Page 114 of Hell-Bound

“I’d believe you,” she said gently, laying a hand on his scratched arm. “If you told me. I would believe your truth.”

He swallowed.

“As I said, I can’t tell everything because of the contract.”

“What does our contract have to do with the truth?” she asked, exasperated.

“Nothing Ren. I meanmycontract. The one I signed with my brother Nainaur—when he enslaved me to The Hells.”

INTERLUDE

1,203 years ago

The air was sticky with moisture—soil soft underfoot, as two gods strolled.

“Peace, brother. You must control yourself lest he destroy you,” Ziemia hummed, words making the plants around her twitch.

She was unquestioningly the most beautiful creature in existence.

Her caramel skin was glistening from the sun, her most favorite creation, and her hair curled and flowed wildly in the morning breeze—strands collecting stray twigs that nestled themselves there. Her eyes had a neon green glow, and sparkling green motes hovered over every inch of her skin.

Azur ground his jaw.

“I can’tdothis anymore, Zem. I…no longer care what he does to me. I am irredeemable. Destroyed, already.”

The goddess stopped.

“We all have our part to play. This one is yours. If you want to protect them, you have to fulfill your role.”

His anger was rising, he wanted to scream at his sister, but he knew his anger was misplaced.

Her voice was soft, almost a whisper.

“Nature is cruel. I watch as it grows, thrives, and blossoms, but I must also watch as it destroys my people. The innumerable lives lost to the fierceness of nature weigh heavy on my heart each day, but without nature, there would be no beauty. And this is the cost.”

“It’s not the same,” he snapped, “you know it’s not the same.”

She gave him a slow nod of acknowledgement.

“I know,” she said, placing a thin hand on his robed arm.

“But the planes cannot survive without you—wouldn’t survive the chaos he would unleash.Naturecould not survive without your balance. This is your charge. They will never know what you do for them. But that isn’t why you do it.”

The truth feels like a pathetic excuse. I am responsible. My Wrath, Lust, and Gluttony are all real. They feed my power, and I revel in them.

“You’re enslaved here? Then…all of this isn’t your fault?”

“It ismy fault. I signed a contract, and I take full responsibility for that.”

“But how?” she pleaded.

Azur ran a hand through his disheveled hair.

“My family has always existed. We were happy once—together in the heavens. But we were lonely. One day, my sister Ziemia suggested that we all impart our essence in the cosmos and create living beings. We knew it would drain the majority of our power, but we all agreed. We wanted to do something important—fulfilling. We wanted to share our lives. Wanted children. We hadn’t realized at the time how selfish our decision was.

“We created them in our likeness. My brother Faydir created The Planes of Fae, creatures blessed with mischief and whimsy. I created The Hells, a plane glittering with riches to delight. The Devils with their vibrant skin the colors of my beautiful vurmite. Ziemia created yours—The Mortal Plane and the luscious nature within.” He smiled. “My other siblings could never compete with her imagination and ingenuity—the reason your plane has the most variety of life. Finally our eldest brother, Nainaur, crafted The Plane of Heavens, only imbibing it with a small number of ethereal creatures.

“One of the few traits we all agreed on was that we wanted to give our children the ability to reproduce, a capacity that had become one of our greatest joys. But these gifts had unforeseeable consequences. It was becoming evident that our creations were populating at an alarming rate. We could notexpand our created planes, for we had expended the majority of our Immortal power in their creation. Nainaur, the wisest of us all, suggested limiting their lifespans. He promised that after their deaths, he would take them into The Heavens, blessing them on his plane and allowing them to live with the ethereal beings.