Chapter 25

"Do you still have house guests?"
He looked up and raised both brows at my obvious subject change. "I do; we'll dine with them tonight. I wanted to spend the day alone with you."
"Aren't they here for nasty god business?"The eggs were so delicious that I was having mouth orgasms, but it was getting harder and harder for me to enjoy them. "Won't they be mad if you blow them off?"
"Yes, and yes."He laughed as if their irritation only added to his joy. "Have you not learned yet, Vervain? I'm the master here; none of them can match my power. They'll wait if I tell them to."
"But their goals are your goals, right? I mean; wouldn't you rather be working on new ways to destroy my race than be sitting here with me?"It was a bitter comment, but I'd had enough with the seduction routine. I wanted the anger back.
"My intentions have never been to destroy your race, little witch,"he went in the complete opposite direction of what I expected. "Your race has multiplied to the point of becoming a threat to the ecosystem. Our nasty business, as you call it, is necessary for your survival as well as ours."
"Are you trying to say you're doing the human race a favor?"I was aghast and horrified because some of his reasoning had a twisted kind of logic.
"That's exactly what I'm saying, and if you weren't such a child of your generation, you'd see it's truly what's best for the world. If humans aren't controlled, they'll overpopulate the planet and bring ruin upon themselves."
"A pretty speech."I rubbed at my temple; it had started to ache. "But it still spells murder."
"Not murder."His face looked so serene. "Sacrifice. Sacrifice not just to the Gods, but to themselves and the planet. Your medical advances have made you weak. People who would've died had nature had its way, are now allowed to live. This not only causes overpopulation, but it passes down those weak genes, making the next generation weaker than the previous. On top of that, the one medical advance which should help often goes unused. Birth control. People keep having child after child. Even those who are so poverty stricken that they can't feed the children they birth. Instead of managing your population, you put pictures of those starving children on your televisions and ask other people to feed them. I've watched your people for centuries, and I speak only the truth as harsh as it may sound to your ears. The weak need to be culled; the population controlled."
"Who do you think they send to war?"I barely contained my anger. "They don't send the weak into battle; they send the strong. So, your little theory doesn't work. You're only weakening us further. You're stealing our brave men and women, and you're leaving only widows and broken families. Children who will never know their parents, parents who will never see their children again, all because you need your fix."
"Yes."He nodded gravely. "They send their soldiers, but does war not make them stronger? Does it not make them more attractive to the opposite sex? Does it not, in its own way, serve to weed out while it replenishes the population? Your military doesn't pick the strongest, they take what they can get, but battle sorts out the wheat from the chaff. The most capable survive as nature intended."
"Nature doesn't care whether we fight or not,"I growled, "only the Gods do."
"Does it not?"He lifted an aristocratic brow. "Have you ever heard of Cordyceps?"
"What?"I frowned at the odd change of topic. "No. What the hell is a Cordycep?"
"It's a fungus."He calmly took a sip of coffee. "When there is an overpopulation of a type of insect or arthropod, Cordyceps takes over. They infect, kill the host by sprouting out of the body, and then release their spores into the air to contaminate others until the species is weeded down."
"This fungus"-I gaped at him—"you're telling me it knows when there's too much of something?"
"Nature may not have a mind as you would define one, but she is aware of what is happening with her children. The planet is aware. Balance must be kept."He held his hands out as if he were the scale.
"Wait... Cordyceps."I frowned again as I tried to remember where I'd heard the word. "Wasn't that the name of the mushroom the trainer gave those three Chinese athletes who broke like five world records?"
"Yes, another of Nature's specialties."He smiled smugly. "To bring life from death. The point, though, is that balance is found. Humans aren't outside of her power either. Just look at all the earthquakes which in turn cause tidal waves. Look at the hurricanes she sends. The Earth is literally trying to shake your people off like a dog with fleas. Humanity is just a pest to her, and if its growth is not decelerated, Nature will find a way to cull the herd; a way which will not discriminate. Young or old, brilliant or stupid, rich or poor, she doesn't care. She feels no mercy."
"You're using a fungus and earthquakes to rationalize violence and manipulation?"I shook my head.
"You act as if every war on the planet were my fault."Huitzilopochtli placed his elbow on the table and rested his chin firmly on his fist. "Do you think the violence would simply disappear if I left all of you alone? Do you think you humans could live in peace with each other?"
"I think it would be more peaceful than having a crazy Aztec pulling the strings."
"Ah, so now I'm crazy."He pursed his lips in thought. "Your reaction proves my point."
"I know I'm going to regret asking this."I sighed. "But what do you mean by that?"
"Humans will never be able to live peacefully."He matched my sigh but added a dramatic flare. "A more belligerent creature has never been birthed. You people search for reasons to go to war. I merely direct the current; I do not make the waves."
"Bullshit,"I scoffed.
"Cuss all you want,"he said. "Deep inside, you know it's true. Humans fight over everything. Property, sex, and especially religion."
"Because you so-called Gods provoke us."
"You think we made you fight for us?"He raised a brow. "Do you really believe that I found a band of humans, got them together, led them to a homeland, and then told them to go find other people to kill? Do you think I asked to be the God of War? Do you truly think I wanted to be drenched in blood?"
"Maybe not at first."I frowned in confusion. My cause was black and white. I fought Gods because they made my people fight each other. I didn't appreciate Blue adding some gray to the picture. "But when you stopped receiving so much worship, you had to find a way to get more energy out of us and so you started this manipulation."
"Yes."His face tightened into serious lines, "I do what I have to do to survive. I at least have a reason for warmongering. Your people, however, would fight for no reason at all."
"There's always a reason."