The Meddler's Ploy

The Fount Interferes

It was at this moment that the one known as the Fount became more than an accessory to the Incarnate's plans.     The Fount was of the Monstrous and had desired many things from the Pantheonicks. He coveted their powers, their gifts, their followers... he also felt a compulsion for a goddess to call him mate. These things were of little importance to the Incarnate and it told the Fount to prosecute these wants carefully. Incarnate did not want its focus, the war against Light, to be dispersed in anyway. The Fount was supremely confident in his abilities. His actions ranged against several gods at the same time. He managed to play one god off against another. In this way, he was able to draw more and more gods into the situations he engendered. He was well able to enlist unwitting participants in his ploy. Few could rightly claim to know exactly what the Fount thought to achieve. At times, there were some successes that the Fount was able to use to prove that he was a manipulator with few equals among Darkness or Evil. The Incarnate was not impressed as it was unable to feel this about anything but it was pleased with this servant to its cause, even though the Fount did what he did for his own gain. The Incarnate warned the Fount more than once that his egotistical approach would come to no good. The Fount worried about this for only moments before reapplying himself to his plots.     His ploys seemed to be working well for him. He gained the upper hand over a trio of gods; Vishna, Yamar and Kalai. These were two brothers and a sister -- gods and a goddess. The Fount thought that Kalai might be his goddess-queen-worshiper, if only he could make her think he was mightier than any other that existed. He used his potency and convinced the two brothers that the other desired to bed their sister. He also brought Kalai to see them both as brothers but also those she should tease with her most obvious charms. These two manipulative half-truths caused tremendous upset for them all. The brother-gods fell to deathly strikes while Kalai was reduced to terrible guilt for her flaunting herself in what she had thought was simple fun until it was too far gone. The Fount chose this point to enter Kalai's awareness, posing as a wise and mysterious being. He did not preach to her but let her know his wisdom by seeming to understand her situation though he had only just met her. Kalai had no idea how this stranger could know so much about her brothers or her self and the terrible situation they found themselves in. The Fount could barely conceal his delight in her abject emotion nor her gratitude as he began to outline how she might save this situation from ultimate ruin.     He told Kalai to be light-hearted and to kiss one of her brothers sweetly on the cheek and to say, "I love you both, brother." Kalai saw no harm in doing this and believed that this might well defuse the situation. The Fount had previously gone to both brothers in disguise and had warned them that Kalai would kiss the other and say these words so that she might fool him into making peace and then she would take the other away to her bed. Kalai chose Vishna to kiss. Yamar slew his brother with twin lightning from his eyes. He turned his frustration against Kalai then crying out that she had caused him to slay his brother. Kalai had much potent power to her. She was no simple goddess. As she saw that Yamar meant to end her, she took from Yamar his godsblood and before his electrified eyes, she caused his essence to boil away into the air. The Fount was taken aback as he had seen Kalai only as a beautiful thing for his enjoyments. Such was his self-belief that even this proof of her power only fueled his want for her. Yamar died beside his brother and Kalai turned darkly luminent. Her will expanded to the extremes of this pantheon's borderlines. The Fount counselled her to calm herself. It was a mis-judgement. He was not to be spared Kalai's fury. She saw him now for what he was -- lustful and proud. She could have taken his blood as she had done her brother's -- Kalai's powers were always those over death and slaying -- but she chose another route. She took from the Fount his manhood. The Fount screamed not from pain, as Kalai's caste was a superior one but from anguish knowing what she had done. Kalai said she could have caused this to kill him quickly or slow but she had decided to leave him alive as this would be more painful to him. She knew him for what he desired. Kalai told him to enjoy his future without the ability to please a female or himself.       This was how the Goddess Kalai took from the Fount and created the Mule.