hephaestxs:
There was truth in what Anubis spoke of. Stories, gods, the mythos that kept them alive didn’t disappear but it evolved over countless of generations. Mutating and changing as each generation told it slightly differently. A hundred lives lived through the tales that mortals weaved for them. But all of their temples were gone. Dead like Pan was. Temples had been long flattened, demolished, to make way for casinos or the new-spangled churches that had subsequently been burnt for huge data warehouses. No-one really worshipped gods these days, not like they used to. Which, begged the question could Pan not be reborn?
He’d formed a cult-like worship amongst the mortals in New Orleans. Loved for his music. Allegedly cherished for his charm. Except their love, their stories of him, seemingly weren’t bringing him back. Heph had heard no such news from Olympus of his return. It was hard to ignore the noisy god even if he were half-way across the world.
“On that.” He taps the table. Nature had not collapsed. “There was a disruption in the stock market a few days ago with an agricultural firm.” A tad too specific to be merely coincidental. Heph has no real plants in his home, nor in the offices. No measure to see if Pan’s absence is beginning to have an affect.
Hephaestus sets down the tea, as comforting as it was to indulge in something spicy sweet. “It is dangerous, only an odd choice to go after a minor deity unless…as I say it was a test. An experiment.” He exhales, perhaps he should acquire a plant. A real one not one of the artfully crafted artificial plants that looked hyper-realistic. Use it as a marker. “What if by the very nature of us sustaining his story, his legacy, we are delaying the inevitable?”
Another reason to call the gods together. Veles was the closest they had right now to facilitate in the absence of Pan, but even he had chosen an entirely different avenue of re-invention. “If two identities now co-exist, or as you say are at war with one another, inside one mortal, one god, whomever or whatever they are. Surely there would be a way to tell?”
Heph had witnessed firsthand what happened when an immortal pushed the boundaries of what a mortal body was capable of. They were all bound by the same rules. But to have twice the battery, twice the power, surely someone in New Orleans was currently a walking light-bulb. “We speak of entities at war, well I’ve heard talk of one of the slavic gods being unable to control his own powers. This is all…highly unusual. We’re entering into the unknown and that is why I seek to unite us.”
“If we are alone in this, then we’re all susceptible to this force. Perhaps if one of our own has betrayed us, we may flush them out sooner rather than later. Control this before it has an effect on the mortal world.”
“They do not deserve this carnage and chaos.”
x.
On the mention of the stock market ‘blip’ Anubis looks up from his spiced tea only briefly. It might have been the slightest of glances, only a minute shift in the focus of his gaze, but if one was observant ( which Heph surely was ) and they knew anything of the guardian deities usual mannerisms ( which Heph surely did ), it might be assumed that the point was something that had drawn his attention duly and had been -- n o t e d.
He would have to watch the succulents more closely.
“That is, if it was a choice at all.”
He remains softly spoken, even in his challenge. So often people assumed that a god so closely affiliated with ‘death’ must be evil. ( And therein that ‘Death’ itself was inherently evil... Which it was not. Just another aspect of the inevitable, not as celebrated as ‘life’ but still simply a part of those never-ending cycles... )... But in truth, justice was neutral - rightfully so. A balance - weighing both sides of the scale.
“We should also consider - if the individual responsible for mortally wounding Peter’s human incarnation was aware of ‘what’ Peter was, they could have been under the assumption that he would simply return to pantheon and descend once again - as, up until this point, that is precisely what has happened.”
“Even in the aftermath of such a violent act, we do not know if the intention was to void his existence entirely.”
Gods and deities had died before while walking the earth... And yes, it was difficult to murder a descended one, but not impossible. Descension was not eternal - it was temporary. A glimpse. A gift. They had all ‘died’ here. But never before in perpetuity.
“Premeditation, collusion and conspiracy are equally as viable as the tragedy of misadventure and unsuspected outcome.”
“The rest is purely speculation.”
Perhaps the deity before him could only function with an outcome on the cards. Something that provided a means to an end. That nothing could happen without specific purpose. The gods of chaos would probably argue the opposite. That nothing had purpose. Anubis, as ever, found himself quite central to those opposing sides. But it seemed as though Heph was quite determined to find a singular cause or a singular culprit who could burden whatever amount of blame, wrath or revenge came thereafter.
“If you seek to unite us, I would like to ask you... Unite against - what? And if you do suspect betrayal, who might be omitted from this unification? Who would be scrutinised. Who would do the scrutinising?”
“That, is also dangerous.”
Gods watching gods, suspecting each other... ...They’d be tearing each others throats out within five minutes.
And then Heph throws out his reverse uno card.
Them. He speaks of them. The humans. The mortals who they were made to serve. Living their beautiful and painful lives, blissfully unaware that their deities walked among them. That there had been a fracture in ‘the state of things’. That the death of a god could unleash or quash the very force they represented with potentially untold consequence...
...To them.
Touché.
“No, they do not. But we should be cautious that we are not the reason to cause more.”
Anubis would be the first to admit that he had no desire to join whatever ‘unification’ was proposed. But he was also not fool enough to think that those eager to join such a union would do so with any regard for that aforementioned caution. It had the potential to be a powderkeg.
Perhaps then, an even hand may be needed. Loathe though he may be.
“What is it - precisely - that you are proposing?”
