Deone’s question lingered in the air and, for a moment, there was thoughtful silence.

  The moment was broken by Wes and Timely shouting at the same time. “Join my Alignment.”

  “Your Alignment?” Petra hissed, slithering up to Wes’ side and casting him a dark look.

  Wes could not blush red, nor choke- he was the Deity of Oceans, liquid would ever and always cloud his lungs- but he seemed to do both, just then.

  Timely saw his opportunity and pounced. “Looks like there are three agents of… nature, I guess.. but you aren’t like them, are you? You’re more like me and Wen. Like… uh….” He said floundering.

  “We are Gods of Mortal Concepts,” Wen finished for the War God, holding his hands behind his back. “We are Gods of abstractions. Our Alignment is,” Wen said paused to stroke his chin “… sensible.”

  “Weren’t you joining Ze?” Ayaan said. “I could have sworn I heard you agreeing to an alliance of Games and Gambling…” The little man, only a hand’s full height, called from Ze’s shoulder while twirling his oversized waxed mustachio. Ayaan was clearly rooting for his new friend in this political fight.

  For her part the newest Goddess, Songbird, glanced about at the Pantheon now vying for Deone’s attention, took a deep, slow breath and dropped smoothly into a lotus pose.

  Khadijah, the Goddess of the Sun who had, thus far, Aligned with no one, simply looked… confused. But she folded her arms and said nothing, stubbornly refusing to ask the many questions flickering across her expressions.

  Petra slithered forward a step. “I don’t know about… abstractions or whatever Wen is going on about but I do know how to count. There are three of us and two of them. If there are four of us, we have a powerful Alignment.”

  Zuzu spoke up, just then. “We already have a powerful Alignment, snake Goddess. What he has is a powerful Perk. One that he has already used on the three of us, without our permission.”

  Wes glanced back at Zuzu, furrowing his bushy brows while Petra flicked her forked tongue and smiled, immediately picking up where Zuzu was heading. “True, Fire Goddess… We were forced into a… what is it, Deone?” she asked, turning Deone’s way with a flick of her thick, blonde braid. “A Contract? I think that means you owe us, doesn’t it?”

  Deone narrowed his eyes, casting a reflexively protective hand over his satchel. “That isn’t how this works. I did not force anyone here to make any Oaths before me.”

  “And yet,” Zuzu continued in her musical lilt, “you have, you did and here we are. What are we to make of that, Petra? Wes?”

  Wes, finally catching on, nodded and spoke in a voice that rumbled through the nothingness surrounding them. “I feel… deceived. This is the kind of power I would only allow an Ally to hold over me.”

  “Us,” Petra corrected.

  “Yes, us,” Wes continued, glowering at Deone. “You will Align with us. Or I… we… might get offended.”

  Timely strode forward and stepped in front of Deone, his massive hand warding Deone back protectively as he stared down the God of Oceans. “Don’t threaten our friend, here, Wes. We made an Oath too and have just as much reason to be pissed off at the God of Accountants, here.

  “However,” Timely said, looking back at Deone with a grin, “Me and Wen aren’t petty Gods. We won’t bully you into joining us. We offer you a chance to join the winning team, Deone. All fair and equitable like.”

  “I almost feel forgotten,” Cortez, Goddess of Pleasure, sighed while stroking the velvet fabric along her clavicle. Gary, God of Death, returned to his entreaties for the Goddess to join him.

  Khadijah, suddenly realizing her position, flexed her power and flared with a moment of blinding light that made all but the Goddess of Fire wince.

  “No!” Khadijah shouted, stomping a sandaled foot. “No. You will join me. You will join me because I am the only one here that can protect you from these others. I am the Goddess of the Sun. I am strong on my own and I need no Alignments. Come to me,” she called, offering a hand while the depthless dark of her hair shifted over the blazing light of her sari, “take my hand and I will shield you.”

  Deone almost took offense but it was Ze, suddenly appearing at his shoulder once more while Ayaan continued to ride theirs, who spoke instead. “Is he so weak that he needs protection?”

  Ayaan, like a parrot on Ze’s shoulder, spoke up echoing the sentiment. “Looks a touch thin but not at all weak.”

  “Indeed,” said Ze, nodding at Ayaan then turning their attention back to the rest of the Pantheon. “I see before me a God of Death and a God of War. I see Gods of Nature, Magic and… in my case, a little madness,” Ze winked at Deone just then. “I see a Goddess of Art and a Goddess of Pleasure. I even see… a God of Crime.”

  At that, Ze placed an arm around Deone’s shoulder. “And for all that, I do not see a God of Law and Order.”

  Ayaan chimed in as he strolled from Ze’s shoulder onto Deone’s, leaning a hand against Deone’s bronze bald head. “I guess this guy will have to do, won’t he? You never answered your question, Deone. What does happen to a follower who breaks their oaths?”

  Deone feigned thoughtfulness a moment, playing to Ze and Ayaan’s theatrics. “Why,” he said ponderously, “I suppose that is entirely, 100 percent my choice isn’t it?”

  That brought the group to another moment of stunned silence. Just as a new round of bickering was about to begin, the guiding voice called an end to Songbird’s requested break.

  “We will resume the Pantheon’s choosing of Free Perks. We will begin with the Last of the Pantheon, Songbird. Songbird, you have 2 minutes.”

  The bickering ceased like an abrupt spring rain as the thirteen arrayed Gods, Goddess and Deity brought up their menu’s once more to see the Free Perks randomly made available to them from a greater pool of divine power. This Perk, each recognized, was the last chance to increase their personal power and get a competitive edge in the God’s Game.

  Like the rest, Deone brought up his menu. This one, he noted, included descriptions of what the Free Perk could do—putting each of the Pantheon on the same level of knowledge.

  Once again, Songbird, the yoga stretching Goddess who needed only a moment to choose her Domain, choose first and choose quickly; the rest of the Pantheon barely had 30 seconds to digest their options before the Goddess spoke.

  “Monotheism,” she said, still serenely sitting in a lotus pose.

  “Monotheism,” Timely mumbled, glancing her way.

  Even Wen seemed surprised, considering aloud. “A monotheistic God of Art? That seems… imprudent.”

  Ayaan, still atop Deone’s shoulder and mock-serendipitously peeking at an option’s menu overlayed with Deone’s (they could not see each other’s menu’s, Deone knew, but Ayaan’s view seemed to be peeking at his), pipped up, stroking his mustachio. “Every work of Art in the Mortal Realm dedicated to her power and every artist her dedicated follower…. Amazing what you can do with a couple of clever perks, eh Deone?”

  Deone himself had been so focused on the abilities of their Godly Perks that the Free perks seemed like an after-thought until he ruminated on Ayaan’s absent quip. A Goddess who had passive Faith bonuses from Art, Song and Sculptures… whose every follower only believed in her? Art had power, soft power and suddenly every other member of the Pantheon had no access to what she had. Every idol created in their name would give her power and every one she converted would be hers, absolutely. Deone considered the strangely… average… Goddess of Art and Song, stroking his chin beard. Timely was loud. Wes was powerful and his Alignment was clearly a group of major players. Songbird, though…. Songbird was in the image that Deone saw himself. Clever. Only… better. Clearly, clearly better.

  The entire Pantheon felt the weight of their final choice before the game begun fall on their shoulders, stowing the bickering and politicking to intensely study the Perk menu before them and their descriptions.

  Deone himself was winnowing at his choices when the Guide called for the next to choose:

  “Cortez, you are next to choose. You have two minutes.”

  Whereas the velvet suited Goddess of Pleasure quickly picked her Domain, with a firm idea of what she wanted from this campaign, she seemed thoughtful when considering the choices before her.

  Timely, God of War, conferred with Wen, seeming to get into a private argument. He was a late choice, as one of the first to choose their Domain, and seemed to be disagreeing with his Aligned Deity over their path to winning the God’s Game.

  Petra and Zuzu seemed to have a few words while Wes, hovering near them, moved as if to speak but said nothing. Khadijah, Goddess of the Sun, seemed eager. Ze, Deity of Chaos, seemed placid. Ayaan, still on Deone’s shoulder, began to quip.

  “What do you think? Blood for the Blood God? Or Soul Sacrifice? Although, I do like this… Unspeakable Name perk. Perhaps, Holy Realm? Hmmm…. Tell me, Deone, do you see me more as a tiny God of human sacrifice or at the head of a legion of Mini-Mes?”

  “I see you as a tiny pest, so a plague of locasts makes a certain sense but... with that mustache, I’d go with Demi-God fertility. Go be the Holy Tom Selleck.”

  Ayaan’s eyes went wide a moment as he stroked his mustache thoughtfully. “I know you’re joking but that isn’t half bad…. I am quite the potent… personality.”

  “Hmmm,” Deone hummed to himself, considering his options. An Angelic Host would be useful, spreading his admittedly thin power out with powerful agents bond to his Domain…. What would angels of Contracts look like, he wondered idly. Winged lawyers? Angels whose wordplay could conquer countries? At the same time, Deone knew he had more of a soft power- every Oath was his to curse, he knew, giving him passive power over the rest of the Pantheon and their followers… perhaps he needed something that would more actively add to his Faith points. Architecture of Awe? Supreme Mathematics, perhaps?

  As he ruminated on his choices, Cortez, Goddess of Pleasure, began to speak and the rest of the Pantheon looked up from their menus, watching with baited breath.

  “I choose…” she said, pursing her inky black lips. “I choose… the Heretic’s Spear.”

  “What?” Timely shouted, throwing his hands into the air. “What the fuck is a sex Goddess going to do with that? What game are you people even playing?”

  “The Game,” Cortez said with a sly smile, casually stroking the collar of her black velvet pantsuit, “is keep away.”

  The Pantheon glanced around to one another.

  “A weapon that can kill Gods, manifested by one of you idiots? No,” Cortez said with a smirk. “I don’t think you boys should play with this particular toy….”

  Wes spoke up in his rumbling brass. “I will make an Oath, with Deone here, right now, if you summon that weapon for one of my followers.”

  “Well, I’ll,” Timely began before Cortez interrupted.

  “No deals,” Cortez said, waving a hand to the assembled Deities. “I keep this and I use this exactly the way I feel like. No God killing weapons… for any of you.

  “Oh, disembodied voice?” she said, sing-song. “Time to move on, don’t you think?”

  The voice chanted out for the next of the Pantheon to choose. “Young-So, you have two minutes.”

  It was only a moment, with Young-So saying nothing, his face betraying no emotions, before the omni-present voice called out in its calm, deep baritone: “Young-So, God of Crime, Children and Travelers has chosen Animal Companion.”

  Zuzu’s blackened brows rose over the flames of her eyes. “I see the guide is a blabbermouth.”

  “Free Perks,” Songbird said softly, “are open information. I think we agreed on that.”

  “This was within the parameter’s set prior to the campaign,” the guide confirmed while Young-So, ever enigmatic, continued toying with the odd dagger he'd manifested, rolling its blade over his long, delicate fingers. “Zuzu, you may choose your Free Perk. You have two minutes.”

  The Heretic’s Spear, objectively powerful as the only artifact in the pool and the only way to kill a Deity, was off the board, as was Monotheism (a powerful passive perk, Deone realized) and now, Animal Companion. Frankly, the God of Contracts could not see the strength of this Free Perk but it was already clear that the rest of the Pantheon were clever. Songbird alone had seen angles, had found strengths that the rest of the Pantheon had previously seen as weaknesses, and worked to her advantage. Deone needed to do the same. The rest of the Free Perks seemed powerful but Deone himself was middle of the pack for choosing. He’d have to sift through whatever Zuzu, Khadijah, Ayaan and Ze left behind.

  Deone stopped thinking of himself, what would strength his own abilities, to focus on the Deities who would choose before him. Who were these people? Zuzu had a list of gifts floating on a blue panel in front of her eyes… if she were like Cortez, that choice might seem completely random to the rest of them but, like Songbird, that choice might be genius for when playing to her own strengths.

  A Goddess of Fire… already powerful on its own. And Zuzu was Aligned with other nature-based powers, already bound via the Contract that Deone felt glowing warmly in his satchel to never have enemies in the two other, considerably powerful, Deities in her Alignment. What would she choose? Deone tried to guess but considering he only knew his, Wen’s and Songbird’s Godly Perks, it was hard to know what she might consider a weakness that needed shoring up.

  Again, in that musical lilt of hers, Zuzu flipped her charred dreadlocks and called out to the unseen voice of their Guide. “I believe,” she said, “I will choose something powerful. Something that will help both me and my Alignment. I believe I will choose… Lessor Pantheon.”

  She flicked out her tongue, tasting her dark and full black lips. “The more the merrier, yes?”

  The rest of her Alignment nodded in agreement, Petra patting Zuzu on her smoldering shoulder while Wes simply folded his arms, looking pleased.

  Ayaan whispered to Deone, still perched on his shoulder. “A Fire Goddess with her Pantheon of child Gods? She’s bringing the heat, isn’t she?

  Ze, close-by and overhearing, nodded. “That is a lot of fire power.”

  “Certainly lighting a fire under everyone else’s ass, isn’t she?”

  “She's burned us, that’s for sure,” Ze continued before the voice spoke again.

  “Khadijah, you are next. Two minutes to choose your Free Perk.”

  Khadijah, Goddess of the Sun, wrapped in her glowing sari that shifted with the light of a blazing star, needed no time to choose.

  “I am the Origin God,” she called out, her voice strong and clear. “I began where this world began and I am where it shall end.”

  “Typical,” Zuzu muttered. “The Goddess of the Sun is an egomaniac.”

  “I am not an egomaniac,” Khadijah snapped, stamping a sandaled foot. “I am the Sun. The world literally revolves around my Domain. I will be respected!”

  “The world revolves around you?” Zuzu said, laughing softly. “You have the Ego for a solar system.”

  “It’s an objective truth,” Khadijah said, huffing. “A cosmological and now mythological truth. Have all the children you want but you can’t take that away from me.”

  “Heaven forbid,” Zuzu said with a smirk. “No one gets more attention than the sun.”

  Khadijah did not seem to mind this back-handed comment and, indeed, shifted her chin up haughtily.

  “It’s all fun and games to pick on people who can’t tell they’re the butt of the joke,” Ayaan said while Khadijah cast in a confused glare, “but it’s my turn and I don’t need any time to consider.

  “Deone, my friend, I think you’re right. Guide? Give me Demi-God Fertility.”

  The guide acknowledge his choice while the rest of the Pantheon cast each other confused glances.

  “Ayaan,” Deone said, speaking for the rest of them, “you’re no more than 4 inches tall. How, exactly, are you supposed to impregnate… well… anyone?”

  “I suppose I’ll just have to find out, won’t I?” Ayaan said, hopping down from Deone’s shoulder onto the featureless expanse of the ground. As he landed, he seemed to slow, floating down and touching the floor with barely a wince before turning and looking up at Deone’s giant form. “Anyway, figuring out that will be the fun part, won’t it?”

  Deone gave Ayaan an uncomfortable smile while the guide called out, once more.

  “Wes, God of Oceans and Storms. You have two minutes.”

  Deone swept a glance over the remainder of the Free Perks and knew what Wes would pick. He, like Timely, had shown himself to be a God preoccupied with short-term Power, which left him only a few choices that made sense for his play style.

  Deone waited for him to call for a Sacrifice based perk when Wes surprised him, calling out, “Unspeakable Name.”

  Deoned blinked. The power itself sounded… interesting… but the power didn’t seem in line with what Deone thought the Ocean God would want to use to win the game. Was he going full Cthulhu?

  Indeed, as if sensing the unspoken question on the many Deity’s lips, the great God shrugged his massive shoulders. “It sounds cool.”

  That, undeniably, was true.

  Seeing his shrinking options, Deone quickly shifted his golden eyes back to the Menu and realized he was only a choice away.

  But first, he thought, considering their lanky, relaxed form, came Ze… the Deity of Chaos.

  As if reading his thoughts, Ze returned Deone’s gaze… and offered him an unreadable smile.