Prologue

 It will never change. People are busy, busy, busy. There's no time anymore to be busy with anything other than being on time. And the gods? Oh well, they can wait. Or they're forgotten. But when something bad happens, people start complaining. Yeah, at those moments, we suddenly are useful.

Like when there’s a war going on? Yeah, we’re helpful then. And when, every hundred years, we have to go up to Atla from the Planes of Infinity and bring back four new gods. Why four, I’ll never know. But it’s been tradition for as long as anyone can remember.

Not too long ago, the tradition was challenged for the first time. And it just so happens that that was my turn to go down and bring someone back.

I’m Gen and this is the story of my oh-so-wonderful quartet of a few years ago.

 

Enil, I prefer to call him Q or The Great Pain-in-the-A*s, had called us together, all couple hundred of us, in the Great Halls of the Planes of Infinity. Even though there were so many of us, the huge marble halls seemed almost empty. The Great Pain-in-the-A*s’ voice echoed eerily around us and if Iseli hadn’t been beside me, I probably wouldn’t have been paying attention.

“The time has come again to send the Quartet to Atla,” The Great Q intoned, sending a shiver down every full-blooded god’s spine. I, as only mostly immortal, felt nothing quite so profound. “The Quartet has already been decided by the Council of Eternity. As I call you, step forward and receive your placement.”

A soft murmur ran through the crowd around me. Iseli turned to mutter to me but I waved her off. I could care less about this. A trickster god like me was never chosen to go up to Atla. Course, I had been wrong before.

“Cad,” Q called.

Gods and goddesses parted to make way for the goddess of the sea. She was extremely tall and slender with sallow skin, long pale gold hair loose about her and eyes like topaz. Her long, flowing white robes trailed behind her as she took the three steps up to Enil. She was beautiful but in that creepy, eerie, I’m-afraid-to-get-too-close-to-you way.

“You will be searching in Amova.”

She bowed her head and stepped to the side.

I shifted my weight to my other foot. This was so damned boring. When would it be over?

“Rounix,” The Great Pain-in-the-A*s called.

Another murmur ran through the crowd and I actually glanced at Iseli. Sending the god of youth down was almost as unheard of as sending the trickster god. Who would be making the muffins while he was gone? The new kid, what’s-his-face? Onan? Those wouldn’t be extremely appetizing…

“You’re sending Rouni?” Iseli called from my elbow. I turned to glance at her as Rounix climbed the stairs.

For a god of youth, he was rather plain with dark skin, light brown hair that reminded me pitifully of Greco-roman paintings and big, bronze eyes. His purplish-blue chain mail clinked as he took the stairs and turned to wink at the goddesses.

I rolled my eyes as several of them, mostly newer girls, swooned.

“Can I leave yet?” I hissed to Iseli as Q shouted, “You will be searching in Thrin.”

“No,” she hissed back. “You know it’s required that we stay until the entire Quartet has been named.”

I snorted. I had expected a wittier comeback from my strongest rival. Apparently, she was hoping to get picked.

She proved me right by squealing excitedly when The Great Pain-in-the-A*s called her name.

I took a moment to remember her: the goddess who always pulled my chain, who always was willing to argue with me and always had a trick to return. I might not be seeing her again for a long time. The Search sometimes took years. And sometimes, a mortal couldn’t be found that would be suitable and the god or goddess searching for one would be forced to come back empty-handed. These fruitless Searches were becoming more and more common.

She was shorter, the shortest of the four of us who would go on this Search, with light brown skin, short red-gold hair and eyes the color of banked coals. I always found her heavy, black velvet robes—embroidered with gold and silver thread, of course—to be amusing. But I didn’t snicker as the goddess of dusk and borders turned and bowed her head as Enil told her she would be searching in Kyric Onik.

“And lastly,” Q boomed, “Gen.”

I blinked up at him for a long moment as yet another whisper swept through the rest of the crowd. I knew they were surprised. Great Atlean Alliance, I was too!

I felt myself getting pushed forward, toward the Great Pain-in-the-A*s and the other three. I stumbled but caught myself.

And now, since I’ve described the others in such detail, I’ll take a moment to describe myself. For being only three-quarters immortal, I’m extremely handsome. I’ve got long, red hair and bright green eyes, like the color of leaves in a Burnithakian summer. I’m not as tall as Rounix or even Cad but I’m not too short, either. I’m pretty well-muscled and I like smiling. I wear bright colors, especially scarlet, in whatever style’s fashionable.

Anyway. I stumbled up the steps and Q shouted in my ear, “You will be searching Burnithak.”

“Great,” I said without thinking about it.

“Would you prefer not to go?” Enil asked in an unexpected show of sympathy toward me. We were never on the best of terms and, I admit, occasionally he’s tried to kill me. Course, I’ve always been able to outwit him in the end.

“No,” once again, my mouth was moving without my brain behind it. “I want to go. I haven’t been up there since I came down.”

“Then you will go to Burnithak.”

“Mmk. Right. What am I looking for again?”

The Great Pain-in-the-A*s sighed. “A single, pure mortal who will make a good deity. You know the guidelines, the requirements. Any further questions?”

I thought about it for a moment. “When do we leave?”

“Now.”

The Great Halls of the Planes of Infinity melted before my eyes, colors dripping and running together as if they had been splashed with a bucket of water. I saw the faces of my victims, er friends, blurring and running, disappearing. I turned to look at the other three and saw them melting, too. Odd. I didn’t think gods could melt like wax.

I spent quite a long time floating in the darkness between the Planes of Infinity and Atla. From what I learned later, so did the others.

 

Author's Note

This has not been edited at all!! This is straight from a rough draft, don't judge too harshly!

Reviews

[Alfons Vieanna]

I'm interested in how the rest came along

[Deseret]

this was really good, i liked it alot although i think it might read better with out the italicized part at the beginning, and i was little thrown off by the telling a past story comments in the story, but i think it would work in the long run as long as you don't give to much away before it happens, (like Gen thinking that he had been wrong before he gets chosen, but that's on a smaller scale) if that makes sense :-)

this sounds like a very interesting story