Before...

In the beginning (the true beginning, not the one you've probably heard about) In the beginning there were a lot of gods.

Which makes sense when you think about it. A lot needed to be done. It's not easy to create something and when you are creating something out of basically star dust and good intentions? Very difficult.

So there were a lot of gods. Each god had an area they were in charge of. And really specific. Not a god of grass, but a god of ryegrass and a god of Kentucky Bluegrass and a god of tall fescue and a god of fine fescue and...

A lot of gods.

And then as things started to take off on their own and not need as much help, when they became self sustaining, some of the gods started to take over other areas. Once there were people this was a good thing. People needed a lot of areas covered. So the god of cumulus clouds might take over being the god of good intentions. Not that that was where the god of cumulus clouds actually went but you get the idea.

And it worked for them. Gods tended to gravitate to where their gifts were. Deadre spent a lot of time answering the prayers of those that felt hopeless. Which, honestly, a lot of them did. People tended to believe they were doing just fine and didn't need help from the gods until things started to go badly. If things were going well they felt it was all due to their own brilliance. When they started to fail it must be a test from the gods, or a demon invasion, or a curse from the woman next door. Never the fact that maybe they were an idiot and caused their own misfortune.

But her specific area wasn't with those asking for help because something had gone wrong. Hers was to help those who truly felt adrift. Lost. Helpless. Those who hadn't necessarily done anything to end up in their predicament. Some people just needed a little extra help.

Everything worked fine for a very long time. She and her brothers and her sisters handled things. They answered prayers directed to them. They forwarded prayers that were misdirected to the sibling who could most help. They worked together on larger projects (like the whole creating everything bit) and it all went well.

Until one of her brothers started calling himself father instead of a brother. Started to whisper in the ears of the mortals that he was the one who had created everything. It was all him. He was in charge of all of the gods. It amused his older brothers and so they teased him. Sure thing, father. Whatever you say, father. It annoyed her sisters. How would he created without them? They were all pieces of a whole. You could not have masculine without feminine. How dare he try to seperate from the rest of them like that.

Deadre wasn't amused. She wasn't angry either. She was worried. Because she saw his whispers take hold. The men he whispered to liked the thought that they were the direct line of the one who created them. That the women they lived with were somehow lesser. That there weren't multiple gods, just the one. The one they knew. The one they prayed to. That made them special as well. Much more sophisticated than those people who lived in that other place who worshipped multiple gods. Who believed them all to be equal.

And people had always been this way. When they would make images of the gods they always seemed to resemble the people themselves. Maybe with an extra eye or a few extra arms. But definitely distinctly human. So to think they were the image of the father? The one who told them he was it? This made sense to them. Though Deidre did notice he made them stop making images of him. His name was not to be said out loud, his image was not to be turned into an idol. He wanted to seem more powerful and more mysterious. His brothers laughed and said it was because he was small and ugly. His sisters said it was because if they knew he was not whole without them they wouldn't pray to him anymore.

Either way it worked.

For awhile.

Eventually they made art with "him" and he always looked just like them. He was fine with that. As long as they called to him. As long as he was the only god, he was content.

Eventually the rest of them faded from memory.

Even his.

And he became bored.

And he stopped listening to their prayers.

And they stopped believing he was listening.

And the world spun.

And Deadre and her sisters played cards.