Cassian paid his bar tab and followed.
He tailed Finnian down an alleyway. As they walked, he casually studied the backside of the young god’s lean build, noticing the loose trousers around his hips and legs, suggesting they’d not been properly tailored.
Finnian’s pace came to an abrupt stop, forcing Cassian to dip between two buildings.
He watched closely around the corner as Finnian turned his attention towards a metal bin against the brick.
He strolled over to it and lifted the lid, freeing a wave of decay in the air. The stench did not faze him, though.
To Cassian’s surprise, Finnian began digging through the bin and tossing rotten food and trash down at his feet. He buried his hands deeper in the rubbish.
Then, his arms stopped moving. A flash of anger struck across his face, curling his lip and pulsing in his jaws. The muscles in his back flexed underneath the thin, white fabric of his linen shirt as he pulled something out of the bin.
Finnian gripped what appeared to be something large, long, and covered in black fur.
A leg.
He hauled the animal out of the bin and carefully kneeled to lay it on the ground.
A knot formed in Cassian’s stomach.
It was a deceased dog, its body bloated and attracting a swarm of flies. The dog’s fur was damp and bald in some areas,its skin yellowing. Cassian could tell from the twisted angle of one of its back legs that it had been injured.
“Do not fret.” The glint of a crystal caught in the lamplight, drawing shapes along the cobblestone as Finnian placed it on the center of the dog’s bloated stomach. “Vivifica.”
Wispy ribbons curled out from the gemstone, a kaleidoscope of reds and purples and blues twisting and cradling the dog’s corpse. Finnian flipped his palm upright and slowly lifted it. A glowing, phantasmal orb levitated through the ground, floating in front of Finnian like a jellyfish wading in the sea. Small, translucent flecks, like dust in sunlight, orbited the soul.
Cassian pushed his tongue against the backs of his front teeth. The departure of one of his souls affected him. He felt the hollow ache take the place of a weight that had once been there. It was momentary, but Cassian was hyper-aware of the totality of souls within his Land. The first time he felt the shift, he had immediately sent Mavros to investigate.
Cassian’s muscles constricted in his shoulders as his divine power roused within.
The young god was stealing one of his souls. Right in front of him.
Do not let him get away with this.
With the guidance of his hand, Finnian merged the soul into the dog’s solar plexus. A small gust of power pushed his long bangs back from his face, revealing a wicked smirk. Finnian was proud of what he was doing, proud of keeping a soul from healing in the Land.
Cassian’s pulse rose as his molars ground against each other.
A whimper sounded and the dog’s body convulsed.
Finnian pocketed the crystal and lifted to his feet.
The dog slowly came to life and climbed up.
Tail wagging, it looked up at its savior.
Finnian leaned down to pet the top of its head. “Much better.”
The dog’s tongue fell out of the side of its mouth, almost as if it were smiling.
This wasn’t right. It was cheating the cycle of life. Souls could not be sustained inside broken bodies. What the young god was doing went against Cassian’s sole purpose as the High God of Death and Curses. And yet, despite that, Cassian’s gut clenched in disagreement with the voice nagging him to step out and punish Finnian for his actions.
The world and its cruelty were hardly fair, but they were necessary. To know pain was to gain the ability to grant compassion. Neither could exist without the other. He’d accepted this philosophy long ago. But before him stood a young, unseasoned god with a terrifying ability to raise the dead. He could create himself an army of souls at his disposal, and there he was, searching through trash to revive an abandoned dog.
“You are free to do as you wish,” Finnian said to it. “I’d start with tearing out the throat of the individual who broke your leg and stuffed you in a bin to die.” He gave the top of the dog’s head one more scrub before straightening and continuing on his way.
The dog twisted its head, watching Finnian stroll down the alley.
