Pure Destiny (PureDark Ones #12) - Aja James Page 0,58
of Pure souls until I was offered a second life by the Goddess. At the time, I thought it was Anubis come to guide me into the afterlife. That the god appeared female with a hauntingly soft voice rather surprised my human self.”
The gathered members of the Dozen came from a variety of backgrounds and timelines. Yet, all ancient and even modern mythologies contained similar variants of the Creation story, of life and death and the afterlife. Mankind across history had interpreted the unexplainable with the cultural and religious beliefs of their time, but there were always common threads, no matter who, when or where.
“My papa used to tell tales about the Twin Goddesses when I was a boy,” Tal murmured. “They were believed to be the most powerful of all of the gods, but only when they were together, in perfect harmony. They balanced each other’s strengths and weaknesses so that their combined powers exceeded all the rest. It was in their image that Pure and Dark Ones were created.”
“Yes, all evidence, oral and written, would point to the fact that the Twin Goddesses created Pure and Dark Ones,” Eveline confirmed. “But the question is why did they do it. And why did they give us certain Gifts and limitations?”
“Do you mean the Dark Ones’ unquenchable bloodthirst, love of the night, and other…thrills?” Gabriel asked.
“And the Pure Ones’ Cardinal Rule?” Rain added.
“Exactly those,” Eveline said. “As far as I can glean, the Twin Goddesses never had those particular traits. They might have had weaknesses relative to other gods, but neither were limited or strengthened by light or dark, and neither suffered for love.”
“Perhaps because they never knew love,” Tal thought out loud. “Love can only be felt when a being has a soul. Gods don’t have souls.”
“In the beginning, no, they did not,” Eveline agreed. “There are of course many variations of this, but in the beginning there was only Darkness and Light. The gods of old when they reigned supreme did not have feelings; they only knew power, creation, destruction, action and reaction. And then, one of the gods’ own creations, a Beast, fell in love with a Goddess.”
The other members of the Dozen were rapt with attention as Eveline carried on.
“From what I pieced together from obscure oral histories and hidden sections of the Ecliptic and Zodiac Scrolls, that Beast died because the Goddess didn’t—couldn’t—love him back. But the loss of him taught the Twin Goddesses to regret. It taught them sorrow. And it created an imbalance in the universe. That was when the gods began to decline in power. When chaos and wars ensued. Until one day, their powers diffused entirely, scattered to the four winds in the sparks of souls. Immortal and human.”
“As fascinating as all this is,” Seth noted, “how does it pertain to the situation at hand?”
The Seer slid a look of mild annoyance his way.
“I’m getting to that,” she grumbled.
“Get there faster,” the ever silent Protector, Valerius, growled.
“I’m trying to figure out who we’re dealing with here,” Eveline huffed. “Medusa seems well understood with hind sight. But Wan’er is still an enigma.”
“And this lesson in mythology will help us better understand her?” Gabriel asked, clearly skeptical.
“It helped us figure out the importance of Benjamin, didn’t it?” Eveline returned, gray-blue eyes sparking with an inner fire.
Gabriel let out a breath that was half-contrition, half-frustration.
“I am sorry, Seer. I know you are trying to help. I just feel so… powerless, confined to this library looking through the past when my son is out there right now…”
He put his face in his hands, elbows on the oak table, as an involuntary shudder racked his body.
Ishtar took the seat beside him and stroked his broad back with a reassuring hand.
“Please continue, Eveline,” Tal urged quietly. “You obviously have some theories.”
She nodded and began again.
“Throughout history, there has always been a push and pull, action and reaction. Balance requires opposite forces acting in harmony. We sense a disturbance in the Balance because of one individual amassing too much power. Violence and chaos are only the symptoms of the larger issue. We’ve been trying to neutralize the symptoms, but we’ve never addressed the source. And in order to do so, we have to understand why.”
“Because she craves more power,” Cloud said, frowning.
“But why?” Eveline persisted. “What does she want to do with it? Gain by it? Power for the sake of power is pointless.”
“To a rational person, perhaps,” Seth murmured. “We could simply be dealing with a megalomaniac.”