“Gilla, this is a bad idea.”

Gilla ignored Jonnathan hobbling behind her as they crunched along the gravel beside the concrete forest road. Any other time, she would have set a moderate pace out of consideration for his disability, but she was on a mission.

“What are you even planning to do when we catch up with them? And can you slow down? I’m going to trip trying to keep up with you. My mom is going to ground me if I come back all dirty again, and then who would you hang out—” Jonnathan cut short when she released an overhanging branch and it almost hit him in the face.

“Will you stop complaining, Jonnathan?” she grumbled over her shoulder; he was always worried about something. She really did not have any plans; it was just one of those gut things that drove a person. “I don’t know,” she said after a minute. “But you need healing. And that woman back there deserves an apology.”

“An apology?” Jonnathan exclaimed. “Are you serious? How are you going to make a god apologize?”

“I could just ask.”

“Yeah, I doubt that will work with Pana. She was already pretty furious, and I think that would just piss her off even more.”

Gilla frowned. He was right. “Well, whatever. We have to at least try something, and I’m sure Rhea will agree with us. Pana didn’t have to heal anyone if she didn’t want to, and just because she isn’t thrilled about doing it doesn’t mean she gets to treat us like garbage. She probably hurt that woman.” The grinding of gravel behind her stopped. Gilla thought that Jonnathan had given up, but when she turned around, he was staring at her.

“All right,” he said. “But if we get in trouble, you’re taking the heat. I need a break first.”

“Fine fine. Is your leg all right?”

The young man only nodded. A minute and a couple of deep breaths later and they were off again, Gilla walking a little slower so that he could keep up.

Before they could make it five paces, a vehicle streaked past them much faster than the speed limit. The blast of wind it created tore at their clothes as it flew by. Gilla no longer felt safe traveling along the side of the road.

“We should get off the road, cut through the woods, get there ahead of them,” she said as she stepped into the brush that lined the sides.

“How do you know where they are going?”

Gilla grunted as she climbed over a fallen tree, then turned to help him. “I overheard them asking where the hot spring was before they started passing out blessings. They were whispering, but I heard.”

“Well, if they were whispering it’s probably because they didn’t want anyone following them.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “We are not giving up, Jonnathan,” she insisted at almost a yell. “Not until Pana heals you.”

“I know, I know. I just get nervous even thinking about approaching them.”

Their walk was quiet except for the crunch of foliage beneath their shoes. There was no breeze amid the trees. Nothing stirred beyond the occasional acorn fallen from the branches high above, lost by an unseen squirrel.

The sound of a creek trickling its way through the forest broke the silence. It was not very wide or deep, Gilla could probably leap over the shallow stream at her best sprint, but Jonnathan would never make it across without getting his shoes and the bottom of his pants soaked to his knees. A quick search found a thick fallen log bridging the gap. Gilla crossed it quite easily, testing its strength as she went; it was solid and stable. Hopping off the other end, she grinned and posed victoriously. Jonnathan was not as confident as she was, pausing to eye the log and give it a few good kicks before inching his way along the log. He frowned at her smug smile once he was on the other side.

After several more minutes through the trees, Gilla held up a hand, and they both fell silent. The smell of eggs was heavy in the air, signifying that the town’s local hot spring was just ahead. It was not a very big town, but the hot spring drew a decent amount of attention from the surrounding villages and distant travelers alike. Sometimes a diplomat or other fancy title would pass through, but never in Gilla’s lifetime had a god visited.

Gilla’s father had told her that many eidolon took great pride in their position, some catering to the needs of the regular people, like Rhea, but some had become self-absorbed and obsessed with the fame they had acquired. Gods were treated like celebrities in the big cities, and it went to their heads. Gilla had thought they sounded a lot like regular people; her father had not disagreed. And then there were those like Pana, who despised people all together. Gilla could understand why she might be upset, but that did not excuse her behavior.

Stepping out of the trees onto the gravel path that led from the parking lot out of sight, Gilla waited for Jonnathan before she tiptoed through the large wooden arch that acted as the entrance to the hot spring. Smooth stained planks created a large deck around multiple steaming pools, encompassed by flowering bushes and a tall wooden fence. All of the curtains of the changing stalls that sat next to the entrance hung open, and no one relaxed in the pools or the dozen beach chairs. They had beaten the two eidolon to the hot spring.

“Now what?” Jonnathan asked behind her.

Gilla shrugged. “We wait, I guess—” She cut off when she heard voices coming down the path. Panicking, Gilla grabbed Jonnathan’s arm, pushed him into the bushes, then jumped in after him.

“What are you—” She muffled his complaints with a hand over his mouth. The voices became audible as the two eidolon women entered the enclosure, dropped their belongings, and stepped into one of the steaming pools.

Jonnathan grabbed her shoulder to speak directly into her ear, his voice shaking. “Why did we hide?”

Gilla pulled away from his hot breath and rubbed her ear. She shot him an irritated frown. She gestured toward the eidolon and grimaced, implying that she did not know what to do. She was not sure why she forced them to hide, but it was too late to change her mind without appearing to be creepers.

He tugged his long ears down anxiously with both hands. “What if they can sense us? We don’t know what kind of powers the gods have. We should leave.”

Gilla ever so slowly parted the branches of the brush to get a better view. Rhea’s beaded pouch lay atop a folded pile of her clothes in one of the chairs, surrounded by a scattering of Pana’s clothes along the deck. Rhea had her hair tied up into a bun, facing away from the other goddess. Her chin rested on her arms on the stones around the rim of one of the pools. Her flecked skin gleamed in the sunlight that poured through the opening in the trees above them. Pana sprawled against the side opposite Rhea. Her thin sword was stuck in the deck within her reach, her muscular arms stretched out to either side along the stones. Numerous deforming scars pockmarked the now-exposed pale skin of her cheek and the entire arm closest to Gilla, leaving her shocked at how such a thing could happen to a god. With both Pana and Rhea facing the entrance, there was no clear way for Gilla and Jonnathan to escape. Looking back at him, she shook her head and shrugged again.

Rhea sighed loudly, a melodious hum that gave Gilla chills. “This is so nice. I’m glad we are finally here. It is so good to get away for once.”

“It sure has been too long. When was it you and I last did something like this?”

“Probably a hundred years ago, if not more.”

It was common knowledge that the gods were immortal, but Gilla still found herself surprised after hearing it from them directly. She could not imagine what it would be like to have lived so long, all the things she could have witnessed in that time span.

“Hmm, yeah,” Pana said with a stretch. “The Goddess sure keeps us busy.”

“Some more than others. What have you been up to lately, anyway?” Rhea said. She half turned to look over her shoulder when the other eidolon did not answer right away.

The deformed woman was staring at her, but averted her eyes before speaking. “Running errands for the Goddess, mostly. The usual. Nothing special.”

“Lianandra isn’t here, you know. You don’t have to keep kissing her boots.”

Pana met her gaze then with a glare. “What do you mean?”

“She can’t hear you. You don’t have to keep referring to her as ‘the Goddess’.”

“Did I ever tell you how I came to be a god?” Pana said, sitting up straighter.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“A few times,” Rhea started, but the other woman proceeded right over top of her.

“She found me after my parents had died from a plague, the first plague. She took care of me, raised me as her own, and then gave me these powers as a reminder of what happened. So, yes, I feel that I owe her my respect.” Pana’s face twitched into a scowl for a moment before softening. “And she is your Goddess, too. Your creator, just as she is everyone’s. It doesn’t hurt to show a little respect for the one who made and raised you.”

“Maybe not,” Rhea started, putting her back to Pana again. “But she has done her fair share of things that I feel aren’t deserving of my respect.”

Birds chirping echoed through the forest around them. Gilla realized she was holding her breath and exhaled slowly. She felt like she should not be eavesdropping on a conversation between gods, but she could not stop herself. Looking at Jonnathan at her shoulder, she could tell that he was just as invested, if very nervous.

“What have you been doing that is so important?” Pana continued.

“Helping where I can,” Rhea said softly. “It seems all that I do lately is clean up her messes.”

Pana snarled, but the other woman could not see it with her back turned. “Watch your mouth,” Pana said with venom, the air around her wavering into an aura of faint violet flames.

“You’ve changed, Pana. She has changed you. You used to be like me … want to be with me. But you let her change you. You let her fill you with her vileness and hate.”

“You take that back!”

“You let her turn you into her,” Rhea continued calmly, ignoring the other woman’s animosity.

Pana had not moved to grab her sword, but one moment it was stuck in the deck, the next it was in her hand. She crossed the hot spring pool in a single stride, thrusting the point toward the other woman’s exposed back. The sword clanged against something metallic; a resounding twang reverberated throughout the enclosure like a handbell struck by a sledgehammer, lingering. It echoed inside of Gilla’s head even after she had thrown her hands over her ears.

“By the Mother! Damn your luck,” Pana shouted after the sound dissipated.

Rhea held up a golden coin with the broken point of Pana’s sword stuck through it. A sly smile twisted her lips. “Such blasphemous words coming from her lapdog. Be careful, she might hear you.”

Gilla admired their strength, both women seeming bold and uncaring that they stood before each other, waste deep in the water, exposed and bare. Beyond a scar where Pana’s left breast was missing, their physiques were flawless, fit and slim as Gilla expected a god to be. But where Rhea was composed and relaxed, the other eidolon was poised with her sword raised, ready to attack again.

Pana’s eyes burned with anger. The aura around her darkened, accenting her pale skin. “You have no right to that power.” She thrust the sword toward Rhea in emphasis. “Mother should never have given it to you!”

“I thought it might have been you,” Rhea continued unfazed, but dropped the mocking tone from her voice. “Was that the only reason you invited me here? I assume you were also the one who assassinated the others. All at Lian’s instructions, no doubt.”

The aura vanished. Pana broke eye contact again, turning her back to Gilla and Jonnathan. “She didn’t tell me to kill you.”

“Then why? And why did you defend me against those villagers?”

“She wants you dead, but she told me not to even try because I would fail. And no one touches you except me.”

Rhea took a step forward and reached toward Pana, but let her hand fall after a moment.

“What tipped you off?” Pana asked, abashed, and relaxed.

Gilla did not realize she had stood, her head poking out of the top of the brush to her eyes, and dropped back down, then saw Jonnathan was also standing and gawking at the bare women. If they turned toward them, they would be hard to miss his long ears. She swatted him. He gasped in irritation before he could stop himself. Throwing his hands over his mouth, he dropped into the brush, the rustling leaves loud in Gilla’s ears.

Both goddesses’ heads jerked in the direction of the brush, cutting their discussion short. “I wonder what that was,” Rhea said quizzically and smirked.

Jonnathan and Gilla locked wide-eyed stares, gripping each other’s hands in panic.

“Who’s there?” Pana shouted, her aura returned. “Come out now, or it will be worse if I find you myself.”

Just as Gilla was about to give herself up, seeing no way out of their predicament, an oddly familiar male voice bellowed from outside the entrance.

“Ladies! Are you in there?”

A smile lit up Rhea’s face as Pana’s paled further. “Pyrien!” Rhea shouted gleefully. “It has been too long. But wait there. Turn around. We are indecent.” Gilla threw a hand over Jonnathan’s eyes when Rhea climbed out of the hot spring and began dressing. “We will be—” Rhea turned to include Pana, but at some moment that Gilla had missed, the other goddess had vanished. Rhea sighed. “I’ll be right there.”

When the sounds from the man and the goddess faded into the distance, Gilla stepped out of the bushes with a huge sigh of relief. Jonnathan dropped to his knees behind her. He held up his shaking hands.

“Well, that was intense,” he said between deep breaths.

“An assassin god? Assassinating other gods? This is crazy!” Gilla threw up her hands, unsure what to think about all of it.

“What do we do about it?”

Gilla frowned in confusion. “What can we do about it? They are gods. Let them handle it. Rhea seems pretty capable on her own. Did you see how she stopped that sword with just a coin!”

Jonnathan nodded sheepishly. “We … we should go before they come back. I think they heard me.”

Gilla did not think they were in trouble, the bush could have been disturbed by any number of forest creatures, but agreed. She did not want to hide in that bush all day, and Pana seemed to have gone, anyway. After what she had seen, she did not think Pana would ever apologize, and Gilla no longer wanted to find out. She headed for the exit, but Jonnathan proceeded to examine the goddess’s things on the chair.

“What are you doing? Don’t touch her stuff! We don’t have time for that!” Gilla scolded him in a whisper. Recoiling out of embarrassment, he nodded and followed after her.

They cut straight through the forest back toward the village. Moving as quickly as they could without leaving Jonnathan behind, they paused upon reaching the small creek again. Gilla crossed it in a rush, nearly losing her balance near the end, and frantically waved for him to follow. His cautions from their previous crossing turned out to be justified, though, as half way across, the foot of his gimp leg slipped. He toppled into the stream with a yelp.

Gilla rushed down the bank to give him a hand, but stopped short of the water. She did not want to get her shoes wet if he was not hurt. “Are you all right?”

Sitting in the creek, he splashed with irritation. His hair was matted to his face, water dripped from his hanging ears, and his shoulders slumped in defeat. “My mom is going to kill me.”

“So much for not getting wet,” she said with a sigh when she realized he was at least mostly fine, then struggled not to chuckle. “Come out of there.”

He frowned at her as he sloshed toward the bank. “Don’t laugh.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it. Does anything hurt?” she managed between giggles.

He examined himself with only a little enthusiasm, and then his face paled as he stared at his gimp leg.

“What is wrong?” Gilla asked.

Jonnathan turned slowly, revealing blood staining down the side of his pants. Before Gilla could react, he reached into his pocket and jerked something from inside. He removed his hand and held it out for her to see, revealing the coin with the sword point stuck in it. The tip was covered in blood.

“How did you get that?”

“She set it on the chair when she got out of the pool. I just picked it up. I didn’t think they would miss it … but ….” He stared at the object on his palm with his mouth hanging open for what seemed like an hour.

“But what, Jonnathan?” Gilla was both confused and furious. Even if they would not miss the items, humans should never touch things belonging to gods unless given. Without answering, he stepped toward her and exited the water in smooth strides. Gilla’s heart skipped a beat. “Jonnathan! Your leg! It’s … all better?”

He jumped in place, wiggled his leg in the air, and stomped it back down. A huge smile split his face in two. He bolted up the creek bank without so much as a single slip on its smooth small stones, striking a victory pose once he was at the top.

“This is amazing, Jonnathan!”

Slumping, he frowned at his feet. “Yeah, but my mom is going to freak. And I’m wet.”

Gilla could not help but chuckle. “Who cares; you are healed! It’s a warm day, and you’ll probably dry off before we get back.”

“She’s still gonna freak.” He did not look amused. “Sometimes I wish my mom was more like your dad. He’s so relaxed.”

“My dad is only relaxed because of his …” Gilla started, and an idea hit her like a hammer. “My dad!” She scrambled up to Jonnathan and grabbed his arms. “Please! You have to let me have it. I can heal him, too!”

Jonnathan’s eyes widened, and he shoved it at her. “Yes, of course! Take it!”

The second it was in her hands, Gilla took off running as hard as she could, barely taking a moment to shout over her shoulder. “I’m sorry, I’ll meet up with you later!”

“Wait. Wait up!”