Page 8 of Merciless
MARIPOSA
“I’ve had enough of this.”
Freyja had the gall to look surprised as I scooped her up from Shadow’s bed. Once I had her secure against my chest, I darted out of the room in search of Hades. I couldn’t bear to spend any time in Shadow’s room since he was taken. It was too painful being in the room without his large presence filling up the empty space.
Hades was in the living room, belly on the floor and paws stretched forward as if waiting for me. I deposited Freyja down next to him and, after a moment of thought, decided against looking for Horus. The falcon was probably miles high in the sky, and at least I had two out of three here now.
“You all have been dead silent since Reaper and Shadow got captured, and I’m not having it anymore.” I looked back and forth between the two animals, both of their ears flattening down at my confrontation. “Humans alone are no match for this thing, so tell me what you know. What is the Sha? How do we beat it?”
The Sha?Hades repeated the name in my head with a tone of surprise.You are certain that’s what this manifestation of chaos is?
“I think so.” Doubt filled my head as I thought back to when I was almost taken, and Shadow had stepped between me and a gun. “One of the controlled soldiers said the Sha wanted us alive to begin with, when he was going to take Shadow and me.”
A beat of silence passed before the gods responded.
It’s as we feared,Freyja said mournfully.
“What is?” I demanded. “What is it exactly?”
The Sha is the physical embodiment of Set, the brother of Horus,Hades explained.They are direct antagonists of each other. Opposites in every way.
“Okay, but we don’t just have Horus. We have you two,” I pointed out. “Doesn’t that tilt things in our favor?”
The natural order has been slipping toward mindless violence and suffering for generations. The collapse of your civilization has allowed for the Sha’s energy to thrive,Hades said.The Sha exploits and weaponizes humanity’s weaknesses for its own gain. It has likely been waiting for this moment to consolidate such immense power since ancient times.
The death god’s voice was so grave, so serious, but without any conviction behind it. It sounded like the fight had gone out of him, and that scared me more than anything I’d seen so far.
“Can anything be done?” I asked, fearing the answer. “Can the Sha be stopped? Or even…reasoned with? Bargained with?”
There is no reasoning with chaos,Freyja said.No mercy to be found in pure violence, and no bargaining with a force that will never compromise. The Sha’s power can only be diminished by severing its bond to humanity and the physical realm.
“How do we do that?”
By killing its physical form,Hades answered.Just as killing the dog, cat, or falcon we inhabit would sever our bonds with you.
However, it’s not easily done,Freyja cautioned.As you have seen,we enhance these animal bodies just as we’ve enhanced human abilities for you.
“Well, what kind of animal is the Sha? It can still be wounded, right?” My gaze drifted over Hades’ flank, knowing he had a scar under that short, dense fur. He’d been in bad shape when I dug that shrapnel out of his thigh way back when I first got caught up with the Steel Demons. If I hadn’t been there, the dog might have died. And then would Hades, the god, have been able to guide Reaper and the Steel Demons through all of their trials since then?
That is another concern,Hades answered after a long quiet moment.The Sha is represented by no true animal that has ever walked the earth. In that sense, it is completely unlike Freyja or me.
Puzzled, I stared at the stern-faced Doberman. “What do you mean?”
The Sha is a creature not known to humanity,Freyja cut in.If it is not truly an animal that exists, there is a possibility that it cannot be killed.
“That’s impossible.” I rocked backward, still floored by this information despite finding it completely unbelievable. “Everything that’s alive can be killed.”
Gods cannot be killed,Hades said with a slight huff.We can, however, fade into obscurity. It is humanity that creates and sustains us, after all.
We are known to inhabit animal vessels and forge tangible bonds with humans before that happens,Freyja added.It is often a last resort, such as during the onset of a collapsed society.
“So if we can’t kill the Sha, we have to weaken it,” I mused aloud. “And the way to do that is by reducing the belief in Set?”
It is more devotion than simple belief, but yes.
“And how would we do that? Kill his devoted followers?” I couldn’t even pretend that I was disturbed to talk so casually about killing people now. Murder was the lowest crime I would commit to get Reaper and Shadow back.
That is one way,Hades remarked just as casually.Devotion needs to be given freely, willingly, to be a true source of power. The Sha’s true followers are not those he forces into battle, but who he keeps closest. Those who believe in his cause with their whole being.
