Chapter Twelve: Hailley. The Bluebird Gives Us A History Lesson

Here is Chapter Twelve of Evils: The Other Four.

The Bluebird Gives Us A History Lesson
"So what does the power of eight mean?" the girl, Sabina, asked.

"There could be eight of us, who have something important to do," Jun rationalized. "Or there could be eight enemies that are merging. What exactly is the Merge?"

The god, Lei Kun, sighed. "I'd hoped this day would never come. As you can all tell, both Chinese and Hindu legends are all true. Many other mythologies are true as well. Greek. Aztec. Nordic. Hawaiian. I'm not even sure how many. Many wars had driven us apart, sparking international hatreds in the supernatural as well as in mortal men. So, the gods had decided to separate from one another to avoid future conflicts. The Egyptians, for instance, now have a natural aversion to the things they do not know are from Greek legend. Some had predicted the Merge, a point where all mythologies would be blended together, and gods would be at war once again. It appears that the Merge has come..."

Lei Kun stopped abruptly. "Who is that?"

Just after he spoke, three - or maybe four - other people walked up to us. A dark-haired boy with blue highlights, a girl with mismatched eyes, a girl with messy black hair, and a little goblin-like thing carrying water on its head.

"We are Rengō Kuni," the girl with the messy black hair said. "I am Hana. This is Sari-" she indicated the girl with the mismatched eyes. "And Gary of Something." She indicated the boy. "And this is Kyūri," Gary said, rubbing the goblin-thing's head.

"We got a vision," Sari explained. "We had to come to China to find someone with no legs who could help us find someone who went missing."

On Sabina's shoulder, a snake started moving. I don't know how I failed to notice it before, but there it was. The snake slithered right to the Rengō Kuni." "This is the guy with no legs?" Gary asked. "A snake?"

"Snakes don't have legs," Sari explained slowly. Then she stared at me. "You... you're one of us."

"What?" I said, thinking I'd misheard.

"You're a Rengō Kuni," she repeated. "Of Ohkinunushi, god of farming, to be precise."

"That can't be right," I said. "I'm a liver for the Hindu agricultural goddess, Lakshmi."

Her eyes widened. "You're both. And so are you." She pointed to Sabina. "Of Benzaiten, goddess of love."

"A blend of powers from different mythologies," Lei Kun summarized. "And, Miss Sari, I assume then that you missed the fact that your own Gary of Something is a Chinese alter? Specifically of the insane god Yama. And Hailley is one for Hou-Chi."

"We're... like the heroes of the Merge," I realized.

"The power of eight shall merge into one," Jag reminded us. "Hailley, Sabina, and Gary... we have three already, just five to go."

Sari glanced away for a second. "One more is coming."

A lightningbolt struck in front of the thunder god. Within it, four people stood.

One of them stiffened when he saw us. "Lei Kun," he whispered.

"Heimdall," Lei Kun muttered.

"Why, this must be the first time in centuries that gods of separate pantheons talked with one another," Heimdall said.

"No... about four years ago the Greeks and Romans met..." Lei Kun said.

"And these are some of the Nordic warriors, Gunner of Tyr, Layla of Thor, and Taylor, also of Tyr."

"And do you know that Taylor is also a Rengō Kuni of the Japanese god Bishamonten?" Sari asked.

"As well as an alter for Guan-Yu," Lei Kun added.

"Okay, so here's a quick summary for anyone who missed it," Hana said. "Gary of Something has power from the Japanese Pauchi Kamuy, the Chinese Yama, the Hindu..."

"Shiva," Asha supplied.

"And the Nordic Modi," Heimdall said.

"Thanks. All insane gods. This Taylor guy has power from the Japanese Bishamonten, the Chinese Guan-Yu, the Hindu..."

"Indra."

"And the Nordic Tyr. All war gods. Hailley has power from the Japanese Ohkinunushi, the Chinese Hou-Chi, the Hindu Lakshmi, and the Nordic..."

"Freyr, all agricultural gods," Heimdall noted.

"And last but probably least, Sabina has power from the Japanese Benzaiten, the Chinese Yue-Lao, and I'd guess the Norse and Hindu love gods, right?"

"Freya, yes," Heimdall said.

"And Kamadeva," Asha added.

"You four are Merge heroes, and everything's good."

"Ummm... it's actually not good. Not good at all," Taylor said.