Prayer of the Damned

1

Zephyr

After two thousand years of life you learn one valuable thing: to avoid your parents as much as possible. Establish your own domain and do not respond to their calls for you to leave it. It often comes with additional headache and unsightly PDA. Instead, I watch over the human realm and ignore my father's incessant calls.

As God of Light and Death, my responsibilities are many and varied, but my father and mother handle most of it for now.

So mostly, I sit atop the clouds, a coming-of-age gift from my Uncle Youin, the Water God. I look upon humanity now and then. Still, I enjoy a life of luxury, relaxing in my domain, enjoying the fruits of...not necessarily my labor but...my parents and siblings.

Familial labor.

That counts.

I yawn, and enjoy my grapes as I lounge on my cloud. My father continues calling to me in prayer, but I ignore them like all the others. I'll return to the family temple every century like I always have.

"I should throw you from this forsaken cloud, you spoiled brat,"

I freeze, and tilt my head up, finding my father with his arms crossed and a searing look on his face. He's come without my mother too, so I suppose he really intends to punish me.

"Father...you didn't have to come, I was planning to come see you and Mom this century."

Dad narrows his eyes and picks me up by my shirt forcing me to stand.

"You have grown complacent and spoiled, a disgrace to godhood, and it cannot continue. I cannot allow your mother's soft methods to inhibit the Balance." He declares very royally.

I raise my brows. Though my father seems fearsome to those who don't know him, Slade God of War is nothing but a big softie. Especially to his wife and his children.

"Yes father. I truly apologize," I grin. "What will you have me do to atone?"

My father frowns deeply and growls thoughtfully. "Don't you ever get tired of languishing here alone, son?" He asks me gently, outstretching his hand to the emptiness of the sky. I follow his lead and look around the light atmosphere.

"Not particularly," I shrug.

He sighs, holding his head with discontent. "How did I end up with such a do nothing son? You must learn to be a god, Zephyr. You must learn to be a man."

I sigh. Maybe it's not right, but I never found myself with the same hard-on my father has for duty. The Balance this and the Balance that. The Balance is quiet, a void, an unknowable entity not a person. I don't feel any particular accountability to it, despite my father's attempts throughout my life to make me revere it.

I just want to relax and have fun. At some point, I'll have to take on more duties I know, but for now, why not enjoy my youth? As far as I'm concerned, the Balance had no hand in creating me—my parents did. And I show them the love that he has for the Balance.

"I am not a man quite though yet am I?" I ask as he sits next to me.

He looks over at me, with that stiff, terrifying expression. I grin, and lean my head on his shoulder. My father heaves a heavy sigh and pats my head.