Tal stood beside Allor on the hilltop overlooking the river. It was a very secluded part of the river, where the trees bend over to shade the water from the sun. They both watched a woman down at the river’s edge. The woman with red hair had removed her clothes and then walked out into the water. She splashed water onto her breasts before submerging herself completely.
“Her name is Ova,” said Tal.
“The sister of Rom II?” asked Allor.
“Yes. She is older than you but is in excellent health, and can wield a sword and a bow as well as any man in the Rom kingdom.”
“Good to know,” replied Allor as he watched the woman break through the surface of the water then pat down her wild, curly hair.
“Do you find her attractive?” Tal asked.
“She is pretty. But it’s like I’ve already told you, I’m not liking this,” replied Allor.
“But it’s time for Allor to take a bride,” replied Tal.
“Why?”
“Because The Expected will be stretched too thin with both Ceros and Niddler territories. That is hundreds of temples and tens of thousands of priests. And talk to Demos. He will confirm that his troops will also be spread too thin to withstand an attack. While we are out bringing the new territories under our command, our capital city and Grand Temple will be thinly guarded.”
“So what has this to do with marriage?” Allor asked his mother.
“The Confederation won’t attack as long as they are left alone. The Disciples of Earth can’t attack because they are not capable. They can be crushed while they were still trying to raise an army. We expect them to surrender soon after Niddler.”
“So that leaves only the Rom Empire?” asked Allor.
“My son was never slow to think,” replied Tal with a short smile.
“I will consider it, but I’m not sure. She is lovely, and her skills would be appreciated. And the alliance with her brother would be beneficial. But what about her and I as a couple? She is the woman I would wake beside. The woman I would plant my seed in every day. Are we compatible? Will we get along?”
“Sometimes you forget you are a god to these people,” said Tal with a forceful tone.
“Sometimes you forget I am just a boy that found machines from the stars and use them to help people and trick them into thinking I am something that I am not.”
“You have grieved for Rao long enough. You must cherish her memory, hold it deep in your heart. But you must continue your life. Now, at the edge of your greatest victory, you must be the man of your potential, not the man you think you are. Decision-making is cloudy when a man’s needs are not met.” Tal looked at him hard. She knew that he would agree with her wisdom.
“But I’m not ready to take a wife,” Allor said.
“Then how about the Women of Allor? Spread your seed among them,” Tal said.
The Women of Allor were basically groupies. They had kept themselves in a romantic fervor for the handsome young god since his first appearance. When they heard that Allor was in the celibate grieving process for Rao, they too joined the process. There were hundreds of women now that had been celibate for over 150 revs, and each of them dreaming that Allor would end his grieving deep inside of them.
“They are fanatics. They don’t honor me with their actions. They disgrace themselves with their dreaming. One of them came to me, pulled open her robe, and showed me her breasts at the last healing. The old man I was healing at the time should have been very glad I had finished fixing his heart right before she exposed herself to us.”
“But they love you,” replied Tal.
“No, they love God Emperor Allor. However, I am just a man.”
“We will be stretched too thin, my son.”
“It’s too early for this decision. We don’t know the reaction to the detonation and the destruction of the Ceros and Pyramos. We will discuss this again after the fall of Pyramos,” said Allor. Then he added, “Death to Ceros.”
“Death to Ceros,” Tal repeated with a nod.
Later that day, Allor was out alone healing. He wanted to be away from his family, away from the recruitment process for converts, away from the responsibility. In the crowd gathered around him, their infirmities begging for his mercy, in all of this Allor could retreat into himself and think. His work was similar to those that make large woven clothing from the smallest woolen threads, their hands moving to a particular clock while their minds are far away in memory or speculation. When he was a child, a juggler once told Allor that he too experienced the far-away mind while he moved balls in the air. And Allor had many balls to move.
“Don’t let your kitten around the other cats near your farm,” said Allor as he handed the small gray and black striped cat back to a young girl. “He will want to fight, but he isn’t old enough yet. His eye is going to be fine.”
The girl took the kitten in her hands and held it close to her chest.
“Thank you,” she said. “I love you.” Then she stepped forward and kissed Allor on his cheek. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you forever and ever, amen,” said the girl.
The girl’s mother put her hand on her child’s shoulder. “Let’s leave him to fix others,” she said, and tried to lead the girl away. But instead of leaving, the girl rushed forward and hugged Allor. Between their bodies was the small kitten that wasn’t happy being the meat of their sandwich.
“Go now. Remember to help others like I help you.”
“But I can’t heal cats,” replied the girl.
“Then help others how you can. With food, with water, help them walk, help them clean their feet.”
“I will,” said the girl with a resolute look on her face.
A woman was brought to Allor, an old woman with two daughters at her side. From beneath her robe Allor could only see one foot. When they got to him, he nodded to them and pointed to a rock for the old woman to sit on while he examined her.
Beneath the robe he found a much shorter right leg. It was shriveled and very small, less than the length from a shoulder to an elbow. But it had toes, and they were ticklish, as Allor discovered when he touched them.
“You are the first man to be under my robe in over two kilorev,” said the woman with a hearty laugh. “Don’t fall in love with what you see,” she added with an even louder laugh and a snort.
Allor and the two daughters watched in wonder as the small shrunken leg began to grow. At first it was the foot that got larger, then the rest. After about a tox, it was a fully formed and muscular leg. The woman immediately jumped to her feet and fell over onto the ground. Allor and the daughters moved quickly to help her up.
“Stand back,” she said to them. “I’ve never walked a single step by myself without my sisters, my daughters, or my crutches. Today I won’t need anything anymore,” she said, and got up to her feet. Her first step was very tentative, her legs shaking. But after the first came a second more confident and then a third more confident still. Within twenty tix she had become used to it and celebrated with tears running down her cheeks.
“You are truly the one true God,” she proclaimed loudly.
“I’m not finished with you yet,” Allor said, motioning for her to come sit back on the rock.
“But I am cured,” she said.
“Of the big problem. Let’s cure the small ones now,” he said with a smile as he contemplated a life waking up beside Ova every morning as he waited for the woman to be seated again.
Her pulmonary system needed his help, and he watched as the color of her arteries changed from red to green on his remedium. Then her scalp was cured of the infestation. Her broken toes were finally set back in place and connected again.
It was during her examination that Allor dropped the remedium. When he picked it up, his fingers touched it in a new way, because a screen appeared on the device that he had never seen before. It presented him with a simple question to which he didn’t know the answer:
Include Information Transfers? Yes No Cancel
Allor chose Yes and pressed the screen.
The old woman walked away under her own power. No daughters assisted her. No wooden crutches under her arm, no ill-fitting wooden leg rubbing her raw, nothing but her own two legs facilitating her travel. Before she walked away, she got down on her knees and bowed in front of Allor.
“I will be yours until I die,” she said to him.
“Help others,” he said to her as he pulled her back to her feet. As she came close to him, she looked at the handsome man, his long black hair, his deep black eyes. Then she kissed him gently on the lips. It was just for a tix. Then she turned and walked away quickly.
“Today I kissed a god,” she said to her daughters as they walked away. Allor continued to heal others.
A large man pushed his way through the crowd. He was much taller than other men, and Allor turned his PPS on low in case the man intended violence. The giant carried a woman over his shoulder. When he got to Allor, he threw the body at Allor’s feet. Dust puffed up from impact of the body and the ground.
“We were eating and she told a joke that hurt me,” said the man in a curious childlike voice. His eyes and facial expression did not match those of a fearsome giant but rather a frightened child.
“Jokes do not cause harm,” said Allor as he got on his hands and knees to examine the woman. It took only a tix before he was sure that she was beyond his help.
“I gave her my knife in her belly to make her stop laughing at me,” the giant replied.
Allor looked at the large red stain in the middle of the woman’s brown robe.
“She is past my help, my friend,” Allor said.
“You are not my friend. Heal my mother,” he demanded in a loud voice, the child now gone from him.
“I cannot. She is dead.”
“You are a bad god,” said the giant, and swung his fist at Allor. It impacted the PPS shield and bounced off it. The giant rubbed his sore hand.
“I can only heal living things, before they are dead. Your mother is dead, and I cannot help her.”
The giant swung his fist at Allor again, and again it hit the PPS shield and bounced off it. The giant collapsed to the ground. He began to cry.
“But without mother I will starve,” he said. “Without mother I will die. Without mother, I want to die,” he said.
Allor put his hand on the giant’s shoulder.
“It doesn’t have to be that way. Let me heal you,” he said as he ran the remedium over the large man’s head. It was very red on the display and it took much longer than usual before it turned green. Upon completion, the giant stood up. People moved away from him.
“I understand now many things I didn’t before. I was wrong to attack you, and I apologize. I will take my mother and bury her. But first I must go to the river and bathe and wash my clothes.”
“Why do you clean first? Is it part of your death ritual?” asked Allor.
“Germs,” said the giant.