It’s a question I get asked a lot. Not so much by mortals but by other Divines. Some have demesnes obvious and contained: Elassa, Anassa, Neneria & Kavaa all restrain themselves to tight-knit, highly-literal, interpretations of what Magic, Sorcery, Death & Health are. Others, like Kassandora and Fortia, try to claim the world with their demesne. Both could make even a drop of rain somehow fall under their purview.
Of course, both are wrong. They are wrong not because they are wrong, but because they simply don’t have perspective. Only demesnes such as Arascus’ Pride or Galrond’s Gluttony, which are intrinsic to humanity, can even lay claim to omnipresence. And in that, then it is mine which is at the forefront. In this regard, it is irrelevant to apply materialistic descriptions to my demesne.
It is beneath Love to try and explain itself. Every person on this world can point Love out when they see it. The only ones who claim to deny it as a set of circumstances or emotions are those bitter that its sweet touch has left them. Some Love selectively, maintaining the autonomy that Love takes as a price. Others Love freely, their hearts addicted to the sweet embrace of Love.
I assume it may be possible to be loving and autonomous, but I have never seen it. The amount of power, even Divines would fail to match. Hearts simply get tinged with nostalgia and regret as they experience loss. It is a natural process. I cannot imagine a God or Goddess loving, especially from among the age I am from. We have simply lived too long.
- Excerpt from the autobiography: “Roses, Blades & Blood”, by Goddess Helenna, of Love.
Fer stood, arms crossed, brows furrowed, mouth tightly closed, as she watched whatever was happening to the Jungle. The trees had started to tear themselves apart, regrow, then tear apart again. As if whatever Anassa had done to them on the inside had resulted in a rapid cancer that they were trying to forcefully excavate out of themselves. But those trees, Fer did not care about in the slightest. Trees were trees, maybe Iniri would shed tears over them, but Fer had different loyalties.
She listened to the pain wheezing of that giant lion as it collapsed. Whatever Anassa was doing on the inside was having an effect on the Jungle guardians just as much as it did on the Jungle itself. And while she had nothing against hunting and taking lives, Anassa’s sadism had always sat badly with her. Pain was pain, suffering was suffering, they were facts of life. She didn’t feel bad about hunting wild game, but…
She saw the Lion take a step and fall over onto its side. A sandstorm of dust erupted from it as the trees fell like dominos under the container-ship sized beast. That wasn’t hunting wild game though. Fer sighed and watched as she waited for Kassandora to start whatever she was planning, her ears fell flat on her head and her tailed whisked from side to side as she looked around the environment. The Crocodile gave up in the distance, it lay flat in the backing Sun as if it was simply waiting for whatever Anassa was doing to be over. The Vulture squawked from above and crashed into the ground.
Helenna turned her eyes from Arascus and Allasaria in the air. Nanbasa, once a ring, now stood as a an arc of a circle. The eastern section blown up by explosives, the northern completely devastated by the two Divines. Allasaria’s beams did more damage than the explosives themselves, there were new ravines dug out of the ground. Another pair of skyscrapers were falling as the two black dots danced around each other like two duelling wasps. One left lines of swords and spears soaring through the air, the other beams of light that incinerate whatever they touched.
And then Helenna’s eyes went to the giant monster that took another step through Nanbasa’s zoo. General Damian Sokolowski was pulling his troops away, keeping the distance with the beast as shells impacted against its muscled bear chest. The monster’s beard of tentacles curled around its head to make a crown of flesh, and they revealed the beak that shrieked madness at the men. It took another step, once again its chest was bathed in flames, once again another team of bombers flew in from Nanbasa’s west. And it took another step.
She had to do something.
Fer jumped heard engines approaching from the south and turned towards the midday Sun. A group of Lemurs were slowly driving up here. Her eyes went to the three Jungle Guardians. She put down members of her pack when they grew ill, or when they damaged limbs beyond repair. But that was putting them down. She didn’t burn them alive, she put them down. Fer looked at the three great beasts. The Crocodile unmoving, the Vulture madly beating its wings into the ground and the Lion breathing heavily as it gave short spasms on the ground.
No. They may have tried to attack her, but if they were going to die, then it would Anassa’s or Olephia’s job to put them down. Fer wasn’t about to stand here and let them be burned to the bone by napalm or slowly torn apart by artillery. If they had a weapon that could incinerate them in one go, then Fer would let it happen, but not . It was akin to throwing a lying into a nest of flesh-eater ants. Kassie would be mad, but if Kassie wanted this job done so much, then she should have stayed here and let Fer wrangle Elassa. Fer turned and jumped to the approaching artillery.
Neneria looked down in surprise at her phone. Well, that was new. Kassandora had forced one on her for communication, but the most thought Neneria gave it was keeping it on her. And now it was ringing with some odd tune. Unknown number. Neneria looked up at the city around her. Ghosts raced through walls as they wiped away another thousand of Uriamel’s soldiers. What was odd about these creatures is that they fled quickly. Neneria had managed to capture a few of them, but it was almost as if they knew to pass on quickly to protect their very souls.
Neneria looked down at her phone and thought about answering. It was an unknown number though. Should she really answer that? And she was busy. A massive, black Lynx tank parked next to her to shield her from the explosion that shook the city. Bombers were coming in to drop bunker-busters on the giant turtles. Neneria’s ghosts had emptied the towers fixed onto the back of their shells of defenders, but the beasts themselves were simply too big for ghosts. She glanced at her phone again. The screen had turned off.
Oh. She had waited too long and missed it.
Fer landed crashed into the dirt of the approaching Lemur artillery and stood up straight. It was twelve massive trucks, six wheels each, with arms on pistons that would extend into the ground. Rotating turrets on the back, with cannons twice as long as Fer was tall, and Fer stood so tall she didn’t even have to crane her neck to look into the driver’s cabin that had a ladder leading up to it. The first vehicle stopped, the driver looked at her, then rolled his window down. “Goddess Fer.” The driver said as Fer walked over to him.
The Jungle squirmed and started to rip and tear at itself. Vines shot out of the ground, they pierced trees that uprooted themselves and fell. One collapsed, as did another, until they went like dominos. The green leaves, tinged with the crimson glow of sorcery as if they themselves were casting it, started to discolour themselves until they were shining red. The three beasts cried out as the Jungle, flailing in its madness, started to hit them as much as it hit itself. That, Fer didn’t feel bad about. There was needless suffering she could stop, and then there were things she could not. There was no reason to reminisce about the latter. “Are you going to shell them?” Fer asked.
The driver looked to Fer, to the animals, then nodded. “That was the plan.” He sat there, in a green shirt tinged orange with the red dust.
“I’d rather it wasn’t.” Fer said. There was no need for intimidation or harsh tones or threats or appeals to authority. She was Fer. That was enough for men to listen to her. The man sighed, then looked to the other two men in the cabin with him. One of them shrugged, the other didn’t look happy.
“Don’t shell them?” The man asked. Fer nodded. “Then…” He sighed and collapsed into his seat. “The order to shell them came from Goddess Kassandora.” He quickly erupted into fast speech. “And since it’s her, I’m not saying you don’t have authority but-“ Fer reached into the cabin and patted the man’s shoulder.
“Kassie, I’ll handle later. Don’t worry.” She gave them a thumbs up and looked at the three suffering animals. “Thank you.”
Helenna grit her teeth in frustration at the Goddess of Death. Once, she understood. Twice, maybe the woman was busy. Five times though, she was simply being ignored. Olephia next then. Helenna rang. This time, the call was simply denied. Olephia sent a text over, a simple face made out of characters: ‘ :| ’. Helenna stared down at it in confusion as tanks firing from right outside the building fired. The walls of the Imperial Governance Centre shook. A text came through. “I don’t talk Helenna.”
Oh. Helenna blinked. She quickly started typing out a text, but one from Olephia came through just before Helenna could send hers: ‘I have Alkom to deal with here. He comes in several times a day to one of the cities and I get dropped off to send him away. I can’t leave here. Sorry Helenna, but it’s Kassie’s orders.’ Then another text came through even faster. The woman really did have fast fingers. ‘Unless you want something else, in that case, ask away.’ And to top it off, a little smiley face. ‘ :D ‘. Helenna wanted to cry as she looked at that smiley face.
Was there no one who could help?
Fer soared through the air and felt her phone start to buzz. Who was calling her now? Now? Of all times? About what exactly? She maintained her posture, angling herself so that she would go feet-first into a tree that was being driven mad and fighting its neighbours. Its leaves turning red and dying, some were starting to fall off. That was Anassa’s work alright. Fer smiled to herself as she put one arm forwards, her feet crashed into the bark, a spray of wooden chips exploded around the Goddess as her sheer bulk eviscerated the wood.
Immediately, and the Jungle started to scream and grab her. It wasn’t like the last time she had entered. It was unfocused, as if unaware Fer had once again entered. And the screaming was directed seemingly in all directions, from all directions. A vine hurtled towards Fer’s neck and she quickly jumped again. Fer landed on top of the Lion itself. It had soft fur, almost as soft as her golden locks.
The Goddess saw the animal’s eyes watching her. They were sore. But they weren’t maddened anymore. Nothing like the gaze of the Caretaker. Fer put her hand on the Lion’s nose. Its rumble was as delicate as the buzzing of a bumblebee, and as a loud as an avalanche crashing down. And the Goddess of Beasthood smiled, it truly was just an oversized animal. There were thin traces of sanity in that rumble, as if it was trying to form words. She was about to speak to it, when her phone buzzed again.
Once was just a call. Twice was serious. It could be Kassie.