Caeru sighed, “Remind me why you invited some of my family Yaawha? Please don’t tell me you’ve gotten friendly with one of the fourteen?”
Yaawha's floating form of energy vibrated a little, “Perhaps…”
“Let me guess…” Caeru sighed, “You made friends with Calsyniacus didn’t you during his party?”
He buzzed and shifted again as the dark-skinned goddess that Dyo presumed was the one called Ishtart laughed. “There’s nothing wrong with liking him, he certainly has that godly penitence for vengeance that I think we all need.”
“Be that as it may Ishtart, he’s also rather… Erratic too. You don’t get to be the god of all the things he represents without being so.”
Ishtart laughed again, daintily placing a hand on her cheek, “And that’s what makes him so interesting and fun!”
Caeru sighed, resigning himself to checking his cards, muttering something nobody could hear.
“Pip!” Yaawha slammed down their cards, a splay of senators and wolf packs, “This has got to be a round for me, right!?”
Caeru and Ishtart put down their cards. Ishtart’s containing five centurions and one with three birds, with Caeru’s a set of four senators and three wolfpacks, one more than Yaawha.
“Nine more points than me,” They rumbled, “I think you might be right Ishtart...”
“Of course, I am!” She huffed, “I’m a goddess of knowledge!”
“And I’m a god of everything, you don’t see me bragging about that.”
“That's because you bragged about that for several hundred years before the wars!”
“Are you going to bring that up every time we have a game? You’ve been doing that for the last, what, one hundred and seventeen years?”
She huffed, “I think it’s within my rights to given our pasts.”
“And it's time for the next round you two.” Caeru groaned, passing a card to both of them from the pile.
“So, I’m too late to join in on this round? Awww.”
Dyo’s eyes widened as he saw a horned, handsome, leopard-skin clad man with a familiar olive complexion and androgynous, yet athletic body. That of his father, Calsyniacus, wine bottle in hand, looking at the three other gods with a small smile, even as his almost intoxicatingly deep purple eyes were filled with a manic light. As Dyo looked into them he felt a sort of happy drunkenness slowly start to seep in, but also tendrils of an unknown and unnerving feeling that scratched in the back of his mind, forcing him to look away.
“There you are Cal!” Ishtart chirped her expression in an instant from annoyance, to a beaming happy smile, “I was wondering when we’d finally get to see your beautiful face- Is that wine!?”
“A blend I mixed myself that no mortal could consume.”
“Is that because it’s made with a lethal herb or flower?” Caeru asked with a sigh.
“It’s only lethal in larger quantities to mortals but otherwise creates rather delightful illusions and delusions in their minds! If they can ignore their heart burning as its beats grow irregular… Does anyone have a cup?”
Beams of light and energy blossomed on the table next to Yaawha, slowly condensing and forming into four goblets of coloured glass.
“It’ll always be a mystery why we never talked before Yaawha.”
“One that cannot even be answered by the gods,” Yaawha replied, the two and Ishtart laughing as Caeru remained somewhat unamused.
“Do you want us to stop here then, or continue till everyone else gets here?”
Calsyniacus shrugged his shoulders, “We’re still waiting on two others so I suppose I can wait...”
“Excellent. I’ll take this card from the discard then.”
Caeru reached forward, placing a card with two ravens onto the pile of cards in the centre of the table and taking a card with a knight in return from the pile.
Ishtart sighed, throwing another raven card onto the discard and taking a new card from the deck. “If Caeru isn’t going to appreciate your lovely presence I’ll show you a little Urbad hospitality for some of your wine.”
Calsyniacus’s smile grew broader as he took a chair and two glasses, sliding in beside her and pouring both glasses till they nearly overflowed. “And I’d be glad to take it. Anyone else.”
A glass by Yaawha shifted closer seemingly of its own accord with Cal filling it in turn, as it was then pulled back to the deity.
“So,” Yaawha started, their thousands of eyes focusing on Cal, “Have you been looking at what your son has been up to since his run-in with Athervi?”
Dyo’s face suddenly flushed as his heart started to hammer in his chest. The gods were talking about him!?
“I have,” He answered, eyebrow raising, “I hope you haven’t found it offensive at all.”
Yaawha let out another laugh, their energy flashing, “Oh not at all! To be honest I’m getting sick of these ‘inquisitions’ that keep being formed again and again! I know I told them all that fire and brimstone stuff, but I also told them about a lot of nicer things! But alas the brimstone seems way too alluring for them. So, I’m very happy to watch, uh- what’s his name… Dionaigus! That’s it! Give them a little entertaining challenge for them to face in their devotion. Did you teach him that illusion magic by the way?”
“Of course, I did! I think he took to it rather well. Even if he still seems to be hesitant to use some of his more direct magic on those who have wronged him. He shouldn’t be afraid to, but with my encouragement, he did make a display that is certainly worthy of my name.”
The manic energy in Calsyniacus’s eyes seemed to almost make them glow at that moment as even his smile seemed to gain a maddened edge, filled with as much pride as sadistic joy. It almost made Dyo want to flinch back, but he still wasn’t sure if any noise they’d make would be heard by the gods.
But at that moment, another god took the opportunity to make their entrance.
Exiting out of another fissure in the air stepped a tall figure clad in heavy fur clothes. His hair was a long greying black and framed a face that morphed between young and old constantly. In the centre of his shifting was a pair of sunken red eyes, his skin was a sickly parchment white, his expression dull, and even his footsteps were quiet, subdued, and near lifeless.
Both Ishtart’s and Caeru’s faces went sour at his appearance as everyone looked at him.
“Ah, Ƿó,” Yaawha said, “We were just talking about a little incident with one of Calsyniacus’s sons! I think one of your bloodline was involved in it too.”
“Don’t talk to me about that cursed bloodline I brought upon the mortal realm; I never should have given birth to it in the first place.” Ƿó’s voice was calm yet pierced the air like an icicle impacting a snowdrift.
Did he-
“Aw come now!” Yaawha chided, “Their bloodline is so strong it never gets diluted and possesses powers many mortals would kill for!”
“And they’re still cursed beings who cannot live human lives. I have never interacted with living mortals since I gave birth to the vampires for a reason. I don’t want to create another line of monsters like them.”
Hreysti’s hand tightened around his as Dyo wished he could do more to help as even he felt a stab of pain in his heart at those words. But he could say nothing to help.
Ishtart snorted, “Don’t you think that’s rather harsh?”
“I’m a god of death Ishtart, harsh reality is all I am.”
“I think you’re harsher than that!”
“Nonetheless, I don’t spend my time observing them like you do with your ilk.”
Calsynicaus snorted, “And you’re missing out.”
“And you have watched this for long enough…”
Dyo’s posture went stiff as he heard the voice of the fae in his head again, silencing that of the gods.
“Dyo!” Agrippa called out, “A-Are you seeing everything get murky!?”
“Y-Yeah!”
He swallowed, pulling Hreysti closer as he moved to Agrippa, the visions of the gods before them starting to shimmer like water disrupted by ripples. The vision then grew dimmer and dimmer as the shimmers grew in intensity till their sight was completely obscured and the walls of water started to close in.
But as the water engulfed them yet again and threw them into that drowning pit once again, Dyo swore he could see something. Someone far, far away in the endless ocean with dirty white hair and tanned skin falling with them down and down. This time there wasn’t anything at the end, instead, it all grew dark as his senses dulled and the grasp he had on his friends faded. A normal, deep sleep engulfed him once more.
When he opened his eyes again, he was back to reality, the rising sun piercing through the morning fog in the clearing. A new morning with everyone still here but with his memories of the dream as fresh as the day.
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