Chapter 28 Adaela
Earth
We portaled over to Cennet and Cehennem in Turkey with a small army.
We weren’t taking any chances. Our troops, over the last year, had been working together as one faction to concentrate on their skills together rather than what they were used to—fighting separately within their own factions.
While it made me a little sad that we were at the point where we needed battle skills at the ready again, it was humbling that our teams, despite not knowing who the culprit was and growing disquiet from our city’s inhabitants, trusted us and this new life enough to fight for it.
Vada and I were brought up to speed by the troops and the rest of the Pax about how bad it had gotten in St. Louis.
Its inhabitants were rightfully fearful and pissed off.
Skirmishes between different factions were happening daily, while accusations of complicity were being thrown at the heads of every faction, including Vada and myself.
We were accused of abandoning ship when things got hard, and honestly, I couldn’t fault anyone for that. I was sure it felt that way.
We spent an inordinate amount of time learning how to be more transparent.
The Pax focused on listening to its constituents, but the rumors and anger kept growing.
And why wouldn’t it? Our people had been promised a society that would remain peaceful and would provide everything necessary for their survival.
If we got through this, it would be a lesson on what we could’ve done better.
Everyone deserved to know they were safe, and they deserved to be heard.
The heads of the Pax were no more powerful than the next person, but we often realized that those who had a wealth of knowledge didn’t want to lead.
They learned early on that they could advise us.
And they were vocal about adjustments that would benefit the whole.
I laughed to myself as I remembered the early days.
It was about learning to live without ego, and when we were beings who were sometimes thousands of years old, that could be difficult.
We had to learn conflict resolution, to set our own expectations to the side, and to learn which solutions worked best for everybody.
That often went against our own perceptions of safety.
Our first instinct was to be reactionary, but we’d learned, over time, to focus on what was being said rather than how it was being said.
While we didn’t always agree with our constituents, we often were able to take their concerns, which were typically opposite of one another, and find solutions to them.
It was about getting to the heart of the issue.
Typically, those issues were the same, but often feelings got in the way of logic.
I would know, I was a feeler through and through.
It was my first instinct rather than to look at the problem from a more logical lens.
To say the Catervae Pax was perfect would be far from the truth.
I doubted anything would ever be perfect, but we could get as close to it as possible.
When you were as old as many of us were, we had to learn how to live with the new technology.
But our basic social contract never changed.
People would have what they needed to survive, and money and wealth disparities would never exist. We didn’t have the time or patience for that sort of power trip.
We already had to deal with magical beings who could easily attack what we’d created if they chose to do so.
We had Gods and Goddesses who did have the ability to create and destroy worlds—many of whom were deities worshiped by humans at one point in their history or another. Many were still worshipped.
It was a sign of trust and compassion that Vada and I had anything to come home to. The anger was justified. I was angry, too. But I believed that our constituents were pointing their fingers in the wrong direction, and I was thankful to now have a lead.
Due to the time differences between Turkey and St. Louis, we’d gotten there around midafternoon.
The sun was close to setting, and the Cennet cave’s entrance was glowing in the last rays of light.
The Cennet and Cehennem caves were a major tourist destination in today’s time, but it once was the home to the father of all Cryptids.
Typhon had lost his battle against Zeus, and the Cehennem cave was his prison for a time.
At one point, the Cennet cave was turned into a church, where they worshipped the Virgin Mary.
This area of Turkey was known for its rich history with multiple religions.
It was stunning. A wealth of history attracted all sorts of beings here.
Water sources, natural cave systems, and a climate that changed with the seasons helped this area thrive.
Vada was quiet as she took in the area. She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath, exhaling the stress from her entire being.
She did a full circle, and as she turned back toward me, a tear ran down her cheek.
She noticed me watching her, and she smiled shakily, quickly turning away to wipe her eyes.
I started to walk toward her to console her, since she rarely showed emotion, especially in public areas, but then I took in the surroundings around me, too.
I could only imagine the thoughts running through her head.
These were her home lands, and they were sacred.
She probably never believed she’d ever step foot here again, and I could only imagine how overwhelming this was for her.
I’d wanted to rush over to her and protect her from herself and the emotions she was bombarded with, but what I’d learned over the last few weeks was that Vada needed space and time to process her emotions.
She had thought about this place for many years, and the presence of the Heaven and Hell caves were a perfect juxtaposition for the reality that was her life.
Created by Hashem to live on Earth, made with free will, but as a perfect match to Adam, had to be overwhelming as fuck.
This very space held significance for Vada, too.
I watched her for a few more moments as she walked away from the group, guessing she was taking in the parts of the area that looked similar, if not the same as they did when she lived on these lands.
I wondered what was going on in that head of hers, and my curiosity nearly took me to her to check in, but Aibell came to my side right at that moment.
The troops were ready to game plan, and I needed to focus.
If Typhon was here as we had believed, it was possible that we were in more danger than we knew.
The air was tense with anticipation as the beings all around me geared up for war.
Ma’at and Athena, two of the greatest warrior Goddesses, were both fighting for a better life for all beings.
They weren’t new to this. Aibell touched my shoulder, and I realized she’d been talking to me, but I hadn’t heard a word.
I distractedly told her I’d be right back before I made my way over to talk with Ma’at.
“Hey, friend. It’s been a while. How’s it going?” I asked. I nodded my hello to Athena.
“It’s going,” Ma’at said. “I’m ready to get this over with. It’s gone on for too long. I remember Typhon from back in the day.”
“Were you witness to any of his destruction?” I asked.
She shifted her stance, rocking back on the balls of her feet. “It was so long ago, I couldn’t tell you for sure. We’re talking pre-Socratic era. I do remember what he looked like. You can never forget it.”
I thought back to seeing him in the Cryptid Realm. “Was he like the stories suggested?”
Athena, helping Ma’at tie her vambraces, glanced up from the ties.
We were talking about her Uncle, for better or worse, and I wondered why she was being so quiet.
Ma’at nodded in thanks before continuing our conversation.
“They did not exaggerate. He was born of Cronus’s imagination.
I suspect that Pandora’s Box was what held him all these years. ”
I cursed under my breath, my heart picking up in fear.
I hadn’t genuinely felt fear in a very long time, and I had to sit with my thoughts for a bit.
Typhon was a storm god, said to appear with two legs that were made from snake’s tails, and a humanoid torso, but from his shoulders grew snake heads that varied in amounts depending on which retelling you read.
It was somewhere between fifty to one hundred.
These snake heads blew fire, and not only that, they screamed.
Apparently, the language was only one the Gods could understand.
Anyone else would hear every noise imaginable.
The noise was deafening and designed to incapacitate anyone who wasn’t a God.
In addition to the snake heads, Typhon had wings, and was so tall that he could reach the stars.
He was considered even larger than giants of old, including Cronus.
His fingers were also snakes. In short, he was terrifying.
But what reassured me was that we had Gods on our side, and many of them.
And that he’d been defeated before. Granted, it was Zeus who defeated him, and he certainly wasn’t keen on the Pax.
He no longer wanted anything to do with Earth.
After Nietzsche’s famous quote about how God was dead, I think Zeus realized that those who worshipped him were well and truly against him, and he washed his hands of this plane.
“So do we just, what? Waltz on into this cave as if we’re not fearful of this guy?” I said, exasperated.
Ma’at smiled devilishly. “I haven’t had the opportunity to flex my powers in a long fucking time. Yes, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”