Avesh sighed as he glanced at me.
“Have you ever noticed how all gods are of a positive nature—life, justice, nature, knowledge?”
I nodded, realizing that he was right.
“Where are chaos, suffering, pain, grief, wrath, envy, and pride?” he asked. “No gods are of an ill nature in this realm. And as the God of Knowledge, I thought that was strange. It does not make sense. There is good and evil in life; it keeps the balance. So, why are there no ill-intended gods?”
“Did you find your answer?” I asked.
“Yes.” His eyes shined brightly. “It is because of this picture right here.”
He pointed to the image of Malamay and Diath.
“They were in love.” He smiled sadly. “The first and only fated mates to both be gods. From what I gathered, they were veryhappy. But the longer they were together, the more mischievous Diath was with her powers, even behind Malamay’s back. Then, one day her cleverness caught up to her. Diath had tricked Malamay. See, as gods, their children would likely become gods themselves, but they still needed tobirththem naturally. However, Diath, did not do that. She combined their stars andcreatedtheir children. She broke laws of the gods to create new gods. A direct violation against the heavens and old gods. What Diath didn’t disclose either was that she had been born from a black star and therefore was not physically compatible with her mate. Kind of like you and Holden.”
“A black star? I have never heard of such a thing,”
“A dead star.” He looked at me. “It is what ill-intended gods are made from. Where you are born from a bright, healthy star.”
“But the stars would step in if it was that bad.”
He shook his head.
“As gods, we give too much power to the stars. They are more like a middle man between the heavens and gods. The stars have not been a governing entity for a long time and hold no real power. But the old gods were tired of being in control of everything, so they created the stars to help out.”
I looked at him, still not understanding.
“The seven sins were born, Della. They aren’t just simply an idea from a garbled religion; they are living gods—wrath, envy, sloth, greed, lust, pride, and gluttony.”
I scoffed.
“There are more than seven sins.”
“Correct, but all sins are derived from one of these desires.”
That made sense.
“Well, they aren’t here, so where are they?” I asked.
“The stars demanded retribution. Malamay was given an ultimatum by the old gods and heavens. He had to kill either his seven children or their mother in order to keep the balance.”
What the actual fuck? Avesh met my gaze, nodding like he agreed on how fucked up that was. I stared at the picture and realized he chose to kill their mother.
“He killed his fated mate, Diath,” I whispered.
“He literally reached into her and ripped her soul out,” he sighed heavily before continuing. “After it was done, the old gods were still wary of the destruction and chaos they might cause, so the children were sent to hell to live—where they could use their naturally given… negativity to rule the tortured and lost souls. It was a win for them. Diath happened to be the first and only goddess to be born from a dead star, and her actions forbid any more ill-intended gods from being created. The heavens made sure of it and did not allow gods to be mated to other gods."
“Where is Malamay?”
“After he ripped out Diath’s soul, the old gods killed her out of both pity and fear. No god should live without their soul. Can you imagine all of that power and no soul to control it? She had to die. Malamay could not live with himself. So, he did to himself what he had been forced to do to her, and he ripped out his own soul before ending himself.”
“Shit. That is heavy.”
“Yeah, some real fucked-up shit,” Avesh sighed. He glanced at me and frowned. “If you have not ripped the souls from any gods lately and killed them, then it is safe to say this man you are talking about is not a god if he was reborn. You would have had to rip his soul out of him completely to kill him and allow the rebirth to happen because gods can't die any other way.”
"He was stabbed; that is how he died." I told Avesh. “So, what is he?”
Avesh slammed the book shut.
