Jorim lowered his head and kissed her brow. “Wait for me on the Stormwolf. I may need help navigating to Anturasixan.”
“I shall be glad to be of service.” In the blink of an eye she shrank into the form of a bat. She flapped hard and circled him twice before diving from his heavenly palace to the mortal plain below.
Jorim watched her go, only to turn and face Grija. Something looked different about him. He appeared less craven, more bold, but the difference was subtle and made Jorim wary.
“We have agreed, have we not, brother, that I shall remain in my physical body for a normal span of years, then return here?”
The god of Death nodded solemnly. “We have, brother. I will not cheat you of years, even though I know it is your intent to waste them in dalliance with the woman from the east.”
“You almost sound jealous.”
“Of the pleasures of the flesh? Never. Too fleeting.” Grija opened his hands. “Shall we begin?”
“Please.” Jorim let his brother precede him up the broad ivory stairs to a bedchamber. “We have agreed my essence shall remain here until my return?”
“I have already sworn there would be no trickery.”
“I wish I could remember if you made that same oath last time.” Jorim lay down on the bed and shifted until he felt comfortable. He knew he needn’t do that, since his discomfort was also an illusion, but the shifting was something he had done as Jorim. “I am ready.”
“Good.” Grija raised a finger and a long talon grew out of it. Light glinted from the edge. “Death is change. What I shall do is slice away all that is not Jorim Anturasi.”
“I will remember nothing of being a god?”
“You may retain some memories, but they will gradually fade. Once I’ve severed your divine essence, you will be unanchored. That piece of your soul which was shaped during your time in that identity will return to his physical form.”
“ My physical form, you mean.”
“Meat, skin, and bones, yes, yours.” Grija’s eyes hardened. “Shall we begin?”
Jorim nodded and closed his eyes. He willed himself to melt all the illusions. Gone was his sense of the physical, of heat and cold, of light. These things still existed, but they meant nothing to him. He sank into a dim void, then a rainbow of images danced before his eyes. One was a dragon, another was a Fennych. He saw himself as Jorim, and again as Tetcomchoa and the first Emperor, Taichun. All of the images floated around, connected by ethereal tendrils.
Then a claw swept through, severing his connection to the dragon. Pain such as he had never known ripped through him. Part of him remembered that it was all illusion, but even that knowledge was drifting away. A key piece of his essence grew dim, losing itself in the void.
The talon made another circuit and Jorim screamed. He could feel his throat ripping itself to pieces as Taichun vanished. More pain, molten and surging, pummeled him as Tetcomchoa disappeared. His blood burned like acid. His body shivered.
His mortal form, stiff and cold, was pulling him in.
Grija’s claw raked through his essence again and again. Each tendril parted with the twang of a tendon ripping free. Light exploded before Jorim’s eyes. Panic pounded through him. He’d lost who he was, what he was. He did not know himself anymore.
The part of him that was a god had vanished.
And his body accepted him again. Spasms wracked him and bowed his back. His arms fought. Fabric tore. His arms flailed, his legs kicked, then he landed hard on a solid surface. Sparks exploded before his eyes as his head hit. He struggled to suck in breath and finally succeeded in one grand wheeze.
He rolled onto his side and coughed. He tore at the cloth over his face. It ripped, freeing him. He inhaled again, hot air filling his lungs. He coughed explosively, tasting brimstone. Then he felt the heat of the stone and remembered that his body had been preserved in a barrel of oil. The rags binding him still reeked of it, but of the barrel there was no sign.
A low wail sounded from behind him. “Oh no, what have you done?”
Jorim rolled over and sat up. “Who? Grija?”
The god of Death looked every inch a starved cur. A thick black collar circled his neck, and a pair of black chains ran from it into infinity. The chains weighed him down, keeping his head low.
“What have you done?”
“I’ve done what you helped me do.” Jorim tore away the rags binding his legs. “I’ve returned to my body.”
“No, no, no, say you have not. I told you not to.”
“You did nothing of the sort.” Jorim stood over him and raised a fist. “You agreed to let me return.”
Grija cowered. “That was not me. That was Nessagafel in my place.”
“What? How is that possible?”
Grija wailed like an orphaned child.
Jorim almost slapped him. He dropped to a knee and lifted the chains. They didn’t seem heavy at all, but Grija was barely able to move. “You have to tell me what happened.”
“It was all your fault, you and the others.” Grija curled a lip back in a snarl, but it had no power or menace. “You all mocked me. You defied me worst of all. I punished you, but you did not care. The others laughed at me for it. I couldn’t abide that, you know, I couldn’t. No one admired me. No poems praised me. No songs favored me. All I got was fear. You cannot live on fear, Wentoki, you cannot.”
Jorim shook the chains and Grija yelped. “I need to know what you did.”
The god of Death looked through him. “You had all given Nessagafel to me and here he slept. You helped bind him and once he was gone, you chose to follow him, to become mortal, to live as he had lived. The others watched you, watched Men, enjoyed their antics, but could I? No. All I got was the shrieking souls coming here after they died. The dead are not peaceful. I do not visit torments upon them out of need. To torture one, all I need do is catch him in a mirrored sphere so he can watch the failures that shaped his life. Then, eventually, I release them so they live again. If they succeed, they dwell with you in the heavens. If they fail, they are mine again.”
Grija’s eyes focused. “But you know who did not scream or complain? Nessagafel. He knew peace, so I would steal here, to the Ninth Hell, the one we reserved for him and him alone. I would stay here, bask in his peace, and he began to speak to me. I talked back. He said we were wrong to kill him. He was not going to unmake everything. He wasn’t going to destroy us, not all of us anyway. Just some. Chado and Quun. They killed him. I convinced him that we were innocent, brother, you and I. We would have been fine.”
Jorim sensed the lies, but it really didn’t matter. He had sought to reenter his body so he could lead the way to Anturasixan and trap Nessagafel forever. Grija had resisted that plan-knowing Wentoki would insist on it. Whatever Grija had been planning had failed, and Jorim needed to know what his brother had intended.
“You meant for me to be trapped in my mortal form again, didn’t you? Why?”
“No, I didn’t.”
Jorim threw the chains down. Their weight choked Grija and forced him to the ground.
“Don’t lie to me. You wanted me to be mortal again. Why?”
Grija flashed fang. “I needed your essence. I needed the strength.”
“Then this thing with Nirati was a lie?”
“Yes, a ruse, and you fell for it. And Tsiwen, too. Not so wise, is she?”
Jorim stomped on the chains, again smashing Grija’s face against the ground.
The death god raised his muzzle, black blood oozing from his nose. “With your essence, brother, I could have controlled our father. He could have unmade some things and remade others. I would have been first among the gods. Then you would have feared me.”
“What use has Nessagafel for my essence?”
Grija laughed madly. “You helped imprison him here. Your essence was the key to his restraints. With it he regains his freedom. To acquire it, he replaced me.”