Post by Lexx on Nov 22, 2017 9:09:36 GMT -5
ellys god of the moon and nighttime Beside Somerset, or perhaps above, or even below, there was an entire realm that slightly overlapped the mortal earth. It was an endless, eternal place, just like the beings that inhabited it. It had existed first, when all things had come to be, and it would exist long after everything else had gone. All along its edges were worlds upon worlds. Some worlds, after their creation, had never known their gods; some had known them, and then lost them, because gods were fickle creatures with a thousand kingdoms to rule, and hundreds of years would slip by them in a single eyeblink. Some, like Somerset, had known their gods, and lost them, and were subsequently learning to know them again. Time was of little consequence to gods; they appeared where they saw fit, and could be in as many places at once as they pleased, in all different times, because that was the very first power they had been given by Father Time and Mother Universe. But in this very moment, every version of Ellys was missing from Somerset. Instead, he was in the gods’ realms, deep within an ocean as richly black as the night. He was in the form of a whale, though he was much larger than any whale that might exist in any of the worlds he could visit. His shape—as pure white as snow, moon-gilded and elegant—cut gracefully through the water. He seemed as though he ought to be casting silvery light wherever he went, but instead, there was a dark, soft glow to his edges. As he swam, another, darker, slightly smaller shape surged up from the depths to meet him. They swam parallel to one another for a moment; Ellys, graceful and white, gliding above an upside-down creature, dressed with far too many poisonously-colored fins to be a true whale. And then their aquatic shapes released, and they were two wolves, spinning in a lightless sea. “Undaya,” he said, and the goddess before him inclined her head, staring at him with eyes so dark they seemed black. “I’ve been searching for you. It’s been many moonrises since I could feel you in this realm.” When she tilted her head at him coyly, apparently unwilling to divulge where she had been to him, he bared his teeth in a smile. As she moved, scales glittered beside her eyes. She was a beautiful creature, trailing gauzy, bright fins from her sides and legs, but her manner was as frigid as the oceans she haunted. “Could it be that you prefer Aestine’s company over mine? Show me, then, what you have created with her. Tell me if it rivals what we have made together, my ocean.” Undaya looked to the moon, whose gravity she could never escape, and smiled bitterly at him. The water between them shimmered and twisted, and suddenly images appeared between them. As the picture widened and sharpened, Ellys could see terrible winds and a fierce, steel-gray sea. Rain viciously battered a forest, felling trees. There was an island, swallowed by this monstrosity of a storm. It was terrible. It was beautiful. He sighed appreciatively, and finally, warmth flickered around the edges of Undaya’s fathomless gaze. “But,” Undaya said softly, and in her voice, Ellys heard creaking ice flows and turbulent waves. “It is not like what we have made together.” This was an offering of peace, to smooth away Ellys’s jealousy, for what they had made together was eternal, unlike a mortal storm. Together, they had done something rare, even for two gods; they had borne another god. They had created a son, of ocean tides and moonlight. They could never escape the other’s grasp, and so their union, and their child, had been inevitable. “Have you seen him recently?” “No,” whispered Undaya, and her tone grew all the colder. “It has been a long while. Far too long. But, Ellys, when I was with Aestine, in Somerset…” “Somerset?” “I felt her.” Undaya suddenly seemed breathless. “The Grandmother.” Ellys was shocked into silence for a brief moment, before a slow grin crept across his white maw. “Well,” he whispered. “Well. Isn’t that interesting.” While it was uncommon for many of the gods to vanish into a mortal realm, the three creators were notoriously distant. It had been far, far too long since he had heard of one of them surfacing, especially as the Mother and Father took such care to contain her, and it was delightful news to hear she had chosen a mortal realm to influence. “It was her power that took my storm and made it so terrible. In Somerset, it is so easy to bend things to your will…” He drew close to her, cupped her in his power, pulled her tight against him, and laughed into her saltwater fur. “Then, once your storm comes to an end, I will raise the moon, and see for myself what she is doing there.” He guided the moon through all of the Mother’s skies, in all the worlds with moons, but rarely did he ever take interest in the mortals that lived beneath it. When had he last flexed his powers, or communicated with a mortal wolf? When had he last truly invested himself in their short, messy, bright lives? He could understand the appeal of Undaya’s hurricane. He suddenly craved it. He wondered, too, if he might find his wayward son there, just as he intended to find Chaos. table by lexx |
