Of Doomsday and fortunate despair

Life on Earth ended on a Thursday.

Deities met not long after to discuss the Doomsday properly, choosing a crater of the Earth's only moon - The Moon. From over here they could still see the burning planet, blown up, in hundreds of pieces, floating in space and disturbing the otherwise peaceful area. Their vantage point allowed them to observe and evaluate the level of destruction, each of them judging on their own, moods ranging from boredom and disinterest to utter sorrow and satisfaction.

Some said it was long due, others wondered what could be done differently at their fourth try, more than one sighed in relief. Humans lately were becoming needlesome, picky and ungrateful. They were becoming a tiresome project, one that most of them abandoned long before.

After a long moment of silence, Fortuna's focus shifted from the inferno that once was the third planet from The Sun, to the center of their gathering. Deities did not meet like this often. Usually each kept to their own believers, miracles and catastrophes, so a meeting like this one was quite a social event all on its own. But with the unexpected end of the human race, their once busy schedules swiftly became gnawingly empty. Noone had a good enough excuse to excuse themselves from The Council now.

Crowd generated murmurs, gossip flew all around, the Universe itself was vibrating with the question of utmost importance - who did this? 

For it was impossible for humans - with all their misplaced conceit and efforts - to end the world all on their own. They were obviously close to doing so on more than one occasion and believed they'd encountered the end of the times approximately once in a hundred years, but an accident of this caliber was completely out of their realm. Only one explanation was possible - these were not humans who caused the premature ending of their project, but one of them.

Fortuna was almost a retired deity lately and having no believers and hardly any prayers or wishes to tend to, she spent her days wandering between the few worlds they created, often stopping on Earth. She would blend into the throngs of people passing through a metro station and listen to singers performing underground. Or sometimes she would lie down on a field in the scorching sun, far away from cities and people and let the dry soil slip through her fingers. Once she stepped into a small apartment and spent a good part of the day watching somebody’s tv and playing with their dog as they were at work.

These trivial pursuits that lately seemed to fill her time, made her especially sorrowful as she looked at Earth, a long sigh leaving her. Yes, they were tiresome and petty and ungrateful, but she quite liked their songs and shows and food.

Looking around The Council she came to a sudden conclusion. Whoever did this must have been not only disappointed and resentful towards humans but also recently abandoned by their believers - otherwise they would not have stooped so low. 

There were of course those long forgotten gods of prehistoric and ancient times, ones who have lost all of their believers long ago. They have been humanised and died thousands years past, of petty human ailments. Like her long lost family.

Then there were those who had a strong position and countless believers and were far too busy to do this. Yes, they were possibly frustrated and angry and disappointed with those they favored, but would it be enough to finish them all - just to rest? Fortuna was quite sure it was not. Those were loved and respected and worshiped and as much as they could have been tempten to do it, they wouldn’t. 

And so, it must have been someone who only recently learned the bitter taste of being abandoned by those they favored. Someone who has spent a better part of time being content with their position and only recently did something that had the power to endanger their deity status.

Fortuna herself still remembered the sharp pain of realizing that one wasn’t as useful, as important as before. When prayers and wishes and begging and cries seemed to only come once in a while from those desperate souls who had no one else to turn to, no other deity to ask now. And the frustration when she could not grant them anything because her power was determined by their very faith and they did not believe her, believe in her or trust her. Just like those before them didn’t. Until now she was a step away from becoming human.

But not everyone was sorrowful. Someone among them was in fact smug. It also so happened to be the one and only who could have been foolish and presumptuous enough to finish the human race.

As Fortuna took in the way he presented himself, aloof and distant, standing far away from their crater and taking in - undoubtedly - his work, she was becoming more and more sure that she was right. After all, if someone was going to act petulant the moment humans turned away from them, it was none other than the deity of all that is wrong and bad and hurtful - Ahriman. 

She heard about him countless times before whenever he acted out, but being the antithesis of goodness probably had that effect on a deity. Especially so when one’s believers were scarce in numbers and one was on the verge of being sent to Earth and humanised. In fact, he was in a much similar position to Fortuna herself, though his strategy seemed to be fundamentally different. While she did her best to attract what little faith and trust she could, at the same time immersing herself into the human world to try and learn to like it, Ahriman… Ahriman decided to destroy it. Just in case he was ever forced to become a part of it.

Fortuna raised from her seat and walked over to the lonesome deity, stopping a few steps behind. She tried to look at this tarnished side of the Universe from his perspective and understand whatever it was about this scornful view that made him so happy with himself. 

She could not.

“Admiring your work, are you?” she asked him finally, her tone more bitter than she would have expected. 

Ahriman only sent her a disinterested look over his shoulder and mindlessly kicked a rock. As it flew up in ether, Fortuna was once more reminded that they were not on Earth.

“It could be yours all the same, lucky girl.”

His words were spoken in a quiet, taunting way and she knew damn well he was playing with her. It was his nature, after all. And yet, it worked.

“Ha! As if I would ever wish so badly on humans. You’re the god of destroyment and extremity and all that is bad and wrong in their world.”

“Was. All that was bad and wrong.”

“Well, you should know that the rest is not going to let it slip.” she informed him confidently “You’ll be punished on a new Earth, Ahriman. Or maybe they’ll even send you to some other project and you will wish you were a human after all.”

“Like you did?”

“I did not! I simply took time to become more acquainted with the ones we favor… Favored.”

“If I remember correctly you were on the brink of humanism yourself.” Ahriman taunted, turning towards her. 

This situated him right in the middle of this post-apocalyptic scenery and Fortuna had to admit that it was a fitting backdrop for a creature of his sort - set on bringing destruction and suffering, even her own. True, she might have been in a slightly dire situation before but she was not going to admit it now.

“That was you, I think. I still had some believers, if you must know. Very faithful ones.”

“Please… They put you on those tarot cards or whatever and that was the only thing still keeping you in this realm.” he told her with a bitter laugh, aiming right where it hurt the most “My believers were at least aware of who and what I truly am. It seems you were far more desperate than me, lucky girl. Trying to push the suspicions on me?”

As Ahriman moved towards the gathering to take a seat without waiting for her answer, Fortuna barely stopped herself from throwing some of the dirt at him. Instead, she forced herself to follow him and speak up in as much of a composed tone as she could muster.

“How dare you? If it all came down to being humanised I would have accepted it with grace and servitude towards The Council. I certainly would not have blown up a whole world like some!” her last words were spoken in a hushed cry, drawing eyes of the deities they passed and followed by whispers.

Ahriman sent her a furious look and grabbing her arm, pushed her in front of him.

“Shut up or we’re gonna end up massacred before they even take their seats!”

***

They did not end up massacred before everyone took their seats, but it seemed it could actually happen before the end of the Council gathering.

“The two of you were the closest to humanism before it happened, Fortuna. You must admit it puts you both in a rather suspicious position.” Shiva was speaking now and while Fortuna always quite liked him, she felt her opinion on him was about to drastically change.

“I do not think the prospect of humanism had the potential of being the crucial motive behind this accident.” Fortuna countered, getting dubious looks from all around and feeling herself grow more and more anxious “And even if it was… Ahriman was far closer to it than I was!”

“That’s your strategy for getting us out of it, lucky girl? Throwing your only ally to the wolves?” Ahriman’s voice sounded dangerously close to her ear.

“You are not my ally. And you deserve the punishment for what you did to those poor creatures and everyone who worked so hard on keeping them alive these past few millennia.” the last part she spoke a bit louder and judging from the faces of Navajo gods and goddesses seated nearby she was making her point.

“Now, Fortuna, we should not throw this type of accusations without some kind of serious evidence to back it up.” it was God speaking now or Jahwe as they sometimes called him during these meetings “While we are all deeply shaken by this accident, we must also remember that things like this happen. Only speaking freely with no fear of repercussions can give us the answers.”

“Noone is going to simply speak up if they caused an incident this bad.” goddess Ayao countered, the dust around her gently flowing in ether and falling on the ground as she spoke “And there will be repercussions. Of that, have no doubt.”

Fortuna felt herself get hotter and colder in a sequence of moments. Everyone seemed set on believing that they were guilty. What’s even worse, they seemed to think Ahriman and herself executed it somehow together. No one wanted to listen to her arguments, let alone believe in her words when she said she was quite fine with becoming human if it all came down to it before that Thursday Doomsday. The Council all believed that while serving humans was a pretty noble pursuit, being one of them was stooping so low for a deity it would be a punishment, degradation or utter sacrifice. Being humanised was after all the final step in admitting defeat.

“Repercussions are fair and square as long as they meet the one who’s actually responsible for this. And we do not know who it was yet. Unless of course anyone would like to speak up as a witness or offer evidence.”

After almost everyone spoke up and nothing was decided still, Fortuna realized the gathering was turning into a vicious cycle - while some wanted to punish them simply to put an end to this issue, others were set on conducting an investigation and finding the answers. Some did not care much about the end of Earth and the human race, others shed tears and looked away from the shambles. 

And Ahriman - the one who should have been fighting along her side and doing anything possible to prove their innocence - only spoke up once. To ask how much longer deciding their fate was going to take. It was a good thing deities were immortal or he would have been dead by her hands.

***

“Calm down, lucky girl. Worst case scenario you’ll be with your precious humans in no time.”

For the final part of discussion - or judgment really - both Fortuna and Ahriman were asked to leave the gathering. She did not like this at all and his constant lack of support was starting to make her truly mad. They stood facing the fiasco that was once Earth III - Ahriman squinting his eyes as if he tried to distinguish particular human tragedy from the general chaos and herself, with a gnawing feeling of dread towards their fate and disdain towards him.

“Have you ever even been on Earth? Or among humans?”

“What for? I heard them just fine from my realm.”

“You would have liked it. The Earth. There were a lot of bad people there.” she told him in an accusatory tone.

“And why would I like bad people?” he asked mockingly, grabbing a floating, miniscule piece of Earth from somewhere above her and holding it in his hand.

“You’d get along with them, of course.”

“Ah, yes. Because I am bad and awful and must love it when people are bad and awful.”

“Don’t you? It’s your whole meaning after all.” she reminded him, taking a step back as he suddenly started to move closer. He only followed, still playing with that piece of her beloved planet.

“Humans, Fortuna, have… had one great advantage on us.” Ahriman told her, speaking so low she had to focus to understand, oddly curious of his next words “Choice. They could choose if they wanted to be bad and awful like me or compassionate and good like you. Unlike us, made to cater to their dreams and fears and set on this path long before they even found us, already fixed in our nature and meaning when they did… Humans in all their fragility had and will have the right to become whatever they wish.”

“You wanted to be one of them.”

“Not at all.” he told her with a bitter laugh “I am quite content with being the bad and awful god of destruction and hurt. It does not mean I would have liked humans acting like me. I would have welcomed perhaps having a choice but to be a creature so easily dead, slayed by a speck of dust? No, thank you.”

“They called it bacterias and viruses lately.”

“You would know.”

Before she had a chance to ponder on the meaning of his words, they were called upon and asked to join the gathering once again. Fortuna walked a few steps behind Ahriman now, judging him on her own, her certainty that he was guilty wavering now. As he stopped in the middle of the crater, she also refrained from going back to her seat and took in the grave expressions of those who were going to deliver their sentence.

“Fortuna, Ahriman…” there was either a heavy pause or she had a problem hearing ”We have come to an agreement and believe it is the best we can do right now - for you, for others and especially for those we’ve favored and lost.”

“The decision we’ve made is one where we’ve decided to put our trust in you… We are willing to temporarily assume that you did not commit this grave crime…”

Fortuna felt herself soar, hope making her lighter than the ether. Ahriman seemed far less happy, suspicious somehow but he was probably always suspicious and never happy so why should she care? As she started to take a step forward to thank The Council, he grabbed her and brought back to his side. 

And then they spoke up again.

“Therefore we will give you ninety human days to find the real culprit and bring them to our next gathering.”

“What?” Fortuna couldn't believe it.

“Why should we be burdened with finding them?”

“Well, frankly, Ahriman, you have the least believers and duties out of all of us. The other projects won’t fail if you take a break from them and seeing how you are still the main suspects it should serve as a rather strong motivation to act.”

“But… I…” Fortuna found herself at a loss of words. Not that anyone noticed with Ahriman’s furious mocking question.

“And what if we don’t succeed? I’m sure you have a grand plan for us.”

“No need for such theatricals. If you don’t succeed we will simply continue with the usual proceedings. You will be humanised, but only for a thousand years. After that we’ll welcome you into our realm again. This truly is the most leniency we can show you.”

Fortuna was quite sure she heard them wrong. Being a human for a thousand years and coming back to be part of The Council was… an interesting offer. And it was the punishment.

“And if we find the culprit? What shall happen to us then?”

“On the new Earth we will make you to be far more powerful.”

“How powerful?” she asked carefully, her eyes taking in the burning planet.

“Very.”

Fortuna then made her decision.

As she took a step towards their judges, Ahriman held her back once again, his expression deep in thought, his move apparently involuntary. But this time she didn’t let him stop her. 

She was going to save the human race. 

Or become a part of it.