Page 46 of Touch

Love’s brows punch together. What else does he want to hear?

He waits, his mouth crooking. “I take it you’re not used to conversation.”

“Says the local recluse,” she volleys.

“That makes us equal, but I’m still better at conversing than you.”

“No one is better than a deity at anything.”

“Then get over yourself.”

She slaps the rug. “This is why I said foryouto askmequestions. Explicit ones, if you please. I cannot read your mind.”

“We’ll pace ourselves.” Andrew leans forward, draping his wrists over his knees. “Where do you come from?”

“Our world is called The Dark Fates.” She describes the landscape of their realm, with its amethyst cliffs, starlit waterfalls, and mineral caves. “And yes, there are more like me. As such, there’s a hierarchy.”

Deities are the rulers of emotions—a pantheon called Dark Gods, who prevail over humans. When they’re young, they’re split into crews and trained to be archers governing whichever emotion they’ve been created for.

“Emotions,” Andrew echoes. “Not gods of oceans and goddesses of mountains.”

Love gives a noncommittal shrug. “Do you know why your people are meant to exist?”

“Give me your theory.”

“I suppose because emotions dominate people in heart, body, and soul. They’re the roots of all actions and reactions. That shapes their fate.”

Andrew scrubs his jaw in thought. “If a typhoon comes along, your emotions don’t have much of a say in whether or not you die. That’s also destiny at play.”

“You’re overthinking this.”

“I’m a fantasy author. Comes with the job. Just ask the people who leave me one-star reviews.”

Love cocks her head. “Humans use celestial symbols to rate artistic expression?” Then she disregards that tangent. “Forget nature. It belongs to itself. Aside from The Stars, we have no connection to the elements. That’s why we cannot burn or freeze to death, but that’s also why we can’t tell nature what to do.”

“To make it a crucial job, countless emotions would need to exist.”

“Surprise, disgust, sympathy, gratitude, shame, hate, joy, bitterness, hope—”

“Okay,” he chuckles, the masculine noise rumbling from his chest. “I believe you.”

Satisfied, Love nods. “I was taught from childhood. How to control my strength and speed. How to interpret emotions, human motivations, the flaws and intricacies of mortality, the science of relationships, the weight and precision of an arrow, how to avoid catastrophe—”

“I’m picturing a bunch of militant cherubs. Make it stop.”

“I’ll do nothing of the sort. It’s your vision.”

“For fuck’s sake. When I was a kid, all my teachers warned me about was not to eat the glue.”

Tamping down the impulse to smile, Love explains how there are many crews, all representing different emotions. Wonder, Sorrow, Envy, and Anger are in Love’s circle. During their upbringing in The Dark Fates, they were taught how to master their powers. Then after two-hundred years of instruction, the archers were assigned to different territories of the human realm. Love’s existence is mobile. She travels to new landscapes—the terms can last for days, years, or decades—only pausing when her crew returns to The Dark Fates for an intermission of rest once every hundred years.

Each crew learns from instructors called Guides. The latter are deities who were once archers like her, but they have advanced in life. Once Love is their age, she shall become a Guide as well. She’ll give herself a new name, then create and teach the next Goddess of Love. And so forth.

Andrew taps the rim of his cup. “So it’s generational. How does that work? If there’s only one deity for every emotion, that doesn’t cover a lot of ground. Almighty or not, you can’t be everywhere in the world at once.”

“Apart from The Stars, nothing is almighty’” Love asserts. “Nature and the celestials are the only forces without superiors. Immortals have their limitations. Some are explicable, others are enigmas. My people do what they can, deciding which places most need their help at any given time. On that score, we must choose with wisdom. We’re quite good at it.”

“I have a hard time believing this isolated village needs more love than a developing country.”

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