Sun God Seeks…Surrogate?

by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

  “Well, I don’t!” I barked. “I’m not going to help you officially declare my life a sin, or mistake, or act against nature…or whatever! My answer is no!”

  Bees stood from her throne. Her angry swarm began circling above the table. “That is ridiculous, you do not get a vote.”

  “Why not?” Zac argued. “She houses the power of the sun, and it is our law that whoever holds this gift will be our leader. Only a unanimous vote from all fourteen can change this, and we will never have one because Chaam is locked away.”

  Bees huffed, which caused her tiny black-and-yellow soldiers to kamikaze Zac. “Semantics! She is not the Sun God,” she blasted.

  Zac didn’t flinch. “Put them away, Colel,” he growled.

  She plunked her fist on her hip. “Or what? You have no powers.”

  “I am a Bacab,” he warned. “I may not have gifts, but I am still physically stronger than you, which means I can tear your head clean off without breaking a sweat.”

  The bees crawled on Zac’s arms and face, stinging him and falling to the floor, but he simply stared Colel down, not acknowledging their presence.

  “Enough!” I commanded. “Put them away, or I’ll turn them into bee fritters.”

  I hated that idea. Her bees were really cute. Kind of like tiny yellow assassins with a sweet tooth.

  She rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. The bees promptly flew back inside the hive on her head.

  “Thank you, Bees—I mean, Colel.” I closed my eyes for a moment to enjoy a calming breath. “Right. Where were we?”

  Zac straightened his shoulders and looked at each of the gods. “I was attempting to say that Penelope has publically demonstrated her command of the sun’s power. Until she is separated from this power, she is the Goddess of the Sun. It’s no different if we decide to do another rotation of duties”—he pointed to Suicide who was about to speak—“But we will not!” He turned back to Bees. “My point is, if we do, then whoever houses the particular gift inherits the title.”

  “I wanna be Fate next time,” Belch slurred, and scratched his protruding belly that had escaped from the bottom of his green nylon jacket. “I’m tired of being the life of the party. People respect Fate; they just get knocked up or vomit when I’m around.”

  Bees sat down and crossed her arms like the cantankerous deity that she was. “Fine. But we all know this issue isn’t going away. Kinich will be restored to his usual arrogant self by the next summit, and we will vote again. The topic will be addressed.”

  Guy leaned back in his chair with a smug smile across his face. “Not if you want to win the Great War, which you will not without me.”

  Belch leaned forward and pointed at Guy. “Or, can I be him? I’m tough and strooong.” He flexed his biceps and squeezed the flabby-looking muscle.

  “Shut it, Belch,” said Fate, brushing back her blond locks. She turned to me, “Let’s move on. Penelope is our stand-in Sun God, and she has spoken.”

  Kinich growled, “Looks as though Cimil’s plan was successful, Penelope.”

  “Huh?”

  “All along we assumed she wanted you to be the surrogate mother of my child, when in fact, she was plotting for this. You, the surrogate Sun God. My proxy. A Payal who just successfully turned the tides away from a vote on this matter.”

  I gasped internally. Could that be? This entire situation had been orchestrated by Cimil? Holy demon bun cakes. These people played a pretty mean game of chess. And, Christ, I’d followed along with Cimil’s plot like a mindless, naïve little lamb playing hopscotch with a pack of wolves. With superpowers. And weird tastes in gifts.

  But regardless of all that, I couldn’t help but feel wounded by Kinich’s views on Payals. He was wrong. Flat-out wrong. Somehow, I’d prove it to him.

  “Kinich, I’m sorry. But, regardless of Cimil’s hand in all this—I did what I thought was right. Just like you—”

  “I have another topic.”

  “Kinich, I—”

  He interrupted, “I wish to vote for your immortality.”

  Trying not to sound whiny, I said, “Oh for Pete’s sake! Would you make up your mind? Payals are evil. Now you want to make me immortal. You don’t love me, but you don’t want anyone else to look at me. Pick a story and stick to it! ”

  The gods stared with interest.

  “Oh. I love a good fight. Do share what our brother is saying, Penelope,” Suicide requested cheerfully.

  “Penelope, raise the topic. We will resolve our differences later. Here is not the place.”

  “I don’t want immortality. In fact, when this is over, I don’t want anything to do with you.”

  “Penelope, I—”

  I moved to close the nominations for agenda items.

  “Stubborn woman, this is not over.”

  Like he’d instructed, I recorded the topics on the stone—a weird caveman-like iPad of sorts that turned black wherever I touched it with the silver stylus.

  I then called for the discussion of the first topic.

  Guy rose from his seat and cleared his throat. “I seek the counsel and wisdom of my brethren regarding my most recent discovery. It seems that the absence of Chaam has not impeded the Maaskab’s advancement in the area of manipulating dark energy. They have evolved from astute apprentices to masters.”

  I noticed his hands, which were firmly planted on the table. I imagined he could crack a man’s skull with hands that big.

  “Upon returning to our realm,” he continued, “I sought to understand why the Uchben were able to detect the Maaskab’s presence on the satellite. I found no evidence of them in the physical world, but I witnessed several dozen Maaskab sifting in and out of their phantom encampment. My belief is that they’ve somehow learned to occupy another dimension, the dimension used by the vampires to sift.”

  The gods made a collective gasp.

  “What leads you to believe this?” Zac’s voice rang out among the rumblings of the others.

  “I watched as they stepped through the temporary portals they created. The color of their energy signatures shifted frequency as they did this.”

  I was a bit rusty on my sci-fi lingo. Space-time continuum, tachyons, set fazers to stun; those were concepts I grasped. But this…?

  “I have witnessed the same fluctuations when observing vampires sift,” he continued. “And I can tell you from sifting myself—”

  “When? When have you sifted?” asked Bees.

  “When we were battling the Maaskab the night I captured Chaam. The black jade pyramid functions as an amplifier of sorts. I merely had to think of moving and my body followed.”

  I really didn’t understand what they were getting at. “So they’re hiding in some other dimension?”

  Guy nodded. “Everything in the universe is made up of atoms, which are merely tiny particles of energy held together by their positive and negative charges. They form a bond. Similar to how gravity holds the moon to Earth, but on a much, much smaller scale.

  “However, between each particle is space. In fact, the entire universe is mostly space. When vampires sift, they slip between these cracks. But they cannot remain there. It is these bonds, these charges that bind the atoms together, that propel the vampires as they are pushed out of the atoms’ spaces like a foreign contaminant. It creates enormous momentum and speed.”

  Alrighty then, it’s official. Life is stranger than fiction.

  “That is not all,” Guy stated. “I returned to their encampment and found another mine. There is a large vein of black jade underneath the location. And I believe,” continued Guy, “that they’ve somehow used its power to create enough of a force to allow them to remain inside the spaces.”

  The gods held a frantic sidebar for several moments.

  God of Eclipses spoke up. “It explains why they’ve joined forces with the Obscuros; they needed the vampires to teach them how to sift.”

  I shivered. For some odd reason, an image of a Reese’s Peanut Butte
r Cup flashed through my mind. The Maaskab were the sinister chocolate and the Obscuros were the malevolent peanut filling. Put them together, and you got a whole new treat. Except, they weren’t really treats. More like festering sores on the ass of humanity. Okay. Maybe the peanut butter cup was a stupid analogy.

  I remembered this was where I was supposed to propose a Call to Action that would include rescuing my mother.

  I made the motion. Verbal fights about what to do next quickly broke out among the gods…

  “We attack! Head-on.”

  “No, we wait until we learn more.”

  “Where the hell is Cimil? She’s never present when we truly need her.”

  Gabrán gently gripped my shoulder. “Lass, it is time for you to use that power inside o’ya to reign them in.”

  I cleared my throat. “Ehh-hem!”

  No one paid any attention to me.

  “Ehh-hem!” I said a little louder. They still ignored me.

  “Penelope, you will need to tap into your strength. Make them respect you. Zac was right when he said that you control my power. You can do this.”

  I didn’t want to hear any pep talks from Kinich. I just wanted to make this nightmare end and rescue my mother.

  I stood up and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath before I slammed both fists on the table, releasing two enormous flames. “Enough! Stop fighting like children! Because if we don’t figure this out, there’ll be nothing left to fight about!”

  The gods stared with looks of astonishment. Zac smiled and tilted his head. “My apologies, Sun Goddess, it will not happen again.”

  I was really starting to like Zac.

  “I call an Order to Action. I start with addressing how we will rescue my mother.”

  Then it hit me. “Didn’t Emma say there were more Payals, but you couldn’t find them?”

  Everyone quickly came to the same conclusion; the Maaskab had to be hiding them inside this other dimension.

  “So, how do we get in?” I asked.

  The gods looked at each other, then Fate spoke up, “Our vampires will enter. It is why our army is meant to be led by Niccolo. It is…”

  Let me guess, Fate?

  “Fate,” she said.

  Hey, these gods were actually pretty predictable.

  Then Fate added, “If the vein of black jade enables the Maaskab to stabilize inside that dimension, then we can assume the same for the vampires.”

  “Why can’t the gods go in?” I asked.

  “Under normal circumstances, our energy is far too dense to pass through the spaces,” Guy replied.

  “But you said you did it before?” I argued.

  “Yes,” Guy replied, “And given that there is a high concentration of jade I hope I might do so again. This is why I will go inside with Niccolo if possible. We will use the vampire army to extract any prisoners and flush out the Maaskab. The Uchben will be waiting with the other gods outside of the zones where they frequently create portals.”

  Well, dang. That sounded like a pretty great plan to me! “I’m going too.”

  “No. You will not,” Kinich objected.

  “With all due respect, I didn’t ask you.”

  “When the meeting is over, you and I will settle this argument.”

  I held my breath, and then released it.

  I turned toward Gabrán. “Can I do the wrap-up? Sounds like we have alignment to attack.”

  “There is still one more topic to address,” Fate spoke loudly to overcome the noise in the room.

  I looked down at the agenda on my deity Etch A Sketch. “Oh. Yeah. Kinich.” We were to discuss his and my predicament.

  Fate stood up, and I noticed how the gold trim along her neckline and golden laces on her knee-high, white moccasins matched the color of her hair.

  Snazzy.

  “Penelope,” she said, “you and Kinich have performed the Prayer of Loyalty and Protection.”

  Where was she going with this? “Yeah.”

  “Have you yet attempted to break the bond?” she asked.

  “Break the bond?” I questioned. “No. Why?”

  “I believe that when the Maaskab released the jar into the pool—a jar meant to immobilize him so they could get to you—Kinich’s light separated from his humanlike body, leaving behind a mortal shell. But his immortal essence did not return to the cenote, as one might expect. Instead, it was drawn into you. Perhaps because he recited the prayer at the exact moment his light abandoned his body. Perhaps the Maaskab bespelled the jar in some way. Who knows? But nevertheless, the solution is clear. You must sever the bond.”

  Why did I think that this absolutely made sense and was so darn simple that someone, even I, should have come up with this answer before?

  She added, “This will free his immortal essence and divine light to travel on—perhaps back to his humanlike body. Or perhaps to the cenote.”

  Guy glared at Fate. “And if you are wrong? We know nothing of the Maaskab’s magic that created this mess. Dark energy is erratic; it has a mind of its own.”

  She shrugged. “I’m a Fate. I’m never wrong. And if I am wrong, it is meant to be. Ergo, not wrong.”

  Resist rolling eyes. Resist rolling eyes.

  “Hey, here’s a question,” I said dryly. “Why not mention this earlier?”

  Again she shrugged. “Because Fate was not ready to speak.”

  Going to smack her. Going to smack her.

  “Kinich, what do you think? I mean, breaking the bond sounds dangerous,” I said.

  Several moments passed. “Yes. Whatever the Maaskab did to me and to my human form is a magic unlike any other. But I have no choice. We cannot exist like this—two souls in one body—and I am prepared to accept whatever the outcome is. You will break the bond.”

  CHAPTER 32

  An hour after the meeting, unable to make the jagged pieces of my emotional puzzle fit together, I found myself staring at Kinich’s sleeping form. I stroked the tendrils of his golden brown locks. They seemed to glow, as if soaking up the midday sun pouring through the window.

  I was furious for what he’d said about Payals, but I was heartbroken that he’d chosen his role over my feelings. The fact that he’d said he couldn’t help it, did nothing for me. It still hurt. I guess a part of me had erroneously believed his feelings for me—whatever those were—would be stronger than his divine instincts or his seventy thousand years of deity baggage, which included the belief that he and I could never work out.

  But his feelings for me weren’t enough. I wasn’t…enough. In fact, he wanted to risk it all simply to separate himself from me. And the truth was, I felt terrified I’d end up alone again. I wasn’t strong enough to survive in this new world I’d been dragged into.

  I slipped off my red headband and ran my hands through my now shorter hair. Oddly enough, I missed it. I missed my mother, my life, and my stupid hair. And now I would miss Kinich being so close; he was part of me and I liked it. Way too much.

  My eyes gravitated toward the large glass doors with a view of the patio and never-ending stretch of desert beyond. “You must really hate being stuck inside a lowly Payal,” I mumbled under my breath.

  “No, Penelope. How can you say such a thing after all that has passed between us?”

  “How can I not?” I whispered.

  “I’ve told you before, my feelings for you are…complicated.”

  “Ugh! What does that even mean, Kinich?”

  “It is as I’ve said before; I am incapable of the commitment you deserve and need because my personal desires will always play second to protecting the human race—a race that includes you.”

  For some reason, an image of the orphans from his album flashed in my mind. We’d never spoken about them—after all, I’d been snooping through his things (oopsies)—but a person didn’t devote themselves to such acts of kindness unless they held a deep sense of commitment, a commitment he claimed he was incapable of giving.

  No, there was
no one in this world more committed than Kinich. So what was the real problem?

  “Exactly what kind of commitment do you think I need?”

  “The kind a man gives a woman. The kind where he promises to love her above all others.”

  But I didn’t need that, did I?

  Okay. Christ. Maybe I did. Or, maybe I just needed to know he loved me and that would be good enough. I really didn’t know anymore.

  I sighed. We both kept moving in impossible circles. “Well, then, let’s get you on your way.”

  “Penelope, I want you to know…”—he paused—“being so close to you has been a gift. It has allowed me to see into your heart and discover what a beautiful creature you truly are. You have a sense of purpose much greater my own, which humbles me. But understand, I have a destiny to fulfill, as do you.”

  “Destiny? Me?” The only thing in my destiny was finding my mother then having a long, hot bath, eating a box of doughnut holes, and having a chick flick marathon.

  “Yes. You. And nothing else matters.”

  “Sounds pretty heavy. Mind sharing what this mysterious destiny of mine is?”

  “I do not know.”

  Great. “Do you at least know yours?”

  Several moments passed before he answered. “I believe so.”

  “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

  “No.”

  Shocker.

  “But do we have to break the bond? It feels so risky?” What if he didn’t come out of this alive?

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “Maybe they’ll capture a Maaskab and we can find out how to undo this”—oh heck, what do I call it without sounding like a cornball? Hex? Spell…Ugh! Who cares—“thingamabob”—jeez. Nice one, Pen—“they’ve done to us.”

  “We cannot wait. If there’s a chance I will gain back my form, I must take it. I suspect the Great War is coming sooner than anyone anticipates and my help will be needed to win. And win we must. I could not bear to watch the world fall into its descent and you along with it.” He paused for a moment. “I cannot stomach the thought of anything happening to you.”

  The walls crumbled just then. His confession only deepened my love for him.