Chapter 3
Nova woke us both up just before dawn. I could tell, somehow, by the tired look on his face that he hadn’t slept well, either. We ate a big breakfast before Master Shan arrived, right around dawn, to resume Zanni’s training. Nova scooped me up into his muscular arms and we jetted off for the library again.
This time I actually had the time to appreciate how muscular his chest was under that robe. I had time to study his face, too, as we flew off toward the library. He was…handsome. I could admit that. Well, of course he was, he was a god. Fortunately, he didn’t catch me staring, and before long we were touching down at the library again. It looked just as pristine as the day before. I shook myself out of the weird thoughts I’d been having, tamping down on my annoyance at myself. This was a stressful situation, I told myself. It wasn’t that weird for me to notice that this new guy was handsome and strong and polite and really nice. He’d saved my life! It wasn’t weird!
It didn’t matter anyway. Even if I was catching some kind of feelings for him, after this situation with Obra was resolved he’d return me to Meliné and he’d stay here in this god realm and he’d outlive me by centuries. And, besides, there was no way he would ever be even a little bit interested in me. I was a human, and not even one of the more attractive ones.
I couldn’t do this to myself. Not again. And so I threw myself into the search with gusto.
A few silent hours into our research, Nova groaned and let his book fall to the desk. He leaned back in his chair, hands pinching the bridge of his cute little nose. I took that as my cue to stop reading as well, closing my book much more gently and setting it beside his book on the desk between us. I hadn’t really been reading so much as scanning the books for those three words Nova had written down for me. I’d found the word ‘parasite’ a handful of times, but none of those times had amounted to anything substantial.
“I can’t read another word,” he groaned. “It’s so boring.”
“Sorry,” I said, suddenly hyper-aware that I was the one who had suggested research like this in the first place.
“No, no, don’t be sorry,” he said. “This is as good a plan as any I could have come up with. I just don’t like reading, I never have.”
“You sound like Zanni,” I said, laughing, hoping to inject a little bit of humor into the situation. He sat back upright, putting both elbows on the desk and resting his head on his steepled hands.
“You’ve known Zanni for a long time, right?” he asked. I nodded. “You must know a lot about Oryz and the rest of Meliné’s defenders, too.”
“Not as much as you’d think,” I sighed. “If you want real details, ask Zanni. But if you’re asking for a history lesson on Meliné, I’ll do my best.” Nova frowned, looking pensive.
“I’ll admit, I haven’t been paying nearly enough attention to your planet,” he confessed. “Or to any of the inhabited planets in your solar system, let alone your universe. There are so many planets to keep up with, and until recently nothing particularly noteworthy happened on your planet at all.”
“Gee, thanks,” I replied sarcastically. He looked confused. “What do you consider to be ‘noteworthy’, exactly? Because plenty of stuff has happened on Meliné. They have entire classes in school about all the history we’ve had.” Not that I’d gone to school. I knew the basics, but Zanni would probably be the better person to ask about this, considering he was literally learning this stuff in school. Well. Not now, anyway.
“Your planet is quite young in comparison to others in the universe,” Nova began. “In fact, your universe is the youngest of them all, so the planets haven’t had as much time to develop, and civilizations on those planets haven’t had as much time to have truly noteworthy developments, either.”
“Like, what?” I asked.
“Well, the first big development on most planets is the rise of human civilization,” Nova said. “That happened long before I was appointed to observe your planet, unfortunately. First contact with your neighbors, the Galvekians, happened before I was appointed as well.” Nova sighed. “Truly, nothing interesting has happened on your planet in the last two hundred years… well, until now that is.” I couldn’t help laughing in disbelief.
“You and I have a very different definition of the word ‘interesting’, Nova,” I said.
“Really, now?” he asked. I nodded.
“Even in just the last two hundred years, there have been so many things,” I said. I bit my lip, trying to remember. Between Zanni telling me about what he’d learned in school, my own lived experience, and the history books I’d managed to collect over the years, I could at least paint a broad picture, right?
“Well, for starters there were all the wars?” I began. “And not just territory disputes, like, major intercontinental and world wars?”
“I must have missed them,” Nova replied. “If I had to guess, I’d say they were all quick and the damage to the planet must have been minimal.” My jaw dropped. They had all happened well before I was born, but for such major wars with huge amounts of casualties to be dismissed as quick events with minimal damage…
“What about Pinac?” I asked. Nova squinted a bit, thinking.
“The Galvekian that attempted to conquer the entire planet?” he asked. I nodded. “Another event that was over too quickly for me to catch. It caused minimal damage to the planet and the population. I only became aware of it due to it starting the chain events that led to the galactic emperor Gamut becoming aware of your planet.”
“Minimal?!” I demanded, incredulous. “He killed thousands of people before Oryz stopped him!”
“Yes. It was the first major use of the Melusian Guardian’s power in a very long time,” Nova admitted. “Regrettably, I was busy with a different solar system at the time.”
Pinac’s ultimately unsuccessful attempt at world domination had happened shortly before I was born, and my early childhood had certainly been shaped by the event. All of the news, all anyone talked about, really, had been the after effects of Pinac’s horrifying conquest. Entire towns wiped off of the map, too damaged to repair. Buildings in every major city still being rebuilt for years to come. Revivals still happening long into my teenage years. People had been, and still were, hostile at best toward Galvekians because of Pinac. Most Galvekians had returned to their home planet, actually. Had I been any older than I was when I met him, I am sure I would have never become friends with Pykon. Pinac’s legacy of destruction had loomed over him as well. And, well, Nova was right about one thing — despite all of the death and destruction, Pinac’s “greatest” contribution to our history had been the battle that had attracted the attention of beings from outside of our solar system. Terrible beings.
“So, you do consider Pinac’s world domination to be a ‘noteworthy’ event in Melusian history?” I asked.
“I do, in as much as it is what attracted Gamut’s attention,” Nova explained. I frowned.
“So, human lives mean nothing to you, then?” I asked. I was glaring. I was seething, actually. This was starting to piss me off.
“The…the Guardian brought them all back, though, and reversed much of the damage to the planet, right?” he asked.
“She did, but that doesn’t change the fact that so many people died,” I replied. Nova shook his head.
“But from my perspective, by the time I checked in on the planet nothing major was amiss.” I managed to somehow frown even harder than I had been before. “Let’s…take a step back from this, shall we? You seem to be getting upset…”
“It’s just… there was so much death and suffering, and you seem to think that the only reason it was at all important was because Oryz used his Tracheophyte fighting abilities to kill Pinac, and that attracted Gamut’s attention,” I replied.
“Well, I—” Nova began trying to defend himself.
“And I suppose you weren’t paying attention when Brasca attacked us?” I asked. Nova shook his head.
“Regrettably, no,” Nova replied. “First contact with beings from outside of the solar system is considered a noteworthy event. I do regret not getting to witness it.”
“Oh, so you regret not getting to see Brasca killing hundreds of people?” I asked.
“They were also all revived by the Guardian,” Nova pointed out. “And Brasca is now an ally to the defenders of Meliné, is he not?” I ignored his question.
“And you weren’t watching when Gamut attacked us either, right?” I snapped. He shook his head, looking guilty. “Why not? Was that not a major enough event in our planet’s history?”
“I’m…sorry,” Nova eventually said. He wasn’t looking at me any more, eyes firmly on the table between us. “At the time, I was…” He paused here, hesitating. “Well, never mind. I wasn’t paying attention to your planet at the time, but I am paying attention now.” He finally looked back up at me, imploringly. “Can you give a brief history of the events that I missed?”
“It isn’t going to help us now against Obra,” I pointed out. He shook his head.
“It might be more helpful than you think,” he said. I sighed.
“Okay, okay, where to start? Uh…I guess, how much do you know about Meliné?” I asked.
“She is a very young planet, only a few thousand years old, and there have only been Melusian humans for around a thousand years,” Nova said. “Up until recently around twenty percent of the population were Galvekians, but due to the fallout of Pinac’s attempted conquest they now only make up less than one percent of the population. Very recently a small number of Tracheophytes have also begun to live on the planet as well.”
“Right,” I prompted him to continue. I was starting to relax a bit from my earlier annoyance. His voice was oddly soothing.
“There are five main continents, and human civilizations developed on all five. There have, apparently, been wars between nations on the continents, as well as inter-continental wars,” he continued. I nodded.
“And one major global war between all five continents,” I pointed out. “Before Pinac we were a very divided world. After him and especially after Gamut we’re quite a bit less divided.”
“Can you tell me more about Pinac?” Nova asked. I shrugged.
“The whole thing happened right before I was born, so it’s not like I was there,” I said. “But, well, from what I know, Pinac was just a freakishly powerful Galvekian. Their whole race are genetically stronger than us Melusian humans, you know? They can harness the power of the sun, and they have better control over anim, too. And they’re just…built different. Pinac and his children were really powerful, so it was easy for them to conquer the world. Most Melusian humans couldn’t stand up to him. He conquered all five continents and put his children in charge of the world governments. Anybody that opposed him got killed. If he got even a whiff of rebellion, he and his children would wipe entire towns off of the map. He’s the reason so much of the main continent is mostly unsettled wilderness even today.”
“Wow,” was all Nova could say. I nodded.
“Yeah. Fortunately Oryz and his friends eventually came along and put a stop to it. He gathered up all the people he could find that were able to use anim or that were just really good at fighting, and they were able to fight their way through Pinac’s army. Oryz fought Pinac himself, and during the fight he somehow unlocked his Tracheophyte abilities. Up until then I guess he’d thought he was just a normal Melusian human. Everyone else had,” I said with a small laugh. Bel had told me, once, how much of a shock it had been to see the sweet, kind of dumb Oryz suddenly become a feral, powerful beast, and how easily Oryz had killed Pinac afterwards.
“And it was due to those abilities that Gamut noticed Meliné, or your solar system for that matter,” Nova said.
“That’s what I’ve been told,” I replied.
“And Gamut himself didn’t attack your planet for nearly two decades after that,” Nova replied.
“Eighteen years,” I corrected. He blinked. “I was born right after Pinac was killed, and I’d just turned eighteen when Gamut attacked us.”
“Yes, nearly two decades,” Nova replied. I sighed. Of course a three hundred year old being wouldn’t understand the significance of two years.
“Yeah, sure,” I begrudged.
“But first contact from outside your solar system occurred four years prior,” Nova prompted.
“Right. Gamut sent one of his generals to check out the planet first before he made the trip himself, I guess. That was Brasca and his cronies.” I frowned. “Brasca’s a Tracheophyte just like Oryz, and his cronies were all pretty strong. A lot of people died, and there was a lot of destruction.”
“I see,” Nova said.
“Oryz won in the end and defeated Brasca, but that definitely caught Gamut’s attention. He showed up four years later with all of his generals, but the defenders of Meliné managed to kill him and chase away his generals. That’s about the long and short of it,” I explained.
“What I don’t get is, how do you fit into all of it?” he asked. I snorted.
“I don’t,” I said. He looked confused. “Not really. Are you asking for my life story, Sir Nova? Are you really that interested in one weak Melusian human?”
“I am,” Nova replied. I lifted an eyebrow, but nodded.
“Okay then. I was around seven years old when I met Pykon,” I started. Evidently, that wasn’t at all what Nova had expected. He blinked, sitting up straighter. “My situation at home was bad, so I ran away at age seven to go live in the Wilds. I found Pykon in a cave living all by himself. We became friends and lived together in the cave for years. I didn’t find out until way later that he was one of Pinac’s children.” I could tell a fond smile was creeping up onto my face, remembering those days. “Then one day Oryz showed up out of nowhere and begged Pykon for his help. Oryz was gathering together anybody on Meliné that had enough anim to be able to stand a chance against Brasca and his cronies, who Oryz could apparently sense coming from space. Pykon agreed to help him, they went and fought against Brasca, and they were just barely able to win. Oryz and Brasca both died in the process.”
“Oh? I didn’t know that,” Nova interjected. I nodded.
“And well… surely you know how the guardian deity works, right? She’s a god like you, I think?” I asked.
“Well, yes.” Nova confirmed. “Sort of.”
“Then you know that she always revives people in the order they died. Well, with his dying breath, Brasca told us that Gamut would come to Meliné. And with his dying breath, Oryz begged Pykon to take care of his son, Zanni, and train him to be able to fight against Gamut’s forces. A lot of people died, so Oryz wasn’t sure that he would be revived quickly enough to help us fight against Gamut.”
“And so you trained with Pykon and Zanni,” Nova extrapolated. I nodded.
“We trained for four years,” I said. “Pykon is a really good teacher. I learned so much. Regular humans can’t fly or sense anim like I can, not without training. He helped me figure out how to do the healing spell, too. Zanni was so little, but he got so strong during those four years,” I said. “Stronger than even Pykon. He may only be a half breed, but Tracheos really are something else.”
“Did you end up fighting Gamut’s soldiers?” Nova asked. I nodded.
“I did what I could. I was more of a field nurse than anything, but I helped them hold the line until Oryz and Brasca came back to life. I never even got to see Gamut himself, but Pykon and Zanni did. They still don’t talk about it very much. But yeah, Team Meliné won that one and killed Gamut and a lot of his soldiers. Gamut’s generals retreated and regrouped and kept coming back for revenge, but Oryz had gotten too strong for them. I think it’s been about, oh, five years or so since I’ve heard about one of them making a run at Meliné.” I explained.
Nova was quiet for a while, taking in the new information.
“Zanni said that you stopped training with them?” he eventually asked.
“Well, yeah. I’m just a normal human. Pykon is one of Pinac’s children and Zanni is half Tracheophyte. Genetically they are much stronger than me; I can’t even get close to their levels. I’m sure sparring with me wasn’t even a little bit challenging for them,” I said.
“But you’re still so close?” Nova asked.
“I mean, I still go to, like, cookouts and birthday parties and stuff. I’m just kind of a…hermit, most of the rest of the time. I built a cabin out in that forest in the middle of nowhere because I was tired of constantly being under threat of destruction by one of Gamut’s generals or some other weirdos that want to take over or destroy the world. I’m not like Oryz and Brasca, they live for that shit.” I said. I had the sudden realization that I’d just said ‘shit’ in front of a god, but Nova didn’t seem to notice or care.
“And you didn’t just stay with Pykon?” Nova asked. I shook my head. “Why not?”
“Oh, come on,” I started my deflection, trying to sound casual. “You’re a god, Sir Nova, surely you don’t care that much about the interpersonal relationships between a couple of mortals on a planet you don’t pay that much attention to?” Nova frowned, looking a little bit put out. Deflection successful, but it might cost me this burgeoning…friendship, I guess, with this god. Did I need to apologize? Probably. I probably needed to apologize. He sighed, and that hesitant look from before was back on his face.
“I’ll admit I’ve been shirking my duties to Meliné for quite some time,” Nova said. Was he…pouting? Why was that cute? “To all of the planets under my care, actually. It’s just that it gets so boring. There will be such long stretches where nothing happens, and then all of a sudden huge events start happening while I’m not looking. It’s frustrating!” He was pouting. “You mortals can be so irritating sometimes!”
“...sorry?” I half apologized. He groaned.
“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean…” he trailed off. He looked miserable. “I’m one of the youngest gods here, and that means I got saddled with all of the duties that the older gods don’t want to do. It gets very…tedious.”
He pouted again. “At any rate, you dodged the question,” he said. I felt myself sweat a little. “So now I’m sure there actually is something important about Pykon that you’re hiding.”
“Are you sure you want to know? This isn’t boring to you?” I asked.
“This is the least bored I’ve been in a long time,” Nova answered, truthfully. “Certainly today.”
I sighed, heavily.
“Alright, fine. I… how do I explain this? Well, okay. For starters: humans, we have this…biological imperative to mate, you know, to have kids? And with that biological imperative, usually, there are romantic feelings. Well, Galvekians do not have the same kind of biological imperative. They don’t have to mate to have offspring. There are still male and female Galvekians, but they don’t mate and they don’t have romantic feelings. They don’t even inherently understand the concept of romantic feelings. They still have feelings, like they form parental bonds or friendships and stuff, but as far as romantic feelings or even sexual feelings? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Do you see where I’m going with this? Or do I have to spell it out?” I asked. Nova’s eyes were wide.
“Oh. You. So you had feelings for Pykon…?” he asked. I nodded, miserably. ‘Had.’ Hah.
“Totally one-sided. Nothing but platonic affection from that man. He… he tried, though. To make me happy, he tried to see if he could, like, defy his biology and grow feelings out of nowhere, or something. But, nope. He treats Zanni like a son, he treats Oryz like a brother, and he treats me like a…friend,” I lamented. My gaze dropped to the table between us. “I still love him, you know. So much,” I said in a quiet voice.
“And he’s…” Nova trailed off.
“I hope Obra killed him quickly. The guardian deity can bring him back, eventually, but she can only undo physical damage. What I experienced after only seeing Obra for maybe a second or two… if he’s doing that to Pykon or…or worse, I…” I swallowed. “I can’t even…”
Ah, damn, I was crying again. I quickly wiped the tears off of the surface of the book, hoping they wouldn’t stain it, and then set about getting myself to calm down. I didn’t even realize that Nova had stood or made his way around the table, but he was suddenly standing next to me.
“May I offer you comfort?” he asked. I rolled my eyes.
“Do you have to be so formal?” I asked. He cracked a smirk at that.
“Well, I’m the god here. You should be the one needing to be formal,” he pointed out. I laughed, even while I was still trying to wipe away the tears that just wouldn’t stop flowing.
“Can I just call you Nova, and can you just call me Aila from now on?” I asked.
“Sure,” he said. “Now, my question still stands: can I offer you some comfort?”
“Are you asking if it’s okay to hug me?” I asked. This time, he rolled his eyes.
“Fine. Aila, do you want a hug?” he asked. I couldn’t help the way I blushed when I heard him say just my name, no formalities. Ah, damn, it was too late for me.
“Please,” I said. He wrapped me up in his arms, surprisingly forcefully. I leaned my head against his collarbone, wrapping my arms around him. It was nice. It was so nice, even though I was still sitting and turned awkwardly in the chair. The man gave godly hugs, pun fully intended.
The tears dried up.
“We’ll find a way to defeat Obra. We have to,” Nova said. I didn’t know which of us he was trying harder to reassure.
We eventually did get back to research, turning up no results once again. We flew back to the house just in time for Master Shan to depart. Zanni looked both exhausted and thrilled at the same time during dinner, telling us about all of the training he’d done all day. I found myself looking around, partially to avoid having to watch Zanni inhale his food at record speed (gross), and partially because I was curious.
No guest room. Couches, though, and a big kitchen. Very few personal touches. No pets — did they even have animals here in this sacred realm? There had been spider webs in the library, so they must have some animals, right? Maybe I’d ask about that, during one of our breaks from all the reading. Other than Master Shan, I hadn’t seen any other people, even when we were flying across the countryside to the library. I’d seen a lot of ruins, though.
This was a world that was living post-apocalypse. Obra had been the apocalypse, and now, thousands of years later, they still hadn’t recovered. There weren’t enough people to run this place properly.