The Scared God [ManXManXMan]

Chapter Eighteen: Нутро - Nutro

~Chapter Eighteen: Нутро – Nutro~

If the nightmare was just a one-time occurrence, then I could have brushed it off as the result of a bad day. However, they do not end, and, most importantly, they do not change. The same dream attacks me every time I try to sleep, until I start to consider just not sleeping. It is not like I am sleeping very restfully right now, anyway, so I do not see how it could be any worse than giving up on sleep entirely.

By all rights, I should be happy to see them die, so why do I always feel the need to seek them out as soon as I wake up?

I try to remind myself that it does not matter, that I do not care about Hors or Perun, but I still wake up with stringing eyes and a feeling of despair in my stomach. Getting out of bed in the morning becomes a chore, food tastes like little more than ash, and the books I try to read as a distraction are impossible to focus on. It is easy at first to blame it all on the lack of sleep rather than the dreams, as they should be my enemies.

However, by day four of the unending nightmares, I realize that, while I can deny caring about Perun – because I don't; he actually is my enemy, after all – I cannot bring myself to hate Hors. While I would never tell him this, I do not actually want to see him dead, which means that, if there is anything I can do to keep him from being killed or used as a hostage by the Greeks, then I need to do it because, no matter how I look at it, Zeus' goal had to be Hors.

So, by day five, I have a plan.

It is a complicated plan that relies mostly on luck and has already used up about two days' worth of my saved up magic, leaving me with just enough for a couple teleportations. So far, all I have done is – successfully – sneak a letter through the wards with a little magic. Since neither Hors nor Perun have commented on it since I sent it, I can only assume they did not, by some miracle, feel me send it. Though, since I could not receive one back, I can only hope that it reached the intended recipient and that the king god I contacted will be waiting for me at the chosen location, as there is no way I have enough magic to enter another pantheon's realm on my own otherwise. If all goes well, though, I will see him early tomorrow morning. If not, though, this could be very dangerous.

Which is why I'd rather not do this alone.

I wait until Hors and I are alone shortly before breakfast, though, as I am not foolish enough to bring it directly to Perun without testing the waters, so to speak. "Theoretically," I start, drawing Hors' attention from the fruit he is chopping up at the counter, "if I could gain us an entire pantheon of allies, would Perun agree to meet them?"

"That depends," a voice in the doorway replies, startling me. Perun raises an eyebrow at me curiously, but I turn away from him to hide my grimace. I had approached Hors because I wanted to get a feel for how Perun would react, which clearly will not be happening now that the king god is here. "Who would it be with, and why would we need allies?"

My brows furrow. "Why wouldn't we need allies?"

"Allies are often more trouble than they are worth," Perun replies solemnly, shaking his head as he takes a seat across from me at the table. "There is no way to guarantee the loyalty of an entire pantheon that is not our own, and taking allies will prompt some other pantheons to pick sides, whereas they would normally remain neutral. Not many pantheons would willingly choose the Greeks, but some pantheons hate other pantheons more than they hate the Greeks right now."

I bite the inside of my cheek. He's not wrong.

"Who were you thinking of allying with, Veles?" Hors asks, stepping out of the kitchen to join as at the table.