Part 2
Vordea's story continued for hours and hours, until she finally finished. Leaning back, she surveyed the other Gods, looking for their reaction.
"Why didn't you tell it directly?" Vaust was the first to ask a question, after some silence.
"Many reasons, that I won't share." Vordea answered, slightly disappointed in Vaust. She thought he would understand. "I expected better of you, Vaust."
"No, I think I understand." Vaust quickly added. "Apprentice and Master, so different and yet so similar."
"Hmm?" Xellma asked.
"Sirene and Eigengrau are so much alike, despite being so different. Both resented the roles they had to play, but still gave it their all." Vaust answered, smiling. "I never knew of this binding spell on Eigengrau, though."
"I don't know if it actually exists or if it's just her stubborn personality." Vordea admitted. "But when she snaps, she snaps hard."
"When's the last time she was like this?" Sargon asked.
"Why, you'd have to go back to before the War in Heaven!" Vordea said, herself astonished with the answer. "But make no mistake, Godlings." Vordea said, her tone changing quite suddenly. "Eigengrau is just as capable as I am at ending an entire kalpa. She's done it hundreds of times."
"H-hundreds?" Sargon stammered. "Just how old are you two?"
Vordea smiled in response, and shook her head. "Next question."
"Hang on, we know from Eigengrau that the War in Heaven was caused by your despair from cutting short mortal lives." Vaust said, standing up.
"Correct."
"So you're telling us Eigengrau has ended a kalpa early hundreds of times?"
"Correct."
Vaust sighed. "Does she suffer no effects?"
"Eigen the Hunter grows with power for every kalpa she consumes." Vordea stated plainly. "Ultimately, she sees mortal souls as little more than fuel for her divine fire, which rages like an inferno. She's a lot deeper than she lets on, but it's mostly death and murder under the surface. Especially murder."
"Murder? Really?" Sargon asked, surprised.
"Every serial killer that has ever lived has been poisoned with the whispers of the Death God." Vordea answered, looking directly at Sargon. "She's my best friend and I love her dearly, but she's still the Goddess of Death. Don't expect Eigengrau to not be death."
"Isn't that direct interference?" Zalas asked, as he filed his nails.
"Quite the opposite. Eigengrau is not the hand that holds the blade or casts the spell." Vordea replied, to which Agbus nodded. Vordea then clapped her hands and a chalkboard appeared in front of her, and proceeded to start drawing.
"What are you doing?" Sargon asked, but Vordea ignored him.
Vordea spent nearly an hour on an elaborate drawing on the chalkboard. She was drawing the sigils of every God that Eigengrau had ever extinguished. Then she started drawing the sigils of the Gods she killed during the War in Heaven. They weren't painful memories, until she got to the Primal whose death started it all. Itar, the God of Hell. The Black Angel.
"Itar... I'm sorry." Vordea whispered as she drew his sigil in perfect detail, in the exact order he always drew it.
"What are these?" Vaust asked as he observed all the drawings on the chalkboard, along with Sargon and Zalas.
"Gravestones." Sargon answered. "They're all divine sigils aren't they, Vordea?"
"These aren't even a fraction of the Gods that Mira simply destroyed during the War in Heaven." Vordea answered, deflecting.
"Why are you telling us all of this?" Sargon asked. "It's like you're trying to convince us to kill her."
"Because I like all of you. For the first time in a long time, you are Gods I want to see continue to thrive." Vordea said, gesturing at the sigils on the chalkboard. "You all figured out how to avoid my wrath quite early on, but with the exception of Vaust, none of you know how to avoid Eigengrau's. Sargon, Zalas, Xellma, you need to learn how she thinks to avoid an unpleasant end, hence this discussion."
"I did?" Vaust asked.
"Of course. I see the eyes you two constantly make at each other. She does love you, just keep trying." Vordea said, oblivious to the fact that in a mere 30 years she would be proven quite right. "As for the rest of you, Sargon is in the most danger."
"Me?" Sargon asked, confused.
"The path not walked." Vordea said, shaking her head. "Remember the argument in the Inn, a few decades ago?"
"About the cure for vampirism?" Vaust asked, to which Vordea nodded. "The two of you became quite unhinged, you especially, mantling Insanity of all things."
"We talked afterwards, me and Eigen." Vordea answered, thinking back to that conversation. "About the path not walked."
"What do you mean?" Xellma asked, interested in the lengths the Gods went to, in order to cure Rebecca's vampirism.
"About the failed future we avoided. I..." Vordea paused. Even now, Eigengrau's description of that potential scared her. "No, we killed all of you."
Zalas stopped filing his nails and looked up. Xellma sat up straight. Even Agbus seemed intrigued.
"I murdered Agbus in cold blood, Zalas dies from the psychic pressure, Eigengrau kills me, Sargon, and Vaust. She becomes the the single most powerful being in the universe, surpassing even Mira Frost." Vordea explains slowly, with a shaking voice. "She... she killed me with a single thought."
Xellma was unimpressed, and made it known immediately. "I expected better of you, mother. Eigengrau has a habit of lying to get desired results. What was the outcome of that talk with her?"
"Careful, Xellma." Agbus advised, speaking up for the first time. "You may have trouble reading Eigengrau, but Vordea suffers from no such impairment. Vordea, was Eigengrau telling the truth?"
"Of course she was." Vordea immediately replied, looking slightly annoyed. "Eigengrau is normally very animated, but when she described this avoided future to me, she was scared, terrified. She was like a statue."
"Are we talking about the same person?" Xellma asked. "I've barely seen Eigengrau express emotion in her voice, and here you are calling her animated. She's like a gently alive corpse."
"When you've been friends with someone for over an octillion years, you learn to read their body language, no matter how subtle it may be. To describe Eigen's, it's like she's got a speech impairment." Vordea replied, chuckling slightly as she did so. "Back to Itar for the moment though. His death was the closest I ever saw Eigengrau come to ending our friendship."