Chapter 11—Roles Played

Ace felt like the conversation they had after lunch was a good one. While they were still at the start of Hope and Andra’s lessons, the two seemed to grasp the principles of refraction without trouble and would surely be ready to practice themselves. With the bands doing most of the work, the hurdles wouldn’t be that hard to overcome, but as he watched them and watched King and Micaela’s corrections, he felt like something was still missing. He hadn’t put his finger on it when he returned to his room, but as he prepared for bed he thought he finally figured it out.

Micaela was right, for one.

Focusing too much on physics was the wrong way to go about it. It could frame how you thought about luminance and steer you away from your limits, but physics didn't explain the matter of belief. It could show you that energy could be solid too, but it couldn't explain why he preferred his arm blades to King's glaive, or truly tell you how to become a light-bearer. Physics wasn't meant to do that. However, calling it spiritual energy put them on the right track, but even with a destination in mind it didn't feel like the train was moving. It didn't feel like they had all the tools to get it moving either, and with only one last day of prep, he wondered if they'd ever find them.

He wondered about this as he fell asleep, and when his dreams took him back to Phophorus's side, he felt somewhat relieved.

“Why sit out here?” Said Paimon. “I believe we have a guest who would better explain it than you or I.”

Lilith was shocked at first but quickly smiled. “I did not know he was here.”

"Preparations upon preparations, as he says." Paimon smiled. Phosphorus looked at Seiros, who shrugged.

“Who is this you speak of?” He asked them instead.

Paimon waved to the crumbling tavern. “Inside.” He led. Lilith followed, and Seiros shrugged one last time as he and Phosphorus followed too.

Inside they found the children at play, and a rather rotund man going over parchments at a table. He almost filled the table, leaning over his belly to see his papers, his large arms easily making their way around his body. A small smile sat on his face, even as he looked at his parchments with consternation. As Phosphorus's group drew closer he lifted his head and that smile grew into a grin. Ace knew this face, though it had been colored by darkness before and was not nearly so pale. Still, he thanked the dream even more.

“Phophorus, Seiros, this is Waas.” Paimon introduced him.

Waas rose from the table and towered over both men. “Now who are these pup gods you have brought to me, Paimon?”

Phosphorus flared at the phrase, "Pup god!" His light brightened, despite the hand Seiros placed on his shoulder.

"Small and fragile, newborn thing. Shining ever so brightly but ever so unable to banish the darkness." Waas let out a jolly laugh as if Phosphorus's anger was a joke between them. "No iconography, no dominion of his own. Phosphorus, was it? Are you perhaps from Zeus' domain?"

The laugh was diffusing, and despite himself, Phosphorus let go of his rage. “I am…” Still, his words came cold.

"Of course! But you are no child of Zeus, no. What prayers do you hear?"

“I hear prayers for the morning, and receive them when it comes.” Phosphorus answered proudly.

“A dawnbringer then! Son of Eos, who is daughter of Hemera. The dawn always comes, the day always follows night. But you, who bear the sun on your shoulders, people forget your name when night stretches on. You are a pup god, for even with what you are and your mother and grandmother are, you are not Apollo. And even though Apollo is not Helios he is still a child of Zeus’ domain. I find celestial genealogy to be o’ so fun!” Waas clapped his mighty hands and the room shook.

"Helios…and grandmother Hemera. Humans do not recall these names as easily as you do." Phosphorus's opinion of Waas was changing. Ace's opinion changed with him.

Waas let out a happy rolling laugh. "Because what need are names like Helios and Hemera when Zeus is the sky and Apollo is the sun. Humans are short-lived creatures. If you're a pup, then they are fleas." He laughed again. "And because you are not the son of Zeus' domain, you too will come to be forgotten when the world dawns a crown."

Phosphorus’s eyes widened. “You know about the crown of the world?”

Waas sat cross-legged on the floor. “I do! It will be the second time I have seen it ripped up from the grave of dead lands.”

“What is it?” Phosphorus asked, thinking of his mother. “My mother thinks that it may prove prosperous for the lands but I have my doubts.”

Waas chuckled, “For good reasons, yes, Lilith?” He looked at her and she nodded.

Phosphorus’s eyes followed his. “What can either of you tell me?”

“Waas laughs so much because there is a jest in his every action. Speak into the darkness for the Joyful Waas and he might tell you one of his dark jokes.” Lilith said, then sighed. “He has already told you. The Crown of the World would make the world the dominion of he who wears it.”

“So if Zeus wore this crown, the whole world would be his?”

Waas chuckled, "Indeed, and all skies would be his. All eyes cast up would know his name, and sing his praise. His sun would be Apollo, his moon Artemis. And perhaps the crumbs of prayers would go to Eos and Phosphorus. Perhaps." He chuckled again.

“My mother feels like Zeus should acknowledge this crown, but he remains apathetic.”

“Zeus, silly Zeus. Who only rules because his father swallowed a lie instead of him. Zeus, silly Zeus, who fears the fate his father suffered, where each child is one that could take his life.” Waas went on and let his eyes settle on Seiros.

Seiros laughed. “If Phosphorus is a pup, I am less than that. He brings the dawn and I am but a quick bolt of lightning.”

"And yet if Zeus ever met you, would he not ask himself if this son would kill him?" Waas grinned. Seiros shook the thought away without letting it settle. Phosphorus didn't pursue it, pulling Waas back to the crown instead.

“So you’re saying he ignores it because he’s too sure his son will undo him?”

“In a way, yes,” Waas said. “And in another, what does a god know about the lands outside his domain?”

Lilith spoke up, “What Waas is saying is that Zeus cannot even begin to guess what that crown might mean. When you stepped out of his lands, did you not feel something inside you? Something that shook you to your center?”

“Seiros calls this land a godless land. I could not easily step into it.” Phosphorus sighed.

“Where is Zeus’ father?” Lilith asked.

“Sealed forevermore in Tartarus.”

“Overthrown but not killed.” Lilith smiled.

“And you’re implying?” Phosphorus met her eyes.

"What if I were to tell you that these godless lands had gods before and they were slain?" She asked, and his brow furrowed.

“I would say you speak blasphemy. To imply mortality to the immortal. Zeus can no more die than the sky.”

Waas laughed hardily, holding his stomach as he rumbled. Lilith sighed.

"The Gods where I came from thought the same thing. There, Anu was the sky and king of gods, father of demons and spirits. Do you know Anu, pup god?"

"I have never known this name." Phosphorus shook his head.

"There were mortals who did and prayed to him in his domain like your mortals pray to Zeus. But when the crown was unearthed his sky fell."

Phosphorus looked at Waas, still shaking with light laughter.

“All so joyous, is it not?” The big man said.

“More frightening, I would say. You speak as if it was always present, just buried in the dirt. You say it would make the world the domain of one god, and yet speak of godless lands and Gods I have never known. I have more questions than answers, and I do not know how to meet this darkness. What is the crown of the world?” Phosphorus spoke sharply.

"In no uncertain terms, it is the end of the world." Waas smiled in turn. "Though the Mother World will outlive us all, what we call the disparate domains of the gods will all fall into myths. Gods will fall, and mortals will follow. The world will end, as it has done before."

“Before?”

“How did this world come to be, pup god?” Waas asked.

“It was born of Chaos.” Phosphorus answered.

“Not unlike in my lands.” Lilith smiled. “Though I am sure there is a difference, it always starts with Chaos, right, Waas?”

“It is not incorrect no. From the infinite unformed comes the uniformed. Titans here, Gods there. Time goes on, Chaos becomes a memory, while heads are bowed to Zeus or Anu. Chaos, which can never fall like the sky might. Which will never delay like the coming day. There is an immortal if ever there was one.”

“Are you saying that there was a world before Chaos made this one?”

Waas tapped the floor, swung his arm, and swept papers up from the table. “I have sat on that in fact. I might say that while chaos names your god he merely receives its prayers… No! Perhaps its fears!” He flicked through these papers. “Chaos is immortal, it is always there, and waiting. It is not that there was a world before chaos but that world’s come to be when chaos blinks.”

Phosphorus went silent for a moment and Ace thought about what he was hearing. For this young god, this matter was hard to parse, but for him, he had Fang’s story. The past eras. The Wild, the Tamed, the Dawn, the Dusk. If Ace was in the era of the Dusk did that mean Phosphorus was in the era of the Dawn? And Waas, he came before it then, perhaps as old as the era of the Tamed.

“How… many times have you seen the world end?” Phosphorus asked the devil, and he smiled his joyous smile.

“Only once. Born just a few ages before that time could come.” Waas leaned onto his hand. “And to your next question, it starts with someone finding the crown of the world.”

“Did the gods of these lands die because of the crown?” Phosphorus spoke of where they were now.

“No. They died because the sky became Zeus here, or Thor there, and whoever lurked in between became less than a god, for how could you be god of the sky when there is Zeus or Thor?” Waas answered.

“Are you hearing the jest now, pup god?” Lilith turned to Phosphorus.

“He is saying that I will likely be dead before the world ends.” He kept his eyes on Waas who smiled wide.

“Likely, yes, but where is the joy in that?” Waas’ eyes glowed and Lilith and Paimon smiled.

“Such a heady conversation, and not an ounce of wine.” Said Seiros as he smiled too.

"Wine would make this matter more joyous, would it not!" Waas rose. "I shall serve you wine, and I shall serve you a jest too. A god thinks that they are more powerful for how brightly they burn, but the power of gods and spirits lies not in brightness but in how we persist as chaos grows." From his shadow, Waas pulled out a clay pot. Glasses came too and he filled them generously.

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“What does that mean exactly?” Phosphorus asked as he took the glass.

“If chaos is what waits when the world has ended, then it is order we find ourselves in now. If Chaos is immortal and Order is its antithesis, then even if it is not immortal it is at least inevitable. Order will never praise or fear a god, but it will remember the roles that gods played.”

Seiros knocked his drink back and smiled at Waas, “So what is the joke here, joyful one?”

Waas grinned, “Why what else but finding roles to survive the end of the world!”

“And if we do? It sounds like the end is inevitable too.” Phosphorus stared into his drink.

“We make it end in a way we like.” Lilith smiled at him, and Phosphorus smirked.

Ace saw defiance in this god's eyes but lost the dream as another began to pull him away. Still, as he drifted a thought stayed with him. When he talked to the others tomorrow, they'd be figuring out their roles…

⁘⁛Guiding Light⁛⁘

Dogs flowed like lightning through the streets and sky, zipping out and about, reaching borders, and running information back home. Rashawn waited for them there, the painted dog mask worn as he raised his lantern staff above his head. He stood atop an empty brownstone and when the dogs returned to him his lantern flared. He lowered it to his side as he thought over everything they had seen. There were few people left to be found in those streets, and with glowing doors and walls serving as signs of shelter, he wondered if that was good or bad.

He wondered too, how he had grown so much. Where he started with three dogs before, he could summon fifteen of them now, glowing painted hounds that could run fast through the city. It felt like there was hardly a thing he couldn’t know at this point, only ignorant because he didn’t know what they should sniff out. Still, he knew enough, so when Corrosion rose from the roof beside him, he wasn’t surprised when it asked a question.

“What do you see, Painted Dog?”

“I told ya Big C, call me Rashawn.” Painted Dog wasn’t a name, it was a title. “And there’s not much left out there, like y’all were sayin. Everybody’s kinda found a place at the moment, but alotta those places are funky. My pups can’t get inside, and some of em got guys posted up outside.”

“Domains,” Corrosion turned out toward the city. “Each the garden of a god, bountiful only in the fruit they desire.”

“A couple of nights ago you mentioned that we’d be kickin in doors. I guess that’s about to start up soon.”

“Yes. Each domain is not unlike a nation, and those that spread rot should meet decay.”

Spread rot?

Rashawn couldn't pretend he didn't understand. Through the eyes of one of his painted dogs, he saw two figures shuffle out of a domain. They could not even be mistaken for angels. Blue-gray bodies slouched with too-long spines, bone bare fingers scratching their hide. Frog-like eyes searched around aimlessly, darting from window to window. They perked up as they met innocent eyes, and made foul howls as they took flight toward them. The painted dog howled in turn and Peter dove in, chainsword spewing flesh on stone walls. In a nearby window, three teen girls looked at their mechanical savior. He pointed at the painted dog, and the girls knew to follow it. It'd take them to the Enclave like so many of its pack had done before, while Rashawn's heart eased at another life saved.

“Hey, Big C?” He called. “What’s been going on with me. I can summon more dogs and even look through their eyes.”

“You have grown as a God.” Corrosion answered.

"But how? It's not like I really did anything." For the most part, he had only done surveillance while Corrosion, Slasher, and Peter did the work.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” came Fiona as she landed beside them. “Of all of us, you’ve done the most these past few nights, going back to Cerulean even.”

“How? I just had people following my dogs.”

"And those people found safety afterward. Following the golden-painted dogs led them to better places. You are a God of Guidance in that way, and the more your guidance proves fruitful, the more prayers you are offered," She explained, and Rashawn laughed.

“You get that from the Azure-eyed Prince?” He gave her a smirk.

“As matters have it, yes.” She gave one back. “On the Azure Coast, our relationship with God was different. The Prince had the mind that each soul had an inherent role. Some of us weren’t even meant to remain on the coast, but to set sail toward new horizons. It could take time to figure out that role, but once it was known we were encouraged to follow it.”

“So with Peter being the Azure Wrath, his role is to what? Show God’s anger?” Rashawn crossed his arms.

Fiona chuckled. “Yes, that’s about right.”

Rashawn looked at Corrosion. “And your role is salvation…but I’m a bit confused. You’ve had your power a lot longer than I have. Also, if we’re gods, who are we playing our roles for?”

“I have only recently found my godhood, for I walked a path of prophecy before. I have inherited the crimson forecast, and it is one of destruction.” Corrosion answered.

“But you’re a god of salvation.” Rashawn replied.

“A god who brings salvation through the death of the vile.” Corrosion stretched out its arms.

"One might be able to say we act for a Spiritual Order." Fiona offered. "Through this order, our light grows. For you, it is through prayer. A bit of their spirit is offered to you, and you brighten. For Corrosion, it's about consuming spirits." She went on and looked out at the city as her brother came into sight.

Behind them, shadows poured Slasher on the roof. Peter soon joined them and looked between all four.

“Am I interrupting something?” He asked.

Slasher shook his head. “If you are, I am too.”

Fiona smiled, “Just a little lesson I suppose. Rashawn was curious about how he grew stronger. You two got back just in time to help me explain.”

“What are we explaining?” Slasher asked.

“How to play your role properly.” She answered, and Rashawn turned to him.

“What’s the deal with you? Like, how’d you get strong?”

“I killed.” Slasher answered. “In the hells, I killed and killed. When I appeared, death followed. It didn’t take long for my light to become a sign of the end.”

“Corrosion’s destruction. You’re death. Pete’s wrath.” Rashawn stroked his chin, then looked at Fiona. “Does this spiritual order business got something to do with being a light eater and stuff?”

Fiona nodded. “In a way. I don’t remember enough of my lessons from the Coast to give you a thorough explanation, only that we pray to the prince and meet him in time. At that point he speaks to us personally on our soul and our light, where he sees us, and how to reach it. However, maybe I can say this about destruction and wrath. The Prince showed his wrath to the villainous, like Corrosion. While these things seem malevolent, they are necessary, wrath and destruction are ways of exacting justice. Slasher, in turn, is inevitability. You can run from death, but can never escape it.”

Rashawn stroked his chin again. “I guess I get it. Before, you said our souls have their own way of getting light. I guess if light is somehow our spirit, then it has its own way too. Corrosion and Pete are light eaters because their souls would try to eat the light, but also because destruction and wrath consumes stuff. The soul and spirit are different, but still connected.”

She said that as a scion, his soul reads the light, but maybe that wasn't enough for him to become the Golden Painted Dog. He also needed a spirit that sought to guide. Or perhaps, one that was willing.

“I guess that makes Slasher something like…a light…stopper…?” He found that he was suddenly missing Micaela and King. He was sure they’d come up with a better phrase.

“Makes sense to me,” Slasher nodded. Fiona laughed at the disappointed look Rashawn gave him.

"So me…if it's all about how I show people a better way, I guess that makes me a guiding light? The language is kinda off. Nobody got a better idea?"

Peter smirked. “I think you’re the one with the ideas here.”

Rashawn sighed. “Figurin this all out ain’t gonna be easy.” He really wished he could talk to Micaela and King.

“Well, I can help you understand one more part of it.” Fiona said. “What a light means depends on how the world sees it. Out here, in the Godless lands, we have more options than any lights formed inside the domains.”

"Which is the cue for us to start kicking in doors, huh?" Rashawn smirked. It all reminded him of Cerulean. There, he was neither a scion nor a God of Guidance.

Fiona simply looked at Corrosion.

“Let us purge this world of all rotted gardens.” It said as it leaped from the building, and the rest of them followed.

Rashawn sighed one last time. Wondering which domains would endure the longest…

⁘⁛New Olympus⁛⁘

Then there was New Olympus…

Several of New York’s towers came together, crowding around the World Trade Center to make it almost mountainous. It sat like a spire of glass and steel, shining bright and high above the rest of the city. Zeus sat on the highest floor, a woman with a curvaceous body sitting in his lap, as his touch sent a buzz down her body.

He savored this display. Much had changed since his rule, and had changed for the better. Women who understood the intoxication of their bodies were easy to find, and each was ready to bow and break to his will. He had a harem already, bare bodies lounging around him, pleased by the simple lightning of his presence. When he was done with the one in his lap he would sample each of them in turn, causing great storms to rage around the spire and making them cry his name in praise. Being king had become so pleasing, though the slightest interruption was quick to stir his anger.

Like the body blowing the doors open now. A bronze form filled the doorway, clicking and clanking like clockwork machinery. It stomped forward and Zeus pulled the woman to one knee, leaning back and propping his head up on his arm.

“What foul fool dare disturb me?” He said, almost bored.

It spoke in a buzzing voice, “I am here to rip you from your seat. This atrocity is an affront to my godhood!”

“And you are?”

“I am Roboto!”

“Turns out I didn’t care. Roboto, fall onto your own sword. Spare me the lifted finger.” Zeus shooed him off.

“You fool! Who are you to speak to me like that!” Roboto’s arms peeled back, unfolding as cannons slid forward.

Zeus pointed and lightning blasted from his finger, striking Roboto’s body and sending his chunks clattering against the ground. He sighed and tossed the woman from his knee.

"Nancy!" He barked, and the dark-skinned man stepped in, a new orange suit loud in the god's eyes.

“What can I do for ya, boss man?” Nancy leaned against the wall.

“Tell me what this is and why it bothered me.”

Nancy looked at Roboto's head. Zeus settled more into his boredom.

“You ain’t gonna wanna hear it.” Nancy spun the head on a finger.

“Try me.”

“Nearby domains feel a bit inadequate in comparison. It’s bad for their rep. Gotta come over and put the big man in his place to save some face.” He dropped the head.

“And how long will this go on?”

“Till they knock ya down, or you’re sitting at the tippy top, maybe.”

Zeus covered his eyes as he leaned back. “Then I should start calling down storms.”

"Maybe, or, if you'll allow me to make a suggestion?"

He lifted his hand enough to see the man. “What?”

"Why not bring them into your fold? Turn an old name into a title, hand it out and expand your domain by making them beholden to ya?" Nancy rolled the head to his feet.

“Do you mean to give them the name of Olympians?” Zeus glared as he stopped it.

“I think you got that unique power, boss man. You’re the king but your courts lacking. Sure you got us runnin around, proving our place, but this place ain’t gonna be empty for long.” Nancy took in the many naked women. “Almost empty.”

Zeus picked up the head. "And his domain would be mine…" He wasn't asking, but thinking out loud. "Fine. They can deal with all you lesser gods." He crushed it in his palm and tossed it glowing back to the floor. "Wake up, Hephaestus." He demanded.

Roboto's shattered body flowed back together, glowing and pulsing, trying to remember a shape.

It slowly built itself back up into a broad man with bronze skin bolted to his body. Zeus heard the clockwork in his chest and watched steam vent from pipes in his back.

“Father…?” Hephaestus gazed at his hands.

“To the forge, boy. It is your land and those in it are your workers. This world is lacking your craftsmanship. Bring it back.” Zeus demanded. Hephaestus took a long moment, nodded, and left the room.

Nancy watched him go. “Did more than just give him a title, huh?”

Zeus grinned. “I came to hate mortals before that monster ruined my kingdom. They are small and learned to revere small things, praising Hephastus for how arms let them kill their neighbor. Praising Ares for how he guided their wars. Each prayer gave breath to Prometheus’s prophecy. However, if all their domains are mine, then all their prayers are mine.”

“Clever one, boss man. Always a step a head.” Nancy clapped.

"Always." Zeus leaned forward. "Go out and give messages to all the demons seeking my approval. Bring me worthy lights and you will earn your place."

“Off I go then, boss man.” Nancy departed and new doors rose to close the room.

Zeus snapped, and one of the many women hurried to bow before him. As he thought about how he'd have her serve him, he laughed inwardly. Roboto should have never made it this far, but if he killed some of those lesser gods he had done Zeus two favors. Getting rid of the trash was always preferred, but he also reminded the king that the crown was heavy…

[Chapter 11 ends…]