Bound Gods Excerpt (SFW) (Patreon)

It has been a long time since we've visited the gods and Doxies. This is the SFW excerpt that is in the newsletter.

Tiers $5 and up get the full NSFW excerpt

Attn: This is unedited

“How many Vyraghr.-sons have you seen?” Taurus said.

Malum shook his head. “Very few. Their population dwindled quickly. The purebloods died first, those left couldn’t seem to produce offspring. Or if they were either human enough to pass or too weak to survive long.”

“Why do you think the Tide only left behind the males?” It seemed odd one sex would have remained when it withdrew.

“I cannot answer that.”

It might be a question only the great Alton could answer with his modern magic. He seemed to know a lot about creating life, even though he wasn’t a goddess.

“It was a good idea to have the Doxies lay with Gimp,” Malum said.

“It was exceedingly generous of you to give him the pleasure of your Doxie, especially seeing how they’ve been sneaking off and discussing things they have no business worrying about.”

“They may be Doxies, but they are still men no matter how beautiful. We try and protect them, but they know, and they in turn want to protect us.”

All truths.

But Doxies stood little chance in battle even those few who’d trained with warriors to accompany them.

No matter the situation, the bloodshed, the horrors, they were always Doxie in the end and that gave them empathy. And empathy in battle was a weakness.

Malum stopped at the end of the tunnel and held out the object he carried. “Since we will most likely have to fight a battle of our own. Either here or above, I thought you may want this.”

Taurus took it.

The weight, the very feel, of the object inside the leather cover, told him exactly what it was, but he refused to believe until he unwrapped it from the hide.

The shadows left the black metal of the double-side ax blade flat, but in the sunlight, it had gleamed like high polished obsidian. Silver runes ran down the length of the handle to where strands of hide wove around the grip. Taurus had no idea what kind of animal hide had been used, but it had never cracked, frayed, or rotted even over the centuries he’d wielded it.

After a thousands of years lost, it was as clean and perfect as he remembered.

He ran a thumb down the length, back up to the blade. The metal unnaturally cold, was equally unnatural strength. No stone, metal, or monster had ever withstood it.

The spike at the tip was made of the same kind of ore, but silver and able to gleam in the moss lamps lining the hall.

Taurus met Malum’s gaze. “How did you find this.” He’d been sure it was lost or possibly destroyed.

“I have my ways.” Were the words Malum spoke, but the tone made it clear some things were better left unsaid. “I trust you still know how to fight with it?”

“I knew how to fight with it the first time I held it.” There might have been gods who didn’t believe in magic, but Taurus had wielded it in the form of a double-sided axe. And now he possessed it again.

“Good, because if the stories are half-true about enemies you destroyed when armies couldn’t, we have a chance of surviving, and maybe even saving the gods topside.”

Taurus couldn’t argue.

“There was a note from Lotus in my chamber when I got there,” Marud said.

"What did it say?”

“There is strife among the mortals. Yeetavik’s compound was destroyed. Horus has obtained a special Doxie. And he almost killed Marud.”

“How?”

“A toxin. I do not know the details, but a Doxie saved him.”

Taurus eased out a breath. “Do you think he will help us?” If he wouldn’t, then they were alreadyoutnumberedd a hundred to one.

“There are Doxies at risk, they will help us.”

“What about you?”

Malum had made it clear the only reason he’d stayed in Purgatory is that his brother had sworn to kill him.

“He will let me help.”

“Are you sure?”

“He values Doxies above all else. If they’re endangered, he’ll allow me to help.”

“Then what?”

“I’ll return to Purgatory if that’s what he wants.”

It was the odd lilt to Malum’s voice that made Taurus ask, “You think he may change his mind.”

“A Doxie saved him. His Doxie.” Malum curled up the corner of his mouth.

And if there was one person who could change a god it was a Doxie.