Humans made in God's image is a common doctrine in most religions of this world, yet the truth is different. Hanis, God of Humans, also known as Father of Humanity, while creating the first human, he constantly checked himself in the mirror. Trying to make the first human similar to himself.
The man was perfect, like the god who made him. Except for one thing. He did make a human, but not a living one. It was a body without life, just a perfect doll.
While Hanis could make a perfect doll, he couldn’t make it live, at least not the same as the gods. They were supposed to be made in his image, yet when he tried to make them alive, they weren’t any different from animals.
Conflicted with his life’s work, he looked for the missing pieces. That’s when he realized that to make a “human”, he needs to understand the gods first. Since Hanis was an artist, not a thinker, he decided to ask the wisest of all the gods for help.
Walking through the stone doors with tales of the past engraved on them, he saw a massive library inside the tree. Raw upon rows of bookshelves, countless books flying from one end of the library to another. Around them, candles with arms levitated, checking each book and directing them the right way.
At the center, there was a round desk with stacks of books and papers. Right in the center stood a young lady with long blond hair almost to her knees. Her hair was so long and dense that the green robe she wore was barely visible. The woman had a knife in her hand, covered with blood. At the table, a gutted blue snake. She was taking out the organs one by one and drawing them on paper.
Hanis barely took a step forward before a white robe was pushed onto his face with a comment, “This is a library! Have some decency.” The God only wore pants made of leaves, as it was the only thing he could make. Hanis lived by his strict rules of using only the things he himself made.
He looked at the robe and hesitantly put it on. Wearing it was against his rules, but his current objective was much more important. He walked to the center of the library along with the flying books and candle creatures.
It was his first time in the grand library. The view was stunning; nothing in here was made with tools. All of that was natural, the way he liked it. “How did I never come here?” He thought to himself, stunned by the view, taking in each inch of this place to his memory. When he stood in front of the desk and looked at the woman, he came to a realization, “Right… It’s because of her. She is an odd one.” It was the only way he could describe her, especially while she was gutting a snake.
“What do you need, Hanis?” She asked without looking him in the eyes. The god looked for the right words to begin, but since he was taking too long, she looked up at him. “Is it something connected to your work?” His light backing of the head was enough of an answer. “You’re creating something, a living being. Not like any animal. But there is a problem. It doesn’t behave like you want it to, because it doesn’t act like us, like gods.” She continued reading answers from Hanis’ subtle movements and gestures, not needing him to say anything to understand his intentions.
Sienna was well known among the gods, but to many of them she was an outcast. While all the Gods possessed some kind of power that made them distinct from one another, she was the only one without any powers. The only ones who had spoken with her know that it isn’t true.
“How did you...?” Hanis was stunned by her deduction; to him, it was like magic. Like she was answering his questions from the future.
“Each move you made was enough of an answer for me.” The knowledge she gathered gave her power that even the gods couldn’t comprehend. They thought she was beneath them, while in truth she was the one observing them from above.
“Ah… You know that I am working on something. I want to call it human. And like you explained… I can’t make it behave like us… I am missing something. Could you guess what I want to research?” Hanis playfully asked, curious if she could deduce the truth.
“You want to make it like us? You couldn’t be any more obvious. In truth, I also wanted to research a bit more about us. Into… Gods.” At the snap of her fingers, the candle creatures moved the snake’s lifeless body and books away. Then bring two new books and a sheet of paper. “The main problem with researching Gods is how much pride is in them. They would rather stay mysterious, as this gives them the advantage. If you want them to cooperate, you need to offer them something greater than their own pride. And to be honest, even I don’t know what to offer them, so for now the two of us should be enough for the research.”
Sienna suddenly stabbed a knife into her desk. “Show me your hand.” Hanis hesitantly moved his hand forward, seeing that the lady gently grabbed it and said, “I need to make a small cut for a blood sample.”
“What about yours?” Hanis asked, not exactly happy that he would feel a bit of pain.
“I already tested my own blood countless times. I need to know if you're the same.” Stated Sienna before suddenly cutting Hanis’ finger. The blood dropped onto a shard of glass. It was of a white color, lightly splattering on the shard of glass.
Sienna took only a glance at Hanis’ blood while she stared a bit longer at his wound. “Not a single cell…” She muttered.
“What? Something wrong with my hand? Or the wound…” Now, hearing any more words from the woman made him stress out.
She took out the knife and cut her own hand. The blood dropped onto the other shard of glass. Her blood was of a much brighter white color than Hanis’. He analyzed the two different bloods, but Sienna interrupted by shoving her hand closer to his face. She did cut herself, but the wound was nearly sealed after a few seconds.
“You have… Healing powers?” Hanis stuttered; like all the gods, he thought that Sienna possessed no powers.
“No. That’s what every God is capable of. I tested it many times. My blood had a different shade of white. The purer it was, the faster the wound regenerated. There are many variables that change the color of the blood, but I came to one conclusion. The brightness of the blood indicates how strong a god is.” As she explained, she held her hand beside her face, the wound completely healed with no scar left. “Judging by your reaction it's your first time being hurt…”
Hanis pulled his hand away, feeling a bit ashamed that in all his life, this was the first time he had bled. “But it’s of no surprise. After all, you are a young god.” Her words calmed him a bit. “All the gods are capable of healing wounds. You never saw any good bleed?” Sienna asked curiously, lightly tilting her head to the side.
“I had seen my father bleed… Once…” Hanis didn’t explain it any further; it was a painful memory that he didn’t want to bring up.
Hanis had his eyes down, looking at his own feet, trying to bury those memories deep in his head. Sienna had a wide smile on her face, nearly forgetting that there was another god in front of her. She quickly covered her mouth with her hand, acting as if she was trying to come up with a hypothesis.
The grin didn’t disappear even when Hanis looked at her; she was too overjoyed after hearing this. “So the God of Death can bleed… How amusing.”
Once she dropped her hand, she hid her smile and went back to her good old stoic expression. “Before we can move on to the next experiment, you have to learn how to regenerate quicker.”
“Why? What’s the next experiment?” Because of how calm her words have been, Hanis didn’t sound worried, just curious.
“It’s another test I have attempted many times, but I need more subjects to gather data. I can’t exactly analyze it while testing myself.” Sienna moved a wooden board onto the table and placed her hand on it.
As Hanis was about to ask another question, he felt something splatter on his face. Looking down on the board, he saw a knife stuck in it; most of the brown wood was covered in white blood. A pinky finger was severed from Sienna’s hand, yet she didn’t flinch, nor did she seem worried.
“Why did you…” Hanis was stunned, utterly speechless. What terrified him the most was her expression. No sign of fear or pain, she simply stared at him, analyzing each of his moves.
In a matter of a few seconds, her finger grew back, with no scar left. “I need to know if you are capable of the same.” Seeing the hesitation in his eyes, she decided to persuade him, “Didn’t you want to create beings similar to gods? Then you must understand us, understand yourself. That way, you will prove your worth to your father, and you will surpass your brothers.”
All those reasons combined gave Hanis the determination he needed, a reminder of why he wanted to create something so grand. “Please, teach me everything you know!” Hanis lightly bowed, which surprised Sienna.
No God bowed to one another; they are the most selfless beings, yet this one was much different. For the first time, she saw God in a different light. “You’re always welcome at my library.”