Side Story- Helori and Myriad

“Do you have to swing your legs if you’re going to sit up there?”

“What? It’s comfortable.”

“It’s distracting! How would you feel if someone kept rapping against your head?”

“You shouldn’t complain so much, do you have any idea how many mortals would be happy to treat this as a reward? And more than a few gods as well.”

“Yes, well it’s been quite a few centuries since any part of me was mortal, and even then, to use my apostle’s words, your appearance is a bit out of my species' strike zone.”

“Maybe for now,” She laughed. “But a good number of your believers are hominid types as things stand. Give it a bit and you’ll have fallen for my charms before you know it. You consider yourself male, don’t you? It’s going to happen eventually.”

“I refer to myself as that for convenience since none of my kind fulfills what seems to be the more typical biological dichotomy present on the planet. But ignoring that, is there anything in particular that brings you here today Helori?”

“Can’t I just visit?” She asked with a pout. “We did agree to build a world together if we get the chance, it’s going to leave me as much of a goddess of it as you’ll be its god, it would be good to be used to spending time together.”

“It’s not that I mind, I just happen to have a lot less free time now,” He told her proudly. “I have nearly three hundred believers as things stand, they take up a fair bit of my time.”

“You do know the god that’s next in line for having the fewest has two thousand, right? How could it possibly take up so much of your time?”

“That’s easy for you to say, people rarely convert away from the ones they’re taught to worship in their youths unless it’s something like a mortal who’s reached our plane, I need to work hard to show what an excellent choice I am for those who’re interested by valuing every one I have.”

“That’s because your little monster doesn’t put in enough effort for you,” She told him with a shake of her head. “It seems like he gets far more than he’s willing to give.”

“I wouldn’t say that. Even if Ben is unwilling to go out and preach for me, every now and then he’ll do something to get me a swath of them or other means of gaining faith, I’m confident that he’ll do something again before you know it.”

“Mmh, well, if you say so,” She said with far more doubt in her voice. She did like his apostle well enough, the mortal being an interesting person to bounce ideas off of, but there were more than a few times he’d show that his personality left plenty to be desired. “But still, everyone needs a break from time to time and you’re no exception. You have nobody in your faith to focus on now, so pay attention to me.”

“...Is everything alright?”

He wasn’t used to her being so demanding, at least not like that. Typically, what she wanted was to have her curiosity filled, not just to be noticed.

It only took a second, but eventually she grumbled what was wrong. “Since my apostle and oracle just had their young they’re too occupied right now to do anything for the faith, and my head priest is busy leading the rest of my believers to prepare the best they can for the next few months. Since they’re the only ones in my faith who are used to me enough to chat I’m bored.”

“Haha, what? You have thousands of believers, you can always ask one of them to help you with whatever tests you want to try out down there.”

“The rest are too panicky if I show up unannounced, and as boring as it is I don’t want to make a habit of it like you do. I’m personally planning for a future where we win and live after all, meaning I’m planning on having my homeworld back. I can’t get in the habit of talking to everyone if in a couple thousand years I might have a billion people worshiping me.”

“...I think you must be the only god I’m aware of who’s willing to be quite that optimistic.”

Myriad of course had his own hopes on the matter, but they were more aligned with the idea that if they were willing to show they were more trouble than they were worth, the invaders would leave that world alone. That would give plenty of time for the many people of the world to grow and develop until they reached a point where they might ideally find a reasonable means of fleeing their current galaxy altogether, going off to find a newer, younger one that wouldn’t have much, if any intelligent life already, letting them all set up with enough distance between where they currently found themselves and any potential new home.

From there they’d of course need to keep building up, presenting a unified galactic front in the event the demons ever reached out beyond the galaxy themselves, but it was viewed as their most reasonable chance of survival, no matter how slim it might have felt.

“There’s a few of us willing to be hopeful, and what can I say, I liked my home world. The mix of gasses kept the sky a beautiful shade of pink and the wine-red seas would stretch on as far as the eye could see. Not to mention the ecosystem. Falling stars, do I hope that these last few thousand years haven’t ended with the creatures of my world being eradicated.”

“Well, as long as there’s something there’s always the chance to rebuild with enough time,” Myriad told her, not able to hide the hint of sadness that came with the thought. He didn’t regret destroying his world, his people had lasted till the third wave, meaning the damage his kind had been able to do for the act was significant, not to mention the horror that would have come from allowing such creatures to take his land’s riches, but that didn’t change the fact that his world was gone. Sure, he had a few cells carefully stored away in his higher plane of reality that he would put his all into growing, but it wouldn’t be what was lost.

Helori, picking up on his mood, let herself lie back across his surface, still kicking her feet as she did. “You know, I wouldn’t mind letting you and any of your believers that want to leave this world come to mine if the time comes.”

“What?” He asked, surprise pulling him from that small bit of depression.

“I mean, when I came to consciousness I was alone, but being a part of this world has helped me see the charm in having other gods around, I wouldn’t say no to sharing a slice of it with you. Not a large slice of course, but I had some reasonably large islands so long as those squatters haven’t done any sort of large-scale terraforming, I wouldn’t be against giving one up. As a form of charity of course,” She was quick to add on at the end, not wanting her desire for company to be so clear.

It would be hard to say having lost their worlds hadn’t changed any of the gods, but one of the things that they had gained was something that only mortals had before. Community. In the past, a world might have at most five gods develop on it, oftentimes taking a familial role when they did, except for any time when one’s personality leaned to the destructive, but in the world they’d been forced to share they’d grown into a society of their own, with rules and laws in place for how to act.

While some weren't as thrilled with it as others, for Helori, a goddess who hadn’t been aware of any other gods but the few void ones that would pass through her system, it was one aspect of the new life she’d been forced into that she wasn’t feeling so quick to lose.

“I… If you still feel that way if we ever get the chance, it would mean a lot,” Myriad said quietly, emotions burning through him as he did while she couldn’t help but be embarrassed to even be having such a discussion.

“Of course, such a thing isn’t going to be free,” She was quick to tell him. “The price is keeping me entertained, so get to it without complaining or worrying about your believers if it isn’t an emergency.”

“Oh alright, I guess I’m curious about trying a few of the card games my apostle has brought to the world so we can try that to pass the time.”

A moment later a deck appeared on his back as cards were dealt out, Helori’s eyes bright from getting to try some games from a different reality as they both enjoyed the little free time they had.

Author's note

Hope you enjoyed. I was aiming for something a that had a bit of a vulnerable and intimate feel to it so hopefully that came across. Next poll will be up friday so hope you're all ready for that and otherwise have a great day!