The Argument

"Gods and Goddesses do not argue with mortals. An argument implies dispute, and there can be no dispute, for the Gods are always right." Baj groaned out loud and rolled his eyes, earning him a sharp sting of pain from the Goddesses' mental whip, dropping him to one knee. "Know your place mortal, and mind your manners." Elyria said with and edge of steel in her voice, and perhaps just a tinge of genuine hurt as well. Baj knew better than to respond as he had, but he just could not help himself. The Goddesses pith philosophical sayings on the nature of Gods and mortals never failed to irritate the ever living crap out of him. The many which touted the great superiority of the Gods, like the classic she had just spouted off, caused him the most distress. She, of course, knew how he felt and that is exactly why she favored saying such things in his presence. He slowly recovered his wits, and grimaced at the lingering pain in his head. At that moment he was sorely tempted to jab at her again, but he held his tongue. Of course he feared the pain of Elyria's punishments, but more so than that, he had no wish to actually hurt her, and it seemed by her reaction to his words, he actually had. Baj often thought how strange it was that a being of such power, who had fought near omnipotent Gods, and monsters so terrible the mere sight of them would cause a mortal to die from fear, could be so easily and deeply hurt by but the slightest of words. He was not sure if that was more a reflection of the awesome power of words, or the overhyped power of the Gods. No matter the reason, it was certainly the case that he could, and had hurt the Goddess very badly on many occasions with his words, much more so than with any actions he had ever committed. While he did regret those words (mostly), he was glad for them as well, because they reminded him that mortals were not totally powerless against the might of the Gods. With DisKord threatening his world, and all existence, he knew mortals and Gods would need every possible tools at their disposal if they had any hope of defeating the ancient lord of chaos.

Now was not the time to dwell on such dark thoughts though, and he quickly pushed them from his mind. He looked up from his bent knee just in time to see the Goddess staring directly at him with her crystal blue eyes. Her beauty overwhelmed him for the moment and he could not help but gasp. This pleased her greatly and a smile lit up her face like a fiery sun causing his heart to skip a beat and his pulse to race. He berated himself internally for his reaction, but in truth it could not be helped. Any mortal would respond the same in the presence of a Goddess, any Goddess. This was not some special beauty that only the Goddess Elyria possessed. It was simply the way of Gods and Goddesses to be magnificently beautiful, at least to mortal eyes. "If you can put your tongue back in your mouth and stop drooling, perhaps we can palaver for a moment on my plan for recovering my Elyrian spears from that half wit of a so called God, Loki." the Goddess said to Baj, causing her smile to widen even further and her soft, plump lips to part a bit more as she laughed softly. Even more so than her smile, the Goddesses' laugh affected Baj more deeply than he was comfortable with. Whenever she laughed, even if at his expense, it caused his heart to warm and spirits to rise. This was not some trait all the Gods and Goddesses possessed like their great beauty, but rather was the result of the years of close companionship and even friendship (of a sort) between the mortal Baj Califi Expatrianus and the Goddess Elyria. Their relationship was dysfunctional in the extreme, fractured and tortured and very, very painful at times, but in the end they both held deep feelings for the other, though neither would ever admit that to anyone, including themselves or most especially each other.