Suddenly, his palm was drawn away. The drugged state I was in remained, though I was awake. Instead, I simply saw him move slower than my brain considered was true, as he stepped back, eyes widening with shock.

“What the fuck have you done to yourself?” he whispered.

Grimly, I smiled, letting my head roll so I could look at him more direct. “Your power draining thing … won’t work on me,” I said in a lackadaisical voice, “The King already took the majority of it from me, before he let me go, Morningstar. You are far too late.”

“Leaving you with … barely enough to survive,” Morningstar spat. “Fuck, that price. You had to pay all that?””

I knew his power well. Whereas my own personal abilities lay within the power of annihilation, but also empathy for others, his had been in organising and distributing power, from both divine beings, living organisms and concepts. In the early days of creation it had been a useful skill to reorganise any mishaps in what had been done (an extra tail here, a mistaken spring of youth there), but he had soon become full of his own pride. When narcissism had settled in he had waged a long war with the Old Gods, making himself more powerful at others’ expense, and in turn gaining all of their abilities. I remember, in those days when I myself had been much of an unaligned party, seeing entire halls of people lined up to face him and have their power drawn from them. At various points in our existence Morningstar had either trapped me to take what I had, or I had given him my power willingly in order to have him leave me alone.

This was, however, the first time that he had found me with barely anything to give.

“Disappointed?” I murmured, a smile flickering over my lips. “Good. This isn’t the old days, any more, Morningstar, this is now, where mortals can be as powerful as gods. Why don’t you go get some of them to serve you, or go steal mine back from the King-”

Suddenly he pulled away from me, disgust written on his face. He removed his forearm that had been pressed across my chest, and he spat on the ground as he strode a few paces away from me. I sagged as I tried to gain back my strength from how the side-effect of his ability had left me, and could feel it returning, though not fully there. My dear brother Morningstar pause before my great oak desk, eyes glaring into the woodwork and the many books I had collected in my few short years as a lecturer. Briefly, his eyes touched the small bow window through which the bright light of early afternoon still shone.

“I will get your power back,” he growled.

I found myself snorting with laughter.

“So you can take it from me? No thanks, brother.”

More energy now returned to me I straightened, using the wall partially as a crutch. I glanced down to the satchel with my papers still left from that morning’s lesson and took in a breath before I leaned towards it. Partially I collapsed forwards, but catching myself on the edge of the desk I held myself steady for a moment. Then, once my panicking heart had settled again, I caught up the bag with an arm and stood up again, only to see his bright eyes on me.

Bored already, I rolled my eyes and dumped the satchel on the desk. “I have another lesson in just less than an hour. I need to prepare. Now you have satisfied yourself that you cannot get anything from me, you can go and leave me to my work.”

His lips became a thin line. Roughly, he gestured at the large wooden chair that stood behind my desk. “Sit down.”

I twisted my head to look at it, a wry grin coming over my face. “Let me guess. I sit in it, you bind me there and attempt to keep me there until you have managed to get my power back. Am I close, by any small chance?”

His jaw tightened, betraying the truth of the matter. The problem with Morningstar was that he was ridiculously predictable. All he had ever wanted was to be worshipped himself, like the gods we had been created to serve. Entirely, I understood his perspective, and indeed, at some points in my life I had even wanted the same. Right now, however, I literally wanted to be left alone, to get on with my studies and not have to worry about siblings like him ruining my existence.

But he gestured again. Letting out a sigh, I stepped away from the desk and began to head towards the door. Immediately he stepped in front of me, brow furrowed. “Where are you going? I said to-”

“Yes,” I answered, in a matter of fact tone, “But as I said, I have a lesson in an hour. You want me to be forced to listen to your dull ‘I will rule the world’ passages again? Fine, I will, but first I need to organise cover for the rest of the day.”

His lip curled, as he closely studied me with burning eyes. Jaw set he stood in my way, and I ended up folding my arms to wait for him to answer, before he growled, and stepped aside. “Organise a week,” he directed.

“As your majesty commands,” mockingly, I bowed, before I exited the room.