Book One – Chapter 10

When Midnight had wondered whether Gods were just powerful females who birthed an extensive amount of offspring, Yves had expanded her understanding. He had said that some Gods were credited with creating fundamental elements of the world, such as water or stars. From that, Midnight had concluded that Gods were grand females with unique abilities. And they were revered for these abilities by lesser beings, as long as they used them for the benefit of the worshippers.

Such a God was, to Midnight, not a beast worthy of respect. Lesser beings had their own affairs, and there was no reason to interfere with them. In her analogy, Midnight might well be a God to any random group of insects. She could be unique and very different for any herd of fersis, if she suddenly decided to establish a territory for them and protect them from any other predator. They could worship her as their protector. If she dug them a stream, they could name her their Goddess of Water. They might even agree to repeatedly and ritually sacrifice one of their own, as some peoples did for their Gods, to satisfy Midnight’s hunger. And if she did so for decades and without allowing her fersis any contact to prey outside of her territory, there might even be generations that worshipped her without knowing that she, too, was a predator, and that they, to her, were nothing but prey. She would be a God to them, but she would be a lesser beast to any other pathera, because she would abandon her existence as a predator. She would sacrifice her pride as a hunter for the admiration of lesser beings. Being worshipped by prey was to feast on fear and illusion.

These unsettling and unsatisfying conclusions had been Midnight’s thoughts on the concept of Gods. But now, her encounter with the DΔϢΠΙΠƓϛ had drastically reshaped her understanding. None of her previous assumptions held true. Because now, Midnight believed she had encountered true Gods.

The DΔϢΠΙΠƓϛ were overwhelmingly different, and, though she did not yet understand what it was, they had given Midnight something unique. But this was not what made them Gods.

While Midnight acknowledged her status as a lesser being to them, she had not felt like prey, not like a fersis facing a predator disguised as a protector. She had been overwhelmed and overpowered, yet she had not felt deceived, nor that the DΔϢΠΙΠƓϛ acted contrary to their nature. Instead, she had sensed a profound connection, a knowledge embedded within her. She knew their name, even though she had never heard of them before. The knowledge had been there, in her, just like breathing, just like taking energy from the world. It had been there all along, and it had awoken upon touch.