Pantheon 00 - Age of Godpunk Read Online Free PDF

letting on. “Does it have to involve me at all? Isn’t there some sort of divine meeting place where all you gods can go, up in heaven or another dimension or wherever?”
    That’s not how it works , said Anansi. All of the pantheons dwell in separate, discrete planes that don’t intersect with one another. The only place they do all meet up is here, the mortal realm, where our followers and worshippers are, where our stories are told and retold and spread .
    “Earth.”
    Exactly. Earth. And the only way we can manifest on Earth is by assuming a living form. For some that’s simply a matter of transubstantiating their incorporeal selves into flesh. For most of us, however, the vast majority, it’s a case of temporarily ‘borrowing’ a host body, usually a human one, and using that as an avatar .
    “Rather like getting into a car.”
    Rather like, only in my case it’s taking with owner’s consent, not without . I’d never dream of entering a body unbidden. It’s more of a... a cohabitation than an act of possession. Think how it’s been lately, with me inside you. I’m not riding roughshod over you, am I? I’m not making you behave in any way against your own wishes. We’ve just been rubbing along, mutually cooperating, haven’t we? And it hasn’t been so bad. I think you’ve been finding it quite bracing, as a matter of fact. Quite liberating .
    I couldn’t deny this. “But,” I said, “perhaps I’m not keen on going any further. In fact, perhaps the time’s come for you and I to discuss dissolving this partnership of ours.”
    Oh, I wouldn’t advise that, Dion. Not at all .
    “Why not?”
    Well, remember how it went for you after we first met? When you refused to acknowledge my existence? Remember how bad things got for you?
    I did – the coincidences that had left my secure little world wobbling perilously on its axis.
    My doing, of course , said Anansi. And I was hardly even trying. If I wished, I could make your life a living hell. What I did then would seem like paradise compared with what I could do. The torments I could put you through... You’d be begging me to stop, and do you know what I would say? I would say “No,” and just carry on .
    His voice had become brittle and awful, like ice cracking underfoot, like tinder sticks breaking, like dry bones snapping. I felt a surge of nauseating dread, unlike anything I’d ever known. I stopped in my tracks and bent double, bracing my hands on my knees. To a passerby it would have looked as though I had paused to catch my breath and maybe work out a stitch in my side, not as though I was fighting to keep myself from throwing up, which I was.
    Could Anansi truly do as he threatened and throw my life into utter chaos?
    I had no doubt that he could.
    But let’s not make this a matter of browbeating and intimidation , he wheedled. That’s really not how I prefer to operate. I’d much rather you just agreed to do as I ask of your own free will. Everything would be much more agreeable that way .
    I straightened up. At that moment, the canal looked very tempting. To hurl oneself beneath that greasy brown surface, to expel the air from one’s lungs and let the cold brackish water come flooding in...
    “No,” I said, determinedly.
    No?
    “I mean yes. Yes, I’ll do it. Not because you’re forcing me to. Because, never let it be said that Dion Yeboah does not repay his debts.”
    Excellent. I knew I could count on you .
    “But Anansi?”
    Yes?
    “If we do this, we do it to win. Get me? No half measures. I do not take on a challenge unless I’m going to go flat out, all guns blazing, to come out on top. That is my way.”
    Of course, of course .
    “You have brought me further along in just a few months than I could ever have managed alone. I owe you for that, and I will honour my side of the bargain, but in return I must have your full and unstinting collaboration. I must be able to rely on you.”
    You will, believe me , said