Seven
For the next thirty clicks King gave me directions to follow, because the garden continued to block him from creating anything within its bounds. In no time we had a drinks station, a stage for the musicians, and a games area for something called Croquin—which required balls and sticks and holes scattered about at random. I hadn’t ever seen it before, but apparently it was highly competitive. I should have guessed that by the gleam in Yael’s eyes.
By the time I was done creating a perfect party, my energy had waned significantly. It wasn’t anything like the energy loss I’d experienced after turning Emmy into a goddess, but it was enough to know I’d overextended myself. I had to be careful because the only person I’d impressed with all of those feats was King. More than once he shook his head as the land obeyed my will, transforming itself to fit the image inside my head.
“You are not one to be underestimated,” he told me as we stood beside the small dock I had built along the bank of the lake.
King had directed me to set up another competition here: a game where the gods would cast baited strings into the water in an attempt to lure the biggest swimmer.
“I have been around for a long time,” he continued. “I have partied and shared drink with almost every single god, and I have met none who can do what you do.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. It made me suspicious when he started to pander to me. It was so ungodlike.
“What about Staviti?” I asked. “Surely you’ve seen him do the things that I can do. He’s the Creator—the most powerful god alive.”
King just shook his head. “Staviti has never been to one of my parties. He does not mingle with the other gods. He doesn’t like … the others.”
“By the others, do you mean—”
“Anyone but his Original Gods,” King said. “Though he has even fallen out of favour with Abil, Adeline, and Rau over time.”
I thought that was the first time I’d heard anyone say it so plainly, but I believed it to be the truth. Staviti didn’t like any of the gods, his creations, and maybe even this world. Staviti, from a very young age, had cared only about himself. He was cold in a way that remained unmatched by any of the gods I had encountered. Even Cyrus, who only recently started to have feelings, was a warmer being than the Creator. There was something fundamentally wrong with Staviti, and his tyranny had gone on long enough.
“The party is starting,” King added, and I spun around to find Siret waiting right behind me.
We were all taking our pairings very seriously, none of us straying far from our partner. I had been finding it difficult to keep an eye on Yael while manipulating the garden, though.
“Showtime,” I murmured, the first nerves really starting to settle in my gut.
Large gatherings of gods had never been a particularly pleasant experience for me. Something told me that tonight was going to be no different. It was the first step forward in ensuring that my family remained safe, though, so I didn’t have a choice.
Emmy and Cyrus were still near the trees that formed the entrance to the garden, greeting the gods as they stepped inside. Most of them were tall and ethereally beautiful beings, sprinkled with snow. Some of them wore dresses or fancy clothing in their god-colours, while the others wore robes—though they seemed to be special occasion robes if the materials and styles were anything to go by. They were decorated with clasps, emblems, and stitching that glowed as though spun from jewels. I didn’t know the majority of the gods, having never paid much attention to the pantheon, but occasionally a familiar face caught my eye. Like Terrance and Pica, who was weighed down by so many glittering jewels that it was almost blinding to look at her. Her laughter rang out across the cleared space even though she was currently standing alone.
I could see the confusion written across the faces of many. Murmurs of how the Garden of Everlasting should have been impossible to change followed me around, but pretty soon the alcohol King provided eased their concerns, and they fell into what I could only assume were normal party patterns. Laughing. Drinking. Playing their odd games.
“No wonder the sols fight their entire lives for the minutest chance at this sort of frivolity and power,” I murmured to Siret while still keeping an eye on Yael. It was easy at the moment, since all of the Abcurses were off to one side, against the wall of the garden, watching all of the guests.
“It’s all fake,” Siret replied with more cynicism than he usually displayed. “Gods are miserable bastards. Bored with the pleasures that they should be enjoying.”
“An eternity is too long to exist,” I mused. “Dwellers know that their lives are finite. If we don’t live for this sun-cycle, then we might not have a next sun-cyle. Even the sols had to face the probability of dying and never achieving immortality. That’s why they want it so badly: because time is precious to them. They know it’s running out, so they don’t want to waste it. It’s … almost sad … to think that so many sols waste the majority of their lives fighting just to havemoreof a life. More time. A second chance.”
I felt him move at my side and I turned to find he had shifted to face me fully. “So the dwellers have even more of a reason to treasure their lives, and yet they don’t appear to live at all. They follow orders and act as nothing more than slaves.”
His words hit a sore spot in my chest, an old wound that had been festering in there for life-cycles. There was truth in his words and that was what hurt, but he was also wrong as well.
“Dwellers, I think, of all the beings I’ve met, have the best lives,” I told him. “Do you know why? Because we aren’t in competition with anyone else. If we do our jobs, they leave us alone. We get to have families and sit down with them for dinner. We appreciate the smallest joys. Fresh water. Bullsen kick-jump events. The one moon-cycle where you get berries. We are living for those moments. Gods have nothing to live for, and sols just live to become gods.”
I didn’t say it as eloquently as it sounded in my head, but I hoped that I at least got my point across. Siret continued to watch me intensely, as though he was trying to read me. My thoughts must have been blocked to him.
“They’re not,” he said moving closer so that we were almost touching. “I was just wondering if maybe I have a little more dweller in my personality than I ever thought. I’m all about living for the moments lately.”
I chuckled before closing the final gap and pressing myself into him. “There’s no dweller in any of you Abcurses, but that’s okay, I’ll make sure you always live for the moments. I’ll keep you grounded.”
He leaned his head down like he was about to kiss me, and then we remembered where we were and what we were supposed to be doing. Both of us swung around to find our marks again, and I let out a relieved breath when a very bored-looking Yael came into view. He was leaned against a thick, sturdy tree trunk. The branches of that tree shot way up into the sky, its reach far. Siret and I started to walk, moving away from the lake and toward the main throng of the party.
“So … we want to get their attention soon, right?” I asked as we manoeuvred around. Lots of the gods nodded to Siret as he passed, and I could see that the Abcurses were respected here. Or at least a little feared.
“Yes, because they get intoxicated quite fast. King’s concoctions are potent for everyone except him.”
