Chapter 11

Titus

The wishing God

Tangled Fates

278 Years Prior

CW: Sexuality

Titus opened his eyes, the rush of the cold mahogany on his shoulders sending chills down his spine.

He looked into Nyx's golden eyes for a long while. They both said nothing as they watched one and other. He rested his hands on her hips, feeling his thumbs circle her hip bones which pressed gently into his palms. He clamped down on her as tension built in his chest. He felt frustration and growled. "Take me into the Shroud again Nyx." He pulled her closer to him so their bare chests met and kissed her longingly. Finally...

There was a sweet release to it. He could taste her honeyed lips and feel the pressure of her soft lips on his part on his own. He wanted to absorb her, the way she seemed to absorb him. Her lips gave way parting for their tongues to intertwine. Nyx pulled away from him, longing in her eyes. "I can't take you there again. The Shroud is not for anyone except Syriah, myself, and the Weavers." Nyx kissed his neck and murmured. "Let's stay here." The warmth of her breath sent a chill up his neck.

He pulled her from his neck and looked at her repeating, "Take me into the Shroud." He remembered the cold air of the place, the silence of it except for the hissing of wishes.

"Why?" She tilted her head and ran a finger down his chest smiling coyly at him.

"Because with every story I heard, every man, or woman who you teased, I listened and found you'd never taken them there. You flew to tops of the castle, and even to the catacombs below your temple, but never there. And I think I know why." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead and then looked deeply into her golden godly eyes watching their reaction intently. "It's where you're vulnerable, isn't it?" He asked. His breath quickened. Her breath faltered. She refused to speak.

"It is, you took me there as a child because you weren't fearful of me. But if I go in there now, a man, what could happen?" His hand caressed her back longingly and held her tightly as he turned her over. He lay above her, her hair covering the white pillow and slaying out like black spider webs. "What changes in there that the Weavers, Syriah, and yourself are the only ones allowed?" He asked breathlessly.

He caressed her lips with his index finger and she sucked on the tip of it before he could pull her away. Her facade of grace and impertinence lifted for a brief moment as he asked these questions. Her voice cracked, "It's not safe. You could go mad. Sometimes I think I go mad in there." She winced.

He chuckled, "I'm already mad Nyx. I'm mad for you, I see you with every shadow I don't recognize. You think I can sleep knowing what I know about the world, that it could come to an end in an instant? About Chaos's corrupted magic? That out there as we speak one of the Gods of War may or may not find her splintered spirit before it touches the hollowed ground and we can interfere?"

Nyx changed the subject.

Their faces were only inches apart, the heat of their bodies separated by only the sheet. "Chaos was once good, you know. Before the madness set in and her Essence was disrupted and shattered. She was my sister, in many ways we were similar in the way we disrupted the world's balance. Besides Syriah, she understood me most..." Nyx hesitated. "She was just so young... She had centuries to learn and wouldn't listen to father. Bred from that silly thousand year human war. How long has it gone on now?" She looked up at him and whispered.

"From what I've read its twenty five hundred years now Nyx."

"I see, I've been trapped in Sunshard a long time then." She smiled and pulled him in for another kiss. He collapsed and let his hands trace her breasts, her shoulder, her stomach, as she kissed him on the cheek her longing evident.

"Even if I was never allowed to have you Nyx, I would never forget you." He whispered. "And I don't think your father, or mother have either... Not any of the Gods." He pushed aside her hair and exposed her face to him and cupping her cheek he leaned down and kissed each of her eyelids.

She gulped. "Take me into the Shroud with you. Please?" He kissed her cheeks, and then her nose. "Let me see the world the way you do. The way you won't let others..."

Nyx closed her eyes and then firmly pushed him aside. She sat up cross legged, the white bedspread covering her thighs as she moved to pull it over her. He looked down a sudden sense of modesty washing over him. His face flushed with embarrassment.

"If I take you, and you die, I'll have destroyed what little chance we have of beating Chaos's fractured mind. What then?" She sounded sorrowful and fierce.

"Or what if my choice to enter, is part of the whole picture?" He sat up straighter. "Isn't it the person who makes the choice that moves the Tapestry of Fate forward? It can't all be set in stone can it?" He asked.

"I don't know... I used to think I provided free will, and Syriah provided the balance of destiny. I could hear the wind bringing me wishes from the whole world and her thunder lighting the sky with fate's hand. I could answer each maddening whisper or tune them out depending on my mood. But as time goes on I wonder if I even have free will? I was born to serve every desire humanity has..." She folded her hands in the blanket and looked down at them shyly. She felt selfish even thinking it.

"But what of you Nyx? You've finally been woven into the Tapestry. You say so yourself, Syriah won't show you your part. So your choices must matter, don't they? For her to obscure your destiny from you when you know clearly you're involved in the prophecy." He asked, pulling her gently by her wrist to lay beside him. She turned on her side and looked into his eyes then smiled.

"Perhaps..." She lifted a hand to take his in her own. "Are you sure about this Titus?" She asked him. "You really want to enter the Shroud?"

He nodded.

He had never been so sure of anything in his life. It was the only way to save him from her love madness.

He had realized it some years before when he spoke to Elowen in the temple. The only difference in the mad artists story and all the others she'd taken was the Shroud. In fact, there was no story of the Gods from any of the men and women of the past to ever describe the Shroud. There was talk of course that the Gods who controlled fate: the Weavers, and Syriah, and Nyx had some secret place even the rest of the Paragons couldn't enter... But it was a mystery to the mortals of the world below. All except Titus. Its absence from their mythology felt purposeful and it was what caused his realization that it's secrecy meant something more than just coincidence.

Nyx took his hand and the world turned a slightly darker green. He watched the threads of fate which attached themselves to Nyx, covering her in a swirling light. Purple chords, blue, golden, and even black, hissed and arched on the floor beside him. They writhed across the bed, and snapped at him.

He looked down at three which connected from his own chest to Nyx's. He lifted a blue one, and took in it's sensation. It made his arms ache and his tongue taste of metal. "Don't do that." She pulled it from his hand and as she did so their fingers touched.

The metal taste turned to tangerines and lemongrass. His eyes widened as he saw the moment in front of him. He was sitting alone in the tavern, a small glimpse of what he believed was Nyx floating outside the window before she disappeared.

He longed to see her again, to touch her in that moment. Nyx dropped his hand and released the chord the vision ending as abruptly as it had entered his mind. "You shouldn't be able to watch it as I do." She looked up towards the ceiling.

In this world, the roof of his flat had faded away creating a sort've transparent shelter. They looked out, both listening to the cracklings of their desire and the chords. The sky was brighter in here, the stars more alive. Nyx pointed, "Can you see my brother?" She turned her head to ask him.

Titus followed her gaze, taking her hand in his own and holding it at their sides. "Where?" He asked.

"See the stars, that one twinkles brighter. He lights it with his torch." Titus followed Nyx's gaze and watched as a new star burned brighter. "I can see when he makes new stars from the Shroud. Sometimes I enter it just to watch him move across the sky. It's the closest I get to home." She murmured.

"I see, it's beautiful. The Torchbearer does the night sky justice." He watched her illuminated profile as she looked up and took in her beauty. He kissed her cheek, in the Shroud it sent an electric jolt through him. It wasn't altogether painful, instead crackling and making him feel pleasure in his stomach as it flipped.

"He was stolen as a boy, by the humans. I think that's why father punishes them still, taking away their magic... That and the retribution of the night. My father sent the darkness to them..." Nyx went on.

Titus new the story but not of the magic. "But out of pity, when my father brought him Lael home, he started to light the night. He felt their punishment too great, their Essence to the Original Mother cut from them like a chord and the darkness too much. So as long as he carries on to light the sky, my father allows it, though... Often half heartedly."

"He can't still hold such a grudge?" He asked her.

"There's not a grudge my father lets go of without some punishment." She winced. "Look at me." She gestured around her. She didn't like the subject and turned to him picking up a red chord that protruded from the palm of his hand. "Isn't this a love wish? For someone other than me? You naughty man." She winked. She lifted the wish, holding it in her hand and moaned sending visions of his fantasies into his mind. He gasped as he looked both at her and the woman he'd been longing for. "Thera..." She whispered. "I see, unexpected but... Yes, good. Good for you when I'm gone. And she has feelings for you too." She smiled as toyed with the red chord using it to pull his hand close to her cheek where he laid it on her pushing her hair back.

"Don't grant it Nyx," He said breathlessly, "Leave some of these things as merely passing thoughts." He tilted his head and looked into her eyes lovingly.

"How could they be, if they manifest? You just have considered them enough? Felt them enough?" She tapped the red wish mischievously, and allowed the flow of her Essence into it.

Titus let out a guttural moan as he felt her Essence enter her within the Shroud. It was like being submerged in the warmest of springs. His eyes rolled back in his head, "Nyx, no." He managed as he moaned and gripped her wrist. The wish began to turn into green dust and return to the green mist around them. "Why would you do that Nyx?" He pleaded. "Undo it."

"It's been done, she feels the same." Nyx shrugged, "Besides I have to prepare you for when I'm gone. At least Thera will be one to watch you."

"Undo it Nyx." He said more sharply his hand tightening on her wrist. "It's my life."

Her eyes danced with pertness and she shrugged. "I'm the Wishing God, Titus. Not the Wishing-Undo It God." She laughed and climbed onto him straddling him once more. He couldn't ignore her nakedness. The light of her wishes danced around her, some of them climbing the ceilings like vines, and others moving around the floor like snakes.

He picked up a random green wish tethered to her chest and winced. It jumped from his hand and sizzled. He looked down at his red fingers. "So some of them don't like you after all then?" She seemed pleased as she lifted the green chord. "Interesting." She said as she looked into the distance and watched its secret vision.

"What do you see?" He asked her grabbing her hand again to let the vision be shared between them.

"Huh," She smiled, "Not this one... But there's a man in the Neutral Expanse, a scar across his cheek. You'll accept him into your guard when he comes." She told him. Titus nodded, unsure as her eyes moved left to right but did not see the room around them.

Nyx was more beautiful in the shroud and more commanding. "Okay, I understand." He nodded then looked around, "How do you stand the sound of them all?" She sighed and fell to the bed beside him once more when he asked.

"I listen to them all day. They long to be heard. But mostly I live in between the Shroud and the human world. You say it's loud in here, have you tried standing next to the guards at lunch, or the temple when the bell tolls?" She laughed.

"I haven't, why, should I?" He let his hand fall to her stomach and trace invisible lines. Sometimes the chords lit up as he touched he, he picked them up lightly touching them and had brief visions of a few wishers. "What about the other wishes? Outside of the Sunshard? Can you hear them?" He asked her.

She turned onto her side to face him. "I can hear the elves. Not so much any others. My father cut me off. I can only assume Syriah and her Weavers do their best to grant them." Nyx made a face, her nose scrunching. "Though, I suspect that's how they released Chaos through losing the balance. No one really knew what it would be like to lock me, one of the Paragons, in here; though they did spare me for fear of sending the world into disarray."

"What do you mean?" Titus lifted onto his elbow in fascination. Hearing her tell the story directly was incredible.

"The Paragons, my father Altherion, my mother Vaylith, my sister Syriah, my brother's Wrath, Gore, Belarus, Quill, Aelor. Chaos.... Morsis, God of Death, and Maerenkin, God of the Sea... The twelve Paragons."

"I've only heard of the eleven. Whose the twelfth?" He asked her.

"She's yet to reveal herself to us. But we hear her in the Ether as she manifests." Chaos looked at the stars again and watched the Torchbearer in the night sky. "Ah," She laughed, "My brother is done setting them alight. I wonder if he'll create a new constellation soon. You know, he's a wonderful artist."

"What do you mean, you hear her manifesting?"

"Ah— Well, the Paragons can sense when a new God will be born from desire. I felt it when Chaos was born. There was so much blood shed from the humans, so much destruction... They bred her into the world.'

"She festered with the Original Mother for centuries of course and then eclipsed. Do you remember when the volcano in the west erupted covering all those poor cities?"

Titus frowned, "I've read of it. I'm sure Anne or other elves recall."

"That was her birth. But the new God is quiet. She is not needed yet."

Titus lifted his hand from her stomach and let is slide down her legs parting them. He felt a throbbing within himself and couldn't wait any longer for her. She let him open her legs his fingers trace invisible lines on the inside of her thighs.

"What about your wish Nyx, to not be forgotten?" He asked her, pulling himself onto her. She watched him closely.

"I've already been forgotten Titus." She seemed sad.

"Not by me." He told her. "I'll ensure that you're remembered."

He took in the scent of her, honey, tangerines, lemongrass, and mint. She watched him giving away nothin as he spoke, her lips meeting his to quiet him. He pulled away. "What is it that you want?" He teased looking into her golden eyes.

She moaned softly. "You for starters." She told him.

"Ask nicely." Titus kissed her warm lips.

"Stop it Titus." She told him, trying to make it sound like a command.

"Release your fear." He kissed her neck and she moaned as a shiver was felt down her neck.

She moaned loudly, "It's too hard Titus, you'll leave me like they all do."

"Just ask me Nyx. Ask me for what you want." He let his face bury deeply into her neck, Her warmth filled him with an electric tingle.

"I don't know what I want." She pushed his chest off of her and watched him as she spoke. "No one's ever asked me what I want. For now, can't the answer be you."

"The answer can always be me." He smiled kissing her, feeling her as their bodies joined his heart warmer than it had been in his entire life. The feel of their lips and bodies merging into one.

She tasted sweeter than she had smelled, almost like honey and apples. She filled his sensed, her moans setting off the chords of light that spread from her chest. She felt around grabbing at the sheet. The lights around them buzzed loudly and sent refractions of purples, green, blue, and yellow dancing across their faces like a rainbow as they molded together as one.

He held her hands in his own and then lifted one of the chords together threading its light in their hands. The chord tugged at her as he wrapped it around their wrists and guided it between her lips meeting her own. The blue light of the chord lit their faces as they kissed, tasting the chord, feeling the essence of the wish within them. He thrust his hips gently forward and her eyes flashed open as she moaned the chords lighting around them all at once.

He needing her more than he ever had needed anyone. He gritted his teeth as the room lit, rainbow light refracting around them as she arched her back beneath him. He kissed har neck, her eyelids, her cheeks, her mouth. Thee room tasted and smelled of roses the lights danced and hissed around them. He watched her golden eyes flash with all the colors of the chords as her Essence surged within her.

"You've show me your vulnerabilities the way you can only know mine." He said.

The room lit up once more the green mist absorbing the answered wishes that had glowed around them moments before. They no longer pulsed as their essence returned to the Original Mother. They hissed, the sound getting softer and softer as they entered the mist again. He kissed her lips and tucker her hair behind her ear as he allowed himself to disappear into her body. He watched as the golden glow of her Essence filled him as he became one with her. She looked at him, her eyes filled with a deep vulnerability and passion. As he watched her, her mouth opened and from it came a thin long silvery chord which he reached out to touch.

It slipped from his grasp as he reached for it, moving with a life of its own. Tears welled in her eyes as he finally grasped it. It was small, smaller than any of the wishes he had seen on her body. The silver wish latched onto him, extending itself to his navel where it attached. As it did so it fed him a vision that both he and Nyx watched. Her fear as she was born into the wind, and then Nyx, looking down from a golden balcony in the sky he did not recognize surrounded by golden flowers. She wished to be known, wished to be loved. He felt something inside him as he held the wish in his hand, a small fracture of her entering him. His eyes lit as hers did and he touched the chord, sending light through it, he granted her wish.