Year 2: Interlude 1

In an endless darkness, two figures watched Aangapea.

On one side was Eris, sat upon a grand throne made of uneven, awkwardly shaped branches. On the other was Harmonia, sat in the very centre of a pristine white chair perfectly upright.

“Why couldn’t you just stay in your little sanctuary and leave my game alone?”

“Because I sensed the disturbed harmony in your game. Even now.” Harmonia’s head turned gently towards the many windows into Aangapea before her. “I can feel it. This game is still not balanced.”

“A perfectly balanced game is a boring one.”

“It is not fair.”

Eris grunted and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t care - as long as it’s entertaining. Anyway.” Eris glowered at Harmonia. “I thought that’s why you came in to help ‘regulate’ it so that it was balanced.”

“It is a close to a perfect balance as I can manage without upsetting you.”

“Oh, how sweet of you.”

Harmonia met Eris’s gaze and the two Goddesses stared intently into the other’s eyes.

Countless times they had fought, and countless times they had ended in draws.

However, the raw, uncontrollable hatred they felt for each other would never go away.

“A game of chess is not a beautiful thing because it is perfectly symmetrical; its beauty comes from the diversity of pieces, all of whom have their uses and who can only operate within strictly defined lines. In that sense, your game is deeply flawed and ugly.”

“Thank you for the compliment.” Eris smiled cruelly. “Knowing that it upsets you pleases me greatly.”

“That was not my intention.”

Eris laughed. “Hey, Harmonia?”

“What?”

“You were so insistent that there had to be an equal number of female and male heroes. In fact, you declared you’d have destroyed my game if I hadn’t already chosen fifteen of each, yet you didn’t care who they were, where they’re from or-”

“Eris - does one care where the ants that creep into your home come from?”

Eris thinly smiled. “Yet their gender matters.”

“Gender matters - nationality does not as long as they are all human.”

Eris let out a low murmur and lent back into her throne, slumping back into a slouch.

As long as she doesn’t interfere more than this, then it’s fine.

After all. Eris’s usual smile returned to her lips. This is where things will really start to get exciting!

***

Alone in the vast, endless darkness sat a figure many regarded as a saint in life; now, lifeless and expressionless, she remained alone in the shadows.

Sat in a puddle of black liquid, she remained still, not casting her gaze towards her former world, nor towards the Goddess who tormented it and the other two who watched on eagerly.

For Themis, it was all meaningless.

She had no attachment left to Aangapea.

She had no desire to watch over its people and protect them, let alone guide them.

To her, everything that had made Saint Themis was gone.

Now, only she, the Greater God Themis remained.

“Hmm, you’re really quite boring, you know?”

She didn’t even react when Loki, the trickster herself, emerged from Themis’s shadow and put her face right up against hers.

“Did you know that there have only ever been two people who have ascended from mortal worlds and become Greater Gods? You’re one of them and the other, well.” Loki giggled gently, dropping into Themis’s shadow, then re-emerging behind her and hugging her. “She’s so much better than you are. She’s kinder, sweeter and she really, really deeply cares for her role among us.

“You, however.” Loki tightened her grip on Themis’s arms like a vice. Then, in a much deeper, darker voice, she whispered, “You’re a failure of a Greater God.”

“I don’t care.”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about, Themis. You’re not like the rest of us. We are above every other entity that could ever exist; we are concepts personified and refined to a T. Harmonia isn’t just that uptight and annoying because she wants to be; it’s because that’s who she’s meant to be. Eris is no better.” Loki laughed. “The only things she enjoys is making other people suffer.

“Me.” Loki’s neck stretched unnaturally far and wrapped around Themis’s twice, before smiling into her eyes brightly. “I can’t help but deceive people! There’s something just truly, truly, truly wonderful about it, and I can’t help myself!”

In a puff of smoke, Loki vanished and then re-appeared as a smartly dressed butler before her, with silver hair and blood-red eyes. “I don’t know what you’re about and that makes me absolutely fascinated by you. It’s almost like you’re trying to deceive me, me of all people.” Loki took some of Themis’s hair in hand and kissed it romantically, winking at the God. “Doesn’t that make you feel anything?”

“No.”

“Not even if I were to steal the innocent maiden’s lips?”

Slowly, Themis raised herself onto her feet, spear in hand and sighed. “Why can’t you all leave me alone? Saint Themis is dead and I’m-”

“Then!” Loki transformed once more. This time, into the form of a gigantic drake with scales as pitch as night. “You wouldn’t mind if I messed with Aangapea a little bit either?”