The two walked along a path riddled with the black ichor that leaked from the void. Judas tried to focus his mind on piecing together the recent events. The initial shock had left him and now he wanted answers. After nearly thirty minutes of walking, neither he nor Ferrau had said a word to each other. Judas was confused about what had just occurred. One minute he thought he was dying, and the next he was talking to a Kaeli? Where had he gone? How did he come back?

Ferrau walked a few steps ahead of him, still naked. It was a strange form. The flesh clinging to his hips and ribs did not seem to react to the cold weather. While Judas began to cool down, and now freeze, Ferrau seemed fine in the cold. They walked into the snowy path and Judas began to remember what occurred before the void-out.

The entire area had been filled with snow until Judas exploded. It had somehow hindered snow falling from the sky. The graveyard had been ruined.

The silence ate away at Judas and his anxiety peeked. His thoughts raced and he became fidgety. Secretly, he was embarrassed for what he’d done, or tried to do. Judas took Ferrau’s silence as judgement for what he’d seen and heard. Someone had to break the ice so he began.

"So,” Judas began, inching through the silence, “where are you from?"

After a moment Ferrau responded, "Is that how you befriend someone? Asking where they're from?" He had an edge of sarcasm that Judas failed to notice.

"I - I didn't mean to - You haven't sai-," Judas stammered through a response before sighing and giving up. "I'm sorry, I'm just really anxious right now, traveling with a stranger and all."

Ferrau noticed the boy's shyness and chuckled.

"I don't know how to talk to you while you're," Judas hesitated, "well, you're naked."

Ferrau hadn't given any thought to his appearance until Judas mentioned it. Ferrau looked down at himself and the gears began turning until he stopped in his tracks. Something was wrong. Something was missing.

He noticed his sense of smell was not working. He sniffed the air, in search of some tingle to activate his sense of smell, but he caught nothing. Then, he noticed his hunger. Ferrau was always hungry, it was his defining trait as the God of Gluttony. He hungered after any and everything. For all of its faults, his hunger made him special and defined his place in Heaven. Yet, he could neither smell nor hunger anymore..

Finally Ferrau noticed that his stomach was missing. When he looked down, he only saw a black rib cage that faintly shined in the moonlight.

He had been castrated in a way that only a God could manage. This sense of betrayal, fear, and shock spiraled through Ferrau. He reached into his past and searched for answers, but only found more questions that further confused him.

How long had I been in the void? Who put me there? When and why?

Ferrau had not noticed his screaming as he fell to his knees in pain. His head ached as he struggled to remember how he became this way. Judas covered his ears and cringed as he suffered through the God's screaming. Ferrau touched all over his rib cage, as if testing if it were real. He pulled and tugged at it, yet he could not uncover anything hiding within the ebony bones. His sudden existential crisis carried on until Ferrau tired himself out. He lied against a tree muttering to himself as his tears dried. Judas looked on before attempting to reach out to him.

"I'm guessing you didn't always look like this?"

"No, I didn't," Ferrau answered flatly.

"Well, what happened?" Judas stood above him with more annoyance in his voice than he meant to admit.

Ferrau's words caught in his throat. His hands sat at his sides, smothered into the snow. "I don't know. I'm fucked up now."

"I'm sorry you're fucked up."

Ferrau looked up at the mortal, ready to return the insult. Yet he paused. Judas offered a small smile. The awkward twist of his lips was a gesture of kindness. Ferrau could feel his body relax a small bit after seeing his new partner smile down at him. Then they both laughed, grateful for the humor. Judas kneeled down to sit next to Ferrau and keep him company in the snow. Judas was back to looking up at the man hidden behind the curtain of curly hair.

Judas realized his earlier question may have offended Ferrau. If he didn't remember how he came to be like this, did he have any memory of his past at all?

"I'm from a little sea-port town called Auqia. Do you remember where you're from?"

"That's easy: I'm from Heaven."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"That would make sense," Judas said while looking down at his lap. Ferrau noticed the shy boy returning and it made his cheeks feel hot.

Judas thought back to his dad and his sister and how it felt to see them again, even if it did feel unreal. He felt less tense and tried to relax his shoulders.

"I'm sorry if I came off as rude. I haven't had to get to know someone in a while. You really saved me back there and I should have more gratitude."

Ferrau tilted Judas’ head up towards him. He was taken by the boy's glowing white eyes. While contrasted by darkness, they were still so full of emotion.

Judas stared back into glowing hazel eyes. He struggled to maintain contact, for fear his heart might burst from his chest.

"You're right to fear me. I'm pretty scary without a stomach and all. But I promise you can trust me," Ferrau said while still holding Judas' chin.

"Then explain what happened. I'm still confused on what I agreed to."

“You really don’t know anything about what just happened?”

"No,” Judas admitted with a face hued in shame.

Ferrau could not continue feeling bad for himself when Judas looked so pitiful. They were both lost and confused, but Ferrau had agreed to be the protector. He fought against his own pain and instead tried focusing on solving something much easier and more immediate. He knew he’d have to begin with the void.

“Come on. We can’t just keep sitting in the snow. I’ll clear a path so you can walk more easily,” Ferrau ended with a reassuring smile.

They trudged through the snow while Ferrau found the words to inform Judas.

“Somehow you landed in the void. Its an bottomless pit for anything Heaven dislikes and wants to get rid of. It sucks ass.”

Judas knew that space was called the void, though it being Heaven’s prison was news to him. The sophist he had visited five years ago gave him a rundown of the void and his connection to it. The old man cloaked in red had explained that it was a mysterious space that rarely anyone could penetrate.

“Void-walkers,” the cloaked figure had said. “They’re doomed to an unnaturally long life of anguish and pain. The void’s beasts and Heaven will hunt you until you’re expunged from this world.”

His words chilled Judas. As a teen, Judas hoped to find a cure for the condition that cost him his family and home. He trudged through the world with ragged hopes that were finally obliterated by the man cloaked in red. Judas would never recover his past and would live his life as this thing connected to the void.

He thought to share some of this with Ferrau, but judging from the last few minutes, Judas figured his new friend already had enough on his mind. He thought he could spare Ferrau a few details until he felt better.

So Ferrau continued, uninterrupted.

"We made a compact with one another," Ferrau said while using his body to plough a path for Judas to follow. He shoveled with his hands and legs, which was surprisingly quick and effective.

"I protect you, and you give me a way to stay in this plane and out of the void. That's our deal. Someone locked me up in the void, which is the worst thing that can happen to a Kaeli. We’re immortal, so we can’t kill each other. We’ll just come back. So that’s why we sometimes use the void. No one has ever escaped it before.” Ferrau turned to smile at Judas. “Your compact with me ties my life to yours. So as long as you live, I get to stay out of the void. As long I live, I'll protect you."

Judas thought it over. That didn't sound too bad to him. He gets a God for a new bodyguard, and a way to fight off the void-beasts. I won the negotiations without even trying!

"That sounds reasonable, I guess," Judas replied with stiff confidence.

Ferrau chuckled again, "I'm sure it does."

There was silence for a while before Ferrau began again.

"The void must have been very scary for you. You seemed to give up in there. I’m glad I could help you get out."

Judas slowed, embarrassment and shame overcasting his sudden confidence. Judas had been cast into the void twenty-seven times now. How does he admit the truth to Ferrau? Why was he so ready to give up? Was it all that bad? He must have looked so weak in front of Ferrau. What he mistook for affection must have been pity. Judas felt pathetic.

Ferrau noticed the silence and tried to help break Judas from his thoughts. "Hey, its okay to be scared. I’m not judging you." He sat in Judas' silence a bit longer, watching his pained expression. "I'm gonna keep plowing the snow," Ferrau said with a smile. "Catch up when you feel like it."

Ferrau figured Judas likely didn't want to talk to him. Maybe he needs some distance from me. Before he could not take three steps Judas called out to him.

"Don't just leave me, what kind of bodyguard does that?"

Now Ferrau was embarrassed.

"You didn't say anything, I thought you were mad at me," Ferrau retorted defensively.

"I am mad! But don't just walk away from me," Judas hid by looking down to the ground.

"I'm sorry?" Ferrau wasn't sure how to approach Judas at this moment. He clearly needed Ferrau there, but was closing himself off at the same time.

"I'd just rather talk about that another time," Judas finally answered. His dark skin glowed red as he looked up into Ferrau's eyes despite his anxiety.

"We can wait until you're ready. We have all the time in the world."

Ferrau hoped Judas believed him. Secretly, his memories were returning much more comfortably now and he could piece some things together. One thing that he definitely remembered was the War for Heaven and the annihilation that it caused. Most of the Antekuam were lost during the fighting in Heaven and the Gods all but said good riddance.

Judas was an opportunity for a fresh start and an apology. If Judas was here, that meant that there were other mortals. Ferrau’s compact signified a new rule in his life: never hurt another Antekuam again. They were weaker beings and needed protection against Heaven’s cruelty.

"So there's two of you? I guess you miscounted Maud," a new voice sliced through the air. Two beings had walked from beyond the thicket of dead trees ahead of Judas and Ferrau.

"Will you punish me for my mistake Master? Was I a bad boy?" The monster whimpered at the person's feet. Its voice was gruff and deep, paralleled by its high pitch whining.

Judas and Ferrau were snatched to attention by the sudden appearance of these two strangers. One wore purple robes that hung loose from them and stiffly shifted in the light breeze. They did not seem to mind the cold, as their shoulders and chest were mostly bare. Their bobbed hair was covered with a giant hat matching the ornaments adorning their robes.

The monster at the robed person’s feet was a large furry wolf with blue eyes. It seemed scary enough kneeling in submission, but then it began standing up.

"No punishment for now. Bring me those two Kaeli’s heads and I'll decide how I feel," the smaller one said in a cold, commanding voice.

Maud growled and raised itself on its hind legs. He was subservient to the smaller person who held his leash, but Maud himself was a tall beast. He was at least three inches above Ferrau, the second tallest person among the four gathered in the snow.

Maud opened his mouth to reveal seemingly endless sharp teeth coated in saliva that spilled from the beasts’ mouth. Maud howled to Axel, the Moon of Madness. His voice soared through the air, a powerful and sincere evocation to his father. Maud’s eyes glowed a cold blue, his claws outstretched for killing, and his muscles pumped with adrenaline. Axel’s aspect of lycanthropy then raced at full speed on its four legs, lunging directly at Judas' head.