“I want him, father! I want him!”
“But-me!” Hanse said. “What of me?”
Us gazed down on him. “You, beloved Son of Shadow, have defeated a god and
restored Me to my own people in Sanctuary. Further, as Va-shanka had become the
most powerful of the gods of Ranke, that people’s power will wane. Empires die
slowly, but it has begun, as of this moment.”
“Yes,” Hanse said almost plaintively, not even realizing the enormity of his
service to gods and Ilsigi and world, “but… now? What of me- now?”
“Fa-ther,” Eshi said with the sound of accusation in her voice, “his neck is
broken!”
Us said quietly, “Now, Hanse, hero, you are dying.”
“But-“
“His head struck this nasty damned stone and he’s paralyzed from the neck down!
He feels nothing, nothing!”
“But that cannot be,” Ils went on, as if he had heard neither of them. “You
cannot be dying, for you cannot be dead, for he who did death on you does not
exist on this plane. Therefore a paradox exists, if you are dying. Therefore you
cannot be dying.”
Pain rose up in Hanse then, as again his body came alive, and he moved his head
to look down at Eshi, whose weight was partially on him, and then that was all
he felt, for all pain fled and so did each scratch and bruise.
“Uh-pardon me, uh, Lady Goddess,” he grunted, and Hanse rose to face his god. To
him clung the daughter of that god, herself a god. “And now? After all this, my
god-what am I?”
“Now, Hanse, you return. For ten circuits of your world around the s-that is,
for ten circuits of the sun-you shall have what you wish. All that you desire.