To Be Chosen By A God

Chapter 7

                “Chelsea!  We will speak of this later, Luther.”  Micah closed the communication as he rushed to Chelsea’s side.  He lifted her in his arms and shifted them both to their bedroom.  He laid her down and felt her forehead.  She was burning up.  “What happened, Chelsea?  Did you cut yourself and tend to it yourself?  Why are you fevered?”

                She was still conscious and stared at him weakly.  “It was sudden.  I was fine one step and like this the next.  I haven’t cut myself.”

                “I’m going to try to heal you.  I need you to forgive me though, because I will have to kiss you and you will have to kiss me back for this to work.  We aren’t ready for kissing yet and I hate to rush you.”

                She lifted her hand to his face as she looked up at him.  “I forgive you.”  She whispered.  He leaned down and began kissing her.  Her lips were weak against his as she tried to follow his movements.  When he opened his mouth, she opened hers.  He stroked her tongue with his own but she was now too weak to respond and her hand fell down to her side.  Concerned, he began kissing and sucking on her neck to increase the intimacy, but she had become unconscious.  He was beginning to panic.  There was no reason she should continue to be ill.  A pair of tears began to leak from his eyes.  If he couldn’t figure out what was wrong, there was a good chance she could die.

                “What has happened, my son?”  A female voice rang out.

                “Mother?  What are you doing here?”  Micah asked, turning around to see Varia, his mother and a goddess of healing.  He had learned how to heal most things with plants from her and had learned that he had a small ability with healing and how to utilize it as he still walked the earth acquiring followers.  She was a beautiful woman, her dark hair was worn long and loose, cascading over her dark skin.

                “There was a strong pull from disease that centered here in your Haven.  I was concerned for you.”

                “It’s Chelsea.  She’s become sick and I don’t know what to do.”  He confessed.

                “Move away and let me see her.”  She commanded.  He moved away from the bed and Varia placed a hand on Chelsea’s head and another over her stomach.  After a few minutes, her color improved.

                Her eyes fluttered open.  “Micah?”  She whispered.

                He was at her side in an instant.  He held one of her hands.  “I’m right here.”

                “I’m a diversion.  Go.”  It was all she could get out before she passed back out.  Micah was worried at the sudden unconsciousness.

                “She’s fine.  She shouldn’t have woken up just yet so she must have used what energy she had left to give you that message.  I would heed it were I you.  She is in good hands now.  Had you not done what you could, she would be dead already.  Check your lands.  If she is right and Luther has infected her as a diversion against you, than he will be making his move.”

                Micah let out a sigh, nodded and Stepped, bending space so that he was back in the attic with the step.  He focused his search in the lands that bordered Luther’s.  It was a few hours of searching, but he finally found it.

                A man carrying plague, and riding a horse hard was heading in the direction of the Village of Rania.  He quickly contacted his priestess there, a fiery natured woman by the name of Daphne.  He enjoyed her wit and their communication was often enjoyable and entertaining.  She was in the middle of sweeping his temple when he called to her.

                “Micah?  You sound ….worried?  Anxious?  What’s wrong?”  She asked aloud.  She usually responded in her mind, but his emotions coming through were so strong that she asked aloud instead.

                “Luther is attacking your village.  He is sending a man carrying plague.”  She listened as he described the man and the direction he was coming from and that she was to have this man killed at a distance and the corpse and horse were to be burned away from the village and away from any sources of water.  He released the communication and she sprang into action.  Border towns like Rania were used to attacks from demons and sometimes neighboring gods’ territories.  Towns in the interior like Chelsea’s Village of Tirag rarely saw demons and even though the mountains nearby would offer excellent nesting grounds for dragons, they knew better than to nest there.  As a god of war, Micah knew tactics and strategy and the making of war machines.  He chose not to use them to take over any more gods’ territories, but did use them in the hunting and eradication of any such creatures that ventured into his lands.  Most towns had ballista in the event that a dragon should appear and the best demon hunters were followers of Micah. 

                He watched as defenders were gathered and the plague carrier hunted down and then burned.  The men knew the drill and after handling the body, went into separate quarantine houses to ensure that they did not catch the plague from the corpses of either the man or the horse.  He contacted Daphne again to let her know everything had gone well and scoured the land again to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.  He couldn’t find anything else.  Luther’s ploy could have worked if he had continued to be distracted.  It was just small enough that it could have easily gotten through his defense if he hadn’t been on the alert because of Chelsea’s warning.  He should have seen it, but his care for her had outweighed his battle sense and Luther had expected it.

                When he was sure he could leave his workspace, he Stepped into his bedroom.  His mother was still sitting next to Chelsea.

                “She is healed.  She will rest for many days, but she is healed.  Luther really hates you or he would not have gone after your charge.”

                “Charges, consorts, concubines; they are all supposed to be safe from our machinations against each other.”  His voice was rising in anger.

                “It’s an unwritten rule between us all.  While his actions are deplorable against your beloved, the unfortunate truth of the matter is that we cannot bring him before the others because of this.”  She looked down at Chelsea.  “She really is quite lovely.  It’s about time you finally chose a new companion.  How are things going with her?”

                “They started rockier than normal but they were going great.”

                “Are going great, son.  She is still here and she will be fine.  I swear it.”

                “I’m sorry, Mother.  I’m sorry Chelsea.”  He looked down at her prone form.  When he looked back at Varia, his eyes were filled with unshed tears.  “I love her.  I’ve loved her for years and only began the search for a new bride because she was old enough.  Her priest Darius pointed her out to me as the one that left me flowers every day.  Her devotion to me was so pure.  No one told her to do it.  No one told her how to worship me, she just did.  I didn’t intend to, but I made her fear me and it crushed me.  Things have finally been going good.  She held my hand.”  He grinned like an i***t and his mother chuckled.

                “Come and tell me of her as you show me around.  I haven’t been here since I helped you create the place.  It’s certainly grown since then!”

                “I’ll have Margaret stay with her.  She should have someone with her in case she has a nightmare.”  Varia understood.  She had loved many men in her time.  She had loved Micah until it was time to send him to gather his own following.  She hated having to kick him out of her Haven, but it was that or see him grow old and die because he couldn’t get a following.  Of all the children conceived by gods, he was the only one who had survived and had even thrived.  By an unspoken agreement, they had all agreed to never again conceive children.  It had been too painful to see them die and no one would yield any of their territories just to ensure the child had a chance at life.  No one wanted to risk that the new god or goddess would become more popular with the people and edge them out.

                Varia knew love and loss and that her son faced losing his beloved so soon after finding her was frightening.  She would bring this up to the others.  They would know that even their own beloveds were not safe from Luther.  He would find it hard to maneuver and deal for some time if she had anything to say about it.

                Micah Stepped from the room and soon Stepped back in with Margaret in tow.  Micah had filled her in on the situation so gave a quick curtsy to Varia and began seeing to Chelsea.  When the two gods left the room, Margaret stripped Chelsea, cleansed her body of the sweat the fever caused, changed the sheets, and dressed her in a clean nightgown.  She stayed with her until Micah returned.

                “I need to do something else and then you can go back home, Margaret.”

                “Anything you need, Micah.  You know that.  Take as much time as you need.”  He gave a small smile and Stepped back into his work room.  Darius had given him a warning prayer that Chelsea’s family was on their way to the temple and now that Chelsea wouldn’t be able to watch it with him, he would record it on a crystal for her to watch when she recovered.

                He arrived back in the bedroom with the crystal in his hand and as he set it on her dresser, Margaret patted his arm companionably and left him alone with Chelsea.  It was now usually the time they sat together.  He knew she usually didn’t eat lunch until after she had served him his and he realized it was still up in his work room untouched.  She would need something in her stomach or she would begin losing vitality.  He kissed her forehead and made a few stops.  He went to the attic and removed the broken pitcher from the floor.  The glass could be melted down again and reformed by the artisan in one of the Haven villages.  He set the glass aside to be addressed later.  Lunch was cold but could easily be warmed up so he used some of his power to send it to the bedroom to await him there.  Last he went to the kitchen to find something to sustain Chelsea.  He decided on some milk and some chicken that he cooked and shredded with his power so that it would be small enough to digest.  He would keep her meals small so that there wouldn’t be any issues with her being unable to gain the necessary nutrients from the food.  He would make vegetables and fruits into a mash like one feeds an infant in the future.  While he could make food from nothing, using what was already there and only using his power to cook or shape it used much less energy and is what he preferred to do.

                He Stepped back into the bedroom with a lap tray for himself and the food for Chelsea.  He heated his own food first and ate, allowing the chicken to cool.  After that, he transferred some of the milk and shredded chicken into her stomach.  He waited a while to see how she would react to the sudden food, and when it was a positive reaction, he added a little more.  He fed her bite sized amounts in this way to simulate her feeding herself.  When he was satisfied that she had enough, he checked her bladder and bowels, removing any waste he sensed in there and sending it to the sewer system.  This was something he would do for her again when she was old, frail, and at the end of her life.  She would be embarrassed at first, he knew, but she would understand the necessity for it.  When he was done seeing to her human needs, he sent the dishes down to the kitchen already clean and back in their places.  While he had been in the kitchen, he had seen that Margaret had tidied up, putting things in stasis fields for later.  He wondered what she was going to do with that batch of dough.  She had already made bread and various sweets, so didn’t understand why there would be another batch.  He shrugged the thoughts away as he got dressed for bed.

                He got into bed and pulled her onto his lap, holding her close and thinking about how close to losing her he had been.  He saw that her eyes began moving back and forth beneath her eye lids so knew she was having a dream.  He closed his eyes and entered her dream.  He had questions for her and needed to let her know she was safe as well.