The Gods by Arya Singh (open ebook txt) 📕

stay tonight? Lodging until morning?"


"Fiona, your graciousness exceeds any person, god or otherwise, but I must decline. Time must go on and I must watch over the humans. Their stupidity is beyond me. They need to see that nothing happens before I have predestined."


Charles smiled as Fiona replied.


"And you Paul? Will you not grace me with your presence in my home, at least for tonight?"


Her eyes looked as if she were pleading for company. Paul looked up from his thoughts.


"Fiona I will accept your offer."


Her eyes began to profusely beam with as he continued.


"We have yet to get properly acquainted. Let us use this time for that purpose."


She glowed red, not of anger but of joy. A temporary person had come to distract her, at least for the night. The two bid Charles a solemn farewell and were then left alone inside her grand palace. She had no idea what to do next. No one had ever accepted her invitation before.


"Let me show you to your quarters for the night."


He nodded as she began to walk.


"You have a beautiful home," Paul remarked.


"Empty but beautiful," Fiona replied


"Do you lament in your loneliness?"


"I have coped. The flames of the candles and the voices of the servants soothe that lament. I live."


She confronted a large set of doors and spun around to face him.


"You'll stay here, freshen up and you can join me in the sun room for a while until the mortals rest. Then we can."


"Surely I'll join you."


He opened the door then hesitated before leaving. Fiona had already begun to walk away when he stopped her.


"Fiona," he called, she stopped in her steps and turned her face so he could only see half of it.


"Yes, she answered.


"You seem happy to have me for the night. Are you genuinely surprised that I accepted?"


She laughed a bit before replying, "I was."


She then presumed to turn her face and walk away. He laughed and entered the room encompassed in emerald green, a canopied master bed made of the same cotton and silk as her own. He had his own servants in the room who; tended to him as he bathed, with the sole purpose of ensuring he was comfortable. He emerged from the room refreshed and wrapped in the green robes that were almost lovingly laid out on his bed. Paul walked the house and stood at the entrance of the sun room which was now pitch black, candles were lit and bright stars dotted the skies. Then she turned. The full moon became her aura and her smile only strengthening the stars' radiance.


"I had no idea you would stay," she spoke.


She was prepared to walk toward him but he was already next to her as she leaned over the ledge, her red satin sleeping dress was draped over her slim frame, her jewels removed and her hair loosened to its full extent. Her brilliance was definitely not lost on him for he used every moment with her to inhale it.


"It's a beautiful night," her words shook him out of his daze.


He refocused his attention on the night sky.


"Most enchanting," he replied.


She looked down and scoffed, "no one has accepted my invitation to stay. They were afraid I suppose."


"Afraid of what?"


"My temper and anger. In fear of not upsetting me, they left me."


Her sadness made the stars flicker.


"Don't say that."


Paul saw not just the stars but her eyes flicker out tears. Her took his hand and lifted her hanging head, wiping her tears with the sleeves of his robes. The heat from her skin eating bits away from the fabric as well as his skin.


"I am here."


She smiled and now turned her entire body to face him, her arm still resting on the ledge.


"So," Fiona spoke to him as if to make a comical skit of their entire evening.


"How come you are hiding the fact that you are just as distraught as everyone else?"


Paul's head popped away from the illuminated sky and faced her in a quiet manner.


"What?"


"You heard me," she began to inch away, only making it a small distance from where she began, if only to turn back.


"You are not the only one with all seeing eyes."


"I happen to know for a fact that I am," Paul snapped back at her.


"I don't need that power for my eyes to be all seeing."


"How do you know all this? How have you come to this?"


He walked a step ahead of her then turned back. Fiona responded by prancing back to her swing and swinging back as she sat like a small child with a secret anxious to spill.


"Misery knows its company."


She locked eyes with him as he slowly sat in the chair next to her swing.


"What hurt your soul?"


Paul fell silent.


"Paul, what caused you to lose this piece that I can tell was once there. You weren't always sad."


He looked at her questioningly, wondering how she could come to know so much about him in so little a time span. In an effort to find her problem and take attention away from his own, he answered.


"And you? Weren't you happy as well? I remember one night skies being this bright, before tonight and days. Like a shining utopia for mortals. When did it change?"


She bashfully smiled and started after him.
"I was happy once. Everything was my way, but it crashed." She grew silent after that.


"Crashed how?" Paul persisted.


"Once I had a lover. But he is no more."


"Is he dead?"


"Far from it, he lives with others." She moved from the swing to the balcony again. "He lives among the mortals. Charming their women as he charmed me."


She stared out into the sky and then down at the mortals with a regurgitated sadness in her. He rose from his chair as well to comfort her.


"A goddess left for mortals," He remarked."Such a fool." She smiled at him and saw that their time had expired.

"The mortals have begun to sleep, we should retire as well." He moved his hand from her face and they both smiled of embarrassment. Paul walked with Fiona to her room as a courtesy, but the two were silent the entire duration. When they reached her room, she finally looked up at him. "I must go."

He nodded, "Before you rest, let me give you a thought on which to ponder: Friends are here...we are here."

She smiled shyly before disappearing behind the large doors. Paul took a moment and let his gaze linger on the barrier, trying to keep the magic of her presence before shaking his head and walking away smiling. That night, neither goddess nor god slept. They both replayed the feelings of the day, thinking of the ulterior motive behind the other's actions.

Fiona's restlessness wouldn't even let her lay in bed; she took herself from the comforts of her bed to the big fluffy chair in the corner of the room and lit a fire in the fireplace for something to keep her powers occupied.

What's happening to me? What do I do?

Her confusion was no different from Paul's in the adjacent room. Sitting at the edge of his bed, his head was practically spinning.

How does she read me? How does she know so much about me? How have we become so alike, yet never met?

Thoughts racing, Paul fell back into his pillows and forcibly put himself to bed, eventually achieving it. Fiona fire burnt out at the same time, her head falling into her shoulder and her eyelids shutting her down.

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The next morning, Paul bathed himself and dressed in anticipation to continue his conversation with Fiona, this time prepared with answers to her forthcoming questions. He rushed to her room before sunrise, hoping to catch her before she was to go and do her job.

He stared up at the doors to her room, asking himself whether he should burst through them or knock. Taking the safer route, he furiously knocked the door. He waited a moment and one of her female servants answered.

"Where's Fiona?" he spoke to her in an accusatory manner as if to accuse her of kidnapping Fiona.

"On this morning, The Madam chose to take a swim. Shall I lead you to her?" The servant quivered in Paul's shadow.

"Will you, please?"he began to soften himself to appeal to her.

"Yes, my lord. But...." She hid behind the door a little while she spoke. "The Madam knew you would come and she asked me to tell you to swim with her. she asked me to give you this and take you to her." She outstretched her hand and in it were robes in which to bathe. He took the gift from the servants' hand and went back to his room to change. he promptly returned and the servant had him follow her to a room past the dining and sun rooms. The servant stopped and opened a door.

"Madam is here." The room was glowing blue. Water stretched as far as the