Four Heavenly Kings

Pan and his siblings are visiting their 'uncle.'

'Hope he's nice. I haven't met her yet.'

'They're lovely. Just don't ask about business stuff.'

'Hurry along, children. We're already late by ten lightyears.'

The twins, Gaia and Erebos, are ahead with their parent. They're the oldest in the family.

'Koios, hurry up!'

He's their younger brother, and the youngest son in the family, sharing a mother. The others came from different men and women, some not human.

Pan and the triplets keep each other company, the cosmic trail as tiring as an earthly one. Nothingness is so dull to tread on.

'Any predictions for the day?' Knowing they usually only talk with him.

'We'll stay longer than we seek,' says Klotho.

'Receive more than what we need,' says Lachesis.

'And lose more than what we want,' says Atropos.

He's gotten used to their obscure sayings, although their strange unified mind, one thought completing the next, still creeps him out occasionally.

'Perhaps we'll see some of my kids along the way,' hopes Phanes. They have had countless offspring across the Worlds, only matched by Eris, the youngest in the family. The chaotic inventor, her many children caused mayhem for a while before they were all executed.

She could have more. Age to them means as much as ants to humans. They can become older, younger, male, female, anything across reality. But even they are not immune to grief.

They have reached a galaxy housing yellow-bodied Vesamuni ('Infamous'), King of the North. He's one of the Shitennou, the local protector deities of this universe.

'Halt!'

He emerges from a nearby cluster of stars, a pot-bellied humanoid with three legs, one eye and eight oversized teeth, swimming through space like a bloated catfish.

'If you wish to pass, pay me.'

Erebos, the Ever-Serious, fishes in his wallet for some cash. He finds some coins from Dimension XVIII and tosses them at the dwarf. They float in the void of space, reaching their target like astronauts bubbling around on the moon.

'Not enough. I need more.'

Their father is annoyed.

'We have no time. Move or I'll kill you.'

'I'd like to see you try.'

He's joined by his brothers: blue Vidhuvenna ('Growth'), King of the South, white Dharaarata ('Nation-Carrier'), King of the East, and red Kaetha Aesa ('Ugly Eye'), King of the West.

Pan is excited for a fight. He's new to the whole 'space god' business.

The encounter is quick. Their parent turns them into humans and lets them suffocate in the vacuum.

This awakens their father: the orange four-faced Siyasathuta, known as Mahabamba, who comes out from behind a planet on a swan with stars for feathers.

Gaia, the maternal sibling, is ready to make quick work of him, but her mother stops her.

'It's been a while, old friend.'

He turns his sons back into their telestial forms.

'Indeed. Forgive my childer. They are still immature and quick of temper.'

'Who's he?' Pan is still learning about the pantheon of higher beings, having been a human once.

'He's the keeper of this universe.'

Mahabamba takes them into Bambathalaya, a paradisal realm outside time.

His wife, Bambakath, is making tea and scones.

'Have some food, for the trouble my sons caused.'

They sit down on broken chunks of a shattered asteroid. Pan asks the old sage a question:

'Why do you have four heads?'

He's met many strange-looking entities, but knows there's always a reason for their appearance.

'The heads I have symbolize my rank. The lowest of my kind have four heads and we rule one Aandah, or universe, a territory of ninety-three billion lightyears. After that it's one head for each universe. Those above me rule more Aandaasah and have more faces.'

'Above you?'

'It goes from us to five heads, then six, seven and so on. The greatest of my kind have 3,141,592,653,589,793,238,462,643,383,279, 502,884,197,169,399,375,105,820,974,944,592,307, 816,406,286,208,998,628,034,825,342,117,067,982,148,086 heads.'

'Now that's hurting my head.'

He smiles, stroking his snow-white beards.

'What brings you to this Dimension?'

'Dimension XI is where my uncle lives.'

'Ah, the Sky Ruler. I remember them. We've had our...disagreements in the past.'

'So how many of you are there?'

'Oh, as many as there are universes. I stopped counting long ago. We live for a few trillion years before we die and are replaced by our child or a sibling of the same rank. My father was Rangaeba and my son is Satharamuhuna. The four troublemakers, bless them, are adopted.'

They continue chatting about things that would confuse mortal minds, and the ten travellers leave for the next star system.

'Thanks for the refreshments, Sathuta.'

'My pleasure. But don't mention you met me, yes? Your sibling...disturbs me.'

'Understood. They unsettle me too. But family is family, I suppose.'