Page 6
Story: Gods' Battleground
And people calledmereckless.
The people of Old Earth had lived so dangerously. The bus-without-seatbelts hailed from a time before anyone on this planet had had supernatural healing or magic potions to put themselves back together again when they’d had an accident, or had done something otherwise stupid.
“Leda?”
I blinked, then looked at Jace. “Sorry. Um, no. Vertigo’s not in here either. We should move on to the next room.”
“You’re pretty distracted,” he commented as we continued our search of the museum. “Even more so than usual.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m trying not to be,” I said. “I just have a lot on my mind. So many problems to solve.”
“It might help if you talk about it,” Jace said.
“I doubt it.” But I told him anyway. “Ok, so I need to find Bella and cure her curse, track down the Guardians, protect my daughter, locate new sources of Nectar and Venom—or life as we know it will be over. The gods are already rationing Nectar, you know. The Legion hasn’t gotten any Nectar in months. No Nectar means no new angels, no leveling up Legion soldiers, and no new soldiers. Legion initiations have been paused, for goodness sake. When hasthatever happened?”
“Not in the entire history of the Legion, as far as I know,” said Jace.
“Right! Which just goes to show how messed up everything is right now.”
“How scarce is the Nectar?” Jace asked me.
“Scarce enough that the gods don’t want to waste it on people who might die,” I replied.
He nodded. “That is prudent.”
“It might be prudent, but it’s also really problematic,” I countered. “Without the Nectar, the Legion can’t make new angels to command all the new territories we have on Earth thanks to the destruction of the Guardians’ Sanctuary. That is a lot of land, Jace, and right now it’s allmyproblem. I have to deal with building lots of new citiesandextending the infrastructure. That means new roads, new train lines, new police forces, new everything…I can’t keep up with everything I have to do. I was supposed to have given up my territory when I ascended to my new positions, but there’s no angel to take over from me!”
“Perhaps the Legion should divide up your territory between the current angels,” Jace suggested.
“Nyx is working on that, but you know this is a sticky situation. No matter how she divides up my territory, the angels will fight.”
“Angels are soldiers. They will do as the First Angel commands.” Jace said it like he didn’t have a single doubt about it.
Yeah, he was pretty good at hiding what he really thought.
“Yes, angels are soldiers, but they’re also a bunch of drama queens. They have a real flair for the dramatic,” I said. “The only creatures in the universe more dramatic than angels are deities. You should see their council meetings. Totally nuts. And so long! All the gods and demons ever do is fight and backstab. So here I am, trying to learn the ropes of being a goddessanda demon, fulfilling all my new responsibilities on the councils, dealing with deity politics…and all the while, running my territory on Earth.” I exhaled.
“I don’t know how you do it, Leda,” Jace said.
“Yeah,” I said with another exhale.
Just listing everything I had to juggle right now had left me winded. Being an angel was tough enough. Being an angelanda goddessanda demonanda mother all in one sometimes felt impossible.
“Honestly, there’s no way I could have done it without Nero,” I said. “He’s really helped out, even though he has so little time left over after he’s seen to his own duties as Nyx’s second in command at the Legion of Angels and the new commander of the Vanguard.”
The Vanguard was the elite of the elite of the Legion’s soldiers. Nero had taken over that role from Damiel when he and Cadence had retired to a life that didn’t include politics and warfare. They’d offered to take us with them, and honestly, some days I really regretted not saying yes.
I’d had a lot of those days lately.
“So, yeah, life is crazy,” I told Jace. “If I could just find a way for Legion soldiers to always survive the Nectar, which I’ve been wanting to do anyway, then Imightbe able to lighten my workload. But I have no idea how to do that, and after years of looking into it, Nerissa has no clue either. Maybe I should pay Eva and Jiro a visit and ask them. They’re Immortals. They might know something that could help me solve the Nectar mortality problem.”
I made a mental note to add ‘ask Eva and Jiro about Nectar’ to my to-do list. If only I weren’t just one person, maybe I’d actually be able to make a dent in that epic to-do list.
“Leda, I had no idea you were dealing with so much,” Jace said. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s ok.” I set my hand on his shoulder.
“Have you ever considered taking a vacation?”
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6 (Reading here)
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125