by Rosie Scott
“Half-breed.” The nickname was drawn out by Hades's whispery voice as it slipped through the shadows behind us. I glanced back at a small alleyway we'd just passed in a cluster of structures sitting along the western docks. The alley was as black as an abyss, but once Hades pulled himself away from the wall, the fiery glow of the harbor caught on his dark hood. He turned his face toward us, just the lower half visible in the light. For the first time, I noticed a scar from a wound that had split his lower lip until it ripped the skin halfway down his chin. It made his lip slightly uneven, for it hadn't healed correctly.
“Full-blood,” I greeted in reply, and a raspy chuckle escaped his hood.
“It has been so long since I was given a nickname,” Hades murmured, taking a few steps forward until he stood near us. “In fondness instead of hostility, of course. I rather enjoy it.” He tilted his head, and his golden eye flashed in the light as he noted Cerin and Azazel. “You have brought the mortal necromancer. Who is this?” He motioned to Azazel.
“Azazel Beriah,” the archer replied, stretching out a hand. “I'm Kai's right-hand man.”
“Say no more,” Hades replied, taking Azazel's hand for a brief shake. “I have heard much about you these past weeks. I know who you are.” Speaking to me, Hades went on, “You surround yourself with mortals, Kai. It's no wonder you act like one.”
“By refusing to congregate with mortals and insisting on making enemies with gods, you have rendered yourself alone,” I replied.
One of Hades's eyebrows raised. “Am I alone? Many surround me at the moment.” He motioned around at the well-populated docks. “I already find it tiring. I assume that since you now control this city, you can demand what you wish. May we take a boat?” He eyed the nearest pier.
“For what?” I questioned.
“For conversing,” Hades replied as if it were obvious. “I'd prefer we speak away from wandering ears.”
“I know little about sailing boats,” I commented, looking to Cerin.
“Give one of the fishers a piece of gold,” Cerin suggested. “If it's a fishing boat, I can handle it.”
I followed Cerin's advice, finding a passed out dwarven woman in a tiny boat who reeked of ale and recent mistakes. I woke her up just long enough to ask if we could borrow her vessel and gave her a piece of gold that she dropped in her boot with a grunt. She waddled up onto the pier and collapsed near its end. As she snored roughly with sleep, Azazel and I pulled her farther onto the stone to keep her from rolling into the water. Nearby, Hades smirked as he watched.
The tiny boat departed from the dock amid silence and shadows. It was a simple vessel completely made of wood with no sails and two benches, and Cerin handled it fine by himself with the guiding direction of two oars. His arms rowed behind me as we sat next to each other. Directly across from me was Hades. Azazel sat beside the god, calm as could be.
The farther we sailed from the harbor, the quieter and darker it became. Azazel perched a cream-colored alteration light on the wooden floor between our boots, and it cast an upward glow on all of us.
“What manner of magic is that?” Hades questioned.
“Alteration,” Azazel replied.
“Magic of the beastmen,” Hades remarked. “What animal can you become?”
“None,” Azazel answered. “I choose not to transform. I am deadliest at a distance.” He reached up to call attention to his bow.
“Ahh,” Hades trailed off with sudden intrigue. “So you are the one who killed Visha. I heard his brains splattered in a good thirty foot radius from the fall. I wish I could have seen it. I commend you for your creativity. He ran far from me.”
“You have a history with Visha,” Azazel surmised.
“I have history with most,” Hades said simply. The god glanced past me to the harbor in the distance. “I've heard you have allied with other gods, Kai. I want to know which ones so we can ascertain whether our allegiances align.”
“You have no allegiances,” I replied evenly. “You told me you will not be controlled. Neither will I. I will not give you the names of my allies just to have you hunt them down.”
Hades chuckled roughly and looked out to the ocean once our boat finally rowed past the last mountainside, allowing the open waters to display their beauty. “This...authority you display. It should annoy me, but I only find myself intrigued.”
“I treat these gods the same as I'll treat you,” I went on. “If someone allies with me, I work with them and protect them. I wouldn't give your identity away freely to your foes.”
“Yes, but we are currently allies, are we not? You just said yourself that you work with them.” He leveled his scarred gaze. “Work with me.”
“I expect the same from you,” I replied. “I want your word that you will not harm these other gods.”
Hades hesitated. “During this war, or ever?”
I pondered this. “During this war for one. For the other, ever. I will invite him to be a member of my court once we travel back to Comercio.”
“You must have such a low opinion of me,” Hades mused, the words almost getting lost in a whistling breeze that blew through the inlet and rocked our boat. “Do you think I murder just anyone? What a waste of time! How do you think I ever stopped long enough to fall in love with Ziarre? We are alike, half-breed. We kill those who stand in our way and those who deserve it. We kill those who cross us and do not blink at collateral damage. We show no mercy to our enemies and spare those who give us no resistance. Your continued distrust of me indicates you don't yet see this connection between us.”
Hades's destruction of Tal came to mind before I thought of my attack of the same harbor we'd just left. “No, I do see our connection. I also see the connection between your victims and those I keep close to me. We should never cross such lines.”
“The gods are dwindling, Kai,” Hades said, his golden eye sparkling in the magical light. “We are a dying breed on the verge of extinction. This is part of the reason the gods went into secrecy generations ago. We killed through each other so quickly we were causing our own demise. Gods hid from the mortals to preserve their legends, but also so other gods could not catch up to them. Most I hunted are already dead, by my hand or otherwise. The chance of your allies being on my to-kill list is slim, for that list shrinks with each passing season. Tell me of your two godly allies now before I find out through other means, and I won't kill them until after your war even if they have wronged me.”
I considered his words for a moment. Hades had me cornered. The information was readily available; not giving it to him would only stall and anger him. “I first allied with Rek. He sought me out near Celendar.”
Hades's expression didn't change. “I don't recognize his name.”
“The god of carnage and brutality. He is the son of Bardarik and Ravage.”
Hades relaxed with recognition. “So he is an orcish god. I knew his mother. Fought with her once.”
“As allies?”
“No. But not as enemies.” Hades noted my confusion and added, “A band of gods tracked me down in northern Chairel millennia ago, Ravage included. As soon as she saw my prowess she changed loyalties on the spot. We gained power from the same foes. I killed them by taking their energy and she drank the blood out of the corpses. Ravage wanted to ally with me, but we went our separate ways.”
“You didn't trust her,” I surmised.
“Would you?” Hades asked rhetorically. “I'd been stabbed in the back so many times by other gods that Ravage's blood alone gave me pause. I was much younger then. My flesh broke easily. Befriending a disloyal regenerating cannibal wasn't the best idea.” He paused. “The other god, Kai.”
“Chance, the god of trade and fortune,” I replied. “He does not fight. You should want nothing with him.”
“And I don't want anything from him,” Hades affirmed. “I know of Chance. He is immune to making enemies. Many question the purity of Chance's blood. It is said he acts more like a mortal than
a god. I'd assume your alliance grew easily.”
“It did,” I agreed. “So you will leave both Rek and Chance alone.”
“You have my word,” Hades purred, though he leaned back on his bench and eyed me with a tinge of suspicion. “Why do you protect Cicero?”
I frowned. “I don't.”
“I heard you two worked together.”
“Cicero was imprisoned by Eteri during our time there. Some of his intel helped us fight against Glacia. Then, some of my knowledge was used against me when he went running to my enemies in Sera.”
“Ah,” Hades managed, before a huff that sounded more like a wheeze. “I've never met Cicero, though his troubled reputation precedes him. I suppose you want him dead.”
“If you see Cicero, tell him I sent you,” I replied dryly.
Hades chuckled roughly. “Perhaps I'll set my mind to hunting him after this war is over. It's the least I could do. You have been responsible for killing quite a few I've wanted dead.”
“Who?” Cerin asked curiously.
Hades glanced over at my lover. “Judai, Nirit, Ciro, Vertun, Tyrus, Heartha, Kacela, Hinder, and Visha,” he listed.
“You're welcome,” I replied, and Hades chuckled again.
“Even when not in battle, you are entertaining,” the god said. I took it as a compliment.
Our boat rocked quietly in the water for a few minutes. Other than the muted noises of drunks on the docks, a chorus of insect chatter rose from the surrounding mountains. My stomach grumbled loudly at a point. Azazel overheard and dug in his satchel for snacks. He handed me a mushroom and some dried meat, and I thanked him. Hades watched our exchange with a distant curiosity before staring out at the farthest reaches of the ocean.
“It has been centuries since I was last on the sea,” he said low.
“Do you like it?” I asked.
“I do, but it is different now than it used to be.” Hades hesitated a moment. “Sailing used to be about discovery. Now that all of Arrayis's lands are uncovered, there is nothing left.”
“Do you remember the Ancients?” I inquired.
Hades turned back to look at me. “Ah, the curiosity of youth. No, Kai. No one left alive remembers the Ancients. The only two gods who had any recollection of them are dead.”
“Vita and Jediael,” Azazel said.
Hades raised an eyebrow. “Yes. I am surprised you know that, considering I'm the only god alive who ever met them.”
“Ciro told us what he knew,” I said. “Did you kill them? Vita and Jediael?”
“I had no reason to,” Hades replied. “We were birthed from the same ship. They were the only ones who could make sense out of everything because they knew about what came before.”
“The same...ship?” I asked for clarification.
“That is what they called them. Ships of metal, transported through the skies from a world separate from our own.” Hades noted my continued curiosity and went on, “There were a dozen of us in that first ship. Woke up to find myself standing in this odd glass contraption with tubes feeding some concoction into my veins. It wasn't long before the glass in front of me slid open on its own and the needles expelled from my arms. All around me were places for other gods. Some of them still slept. Others were already gone. There were signs made of glass and metal with glowing letters attached to each station. It gave information about the gods inside. Their names, vital signs, race, powers. I haven't seen anything like it since.”
I felt light-headed as I thought back to exploring the metal ruins in Nahara. “Hell. That matches the description of the vessel I visited in Nahara. There were all these standing glass tubes with the indentations of people in their padding. These were for the gods?”
“Of course,” Hades replied. “This is the only reason we exist on Arrayis. We were transported here.”
“From where?” I asked quickly, desperate for answers. “Who are the Ancients?”
Hades smirked at my excitement. “From another planet. I don't know its name. Vita and Jediael would not elaborate. They claimed it went against the wishes of the Ancients. The Ancients went to great lengths to remain in secrecy because their creations—us—were far stronger and more lethal than them. The Ancients knew we would eventually progress civilization enough to invent what was necessary to come and find them in the stars. Their curiosity made us, but they knew that our curiosity could kill them.”
“You haven't answered my second question,” I pointed out. “Who are they?”
Hades tilted his head. “The Ancients were humans from a technologically advanced culture, Kai. Nothing more, nothing less.”
As I frowned and sat back on my bench, Cerin asked, “How is that possible?”
“Because intelligence and ingenuity always trump physical strength,” Hades replied smoothly. “Jediael said the Ancients lived on a planet with a history much older than our own. Their most ancient peoples built civilizations that rose and fell, some dedicated to myths and others to science. In the beginning, they had many gods like Arrayis. Loyalties to these gods changed over geography, time, and evolving knowledge. As millennia passed, science rose into prominence over religion. The Ancients reached the peak of civilization. Their technologies were advanced. All fields of science dominated their culture. Their belief in myths and religion was non-existent, for their collective high intelligence meant they stopped believing in the false promises of man-made fables. Their society was low on crime, on falsehoods, on disease. The Ancients turned to the fictional myths they'd created themselves seeking entertainment and comfort. Fantasies of people who wielded an unexplained phenomenon called magic. Worlds where intelligent races of various shapes and sizes warred and co-mingled. The Ancients had the knowledge and science to make such things a reality. Their own culture and world reached the ceiling of its potential. They no longer believed in false gods, so they became the gods. Their culture was perfect, and they were bored. Their world was no longer ruled by myth.” Hades swept his arm out in a dramatic fashion. “So they created a world that was.”
“So we are...” I trailed off, in a state of muted shock. “I mean, this entire world is...”
“An experiment, if you ask me,” Hades murmured. “A playing field for those much more advanced than us to let all their creations loose just to see what would happen. I am old enough to remember seeing other vessels pass through the sky to various destinations. They were these odd, oblong ships of solid metal. Always delivered a handful of gods with no recollection of their upbringing or home world. The only things we knew were what the Ancients wanted us to know. I knew my name, my powers, and how to eat, sleep, shit and breathe. Otherwise, I awakened to a new world like it was my first day ever alive with endless possibilities of where to begin.”
“You were an adult,” Azazel surmised.
“Yes. We all were. The gods birthed by the ships,” Hades clarified. “When we first got here, gods were the only ones here. It was Vita who birthed the lesser races.”
“How?” I questioned.
“Science,” Hades replied. “Vita claimed we were born and raised together surrounded by the Ancients, but I had no recollection of it. Like Jediael, she was allowed to keep more memories than others, for she was trained in a blood science which allowed her to continue the work of the Ancients. Each of their ships contained metal boxes kept cold by technologies not yet known to this world. The boxes kept safe samples of blood and other bodily matter. Vita would choose from this selection and somehow impregnate herself. She was unlike any woman who ever existed before or since, for the children she birthed did not share her blood.” Hades went quiet a moment, deep in thought. “Vita was biased like any other. The first race she created was the Icilic because they shared her likeness.”
“The Icilic are the oldest lineage of elves,” Cerin murmured, connecting the dots.
“That is why. Vita claimed the Icilic would be comfortable starting civilization locally, for our ship docked in Glacia.” Hades stopped talki
ng and gazed at me. “You've gone pale.”
“I have seen all of this,” I blurted in disbelief. “I saw tubes of blood in the vessel in Nahara. It disturbed me; I didn't understand what they were for. I thought the Ancients were destroying life, not creating it.”
Hades appeared amused by my shock. “You couldn't understand it because you took a step into a world far more advanced than the one we currently live in. Give it time, half-breed. Within millennia, our civilization will advance to their level. We will travel through the skies and perfect medical science. Scientific discoveries are made all the time. The dwarves are inventing machines and advanced weaponry. It is the natural order of things. No culture stays stagnant forever. By making discoveries, we may believe we are progressing forward from our past. In reality, Arrayis was created to be a different future. We are a primitive world compared to others out there. The only benefit we have over them is magic.”
“The Ancients didn't have magic?” Cerin asked.
“The myth of it, nothing more,” Hades replied. “They made their fiction our reality. Using science, no doubt. That is why the magical discoveries you make are unique and fascinating, Kai. Magic is a new concept to the many worlds we share the skies with. You have the ability to advance a science that even the Ancients didn't fully understand, for they could not wield it, so they created those who could. The study of magic is the only one unique to Arrayis. The rest is ground that has already been traveled, just not here.”
