She could sense it. The time was growing near. With each step she took her heartbeat seemed to go twice the speed. People brushed past her on either side, she had to fight against the direction of the crowd. With one final heave she broke through to the brightly lit shop with pieces falling out of her conch shell braid and the right side of her denim jacket tangled around her purse strap.
She pushed open the glass door that somehow never retained fingerprints despite constant contact. It brushed against the little brass bell that had hung on the ceiling above the entrance since the 30's, and almost instantly she was being waited upon by half a dozen servants dressed in traditional attire from various cultures and eras. They were all women.
They led her down the winding maze of stairs hidden behind a little wooden door, and to the heavy ornate doors only she could open from the outside. She placed her finger tips lightly on the center. With a little concentration on her part her hands began to glow, and the doors dissolved, revealing an ostentatious room of pre-Islamic Middle Eastern decor. In the center of this room, on a vibrantly red and gold bed, was sprawled a handsome man with ebony hair and a glass of wine in his hand. He looked up eagerly at her arrival.
"Persian today, is it?" She smiled as the doors resolidified behind her.
"Close enough." He held out the glass to her. "Want some?"
"Not right now. Do you sense it? It's in the air. One of the gods has already chosen a form."
"So?"
"This is when changes happen! This could be the best human eon."
"You say that every eon."
"Like there at so many."
"Only 1,370,000 of them."
"You're impossible," she rolled her eyes.
"Precisely why I need you to balance me out."
"Not what you usually say. See, you feel it, too."
"What do I usually say?"
"Something about it being ridiculous for the gods to literally create two entities who cannot spiritually function without each other."
"Well, well, you have learned something over the last millennium."
"I'm just full of surprises."
"Not for me."
"Whatever. If I were predictable I would be boring. And then we wouldn't stick together so well."
"Touché. The gods really do think of everything don't they?"
"Mímir does. The rest think we're something akin to dogs- I think I would be a lovely dog."
"Naturally."
And they smiled as for the next ten years the world above them burned.
YOU ARE READING
Just a Millennium or Two
RomanceAnnemie van Denend was a goddess. Xiaodan Rén was a god. Too bad they aren't the only ones. As punishment for their creators actions in heaven, where all the gods of all tradition and culture reside, Xiaodan, the personification of Yin, was cast to...
