Sunlight was stealing its away across the surface of Yalsa 5 but it had yet to breach the darkness thrown across Atsa, and for now the city slumbered, lit by tiny streetlights instead of explosions. Viewed from up here on the roof of the Maria headquarters, Atsa reminded Sandsa of the deserts at night, when the campfires of his tribes dotted the dunes.
A tornado of leaves, vines and branches appeared beside him, right on time. Sandsa waited out his brother’s embellished arrival then unleashed a hug onto Kuja. That done, he retreated a few paces and smiled down at the Rforine who had no smile to offer in return.
Kuja’s sea-green eyes were filled with fear. ‘Sandsa, they know. Everyone knows. About Callista.’
‘Did you tell them?’ Sandsa demanded, surging forward again.
Kuja held up a hand. Two small trees sprouted from the flat roof, breaking apart concrete to stand either side of Sandsa and snagging his hands with twisted branches. Sandsa made no move to shrug off his bonds but he gritted his teeth when he felt his forbidden powers rise inside him.
‘No way, never!’ Kuja exclaimed. ‘But you can understand why everyone is watching you. No one has ever abandoned their duties before. We don’t even know if we’re allowed to marry.’
‘Or procreate,’ Sandsa added.
He heard lightning crack over the deserts behind him. The dunes in the distance groaned in distress, but he refused to turn his head, afraid that if he looked at them they would find some way to lure him away from the city.
Kuja looked aghast. ‘Oh no, Sandsa. A son?’
‘You used to ask my permission before you dug into my mind, Kuja.’
The Rforine sighed. ‘Sandsa…I want you to be happy. You deserve it. But this is going to complicate things.’
The laugh that escaped Sandsa was dry and threatened to crack his lips. ‘No, it only complicates my return. It’s less likely I’ll leave a family than one woman. And Father needs to stop bothering Callista. If he thinks he can bully her into leaving me…’
‘He talks to her?’ Kuja asked, eyes wide.
‘Yes,’ Sandsa said flatly. ‘Possibly because I refuse to listen to him.’
‘He doesn’t speak to just any mortal, Sandsa.’ Kuja frowned. ‘He must have a plan.’
The sky was now infused with pale orange but dawn failed to erase Sandsa’s unease as easily as it did the shadows of night. He had woken earlier from a nightmare to see sand flying around the room and dancing over Callista’s sleeping features. The tiny form growing inside her had thrummed with raw power.
Sandsa held this image in his mind for his brother. ‘He’s strong, Kuja. Stronger than me.’
Kuja’s pale complexion somehow had more colour to lose. He grabbed Sandsa’s shoulders. ‘Listen, Fayay hates you and if he finds out, he’ll come for your son and take him and teach him to fight against you — if your son is that powerful, he might win!’
Sandsa snorted. ‘Fayay wouldn’t dare.’
‘If you insist on abandoning your powers he can dare to do anything!’
Sandsa gripped his brother’s fingers and pulled them off one at a time. ‘Fayay should no longer feel threatened by me. He’s the most powerful of us now. As for my powers, if I use them I could not…’
‘Not what?’ Kuja challenged. ‘Not be with the woman who loves you? I don’t understand why you can’t just take her into the deserts!’
‘I promised her that I would remain a man,’ Sandsa told him.
Kuja’s voice dropped in volume and pitch. ‘Does she know how close you are to giving in to the deserts?’
‘I promised her,’ Sandsa repeated.
‘Does she know how powerful your son is already?’
‘It doesn’t matter. He does not need to know the true extent of his powers.’
But Kuja was shaking his head. ‘That’s just it, Sandsa. He might never know it, but everyone else will.’
‘Is Fayay planning to come after me?’ Sandsa growled.
Kuja shrugged helplessly. ‘I don’t know! But he’s been talking to our brothers and our sisters, and he seems to have half of them convinced that your leaving has ruined Father’s grand design.’ The rainforest god drew a breath. ‘Some of them are even saying that if you won’t return to the deserts then they will make you do it. And I don’t think they meant just talking to you. Sandsa…they might try to hurt Callista.’
Sandsa crushed his fists onto the ledge that ran around the building’s roof. When the wall stayed firm, he stabbed his awareness into it, feeling for the sand in its concrete mixture. He was poised to shatter the ledge, but then the whispers started, begging him to do it, begging him to unleash himself and return to them. Sandsa hastily withdrew.
‘Can’t you see anything in the future?’ Kuja asked him.
Sandsa sighed. ‘No. Not more than a few minutes. Even before I reined in my powers my ability to peer further ahead was becoming unreliable. I can’t see if Fayay comes after me but…will you fight with me if he does?’
Kuja’s head snapped up. ‘Of course I will!’
‘Then no one can hurt my wife or your nephew.’
‘Nephew?’ Kuja echoed, a delighted smile spreading over his face.
Sandsa nodded, grinning. ‘You are his favourite uncle, or will be.’
The glow that had been filling Kuja’s eyes died. ‘I’d love to be an uncle, Sandsa. But we mustn’t forget the situation. I’ll speak to our siblings and see if some of them will side with us.’
They embraced again, this time in farewell, then the rainforest god turned away and jumped up onto the ledge. Vines began creeping out of Kuja’s sleeves and he grabbed hold of them, about to catapult himself into the aether, but at the last moment he tossed a look over his shoulder. ‘Sandsa, it’s one thing to keep your son from the deserts — he will not miss what he has never had — but it’s another thing entirely to deny yourself something that’s been a part of you for so many centuries.’
The Rforine hurtled forward, exploded into green wisps — and then he was gone.
Sandsa peered down at the lines on his palms as they slowly filled in with tiny flecks of sand. He shook out the traitorous grains and stomped down below, to where the woman he loved was slowly rousing. The woman he had given an unbreakable promise.
***
‘But I’m afraid,’ the boy said.
Sandsa, standing several heads above him, guided his brother out of the shadows and into the light. Even in this temperate rainforest the air was wet and oppressive and the desert god despised it, but he knew it felt different to Kuja. Gliding towards the Rforine’s mind, he gleaned from it the sensations the young god was experiencing — to Kuja, the humidity was a soothing bath of encompassing warmth. The trees, the creatures, every decomposing leaf — they all loved the nine-year-old boy whose hands could weave them together.
‘Afraid of hurting them?’ Sandsa asked, indicating the trees.
Kuja nodded. ‘I’m no good at this. I’m not old like you.’
‘Old! What does that mean to us gods?’ Sandsa laughed. ‘Listen, Kuja, feel it…your domain, the rainforests, work for you. They speak to you and listen to you, just as the sands do for me. With their help, you can make the mortals do your bidding.’
‘Don’t push him if he’s not ready, Sandsa,’ their mother’s voice said. She appeared out of thin air, walking towards them and pulling her cream-coloured cardigan further around her. ‘And you know you should gently guide the mortals towards their destiny, not force your will upon them. If you cared for them the way you do your brother, you would understand this.’
Kuja ran for the hug that his mother gave. The boy turned a pout onto Sandsa. ‘You should go play with the others.’
‘But they…’ Sandsa paused. ‘I care even less about them than I do the mortals.’
His mother’s eyes remained on Sandsa, letting him hear the thoughts that she so easily guarded from a boy who had not yet realised he could use his mind-reading abilities to permanently eavesdrop. Sandsa, you are allowed to love as mortals do. You are my son too, don’t forget that.
She waited him out while dusting imaginary specks of dust from Kuja’s shoulders. The boy made a fuss but didn’t try to wriggle out of her grip.
Kuja is no different from the rest of them, Sandsa told his mother. I would spend time with my other siblings if they wanted me to.
Even Fayay? she asked, smiling.
***
Callista sat up slowly, drawing her index fingers along the edges of her eyelids until they hit her cheekbones. She leaned forward and began sifting through the images fading from her mind. Needing more, wanting more, she latched onto the source of the vision and traced it, expecting to find her lover’s mind — but then she hit a white wall of static.
You needed to see what he was, before you helped him to become something more, whispered the voice of the Ine.
Yes, I helped him become more, not you, Callista responded, gritting her teeth.
The Creator God’s presence ebbed, then vanished.
Somehow she knew she’d be seeing him again. And soon.
Callista glanced up as Sandsa entered the bedroom. His smile was bright, but the corners of his lips worried away into his cheeks. She opened her mouth, then swallowed when nothing emerged. Finally, she managed, ‘Sandsa, were you talking to your brother?’
‘He is pleased at the prospect of becoming an uncle,’ Sandsa replied, pressing a knee onto the bed and levering himself over to kiss her. ‘I was remiss in that I forgot to ask him to attend our wedding, though he may prefer to witness the binding only.’
‘You want to do the binding right after the wedding?’
‘I need to pass my immortality onto you as soon as possible.’
‘You’re asking more than you realise,’ Callista told him.
‘Do you not want to marry me?’ Sandsa asked, his eyebrows scrunching down his forehead.
Holding up her hand to expose the ring that had not left her finger since the night he had given it to her, Callista said, ‘Of course I do. I love you and would happily grow old with you. That’s how mortals do it, Sandsa. You’re asking me to not grow old.’
‘I will not insult you by reminding you that our son would suffer your death.’
‘And yet you just did.’
‘I do not want to argue about this now,’ he said and attempted to steal another kiss.
Callista turned her head. His lips touched her shoulder.
‘It’s just…I need time,’ she whispered.
Sandsa released a long, low breath. ‘You have it.’
She cupped his face and did her best to distract him from his impatient thoughts with the swirl of her tongue. Eventually Sandsa excused himself to shower in preparation for their visit to the governor later in the day. Callista remained on the bed, sheets wrapped around her shoulders.
Why had the Creator God sent her that vision of the past? She had not seen anything in it that would convince her to leave Sandsa; in fact, she felt pleased that she was the reason that Sandsa now cared about mortals like Bock, Vom and Ala. Perhaps the Ine had meant the vision as a gift, an apology, or even encouragement. Callista found herself thinking about her own parents. She could hear their voices so clearly it was as if they were in the room with her.
You should find out who you are, make your own decisions…now why don’t you stop scowling and do as you’re told? You owe us. We made you.
Callista studied the walls enclosing her. They were mostly decorated with dark, sombre colours. It was tempting to let her mood slide the same way. But then she thought of Sandsa, of his handsome smile when he woke, a sight she would never grow tired of seeing.
Callista left the lonely bed behind her and joined him in the shower.