Chapter 166: Creation

Jadis wasn’t entirely sure where Aila and Kerr had disappeared to. After their, more thrilling for some than others, lunch the group had headed back to their guild hall. After the erotic display under the table, Jadis had been more then willing to spend the rest of the afternoon holed up in their bedroom, especially considering the abruptly halted sexy times from that morning. However, both her girlfriend and her therion lover had excused themselves to have a private discussion.

She could only imagine how that talk was going to go.

Sabina had gone back to the forge with Syd’s damaged armor and Thea had gone with her. Part of their talks over food had involved not only Thea’s still cobbled together shield, but also the hydra scales the group had collected from the slain beast. The smith had come up with plans to use those scales to enhance the armor Thea wore, as well as improve the shield Jadis had made her. Since Sabina wanted both Thea’s measurements and her input, the quietest of their growing group had followed the most talkative back to her place of work. At least Thea liked to listen.

That left Jadis alone with Eir. Not a bad prospect by any means in her opinion. However, while the two did end up retiring to their shared bedchamber, their afternoon wasn’t spent in the way Jadis had expected to when alone with the gorgeous and sexy elf.

“This is a book of parables,” Eir explained as she gently turned the pages of the book Jadis had scavenged from D’s temple when she’d first arrived on Oros. “Tales that a priest would have read to a congregation to illustrate various lessons and morals. These stories are all centered around Destarious and those who follow his teachings, for good and bad.”

“Exactly what kind of morals does D teach to his followers?” Syd asked while looking at the pages from over Eir’s shoulder. “He’s the god of luck and secrets, right?”

“Luck, secrets, madness, mischief, lies,” Eir listed as she ticked off her fingers on one hand. “All are within his domain. Most of his tales involve the misuse of such actions, but they can also show how the clever application of one of his attributes can be of great use in one’s life.”

Now there was a thought. Jadis could barely imagine it. A whole temple full of worshippers listening to a priest explain how lying was a good thing under certain circumstances, and that sometimes rolling the dice was the correct and just course of action. It definitely sounded like the kind of sermon D would enjoy, though.

Syd shifted where she sat on the bed, propped up with pillows against the wall. Eir sat with her plush bottom right in her lap, which meant Syd couldn’t help but be just a little hard as the elf subtly wiggled her ass against her, but as both were still clothed both remained relatively chaste in the touches.

Jay and Dys lay on either side, mirror opposites of each other as they stretched out with their heads propped up on their hands. The only difference between the two was Jay held the glass jar containing their little demon hatchling.

The small demon wiggled around inside the jar, its neon blue eye shifting between staring at Jay and looking at Eir. The priestess had given the demon more than a few dirty looks, but she’d come to terms with the fact that Jadis wasn’t getting rid of it and thus refrained from comment.

“Anything in that book about demons?” Jay asked while giving the jar a gentle shake. “Maybe stories about demons that for mysterious reasons actually help rather than harm a person?”

“I’m afraid not,” Eir shook her head and gave the hatchling a frown. “At least not the helping part. There are many stories involving demons, but the Spawn of Samleos are always depicted as the antagonists of such stories. Rightfully so, considering their purpose.”

“What purpose is that?” Dys asked. “I mean, I get that they’re hostile towards everything that isn’t a demon, and that’s because Valtar and Samleos are fighting or something like that, but I don’t really know the details. Why are they fighting? What about the other gods, what’s their stake in all this? What’s the end goal for Samleos and his demons anyway?”

Jadis had learned a few things about the religious situation on Oros during her time among the natives, though she’d never sat down and had a real explanation given as to what the cycle of demonic invasions was all about. Not from the local perspective, anyway. She knew what D had told her, that Samleos and Valtar were at odds and thus were fighting it out with Oros as the prize, but that didn’t mean that’s how the people of Oros saw things. Jadis wanted to know more about the how’s and why’s of the war. And what better way to learn than from a priestess who had no doubt been studying such things her whole life?

Eir leaned back against Syd and gave Dys a considering look.

“Since you’re from another world, I suppose you don’t have any knowledge about how the world, or rather, how Oros was created, do you?”

“Not a clue,” Dys shook her head. “Though I’d like to know more.”

Those were the magic words. With a breathtaking smile, Eir snuggled into Syd’s arms and began telling Jadis the story of how the world began.

In the beginning, or so Eir told her in a flowery, almost song-like cadence, the world was an empty void. The gods lived separately from one another in their hallowed halls and across the dark sea of nothingness they would sail to visit one another. The vast emptiness held nothing of value and was simply a space to pass through.

It was Valtar who made the trip across the void most frequently due to his love for his wife, Lyssandria, so it was he who suggested to the nine other gods that the emptiness between their halls should be a place, rather than just a passage. So it was agreed by all ten that a world would be made, one that was filled with life, so that their travels would no longer be through the cold of oblivion but in the warmth of the sun and the grace of growth and change.

Each one of the ten gods contributed to the building of the world, each adding their own touch to its creation.

Svaroga hammered the earth from the void and the world gained the mountains and the valleys and all the land between.

Tamar warmed the dark ocean with her breath and the world gained the winds and the storms and the rains fell across the land to make lakes and rivers.

Ulya took a coal from her hearth and set it rolling in the sky and the world gained the light of day and the dark of night.

Villthyrial seeded the land from his own garden and from those seeds the world gained the wild forests and the beasts who dwell within.

Metethys plucked a perfect stone from her fountain and placed it in the sky opposite the sun and the world gained the changing of the months and the passage of time.

Lyssandria played her lyre and the world gained music and beauty and all life within it knew what it was to love.

Charos brandished his sword and the world gained courage and wrath and all life within it knew what it was to fight.

Destarious spoke his riddles and the world gained secrets and madness of its own and all life within it knew what it was to chance.

Samleos drove his staff into the earth and the world gained corruption and finality and all life within it knew what it was to die.

And Valtar, father of all, made the mortal races of the world and set them into the world to be a part of it, to grow and thrive within it, and to learn all the lessons of the gods who made it.

The world that the ten gods made was beautiful and full of life and change. All the gods were happy with it and loved it and called it their own. And so it was that the world they made flourished.

“When did the problems start?” Jay asked after Eir finished her long and poetic recounting of the creation of Oros. “I assume Samleos started some shit?”

Eir shook her head.

“I have read some books written by scholarly priests that blame the schism that formed between the gods on Samleos, but the oldest scriptures do not bear that out. In truth, all the gods share some of the blame because all of them grew jealous of Oros and the mortal lives that dwelled therein.”

“Let me guess,” Dys raised an eyebrow. “They fought over who the world really belonged to?”

“Precisely,” Eir nodded solemnly. “They had all put so much work and effort into the world that all claimed sovereignty over it in the same way that they rule over their individual Halls. The worship of the mortals who inhabit Oros was a particular point of contention and led directly to the War of Ages.

“The gods fought each other, not only in their Hallowed Halls but also here on Oros. Their many servants rallied to their cause and the war raged for uncounted generations of mortal lives. The destruction was so terrible that Oros was irreparably scarred. Those hills just outside of the city are actual remnants from those long-ago days of divine wrath.”

Jadis had wondered about the odd shape of the Broken Hills surrounding Far Felsen. They hardly looked naturally occurring, but she hadn’t put too much thought into the formation of the fractured landscape. In a world of demons and magic, who was to say that there couldn’t be strange features in the land that Jadis wouldn’t think possible back on Earth.

“So what happened? What changed things?” Dys asked Eir, feeling surprisingly invested in the religious story.

Maybe it was because she knew the gods were real, having met a couple of them, or maybe it was because of the way Eir told the tale, but Jadis was entranced by the story that the priestess told.

“According to the scriptures, Metethys was the first to call for peace with an appeal to reason. The war between the gods had ravaged the world and killed off many of the mortals who had flourished in the land before the destruction began. In the end, all the gods agreed to a truce. None would hold direct sway over Oros and to make sure that remained the case, none would exercise their direct power upon the world again, either. This is called The Covenant, and it is actually the main reason why you exist.”

“Me?” Jadis exclaimed in unison. “What do I have to do with this Covenant?”

“Not you specifically,” Eir corrected. “But your race, the Nephilim. When the gods agreed to withdraw their direct influence from the world, they also agreed that each god would have a mortal race that was dedicated to them and them alone. These avatars would be the truest, most direct connection between the gods and the peoples of Oros and would be their representation among the other mortal races.

“So, when the gods molded their Children and placed them upon the world, Lyssandria made the Nephilim, which is why you are her child. The Nephilim were born to the world to be Lyssandria’s avatars, to spread her teachings and her will among the other mortal races, so that when they die and their souls depart the mortal plain, they are welcomed in her halls.”

“Why do the gods need representation on Oros?” Jay asked with a frown. “Why not just take the souls in after they die, regardless?”

As a once lost and stranded soul, that question was of burning importance to Jadis. While she recognized that the rules on Oros could hardly apply to Earth, she figured there had to be some parallels.

“It’s part of the covenants,” the elven priestess smiled patiently. “It was actually part of why they fought in the first place. Before the War of Ages, the gods would fight over the souls of the departed since many mortals would live their lives by following any and all of the teachings of the gods. Not a bad thing to do, mind you, but because of this practice, all the gods felt they had rights upon the soul and would turn to fighting over who had the greater claim.

“Now, per The Covenant, the soul goes to the hall of the god they either worshiped specifically or lived their life following their teachings and values most closely. The Children of the Gods, like the Nephilim, were meant to spread the word of their gods and keep their ways in the minds of mortals always, so that we won’t lose our way.”

“Okay, I think I get it,” Jay nodded, though she still had a few questions about the logistics. “But if the gods came to an agreement and worked everything out so that no one god would have greater influence than the others, what happened with Samleos?”

Eir’s smile waned. With a sad look, she motioned to the hatchling inside the jar Jadis held.

“Samleos tricked the other gods. While the others made their Children, he crafted his Spawn. The avatar races were never meant to populate the world the way we mortals do, which is why there are so few of each of the gods’ Children. By the Covenants rules, the beings that the gods created after the War of Ages are not meant to replace, only guide. But Samleos still coveted the world and held a grudge against Valtar who had fought against him so fervently during the divine war. He made his Children specifically with the ability to possess mortal flesh. The demons were made with that one purpose in mind, to take every mortal life, either by corruption or destruction.”

“And if every mortal life in the world is possessed by a demon,” Jay said slowly while looking at the hatchling wiggling in her hand, “then Samleos effectively owns the world.”

Eir nodded somberly.

“Precisely.”

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