“All gods are mad.”
Wichtig waved this away as if wafting a foul stench from his presence. “Don’t care.”
“You have to save Bedeckt from Stehlen,” said Nacht.
“You already don’t think I can kill her.”
“You and Bedeckt together…maybe.”
Maybe. Wichtig kept his doubts to himself. “That’s it? That’s all you want?”
“Of course not.” Nacht stared down at Wichtig, eyes measuring. “What do all Doppels want? What do all Fragments want?” Nacht grinned stained teeth. “What do all Reflections want?”
“To be the original,” said Wichtig.
“You will help break Morgen for me.”
“Kill a god?” Wichtig uttered a sputtering laugh. “If anyone could do it, it’s me. But I think not.”
“I said break. And I said help.”
“Still, piss off.”
“I have Morgen’s memories from before we were separated. I remember you. You were perfect, handsome and strong and flawless.”
Excitement ran sparks dancing down Wichtig’s spine. I’ll manipulate this little shite and get exactly what I want. Wichtig pushed himself to his feet. Straightening the blood and puke-stained bed sheet, he struck the best heroic pose possible in this condition in this room.
“What was it Bedeckt always said?” Wichtig asked the boy. “Life eats you and shites your well-chewed remains into the Afterdeath.”
“I don’t remember him saying that.”
“I probably made it up,” said Wichtig, bending to collect his bloody sword from the ground. “I made up most of the smart stuff I think he said.”
“I’ll make you whole,” said Nacht. “I’ll make you beautiful and flawless again.”
Wichtig remembered Schnitter. “What is beauty worth?” he asked.
“Interesting question coming from you. What is it worth?”
“Everything.” He cocked an eyebrow at the boy. “Why should I trust you. Morgen said he’d—”
“Morgen hates you. If he didn’t, he never could have killed you. Everything he promised is a lie. You disgust him. Even when you were perfect on the outside he knew how much rot there was within.”
“Ha! And you’re basically him. Why trust—”
The boy interrupted him with a theatrical sigh. “I’m his Reflection, his opposite. I love everything he hates. I want everything he loathes. To me, you are perfect. The beauty on the outside masking the sick shite within.”
But that exterior beauty was gone, replaced by thick ridges of raw scar tissue and missing fingers and ears and teeth. Wichtig hid his hurt. I have redeeming qualities. It wasn’t his fault most people were too stupid and narrow-minded to see them. He gave so much of himself to his friends. No one appreciated him and this little shite of a god was no better than the boy whose delusions birthed him. I’ll outsmart the smug little bastard. I’ll outsmart them all. Wichtig would use this Ascended Reflection to his own ends, get everything he wanted, everything he deserved.
Something in the god’s words bothered Wichtig, something about Nacht being Morgen’s opposite. That sounded important. It would tell Wichtig of the boy’s intentions and motives if he could figure out what that something was.
“Tell me exactly what you want,” said Wichtig.
“Stehlen must not kill Bedeckt. If she does, Morgen wins and you,” the boy thrust a dirty finger at him, “lose.”
“I can handle Stehlen,” Wichtig said.
“There’s more,” said Nacht, grinning that smug grin Morgen always tried to hide. “Konig sent two of his Wahnist Priests after Bedeckt. They’ll return to Selbsthass and he’ll kill them, ensuring they—and all they’ve slain—serve him in the Afterdeath.”
“Wahnists?” Wichtig snorted in disgust. “Some fool who thinks he’s the King of Geldangelegenheiten shouldn’t be much of a problem.”
“Ungeist is the Holy Exorcist of the Geborene. He believes within every soul lurks a demon.”
“So?”
“He drives the demons out.”
“Again I ask, so?”
“They claw their way free. It’s a rather bloody process.”
“Oh. Lovely. And the other?”
“Erdbehüter believes the earth is alive,” said Nacht, watching Wichtig for reaction. “She believes she commands dirt and stone. She built the new walls and towers and roads of Selbsthass with her delusions. Both teeter near the Pinnacle.”
“Put a foot of steel in a Wahnist gut and you have a Wahnist corpse,” said Wichtig. “They won’t be a problem.”
“And there’s Drache. She’s a Therianthrope.”
“I hate Therianthropes,” said Wichtig. Neidrig. He swallowed as he remembered the dry scales of a thousand snakes closing about him, crushing the air from his lungs, squeezing the life from his throat. There’d been scorpions and a massive bear too. He shuddered at the memory. That was the first time he died.
“This one is far worse than what you’ve seen,” said Nacht with an evil grin.
“A foot of steel—”