Thief of Time

After interacting with quite a few divinities, the fact that the Indigo God liked to bake cakes, sleep and just laze around like any other person was a lot easier to accept.

“Well, what do you expect us to do?” the Indigo God asked. “We live for literally forever. There’s not a lot to do, since our existence itself is more important than our actions at times. Might as well just sleep, read books and bake cakes.”

Lily cut off a tiny bit of cake, and then said, “True. And you bake a mean cake.”

“Thank you, little friend.” The Indigo God chuckled. “I am glad you like it.”

“Still, if you’re not interested in all this, what’s the point of having a Bearer of Destiny?” Claud asked. “I mean, the Red God’s Bearer of Destiny died, so the Red God was forced to descend and do a bunch of stuff.”

“Well, you just need to learn from Medea,” the Indigo God replied. “Uh, the Violet Goddess. The Eighth Bearer of Destiny was her Bearer, so she decided to just bunk in with me and help me take care of my duties while I laze around.”

“…What.” The Black God rubbed his head. “You serious?”

“As serious as my cakes, that’s for sure.” The Indigo God folded his arms. “But little old Reddie was a prick, so no one wanted to shelter him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have needed to descend at all, right? Or he could have just torn away his own divinity instead. That way, he could still live.”

“Oh, I bet you’re just waiting for the right chance to toss that away.”

“Yeah. Being one of the rulers of time is nothing when there’s literally nothing to rule over anyway,” the Indigo God replied. “Origo, want more cake? I baked three more by accident today.”

“How do you bake three more cakes by accident?” the Black God asked. “Also, thanks. I’d love some.”

“Coming right up.”

“Hey, I’ll like one too,” said a soft voice.

“Oh, Medea.” The Indigo God bobbed her head. “Little friends of Origo, this here is the Violet Goddess, who has recently shacked up with me to take over part of my duties ever since the Eighth Bearer of Destiny died. I am profoundly grateful to the person who took over the things I didn’t want to care about, which gives me more sleeping, reading and baking time.”

The woman, who looked very similar to the Indigo God in terms of colour scheme, nodded. “Mortal friends?”

The Black God bobbed his head. “Indeed. I owe them a huge favour, and they did have questions for Jurias, so hmm.”

“We should get around to that before we all sink into a food coma, though,” the Indigo God muttered, before walking back to the table. The room had shifted at some point in time, and the table that once fitted the four of them snugly could now hold the Violet Goddess easily too.

“Mhm. Claud?”

Claud took out the book that had been passed down to him.

“Hmm?” The Indigo God leaned forward. “This book…can I examine it closer?”

“That’s what we’re here for, in a sense,” the Black God replied. “Go on.”

The Indigo God let out a few noises as he examined the book from cover to cover, and the air began to thicken. Power seemed to radiate out of the Indigo God, and Claud found his breath faltering rapidly.

“Claud?” Lily held him. “What’s wrong?”

Her features were hard to make out for some reason, and his body felt like it was burning up from the inside. Simply drawing breath was no different from pouring hot water down his nose, and his vision began to turn red.

“He’s reacting to…”

“Shelter… from it first.”

“…divinity!”

Scraps and fragments of sentences flowed into his ear, but Claud couldn’t find it in himself to make too much sense of them. The feeling of being weighed down intensified with every painful, sharp breath, and a deathly chill surrounded his skin.

Something like a thunderclap exploded in his ears, and the red-white fog that had filled his vision vanished. The agony receded a moment later, leaving behind a vast expanse of fatigue, and Claud regained his senses once more.

“Wh…at happened?” Claud looked around, and then realised that he was in Lily’s embrace. “It suddenly got really painful and everything.”

“My apologies.” The Indigo God pointed at the book. “It started the moment I tried to undo the seals on this book. You seem to be intricately connected to the time bound in this artefact. When I tried to undo it, you started to fall apart. There is no way for me to unravel this.”

“…Better than dying, I suppose.” Claud rubbed his head slowly. He had managed to shut out most of the sensations that had been plaguing him thus far, but now, they had returned in full force. Simply drawing breath was now a tiring enterprise, and Claud was certain that his face was just slightly paler than paper.

“What’s wrong with you?” the Black God asked. “I never asked, but you weren’t in a good state to begin with, were you?’

“His lifeforce is hollowed out,” Lily replied.

“Nothing much to worry about.” Claud forced himself to get up. “Sorry for the scare. So the book cannot be unravelled?”

“My apologies, but it’s impossible,” the Indigo God replied. “It’s intriguing, though. I’ve read through the fragments of time that shroud this artefact, and this thing is positively ancient.”

“Coming from you, that’s a lot,” the Black God muttered.

“Right? We’re all ancient fellows, by any stretch of the imagination,” the Violet Goddess muttered. “And this thing is ancient in your point of view?”

“Indeed. It’s old. But not in the conventional sense, I think.” The Indigo God paused. “It’s hard to phrase it, but this book seems to have travelled through time, if that’s even possible. The chronological stresses on this book dates it at around eight billion years or something, far predating the primordial era or the creation of Destiny itself.”

Claud couldn’t help but note that the name of this world was apparently common knowledge to the gods, but he wasn’t going to say anything just yet. Lily, who was still a tiny bit anxious, glanced at him once, and then blinked thrice.

Nodding slightly, Claud turned his attention back to the conversation.

“…possible. I know the origins of this book,” the Black God was saying. “This can’t be that old.”

“Yeah, but…there are things that I have never been able to figure out either, so it’s possible,” the Indigo God replied. “For instance, the creation of a new world should have created feedback so strong that I can sense it vividly across time, but I’ve been sound asleep.”

“Isn’t that the actual cause of the problem?” the Black God asked.

“I may be a heavy sleeper, but there’s no way I won’t be alerted by a change of that magnitude. I’m not sure what is going on, but either the time of creation is so far ahead that I cannot sense it, or the Cosmic Egg never hatched.”

Claud didn’t like the sound of that.

To his distress, however, the three of them turned back to the mysterious book. None of them seemed capable of reading it, even though the first page had been unravelled in Claud’s eyes, but at this point of time, Claud was already certain that the him that created this book had created a whole bunch of safeguards to prevent anyone that was not him or Lily from reading it.

After checking it a few more times and probing it with methods that neither Claud nor Lily could comprehend, the three gods gave up and passed the book back to Claud.

“Don’t let anyone touch that book,” the Indigo God warned. “It’s too closely linked to you to give out to anyone else, you hear?”

“I’ll bury it in some really hard to find place,” Claud replied. “Also, the cake’s doing a pretty good job in making me feel better. You bake a mean cake.”

“Oh, that’s catching on now?”

Everyone laughed, and Claud kept the book near his chest. If it was indestructible, the first place it should go would either be his chest or Lily’s, since it could probably protect their lives from a fatal stab or something.

“So, did you have something else you want to ask, little friends?” the Indigo God asked.

“Well…” Claud glanced at Lily, who nodded back. “I actually wanted to ask about the notion of time. Can you explain how time works and things like that?”

“Me?” the Indigo God paused. “Well. This is going to need some more cake and tea, then. Please hang on for a moment while I prepare the refreshments. Do you two want more cake too?”

The Black God and the Violet Goddess nodded together, and the Indigo God rubbed his hands. “Excellent. I’ll go bake a chocolate lava cake. I mastered it not too long ago, and I’ve been hoping for feedback.”

“Nice.”