A Bigger Mess

The God of Air stood in the hallway of the grand estate that belonged to his best friend. He rapped lightly on the great door. When no response came, his hand automatically reached for the door knob and let himself in.

The room was fairly dark, lit only by a single candle. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, but he spotted his long time friend slumped over in a cushioned chair. There were several empty bottles of whisky scattered around the rugged floor.

"Sky," he said to gauge whether his friend was awake or not. 

"What," was the crisp response. The Sky God's appearance did not indicate that he was doing well. He looked unshaven and hung over. His emerald eyes were bloodshot. He hadn't shaved in days and his clothes were a wrinkled mess. He was tired as hell.

"You look like shit," Aero noted bemusingly. He picked up an empty bottle and stared at it. Not one drop left in there. Gods in general, have a high alcohol tolerance. He wondered how many days straight had the Sky God been drinking.

"Well, thanks," he responded sardonically, rubbing his forehead temple to dissolve the migraine that was beginning to throb on the side of his head. "I feel like shit. Figured I should have the look to match."

"My my. Drunk as hell and still have your shitty humor," the Air deity noted dryly. "Had I known you still had your wits about you, I wouldn't have bothered coming to check on you."

"The door's right there. You're welcome to leave," he growled in response. The Sky God was not in the mood for idle conversation. He just wanted to be left alone and wallow in this mess by himself.

"Oh, I will. After I delivered the bad news I came to bring you about your captain. Well, good news if you didn't like the fellow. But I had a feeling you were quite fond of him."

That got his attention. "Atlas? What about him?"

The Air deity was about to respond when his attention was pulled away by the wall of the bedroom. There were strings attached to notes, attached to Polaroids, attached to crazy scribbles all over the wall. 

"Holy shit. What the fuck is this insanity?" Aero asked with one eyebrow arched up. It looked like the work of a mad man.

"Oh… That?" Sky glanced at the wall, feeling like his headache was going to slowly kill him, as it was throbbing in full force now. "That is Moon's work of art."

The God of Air was speechless really. He had always known the Moon Goddess had a bit of an imagination, but this is something else. "Was she trying to catch a serial killer? And that is one horrible photograph of you."

His friend groaned. "Her photography skills need some work," was all he said in response.

Aero walked to the wall and carefully examined it, reading the notes written under each photo. "Glad to know I made it onto her sacred wall," he grumbled.

"All the senior gods made it onto the wall," Sky responded with a shrug. 

He grunted. "Well, you should at least tell her that she was right in one assessment." Aero's eyes were centered on one photo in particular. His violet eyes turned cold, narrowing on the person that was framed in the polaroid.

Sky shut his eyes, not really wanting to think about the situation. But honestly, he felt like the shittiest person in existence. The amount of secrets he was holding inside was starting to really shred the grasp that he had on his sanity. He had been drowning himself in good wine and whisky for the last few days, hoping that the spirits would dull his senses, and that he would stop thinking about it. But the sobering reality always came creeping back in.

"I can't," he said simply.

"Given her personality, she'd go charging into the mess, head first." Aero looked at his friend. This time the amusement was gone from his face and worry was beginning to take over. "Sky, you can't be this hard on yourself. You know that under no circumstances can you ever step foot into the Mortal Realm."

The Sky God didn't have a response to that. He glanced around the empty bottles on the floor. Were there no more spirits? He needed another one right now.

"Sky," the Air God said, more firmly. "This is not your fault. You can honestly stop drowning yourself in guilt because there was nothing you could've done about it. Not then and not now."

"I got it," the Sky God responded with a warning tone, for his friend to drop the issue. He sulked. "Moon didn't deserve that mess at the Council. No one was on her side. She must've felt so alone. If there was anyone who should've helped her, it was me. And I fucked it up. This is a shitty mess."

"Oh, can the drama. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. There are other ways we can help, that won't get your ass ki—"

"I know." The Sky God got up from the chair. Probably too quickly because the room felt like it was tilting. He grabbed onto the side of a desk to steady his balance.

Aero took hold of his arm to help support his friend. "Easy now," he said. 

"Thanks." Honestly, he felt grateful for his buddy being there for him, even if he was doing a poor job of expressing it. 

"We need to get you sobered up. I'll have Helga bring up a few jugs of water for you to flush that junk out of your system."

Sky nodded slowly, as the room felt like it was still spinning. "So, before you got distracted by that." He gestured to the wall. "What did you come here to tell me about Atlas?"

"Ah, that piece of fun information," the Air deity said, the amused tone returning to his voice. "I came to tell you that your captain was seen heading towards the River Lethe a few weeks ago."

Sky's head shot up, eyes wide. "He did what?!!"

Aero's face held a wide grin, while he assessed his friend's shocked expression. This trip was totally worth it. "He was heard saying something along the lines of, 'Room full of shitty gods and not one of them has balls.'"

"THAT FOOL!!" Sky exploded, raking his hand through his silver hair. "FUCK!!! Please tell me he didn't!"

The God of Air casually shrugged. "Well, when was the last time you saw him?"

Sky groaned, leaning his head against the wall with his eyes closed. He did not want to think about this. "Several weeks ago."

"Ah," was Aero's response. "So your man doesn't show up to work for several weeks and you didn't notice?"

The Sky God gave his friend another warning look. Aero held up his hands in a harmless defense gesture but couldn't help but chuckle about this melodrama. 

The River Lethe is the path the gods utilize when they enter into the Mortal Realm as a reincarnated human, with no powers and no memories of their life as a god. It is the only way these days for deities to enter the Mortal Realm. Rarely does anyone know who, what, or where they will be reincarnated into, which means that having to suffer in their human life may be a possibility. It deterred gods from entering the Mortal Realm for frivolous purposes.

"Atlas is not a god," Sky grumbled dejectedly.

"Nope," Aero said wryly, with an emphasis on the 'p.' 

His captain of guards was a human who was blessed by a deity and brought to the Realm of Gods. Like Tuzi, Atlas was a divine being. He can live an immortal life with blessed capabilities, as long as he wasn't killed. But reincarnating meant that his blessed state was washed away by the River Lethe. 

Atlas would be in the Mortal Realm as a normal human. If he dies, unlike a God, his soul would not return to the God Realm. Atlas's soul was originally created on Earth, and therefore his reincarnation cycle would return to being part of the Mortal Realm. Or if his soul had been broken down and weary, he would then be relegated to the Realm of the Underworld… And god forbid if that happens. 

It would literally take divine intervention, to catch his soul at the point of his death, to bring him back into the God Realm and bless him all over again. Which actually is really hard to do.

And Atlas may not be the same person that he once was, considering he would live another life as something else. 

"Why oh why, Atlas, did you go and make this more complicated," the Sky god lamented, shaking his head at the mess that was getting gradually bigger with each passing moment. 

"What I don't get is, why would he do that for the Goddess's pet?" Aero asked, speculatively. "Giving up immortality and paradise to be a normal mortal again. He does realize that he doesn't get to pick where or what he gets reborn as?"

"I don't think he was thinking with his head," Sky mumbled in defeat.

"Ahhh…" Aero smiled in understanding, loving the juicy information. "Thinking with another body part, was he?"

"Humans and their damn hormones…" 

The Air deity laughed. 

And yet, you are more like Atlas than you know, Aero thought while patting his dejected friend on his back.