Editing Desirebro's Tale (section)

==Part 2==

I followed after Qorg, and we journeyed far south. Here, the gods we served had different names than the one’s we were accustomed to, but the God of War was still the God of War. We chased after rumors of the Queen of Archers, and I learned the useful trick of shifting a person’s desire to not be killed by Qorg into the desire to tell him everything they knew. It was still many months before we found her, dwelling among a large band of warrior-priests.

Ceret was indeed a demigod, and she had the dreadful ability to never miss with her bow. After observing her devastate a group of bandits while standing on a distant mountain, Qorg decided it would be best to try and befriend the woman. I was somewhat surprised, since Qorg was the last person I had ever thought would try to avoid a battle, but as we melded into the group of warrior-priests, I realized these people were just the kind that Qorg liked best.

After meeting with Ceret, I found her to be rather amiable, and Qorg was practically smitten with her. She was bold and beautiful (like most divine beings were), and could fire four arrows from her bow and strike the heart of a man coming from each of the four directions. Utterly devoted to the God of War, I often wondered what she would think if she knew Qorg was trying to unseat him.

We spent several years simply following along with her band, with Qorg suppressing his strength to mortal levels (but still leagues stronger than me). It was an odd time, because I don’t think we actually had any sort of plan, and Qorg was simply doing whatever he wanted. A part of me thought that he was still nursing the wound of losing to his rival in their final encounter, and I was more than willing to give him some time to settle into himself.

We encountered some trouble in the form of a demigod who served the God of Nature, who had mastery over fire and flames. His priests and the followers of Ceret clashed, resulting in a disastrous battle. Ceret’s arrows turned to ash as they neared him, and Qorg was stubbornly trying to hide his divinity. In the end, I rode forth, my pride far exceeding my ability, and was charred to a crisp.

Awakening in the Halls of the Immortals, I realized it had been many centuries since I had returned there. I felt compelled to wander the pristine halls, and only once I had reached the Gardens of Desire that I realized why the urge to wander had overcome me.

The God of Desire did not want to approach me, he wanted me to approach him. Though he was a comparatively weak deity when placed among the greater gods, the difference between us was greater than that between a king and a rat that dwelt within the sewers. My God wanted to know how I had promoted desire throughout the land, and I could only answer that I had prevented people from reaching true satisfaction.

I was offered a few bits of advice, mostly that denying people satisfaction for too long would simply kill their desire, but also that providing satisfaction would prevent their desires from growing too strong. Too strong desires, he warned, led to people’s ruin far more than anything else. I thanked my god, then was left to wonder just how much the God of Desire knew about my own desires.

When I returned to the mortal world, I decided it was best to leave Qorg to himself and to spend some time with Handelhan. Mostly, it was because I really couldn’t just return from the dead without blowing Qorg’s whole attempt at poorly pretending to be a mortal, but also because Handelhan had been spending much too much time by himself.

He asked me to help twist the desires of several people within his library and academy, and also allowed me to observe some of his experiments. Some of these were performed on himself, as he was trying to find a way to remove only a portion of a person’s divinity rather than all of it, partially so that he could potentially transfer Brask’s weapon skills to Qorg.

A more pressing goal for him was his attempts at increasing the longevity of mortals. While working amongst the researchers, I found out that Handelhan had actually managed to get himself a mortal wife a decade ago. When I asked Handelhan about this, he said that I should understand how powerful desires can be, and he had fallen in love with a researcher after reading her mind and becoming hopelessly enamored with it.

The fact that she was quite beautiful might have also played a part.

Though she was still rather young, it would be only a few decades before her lifespan was over, and Handelhan would not permit something like that to happen.

With no captured demigods left, Handelhan was quite willing to give a portion of his divinity to his wife, but the hurdles he was facing were quite high. He had to not only successfully split his divinity, but to successfully transfer it to a mortal, something we weren’t even certain was possible. In theory, there was a chance it would work, but there were so many complications that could occur that I was very reluctant to try before we were certain of what we were doing.

But, Handelhan was working on quite a strict clock, with his wife not becoming any younger. After assisting him in his experiments, he asked me to help either Pleth or Qorg capture a demigod as soon as possible, in order to try and transfer their power to his wife. As I left to join up with Pleth, he mentioned casually that he’d prefer it if the demigod was a servant of Desire.

Pleth and the cult of the One-eyed Tree were constructing a rather grand temple when I met up with him. After telling him about Handelhan’s wife, which Pleth referred to as Handelhan’s folly, I tried my best to persuade him to help Handelhan in his endeavor. Though Pleth argued that a mortal’s death was as natural as their life, and that granting one divinity would go against nature, I bullied him by saying that we all owed Handelhan for his many years of hard work.

After adorning ourselves in the garments of pilgrims, we left the construction of the temple in the hands of a young but brilliant architect, who promised to finish it within thirty years. With swarms of bloodthirsty birds and beasts surrounding the temple as its guardians, we journeyed off to meet with Qorg.

We listened to rumors along the way, with an ear out for anything that might lead us to a demigod of desire. After hearing our fill of bawdy tales, I concluded that unless every second brothel really did contain a demigod, we needed to change our line of questioning.

Qorg was in a much better state than when I last left him. Though he had not managed to kill the fire-controlling demigod, my suicide rush had provided Ceret’s followers a moment of reprieve from the flames, allowing them to escape. It had also provided Qorg and Ceret something to mourn together, though Qorg apologized for shedding crocodile tears in my name. Either way, he had grown quite close to Ceret, though she likely was starting to suspect his divinity.

After reintroducing myself to Ceret as my old self’s younger brother, she had enough tact to go along with it. Pleth immediately confessed his love for her, which lead Qorg to shatter the clay jug he was drinking from, but Ceret promptly recognized the joke for what it was.

Qorg listened intently when I told him of Handelhan’s plight, and he too began to call it Handelhan’s folly. He said it would upset all our plans, and might even end up resulting in some terrible catastrophe. Even so, he agreed to help, and parted ways with Ceret’s company.

To our surprise, it wasn’t long before Handelhan himself joined up with us, and the four of us couldn’t help but celebrate our reunion loudly within the nearest town. As we recovered the next day, Handelhan explained his plan to us, which I didn’t like from the very start but withheld my comments until he had finished.

In order to capture a demigod of Desire, he wanted me to spur desire within the land, forcing it into the minds and lives of everyone. He wanted the worship of Desire to grow until it wild and in the open, and when demigods of desire would emerge proudly. He also wanted it done quickly.

I was about to ask how exactly he proposed for me to do this, but he already had an answer prepared. My task, he explained, would be to convince people that they could satisfy their yearning for love with sex.

I wasn’t quite sure whether I wanted to argue with Handelhan. He was quite certain his plan would work, but also explained that there naturally needed to be some opposition. He wanted me to spare the followers of the One-eyed Tree, and they would serve as a gathering ground for the dissenters. With Pleth guiding his followers, and Qorg protecting me as I rode throughout the villages and towns, Handelhan would lay down a network to gather information about the progress of desire and any potential demigods.

It was an odd plan, but both Pleth and Qorg were curious to see what would happen. With a decade as our time limit, they felt it was worth spending that short period of time indulging in Handelhan’s plan, and if it failed, Handelhan could only blame himself.

So, I began my ride throughout the first town, clad in a cloak of red. Pleth assured me that there were none of his followers within that town, so I used my power on anyone I came near. There were no immediate effects, and when I rode out that night, I left the town without seeing any of my power at work.

In the next town, clad in a cloak of green, I began my work again. It was odd work, because I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing. It was simple enough, as it was easy to convince people that sex was the proof of love, and to obtain sex was the same as obtaining love, but what any of that would do to further Handelhan’s plan was anyone’s guess.

In the sixth town, while wearing a cloak of blue, I began to hear rumors. Likely, it was because I was listening for these kind of rumors, but the housewives who stood at the street corners seemed to have plenty to gossip about.

I rode throughout the country, Qorg and chaos following in my wake, and by the end of the first year Handelhan said that he had some encouraging information to offer. In the part of the country I had ridden through first, child births had skyrocketed and brothels had made enormous profits, a clear sign that people were having more sex. When I asked what it all meant, he simply said to continue what I was doing, as the results would not truly blossom until somewhere around the fifth year.

And so, I rode, never spending more than a few days in each town I visited. I used my power on beggars, soldiers, bakers, knights, lords, merchants, milkmaids, poets and scholars, on anyone unfortunate enough to come near me. By the end of the fifth year, I did not need Handelhan to tell me what was happening.

I had underestimated people’s desire for love. For some people, more than food, more than water, more than air, those people desired love. Seeking out sex when they desperately wanted love was proving to be quite a terror. The lucky ones managed to find some love amidst their sex, but among this number were the most unfortunate ones, who found love with their partners but their partners did not find it with them. Most simply reveled in their desire for flesh, never managing to fill the gap that was their true desire.

The people who never wanted love in the first place became one-eyed kings, thoroughly satisfied while leading all the rest to follow in their footsteps. In no time at all, the endless desire for sex (which was truly just the insatiable hunger for love) had consumed the culture, and the worshippers of Desire found many new converts.

In the seventh year, Qorg and I were attacked by bandits. This was not something that had not occurred before, but usually a small show of strength from Qorg was enough to send bandits running. These bandits, however, attacked with reckless fervor, ignoring Qorg and heading straight for me.

It was only then that I realized what Qorg’s motive for suppressing his strength while with Ceret’s followers had been. During those years, he had learned how to fight without relying on brute force, and his skill shone that day. The bandits were torn apart with little input from me, but they continued to recklessly charge, trying to get past Qorg. As a crossbow bolt struck me in the thigh, I recognized that it was our turn to flee from a battle, but it was too late by then. As I was peppered by bolts, I took a moment to recognize the strangeness of it all.

In the hallowed Halls of the Immortals, I suddenly had the urge to rush over to the Garden of Desire, and realized what a less-than-subtle summons of the God of Desire looked like. I didn’t bother to see if I could even attempt resisting that urge, but had at least enough pride to trudge my way over there rather than skip.

As I got nearer to the garden, however, my fear lead me to skipping, and I was acting practically giddy when I arrived in front of my God. To my surprise, after apologizing for the rather rude summoning, he wanted to praise me for my efforts. When he had realized what exactly was happening among the people, he knew that I must be the one that was misdirecting people to seek sex when they wanted love. In no time at all, his worshippers had nearly doubled, and he wanted to reward my cleverness with any boon I desired.

Now, I’m not particularly clever, but I could see a test when I was presented one. When a God of Desire asks what you want, that’s like the God of War asking how much do you like war. He was trying to gauge the essence of my desire, which unluckily for me was quite incriminating. If I told him my true desire, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t simply hand over all of his power. If I asked for too little, that would be almost just as bad and he would definitely suspect some deeper desire.

As I considered my options, I remembered the whole original purpose behind me going around and making a mess of people’s lives. Thinking about it carefully, I decided the best way of going about it would be to say that I would like an underling, a subordinate demigod. I had a mortal in mind that I thought would be a wonderful candidate for becoming a servant of the God of Desire, and asked him to bestow upon her some of his divinity and to allow me to guide her in his worship.

My God was quite pleased with this request, since he seemed to think that my wish reflected a desire to expand his power, and decided he would grant it if he thought my candidate was suitable. Thankfully, he only needed a quick glance to deem her appropriate, and granted her the ability to make people dream about what they desired most. As a final touch, he gave her the new name Cymdra, to reflect that she was my apprentice.

Now, Cymdra had not even known that Handelhan was a demigod, or that the gods even truly existed, which made all this quite a shock. I did not know how much I could tell her, how much Handelhan had kept hidden from her, and whether or not my spur of the moment idea really had been a good one. So, I made her a cup of tea, sat her down, and discussed how pleasant the weather had been recently.

When Handelhan heard what I had done, he was livid. Making his wife my subordinate was not part of his plans, and having her become a servant of our ultimate enemies definitely wasn’t. As both Cymdra and I tried to calm him down, I made the nearly fatal mistake of calling her by her new name. Had Pleth and Qorg not decided to make a rather timely appearance, I might have found myself counting the stones in the deepest cell within our citadel.

After the four of us managed to calm Handelhan down, I asked Cymdra to leave so we could discuss the next stage of our plans. Both Pleth and Qorg agreed that things had turned out for the best, as Handelhan’s ultimate goal of making his wife immortal had been accomplished, and we could stop with the plan that would likely have far-reaching repercussions.

Later, Qorg told me that I had accomplished a rather brilliant move, in that I now had the thing Handelhan cared most about under my power. Considering that meant that I had earned the ire of an immortal hyper-intelligent weapon master who had the capability to rob god’s of their divine essence, I didn’t really consider that move quite so brilliant.

Though Handelhan’s goal had been accomplished prematurely, his plan was still rolling down its hill. By the eighth year, his intelligence network had already seen the rise of a powerful demigod of desire, who gathered worshipers under the name of the Midnight Mistress. Not wanting to waste what his plan had wrought, Handelhan decided it would be best if we captured this Mistress and absorbed her power.

With no reason to argue, the four of us headed out, leaving Cymdra behind to tend the citadel. I had argued with Handelhan about telling her about everything, including our ultimate goal and the methods we were taking to reach it, but as he was her husband and I only her teacher, his was the decision that was abided.

Reaching the town where the Midnight Mistress was rumored to dwell, I realized that though I might have set a spark, it was definitely other demigods that had fueled the flames. Draped in black, the town was a carnival of debauchery and desire, a giant temple to the darker aspects of my god. All that was sacred was all that was not, and flashes of carnal rituals came to us from behind jet black veils and curtains which swung in the breeze. Pleth, who had spent years counseling his followers into respecting the division between love and sex, was actually somewhat repulsed by the sights.

Judging by their ferocity, it was definitely no ordinary power that drove these worshipers, and I grew to suspect the massive braziers that choked the town with the smell of incense. Being demigods, we were immune to any enchanting power they might have, but the strong scent almost had a power of its own.

We were often stopped on our way to meet the Mistress, but neither Handelhan nor Qorg had any reason to delay the meeting. Cutting down anyone that stood in our way, Handelhan would only slow down long enough to read a person’s mind to find out where their Mistress was before completing his stroke. Perhaps it was the smoke fogging up my mind, but I didn’t bother to recommend a more subtle approach.

We found her attempting to escape on a horse, but Pleth saw a quick end to that plan. Once she was thrown to the ground, she began to question us, trying to discover why we were after her. When she received no response, she removed her black gown and tried to strike a deal with us. In hindsight, one of us should have said something, anything, just so we could have gotten a bit closer and managed to knock her out.

But, we remained silent, and she decided to do something we had completely forgotten was in her capacity to do.

She leapt backwards upon the massive brazier behind her, and her oiled hair and body were immediately engulfed in flames. We all rushed forward, trying to extinguish the fire, but even as Qorg dug his hands into the ground and began to rapidly toss dirt over her, it was too late.

She had returned to the Halls of the Immortals, where the God of Desire was waiting for her.