The Cosmic Tea

  Journal of Ra: “Gods, Lies, and Other Marital Hobbies” Mehen kissed me tonight like he was sealing a contract. He probably was. He says the Ascendant Protocol will save humanity. I say it’s starting to smell like empire with better lighting. Every night, he whispers, “Trust me,” but trust is just obedience in fancy lingerie. He thinks I don’t know about the missing pages of The Prophecy of the Shars. He erased a name. I saw the data fragment. It glowed like truth does—soft, dangerous, undeniable. The erased name was Lion Roch. When I asked, Mehen smiled that god-smile that makes mortals forget their questions. But I’m not mortal. I remember everything. He wants a child. The “seed of salvation.” The next evolution. But what happens when the mother of the new world stops believing in the man who wrote the script? Maybe salvation isn’t what humanity needs. Maybe it needs a scandal.