Chapter 12 #3
Torin takes a deep breath and rubs his face.
“A Door opened up… and a man came through, much like the one who has tried to come to your world. He was not alone; he brought these monsters… these… ‘soldiers’ that could inflict death upon any they touched. It was like a disease that would tear through them. While he brought an army of ten thousand, I had an army of thirty thousand. And even though we killed every single one of them, they’d already infected the land.
It was like a miasma that spread, ripping through every single one of my people even after the Door was closed.
One minute we were celebrating the success of our war and the next we were digging mass graves.
My soldiers were dying by the hundreds… and then the thousands.
I kept them away from the villagers, but it was as though the miasma ate through the land just to reach them.
“The healers could do nothing. This was unlike anything they’d seen before.
We’d closed the Door. I’d killed the god slayer and none of his subjects remained, so how could the sickness still descend upon everyone?
I was a god, therefore many assumed I could save them, but I’m a god of war.
I had killed every being who had tried to destroy them for hundreds of years, but I couldn’t kill this one because there was no enemy left… just death.”
Torin hangs his head. “I thought they’d give up on me.
I thought they’d curse me for not being able to save them, but even in the end, they still loved me.
And I loved each and every one of them. It went from hundreds of thousands…
to thousands… to hundreds. And still… nothing could be done to stop it.
It was only a matter of weeks before everyone who’d lived through the war that’d already taken tens of thousands was gone. ”
I stare at him as what he’s saying sinks in.
“You’re not just… you’re not just talking about this town, are you?
Everyone in this world is dead.” The idea of such a tragedy never occurred to me.
I never imagined they’d all be gone. That the only one left in this mystifying realm would be the god who was left behind.
How devastating.
“They are,” he says. “Every single one of them. Human life is really so fragile. All my life, they’ve come and gone in the blink of an eye… but not like this. There were always people to fill the holes that were left behind, but not this time.”
“It killed the animals too?” I ask.
“No… but my world is not like yours, Riley. I found this world when it was nothing but a struggling land run by a god who was devouring it for his own strength. He had driven it to ruin, so I scraped together what I could and slowly gained the trust of the people. My power doesn’t come from me; it comes from the belief my followers have in me.
The grass, the trees, and the plants were all brought back to life by my magic which was given to me by those who believed in me.
It allowed me to kill the god who had ravished their lands and rebuild it into this.
So once they died, I lost all of that. The trees began to die and the grass began to wither.
There was nothing left for the animals to eat and they started to die.
Some could survive here in my palace with me, but it was like I’d been forsaken because they never had any offspring and died of old age. ”
“Is that what happened to your mount?”
“No. My mount is brought to life by my magic, never aging… I used what little magic I had to keep him alive. He stayed with me until recently, when my magic finally began to diminish for good.”
Torin’s fists clench and unclench before he says quietly, “Quill and I spent years roaming the land looking for a single survivor… but nothing remained in this hell except me.”
My chest tightens as I think about how heartbreaking that must have been.
To watch everyone you loved and cared for die…
and then being forced to live without them…
and for how long? The buildings were quite dilapidated.
Did the Door do that to them like it did to that building I ended up demolishing, or…
“How… how long ago did this happen?”
“One hundred and ninety-eight years ago,” he says.
“You’ve been alone for nearly two hundred years?” I ask, unable to comprehend how devastating that would be.
He picks up a book before slowly looking up at me. “I have. And of all the nice people in the world I could get stuck with, I get stuck with you.”
“Why the hell would you come back here? You said there was a possibility the Door could close. Why would you risk that and come back? What if you were stuck alone?”
“Because there’s a chance that I could keep you alive if I did,” he says.
I stare at him in disbelief. “How are you not a cynical asshole? I would have been driven to the brink after five years, let alone hundreds.”
Torin flips through the book, and I’m honestly not sure if he’s going to answer me. “Maybe I am, but you’re just as cynical, which is why you haven’t realized it,” he teases.
I raise an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure that’s not true. The part about you, not me. I’m more than happy to embrace my cynical side.”
He just smiles. “Nah, there’s something good about you for some reason.”
“For some reason? Why didn’t you make a Door sooner?”
“I had such limited magic…” Torin says vaguely. He falls quiet again and I feel guilty for even asking him about all of this… for making him think about something so horrible from his past.
“I’m so sorry you went through that. I can’t imagine how awful it’s been for you. Do you think… like if more people believe in you… do you think you can bring your mount back? You seem to really love him.”
“I don’t know. How do you become beloved in your world?”
“Uh… we could put you on TV and you could just like smile at people or something. Idols can get an almost cultlike following. We could shoot for that. Do you have any talents?”
“I can make every person I sleep with climax with just a touch.”
“Oh yes, let’s highlight that for sure,” I say with much sarcasm. Then I hesitate. “Does this mean the god of love hasn’t gotten laid in nearly two hundred years?”
“I turned down a succubus for you,” he tells me with a grave expression.
“You could have fucked her and looked for books at the same time!”
Torin leans against the bookshelf and watches me with unreadable eyes. I really don’t know what to make of them, so I decide that a joke is in order.
“You’d have been so fast. You’d have finished in seconds after being pent up for so long.”
His lips quirk up. “Is that a bet? Are you offering?”
“You should have taken Ms. Percy’s offer,” I say as I reach out to a book.
“Torin… you’re never going to be alone again, you realize that, right?
I get too much joy out of being mean to you.
We’ll find a place for you in my world. Although…
you sure as shit aren’t going to have a palace like this.
The best I can do for you at the moment is maybe a moving box you could chill in, but you won’t be alone. I’ll get you a kitten or something.”
“I would live in a box for you.”
I can’t imagine how much willpower it took him to force his way through that Door and return here to find a book that might or might not even help me. To leave behind people he’s so desperately yearned for and to come back here where there was no one waiting for him.
“I’m going to help you bring your mount back, okay? It’s not much… but I think I can at least do that. And then you’re never going to be alone again, got it?”
Torin smiles at me. “You try really hard to be evil but deep down, you’re far too nice.”
“I am evil, thank you very much. Now stop slacking off or we’re riding the subway the second we get back.”
“Yes, sir,” he says, returning his attention to his book.
I scowl at him as I wonder why him calling me “sir” made me a little bit horny.