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Ripples From My Mane by Gwydion78

Anonymous Commission

Chapter 5

"I've been *what*?"

His voice echoed throughout the chamber, his body straining as his muscles flexed, slowly grew to accept the divine strength that flowed through them. The room was massive, dark, oddly familiar, an array of stone slabs arranged behind the group of young males, a few of them sitting on them, the slabs' apparent purpose. He could barely see the zenith of the domed ceiling, shrouded in darkness, but his eyes soon adjusted.

When his attention drifted back down to the nervous young males, he focused on the Vulpin, the one who'd spoken to him. "You." He pointed at him severely. "What have you done?"

The fox stammered several times, but none of the others interrupted him, or tried to take over the explanation. He drew back his hood, his fur the tradition russet orange, but his body had a bit of bulk to it that implied Lupran ancestry. "It... It was Vendel's idea. He's always been bragging about how the Emperors were his ancestors, how you're..." He swallowed hard, "You know, real?"

"Real? Of course I'm *real*, how much time has passed since..." He remembered in a moment. "Emperor Win'tanna?"

They all looked at each other nervously, another young male with more than five distinct ancestries nudging him to continue. The fox gulped audibly again. "He was never Emperor, uh... Sir? Your god-ness? I... I don't know what to call you."

"Start simply. What is your name, and who is Vendel?" Urion did his best to hide his exasperation, but he just felt so *weak* like this.

"I'm Ner'talen. Vendel is, uh, was, um... He's a friend of ours from the academy. That's uh... a place where we learn things? He's always said that because he looks like a lion he's probably one of the godblooded. We sort of um..." He looked at his feet. "I sort of dared him to prove it."

"How?" Urion asked, unamused.

"Well, he said that if one of the godblooded asks for your aid from the Grand Temple, you'd come. He said he... dreams about you sometimes, and you talk to him. We thought he was just crazy, or wanted to seem better than us, but..." The fox's chest heaved with anxiety. "But, you're here. I mean, the Temple... This chamber's been closed for over a century. Urion worship is just... something the bumpkins do." He averted his gaze immediately.

"Is that so?" He folded his arms, his skin feeling overstretched, as if he were barely contained in this body.

"Well... Yeah. I mean, it's kinda silly, really, that there's a big lion out there that'll protect you if you like other males? Why would Akaians need any protection? And why would you need help hunting? Just... buy a heat visor and a snap-stick." Ner'talen chuckled nervously. "You know, a visor that lets you see an animal's body heat? Then you fire the dart that shuts down its body painlessly so it doesn't suffer. You have no idea what I'm talking about do you?"

"The last thing I was aware of among my people was the conflict between the Godsons and the Bloodsons." Off their looks of confusion, he sighed. "Those descended from Emperor Printus and I, and Printus and Trenas." Still confused looks. "Were any of you born from a male?"

Four of them, including the fox, raised their hand sheepishly. The others seemed unaffected. Had that been normalized? Even the Akaians weren't thought of differently? "Was... Vendel?"

The fox nodded quickly. "His heartdad's a tiger, but his father's a uh..." He motioned to him. "Nice people, but you know the joke about lions and tigers... About how they always end up together? And then the bit about..." Ner'talen looked at his feet. "Right. You probably haven't heard it."

"What happened to the Grand Temple?" He motioned to the dark, dusty surroundings. "And what of my grove? It is still there, yes?"

The fox shrugged. "Um, I think there's some memorial park or something? It's named after some bear who did something with the temple or..." He looked at his feet. "Is Vendel still... in there? I mean, when you go back to wherever you go, he'll come back, right?"

The lion took a moment, closed his eyes. He certainly didn't feel any sort of presence within him, any inner voice, his mind was largely silent save his own thoughts and memories, all of which he was confident were his own. "I... I do not know. This sort of thing has never been done before, Ner'talen. This body feels... off. Small. I'm straining to..." He growled suddenly feeling much better, though a flash of pain precluded it, the assemblage gasping as his phallus suddenly grew to its former godly size. "To keep myself contained, but..."

He could feel the waves of arousal coming off the young males. "You are all Akaian, I assume?"

They nodded separately, but it was the fox who stepped forward, touching his organ, a pleasured rrrowl emerging from him. He knelt, nuzzling the erecting penis slowly. "It's..." He looked up at the lion. "Vendel and I were going to... He wanted to in here, he thought it'd be special..."

"You were going to make love for the first time."

The fox nodded with a nervous smile. "But... He's still in there, right? Please say he's not gone. I'll, I'll do whatever you want, just please bring him back. I mean, you're supposed to be a god, you can do that, you can..." He kissed the leaking head of the lion's cock, lapping at the fluid that poured out quickly with determination. Another, looking more raccoon than anything else, approached and kissed his chest, his nipples, a mix of tiger and bear took his place beside Ner'talen to lick at his nuts, which churned, the pounding of blood in the god's head growing louder, his divine essence infusing the weaker body with his strength, allowing it its birthright.

Urion growled as his skin seemed to tear, revealing newer skin and fur underneath, like bursting out of a set of too-tight clothes, the god emerging from the mortal cocoon. The sense of relief was overwhelming, so much so that Ner'talen soon found his cheeks bulging with the bounty of seed the lion's phallus expulsed in hard, thick jets. The fox drank it down in a panic, grunting as it affected him quickly, his muscles quivering as the essence infused him with strength, granted him the steady strength, speed and agility of his cunning ancestors to pair with his intelligence and passion. Ner'talen whimpered as he climaxed himself in his robes, too stimulated by the blissful rush of the god's blessing.

The other males were ignored as Urion pushed the fox to the stone floor, tearing his robes off, the others gazing in shock at the sudden infusion of muscle and virility their friend had been given. The fox appeared a few inches taller, broader, every limb with optimal muscle for function, plenty of definition, and a large phallus with a wide knot sitting above a pair of burgeoning nuts.

He entered the fox in a heartbeat, the vulpine crying out as his virgin ring was taken, moans and grunts coming out of him as he felt the massive organ entering him, the divine essence he'd ingested making his rump more accommodating. He looked up into the lion's eyes and weakly pulled him down to nuzzle him, whimpering again and again, "Talu'stin cru'danna Vendel..." The fox spurted his second bounty as he moaned it again. "Talu'stin cru'danna..."

"Talu'stin cru'danna, Ner'talen. Prin'trenas bor'zen Akai." And then he kissed the fox, long and hard and with a passion he hadn't known since he'd first held Akai after mating him but... He hadn't said that, but the words came out regardless. 'You are my eternal companion, Ner'talen. May our son be as wise as Akai.' He felt himself cum during the kiss, the most satisfying heat he'd ever felt coming out of his body, pouring into the fox, seeding a son there. The fox's eyes were wet when they broke the kiss, even as the scene started to fade away. A light seemed to fade from the lion's eyes as his climax abated, the lion's chest heaving as he nuzzled his lover.

"Vendel?"

The lion nodded. "I told you I was godblooded." He chuckled nervously, then looked down at himself. "Look what he did to me..." He then noticed the changes in his lover. "To us." The lion observed the fox gently stroking his belly, and blinked. "Did I... did he... Are we going to..."

The fox nodded. "My father told me you'll know when you're seeded and..." He took a few seconds to catch his breath. "And you, him, both of you, I don't know, but it's inside me. We're going to have a son. What do we tell people?" Ner'talen looked around at the others, who had all been enjoying the show. "I mean, no one's going to believe that *Urion* is real and was here and..." He pointed to his belly.

"Then I guess we raise him as ours, and if he's meant to be something, he'll be it. In the meantime..." He grinned, slipping a finger down to the fox's tailhole. "I'm a lion, Ner, you know I'm not done yet."

The fox chuckled. "Gee, all it took was possession by a god to finally get you to want to be on top."

***

It was minutes, hours, weeks before Urion emerged into consciousness, but the grove was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he found himself in an empty stone chamber, a natural spring behind him, some sunlight ekeing from above, but dim enough that his eyes still had to adjust. There seemed to be no exit, was he trapped? Imprisoned? There was no need to eat or drink anymore, so what would be the point.

He began to remember the experience in the temple, the sting of mortal existence coupled with the intense bond he'd felt with Vendel, and the bond his distant descendant had shared with his lover, the child he'd helped conceive. Another son he would never know, who would grow up without his "heartfather" as his people called them. A son who would face a changing world with only one voice to guide him. It didn't seem fair.

In the meantime, there was a greater concern: boredom. An eternity in a closed chamber posed a difficult challenge.

"Would they even notice that I'm gone? Vendel, Ner'talen, their friends, they seemed... surprised that I came. My temple disused, my people hunting with... technology instead of their cunning. My worshippers considered backwards? *Bumpkins*?" He sagged against the wall. "Do they... not need me? Will they forget me?"

The prospect sent a surge of anger through him, enough that he hit the wall with his open paw, his claws digging into the stone, deeply. It was as he freed his claws from the wall that he was struck with a solution to both of his problems. "They need to remember me..."

He rose, and turned to face the wall, extending one claw from his finger to dig into the stone, writing in the language Akai had taught him, "Behold the chronicle of Urion, god of the hunt, god of war, god of the noble, protector of the Akaian, and sire of the Emperor's line. Know the course I have steered you through. Know the reverberations of my choices, which ebb as ripples from my mane. Know my love and wisdom, my children, and remember me."

He began as far back as he could remember, with a Vulpin named Gren that he taught to make a snare, and going forward from there to the night Akai was brought to him, and spared by his mercy, the day he swore his protection for the males who chose to love another male. He etched every detail he could remember of his time with Akai, every night, every long conversation, every word of advice so that the tiger's wisdom would live on. When he reached the edge of the wall, he began on a new one. When the walls were filled with his markings, he began on the floor. When the floor was filled, he wrote on the ceiling.

And as he wrote, he lamented the loss of connection to those of his blood. He could see through the mists of time, behold them as they grew from cubs to adults, advanced through their lives. He watched then become great warriors, heroes who saved their nation, their Empire from onslaughts he'd never been aware of. He heard them compose music that wrenched his heart, seemed to encapsulate his longing for Akai. He felt them as they found their mates, had their own cubs who would begin the cycle again. Every time he would occasionally whisper advice to them from all he'd experienced, everything he'd seen and heard both from his own existence and the lives of his children. He would speak to them, never knowing if they heard him or not, but it gave him comfort to believe that they did.

Time passed as he watched through the mists, his solitude given the balm of his memories. He would reread his chronicle, particularly the Akai passages again and again, smile with contentment at his description of his hunts of Bambus, there was always something new to review, or that he wanted to relive. There was always a child or grandson or great-grandson or descendant for him to visit through the mists with special pride, or offer advice to correct them when they made a misstep, even if he knew they probably didn't hear him.

It was preferable to the darkness, to being alone amidst all the carvings.

Something happened though, when he returned to the beginning of his chronicle. He'd had to exert considerable effort to see through the mists to the memory of his first meeting with Gren, when he'd arrived in the world from above. He remembered telling Gren he wouldn't hurt him, and showing him how to make a proper snare, but... he couldn't understand his words. It was a language that felt like he'd heard it in a dream. It was a secret language, if he remembered right, that he'd shared with Akai, but he hadn't met Akai yet, so why was he speaking it in that memory?

It was too confusing to think on, so he moved on to Akai, spending more time in his memories of the tiger, intentionally avoiding the final day, a passage he'd needed days, weeks, years to write, sometimes only a word before skipping ahead to a fresh part of the wall. It still didn't seem fair, that Akai had passed into the sky, leaving him alone to shoulder the weight of the plight of his people, without him even getting to tell the tiger that he...

"Talu'stin cru'danna Akai." He hung his head, tears splashing into the stone as the words had finally come, his heart finally awakened enough to feel it, his mind wise enough to recognize what he had had with Akai. "Talu'stin cru'danna."

Why hadn't he said it? Why hadn't he told him? He looked upward, but could not see the stars, only the stone ceiling. Were there still stars, or had he been in the chamber so long they had long since burned out, and only darkness and the void would be waiting on the other side of the walls?

Memories of Akai became frustrating soon afterward, the lion subconsciously yanking himself out of the memories to condemn his foolishness, his demands that he follow his advice, to tell Akai that...

That he loved him, that he would be his eternal companion.

But the memory never changed. The words were never said.

Millennia of sworn protection, countless encounters with other males, but it had taken this long to accept that it was not out of necessity, out of loins deprived of a female's touch, but that he too was Akaian, that his heart would only belong to another male, to a male who had long since passed, and waited for him somewhere in the stars above. If only Akai had known as he died in his arms, that the god he had loved for decades truly loved him in return. His love deserved no less.

And he'd failed.

Urion found himself caught in that circle of thought for... he'd lost track of time by then. Nearly all his time was in the mists, looking back, forward, sideways, at nations, villages, individuals, whatever mood took him. Idle curiosity kept him returning to the mystery of the strange language, though. How could he have been speaking it before he'd met Akai? Had he taught himself that language from there, so far in the future? Was that his means of trying to tell Akai what he felt? Obviously it had failed if that was the case, because he couldn't remember telling him.

Maybe the answer was in the time before he'd met Gren? He hadn't just appeared when the Vulpin had needed someone to teach him how to hunt, so what had he been doing before then? It was so long ago, before the Empire, before the nations, when his people were just a scattered array of tribes bringing him bitter rats.

No, bitrr'ats.

Right?

Had he been calling them bitter rats? Where had he come up with a word like... rats? The thinking was hurting his head, taxing his focus as he tried to push further back, only seeing through his own eyes, but...

His paws had been all... small. And smooth. Soft. Hairless. Hands. He'd had hands at some point, that was... The effort was becoming painful as he pushed back further and further still, to a massive chamber that seemed strangely familiar, holding a stick in his hand that produced light, the walls covered in...

In his chronicle. *His* chronicle. But how was that possible? Could the past be so far flung it could return as the future? If that were the case, if he'd return as... He couldn't remember the term. But if he could leave a message for himself, maybe he'd remember, he'd tell Akai and his love wouldn't die unloved!

But how to leave the message? The walls and floor and ceiling were covered in the chronicle, and he couldn't bring himself to mark over it, given it might be even longer before the cycle closed and began again.

It was then that he was pulled from the mist by the sound of stone grating against stone, a slab in the wall being pulled back and pushed aside, bright lights blinding him at first, his eyes having gone too long without real light. Wait! He had emerged into the chamber with a stick that produced light!

"Tell Akai you'll love him eternally! Swear it! You'll love him eternally!"

There was no response, the figure entering the chamber tall, nearly his own height, well-built, dressed in odd clothing and carrying a heavy pack. The figure whistled softly, the sound echoing. "Wow. What did I just find..." His voice was male, and he leaned his head toward a small black box on his shoulder. "Hold off for a while, just found a new chamber, and... I think I've got something here."

He flashed his strange light at the wall, whistling again as he saw the text there, and then gaped in amazement as the light shone on the passages written on the floor, the ceiling. "Mez'rek vin'tan! What is this place?"

"It is my chamber, my chronicle." In the light he could see that the male was leonine. He caught the subtle scent off his body, not his son, or even a son of his son, but a descendant, one of his own. But he did not react to his words. "Scion, please, I see you. You cannot know how it warms my heart to see one of my own."

No response, but he made his way to the wall, shining it on the beginning, taking out another small box, which shone a beam of blue light on the text that waved back and forth over it. "Mez'rek... This is... *ancient*." He talked into the strange box again. "Okay, halt everything. Now. You're not going to believe this, Captain, but... I think I just found the Grand Temple of..." He looked at his little blue-lightbox. "You-Ryan? That sound familiar? Hold on, it's translating. This is in a language we haven't *heard of* in centuries, much less seen and this is... Mez'rek, this is *pristine*."

"Hear me!" He practically roared at the lion, who kept tapping away at his precious little box. Urion sank to his knees. "Please, hear me. You're the only real thing I have left."

"Behold... the chronicle of Urion. God of the hunt, god of war, god of the noble, protector of the Akaian... The Akaian?"

A voice came over the little box on his shoulder. "Akai, you're not coming in all that clear. Sounded like you found a temple from the dark ages or something?"

Akai? His name was Akai?

"Captain, this could be a major find!"

"Every archivist thinks that even when all he found was a dead bitrr'at. It doesn't matter. Exodus is in three months, just do your job, scan, record, and we'll load the schematics for the Archives." There was a pause. "You get that?"

The lion sighed. "Yes, Captain." He then touched the box, and it went silent. "Wonder if Akaian's the same as akain..." Grumbling, he started unloading his pack, several more of the blue-lightboxes, which started waving their lights over his chronicle.

He continued reading from the first lightbox, "Sire of the Emperor's line. Know the course I have steered you through. Know the reverberations of my choices, which ebb as ripples from my mane. Know my love and wisdom, my children, and remember me."

"Urion... Wow. This is from... mez'rek... the Empire. Maybe even before." He sat down on the floor, taking out a flat piece of metal that suddenly shone with light and then covered itself in bright text that Urion couldn't read, the lion still oblivious to his presence. "Urion. An ancient figure of pre-Empire mythology co-opted throughout Imperial history as a god of the hunt, and then used as a god of war. Huh... Worship of Urion involved strict rules regarding the protection of akains, stemming from the legend of Akai, his mortal lover that Urion lifted to the heavens upon his death. Huh, so that's how heartdad came up with my name."

Urion placed his hand on Akai's shoulder, but the lion didn't react. He continued to read from his strange slat of metal, occasionally flicking at claw over it which caused the text to change. "While evolutionary science has since proven that male conception evolved from a lack of fertile females, Urion was, at the time, considered responsible for the trait. Those of the Leonid race were highly regarded in Imperial society, as they were considered as "godsons", or direct descendants of Urion himself, despite evidence that the Leonids are an offshoot of the Tigron race." He looked at the text. "So I'd be considered the descendant of a god, huh?"

"You are, Akai."

And the lion trembled. Turning slowly, he looked around the, to him, vacant chamber. "Is someone here?" He got up, shining his lightstick around, even directly at Urion at times, but not seeing him. "Must be hearing things..."

"You heard me?"

"Stop that!" He checked the box on his shoulder again, panicked. "This isn't funny, okay?"

"Akai, can you hear me? Please hear me."

"I hear... you?" He rubbed his face slowly. "Mez'rek vin'tan... I'm losing it. Air must be bad down here, or maybe... I don't know... Who are you?"

"You are reading my chronicle. I believe you know who I am."

"No, because Urion is a *myth*, okay? A legend. A story. That's all. We don't have gods, we have science, technology, art, we don't need simple explanations for things anymore."

"And yet, here you are, in my temple, talking to me."

"I'm here to archive anything I find, that's all. And I'm probably just going crazy, okay? All I'm here to do is scan all these texts for the Archives before we..." He looked unsure on how to continue. "Before we leave. Before we leave and you're just a history lesson." Akai trembled, looking about still for the source of the voice. "Gods aren't really real."

"A fox named Ner'talen thought the same thing, until his lover Vendel claimed his birthright."

"Ner'talen?" He shook his head quickly. "No, that can't be right..." He tapped at his slat, which showed more text, arranged in the shape of a tree. He moved the text upward with his finger until... "Ner'talen Dres'kray, bonded with Vendel Gren'mal..." He sank to the floor. "No, I've seen vids of them, they're in the family archive, Vendel was the heartfather, not..." He looked upward and looked upon a god. "You."

Urion knelt in front of him. "Why do you fight your birthright, Akai?"

He met the god's eyes in a way only Akai himself had been brave enough to. "Because I don't want it. I don't want to be some mythical descendant of some long-dead god. I want to archive this chronicle, upload it to the Archives, and pick my settlement plot for the Exodus."

"You're... going to another nation?"

The lion laughed. "Nation? We're going to another *world*. This one's been used up for a few years now. It took the last of our resources to build the liveships so we can reach it quickly. We're archiving all historical sites and artifacts and taking our history with us, and leaving all the physical stuff behind. You're just a relic who'll..." His face softened. "Be... uh..."

"Left alone." Urion looked at the floor.

"Mez'rek... I'm sorry. I... I didn't mean to snap at you, that wasn't fair. It's not your fault. I just... what do you want from me?"

The god looked into the lion's eyes, so like his own. "I want to be remembered, that's all, And I'd like to leave a message that will remain after I'm gone."

"Wait, that's it? I mean, you realize I'm scanning your whole... place here, right? It'll be in the Archive, the depository of our world's knowledge to be retrieved by anyone and everyone to reproduce in holo-form if they want. The Chronicle of Urion will be forever part of our history, our record. You'll be remembered as long as someone feels like reading it." He reached over, squeezed the god's shoulder, surprised that he was able to make contact. "I'll read it, okay? Every word, once my Trenas finishes translating it. As for your message..." He dug into his pack. "I could probably rig up something for ya. Make it blend in with the rest of the room if you like, you'd be surprised how much you can do with holo now..."

With that, he set to building something from things in his pack, some of their technology no doubt, whistling tunes that were unfamiliar, but catchy. "So... if you don't mind me asking, how long you been in here?"

"Since your ancestors." He motioned to the chronicle. "I found ways to spend the time."

"Weird. But, at least I'll have a religious text that's straight from the source." He continued tinkering away. "So, I'm named after some legendary tiger, huh?"

"My love. He died... a very long time ago, but he rests amidst the Sky'wen Cru'danna, waiting for me, I hope."

"So, why aren't you up there with him, then? You playing hard to get or something?"

"I didn't tell him how I felt. That's why I'm leaving the message. Someone will come that might aid me in that, but I must be certain he understands the weight of the message."

"What's the message?"

"Talu'stin cru'danna Akai. Nu'las vunn. Talu'stin cru'danna."

"Well, I can link that message here to the door, so that your friend can't open the door until he agrees to swear it. That's nu'las vunn, right? I haven't used Imperial since my second year at Academy. Already recorded it, it'll practically shout it at him to get his attention." He then stepped away, revealing an ugly stack of technology. Seeing the god's disgust, he tapped his metal slat, which caused the air around the stack to shimmer, giving it the appearance of a monument, the glyphs of the message stacked atop each other in stone. "There. All set. Should go off if he even gets too close to it."

"Thank you, Akai. You cannot know how much this means to me."

"Well, in the off chance I'm not hallucinating? You're family, that's what you do for family. I hope it works out for you."

"Akai." He crossed the chamber to the young lion and embraced him tightly, and after a moment felt arms holding him as well. "Your father named you well."

"Heartdad, actually. My father wanted to name me... ugh... Tanna." He slowly disengaged from the embrace. "I don't understand though, why don't you just go to him? I mean, if you're a god, can't you just fly up there to him or something? I didn't read anything about you angering other gods, so what's stopping you?"

"I didn't tell him I love him."

"But you do?"

"I do."

"So, you've been making him wait just so you can avoid an awkward moment?" He snerked to himself. "Mez'rek... at least now I know where I get *my* weird relationship issues."

The god folded his arms. "And I should abandon my people? My children? Akai would understand that you all needed me and my guidance."

"Well, we don't *now*. We're leaving, we're out of here. We don't really need... you, or any god anymore." He stood on his toes, kissed Urion's forehead gently. "It's okay. If this chronicle's true, then we're proof you raised us right, but there comes a time for every child to move out of their father's house and make their own way. You can let us go, Urion. You're no longer on paid time."

"And what of you? What if you need my guidance?"

"You'll be up there, right?" He even pointed emphatically to make the point. "I'll look up and ask. Just make sure you're easy to find, I got pretty low marks in astronomy. Now go on. The message is set up for your friend, hopefully that'll smooth things over between you and your lover."

Urion returned the gesture to Akai, kissing his forehead gently. He wanted to lay a blessing on him of some sort, but his words held him back. They weren't wanted, or needed, his descendant wanted to make it on his own. "Thank you."

"Well, if I ever settle down with a handsome tiger, I'll name my first son Urion, okay?" He smiled, to which the god smirked, his eyes looking through the mists a moment.

"Thank you, even though the heartfather of your twin sons will be Ursonian. Don't worry about finding him, you'll both know at first scent." He nodded once. "I seem to only keep one foot in this time, past, future, they are becoming simply words to me."

The blue lightboxes finished their scans at that, and Akai collected them slowly, occasionally glancing at the god. "Ursonian? Really? But bears are so... Really? You're sure it was an Ursonian?"

But the chamber went dark before he could answer, the mists swirling through his vision again, his eyes adjusting to find he was once again alone, only the new monument to keep him company. The want was there, to leave, to find his way to Akai, his Akai, but he needed to know that the message had gotten through. Despite his descendant's insistence, he had to try to repair his mistake, say what had not been said.

And longer after the world went silent, long after the terrain eroded and rebuilt and died and was reborn and rebuilt itself, when even Urion himself could barely hear his own voice, it happened.

A strange looking male fell through the ceiling, into a natural pool that had formed over the millennia in the back of the chamber. He was hairless, small, weak-looking, and muttering words under his breath that were utterly alien to the god, and the male seemed to not notice him at all. The male blithely ignored the chronicle, walking his wet feet over it, and found the monument, the device miraculously producing the message. "AKAI WILL BE YOUR ETERNAL COMPANION! SWEAR IT NOW! YOUR ETERNAL COMPANION!"

The male looked confused, saying some more of the alien language before saying aloud, "I swear it", causing the door to open, the god sighing in great relief. The message had been delivered, Akai would know of his love, and they would be together at long last.

But... nothing happened.

Hadn't the message been delivered? He'd sworn it, the male had sworn it! Akai would be told! Why hadn't Akai been told?

He'd failed. Urion had failed. There was no belief left in him, not even in himself. The god of the hunt, of war, of the noble, and the wise, faded from existence, forgotten as the dust in his chamber...

***

"How?" He was... somewhere. Somewhere dark, but not alone. Someone was holding him, someone warm, familiar. There was no scent, but he knew that touch, yet he could only ask the single word that emerged more as a thought than a voice.

"Because there is still one who believes in you, Urion. Who never stopped."

Lips pressed against his own, and he felt as if his body was made of light as he felt him. The light within him surged as he returned the kiss. "Akai. My Akai. My Akai, I love you. Talu'stin cru'danna Akai. I will shout it until the end of time if I must." He embraced him tighter. "Will you forgive me? For not telling you when you were alive? For making you wait all this time?"

"I have always been with you, Urion, always watching over you, and now, we can watch over our children together. Our light will shine upon them no matter where they travel."

"You received the message, then." He felt relief at that, but he felt Akai shake his head.

"You spoke to yourself in Imperial, Urion. You did not learn it until you met me. You did not understand your message, but you still found me, protected me, and loved me until my final breath, even if you could not find the words. I forgive you, Urion, even though there is nothing to forgive."

He felt his heart grow brighter as he held his love in the darkness. "Then we shall watch over our children, together. But not quite yet." Urion pressed his body firmly against Akai, following old instinct to enter his lover. "For you and I have many nights apart to make up for." The first of many joinings occurred that night, and the night sky bore witness to their godly love.