“How was your trip?”
“My trip in?”
“Trip out, trip in, either-or. Here and there. All of it. I want to hear everything.”
I raise my eyebrows at him. “You want my life’s story?”
“The highlights will do.”
“Don’t ya have that on record?” I tap my head to indicate his AI brain.
“Of course I do. But it’s rude to assume things you haven’t told me yet.”
“How about we just cut the bullshit, Delta. Tell me what’s going on.”
“I always did like your directness. I knew you were the one. The moment you were born I pointed at you and said, ‘He’s the one.’ And look. Here you are. The actual one.”
“For fuck’s sake. One what?”
“The Godslayer, of course.”
I laugh. “The Godslayer? The storybook guy? From the fairy tale?”
“Oh, it’s not a fairy tale. It’s a myth. A prophetic one. Well, it was. And then you were born, and… well, here we are smack in the middle of it. But there are many versions of the prophecy. It’s always like that, isn’t it? I mean, in the world we live in, secrets are impossible. The key to secrecy these days is disinformation. Confusion, is a better way to say it. Many versions make many questions. Many questions make many answers. So that’s my long-winded way of saying, yes, the storybook guy, with an asterisk at the end.”
“OK.” I’m not sure what to say to that. He just smiles at me, his hands folded on the desk, like he’s waiting for me to say something else. “So… what the fuck do you want?”
His smile grows into a chuckle. “I have always admired your rebellious attitude, Tyse. What do I want? Well, I want you to kill some gods, obviously. It’s completely out of control.” He pans a hand to the door. “Hence, the meeting.”
“I don’t understand. Aren’t you collecting gods?”
“Yes. And”—he puts a hand up, palm first, like he’s warding off my next question—“don’t worry. Anneeta is just fine. All the baby gods are. You see, if we get them early enough, it works out. The babies aren’t the problem. It’s the teenagers.” He rolls his eyes. “Fucking teenagers. Am I right?”
I shrug. “Yeah. I guess. They’re always a bunch of assholes.”
“Exactly. So… yes. We need to kill them. And that’s where you come in. You and your partner will be deployed.”
I stand up. “What?”
“That Spark Maiden? Oh, she’s lovely, Tyse. And the two of you? The way you worked together to save that shit-stain little spark plug? No offense, but Anneeta is…” He blows out a breath. “Quite a challenge. She had absolutely no supervision, did she?”
“Um. No. Not really.”
“This is our problem. Anneeta will learn, I’m confident of this, and she will grow into a responsible god. Eventually. But there are so many of them out there now, Tyse. So many little shit-stain gods running around these towers. We can’t have it. We simply can’t have it. So the Alphas and I”—he nods his head to the door to indicate the other gods in the meeting outside—“well… it’s war.”
“War?”
“That’s right. Well, it’s a game as well.” Delta smiles. “It’s all just a game, isn’t it?”
Is it though?
Stayn’s words as we were escaping from Tau City come back to me now.
There’s a war, Tyse. The Game of Gods. Ever hear of it?
It’s a real thing. And every city needs a god if they want to play.
We play or we die.
