Divinitas

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Divinitas

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Website: http://cruelangel.net/divinitas

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065 - Dragon's Lamentations

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Calm and collected. Two words often used to describe Draco, once the first son and heir of the Ryu family, now the God of Water severing the God of Chikyuu. But at that moment in time, Draco was anything but calm and collected on the inside. Yes, he wanted to be a loyal and competent servant to Aether, and he was. But to be uncomplaining and refraining from nagging as well was a very difficult task indeed. Especially when he walked out into the courtyard to find Aether pinning Phoenix to the ground, engaged in what looked like an attempt to devour the younger god. The thin trickle of blood trailing down the corner of Phoenix’s mouth only testified to it.

“Please,” Draco said finally to the swords master, inwardly cringing at the slightly desperate note in his voice. “Disregard this scene…” Part of Draco wanted to throw rocks at the two just to get them to stop – or better yet, kick them both over the horizon so he would never have to deal with either again.

The swords master, a man in his early forties, nodded and excused himself quickly, adverting his reddening face. It wasn’t that it was unusual to see two males together… it was accepted as normal considering the God of Ten was as liberal as he when sleeping with both genders. It was just that seeing the God of one’s own realm make out with another god in front of you was a bit of a shock.

Draco suppressed a long suffering sigh and walked over to the two deities, politely clearing his throat. It was still several moments before Phoenix noticed Draco standing over them and kicked Aether off him. At least he had the decency to be embarrassed about it, which was more than he could say about Aether… who just looked smug.

“Dinner will be served soon,” the God of Water said at length, after suppressing the lecture he felt very much like giving to his comrade and superior. “It might be in your interests to clean up and head over to the dining hall before Chimaera devours everything?”

Aether smirked. “I’ll take your suggestion. Since my beloved Phoenix so happily tore my pants when he bit me.”

The God of Fire seethed, glaring daggers at the higher deity as Aether walked haughtily away. Angrily shoving his training weapon back into its case, Phoenix turned and stalked back into the cooler hallways of Genesis, wiping his lips with the back of his hand as he did so. It was distracting, to still taste that fiend’s blood on his lips even when he was no where in sight.

“Well?” Phoenix demanded of Draco who followed half a step behind, a calm contrast to Phoenix’s heated fury.

“I wanted to inform you that I will be announcing to Aether our planned procession tonight, after dinner. Gryps returned today from his duties acting as herald, so I need to know if you still intend to back me,” Draco replied readily, unfazed by Phoenix’s apparent anger.

“Sure, why the hell not! If it pisses Aether off, I’m all for it!”

Honestly, Draco wanted to sigh. Just let a single breath carry all his exasperations from his body and mind. Why was he the only mature one? Why did he have to carry all the responsibilities whilst they bickered and played up? Or worse, try to kill you if you so much as look at them the wrong way? It was a miracle that Gryps’ darker half hadn’t killed half the realm’s population on his errand. In retrospect, it had probably been an unwise decision to let Gryps act as herald, but there had been no one else… Aether never let Phoenix out of his sight for more than a few hours, and no one in their right mind would send a child in a youth’s body on a world wide journey to announce the visitation of their God of Soul, and Draco himself had had his hands full trying to put some semblance of order back into their uprooted lives. So in the end, it had been Gryps by elimination. Unfortunately.

“Err… who is Gryps, by the way?” Phoenix asked, interrupting Draco’s silent lamentations.

It took a moment for the God of Water to make sense of the question. It have been so long ago that the Griffin of the Light had rather bluntly told them to call him Gryps, his proper name, that it had become completely natural to do so. But Phoenix… Phoenix had been unconscious during that time, locked away in the heart of Genesis. And Gryps himself obviously hadn’t informed the God of Fire before Draco had sent him on his errand as herald.

“Ah. Gryps is the Griffin of the Light’s proper name. He requested we call him that whilst you were… indisposed. I apologise for not informing you earlier. It completely slipped my mind.”

“Hmm. Whatever,” Phoenix replied before pushing open the dining room doors and letting the scents of hot food and drink wafted over them. Obviously, eating was much more important than a name. That was somewhat understandable, considering the youth had been starved for well over a month not so very long ago.


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Draco almost dreaded the end of dinner, though usually it was an affair he tried to shorten as much as possible (who wouldn’t if you had to share the table with other deities who all had emotional or personality disorders?). But dinner was eaten, and deserts served, and if Draco didn’t speak up soon, Phoenix would leave and Aether would go hunting, and that would be the last he’d see of either until morning.

So… Draco cleared his throat politely and began.

“Lord Aether… it has been approximately two months since you’ve acquired us into your court. I believe it is time we let the realm of Chikyuu know it has Elemental Gods. Thus, to accomplish this, I’ve arranged for us to proceed on a procession to the ruling cities. We will leave tomorrow at your convince,” Draco said as smoothly and eloquently as possible.

Silence.

Inwardly Draco let out a sigh.

“No.”

He expected this. Nothing to do but weather it.

“Your people have a right to know their realm now plays host to four new deities,” Draco countered, calmly bearing Aether’s glare.

“Why?” Aether demanded, anger underlying that single word.

“Humans worship you. They would want to know. Humans need to know there are high powers watching over them.”

The God of Soul let out a short bitter laugh. “You mean they need to know there is some higher being they can curse and blame all their misgivings on. No, thankyou. I refuse to allow this. You can put this silly notion out of your noble head.”

“That’s a shame. I fully intend to go,” Phoenix spoke up, giving Aether an insolent look when the God of Soul rounded on him. “And there is nothing you can do to stop me, now is there, Lord Aether?” Phoenix continued, casually brushing aside longer locks of hair to reveal the inverted cross that hung around his neck.

A heavily pregnant silence followed, broken only by the scraping of a spoon as Chimaera continued eating his second serving of desert, not the least bit interested in the proceedings going on around him.

“My rooms, now,” Aether commanded coldly, amethyst eye narrowed with hatred and annoyance.

“Make me.”

The coldly challenging look that passed between them threatened to manifest into a violent bawl, when suddenly Aether shoved his chair back and stalked around the table to where Phoenix sat, hands clutching the table like claws.

“Let go of the table, Phoenix,” the God of Soul growled, pulling the chair out from under the stubborn God of Fire and taking hold of him by the waist.

“Never!” Phoenix answered, clinging all the more tightly and causing the whole table to tremble and shake until the violent movements unfortunately toppled over Gryps’ glass of apple juice.

Suppressing yet another sigh, Draco shut his eyes and placed his head gingerly in his hands, wishing he could block out all the shouts and curses and painful scrabbling of nails on polished wood. It wasn’t until the sound of Phoenix’s voice had faded away that Draco dared look up again.

The God of Air wiped glistening wet blood off his knife, and flashed an evil grin at Draco when he noticed the other deity looking. “He was never going to let go, otherwise… and he split Gryps’ apple juice,” the dark half said in an almost innocent voice.

This time Draco did sigh. “I decline to even ask,” the God of Water murmured, and turned to the Goddess of Song who had remained silent throughout the whole ordeal. “Are you having second thoughts, Casimir? You encouraged me to this.”

Large aqua eyes glanced up at calm sapphire, and managed a small smile. “Honestly? I’m afraid that despite the good that might come from this, it will hurt Aether even more. I can’t help but also ask… why? Why bother doing this. Why not just let everything stay the same, as it has been?

“But I know. I know… neither happiness or contentment can be realised the way things are, and no one, especially Aether, is either happy or truly content. And nothing will change, if things stay the way they are. So,” Casimir said, forcing her smile to bloom. “I wish you five the best of luck. Genesis and I will await your return. Take care of my brother, k? I… don’t think I’ll see you off tomorrow.”

Draco regarded the youthful girl as she left the dining table, noticing the flicker of pain underlying her features. No one was happy or truly content…

“Chimaera, stop scrapping the bottom of the bowl. Excuse yourself and go to bed if you’ve finished. We’ve an early start tomorrow,” Draco ordered, frowning at the younger deity’s childish antics.

Only Draco and the God of Air were left at the table once Chimaera had departed – after sticking his tongue out at Draco. The Griffin of the Dark was still out and eager to play, twirling the knife on its bladed tip, smiling his innocent smile even as he scarred the table top for life.

“Humans need to know about us…? I do want to know why you think that way, oh noble God of Water,” the darker side said with a widening smile. “Honestly I’m inclined to agree with our dear Lord Aether’s answer to you. Humans do very little aside from cursing their God if they believe in him. That, or a fanatic worship of him, which is just as disagreeable.”

“That is my point exactly, Gryps. We were human once, so we know. We were taught that our God of Chikyuu would protect us and our world if we worshipped him. That might have been true, once upon a time, but that hasn’t been the case for as long as anyone in living memory can remember.

“Now there is nothing but a bitterness towards the God of Chikyuu and the priests and priestess who still preach about our God. You might not have hated Aether… but if no one else among us, then surely Phoenix did when he was still human. Hated a God who he believed to have bestowed upon him a cursed destiny which had no ending except a terrible death, yet refused to even listen to his prayers. Such hatred can lead to nothing but further suffering and bitterness.

“So if for no other reason than to curb the hatred of humans towards our God, I want this procession to go ahead. If Aether no longer wishes to have anything to do with humans, then he should make it clear to them,” Draco answered in a determined voice.

The Griffin of the Dark raised an elegant silver eyebrow. “You do have a noble and righteous streak in you, don’t you, Draco…” the silvery youth commented, drawing out the God of Water’s name with another unpleasantly innocent smile. “By the way… don’t call me Gryps. That is his name, not mine… I was not given a name when we were born.”

The God of Air picked up the carafe of red wine, offering to pour Draco a glass before pouring one for himself. “I wonder if we can still become drunk…” he murmured, swirling the red liquid around in the fragile glass and watching as the light refracted within it.

Draco took a sip from his own glass before returning his attention to the God of Air seated across from him. “What should I call you then?”

The other looked surprised. “You really want to know? My, I do think you’re the first to ask.” The Griffin of the Dark pressed his lips to the cool glass, tipping it back and letting the bitter and fragrant liquid slide down his throat. “Ari. I named myself Ari. Eagle in one tongue, and lion in another. The closest I could find to Gryps’. We are two sides of the same coin, after all…”

“Ari,” Draco repeated, feeling the taste of the word on his lips. “I like it,” he said with a smile, taking another drink from his wine glass. “At the very least, it is shorter and easier to say than ‘Griffin of the Dark’.”

“Well, it’s not as if that was ever a title either Gryps or I agreed to. So don’t blame us for that.” Suddenly Ari laughed, spilling his wine which he still held in his hand. “Oh this is amusing. I find this very, very amusing. Look at us… dining and drinking like two spoilt country lords!” A pause. “I do think I’m getting drunk.”

Draco snorted at the image of them throwing half eaten chicken legs over their shoulder to ravenous hunting dogs, laughing as the animals fought over the scraps of food. “I would never…”

“Snort?” Ari supplied with a devious grin.

“…maybe there’s something in the wine. I do not get drunk this easily,” Draco muttered, and finished off his glass as if to prove it. He felt light headed and giddy, and he kind of wanted to drape himself over the God of Air and laugh himself silly. That… wasn’t good. “Alright. Maybe now I do. I think we should go to bed.”

“Together?” the drunk God of Air giggled, somehow having gotten up on top of the table and was currently leaning down over it, his pretty flushed face inches from Draco’s. “You have pretty eyes…”

Draco shook his head, closing his sapphire eyes before reopening them. It took every ounce of will power to pull together his next controlled sentence. He really felt like taking up Ari’s offer, if only so he could curl up next to someone warm in bed and giggle. “No, I think not. You would kill me tomorrow when you woke up sober and I was touching your body.”

“Awww… Fine… be a spoil sport. I’ll go and sleep in the stable with that pretty colt then!” the God of Ari announced, and rolled his slender body off the table, knocking over several glasses, their shattering sounds tinkling magically as they hit the solid marble floor. They seemed to vibrate across the large hall, waves that overlapped waves until they were broken, stomped out by Ari’s echoing and irregular footsteps.

How undignified, Draco found himself half hearted thinking. Then he remembered his own snort and decided it was best to just forget all about this and go to bed. After all, tomorrow would mark the beginning of a very long and trying journey.

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