Imprisoned Gods - G. Bailey Page 0,52
Nelly might as well have been my niece. I certainly loved her like one.” Her voice breaks when she says this last part, and I see a couple of tears begin to run down her face. I have to resist the sudden urge to go over and hug her, not wanting to get my eyes clawed out. “Anyway,” she continues, her voice shaky, “the higher god turned up threw me across the room, and held me down with some kind of magic. I watched him stab a sword through Nelly’s chest like it was nothing. I was trying to fight the whole time, trying to save her, but I couldn’t do anything. He watched her die, and then he knocked me out. I woke up with chains around my wrists, and the next thing I knew, those two were blaming me for her death.” She nods in the direction of Killian and Seth, shooting the latter a dirty look. “I didn’t even get to tell my friend what happened to her child,” she says sadly. “I didn’t get to say goodbye to Nelly, even though I loved her like my own.” She sniffs, wiping her tears away almost aggressively, like she doesn’t want to be caught showing weakness. I can’t help myself this time; I reach forward and place a hand on her arm, half-bracing myself for her to shake me off or hiss at me again. Instead, she just sniffles, meeting my eyes for a moment before straightening up and nodding at me.
I feel sick at the idea a higher god would do that to an innocent child. Do they really have no conscience at all? I knew they were dictators, and I knew they were volatile, but this is the first I’ve ever heard of them attacking the defenseless. I’m now hoping the higher god I accidently killed was the one who did that. He would have certainly deserved bad karma. Maybe that was why he was my job…because he killed Nelly. It’s a nice fantasy at least, and it fills me with a sense of grim satisfaction.
"Not that I don’t believe you,” Killian says tentatively, “but why would a higher god kill a child? A lesser goddess who could never be a threat to him?" I want to smack the silly out of him, and it takes everything I have not to roll my eyes. I take back the brownie points; he doesn’t deserve them. Could someone really be that short-sighted? Although I guess if you spent your whole life under the influence of the higher gods, you probably wouldn’t consider other points of view.
Damn. All these thoughts of brownies is making my stomach grumble, a loud and awkward sound in here.
"I don't need you to believe me,” Jade replies, “but I want my friend to know the truth. I suspect it was because Nelly was the higher god’s illegitimate child. My friend confided in me that she slept with a higher god, but there was also a chance that Nelly was someone else’s child. Either way, she never saw the guy again, and Nelly was a normal child for all accounts. Still, if she was the daughter of a higher god, then I could see him coming back to make sure there was no proof that he broke the law,” she explains. I shake my head. It’s still such a horrible thing to do. Poor Nelly did nothing but be born.
"Shit," I mutter, wide-eyed. If I didn’t have reason to believe her before, I certainly do now. I don't care what Killian thinks, I really do think Jade is telling the truth. Especially considering it seems higher gods are around more than they are meant to be. By all accounts, they’re supposed to stay high up in their palaces, never deigning to interact with lesser gods unless they need something from us. Now, though, they seem to be everywhere we go. I mean, hell - I accidentally killed one. I look over at the other two guys in the room, who are cuddled up on the floor. Their attention seems to have finally been drawn away from Killian and Seth, and I notice that they seem to be shaking in fear as they stare at something outside the bars. "What did they do?" I ask, hoping to distract Jade from her grief.
"Oh, those two?” she says, glancing over her shoulder and giving them a dirty look. “Don’t feel sorry for them. They are assholes who deserve