Work Text:
“When the power of love
Replaces the love of power,
Man will have a new name:
God.”
-- Sri Chinmoy
｡｡｡
in a garden in an inconspicuous place, there is a statue. grand and marble, the face of a god is carved. in the moments when the light hit the statue just so, the veins and coloring turn shimmering, iridescent--
gold.
｡｡｡
there isn’t an exact place like heaven the way the morals describe it, at least not in the same factor. the gods are given forms that resemble humans, even given standard names. it’s all a humanizing process, which makes eisuke chuckle.
the responsibilities that come with being the god of power make him busy, overseeing and guiding the mortals below him into success. he works with rulers, healers, peacemakers, anyone that could benefit from his skill. it is a position fitting of the name, as eisuke is such a powerful god that many of the others around him look at him in awe. after an immeasurable amount of time, eisuke gets used to the sidelong glances and whispers as he walks by.
there is always an exception, and it comes in the form of a goddess that seemed to dance rather than walk.
she never looked at him in awe, or even fear-- she looked at him as if she was any other being. it was humbling, it was intriguing. so intriguing, in fact, that eisuke soon found his eyes wandering whenever she walked by. simple duties became more enjoyable with the promise of even the slightest glance of the goddess.
then comes a day he actually speaks to her, makes her laugh and oh her laughter is clear and musical and--
gold.
her voice becomes common as they talk more and more, until eisuke can practically hear her laugh in the quiet moments in bed, surrounded by the clouds cushioning his body and the vines curling up to meet him. he can see her face when he closes his eyes, rosy cheeks and lips the color of peaches. all gods are beautiful, of course, but there is something about her that feels magnetic.
their first kiss is beneath the stars, as they tour a nearby garden filled with flowers and colors that even mere mortals cannot fathom. when he kisses her, it feels like honey is running in place of blood in his veins, slow and languid just like the way their lips move together.
she looks stunning in all moments, but something about the way her fingertips brush up against the white roses threaded around his bed is breathtaking. eisuke watches her turn to look at him, and her smile is so sweet he thinks this is what it’s like to find home after a long journey. he’s been walking, searching for a place that didn’t even occur to him that it existed.
the love she awakens in his heart is the closest to living eisuke figures he’d ever get.
there is one night, eisuke is unsure whether it was weeks or centuries ago, that she whispered her secrets to him like they could be stitched into his skin.
“how strange it is” she said, he voice all musical and lovely “that the goddess of love has never been in love.” she is nestled down into his chest but she sits up, cradling his face like it was carved of stone.
“until now.”
and oh, her words are like sunshine that leaked between his ribs and warmed his heart. he feels burdenless, he feels like a god worthy of his title. power, the thing he never even realized he didn’t have until she kissed it into him.
｡｡｡
of course, all power comes with consequences.
“you’ve become too much” an omnipresent voice speaks, seemingly coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. eisuke has only heard it a handful of times, but it’s impossible to ignore.
“i don’t know what you mean” eisuke replies simply. he does, of course he does.
“you have always been a force to be reckoned with, my child. but this makes you too powerful. you cannot put the gods, the mortal world, even the universe itself at risk.”
eisuke wants to plead, to get on his knees and pray like people do to him in moments of weakness. how can he be powerful, how can he be a threat, when the mere thought of the words unspoken threaten to destroy him?
it’s because of her, he knows this.
he doesn’t tell her, of course, but she knows. all of the gods do, whispers are traded when he walks by, but they’re for a completely different reason. the god of power, they say, must be struck down. he feels alone in a way he’s never experienced before, wishing he could trade the feeling of laying next to her but being a thousand miles away for actual solitude. her love, something so beautiful and pure, found its way into his being and lined his soul with gold, making him stronger and more confident than ever before. he knows what the men speak of when they pray to him, how a woman makes him want to be better.
he looks over at her, sleeping peacefully with her lips parted and her eyes fluttered closed, and he feels like he failed her. perhaps he was doomed from the start, wearing her love like an ill-fitting crown that was bound to break for a being such as him. eisuke is a god, but he is perhaps the farthest from perfect that someone in his position could be. he is not worthy of the way she looks at him, how she touches him like he’s the future she’s always dreamt of, how her smile comforts her in a way he didn’t think he could ever experience.
the words spill out of him one night, in their favorite garden as they lay in the grass that tickles the back of their arms. her head is against his chest, but she sits up to look at him.
“what do you mean?” she asks.
“i think i’m going to be eradicated” he whispers, training his eyes to the sky and looking for the star he named after her long ago. the stars are bigger and brighter here than they are for mortals, and eisuke feels like they’re close enough to hear his confession, the way his heart feels like it’s beating just slightly out of rhythm.
his view of the stars are traded for something much lovelier, and her worried eyes are now in his vision. she grips the front of his robes, perfect fingers curling into the white cloth.
“you can’t” she cries, holding onto him like if she didn’t she’d drift off into the night. “you can’t leave me.” her pleading makes him sit up and cup her face like she did to him long ago, chasing away the single tear that streams down her face with his thumb.
“i don’t want to go” he murmurs, hoping he can will his own safety if he voices such a desire. “i want to stay right here with you, between the flowers.”
she holds on to him even tighter, and eisuke takes her in like it’s the last time he’ll ever lay eyes on her. he sees her perfect lashes darkened with tears, her full lips quivering, her face drained of the rosy hue he loved the moment he saw her. her hands are shaking, a lily of brilliant blue and purple tickle her feet from where she sits, as if trying to reach out to comfort her.
they fall asleep in that same garden, surrounded by their favorite flowers.
eisuke wakes alone.
｡｡｡
how strange it is, for a god to feel something so undeniably human. whether molded from the stars or born in a world far too cruel, gods and mortals feel love the same. it is sunlight peeking through the ribs, it is honey running through veins, it is laughter that is gold.
how poetic and ironic, the story of the goddess of love and the god of power. one became too much, and one too little. until the end of time, gods will whisper the tale of sacrifice, of giving up your most precious ability to save the one you cannot live without.
they will weep over the goddess of love, creating perfect endings for the mortals beneath her carved by her own hands. how she gave up the very ability that she gives to her people so freely. what most don’t know, what is only shared from the lips of gods to the ears of another, is this:
when a god experiences heartbreak, his final moments are immortalized in stone.
their blood runs cold, their limbs become stiff, and soon their stunning skin drains itself of all warmth and becomes a smooth plane of stone. it is rare, possibly only one or two instances in a millennia. they are warnings for gods and mortals alike, that nobody is immune to the utter pain.
what eisuke first realizes is just how cold it is. the sun is shining against his skin does nothing for him, and his fingers mindlessly search for the soft warmth only she can bring him. when he finds nothing, he eyes fly open and he searches. seemingly endlessly he searches, until he collapses into the same garden he fell asleep in. it hurts, of course, but it’s nothing compared to the hollowness in his chest where his heart should be.
in a garden in an inconspicuous place, there is a statue. grand and marble, the face of a god is carved. in the moments when the light hit the statue just so, the veins and coloring turn shimmering, iridescent, and gold.
the gods whisper that if you look at the god of power long enough, you’ll hear a faint laughter. it is warm, it is inviting, it is--
gold.