-The Gods, 12 Yoriel, The God of Good Homes. As a human, the God of Good Homes was a matchmaker and a home finder. When two people got married they would come to him and ask him for advice on where they would find everlasting happiness. His ability to find the perfect spot for two people to live and procreate was amazing. As a divine, his name is used at almost every wedding. Also when a divorce happens you make an offering to god as an apology.-
Several hundred feet above Rennish the ground shook as he threw the last grenade and the sphere of plants fell from the ceiling. Erust and Ashra jumped as the ground shook under their feet and the inside of the open room they were standing in became dusty and dirt shook free of the cracks between the veins of the rock.
They looked at each other in a moment of surprise and shook their heads, In unison, they both blurted out, "Rennish is alive." They both smiled at the knowledge that their friend was alive and this meant that he had probably survived. The thought that a cave-in had killed him wasn't even an option.
Erust released his power over the gods' corpse and the flesh turned from stone back into human skin. It still held a rock-like appearance but was soft and warm like a normal human body. They both looked down at the body unsure what to do with it.
The heart was beating but slowing down. Ashra had her finger against the neck, a trick she had learned in the village during basic aid training. She was counting. As best as she could tell the corpse was dying but very slowly.
"We can't carry the corpse of a god all the way down the mountain," Erust stood up from the body and stretched out his right arm. The struggle had made his arms and muscles stiff. He wasn't going to admit but he also felt very light-headed. He knew he couldn't carry another grown man down the mountain in this condition. Even if he had swung a hammer for a living before. His muscles felt as if they were made of water and his reactions were slowed.
Ashra looked up at him and turned her head slightly, "Well we can't just leave him here. Were we supposed to kill him?"
Erust pulled his arms above his head, trying to stretch feeling back into them. He was about to open his mouth when his vision started to go dark around the edges. "It's like standing up too fast," He thought to himself. He tried to take a deep breath but felt like he was struggling.
Ashra noticed the way his eyes rolled back into his head just moments before Erust took a gasp of breath and collapsed to the floor.
She dropped the corpse and moved as fast as her body could take her. She didn't even have time to stand up, she crawled on all fours at a speed that most normal humans would have considered superhuman. She managed to get underneath him just quick enough to catch his head and keep it from cracking open on the hard rock floor.
"Erust! Erust!" She screamed at him while his body began to shake. His eyes fluttered around briefly and his body started to shake.
Ashra screamed, partly in despair and partly in anger over the thought of losing him again. When they were first married it was a rash decision to save the man she was sworn to serve. Any servant should be willing to die if need be. The thought of offering up her body to him as a sacrifice to her safety has seemed natural.
After the incident with the Oracle, things had changed. When she was taken something had changed, she couldn't look at him without breaking into grief and rage. Her mind told him she hated him for what had happened to her, but her mind told her that this wasn't the case. Deep inside she started to feel sorry for him and appreciate him.
Erust had never criticized her for reactions to him and his presence. He had gone above and beyond to care for her. Far more than most master-servant relationships required. Any other master would have abandoned a useless servant and called Minos for another. Erust had long since quit talking to Minos, but she had never stopped. She made regular reports and got regular reports back.
As time passed she had started to realize that she appreciated what this human was, honest, simple, and above all respectful of her. She was considered less feline than most other women of her tribe and therefore an outcast. Erust never treated anyone as less valuable because of their appearance. At first, she thought it because he was supposed to be this amazing prophet. She eventually realized that he just really didn't see any difference between her or anyone else.
She lightly slapped his face while she held him with her other arm. She had him under his shoulders and was holding as tightly as she could. The shaking was stopping but he still wasn't responding.
Ashra was crying and waiting for the shaking to stop. You saw this in older people members of the village and it usually meant that the brain had suffered an injury of some kind. She was afraid she had lost the man she was just starting to really appreciate.
A hand rested on her shoulder and Ashra nearly jumped up from the ground in surprise. Her first instinct normally would have to drop Erust but she held on tighter instead. She felt an overwhelming urge to protect him. Another sign of her growing affection for him.
"Don't be startled," A soft female voice said from behind him.
Ashra wiped a tear from her stained face and turned her head around. She looked up and saw the face of a woman she didn't recognize. The face made her deeply uncomfortable like a bad nightmare had come back that she couldn't just quite remember. It nagged at her mind but her first real concern was how had someone snuck up on her. She knew she was focused on Erust but even then she should have heard the footstep.
"Who are you?" Ashra said softly, tightening her grip on Erust in case she needed to get up and drag him to safety quickly.
"Human minds forget so easily," the voice said, coming closer to her. Ashra started to tense up and scoot her body further away from the figure coming at her.
"We have covered this already, don't be afraid. I am here to help, not hurt..." Ysennia said with a smile. It was a warm smile like you would see on a mother welcoming her children home.
Ashra tensed just a little more at the sight of it. Behind all the warm feelings she was getting from her face, the way she moved was unnatural. No noise came from anything she did. She sensed no warmth, and her body seemed to be just slightly over the rocks. Like a picture painted just slightly wrong.
"You are a Divine," Ashra said trying to hide her distrust. The tone wasn't lost on Ysennia who just continued to smile and nodded.
"I am indeed the one who sent our young Erust out into the world." Ysennia walked around Ashra as she clutched even harder onto Erust. "Don't worry I am not here to take anything from you today. I am here to you."
"You divines have never helped us." Ashra never looked up. She had Erust face in her hand and was thinking of ways to protect him if need be. What could she do against a divine, she ran through thoughts of how to fight back against a god if things became nasty.
"Well that's very uncivilized," Ysennia replied to her unspoken thoughts softly. "Don't you want to help him out?"
Ashra didn't bother to look up, if she looked at that face again she didn't know what she would do. Her pelt on her back was bristling on its own. She wanted to grab Erust and throw him from the room and run for safety. She knew that Erust trusted this person for saving him during the event with the Oracle but she was severely uncomfortable when having to face one of the Gods.
"Of course I want to save him, he is my husband and my charge. What is happening to him is beyond my knowledge though. We call this the tremors in my village and it is usually a sign that the mind is gone." Ashra finally looked up to see the diety nodding at her.
"If he was old, I would believe that might be the case," Ysennia smiled inside. She knew it couldn't possibly be the case, this body was less than a year old. It was mathematically perfect. She had created it after all.
Ysennia kneeled down and put a hand out on Erust stomach. The last of his tremors stopped. "He isn't dying of old age or anything. This is a reaction from a wound you can't see. When he fought back against the oracle his soul was damaged. He isn't the same as he was before."
The goddess looked up at Ashra who was looking in her direction, but not at the goddess. "When I told him this god needed to be dealt with I expected that we would bring him into the family. I never expected this kind of response. Before the battle, Erust could absorb a nearly unlimited amount of divine energy. He could only use a small portion though as a human. His ability to do that was damaged in the fight. He can no longer channel and store that power as he did before."
Ashra thought back to his time meditating and his constant practice with Magic and Divine powers. The understanding was that he was just discharged from the attack, he had used too much power and become weak. He had been practicing to keep his powers up and recharge his stockpile. Now Ashra understood, he wasn't weak because he was empty of power, he was weak because he no longer had the same power.
"So can you fix his soul then?" Ashra asked, calmness and concern slowly crept back into her voice. For a moment she was feeling more trusting. If it could help Erust she would do anything right now.
"No, I can't, and that's the problem. He is like a jug trying to hold too much water. He can't hold as much power as he did before, and he has absorbed more than his body can handle. He is shaking because his soul is fighting to stay in this body." Ysennia wasn't trying to deceive anyone with this statement. It was true, his soul was damaged when she ripped Ed's card in half and this man was made with part of that soul. Because the original card was used in half of this soul it was limited in what it could do.
Ysennia got onto her knees and put both a hand on Erust chest and a hand on Ashra's shoulder. "What I am able to do will help him pull through this. I am going to connect your souls. You have no aptitude for magic or divine powers. But each human can store some power from both. I am going to transfer some to you.
It won't affect you the same way because you have no outlet, the power will just slowly leak out of you. It happens all the time when someone is blessed and they have unusually good luck for a few days. That is divine power or mana escaping."
Ashra nodded and replied softly, "Do it, whatever it takes."
Ysennia nodded, this time she smiled, and when Ashra glanced up at her face it seemed like a genuine smile.
Ysennia used her power and rewrote part of both of their souls. The two were bound together anyway from this journey and she saw no harm in letting this man and demi-human be bound together just a little more. If it achieved her goal, she would make any change needed. This was a small price to pay to watch things fall into place.
Ashra felt warmth flowing into her body, she didn't ask any questions about what was happening. She just accepted that this was something she would do for Erust. Before she would have done it simply because she was his servant. Now she was doing it for love.
Ysennia smiled inside as she worked. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on her. Ed had started this journey because he wanted the love of someone, that bond of a family he had never had. And here was his double getting everything Ed wanted. She momentarily felt a human emotion she hadn't felt in longer than she could count, regret. She felt no guilt though, all things are born and all things die, that was her whole domain after all. She did hate that he wouldn't get to see it.