Amalia Dillin - Forged by Fate

He let go and rose. “Sleep, Eve. Think about what I’ve told you. What I’m offering.”

He leaned against the wall of the cave, near the mouth, his back to her. When he stayed there, she crawled away into the dark. Where he would not see her to touch her. Where he would not see her to pull her close. Where she could close her eyes without seeing through his.

A hand on her shoulder, warm and rough, startled her awake. Sleep felt so much like the peace before she had come into being that she choked back a sound of pain upon waking from it. Her eyes burned and what little she could see blurred. She rubbed her face, and her hand came away damp.

“Forgive me.” The hand fell away. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.” It was a man’s voice, but lower than Adam’s.

Fear. Was that what it was when her heart beat so heavily against her chest? What she had felt when Adam pulled her close and wouldn’t let her go? She sat up and searched for his face in the dark. The whites of his eyes were just barely visible.

She reached to touch him, this man who wasn’t Adam, to feel where he was. “Who are you?”

“Reu.” He caught her hand and brought it to his face. His hair was damp, and his touch was light, soft. She wished she could see his eyes. “Are you well?”

He was right beside her. Closer than she had realized. But now she knew where to look, she could almost see him there, kneeling. “Should I not be?”

“He hurt you,” he said, quiet still. There were others speaking, their voices low, barely audible above the noise of the rain. “I heard you cry out.”

She pulled her hand back and it slipped from his. He didn’t tighten his hold like Adam had. Just let go. “Where is he?”

Even his eyes disappeared in the shadows when he moved. “He went to his chambers. You’re safe for now. Until morning. He wasn’t pleased you crawled away.”

“He told me to sleep.”

He sighed and she saw his eyes again, flashing in the dark. “You have to be careful, Eve. You shouldn’t upset him.”

She pulled her knees up to her chest, searching for his face. “What happened to that other man? The one with the gray hair.”

“Elohim.” His voice hollowed, making her chest tighten strangely. “He gave the last of His strength to you. To bring you to life from the dust and make you immortal, like Adam.”

“I don’t understand.” They kept telling her these things, but it felt like it was only pieces of the whole. She wasn’t sure what any of it meant. What it meant to her. For her life. What it meant even to live. “Adam said I was made as his companion.”

“Adam is blinded by pride. Spoiled by God’s indulgence. You were made to live. Not to be his slave, used and abused for his pleasure. None of us were.” He spoke the way Adam had, when he had told her he lacked the power he desired. Anger, she thought.

But even naming it made her uneasy. Anger wasn’t something she should know so soon. And fear. Why would the voice have brought her here, torn her from the peace she had known? She could not shake the feeling of wrongness, so thick in the air.

“The other things that were made,” she asked, because Adam had said it was not only her he owned, “what about them?”

“Adam believes we are all his to grind back into the dust. But Elohim never meant for things to be this way. That’s why He made you. We’re meant to be free, Eve. To love and to laugh. To be unafraid.”

She closed her eyes. It wasn’t that much darker than the cave, but it was more comfortable. Choosing not to see, rather than being unable to do so. Her eyes ached from trying to find the shape of this man in the shadow.

“I don’t understand.” Nothing made sense. Not the things Adam said, or the things this Reu told her, or the things Adam didn’t say. None of it seemed to fit together. Adam said the confusion would pass, but it hadn’t. It was getting even more twisted and her head felt slow and thick. “I don’t understand any of this. Am I supposed to? Was I made wrong, that I don’t understand?”

“No.” She felt his hand on hers, warm and dry, but gentle. Adam had touched her gently, too, at first. But it hadn’t lasted even this long. “Forgive me, Eve. It’s easy to forget how difficult it is in the beginning. How hard it is to understand everything that’s happening before you even have the words to describe the sky. And it’s been a long time for me. Several moons. I should have waited to speak with you, but I didn’t know when I would have another chance. Adam will keep you close. He’s made that clear.”

She only really understood the last part, and something inside her twisted. “He says that I’m his.”

“You’re not.” And she heard the anger in his voice again, and a new hardness. “You don’t belong to anyone, Eve. Least of all him. Don’t let him tell you otherwise. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

She shook her head. “How can you be so certain?”

“I was second made. Sometimes, Elohim even asked me to walk with Him.” From his voice, she thought this was important, but she didn’t know why. “At the end, He spoke with me more often. Before you were made. He said that you would be cast in His image, as Adam had been, but He meant to give you His Grace as well.”

Grace. The word tugged at something inside her, something from before, when she had floated through the void, but she could not grasp it. “Perhaps in time, this will all make more sense to me.”

He sighed softly, his hand tightening around hers. Then he let go. She missed the warmth when it was gone, and even the pressure of his fingers. When he touched her, it didn’t hurt. She just felt… calmed.

“I hope it will.” She heard him stand, a darker shadow in the black. “Rest. It will be easier in the morning. I promise.”

She curled back up against the earth, and closed her eyes. But in the dark, she saw the warm brown gaze of the man who had carried Elohim’s body out into the rain. A man very unlike Adam.

Thor took his time returning from the east, knowing he could not avoid stopping in Egypt. Word of the Hebrew exodus had reached him even on his travels, and he had not been much surprised to hear they had been led out by a man who had once been a prince named Moses. The baby he had saved.

But Ra grinned when they met at last, clasping hands with him. “It is good to see you again, my friend. Very good. How was your trip?”

“I was received warmly.” Thor returned the older god’s smile. Either Ra did not suspect his part, or did not care, and Thor was surprised how happy it made him to know they could continue in friendship. “Word of my coming had reached Bhagavan-Shiva ahead of me. He said you had promised me safe conduct and I was to consider myself his most honored guest as your friend.”

Ra nodded. “Some wine to rinse the dust from your throat?”

“I would be most grateful.” Thor went to the window, which looked out on the river, and ran a hand over his face. Egypt did not seem to have suffered much for the loss of its slaves. The temples still shone with gold, silver, and jewels.

A servant appeared at his elbow, offering a cup of wine with a bow, and Thor accepted it. This throne room was part of Pharaoh’s own, a back room known only to those who served Ra and to Pharaoh himself. Every whisper of request was attended to almost immediately, the servants anxious to please their god.

“And how did you find the company of the Olympians? I imagine Zeus was quite interested in you, as similar as your strengths are.”