The Crippled God

flank of the Spire.
    Reverence strode towards him. ‘Brother, what word do you bring us with such haste?’
    He stumbled on to the altar and pointed to the east. ‘Blessed Pures! In the harbour – ships ! Many, many ships!’
    Reverence noted the alarm and consternation in the faces of her kin, and felt a surge of satisfaction. Yes, unseen threats assail you all now . ‘Brother Diligence, assemble the Defenders and awaken our warren in the Watered sub-commanders. Akhrast Korvalain shall be our bristling wall this day.’ And Sister Reverence? Ah, well, perhaps she will be the Gate .
    Calm and Equity had rushed to the eastern edge of the altar. Both stared for a moment before Equity turned round. ‘Ships of war, kin. Grey as wolves upon the water.’
    ‘Shall we descend and greet them?’ Reverence asked.
    Brother Diligence’s smile was cruel and hard.
    He knelt in the midst of Chaos. Pressures descended upon him, seeking to crack his bones. Torrid winds clawed at him, hungry to shred his soul. But he had walked here of his own accord. In his heart, such savage challenge as to face down the Abyss itself.
    All is not bound to fate. It must not be .
    All is not carved in stone, buried deep and for ever beyond mortal sight .
    There must be more. In all the worlds, the solid laws are a prison – and I will see us freed!
    He had met Chaos with fury in his being, a bristling armour of rage proof against all it flung at him. He had walked into the maelstrom seas of madness, and held tight to his own sanity. And then, at last, he had stood, unbowed, alone, and argued against the universe itself. The laws that were lies, the proofs that were false. Stone a hand could pass through. Water that could be breathed. Air as impenetrable as a wall. Fire to quench the deadliest thirst. Light that blinded, darkness that revealed. The beast within that was the heart of dignity, the sentientself that was purest savagery. In life the secret codes of death. In death the seeds of life.
    He had spoken with the elemental forces of nature. Argued without relent. He had defended his right to an existence torn loose from these dread, unknowable horrors.
    For his efforts, the blind uncertainty of Chaos had besieged him. How long? Centuries? Millennia? Now he knelt, battered, his armour shattered, wounds bleeding. And still it assailed him, sought to tear him apart.
    The fissure that erupted from him first emerged from the centre of his head, a blast of argent fire in which he heard manic laughter. With terrible ripping sounds, the rent worked its way down his body, unfolding his throat, peeling back each side. His breastbone cracked in two, ribs bursting free. His stomach opened, spilling bitter fluids.
    Then there was nothing. For how long, he never knew. When cognizance returned to him, he was standing where he had stood before, and before him two naked figures knelt, heads bowed. A man, a woman.
    My children, born of anguish and need. My ever facile twins. My wretched faces of freedom. Chaos answers with its most delicious joke. Pull and prod, you godlings, you will never know what I lost in making you, this vicious bargain with uncertainty .
    I will give you worlds. Yet not one shall be your home. You are cursed to wander through them, trapped in your eternal games. Lord and Lady of Chance. In the language of the Azathanai, Oponn .
    My children, you shall never forgive me. Nor do I deserve forgiveness. The laws are not what they seem. Order is an illusion. It hides its lies in your very eyes, deceiving all they see. Because to see is to change that which is seen .
    No, none of us will ever see true. We cannot. It is impossible. I give you a life without answers, my children. Walk the realms, spread the word in your illimitable way, Oponn. Some will welcome you. Others will not. And that, dear ones, is the joke on them. And on us .
    I had a thought .
    Now see what it made .
    ‘Is this senility?’
    The cavern shed its fluids, an incessant trickle and drizzle. The air stank of pain.
    Sechul Lath glanced over. ‘You spoke, Errastas?’
    ‘You were far away. Memories haunting you, Setch?’
    They sat on boulders, the two of them, the plumes of their breaths drifting like smoke. From somewhere in the cavern’s depths came the sound of rushing water.
    ‘Hardly. After all, as you are ever quick to point out, I am a man of modest achievements.’
    ‘Not a man. A god. Making your pathetic deeds even more embarrassing.’
    ‘Yes,’