Chapter 238: INTERLUDE. Names and stereotypes
Chapter 238: INTERLUDE. Names and stereotypes
“It could be anyone,” God of Rogues slowly repeated these words, so dangerous and so true. The curiosity, almost morbid one, that was slowly rising in him during that conversation, now screamed, asking for a way out, and he couldn’t stop himself. “Did you see Wizards recently, by chance?”
Goddess of Sorcerers cringed like she took a bite from a lemon. “Yeah, by chance. If that’s a chance, you know! She came here, that snake, hissed to me about… about you, actually. Had the gall to remind me about all that usual stuff, about how she’s the smartest and knows better, too! I’d make her into the prime suspect at the spot if I was the investigator, right. I swear, she must’ve told the same slander to all the others, and I know them. Just give them a good-sounding reason, and they will bite down on the opportunity to spit at us. You, me, Warlocks, Barbarians… We aren’t good enough for them anymore. Not polished enough, too chaotic and chaos is evil, blah-blah-blah all the things Paladins says.”
God of Rogues could agree, and still… The last time he visited Goddess of Warlocks, she eyed him with great suspicion and offered him to drink a strange potion that he, of course, refused. Maybe it was a truth serum. Either way, she wasn’t happy with him then.
The God of Barbarians, too. He was even less talkative than usual, all full of grunts, frowns and dark brooding. Some seemingly disconnected with him, but some definitely targeted at no one else.
“I don’t think this is only a matter of polish, goddess.” He shook his head and spoke no more about this. Instead, he gave Goddess of Sorcerers a grateful smile, on which she immediately responded with her own. “Thank you for putting that trust in me. Not all others do, and in these trying times, trust is an even more valuable currency.”
“You don’t say.” The goddess grinned and finally sat down. She crossed her legs, and from his position on the other side of the low table, God of Rogues had an interesting view of her thigh when the long split of her flowing skirts flashed milk-white skin for a moment. “It’s all prejudices. They think that with you being you… You know. Barbarians rage, wizards are smart, and rogues are thieves and liars. But does it work like that with adventurers? No! So why should it do with us? We are not stereotypes either, after all.”
At the end of her speech, the goddess’s mood turned thoughtful again, and she had to prop her head, probably heavy with thoughts, on a hand. That made her lean forward and showed that her head wasn’t the only heavy thing in her body. The dress the goddess wore was, as always, bright and not the most modest.
God of Rogues shook these thoughts. In the centuries that passed since their creation, there have been plenty of affairs between the deities. He remembered, like yesterday, Goddess of Sorcerers’ passion, which burned no worse than her fiery spells. Too hot for him to enjoy for long back then, but now he suddenly had a desire to renew these memories.
If only not for all that… God of Rogues decided he would feed Devourer someone else next, definitely, even if it might turn out that she knew too much. And this goddess, well. He didn’t plan to kill them all from the start. Just… enough that the rest wouldn’t kill him, even if they found his involvement. But they better don’t.
“I was even thinking about getting myself a new name. The kind mortals use. Something short, but tasteful. Like Ashe. From ‘ash’… Get it?” Goddess of Sorcerers winked. “The priests would have to burn all the old books in the ash and write the new ones with my new name on it.”
“Ashe..,” God of Rogues tasted it on his lips. Was, indeed, much more convenient than “Goddess of Sorcerers”. “It fits you well,” he added truthfully. “Should I call you that from now on?”
“You might.” Goddess—Ashe now—smiled playfully. “Then what should I call you, Rogues?”
His mind became blank.
“How about… Ranalc? Rovaine? I think the letter ‘R’ fits you. Or something shorter… Rey? Raine?”
God of Rogues tried them all in his head. The idea of a mortal-like name was new—and why? It seemed so obvious now, so convenient. It was on the surface all that time, and they kept calling each other as they did, only sometimes shortening their clunky names to the last word.
“I like Rey,” he said, thinking about the changes the future will bring. He’ll keep other, as Ashe said, “less polished” gods… While the other can burn. They will have names, and everything they want, and the chaos beasts are not a danger anymore, so there’s no need in twenty of them, or in gathering all that EXP they used to strengthen their bodies and magic.
“Great! So you are Rey from now on. Heh, I bet Paladins would say that this is somehow a betrayal against tradition and therefore a sin.” Ashe snorted. “Well, hopefully I won’t see him any time soon. We have other stuff to do, don’t we? Tracking these heretics, for a start.”
“Yes, these heretics… I want to check them out personally. There might be a network… traitor, spies. Please, warn your templars to not shout about me on corners and to not interfere.”
“Will do. Just… call me if you want to burn their nest, alright? I want to burn someone at last!”
“Definitely,” Rey lied. Maybe he would give them to her to burn, but not after he interrogates them by himself—and thinks about what he will say to Devourer, and if he will. After all… he was Devourer’s only source of news from the mortal realm right now.
He left Ashe in a strange mood. Suddenly, the idea to unite himself with the eater of gods didn’t seem as good, but… It was too late to step back. Or wasn’t it? No, he still had deities to get rid of…