Gathering of the Chosen (36 page)

“Neither do I,” said Carmaz. He tensed. “I
don't trust the gods, especially you southern gods. Did Alira send
you to get me?”

“Neither Alira nor any of the other gods
are even aware that we are alone together,” said the Ghostly God.
“Alira is obsessed with the Tournament, as she always is, while my
brothers and sisters are debating what to do should the Void attack
again. I took the opportunity to slip out and find you while they
talk uselessly about the future. No one noticed, since I have a
habit of leaving boring conversations like that.”

“Why did you want to find me?” said
Carmaz. “I'm nothing special. I think you'd want Braim, considering
how he is the guy who came back to life.”

“Braim has proven very … uncooperative,”
said the Ghostly God. He sounded frustrated about that. “He has not
let me study him and the secrets of his resurrection. I know that
if I got a chance to study him, it would only broaden our
understanding of death and make us that much more powerful.”

“I still don't see why you are talking
with me about all of this,” said Carmaz. He sidestepped the Ghostly
God and kept walking. “I don't want to talk with you or anyone else
right now. Just leave me alone.”

Carmaz got perhaps ten steps away from the
Ghostly God before a cold hand rested on his shoulder. He looked
over his shoulder and saw the Ghostly God behind him. He didn't
like the disappointed look on the deity's face.

“Get your hand off me, you—” said
Carmaz.

The Ghostly God removed his hand from
Carmaz's shoulder and said, “You are just as childish as Raya, you
know. Storming off when you're angry, not wanting to talk to anyone
… actually, I think I am starting to understand why she likes you
so much.”

“Unlike Raya, I have an actual reason for
my moodiness,” said Carmaz. He jabbed a thumb at his chest. “My
best friend in the whole world just died a few days ago. Not that
you'd understand. You gods don't have friends, do you?”

“We gods do in fact form friendships among
each other,” said the Ghostly God. He shrugged. “It's just that no
one has ever formed a friendship with me. Not that I need friends,
really. Friendship is overrated.”

“So are you actually going to tell me why
you are talking with me at all or are you just going to waste more
of my time?” said Carmaz. “Because I know how much you southern
gods hate talking with us mortals, so I can't imagine that this is
pleasurable for you.”

“You spoke of your best friend dying
earlier,” the Ghostly God said. “Have you ever considered the
possibility that we could bring him back?”

Carmaz's hands shook, though he tried to
keep his tone level. “I don't indulge in fantasies, Ghostly God. I
focus on reality. And the reality is that Saia is dead and there's
no way to bring him back.”

The Ghostly God chuckled and then laughed.
It was a mocking laugh, one that only made Carmaz's temper become
even shorter. He wanted to strangle the Ghostly God with his bare
hands, but because he couldn't, he just glared at the god until he
stopped laughing, which took the Ghostly God a good few seconds to
do.

Still chuckling, the Ghostly God said,
“You mortals truly are stupid. Have you already forgotten Braim
Kotogs? The man who came back from the dead?”

“He's an exception, not the rule,” said
Carmaz. “He doesn't even understand how he came back to life, so
it's not like he can give me some pointers to help bring Saia
back.”

“But what if we
could
find out how
to bring Saia back?” said the Ghostly God. “If we could just study
Braim's body and his soul, then we might be able to understand how
he defied the natural laws and returned to life.”

“Are you suggesting … an alliance?” said
Carmaz.

“A partnership,” said the Ghostly God. He
shuddered. “The thought repulses me as much as it does you, but the
two of us have similar goals, I feel. You want to bring back your
dead friend and I want to learn how to bring back your dead friend.
And do you know who might hold the answers to both questions?”

Carmaz's hands stopped shaking as he
thought over his answer. “Braim Kotogs.”

“Exactly,” said the Ghostly God, nodding.
“The only trouble is, of course, that he would never let me study
his body long enough to figure out how to replicate the process he
underwent to return to life. Do you know what that means?”

Carmaz shook his head. “No, I don't.”

“It means that I want to offer you a
deal,” said the Ghostly God. He held out one large hand to Carmaz.
“You help me capture Braim. In return, I will help you resurrect
your friend Saia with whatever knowledge I learn from my study of
Braim's body and soul. How does that sound?”

Normally, Carmaz would have told the
Ghostly God to capture Braim himself, but then he thought about the
offer a little bit more. Braim had indeed proven that it was
possible for a human being to defy death and return to life, even
thirty years after they had passed away. Saia had been dead only a
few days by now. Resurrecting him should be a piece of cake.

Besides, Carmaz didn't really like Braim
that much. While Braim was more tolerable than Raya, Carmaz was
still not close to the resurrected man and therefore would not feel
guilty if he helped the Ghostly God to capture him.

So Carmaz grasped the Ghostly God's cold,
metallic hand and shook it. “It's a deal.”

The Ghostly God smiled, showing his ugly
crooked green teeth. “Excellent. I will send you your first orders
later, but right now, let's go over the general plan so that you
and I will be on the same page. I promise that you will not regret
this.”

***

B
raim Kotogs lay on his bed in his
room in the inn he had been staying at for over a month now. Even
though he had gotten much-needed sleep over the last couple of
days, he still felt exhausted. He supposed it was due to Diog
draining his life energy, but Braim was puzzled about why his body
had not simply used the life energy he had stolen from Diog to
replace what he had lost.

Maybe it's another one of those weird
aspects of resurrection,
Braim thought with a yawn.
Can't
retain life energy as well as I normally do. Hopefully it won't
have any long-lasting effects.

Then Braim saw movement just outside his
window. He started, sitting up and aiming his newly-repaired wand
at the window, before he realized that it was just an
unusually-tall katabans passing by and making the light look
strange.

Guess it was nothing,
Braim
thought, lowering his wand.
Just glad it wasn't Ragao.

Braim was not exactly sure what had
happened to Ragao after he succeeded in talking the Void out of
destroying World's End. All he knew was that the gods had taken
her, but whether they were going to destroy her or not, he couldn't
say. He doubted they'd let her live, considering how the gods
treated other half-gods. He actually hoped that they'd kill her.
After all of the trouble that she had caused him and the other
godlings, Braim was pretty much convinced that Martir would be
better without entities like her messing it up.

Thinking about Ragao inevitably turned
Braim's thoughts to Diog. After the Void left, Braim had told Alira
and the gods about Diog's plan to kill him. He had been told that
they were going to bring Diog to the Hall of Justice—apparently a
building on World's End where criminals on the island were tried
for their crimes—where he would be tried for his crimes. Braim
wasn't sure exactly what they could do to Diog, considering he was
a god and all, but it now seemed unlikely that Diog was going to
harm Braim again anytime soon.

But what if the gods take Diog's
side?
Braim thought. It was a thought that had entered his head
many times over the last couple of days, not helped by the fact
that he knew how much the gods generally favored each other over
mortals.
If Diog manages to convince them that my mere existence
is a threat to Martir in general, there's no telling what they'll
do to me.

That was yet another thing that Braim had
worried about. He knew now that the main reason that the Void had
successfully managed to enter Martir and almost kill everyone was
because of his resurrection. He wanted to believe that he had
nothing to do with it, but it was plainly obvious to him now that
Diog was correct about Braim's resurrection having negative effects
on Martir.

So far, none of the other gods had
mentioned to Braim about doing something to him. It was possible,
even, that they wouldn't harm him at all, seeing as he was a
godling who was supposed to enter the Tournament of the Gods. As
far as he knew, he and the other godlings were safe from the gods
right now. Alira, at least, would keep Braim safe until he either
won or lost the Skimif Bracket. He remembered how angry she had
looked when he had told her about Diog kidnapping him. She seemed
to take Diog's attempts to sabotage the Tournament as a personal
offense.

Can't see them leaving me alone for
much longer, though,
Braim thought as he lay back down on his
bed.
They're still angry at Diog for almost killing me, but once
the anger fades and they can all think more clearly, then they'll
probably listen to him and do something about me.

Braim closed his eyes and tried to sleep,
but he found it impossible under the current circumstances. He had
thought that getting rid of Ragao and the Void would take his mind
off things, but now that he had to worry about the gods listening
to Diog and doing something about him, he found it hard to
relax.

And there's still that darkness in the
back of my mind that is still annoying me,
Braim thought.
Almost forgot about that.

Deciding that he wasn't going to be
getting any sleep tonight, Braim sat up again, threw off his
covers, and stood up. He thought about where he could go tonight,
but even the idea of going anywhere was enough to tire him out,
though not enough to make him go back to bed.

Indecision,
Braim thought.
Nice.
Like the gods.

Braim shook his head. The gods weren't
indecisive. Well, he supposed they could be sometimes. It was
mostly that they were divided on most subjects that it made it
impossible for them to do much of anything. He saw why the Powers
went ahead and sent Alira to organize the Tournament, rather than
relying on one of the gods to do it. As an impartial third party,
she was the only one who could do this without getting mired in the
petty politics of the gods.

And I am going to rule them, if I win
the Tournament,
Braim thought.
Still have a hard time
wrapping my head around that one.

Perhaps that was another reason why Braim
felt so uneasy. Deep down inside, he wasn't sure he was ready for
the position of God of Martir, or if he would ever be ready.

All this stress, but can't sleep it
off,
Braim thought.
Fantastic.

Shaking his head, Braim began pulling on
his clothes, getting ready to go and walk around the city tonight.
He had no idea what the morning would bring, no idea at all. And he
decided that he did not need to know, at least for now.

***

Powerless and in the clutches of a mad god
who seeks the secrets of his resurrection, Braim must escape the
god's island in order to return to the Tournament of the Gods. But
when the god's experiments leave him unable to trust his senses,
escaping the deity's clutches may be harder than it seems.

Raya Mana wants a dress, which a famed
katabans tailor has agreed to trade her for in exchange for one of
her own dresses. Yet there is more to this famous tailor than meets
the eye and Raya must do all that she can to uncover his secrets,
because that is the only way she will save the gods and the
world.

Carmaz believes that the secret to
resurrecting his deceased friend lies in Braim Kotogs and so he
helps a mad god kidnap Braim so he can experiment on him. Now
Carmaz must ensure that no one knows that Braim is missing or that
he is behind Braim's disappearance, otherwise he will be
disqualified from the Tournament, which will make it impossible for
him to ascend to godhood and help his people.

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Aorja Kitano
. A former student at
North Academy who specialized in musical magic. Though she is good
at pretending to be kind and intelligent, in truth she is insane
and violent and is currently on the run from the authorities for
her crimes against Martir. She has a 'pet' half-god called Zeeree
who she managed to tame. She is also a mage known as a 'Limitless,'
which means that she has access to unlimited magical energy
(although that does not make her invincible).

Aquarians
. A species of fish-like
humanoids that live in the Undersea, which is the name for the part
of Martir underneath the Crystal Sea. Like humans, aquarians
worship the northern gods and can use magic, although they have
different names for the gods and also do magic differently from
their human counterparts. They have a variety of different
appearances and races, much like humans, although their differences
tend to be even more dramatic than the ones between humans.