“So you’re Yeshua?” At the sound of my real name, I cringed and looked around. I saw a boy. He couldn’t have been older than Heidi, and he was very tall. His arms were crossed and he was looking at me with narrowed eyes, black eyes. By the look of his  purple skin and his four arms, he was a Mahesha, a people who worshipped the dead God, Destruction. Similar to the Gaans, they needed no jewels to breathe in the poisonous air.

He was six-feet-tall--a bit taller than the average Mahesha—however, he struck me as very young in all of his mannerisms. I had an odd, sickly feeling when I looked at him.

Given the fact he worshipped the horrid God Destruction, I had an automatic bias to dislike him. “My name is Nikolai,” he took a few steps towards me.

“You’re pretty pathetic for a God, actually caring enough about a human to rescue her.”

“Why are you here?” I ignored his comments. 

“I’m here to give you a warning,” he began.

“You’re a child. What could you have to warn me about?” I waved him away dismissively.

That seemed to have struck a chord. He stamped his foot a raised his voice. “I am not a child! I’m twenty-five years old, and I demand respect! I ought to behead you and… He took a deep breath. “Look. I’m here to warn you about something. You should leave the village so that the people in it don’t get hurt.”

“I’m not doing them any harm.” I said, raising my eyebrows confusedly.

“Mr. Smalls wished me to bring you this message. He sees you’ve become close with these people, and he wishes you to suffer. He will kill whomever you take refuge with. He says he wants you to go to the Mahesha.” Nikolai said, crossing his arms.

“How do you know Mr. Smalls? Just who are you, little Mahesha?”

His lips were sealed for a moment. Eventually, he cleared his throat. “Mr. Smalls visits me often.” He said vaguely.

“Why should I believe someone who worships the Wicked God Destruction?”

“Don’t be close-minded, three eyes. If bad things are destroyed as well as good things, there will be balance, which is what mortals need and what Destruction provided for them.”

“You’re a mortal; you don’t know what the Gods are really like. Your view of them is skewed.” I countered.

“Just leave the village, please. I don’t wish to see these people dead.” Nikolai said with an exasperated sigh.

I doubted this child could kill me even if he tried, but it was possible that Mr. Smalls had an army of Maheshans. Mr. Small’s mortal lover was the Queen of the Maheshans, after all, and she tended to do whatever he told her to. Unlike most species on the planet, the Maheshans all had the ability to perform powerful magic. If Mr. Smalls ordered it, an army of Maheshas could raze the village easily.

Again I wondered about my brother’s change in personality. Why did he want me to die so badly when all I ever did was help him to sign death warrants?

“Why does Mr. Smalls not just come here and kill me himself if he hates me?”

He looked at me, blinked, and then said, “…He says he will gain power if he defeats you in front of the Mahesha. The Maheshans are not your biggest fans, after all. He will not transport you there himself, either. He wants you to travel by foot.”

This must have been a sort of crazed ego trip for my brother. He wanted to gain the power of mortal prayer, and he wanted them to do it by having them watch him defeat another God.

I would have to consider leaving. The lives of a few mortals shouldn’t matter much to a God like me, and I was comfortable where I was… but when I thought about Heidi or Katharos dying, I felt my stomach tighten and my heart thud.

The boy, Nikolai, gave me a sarcastic grin. “Aw, someone has a heart,” and then he snapped and disappeared in a flash of light.

I walked back to the village. Maybe... six more days with Heidi and Katharos wouldn’t hurt.