The Trials of the Minotaur

Part Two: The Oracle's Mortification (Chapter Two)

Velthar the Sufferer was the first to be touched by the god and the first to hear it speak, and those two events would set him on his path for the remainder of his days. The god was a beast, alive as any man was, but gods were often that way, inhabiting bodies strange and wondrous and living in the sacred places of the world. His faith, tested the night he had spent alone with the creature in the cavern, never shrinking, even as the terrifying beast had loomed over him, had been proven every day since then in any way Velthar could think. He had brought the god the offerings left by others and had passed along their prayers and words so that the god might hear directly what those outside the cave believed.

The beast had been seemingly oblivious to his obeisances, even as Velthar had begun to tell him of his life, seeking to explain how he had come to be here and what had led him to go before the god in the cave that night. Such a thing was hard to put into words, and he tried day after day to explain himself better, asking the god to guide him further, to tell him what he needed of his servant now that he had been chosen. For months there was no answer, but though the Minotaur showed no outward sign of paying any mind to his words that he could discern in the darkness of the cave, he persisted, feeling that the god approved of what he was doing.

Each evening, as he prepared to leave the cave for his bed beyond its mouth, solitary under the sky, he asked again of the god that had brought him to this place and into the lives of his people and what they were to do for him. One night as he turned to crawl out the entrance, he received an answer, spoken in a halting voice, as though the god were unused to words, and in a strange accent: “You are here to be my eyes.”

The voice of the god, so gruff and deep, as huge as the beast itself, nearly sent Velthar into one of his fits. When he had regained his wits he bowed deeply to the god and said, “Why should you, a god, have need of my eyes?”

“Let us go into the light,” the god said and they went, Velthar going first.

He turned to face the beast and trembled at the sight of his massive form cast in the shadows of the cave and the sun’s final light as it descended behind them. His horns had a greater span than a man’s arms and his fists were as large as Velthar’s head. It was what remained of the beast’s eyes that drew his gaze at last and took his breath away. All that remained of them were whitened scars.

“How is this so?” he whispered.

The Minotaur smiled grimly and Velthar shuddered to witness the depths of his bitterness, the hatred of a god. As with so many of the gods, and all people, he suffered, driven to ends not of his, but fate’s choosing.

“It was done so that I could see.”

“Yes,” Velthar said, belief coursing through him absolute and pure. Here, then, was what had brought the god. He had been blinded so that he could be gifted with the true sight that would allow him to peer into the mists of existence. The beast was to be the oracle of his chosen people and he, the Sufferer, would be his disciple and keeper. His whole body was overwhelmed with electricity at this revelation and he feared he would faint away at the pinnacle of his ecstasy.

“I shall be your guide,” he said at last, his voice breaking with emotion.

The god nodded his head severely and then said, in a voice that sounded like boulders being crushed together, “And I shall be yours.”

“Where have you come from?” Velthar asked next, and regretted it immediately. The Minotaur’s proud face became dark, and for a moment he thought the beast would strike him.

“I was born of a god and a woman in Rheadd, where I lived among the men there. I was one of them, until my father had need and willed that my eyes be taken from me and sent me to live among you.”

Velthar shuddered to hear the emotion in the god’s voice as he spoke of his past. How he had suffered! He felt a deep kinship with him, though he was but a feeble, broken man. The god appeared lost in contemplation, and Velthar wondered if he had erred in asking of his provenance, if now he would turn to some other of his followers, all gathered just beyond their sight now. The beast seemed to sense his discomfort and he stepped towards him and put one of his mighty arms upon his shoulder.

“I am joyful to be among you now,” he said, and Velthar smiled, though a thought twinged in his mind at the way the beast had said those words. Could a god lie?

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This is the tenth chapter of the Trials of the Minotaur. I will post a chapter a week (there are over 30), but if you enjoy what you're reading and don't want to wait, you can buy this book at Amazon, Kobo, and Smashwords. Thanks for reading.