Destiny Unbonded

Chapter 12

Mighty are the Gods. Through Them, all things are possible.

- The Canon

[The Gods]

The clamor among the assembled Gods rose, leading to loud arguments and scattered scuffles. A notable absence stood out: Nemesis. News of her demise had swept through the Gods like a shock wave. An undercurrent of fear permeated the uproar, something the Gods had not felt in countless cycles.

"Silence!" Zeus roared in directed thought-speech. Bolts of blue-white jumped from his staff as he slammed it down on the dais, the boom echoing through the hall, quieting the gathered. "The Chaos comes." Zeus said flatly, stating what all others had dared not to speak.

"Was this not inevitable?" Demeter pleaded, stepping forward and then turning to her fellow Gods. "The Chaos can never be fully destroyed. It is as much a part of the universe as space and time. In the Great Separation, we cast the Chaos to the cosmos and created a realm of our own, and now it returns. We delude ourselves."

Zeus narrowed his crystal eyes. "And what would you have us do, Demeter?"

"Embrace it, my King." Grumbles broke out among the assembly. Zeus raised a hand, allowing Demeter to continue. "Before men arrived in the Ark, we existed with Chaos in harmony. We must do so again."

"Words of a coward!" Ares pushed himself before the dais, his crystal face contorted in anger. "Who among us wishes to return to the old ways? We are Gods! We must crush the Chaos before is spreads further!"

Demeter responded, taking a step forward, "Gods? I think not! We are more a creation of men than of our own making. Do not our very forms, even our names, come from them? Do we not draw the Ambrosia, the very power that sustains our Realm, from their consciousness? We have become more like parasites than gods."

"Fool!" Ares turned to the other Gods. "Humanity is weak and dim, like sheep. They need our control!" He turned to Demeter, pointing an accusing finger. "And what would the Goddess of the Harvest do with them?"

"If they be so weak and dim," Demeter replied, "Then how did they travel across the cosmos in a vessel of their own making?" She paused, shaking her head. "Our Moirai hold them back. Let men grow as they may."

"Madness!" roared Ares in thought-speech. "I say again, we are the Gods! Men exist to serve us!" Coming up into Demeter's face, he growled. "And remember that if you wish to remain among us here."

Demeter huffed. "Only if such dull conceit became a virtue, would you be the god you think you are!"

Ares snarled, baring his crystalline teeth. In a single furious motion, he drew the glass knife at his waist and plunged it into Demeter's gut. She stiffened, head tilted back with mouth open, but no sound came out. With one hand still on the knife hilt, Ares bent his head to her ear, hissing in the human audible speech. "Unwise to provoke me, Goddess."

She gasped as Ares yanked out the knife, allowing her to slump to the floor. Cracks raced from the gash, tracing sharply angled lines across her crystal body. A glowing golden gas seeped out in small swirls, dissipating into the air. "You fool!" she spat in audible speech, laying on her side and clutching the wound. "You only make the inevitable that much worse."

Zeus jumped up, eyes narrowed to slits. Jagged blue lightning arced from his staff, striking Ares in the chest, and sending him tumbling across the polished floor. Ares came up to one knee, growling.

"Hold your temper, Ares!" Zeus bellowed in thought-speech. "I shall not have you wasting Ambrosia!" Frowning, the King surveyed the assembled Gods, now still and silent. "Who here would side with Demeter? That we embrace the Chaos?"

Only one hand rose, that of Dionysus. Most of the others turned their heads.

Pounding the staff onto the dais, Zeus said, "Very well. We fight! I shall lead the strike to purge the Chaos and, once and for all, destroy the ark."

"My king." Athena stepped forward. "We have not the Ambrosia to send more than one to the human realm now."

"Leverage your seers and the Moirai." Zeus said to all the Gods. "Proclaim a period of unending worship and penance among men. When we have accumulated enough Ambrosia, the battle will begin." He strode away, stopping before the wounded goddess, who grimaced from the floor. "And you, Ares, you shall supply the Ambrosia that Demeter needs to heal herself."