Indomitus Oriens (The Fovean Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF

out what her problem is and then haul her ass back here and let her watch you sell. Tomorrow you watch her sell. If she can do it, let her know and, if she can’t, let me know.”
                  Bill nodded. He stood, turned, and there stood Melissa waiting for him with big, watery doe eyes. Why she wanted some old fart baffled him—maybe he looked just like her dad or something.
                  But she had just made him five thousand dollars more per year, and for that she could count on a hell of a training.
    * * *
                  Chaheff knelt before the altar of Adriam, the All-Father, first among the gods. Glynn knelt down beside him, before the goddess Eveave, the Taker and the Giver. Eveave taught the balance, and Glynn would need balance to survive the singing.
                  That is what Chaheff had told her, anyway.
                  They chose a simple room for their devotions, small with rough-cut stone walls and bare floors. They knelt before a simple altar of hand-carved wood, a statue of the austere Adriam upon it, and a similar one beside it for the goddess.
                  “Perhaps we should have Power here,” Chaheff said.
                  Adriam, the All-Father, had come first among the gods. His first creation had been Eveave, the Taker and the Giver, his perfect match. He had educated her in every aspect of his divinity, and coupled with her.
    The gods Earth and Water had sprung unexpected from Eveave’s womb, and later Power and Desire. These four had lesser aspects of Adriam’s might, and Adriam and Eveave had sought to teach them but failed. For all of their might, they were not wise like the All-Father or even-handed like the Taker and the Giver.
                  Power became a dark god who would work against the others when it suited him. “Why would we want to taint this place—?” she began.
                  “No god taints a place,” Chaheff interrupted her. “Power exists as does every other god, and has his followers and his motives, just like any other god.”
                  “Not like Chaos, Destruction and War,” Glynn challenged him. The primary sin was laying on daughter by son, and Power and Desire, Earth and Water each had done this. Chaos, Destruction and War were the sons of Power and Desire, and in the history of all things, they had done nothing but cause heartache and woe.
                  Chaheff grinned. Glynn knew he tolerated her for her youth and temerity. Since the death of her father, he had tried in small ways to advise her, in ways beyond his requirements as a mentor.
                  “True,” he said, “Chaos and War, as the scriptures tell us, brought about the end of the One Place, where the gods lived. And we know War encouraged the people of Fovea to nearly annihilate each other before the Uman-Chi created the Fovean High Council.
                  “But even his presence does not defile,” he wagged a finger at his student. “People will defile themselves ultimately, and you know the Rule of the Gods.”
                  Glynn nodded. When the One Place had been destroyed by Chaos, the goddess Water had been struck dumb. Earth, who loved her, had taken her to a burning remnant of the One Place to warm her, and bonded with her to sustain her, and to rock her from side to side.
                  Water had birthed Life in his embrace, and Life had spread all manner of living things upon Earth’s divine body.
                  Eveave had stepped in by creating the ‘Rule of the Gods,’ which protected Life’s children from the direct influence of the Gods.
                  However the gods found indirect ways…
                  They prayed together. Glynn ignored the hard stone that made her knees throb, the stiff posture that made her back ache.