Interstellar Ross

Chapter 20 One of Us

Human Realm

California

A rather fitting song about Gods and humanity played quietly against the turning of wheels on the empty bus beginning a long trip out of California and into the unknown.

I propped my old, very dead friend up beside me, turning his head so we could take in the view of fading city lights together as the sun dipped its toes into the horizon.

The bus driver didn't comment on his sole two passengers up the back of the bus, or the fact that I looked like a Prince impersonator with a cadaver under my arm.

There was only the faintest of disturbances in the air as my father appeared on my other side, disguised as an elderly man with a frame supported by an equally ancient looking cane.

"Are you planning to bury him in Kur?" He tried to strike up conversation.

I looked beyond the dirty windows and then briefly at the unseeing eyes of Dimitri.

"You could have killed your sister, and yet you spared her." He contemplated.

"She's not who I'm angry with." I turned to him accusingly.

"You needed to be taught a lesson."

"From your own mistakes." I pointed out. "All of this is your own doing, and as my father you should take responsibility for it."

He looked at me levelly with his borrowed dying eyes and thin spectacles. "Your mother is the one who asked me to speak with you."

I smiled tightly. Of course, my father wouldn't do anything responsible without being told to by his wife.

"I'm here to make a deal with you." He got right down to business.

"No. You're here to make a deal with me." I corrected. "I'm taking Dimitri back to Hell with me and I will be able to come and go from there as I wish, as rightful Queen of the domain." I set my terms. "In return I won't seek worthy revenge on you are Inanna."

My father released a sigh. "You have changed."

I looked ahead with a smile. "Yes, I have."

"Your mother would be proud."

I turned to him out of surprise.

"I accept your terms." He surprised me again.

I waited a beat before responding. "Mother would be proud." I agreed. "Though I want you to know, that if you try to get one of your minions to execute me again, I will come for you." I promised.

"You threaten." He looked rather affronted and defenceless in his crippled human form beside me.

"I promise." As I spoke the scene out the windows shifted to violet skies, mountains jutting out from where concrete had once risen. The bus itself beginning to melt away from the front first.

My father's disguise began to fade, his power emanating from him as the father of Sumerian Gods and Goddesses. "I will keep that in mind."

Kur (Hell) Present Day

As the remainder of the bus vanished, as did he, leaving me standing on the lush earth with Dimitri in my arms.

I inhaled deeply, breathing in the clean, abundant air my home had to offer. It was as if no time had passed at all as I followed the winding river, the wildlife and native flora as alive and thriving as when I had left.

I looked to the mountains before laying Dimitri on the river back, spying my temple. A wave of sadness hit me as I glanced at his face. I looked away, dropping to start digging with my bare hands in the mud. I may be a Queen and a Goddess, but I didn't claw my way back to my own domain without getting dirty.

I scooped away at the mud four hours, badgers, deer and eagles gathering to watch in open curiosity. When I was left with a shallow indentation, I dropped Dimitri inside, smoothing the piled mud over his body until he was completely covered.

I released a tired breath, sitting back beside his buried form to watch the rainbow scaled fish swish by in the fast-flowing river at my feet. The familiar moans and wails of damned souls were guided by the fish, their incorporeal forms a faint violet colour below the rippling blue water.

I waited with my gathered animals for two hours, a part of me worried that my plan would fail.

A hand shot out from the mud much like a zombie would in a mortal horror movie, followed by a muffled groan.

As part of the ritual I couldn't take his hand, I couldn't help him out. The buried had to want to climb out, they had to want to live.

Dimitri exhausted himself in climbing out, heaving great breaths until he saw me beside him, and a smile lit up his dirty face. "Twice you've saved my life." He dropped to lie on his back beside me.

"You don't have to perform blood magic anymore, you're immortal now. If you want it." I spoke softly.

"I want it." He sat up. "Thank you."

"Don't do that to me again." I warned, finding my feet.

Dimitri righted himself before me, if not a little more unsteadily. He looked around, a familiar look of awe on his face.

"I mean it golden boy." I used an old nickname.

As he turned to look at me, I stepped forward, wrapping my arms around him.

He tensed in surprise before pulling me closer, allowing me to bury my face into his neck.

"I remember everything." I spoke with closed eyes. "I'm going to need some time."

"I understand." He breathed into my hair. "I'll wait."

"I don't know how long I'll need." I stepped back to fold my arms over my chest.

"Do any of us?" Yellow light blossomed in his irises as his familiar Freya found him even after death, no longer a canary, but now a butterfly to land upon his palm.

"Goodbye Dimitri." I manifested a portal beside him in the form of a closed door of old oak.

"See you soon Interstellar." He smiled as he turned the knob and opened the door, stepping through.

I closed the portal behind him, a shiver of cold working its way down my spine.

"You were always a sap for men of magic."

I turned to meet a pair of dark ebony eyes. "Brother?" I spoke in a mixture of surprise and happiness.

"Sister." He mocked my choice of words. "I missed you." He wrapped his arms around me to lift me off my feet.

"What are you doin' here?" I asked.

"Father sent me to watch over the place in your stead." He beamed.

I took another look around. "It appears you've been doing well here."

He nodded. "I try-for you, not for dad." He hated our father as much-if not more than I did. "Anyway, I have so much to catch you up on." He looped an arm across my shoulders and began guiding me towards my temple. "Loki's got himself a new wife."

"What?" I exclaimed. "Little Loki?"

"He's not so little anymore." He answered. "You're not gonna believe who his wife is."