Chương 93: Chapter 92 - Negotiation

On the way to the temple, Atzi began to feel a vague sense of unease that only grew as she progressed through the city. She noticed that some of the buildings were smashed. A few were entirely reduced to rubble, and others were missing part of their walls. The destruction seemed random, other than occurring in lines. What would have caused this? Did Cory really summon the demon? And she passed not a single person, save the guards. Some of whom looked nervous, reacting to every noise.

She could practically feel the silent judgement of the Pangaeans with her. The religious district was just as empty, and a few of the gods' temples were missing their normal statues. The Serpent's was, of course, untouched. Atzi took a deep breath and approached the temple doors. - When Atzi entered the Serpent's temple, Pangaeans following behind her, she immediately saw the newly ruling goddess herself.

The Serpent's three bodies were being fed food hand-served by the Saintess's priests and priestesses, their outfits torn in suggestive places. She sat upon three fanciful seats, mismatched in their design and gaudiness. No one else was present. The only noise in the holy place was the Serpent's loud chewing. Atzi chuckled to herself. Then she thought, Wait, hang on. I'm the prophet of them. One of the Serpents looked over at her and opened her arms wide in joy.

"You return! And who are your friends?"

"I brought the prophet of the Forest. And her guards. There was a demon on the way, they made sure we could make it here." Atzi gestured to the moth plant lady.

"This is Song of the Forest." Song bowed slightly.

"Greetings, one known as Serpent." The Serpent stuck out a tongue.

"Oh, how beautiful she is." Atzi laughed nervously.

"Well, I've good news!" the Serpent announced, stretching in one of her seats.

"I'm in charge now! Of all of Sostra!"

"I heard, but what happened? How?"

"Oh, just a little fight after I revealed the problems, followed by a civil war." The Serpent waved a claw casually.

"But we won't have to worry about the actual war for weeks!"

"Actual war?" Atzi blinked.

"Wait, is the gate sealed? You sealed it, right? It's sealed."

"Sort of," the Serpent said, drawing out the first 'o'.

"Sort of? What does that mean? What happened?"

"The gods who stuck around sealed it. The ones who sided with the Shapeshifter decided not to help."

"Shapeshifter?!" Atzi shouted in rage.

"That asshole ruined it?"

"I know, right? They said my claim was 'invalid' and 'democracy' and blah blah blah." The Serpent rolled her eyes. Another of her bodies chuckled.

"But it'll blow up the whole empire! Why did they not help? Their place gets destroyed too!" Atzi scratched her head.

"That's- What total idiots! What's wrong with them?" The Serpent grinned.

"You understand perfectly. After all, why shouldn't I be in charge? I revealed the corruption!" Atzi looked back up at the Serpent.

"Did they", she hesitated as she became worried, "specifically rebel because of that part?" The Saintess's priests serving the goddess grimaced.

"Something like that." The Serpent flicked her claw like it didn't matter. This is beyond me.

"So those are Saintess priestesses, right? Where's Malus?"

"I ate her."

"Oh." Atzi scratched her scales.

"She killed me a few times, so I can't say I miss her."

"That's the spirit!" Atzi pointed at herself.

"So, am I the official prophet of the Saintess now?"

"Sure. Go nuts. But these ones are still mine." The Serpent squeezed the thigh of a priest.

"But the rest aren't, right? I have no idea what to do now. I didn't expect this." Atzi looked behind herself, at Song.

"The Forest is sort of willing to join Sostra, but wants to discuss it. She really, really hates Hasen." Song stepped forward, addressing the Serpent.

"You are heading for a civil war?"

"I didn't expect this part," Atzi said, meekly.

"Don't worry about it! Really!" The Serpent swished her tail.

"We'll crush them and they'll come crawling back. It's just Novasium, Tarsus, Vinova, and Nicomedia."

"Just?!" Atzi shrieked. The Serpent was talking about four gods and almost half the Empire.

"Easy peasy. I mean they have barely any land. And have you seen how weak Nicodemian fighters are?"

"They have the Demon!" Atzi's memories of the demon Cory had summoned came back to her. The Demon was probably even stronger than that, being a god.

"How do you beat that thing?"

"Tip one," the Serpent raised a clawed finger.

"Don't let it bite you." Atzi drooped.

"I didn't mean to start a civil war. Why did they all side with the Shapeshifter? Can't we convince them to join back with us? Bribe them? I don't know." The Serpent scoffed.

"They'd want me to give up my rightful place of ruler, and we can't have that!"

"And they want the Shapeshifter in charge? Why?" The Serpent shrugged.

"I dunno. They just went 'blah blah blah, democracy' and other people started getting really mad at me and sided with them. Maybe it's mind control."

"There wasn't a vote?" Atzi asked, panicked.

"I thought that's how the godscouncil decided it?" Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Well, usually, yeah! But that was set by the Saintess! And since you were out of the picture and left me to clean up the mess, I figured it was only right if I got to be in charge." The Serpent stopped talking as her tongue coiled around proffered grapes. One of her other bodies continued, "Gotta say, better than I expected. I thought it would be hard work, but even more than before, people just do what I tell them to!"

"There's about to be a load more problems, though!" Atzi thumped her tail.

"Hasen, the giants, the door to the underworld isn't even fixed. Can't you work out a deal with the Shapeshifter, maybe? Like, joint-rule to get through these crises, then hold a vote?" The Serpent spat out half chewed grapes.

"And give up all this? Oh, by the way, did you manage to bring the drugs?"

"Oh, yeah, right" Atzi glanced at Song.

"But maybe we should work out the stuff with Pangaea first?" The Serpent just looked at her. Atzi sighed and approached, taking the bags of drugs from her tail pouches, and handing them over. She explained what each of the colors did. The Serpent immediately grabbed two clawfuls of the red and yellow paste. Atzi held up a claw, "Wait, that'll-" She ate them. She made a loud smacking noise, stood up, and then sat back down. Then she laughed.

"Interesting effects. It's like I could take over the world while taking a nap. Say, that sounds like a good idea." Her prophet must be the most suffering man alive. The Serpent began staring at the ceiling. Song spoke up, "Atzi, may I speak with you?" Atzi stepped back, stressed and exasperated.

"Okay." Once they were off to the side, Song said, "The Forest will not agree to anything like this. Any deal would need a stable Sostra. An alliance is pointless when we don't even know who will be in charge or if they'll be able to help."

"If there had been a vote, it would have been the Star, I didn't expect this! I thought she'd be acting later than this, I didn't realise she'd start a civil war! I need to figure out a way to fix this."

"For now, we will return to Pangaea. You can contact us again should matters change."

"How? You're so far away, it was a miracle even getting this one chance."

"You can just talk with the Forest again." Atzi looked back at the Serpent, who was busy examining her food like it was the most fascinating thing in the world. She could ask for blue paste back from her. Probably.

"How do you make that, anyway?"

"It is something the Forest makes herself. We gather it from her trees. If you plant some, you will grow a tiny part of the Forest here."

"Oh. So there's no way to get it outside of Pangaea."

"Not for the years it would take to grow a tree, first."

"This is gonna sound crazy, maybe, but let's say I could go back in time. Days ago. Before all this happened. And I want to talk to you and arrange this. How would I do that? How do I reach Pangaea without dying? Or at least get a message to you about all this?" Song blinked a few times, pollen falling from her eyelashes.

"Can I also go back in time?"

"Just me. You'd be yourself, a few days ago. I'd have to say something to make you believe me."

"What a strange question! No, I don't think there is."

"None?"

"Not that I can think of, as I do not leave Pangaea. This is my first time outside it." Atzi decided to take a chance.

"This isn't just a stupid question. This is the one thing the Saintess lets me do. I've been in this day before. A bunch of times. I stole the whistle but it's very difficult to steal it, I need something more reliable. I promised someone I would help Pangaea, so I'm gonna. Only there wasn't a stupid fucking civil war last time!"

"Can you swim there?"

"I can sort of swim, but not across a whole ocean."

"Maybe if you could get to Hasen, you could contact our people there."

"How? Who do I contact?"

"In their capital city, there's a smith by the name of 'Jack', he's only an apprentice, but we're having him learn the secrets of Hasen's steel so we can make better use of it ourselves. Tell him you know who he is and that you need to get a message to us." Atzi smiled weakly. It sounded like a long shot, to her.

"I'll try. And sorry, about all of this. I really thought it might work." Song said, "I can tell your intentions were pure," with such neutral politeness that Atzi felt like she was being ripped apart by Pangaeans again. Atzi sighed.

"Doesn't mean much when it goes this badly wrong, though."

"Just get revenge."

"Against who? The Serpent? She's a god! And my ally, sort of."

"Against everyone who's ever wronged you. Revenge isn't always bloody, though sometimes it is." Song stepped back.

"For example, I'm taking revenge against you by leaving now."

"Oh." Song bowed again to the Serpent.

"Thank you for hosting us, but we must depart now." The Serpent jolted, like she was reminded Song was there.

"Bring more drugs next time!"

"Very well." Atzi waved back, weakly.

"See you in another life." The door to the Serpent's temple closed, and the Pangaeans were gone. Atzi sighed in frustration. Okay Atzi. Looks like you need to solve a civil war. Or win it. Whatever.

"Cutie. Too bad she left," remarked one of the Serpent's bodies.

"Maybe if I got to go to Pan again, I'd get to-" Atzi shook her head.

"Wait, we've got bigger things." Atzi turned back to the Serpent.

"We need to not have a big civil war. How do we do that? We need the other gods on our side, right?"

"Convince them to give up," The Serpent said plainly.

"I don't know how to do that! This is all new! It's really going to be a full war soon? What about the stuff with Cthargictha, are we at least cancelling that cause it's not needed anymore?" The Serpent scoffed.

"And give up on all those gems? No way! We can use those to buy stuff. I like stuff." Atzi felt exasperated dealing with the Serpent.

"But how are we fighting them if we also need to fight half the places we get soldiers from?"

"Our soldiers are already inside the mountains, and nobody can get a message to them anymore. The ones that belong to our enemies don't even know they're our enemies at the moment." The Serpent shrugged.

"We'll just win, take the gems, and boot the traitors." Atzi suddenly got an idea. Since the Serpent was in charge, wouldn't it make it easier for Atzi to get gems from the university?

"What's the university doing? Are they on our side?"

"Of course they're on our side. Well, the head councilor wasn't, so I had her replaced. Then the rest fell in line!" Atzi tilted her head.

"Who's in charge now? Is Terra still around?"

"I don't know who Terra is, but I put someone very special to me in charge." The Serpent grinned.

"My daughter, Kurgi!"

"Kurgi? She's in charge?" Atzi groaned.

"Shit, I never spoke to her this time, she doesn't know me!" The Serpent pouted.

"She was all sad about her girlfriend, so I gave her a gift."

"That wasn't her girlfriend, it was the prophet of the Shapeshifter!" Then Atzi added, nervously, "I was too busy to fix that, this time."

"Typical." The Serpent sneered.

"All the more reason that jerk needs to fall in line." Atzi definitely wanted to get to the university to talk to Kurgi. But then she remembered another thing: the state of the streets on her way to the temple.

"Why's nobody outside, anyway? What happened?"

"Oh, I ordered everyone inside because I was tired of having guards beat rioters to death."

"Rioters?! We have riots?!"

"Lotsa people from all over, including the people who rebelled. When the gods announced they weren't following me, their people here started getting mean. So I made everyone else go inside, and ate anyone who stayed outside." Atzi remembered the giant snake the Serpent could turn into. That explained the destruction. Then a pit grew in her stomach as she thought of Hemm.

"The Saintess' followers were with you, right? On your side?"

"The ones who swore fealty instead of getting eaten, yes." Atzi tried not to gag.

"I need to check on someone." She looked at the exit.

"I can't even go outside either, can I?"

"Oh, if you want to, go ahead. I'll make sure to let the guards know."

"Can I get declared the new prophet publically? So I can move around the city?"

"We can make it a party after this all blows over." The Serpent winked.

"Great. I never got declared last time, either. I'm never gonna be famous like that." Atzi sighed.

"Okay, just let the guards know, then. Whatever."

"Ta-ta!" - Atzi rushed inside Hemm's inn. It hadn't been burnt down, at least. There was nobody as far as she could see in the front, and the lights weren't lit. Terror built inside Atzi as she pictured Hemm being eaten by the Serpent.

"Hemm? Hemm, are you there?"