“Cruel and manipulative he may be, but he is real.”
Nyx turned her contemplative gaze back toward the well, her eyes glazing over to some far away place. “I’d rather live in a world where I didn’t know he was real. At least then I could die knowing that I’d never met such cruelty.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?”
“You’ve a lot of passion about this. I can only imagine it’s born of scorn and bitterness. And, in this cavern, it’s because of people who believed in me.”
“I used to believe that people who did good deeds would be rewarded, you know? So I tried for so long to live in that mold, doing what they said was good even when it felt wrong. Eventually, I grew up and realized that itwaswrong. I shouldn’t be doing bad things in the name of a god because I’m scared to die. Killing an innocent daemon to guarantee my happiness is evil incarnate. I want to do good because it’s the moral thing to do. Not because I’m afraid of a malevolent spirit looking over my shoulder.”
A sense of deja vu sent his head spinning. It wasn’t long ago that he decayed in that fucking asylum thinking the exact same thing.
“Powerful people don’t have the right to make decisions for the innocent," she continued. “Powerful people don’t deserve the title of a god. In the end, we’re all dust scattered about the stars.”
“So what, then, defines a god, Nyx?”
She huffed a cynical laugh. “There is no god, Brooks. Only evil men fighting for the title.”
Brooks took a moment in silence to turn her words over. Nyx didn’t believe in a god, but lived among powerful daemon. She didn't believe in a god, but there he was. The creator of her species and the ground she stood on. “Is the true god not the creator of all?”
“No. He’s just the most powerful man in the room.” Nyx stopped and shook her head, her brows knit as she determined her next words. “Here you stand before me, just another man with power enough to destroy them all, but no god. No, I don’t think the true god is a person. I think he’s an idea. He’s the power of the universe. He is what we cannot comprehend, and yet strive to put a label on.”
“Brooks? Nyx?” Xia interjected. “We really need to go.”
“We’re coming, princess.” Nyx patted the well twice before turning without another word. Brooks didn’t quite understandher words, but he grasped the heartfelt intention. To Nyx, the ideal of one god put too much power in the hands of the one who claimed the title.
“This way, assholes.” In the span of a blink, Nyx was through the portal in between the feet of his statue.
“Uh, did she tell you how this thing works?”
Brooks shook his head and answered, “No. She didn’t.”
“Okay then. I guess we just countdown and go, huh?”
“It’s as good a solution as any.”
Xia swallowed as she nodded. “Alright. Do you want to go first?”
“No. Let’s go together. We’re a team, Sunshine.”
She smiled and laced her fingers through his. “Together.”
They stepped through the portal, a wave of electricity tingling over their skin as their stomachs lurched. Vertigo hit fast and hard but disappeared almost as quickly as it had come. When Brooks and Xia opened their eyes, they staggered.
Nyx stood to the side rubbing the goosebumps prickling her arms. “Welcome to Dion.”
Blinding red light flashed in stark contrast to the night sky. Xia covered her eyes and rubbed at the spots dancing in her vision as she pressed into Brooks for stability. When she opened them again, the surprise remained.
The trio stood in a darkened alley with the haze of neon lights filtering in. Spotlights atop buildings shone different hues of red, pink, and purple and moved about the city. Of course the moment she opened her eyes, one would be pointing right at her.
The twin buildings they stood between were several stories high with no windows. Voices bounced off of the masonry but Xia couldn’t see anyone else through the darkness.
“We need to go,” Nyx’s voice whispered through the dark.
“To where?” Brooks whispered back.
“Anywhere. Just away from the portal. And stick together. It’s easy to get lost here and, once you’re lost, you’re likely to neverbe found. Follow me, keep your head down, and act natural.”
