“Jesus Christ it’s cold.” I muttered as we approached an apartment building the next morning.
“What you see here is a man that should theoretically have access to the ancient wisdom of your world, but keeps forgetting things like winter coats, scarves, or that he can even adjust the surrounding air temperature to make himself and everyone around him comfortable,” Rhia explained to Lily.
“Everyone around him,” I muttered mockingly. “You may look like Belldandy, but damned if you don’t have the attitude of Urd sometimes.” I did adjust the surrounding air temp, though.
Persia looked over at Rhia. “Sister, do you have any idea what he’s talking about?”
“Probably another one of his shows again. You know, those cartoons he likes to watch.”
“It’s called anime,” I said.
Rhia cocked an eyebrow. “What’s the difference?”
I shrugged. “There isn’t any, really, but as a fan I’m obligated to correct you. The only real difference is one’s in Japanese, the other isn’t.”
“Oh! Like the show we got my new name from?” Persia asked. I winced.
“You didn’t…” Rhia started, but I cut her off.
“Look, it was her idea! She wanted to know about a character, and I told her. She was the one who picked the name!”
Lily smiled at us as we entered the building. “He may be the god, but I’m starting to sense where the power actually is.”
Rhia smirked. “Don’t say that too loud. He’ll start to realize it.”
“Standing right here, you know.” We entered an elevator and made our way halfway up the building. I admit I hadn’t really studied Russia too in depth beyond the direction its leadership was trying to push it, so my best guess was that this would be the equivalent of a middle-class area in the States. I’d imagine it was the same here. It’s been a long time since bread lines and communism after all. Now it was a capitalist country with a fake democratic government. We made our way to a door at the end of the hall and knocked on it.
“My Husband, are you not the most powerful person on this world? Why not just let yourself in?”
I glanced back at Persia. “Politeness must be maintained, my dear. We want to make friends. Is that something Kamiki does?”
“You ask that while there’s a ship loaded down with a hundred Junaians preparing to take over this world?” Rhia asked.
“Fair point,” I replied.
The door opened a crack, and a bright blue eye appeared about knee level to me.
“Hello?” a little voice asked.
I knelt down so I wouldn’t tower over the eye.
“Hi. Are your parents home?”
“Are you the god man? You look like the god man on TV.”
“I am. I even brought some friends with me. Is your mommy or daddy home?”
“Yes. Do you have an angel? Daddy said God has angels.”
“As a matter of fact, I have an angel with me today. Would you like to meet her?” I scooted to the side so that the blue eye could see Rhia behind me. Rhia smiled and gave her wings a couple small flaps.
Suddenly the door flew open and a young girl burst out into the hallway, blonde twin tails streaming behind her as she launched herself at Rhia’s legs, hugging them tightly. I’m not sure how much exposure Rhia had to small children, but in the space of a second she went from smiling to having a look of utter confusion and maybe just a hint of terror.
“Jo- Zekken!” she hissed, nearly forgetting to use my public name. “What’s going on?”
I looked over at the little girl, who looked like she was going to start crying as she continued to hug Rhia’s legs.
“Have you met my daddy? Can he come visit too?”
“I’m sorry?” Rhia said.
“Mommy said Daddy was with the angels. You’re an angel. Does that mean Daddy can visit too?”
The color drained from Rhia’s face. I’m pretty sure it did mine as well. Persia’s tail drooped to the floor, while Lily gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.
“Petra? Where’d you go? You didn’t go near the oh!” a voice from the apartment said. I looked into the apartment to see a plain looking woman in sweats leaving a room in the back. Well, plain if you didn’t count the striking blue hair and silver eyes. “Petra! Come inside right now! Get away from them!”
Petra looked back over her shoulder to look at her mother. “But mommy! She’s an angel! Maybe she knows Daddy!”
Petra’s mother looked up from her and took a better look at us. As she scanned each of us, her eyes got wider. Rhia’s wings to Persia’s fur, to Lily’s hair, and then finally to me.
“Oh my God in heaven,” she whispered.
“Close enough,” I said, smiling brightly. “I’m Zekken, and this is Rhia, Persia, and Lily. May we please have a moment of your time?”
Mutely, she nodded and gestured for us to come in, then took a look around herself. It wasn’t a large apartment, but it had a comfortable, lived in feel to it. Cozy. She immediately started scrambling around to pick up toys and a load of laundry that had been piled on a chair. As we entered, Petra let go of Rhia’s legs, suddenly fascinated with Persia’s tail. She kept trying to grab at it, but Persia made sure to keep it out of her reach. The way the tail kept swinging back and forth as Petra chased it around, one would think that Persia was just playing with her, but the look of terror on her face at the thought of having her tail yanked would quickly dismiss that idea.
“Please, have a seat,” the woman said. “Can I get you a drink or something? I’m afraid I don’t have much.”
I waved away her apology. “It’s quite alright, Miss…”
“Isabella is fine,” she said, shaking my hand as I took a seat. She took her own seat in a chair, pulling Petra on to her lap so she’d stop chasing Persia’s tail. “So, what would you like to talk about Mr. Zekken?”
“Let me start off by asking you a question, if you don’t mind? Do any of us, or this situation, seem familiar to you? Like you’ve experienced it before in a dream or something?”
“Ask if they know Daddy, Mommy,” Petra requested in not quite a whisper. Isabella shushed her, then looked at us closely. Then she shook her head.
“I’m afraid none of this seems familiar. I mean, I recognize you from the TV, but that’s it. Congratulations, by the way,” she smiled at Persia.
Persia turned bright red, her fur doing nothing to hide the fact. She attempted to hide behind the bill of her hat, but still managed a soft thank you and a small smile.
“Mommy! She looks like your painting!”
The four of us exchanged looks, then looked at Isabella, who was looking closely at Persia.
“Could it be…” she wondered to herself. Then she set Petra on the floor and excused herself to a room in the back. After a couple minutes she came back out holding a medium sized canvas for painting, and then turned it so that we could see it.
On the canvas we could see the painting of a kitten, an outstanding one at that. You’d swear it would jump right out and start running around if it could. The kitten was a gray tabby whose markings were remarkably similar to Persia’s. The kitten itself seemed to be shyly peering out of an upturned ballcap. A blue one with an orange bill. The kitten’s tail looked to have a golden ring around it with an emerald setting that was quite obviously a wedding ring. We all stared at for a moment before I finally looked at Isabella.
“So, you’re a painter?”
“Only for the last few years. I suddenly got the urge one day, and my husband, God rest his soul, came home with a ton of art supplies after work that night. Wait here.” She darted back out and came back with a few more canvases and laid them out for us. They were all exceptionally well done. The first one was a field of bluebonnets, and it would have looked idyllic if it weren’t for the massive fire consuming the field from the inside out. An angel bowing before a man in a toga. Black wings wrapping around a couple of space suits. A hiltless sword skewering an eagle, a bear, and a camel on the moon. A golden beam enveloping a church. Wings with black feathers floating off revealing white ones underneath. The last one, however, really caught my attention. It was quite obviously an asteroid, with the same sword as before sticking out of it, giving it the classic sword in the stone vibe. Etched on to the sword in both paintings was a golden Z. At the bottom each painting was the outline of a bell, the bottom portion was Isabella’s signature, completing the outline.
Rhia looked over them, then at me.
“There’s no way she could’ve known about some of these events.”
Lily was also leaning over the paintings, silver eyes sparkling. “She’s like me! Only she paints while I dream.”
“Um, excuse me,” Isabella said behind us. I turned and gave her my attention. “Could you tell me what’s going on?”
Persia was still staring at the kitten painting, her fingers softly passing over the ring shown on the tail.
Lily stood up and walked over to Isabella, then held her hands. “You’re like me,” she said, smiling. “You can see what happens before it does. I see it in my dreams, you paint it.”
Persia grabbed my sleeve and pulled me closer to look at the kitten again.
“Husband, what does this ring mean?”
“Looks like a wedding ring.”
“A wedding ring? What’s that?”
I looked at her incredulously. “You really were a shut in up there, weren’t you?”
Rhia smacked the back of my head. She seemed to be getting rather fond of that lately.
“It’s a symbol of marriage in many cultures here on Earth. Usually on the third finger of the left hand. And it looks like John owes you a gorgeous one,” she said, closely examining the ring portrayed on the painting. “It matches your eyes.”
I could almost see those eyes sparkling as Persia looked at me. I gripped her hand briefly, telling her I’d take care of it later, once we’d finished our little world tour. I looked around the small room at the others. Lily was playing with Petra, who was fascinated with her pink hair. Isabella was watching us, trepidation written all over her face. I released Persia’s hand and stood up to face her.
“Isabella, you have a singular gift for painting. Would you believe me if I told you that everything you’ve painted here is something that I’ve been personally involved with in the last few years, or will be in the next week?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
She stared at me, dumbfounded. “I, uh, I’m not sure. My husband used to laugh at my imagination when painting, but I never thought much about it. I just painted what came to mind.”
I smiled at her, then picked up the painting of the prostrating angel. “I’m particularly fond of this one. Would it be too much to ask if I could have this when our business here is finished?” I could feel eyes burning the back of my head as I asked this, but I knew Rhia wouldn’t say anything in front of Isabella.
Confused, Isabella slowly nodded her head. “Uh, sure. I don’t have a problem with that. They’re just taking up space anyway. I’m sorry, but can I ask what all this is about again? I have a lot of housework to catch up on and it’s almost time for Petra’s nap.”
“I can help with housework,” came a soft voice behind me. Isabella and I turned to look at the source. Persia was slowly getting to her feet with her hand raised to get our attention. “I can’t do much to help my husband, but I’m happy to help with that. I just, um…” She turned beet red under her fur and wrung her hands together. “Can I have this painting of the kitten?” she asked nervously, peeking at us from under the brim of her hat. “To have an Oracle’s work to hang in my room would be an honor.”
Isabella’s eyes went wide then shot to me. “Oracle?” she asked.
I nodded. “Oracle. Just like in all the old myths and legends that say they tell the future and give sage advice. Isabella, you can tell the future through your paintings.”
“Fuck off,” she said incredulously, then clamped her hands over her mouth, eyes darting to Petra. I chuckled, guessing that she tried not to use too much foul language around her daughter. She needn’t have bothered though, as Lily was too busy tickling Petra to death for the little girl to have noticed anything her mother said. Isabella looked back at me, lowering her voice anyway. “I’m just a widowed mother barely making ends meet here and painting when I can afford to. I don’t know anything about this oracle business she’s talking about.”
“We just learned about it ourselves yesterday. That’s when we met Lily here.” I turned and gestured at the pink haired woman playing with Petra. Hearing her name, Lily looked up and gave us a smile, but continued tickling Petra. Looking back to Isabella, I continued speaking. “You said you were barely making ends meet, right? What if I could give you a place to stay at no charge? A place where little Petra here would want for nothing? A place where you could paint until your heart’s content, and do whatever you wanted when your muse was taking a vacation? Would you like that?”
Isabella eyed me suspiciously. “What’s the catch? Nothing comes for free in this world.”
Rhia and I exchanged the briefest of smiles before I looked Isabella dead in the eye. “Funny you should mention that…”
*
Isabella stared out the window, not believing her eyes. “Bozhe moi,” she whispered to herself.
“It’s so pretty, Mommy!” Petra exclaimed, face pressed up against the glass. “Is that where we were?”
“Yes, my little sun. That’s Earth,” Isabella said wondrously.
Rhia and I stood back by the door to the large ballroom (the same room that I’d brought the world leaders to years ago) as the Fedorova girls marveled at the view. I placed my arm over Rhia’s shoulder as she leaned into me, smiling at their wonder. Lily stood apart from them, also gazing out the window, but somehow not as impressed.
“Is everything alright, Lily?” I asked.
She looked back at me over her shoulder, then gave a small smirk that seemed to be aimed at herself. “I remember my dreams perfectly, you know? Not how everyone starts to forget theirs soon after they wake up, right? To be honest, I’ve seen this view so many times in my sleep that the real version just doesn’t quite match the hype. Sorry.” She chuckled slightly at the end of her apology. I guess she felt like she was insulting me in some fashion, but I waved it off.
“No need to apologize. You can’t help what you can’t help, right?” I shrugged, then changed the subject. “I don’t know if you ladies plan on staying here or not, but we do have some rooms set aside for you, complete with everything you need to live beyond comfortably, minus any personal items you may want to retrieve later. Isabella, I hope you don’t mind, but I brought those paintings up as well. I’d like to look at them a bit more in depth.”
“That’s fine. I was thinking about getting rid of them anyway.”
I smiled. I hadn’t brought it up to anyone yet, but I’d noticed something interesting about two of the paintings that had started a plan forming in my head. Looking over my shoulder, I got the attention of the maid waiting at the door.
“Could you please give these fine young women a tour of our modest home and show them their rooms? My residence is off limits for the time being, however.”
“Yes, My Lord,” she replied, bowing her head slightly before gesturing for the new girls to follow her. Lily immediately started after her, eyeing me out of the corner of her eye as she passed by. Isabella had to carry Petra out of the room, since she showed no sign of wanting to pull her face off the window. After they’d departed, Rhia looked up at me with a smile.
“She’s cute.”
“All girls are cute at that age. It’s when they become teenagers that they manifest their fangs.”
“I was talking about Lily,” Rhia said with a smirk. “Bit skinny though. You’re going to break her in half if you’re not careful.”
My eyebrows shot up into my hairline.
Rhia raised one of her own. “Why look so surprised? You didn’t notice her undressing you with her eyes all day?”
“Uh, no, I noticed that. Kinda happens every time I go out with this body y’all designed for me,” I said, remembering when Rhia, Su, Hannah, and Persia (when she was still Bridgette) sculpted a body out of a miniature model body for me to emulate for a public persona. “What’s surprising is you already assuming that I’m going to sleep with her.”
“Yes. Isabella too. Persia thinks it’ll be a good idea. Her memory is a bit fuzzy, but she said she thinks the strongest Oracles share a close bond with the god they represent. A close, personal bond. They will be your representatives on Earth, after all.”
“Whoa now. I’m not one to turn down a willing partner if it comes to it, especially since at least 4 out of 6 wives or wives-to-be have absolutely no issue with it. The two human members of our family may have an opinion on that, by the way. But the key word there is willing. Yes, Lily has clearly shown that she’d take me right here on this floor if I gave her the go ahead, but Isabella is likely a different story. She’s a recent widow, and she has her little girl to think of. Besides, don’t you think six wives is enough for now? I may be a god, but even I only have so many hours in a day to properly appreciate all of you.”
Rhia chuckled, then leaned into my chest. “Dummy. You’re a god. We all know there are going to be long stretches where you’ll be too busy to even sit down, let alone spend time with all of us. And, as you’ve already pointed out, four out of six of us have vastly different ideas about marriage. We’re your first six. No one can ever take that away from us. If we were that worried about what you did with who, don’t you think one of us would have said something as you worked your way through the maid staff here?”
Still a little bewildered, I nodded my head. “I guess you’re right. Oh! That reminds me. Why, exactly, is everyone up here a woman? Again, I’m not complaining, but from what I gather, there’s always only been one male up here at any given time, minus our guests at the dinner party that one time.”
I felt a quick intake of breath from her, then mentally slapped myself in the head. One of those singular men had been Inton, of course, and I’d just reminded my new wife of her dead unrequited love. Sensing my sudden unease and knowing why through our mental link, Rhia wrapped her arms around my waist and squeezed.
“It’s okay. It’s been years, and I love you now. There will never be another man for me.”
I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed her back, burying my face in her blonde hair. “And I love you too. Can’t really make the same promise in return, though, ‘cause, well, you know…”
She laughed into my chest. I thought it was a sob at first, given the suddenness of it, but then she looked up at me with humor in her eyes. “You’re such a dork.” She let out a contented sigh. “To answer your question, I can only tell you why Inton only kept women up here, which will also reveal why I never stood a chance with him, despite my best efforts. Inton was gay.”
I raised an eyebrow, then lowered it. “I should’ve figured as much. Only a fool of a straight man would pass up on you. So, he only wanted women here because-”
“-he was dedicated to his job and didn’t want to be distracted by any emotional attachment or pleasures of the flesh. He put out a call for female volunteers for servants on a remote outpost to assist him in monitoring a developing civilization. Women trickled in for 4000 years. Some escaping their families, some at the behest of their families. Others were trying to disappear from the law, some were trying to find their place in life. He took them all in. Su was the first, naturally. She’d been a guest of your predecessor when he decided to bolt, and she ended up just staying to help Inton pick up the pieces. Hannah, by the way, is the newest girl here, not counting our Oracle friends and Ryo.”
I rested my chin on top of Rhia’s head as I thought about it. It made a certain amount of sense, I guess. Distractions can have huge consequences when the entire world is your responsibility, but…
“It just seems so lonely,” I muttered.
Rhia picked up on what I was thinking. “I’m sure he was, but he never let it show. He viewed his stewardship of Earth as an honor. He admired humans and their ingenuity, even if they were generations behind us in everything. His final act was the hardest decision he ever made. Not because he knew his life was ending, which I only realized at the last minute, but because he didn’t want to hurt his charges. He knew he’d be vilified by the world if they figured it out, but he did it anyway, so we could find you. What he did was the moral equivalent to kicking a basket of puppies into a rushing river just so he could find the one that could swim.” Her voice got low and mournful. “He kicked a lot of baskets over the centuries, so he probably should be vilified. Along with myself. The only time I ever tried to stop him was when I knew he was going to die. Not because he’d be killing millions of humans.” Tears started to soak my shirt as she sobbed quietly into my chest. “You should hate me, you know. You only got angry once. Did you know that? When you first discovered what happened. Linda and Shu don’t know how we found you, but the rest of us, we’ve spoken many times about it. We can’t figure out why you never lashed out at us. It’s been six years and it still bothers us. You only got angry once. It’s not natural.” She looked up, her golden eyes, red from crying, met my hazel ones. “Why didn’t you get angry? You had every right to. You should hate Inton. You should hate me. Millions of people. Your friends. Your family. Your parents. Because of us…” she trailed off.
I stepped back, holding her shoulders at arm’s length from me. Her eyes searched my face for any sign of emotion, almost desperately. Her face showed sadness, confusion, and despair, as if she thought I might actually take her up on her suggestion that I should hate her. Her hands had dropped from my waist and were now clutching themselves, squeezing tight enough to turn white. Her wings hung low on her back. After a few seconds of watching her, I spoke.
“Is that what you want? For me to hate you?”
Her eyes widened and her mouth started working, but no words came out. She had no idea how she should respond. I released her shoulders and started pacing, one hand supporting my elbow as the other stroked at my beard.
“I’ve actually thought about it a lot myself. Aside from my initial shock at what you showed me, I felt very little about it all. It worries me as well; you girls aren’t alone in that. Perhaps if Inton had survived and I had come face to face with the man responsible for so many senseless deaths, I might have felt something. Anger. Rage. A need for vengeance. But there was no target for anything like that. I just had you, and you swore to me that you had tried to stop him, no matter how selfish your reasons were. I had no reason to trust you. I didn’t know you at all, but I took you at your word, and I still don’t know why. Maybe it was because you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen and wasn’t thinking with the right head. Maybe it was the shock of it all. Maybe denial. Maybe it was the scale. 33 million people, four states, and two countries is a lot to wrap your mind around. Perhaps that’s why I focused on Ryo so much in the hours and days afterwards. She was something I could grasp. I could care for her, ensure her wellbeing, and interact with. She was my lifeline but may have also been my way of blocking out what threatened to overwhelm me.” I stopped pacing and half turned to Rhia. “You remember the attack on September 11th, right?”
She nodded, not saying anything.
“Before the Event, that was the greatest national tragedy and attack we’d ever faced. I was 18 at the time, just out of high school and getting ready for some crap job at the mall when the news cut on the TV. I watched the second plane hit. I remember thinking it couldn’t be an accident, but the shock of seeing it happen numbed me. I didn’t feel any anger at that point. That came hours later, but it was a futile anger. I had no one to direct it at, so I buried it until I joined the Army a couple years later. It wasn’t my intention to unleash it then, but our drill sergeants wanted us angry. They kept showing us that footage every chance they got. Stoking the flames. We were already at war with Afghanistan by that point, and Iraq was just starting up. We knew once we got out of basic we’d be going to whatever job school we’d all signed up for, and then most of us would be deployed before the end of the year. During basic, however, I used up all that directionless anger. I focused on my training, put all my passion into that, and by the time I graduated I was just tired. I couldn’t find it in myself to hate faceless people anymore. At least, not the ones that were already dead. Why bear a grudge against someone you’ll never have a chance of unleashing it on, right? So I forgot them. I coasted through my advanced training. I worked on helicopters for ten years. Deployed a few times, then got out, never once looking at any Iraqi that happened to be on our camp with any form of anger. Never seeing any Muslim as the enemy, like so many of my buddies did. The ones I dealt with were, for the most part, fine human beings just trying to make it in the world like I was. These guys hadn’t knocked down the towers. These guys hadn’t attacked civilian planes and killed thousands.”
Rhia continued to watch and listen silently as my words meandered. I looked her in those beautiful eyes that I loved so much.
“I don’t hate you. I could never hate you. You didn’t do this. You tried to stop it. I know I should feel more emotional about all of this than I do, but I can’t. I don’t think I have that bone in my body any more. Part of me wants to hate Inton for what he did. Even if I did hate him, he’s dead, and it does me no good to hold on to that grudge and anger. Even with all this power, I can’t bring back the ones we lost. I’m sure I can repair the damage done to the land, and one day I will, now that I’ve got a better grasp of my abilities, but I can’t repair the damage done to the families that will never see their loved ones again, and that’s something I’m going to have to live with. The best that I can hope to do now is ensure that nothing like it ever happens again. Which is why I need you by my side. Even after everything that’s happened, you’ve been the rock that I could lean upon. I can’t make him pay for what he did, but I can turn the energy that I’d waste on hate into a passion to save that beautiful blue world hanging outside those windows.”
I held out my hand to her, pushing my love and affection for her through our link.
“Please, stop worrying about things that can’t be undone. If you truly feel that much guilt, and I won’t blame you if you do, then I have your punishment ready.”
Despite the feelings I was pushing on to her, she looked at me nervously after my last statement.
“What would you have of me?” she asked, her voice low.
“Save the world with me, and never leave my side.”