So, I Transmigrated Into The Heavenly Realm

27. Private Correspondence

27

A bird call pierced the quietness of the night. It was rare that the upper city was this still. Every night there were at least two parties on the hill. With the God of Grapes living here it wasn't hard to find booze.

Tonight though, the streets were empty even those that surrounded the Emperor's palace.

High in the sky a bright full moon shone its light through a thin mist, into the garden of a certain God of Wheat. A gentle breeze ruffled the petals of the many flowering bushes disturbing the glowing insects drinking nectar from the flowers.

Decorative koi fish swam lazily in a manicured pond disappearing and reappearing beneath waterlily and lotus flowers.

Dax was sleeping curled up in his usual nest of cushions on one of the floors in the many internal rooms completely oblivious to who was currently visiting his garden.

Someone had entered the outer courtyard slipping past guards unnoticed. If he would have known it would only have made Dax's annoyance at the presence of the guards worse. What was the point of them being there if they didn't even notice someone sneaking in, in the middle of the night?

Gently jostled camellia flowers dropped petals and blooms onto the grass and ground below.

That someone was kneeling there in the gravel of the garden no longer wearing his ceremonial armour as he had been the last time he had been there but a rather more casual outfit. His head was bowed and tears spilled from his eyes into the gravel beneath him. Tears that disappeared among the stones.

He kneeled there in relative silence for some time.

The God of War's head shot up at the sound of crunching gravel as someone came up behind him. The steps came from the direction of the palace, Elgaldir tensed in fear the owner had seen him kneeling here.

He shouldn't have come.

How would he even begin to explain to Dythos what he was doing sneaking into his gardens before the rise of the sun?

It was too late to flee now though as whoever it was, was too close. If he fled they would surely see him and running away would be more suspicious. The tension in his shoulders began to melt away when he realised that whoever it was, they weren't Dythos.

Facing literally anyone else right now was something he could deal with.

"How did you get through the gate?" A voice asked rather frostily as they drew closer. The crunch of gravel was almost deafening, Elgaldir finally looked up and saw a familiar face.

"Nice to see you too Olris." He said as he stood up,brushing gravel dust from his clothing. Wincing as the God of War dislodged a piece of gravel from where it had become embedded in his knee.

Olris stood several paces away from him, holding in their  hands the prayer they had picked up earlier. They brandished it at Elgaldir angrily in the moonlight.

It took the God of War several seconds to realise what it was in the other deity's hands. Soft moonlight illuminated the words of the prayer as Olris wildly gesticulated with it. Even from where he was now standing Elgaldir couldn't mistake what it was.

"Why are you touching his prayers?" He asked through gritted teeth stepping forward as if to snatch it from the grasp of the deity in front of him.

"I don't think you have the right to ask me questions about Dythos." Olris responded by folding up the prayer carefully once more and placing it under their arm. The paper that was previously neatly rolled up became folded under the pressure of their arm and that did little to soothe the rage building up in Elgaldir's throat.

Elgaldir glared at them.

He crossed his arms to hide how much his hands were shaking. "Don't try to distract from the fact that you're manhandling his prayers!" Not touching someone else's prayers were basic manners you learned in the first few minutes of becoming a deity. It was common knowledge so they had to actively be choosing to be disrespectful right now.

"Are you embarrassed?" Olris asked, brandishing the prayer once more, one eyebrow raised and a smirk beginning to cross their face.

"You saw what happened to his believers!" Elgaldir stated coldly locking eyes with the senior guard of the palace of the Emperor of Heaven. "What were the chances he would have survived if I hadn't prayed to him?"

Olris snorted and rolled their eyes. "None of which you would have to have done if you hadn't so graciously wounded him."

"Being forgotten would have been a true death." The God of War sighed the thought of Dythos dying was painful even now that he had returned and was sleeping in the palace directly in front of him. A deity could lose their body, their manifested form could be regained but losing their believers was truly how they died with no hope of ever returning.

Elgaldir clenched and unclenched his hands repeatedly trying to use the action to prevent tears falling once more. He didn't want to cry in front of this guard. The repetitive motion was soothing, an act Elgaldir had full control over.

"It would be best for you not to see him." Olris said, rolling up the prayer once more and tucking it into the pocket of the jacket they were wearing. Elgaldir winced as he saw the other deity fold the rolled prayer, glad that Dythos wasn't here to see it. One of the things he had hated most back then was when people folded his prayers. "Omdum says the trauma and everything seems to have affected his memory."

"I know that." It was something that they had realised in the Healing Halls almost immediately.

Losing his memory was the only reason Dythos hadn't picked up the nearest object and hurled it at his face.

"It could come back at any time." Olris insisted on still smiling their mocking smile. "I doubt you would want to be there when or if it does."

"If he's totally forgotten me." The God of War's face flittered from disappointed to relieved. "If so... that's for the better."

He turned to leave, noticing the gravel dust still clung to the knees of his trousers. He stopped briefly to brush them clean once more, when a large camellia blossom fell. It had been dislodged by a sudden gust of wind and it landed softly on the scarred surface of his open palm.

Elgaldir gently closed his fingers around it and left through the main gate of the palace of the God of Wheat.

Mini Theatre

Scene: War Office

Junior: Where is the boss? *holding piles of paper*

Senior: It's 3am on a Tuesday, where do you think he is? *sarcasm freely flying*

Junior: In the Mortal World doing important God of War things? *innocent*

Author: He's kneeling in gravel again. I keep trying to stop him but he keeps ending up there.