Rewritten Rules

“Didn’t you want anything else, Veles?” Perun asked, admiring the Golden Egg towering over him.

“You guys were too shortsighted.” Veles glared at them reproachfully.

“He’s right,” Stribog said.

“Rohd would have remained a threat if we had let her roam free,” Morena added.

“Now we have both the power to change the world!” Radegast clenched his fist triumphantly.

“But how are we going to change it?” Mokosh asked.

“With love!” Lada flexed her bicep.

“Thanks to Svarog, we can shape our own powers now, right?” Triglav asked, tugging at his red beard.

“Then let’s do it…” Svarog molded an iron hammer practically out of thin air, while others quietly watched. “But remember what Rohd said. We should place limits on them.”

“You’re always spoiling the fun!” Lada pointed an accusatory finger at him.

Soon, Morena’s heart ticked. Stribog held his horn, while Mokosh leaned against a spinning wheel. Perun summoned thunder from his axe. Radegast sported his boar hat. Lada slipped a ring onto one finger while playing with another. Triglav put on his blindfold.

And then came Veles.

He thought long and hard before finally making his choice.

“Now that was… cumbersome.” Svarog huffed.

Veles picked up the white gloves lying before the giant egg. He brought them to eye level, inspected them, then put them on. “I don’t feel any different. Do you?”

“I feel more empowered, I guess…” Morena said.

“Oh just spare us, you can’t ‘feel’ anything, you’re a heartless bitch!” Radegast quipped.

“Well, that’s why I asked for this heart.”

“Silence!” Perun’s voice boomed. “We have company.”

His eyes darted toward the cliff above them. Small rocks tumbled down.

“Silence? Company?” Lada tilted her head. “Don’t act like a boss already just because you thought of some formidable powers!”

“That might have just been an aftereffect of that show-off attack of yours.” Stribog peered into his horn.

“Still, if it’s a guest, I’ll show them around.” Radegast leapt to the top of the cliff. Finding nothing, he jumped back down and landed on one knee.

“Wow, we can do that now?” Lada’s eyes sparkled.

“I’ve always been able to do things like this.” Radegast puffed out his chest.

“Liar!” Mokosh accused him.

With Rohd defeated and the Nine Commandments written, nine new gods had been born.

As time passed, Prav filled with life, although much different from Yav.

The roads were built to last. The wind was predictable. It never snowed or rained. Since the gods didn’t need to sleep, eat or drink, Prav had no drinkable water or edible food of its own. Nor did it need a source of light. It was simply bright all the time.

Then came the time for revenge against the spirits’ unjust rule.

Descending to Yav, the gods traveled to the most populated town in the Slavic region.

There, people had to repeat the same routine their entire lives. Wake up at the same time, with the same foot. Eat the same meal. Take the same routes. Talk to the same people.

A family of three sat at their table. The father hesitated before reaching for bread. His hand shook.

He bit into it.

Spiky hairs pierced his chest, killing him instantly.

“Daddy!” his daughter screamed.

A Domovoy stepped forward. “Yesterday, he had a potato for dinner.”

“W-we ran out. So I prepared something else,” the mother stammered.

“So you broke the rules, too.”

The creature’s fur bristled. Hairs shot into the mother.

That was the game Domovoy played with humans.

The nine gods appeared in the town square.

“Other spirits?!”

“Should we run?!”

“Don’t! If you didn’t run yesterday, stay here!”

Veles approached a praying woman.

“Don’t kill me… please…” she mumbled.

“Your prayers will be heard. Sell me your fear, and you shall have a piece of my determination.”

Veles pulled off his glove and offered his hand. The woman hesitated. But as she got lost in his golden eyes, she took it.

“Spoken and bound!”

She stopped shaking. Her tears dried.

“You don’t have to worry, humans!” Perun’s voice rolled like thunder. “We are here to save you from this tyranny!”

“We are the nine gods!” Lada shouted. “Pray! Worship us! But most importantly… love us.”

“And believe in us!” Stribog added.

A dozen Domovoy emerged from the surrounding houses.

A rock struck one directly in the eye.

The woman Veles had traded with had thrown it.

Holding his injured eye, the Domovoy’s fur spiked up. “You’ll pay.”

The creature charged her, but a lightning bolt struck him, filling the square with the stench of burnt flesh.

“We shall protect humanity from the spirits!”

Moments later, the Domovoy were brought to their knees. Some were dead, others gravely injured.

Perun approached one whose leg had been torn off. “You don’t want to die, do you?”

The Domovoy remained silent.

Perun cut him down.

“What about you?” He approached another.

“No! We don’t!” a different voice replied. “Is there any way to save our kind?”

“And who are you?”

“I’m the King of Domovoy.”

“Oh? So some spirits can organize and even choose a leader.” Perun smiled. “Then make an oath.”

“An oath?”

“Promise to serve humans. You and the generations to come. In return, your kind shall grow stronger, but your dusha will be bound to the households you choose to protect.”

“A spirit… protecting and serving a human?!”

“Do you have any choice?!” Radegast shouted.

The King reluctantly lowered his head. “I swear...”

The townspeople cheered and danced until dawn.

“Don’t forget what we taught you!” Lada raised a warning finger. “Three silver coins, a short rope and a soot cross. That way, the human’s cold dusha won’t return as a spirit. So spread the word!”

The gods became revered throughout the region.

Until that day.

Perun wheezed, blood trickling from his mouth as his fellow gods lay around him.

A group of Bannik surrounded them, their humanoid bodies topped with heads made entirely of water.

“Gods? Haha! You’re still too weak against our numbers!”

The Bannik grabbed the screaming villagers and plunged their faces into their liquid heads, drowning them.

The survivors surrounded the fallen gods. They kicked at their injuries and spat in their faces.

“Go away!”

“You’re making it worse!”

“We didn’t live well, but at least we did live before you came!”

The gods retreated into the forest.

“What were we even fighting for?” Tears trickled down Mokosh’s bruised face.

“I’ll never forget this… humiliation.” Morena coughed.

“Thanks to Lada’s ritual, far fewer new enemies will be born…” Triglav spat blood. “But there are still too many. We need another Commandment.”

“Then let’s make new bohatiers,” Veles suggested.

The others stopped in their tracks. Nobody dared to react first.

“Remember our deal with Rohd? ‘Whoever defeats a god shall command them.’ That’s the first rule she unknowingly made after accepting my deal. Each of us has only one dusha left, so unless somebody wants to die… we’ll need somebody else. And we can’t simply force a human to do it. A Commandment has to be given of their own free will."

“Can’t we just let someone defeat us?” Lada asked.

“No. Rohd would know it wasn’t a true defeat. Only if a human truly defeats one of us, they earn the right to write a Tenth Commandment.”

“We should think this through…” Perun pressed a hand against his rib. “They’ll need enough reason to ignite the flame that would lead them on such a dangerous journey.”

“Let’s make them tremble before our power.” Triglav caressed his beard.

“That would only scare them away. We should show some mercy, too…” Svarog huffed. “Help them in exchange for some kind of offering, for example.”

“Either way, it won’t happen overnight.” Perun squeezed his axe. “It will take generations for their faith… fear and determination to grow.”

“Hehehe.” An old female voice pierced their conversation. “I can help you with that. My friend Leshy is bored, too.”

Baba Yaga stood before them, her skeletal leg resting against a rock.

“You…!” Radegast lunged at her. “You led the army of spirits in Wolin!”

“I’m genuinely sorry about that. It used to be my reason for existing. But nowadays… I can no longer command Domovoy thanks to a certain someone.” She glanced at Perun.

“I’ll twist your neck!” Radegast squeezed her throat.

Baba Yaga smiled. “Killing me… will be of no benefit to you. I need a new reason… to live.”

“Let’s hear her out.” Perun watched as Radegast ground his teeth and released her. “I don’t hold a grudge against you, Baba Yaga. You just happened to be the one who massacred our loved ones. But if it hadn’t been you, it would have been somebody else.”

“Thank you, good man.”

“If you have a way to help us, I need you to make an oath.”

“I shall spread the folklore about how humans can ascend to godhood. And I’ll decide who is worthy of reaching Prav.”

Chapter 44: END