and talking. Lame, too little discord. I admit that humans are capable of madness, but so was many other things, so I came up with my own plan and it was way better than Order’s. I created the Chaos Items and toss them down whenever I am bored.”
Tesas clenched her attacking stomach. Fun? He created monsters for fun? Moon inched in front of her, in between Order and blocking the gaze of Chaos. A deep breath only smelled like embers now.
“And that irritated me,” Order spoke, “so we both did what we had to and decided to see what would be more exciting. Blessings that can combat each other, so Drafters were born and all the other deities agreed with me and lent their powers to the humans. Well besides Death, he doesn’t like that we are playing with natural order and interfering with his job. That is why we can’t heal everything or anything touched by death. He is a stickler, and somewhere around here so don’t tell him I said anyth—”
“BULLSHIT! We really are a game for you all? It wasn’t an exaggeration? The blessings of the goddess that is taught to us...the words of the deities that we cherished…our friendships…it was all to dance for you all, it was nothing for you…” Tesas looked up at the giant Moon, her eyes held worry and her lip quivered, “And now that we are boring, you are okay with all of us dying. The gods have abandoned us, or you were never there for us were you?”
“Tesa—” Moon started.
“No way!” Order turned towards her quickly, the glowing white eyes were fierce. “I can never be bored of you. Of any of you. We all love you and cherish our companionship, but you must realize that death comes for everything, and your lifespan is quite short. All of us here accept that death will take us someday, but humans are the greediest and I love it. All of us deities know it, and we still stick around to endorse that greed and curiosity.”
“I agree with that greediness.” Chaos had a sterner look on his face. “You guys even took my chaos items and turned them into your own little weapons and armour. I was so pissed, but it turned out to be entertaining. I can’t wait to see how far you guys push yourself to stop Surica this time.”
“Surica will stop you all. That must be why he wants to end the world. He will kill you all!” Tesas started pushing pass Moon. “You knew all of this. You never cared about me.” She mumbled.
“That isn’t true. I will do whatever I can to help you. I am your friend, but I can’t do anything to other deities. Things work differently here.” Moon’s voice was shakier than normal. Tesas felt her nerves calm slightly, but it led to her heart breaking more.
“I don’t think you heard me earlier sweety, but the world won’t end.” Order went and took a seat, finally returning to her larger size. “Deities are born as an idea. We are a concept, just like humanity is a concept. Things will die, but eventually it will all form back freshly in the world. This isn’t the first time the world would be reset, but it is the first time we played this game though. As long as us deities exist, then it will all be born again. Me and Chaos were born together, unaware of the time before that, and of how we came to be. We were just existing in this solar system, and I don’t know anything outside of this planet, but I am sure there are other Orders and Chaoses throughout the universe.”
“So you deities can’t die. That is just another lie, you want us to humanize you.”
“Oh no, don’t ever say that again.” Chaos blurted. “We would never want to be human, but truthfully tuts, we don’t understand death much either. I don’t even think the old man does. I bet that is why he is so testy about doing his job.”
“We do die, honey. A few deities have passed away. T-Rexes for example. I remember them. Some of us die and return evolved, some of us haven’t comeback. Eventually death will be the last among us and then his existence will cease. There can’t be death if there is nothing alive.”
“So what happens to us? We aren’t deities. Who is in charge of us when we pass?” Tesas sank to the ground.
“I am not sure, but there is something. There is somewhere that you all go, and the other deities go that is far from this plane. When they return, then don’t have memories of where they went, but they know they came back. Tell me sweetheart, if you forget something, and remember it later, is it a new thought or did you bring back another thought?”
“How am I supposed to know?” Tesas gritted her teeth.
“I understand you are distressed. I am sorry it is this way, but it is the nature of the universe. A thought doesn’t cease to exist because it is forgotten, and that is all we are. Ideas of the universe, so there must be somewhere for us to exist until we are needed again. Did I help you at all, honey?” Order’s face showed genuine concern and it enraged The Moon Eternal.
Tesas pulled herself up but the dress of The Moon. Her jaw clenched and eyes locked. “Please, stop this game. We aren’t your toys.”
“I am truly sorry darling, but we won’t. The world will continue and there will always be tragedy. We have seen the world without our powers, and it isn’t as magical as you think it would be. You all have done so much with our gifts. We won’t stop them.”
“Gifts…” Tesas mumbled.
“And no way am I stopping my chaos beasties. So even if she stops hers, then you humans would just get wiped out by my creatures in no time.” The laugh rang though the room. Moon took her hand and tried to guide her back to the corridor, but she yanked away and faced the two gods.
“We will stop this. I swear.” Then she stormed off.
“I hope you do! I really mean it!” Order called behind them. “I don’t think she will believe my sincerity.”
“Ha! You pissed off another Eternal. They really are doomed now.” Chaos laughed.
Order sighed. “It seems so. I really flipped the pine.”
***
“Tesas! Wait! Where are you going? I have to take you out of here.”
The Moon Eternal stopped and faced the faint wall. Moon bent down and took her shoulders. Tesas turned her head to hide the tears, but the massive finger caught them.
“I am here with you. We will stop the world from ending,” the deity said.
“Why! Why would you do that! You have nothing to lose.”
“I would lose you.” The girl’s eyes peered behind the tears. She stared at the pale white face. “Us Eternals aren’t like the other deities. We can only have one contract at a time, so you are my only friend for the last 18 years. Even if I was like other deities, I am sure I would do everything in my power to help you. I care about you.”
“It all feels so hopeless…I need a plan.”
“Okay. We can go home and relax in the library while we think about it.”
“No. I need to go to the one person with a plan. I need to go see Surica.”