Heavenly Discourse (Force Topic)

[Kender Bard]

"Taed!"

Efil shrieked her rage through the Veil, causing it to tremble. From the opposite end of the realms, she heard Taed laughing with mirth. "You smug bastard! Come here!"

Taed's chuckles continued to echo softly as he strode towards Efil's realm, trailing ethereal fog behind him. He bowed deeply to Efil, grinning. "You called, my sweet sister?"

Her hand lashed out to slap him across the face. Taed held his cheek and smirked.

"Remove your protection from those two worms of Morilanta!" Efil demanded. "This instant! How can even you protect such excrement?"

"I will remove the protection," Taed assured, but then held up a finger. "Under one condition."

Efil seethed but asked, "What would that be?"

Taed smirked. "Give me your mortal daughter."

"No!" Efil snarled. "What game are you playing? I refuse to believe you would orchestrate all of this just for Harmony!"

Taed gave a slight shrug. "You're right," he admitted. "I don't care too terribly that you let yourself play the whore for a mortal who's love for you is tremulous at best. Nor do I care for a child get not in love but in lust, a bastard child who is now stuck in the incapable hands of your brief fling."

Efil's hand came back to slap Taed again but the Force of Death lifted his own hand to catch her by the wrist. "But I do care that now you have given yourself a grave weakness, one which mere mortals could exploit," Taed pointed out. "This mass murder in Morilanta is but the start of what will be wrought with time and your continued stubborn refusal. Would you stand by and let so many die so that you could protect the one or two mortals you've invested yourself in too heavily?"

"I will get help in breaking their protection," Efil insisted, but sounded somewhat desperate as she did.

"From whom?" Taed inquired. "Etaf?" Both Forces looked to where their older sister stood, transfixed, ignoring their squabble. "I think she's just a tad preoccupied at the moment filling in for our still-mortal siblings."

"Thuoth is close to re-ascending," Efil pointed out.

Taed snorted. "Hopefully the little scholar will be smart enough to not get involved in our squabble. I think you're very alone now, Efil. And unless you agree that this dangerous frailty you've invested yourself with is eliminated, there will be nothing to console you as you listen to the screams of all the mortals who look to you with love and trust."

Efil just stared, tears filling her eyes at the choice she was presented. Taed released her wrist and she drew back from him, rubbing it. "I will give you time to ponder, sister." He bowed again, then turned and strode away.

[Kender Bard]

The Forces had been gathered. Etaf was free from her duties of maintaining their realms. And, so, they were brought together to discuss one more problem – Efil.

Taed and Efil glared at one another hostily from their realms. One could almost feel their energies charged, like a stormcloud. Soahc breathed in deeply – he enjoyed dissent. Worg and Thuoth were uneasy. Etaf stood amidst them all, the great mediator.

“I want to go back down to the mortals,” Efil finally stated.

Taed was quick to reply, “You cannot. Your duties are here.”

“I cannot do my duties when so distracted!” Efil cried.

“You can and will,” Etaf warned Efil. “You have strength greater than you are crediting yourself. If I said, this moment, you may never return to your love and child, you would go on.”

“In misery!” Efil added, her voice a painful mix of anger and anguish. A thick silence fell over all of them momentarily.

Etaf cleared her throat. “I propose you make a mortal body, my sister. Breathe life into it and invest it with your will – a facet of your being, like what you use to visit the mortal realm while maintaining your station here. Only this aspect of yourself will be cut off from her mortal source. She, Filly if you wish to retain that identity, will not know anything that goes on beyond the Veil. You will not invest your awareness in her. You will give her this newfound passion so you can return to your duties undistracted.”

“I don’t want to stop loving Schuldig in heaven for the sake of doing so on earth,” Efil protested.

“Divide yourself however you see fit,” Etaf responded, shrugging slightly.

Worg snorted softly. “She is being a fool. It is ill-befitting of her. Love? She is not in love. She is drunk off of the exhilaration of being alive in the way only a mortal can. It is her element. Why should she not want to return to it? However I see no future for her there. Mortals are capricious.”

“Selfish,” Taed added.

“Fickle.”

“Egotistical.”

“Generous beings!” Thuoth cut in, looking angrily at his brethren. “They love, they feel so deeply. They are capable of greatest Evil and greatest Love. We know this, damn it all, so why are you two being so bull-headed.”

“Because they didn’t get laid,” Soahc giggled. The Forces glared at him. “What? Oh fine. They got screwed, but not in the good way. Look, look, if Filly got thrown into a passionate love affair and it’s hit her so hard here, then there’s no reason to believe that the rest of us wouldn’t either. I mean, look, Thuoth, you’re being very emotional right now! What happened to cool and calculated logic? Taed, since when did you give a rat’s ass about anything outside your little world? Worg, you used to be flexible.”

“And what has changed on you?” Worg grunted irritably.

“Nothing!” Soahc laughed. “But I am fickle anyway. If I changed, how is it different from any other change? Hm? No? Well anyway, I think we should just let Filly do what she wants if it’s not going to interfere with the running of things. I doubt it will either.”

“Thank you, Soahc,” Efil murmured, feeling strangely touched. Soahc walked over to her, taking her hand.

“One condition,” he said with sudden seriousness. When Efil cocked her head inquiringly, he added, “Tell me… How good is he in bed?” He retreated before Efil could slap him, giggling madly.

Worg still felt a bit stung by Soahc’s words. She retreated silently into her realm to ponder the events. Thuoth did likewise. Taed continued to stare hard at Efil. The Force lifted her chin.

“Will you be as you were before?” he asked, coming to stand before her. His tone was carefully guarded.

“Perhaps, but I think I will be a little more compassionate,” Efil admitted, trying not to flinch before Taed’s deep and unending gaze of darkness.

“I don’t want you to go,” he said, very, very quietly. “I don’t want to lose you to the mortals. You are so smitten by them. Your place is here.”

“If I do this, there will be no ‘leverage’ against me as you put it,” Efil retorted, her own eyes narrowing slightly. Taed glanced downward managing to look a bit contrite but still stubborn. He took her hand – it was soft and warm against his icy cold skin.

“We fight often, but you belong to me,” he said firmly. “Since the dawn of time we have danced together, bringing renewal to the world. Life and death, death and life, over and over again. This feels wrong to me, this strange mortal liaison.”

“You’re jealous!” Efil exclaimed, surprised and a touch amused as well. He gripped her hand until she gasped in pain. “Stop it!”

“Being amongst the mortals was an unpleasant experience to me but it did touch on something fundamental to me,” Taed went on, relaxing his grip. “Worg and Thuoth are realizing that same thing, that essence of what Soahc spoke of. Perhaps he’s always understood. Perhaps Etaf has as well and that is why she sent us. There is something deeply human in us all, even if we are something set apart from our creations. There’s a little bit of mortal in us Forces. I think that’s why you’re so drawn to the mortals.” He pulled her closer and suddenly hugged her tightly. “It’s perhaps why I really am jealous. Why I’m afraid of losing my sister, and other half.”

“Oh Taed,” Efil murmured and returned his embrace. “I shall not leave you. Not until the end of days.”

“Then you have my blessing,” he said gruffly and let go of her as though her touch burned him now, and strode hastily back to his own realm. Etaf smiled slightly. She gave Efil a slight nod of her own.

“You may go,” she agreed. A blue rose was suddenly in her hands and she handed it to Efil. “Give this to Brad for me. And… have a good life.”

Efil smiled, feeling a thrill of hope shoot through her. Now she just had to convince Schuldig. She hurried to her seeing pool and stepped into its waters, disappearing.