Chapter Text
Zedaph was tired. His feet hurt as he trudged into the city, the lifeless corpse of something grander. Grian yawned and shivered, the once warm summer days long gone, replaced with either a permanent frost or large expanses of desert, so it was either too hot or too cold wherever they went. Zedaph paused for a second, as he looked up into the sky at a particularly tall building.
A temple.
“Zedaph? What’s up?” Grian asked, pausing beside Zedaph.
“It's a temple. And usually those were pretty protected right? Think we’ll find supplies in there?”
Grian thought for a minute, “I hope!” He said, before running in, not waiting for a reply. Zedaph chased after him, smiling a bit. As Grian was running he tripped over something sticking out from a hole in the floor, landing face first on the ground, “ow.”
Zedaph paused, lending a hand to help Grian up if he wanted it. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Grian laughed. Taking Zedaph’s hand smiling, he turned around and picked up the thing he tripped over, it was an old book, “Tales of the Past, Present, and Future,” Grian read the title aloud.
“Sounds like some sort of prophecy book,” Zedaph replied, looking around the space.
“Do you believe in prophecies?” Grian asked, “I’m not sure if I do.”
Zedaph shrugged. “I used to, but now? Not really.”
Grian flipped to the last page, which was blank except for one prophecy written in small writing, “the last two will see the end, will protect the new,” Grian read it out, “sounds like a bunch of nonsense.”
“Agreed.” Zedaph nodded, before gesturing to the rest of the space. “Should we make this into our base for now? There’s plenty of space and its protected.”
Grian nodded, “sounds like a plan! Let’s split up and look for supplies, meet back here in an hour?”
“Yep!”
—__—__—__—__—__—__—
Grian dropped a few cans of food and a few water bottles on the ground, having met up with Zedaph again after looking for supplies. Zedaph had found some furniture because both of them had had enough of sleeping on the ground or on a blanket, and some more food and water.
“This should be enough for a while, it's getting dark, so let's scout out the surrounding city tomorrow,” Grian said, “Whoever finds the most interesting place tomorrow will have dibs on the spare water bottle`,” Grian said, as the two had found an odd number of water bottles in the temple.
“And I’m gonna get it.” Zedaph joked with Grian, setting up a bed with the old matress he had found, and with the three blankets they had and the numerous pillows they had found..
“You keep telling yourself that,” Grian grinned.
—__—__—__—__—__—__—
It had been a month since the two had set up a base in the old temple, and the surrounding area was running dry on supplies, which made them both a bit worried. They needed supplies to move on to the next place, but they had a feeling this was one of the last cities that hadn’t been looted.
Grian’s attempts at lightening the mood became few and far between, as he and Zedaph had begun to wonder if this is how they would finally die, and if it was possible humanity died with them. As the days went past it began to seem more and more likely that they were the last two left. It was a nicer day than most when they found someone in their temple.
The two stared at the stranger, Grian’s fight or flight response immediately went off, and he tensed up, as the two looked at the stranger, who looked human, but fell in the uncanny valley, with the fuzzy features of the stranger’s face that made Grian’s head hurt when he looked at it, and a faint light emanated from the stranger. Grian took a cautious step back.
Zedaph turned as if to run, but the stranger spoke before he could.
“Hello.” Was all he said for a moment, and Zedaph grabbed a rock, and was very tempted to throw it..
“Who are you?” Grian said, his voice wavering slightly as he spoke, taking another step back.
“I’m Xisuma, god of order, but Xisuma or X works just fine.”
The rock flew across the room.
Grian shot Zedaph a confused look at the- the god’s words, what in the name of the gods was a literal god doing here, Grian picked up the book he tripped over when the two first got here, ready to follow Zedaph’s lead and throw the book at Xisuma.
But the rock didn’t collide with the person, and they tilted their head.
“Why so aggressive? I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to talk.”
“You, I mean- the gods
did
end the world,” Grian replied. Xisuma paused for a second.
“You have a point. But I promise I’m not going to hurt you.
Grian shot Zedaph a look, he did not trust the god, and wanted to see what Zedaph thought of… whatever was going on.
Zedaph’s look was one of terror, but also curiosity. What harm could come to them by listening?
“Wha- what do you want then?” Grian asked.
“You two are the last alive here. We as the gods are making another world. We would like your input.”
Grian took a deep breath, well that was not good, very not good. Grian took another deep breath, trying to prevent himself from breaking down crying. But, but what was the point, he and Zedaph were the last humans, this was likely where humanity died. Grian failed to hold back a sob, which lead to more coming out and him falling to the floor crying.
Zedaph started rubbing circles on his back, kneeling down as well. Xisuma looked guilty.
“I’m sorry to cause you distress.”
“No you’re not,” Grian muttered through his tears, “You caused this.”
Xisuma paused, as if racking his mind for something to say, and Zedaph stood up.
“Yeah, tell us. Why did you cause this?” Zedaph spoke, anger slipping into his voice.
“I-“ Xisuma started, then paused, “It was a mistake, the gods, we lost control of our domains, and by the time we were able to fix it, it was too late,” Xisuma said, “If we could’ve prevented this, we would’ve.”
Zedaph paused. “So what are you going to do now? Kill us?”
“I said I wasn’t going to harm you, or were you not listening?”
Grian sniffled, and if looks could kill, Xisuma would be dead a thousand times over.
“Tell you what, what if you two came with me to the godly realm?” Xisuma asked.
Zedaph and Grian looked at eachother and at the same time said, “No.”
Xisuma sighed, “I can’t take that answer. So magic it is.”
And then Zedaph and Grian found the world fading from underneath their feet.