Growing Pains - A Stargate Story

Chapter 6 - Part Three

Location: Ba'al's Stronghold

"Kel'mah."

"Kel'mah," Rina echoed.

"In your tongue, it means 'sanctuary'."

Rina paused, glancing at their surroundings.

"Is this place a sort of kel'mah?"

"It is."

Ba'al drifted across the 'throne' room, seemingly without aim. A momentary silence stretched between them.

"Um, I've been meaning to ask..."

Ba'al turned toward her as she spoke, dark eyes fixing on her. Any sense of trepidation she'd formerly had in his presence had been lost the day he returned, now two weeks ago, yet he still had a way of making her nervous simply by existing in proximity to her.

"Why do you only use this voice with me?"

It'd been one of the many questions on her mind since the day she arrived here. The strangely fluid switch from sounding human to sounding inhuman and vice versa...it was uncanny, and incredibly confusing.

That now familiar smirk appeared on Ba'al's face as he replied, "The others have a certain...image of me that I wish to maintain."

"And what is that image?" Rina asked tentatively.

What are you to them that makes them so unquestioningly obedient to you?

Ba'al's smile grew.

"I am a god."

There was another spell of silence as Rina stared at him.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"A god," Ba'al repeated.

More silence. Then Rina simply couldn't help herself. She burst into barely restrained laughter.

"You know," she said in between giggles, moving toward Ba'al's throne-like chair and leaning lightly against it, "One of the last thing my parents said to me was: 'God is looking down and judging you.' So now that our paths have unexpectedly crossed, do you care to confirm that?"

Rina stopped laughing the second she saw that the mirth in Ba'al's face had partly died.

"You're serious?" she asked in disbelief.

"Perhaps not entirely. Though I see little difference. After all, what is a god but a powerful being to be worshipped?"

"You're letting all these people think you're a god?" Marina reiterated, her disbelief mingling with a strain of disgust.

"You disapprove. And yet, by your account, your people have their own gods."

"That's—" Anger bubbled up inside Rina. "That really isn't any better."

"And why is that?"

Rina snapped, pushing away from the chair, her voice rising to a shout.

"Because my own fucking family used their god to justify beating me down and throwing me away!"

"And what did their god have to say of this?" Ba'al queried, appearing entirely unfazed.

"Nothing! Because he's a fucking figment of their imagination!"

Rina stopped, recalling suddenly who it was she was shouting at. She stepped back, seating herself on the arm of Ba'al's throne and forcing herself to calm down. She fixed her gaze on the floor, silently kneading her forehead with thumb and forefinger as she recalled the words Ba'al had used to describe the assumed potential of the weapon inside her.