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((Double Wednesday -- Page 2 of 2))

At first, the boy is careful not to present himself directly before the god. In time, however, he sees that Malast is not at all what he had expected.

Malast does not wish to kill him. Malast merely wants the Urn back. The boy does not seem to concern or interest him in the slightest.

Yet the Idle God does not leave. He merely sits there, in a chair of stone. The boy has never seen him get up from it. Even when Malast first appeared, He had already been sitting in it. The boy does not understand. But then, such is the mysterious power of a god, he supposes.

He asks Malast many questions, wanting to get to know the God of the Underworld better, but it is a difficult process. Malast hardly engages with him at all. The only subject that is able to spark any continual semblance of interest is that of the other gods. The Primordials.

The boy is immensely curious as to where they have all gone and why, exactly. In the end, however, Malast says that He does not know, but the boy is not sure he believes that. Malast seems to know many things that He should not, yet He never explains how. It is quite frustrating, but what is to be done about it? The man is a god, and the boy is not.

The Urn of Growth, he eventually learns, could change that. He begs Malast to grant it to him, but the Idle God refuses.

“It would turn you to dust,” He says.

The boy is increasingly infuriated by this. If he could only become a god, he thinks, then it would prove his greatness beyond doubt to the other Guong. To Torosh, especially. But no matter what the boy tries or does, Malast continues to refuse him.

And then the Surajj’Byok arrives. The Sludge Sickness.

The Hun’Kui have discovered a terrible weapon to use against the Hun’Sho and are wielding it with malevolent abandon. So many of the boy’s kin are transformed into abominations of nature. Reckless killing machines. Chaos and evil made flesh.

He watches some of the Hun’Kui laugh with demonic madness as the world crumbles around them.

There is nothing worse imaginable, to his mind. He begs Malast for help. He begs Malast for the power of a god, the power to perhaps save his people.

But the Idle God remains exactly so.

This is the Apocalypse of the Hun’Sho.

Himmekel is their only salvation. Without it, everyone in Himmestat would have surely perished. Instead, a few hundred are able to survive.

But the world is forever changed now. The Hun’Sho are on the brink of extinction.

Everything else is meaningless. His squabbles with the other Guong. His treasure. His jealousy. They are all petty nonsense. Only the survival of his kin matters now.

So they hide. They remain quiet. And do nothing. They are immortal, after all. They can be as patient as they like. A time of revival will surely come, if they can simply endure.