Chapter I

          An apocalypse was nigh. In his centuries as a justiciar, Axtin Seth had seen the world-ending firepower that the starships of Empyrean could bring down on their enemies. As he gazed out his window upon the golden streets of Takhar, he thought of all the creatures who lived in that city in the clouds. Archons with feathered wings sprouting from their backs walked between the buildings and in the verdant gardens.

          If Dr. Nyx and the others do what they’ve been talking about, all these people are going to die.

          A knock at the door drew Seth’s attention away from the window. He crossed his study and waved his hand. Runes upon the door glowed with an azure light, and it slid open to allow the visitor on the other side to enter.

          Seth smiled at his Grand Archon as she entered the room. The gray feathers of Shoftiel’s wings fluttered as she folded them upon her back. Her eyes peered up at him through the thin strip of cloth that crossed her face. Though to other creatures of the planet Ymir Shoftiel would be considered tall, to Seth she was the size of a child, something he’d always found endearing about all the peoples of that planet.

          Shoftiel dropped to one knee before him and closed her eyes. She held a hand to the symbol of a pair of scales on the front of her robe. “You called for me, Your Holiness?”

          The title never sat right with Seth, but more than ever he found himself disgusted at himself for ever allowing anyone to refer to him as “holy.”

          “Rise, please,” he said. “And look at me, for what I’m about to tell you is of tremendous importance.”

          Shoftiel did as she was bid, meeting his gaze. “What is it?”

          Seth crossed the study and opened a locked chest in the corner. From inside, he produced three leather-bound books. “I need you to give these to those you trust, and then have them go to the Sanctuary.”

          “I don’t understand.” Shoftiel accepted the three tomes and looked down at them. “What are these? What’s going on?”

          “Three copies of a book I’ve written to teach the people of Ymir the truth. About the gods, about where we came from, about Enlil, all of it.”

          Shoftiel’s head flinched back. “The truth? What truth? Are you saying that we’ve been lied to?”

          “I’m saying that I lied to you all,” said Seth. “As did the others you call ‘gods.’ I don’t have much time. Please, just do as I’ve asked. I have to meet with Nyx and the others right away and see if I can fix this.”

          “Does this have to do with Lugal’s uprising?” asked Shoftiel.

          “Yes, it does,” said Seth. “But not in the way that you think. No more questions, please. If you want to know more, then keep one book for yourself and read it once you and the others are all in the Sanctuary. You must do this for me. Understand?”

          “Yes, Your Holiness,” said Shoftiel with a bow.

          “And you’re never to call me that again.” Seth shook his head. “It’s just ‘Seth’ from now on. Understand?”

          “Yes, Seth.” Once again, she lowered her head to him.

          He sighed at this show of reverence, but decided he had no time to argue further. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed her, and the door closed behind her.

          Once he was sure he was alone, he rolled up his sleeve to expose the metal armband around his forearm. He ran his fingers over the adonium inlay, which glowed blue. In an instant, his surroundings vanished, replaced by the familiar interior of Nyx’s starship. Seth peered out the nearest window, gazing down at the turquoise planet of Ymir, and the three moons that orbited it.

          It had been over a thousand years since Seth had sincerely prayed. Pretending to be a god all that time made him wonder if the existence of such higher beings was even possible. Yet, as he thought of all the archons, humans, automatons, fiends, and various other creatures that walked Ymir, he couldn’t help but plead with whatever higher power would listen that they would be spared the fate Empyrean had in mind.

          And please give me the right words to speak sense to my colleagues!

          Seth tore himself away from the window and walked the halls of the starship, on his way to the meeting room, where he knew Nyx and the others waited. He practiced his arguments over and over in his head. With any luck, he’d convince his fellows that Lugal’s uprising could be solved another way.

          He pressed his palm against the reader on the wall and the door to the meeting room slid open for him. In the center stood a white, ring-like table, around which sat the other members of the pantheon, with Nyx at the head.

          Seth took a moment to gaze over each of his colleagues. Dr. Adryan Nebo, Dr. Jaleah Liita, Admiral Jastin Montu, Bentom Shun, Dr. Atticus Anu, Dr. Erock Kernun, Dr. Erisha Rakos, and, finally, Lady Jynna Ashtoreth. The final of these refused to look at Seth, no doubt still furious about the way he ended their relationship.

          The best and the brightest that the Empyrean Corporation had to offer, gathered to feign divinity over the primitive peoples of Ymir. There was a time when Seth admired everyone in that room. Now, they seemed more abhorrent to his eyes than the lowliest of fiends.

          Yet, there was a face among them whom Seth did not recognize. An old man with a long, white beard sat amid the pantheon. He wore dark lenses over his eyes, as well as a pewter-gray robe.

          Seth gestured toward the stranger and said, “Is anyone going to introduce me to the newcomer?”

          Dr. Nyx leaned forward in his chair, brushing a white lock of hair away from his golden eyes. “Newcomer? What do you mean?”

          Seth pointed at the man with the white beard. “This fellow right here. I was unaware that we were adding more people to the pantheon.”

          All present exchanged confused looks with one another. Dr. Nebo leaned forward. “Axtin, my friend, are you well?”

          Lady Ashtoreth crossed her arms. “I’m not sure what sort of game you’re playing, but Chronos has always been part of this pantheon.”

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          Seth was about to say, “No, he hasn’t!” but everyone around him held such conviction on their faces, all convinced that what Lady Ashtoreth said was true. He decided to keep silent on this oddity for the time being and take his place at the table.

          Dr. Nyx gave an obviously forced smile. “And with that, everyone is here, and we can get down to the dirty business at hand.”

          “Indeed,” said Admiral Montu. A smirk tugged on the corner of his lip. Seth could almost swear the false god of war relished the chance to lay waste to the world they’d created together.

          Dr. Anu raised his hand, “If it pleases this council, I would like to speak first.”

          Dr. Nyx glanced around at the rest. “Are there any opposed?”

          With no objection voiced, Dr. Anu cleared his throat and began. “Since Lugal’s uprising began, adonium offerings have come to a complete halt, this much is true. Empyrean’s shareholders have made it clear that they want us to do whatever it takes to get things back on schedule immediately, before one of the other corporations gets wind of our weakness and decides to strike.”

          Admiral Montu nodded. “There are countless planets, especially in the outer territories, that would be vulnerable to such incursion. Untold billions may die if we don’t keep the adonium mining operations in order.”

          Seth was certain this was an exaggeration. Admiral Montu, and many others like him, often liked to play up the threats poised against the planets under the Empyrean Corporation’s control in order to convince people to send more money and resources than were truly necessary. Then, they’d conquer some new star system, and complain that the new star system was poorly defended and needed more help.

          Dr. Anu continued, “But will wiping the slate clean truly fix the problem? Right now, the people of Ymir give their offerings to King Lugal, believing him to be Enlil reborn. If we were to cull ninety-percent of the population, as proposed, then that will surely bring the survivors in line, but it will be centuries before they rebuild well enough to give us the same level of productivity they’ve shown in the past millenium. This apocalypse might well set us back further than we’re ready for.”

          Seth’s heart soared. He’d prepared all manner of moral arguments for this occasion, but Dr. Anu might well have just presented a practical reason they could not go through with the purge.

          And that’s why Empyrean made him the god of wisdom.

          Dr. Nyx’s face did not share Seth’s elation. He sighed and scratched at his temples. “Yes, that’s a fair argument, Dr. Anu, but consider this: we still don’t fully understand what adonium is capable of. We know it bends the laws of the universe to the will of whoever uses it, but we don’t know how much it might do so. King Lugal isn’t just a threat to productivity, he’s a threat to all the universe if he’s allowed to continue like this.”

          Seth’s heart sank.

          “I agree with Dr. Nyx,” said Admiral Montu. “Lugal could grow to threaten all the galaxy in time, and he’s shown the people of Ymir that their gods can be defied. Even if we were to kill Lugal and ensure that his soul would never return, it would only be a matter of time before another Ymirian rises to those same heights and threatens us all. We need to strike now and strike hard!”

          Dr. Nebo shrugged, “And if we really need to rebuild what’s left, I can always engineer more. Let’s not forget, I made these people in my lab to begin with.”

          A murmur of agreement among those present made Seth want to throttle them all.

          Seth pounded his fist on the table and jumped to his feet. “And where’s the justice in this?” He glanced around the room. Dr. Anu’s face offered him some sympathy, but he found none anywhere else. “Look, none of you have spent as much time down there as I have. Those are people down there on Ymir! Dr. Nebo may have engineered them in his lab, but they are still people. They have thoughts, feelings, passions, hopes, fears, loves. A great many of them still put their faith in us, still serve us.”

          Lady Ashtoreth made a show of yawning.

          Seth’s blood boiled. “We can’t do this! This is mass murder. No, it’s worse! The people of Ymir are our children. This is mass filicide!”

          Dr. Nebo raised a hand in an attempt to quiet him. “I assure you, they are machines, Axtin. Nothing more. Sure, they are made of meat, bone, and blood, but they are still machines. What you see as life is merely a mimicry of life.”

          “Couldn’t you say the same about us?” Seth felt dizzy, as if he were surrounded by enemies on all sides, and could not know which one to keep under closest watch. “Our bodies are made of meat, blood, and bone just like theirs. What’s more, if our bodies fail, we upload our minds into computers so that we can then be given new bodies. How is that any different from the people of Ymir?”

          “I designed them,” said Dr. Nebo. “And I did not give them the same level of cognitive ability that we have. They are not people, Axtin. Your compassion for them is like a child growing attached to a doll.”

          “You’re wrong!” Seth pointed at him. “I’ve seen them fall in love. I’ve watched as they give their lives for one another. Even the fiends, whom you said you engineered to be vile, cruel beasts, they still show great altruism every day.”

          “Enough!” said Dr. Nyx. “We will not entertain this foolish argument any longer. It is irrelevant.”

          “We are their gods,” said Lady Ashtoreth. “They knew the potential consequences when they chose to follow Lugal instead of us.”

          “But we’re not gods!” Seth clawed at his own temples. “We’re just people, no different from the ones who revere us.”

          Dr. Anu formed a steeple with his fingers. “I’d encourage you to think about just what a ‘god’ is, my friend. Ancient societies on Earth used to believe in gods who were immortal, created their world, and had seemingly unlimited power. Mr. Seth, listen to me! Have we not all lived over six-thousand years and all retained our youth? Have we not created a world and sustained it? Do we not have power that the mere mortals of Ymir could only dream of? If that doesn’t fit your definition of ‘divinity,’ then I question what does.”

          Seth narrowed his eyes at Dr. Anu. “You can justify all you want, but I think deep down you know you’re just twisting the truth. And even if we were gods, do we really want to be the sorts of gods who slaughter those who don’t believe in us?”

          He turned to Dr. Nyx. “Today, we feign divinity to gain dominion over creatures Dr. Nebo created in his lab. What about a millennium from now? When we have enough adonium that we can lord our power over every planet in the galaxy, will we force those living on other worlds to worship us the same way? This can’t go on!”

          Dr. Nyx sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers. “Yes yes, excellent use of the slippery slope fallacy.”

          Seth stepped back from the table. “I can’t live like this anymore! It makes me sick to think of what we’ve done, and what we plan to do. I’m going down to Ymir. I have to tell them the truth.”

          Admiral Montu rose from his chair. “You can’t be serious! Axtin, they pray to Lugal now, and believe him to be the All-Father reborn. If you go down there and start spouting all of that, it’ll just give Lugal more ammunition against us, and they’ll kill you.”

          “Then I’ll deal with Lugal first,” said Seth. “No need for a world-ending bombardment from space. I’ll slay the demagogue who’s risen to such heights and put a stop to this uprising.” He started toward the door.

          “We don’t want you to die, Axtin,” said Dr. Nebo. “Don’t do anything foolish!”

          Seth sneered at the man he once called his friend. “If you don’t want me to die, then I suppose you can’t pull the trigger while I’m down there, can you?”

          Dr. Nebo sputtered.

          Chronos stood from his seat, smoothing out his white beard as he spoke for the first time in that meeting. “Axtin Seth,” his voice was low and gravelly, “if you walk out that door, you will be an enemy of Empyrean from this day forward!”

          “An enemy?” After all his years of loyal service to the corporation, presiding as judge over so many disputes between planets, and the millennia he spent posing as the god of justice, they’d so easily declare him an enemy?

          Seth’s eyes wandered over everyone in the room, trying to read their faces. Dr. Nyx, Dr. Nebo, and Dr. Anu hung their heads, but gave subtle nods. Dr. Rakos, Bentom Shun, Dr. Liita, and Dr. Kernun held faces of stern resolve. Admiral Montu and Lady Ashtoreth sneered, the latter folding her arms.

          “Truly, you would make me your enemy?” said Seth.

          None breathed a word, but the expressions on their faces told him everything he needed to know.

          Seth stared down at his own trembling hands. With three deep breaths, he steadied them, steeling his resolve. “So be it.”