Divine Intervention: Of Thrones and Thorns

Chapter 1: Loris

Update: This Chapter is now available on Youtube as an audiobook!

Authors Note: Hi there, I'm Alex and currently I am in the Querying stages of my first book. For some context this story does technically come after said book but since querying is such a long process, I thought I would start on something to keep the creativity going and continue to expand my universe. Hopefully— though I don't expect this to be the case— I will also grow my audience in the meantime.

This story takes place after the first book and follows a character I wanted to expand on, but I don't think I want to give them a book all on their own, so I am going to be making this free web series around them instead. "Divine Intervention" takes place in an alternate timeline of Earth where every God from every pantheon exists, but they can't interact with the world, so they bless humans with their power. In the first book the Catholic Pantheon attacked Corinth, a city in Greece, and it followed the main character—Casteo— who was a born Spartan set on liberating his city and protecting the man he loves. On his journey he meets a boy named Loris who is from the Catholic Pantheon, and they create a strong friendship. This Web Series is about Loris and what made him into the person he is and what might come next in his personal journey.

Thank you so much for considering this story~ I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

"This is who we are." My father said as he flipped through a book filled with pictures of him travelling the world. In each photo he was arm in arm with people from such diverse Pantheons; their irises glowing with an unknowable spectrum of hues. My fathers' eyes, in contrast, were orbs of pure silvery blue light. He was the Chosen of Uriel, and the people in the photos looked at him the same way I always had, with pure reverence and appreciation.

"What do you mean?" I asked, my adolescence all too obvious. I was just large enough to sit in his lap now. When I placed my hand on one of the pictures it became clear that he towered over me, the size of him easily dwarfing me with his immensity. I was seven, or eight, or twelve. My age didn't matter at that moment, what did matter was that he was my father, and I was here, basking in his purity and radiance.

That familiar wide smile of his stretched his cheeks, which were peppered with gray and black stubble. His teeth were bright and slightly crooked and the hair on the top of his head was streaked with a silvery glow that matched the color of his eyes. I felt the pressure of his power, even though I was not Blessed yet. It filled me, it crushed me, it soothed me, and I never wanted it to stop.

"To be the world's people," he answered me with that familiar patience he always had. "Our purpose is to ensure the health and wellness of all people, even if they're not in our Pantheon... Especially if they're not in our Pantheon."

"But why do we help other Pantheons and not stay with our own?" I asked and a warm chuckle came from deep in his chest. The bed under us bounced as he laughed, and I couldn't help but laugh with him. We were in my room, in our little cottage right in the middle of the City of Glass. Our home had been here long before the city was erected and generations of my family lived in this quaint house which was filled wall to wall with potted plants and flowers.

Memories of my mother flooded me when my eyes brushed across the green leaves and vibrant blooms that clung to the walls of my room.

Always have a gentle hand. Her voice said in my mind as I felt the velvet touch of her hand on mine many summers ago. Each plant is different and has different needs, all need to be accommodated. If you're not willing to change, to learn and grow with them then you shouldn't be a gardener. It was only a few months after that she was lost to us, taken in the middle of the night by a sickness that remains unexplained to this day. My resentment never faded; how was it that a Pantheon that was known for its healers could lose one of their own to a mysterious illness?