"You look calmer than usual this evening. In fact... you look calmer than ever before!" said the God of Time.

"Fuck off!" the God of Chaos answered, sitting on his throne, with a hoarse and weavering voice.

The God of Time smiled and Kaos looked up. Time was tall and his hair curled vertically to form the symbol of infinity, as if to constantly remember its cyclical and eternal duration. That night, as always in his existence, the divinity of the passing of the hours was clutching a pendulum in his right hand. It was ruby ​​red and swung, inevitably and in any position, once a second.

That night, Time was walking through Kaos's living room, ignoring the swinging of what was one of his work tools, and making his wide gray-shade robe flutter around the floor. He walked humming and smiling at the irritated God of Chaos, who, on the contrary, was sitting on a throne made of irregular spikes and indentations.

Kaos supported his head with his right hand and followed with his eyes the damned pendulum: he would have gladly had its owner eat it.

With his free hand he began to play with the very high collar of his cloak, which made his undefined, featureless face almost completely covered. The only clearly recognizable feature on Kaos's face was the eyes, which moved left and right in a creepy way that night.

Nervous, he began to drum his fingers on the armrest, thus producing the only sound in the whole salon.

Although a storm was raging outside, with thunders, lightning and the screams of various controllers of atmospheric phenomena that were quarrelling among themselves, total silence reigned inside the black house. It was a very rare thing. Time, perhaps intimidated by that unusual silence, floated in mid-air so as not to disturb.

Ta-tak. The nails of Kaos rose and fell from the armrest.

Ta-ta-tak.

Kaos stared at the absolute confusion that had always reigned in his palace. From the dawn of days, the lack of logic excelled and yet, that night, the master of the house felt the uncontrollable desire to tidy up. He was longing to reassemble the various objects destroyed and scattered around the floor, or to find things forgotten in the corners and left in the dark to be covered by cobwebs. Kaos liked to throw around anything within arm's reach and that made his kingdom quite unique. He also detested right angles and harmony, so all his architecture was based on absurd angles, crooked stairs and floors, disturbing chromatic divergences and meaningless forms. He loved his diagonal floor, its randomly cut tiles, his sloping paintings, his broken windows and scattered objects but, that night, he had an irrepressible desire to tidy up...

He started looking up to distract himself. He followed the lines that crossed the entire pointed ceiling, which was decorated with many impossible geometric shapes formed by the lines' intersection.

In good weather, a ray of light entered from the point. The master of the house did not like bright places very much, so the windows were darkened by thick black curtains and that narrow opening was the only way from which a slight glimmer could filter in.

"I guess it's your nature" the God of Time suddenly resumed, "When everything is going well, Kaos is agitated and nervous. When he has reasons to worry, he is calm and dejected".

Kaos jumped out of his throne, not expecting his colleague's voice. He opened his mouth and closed it again.

"I feel like swearing at you again" he exclaimed finally.

He decided to get up and approach his firstborn, the God of Fear and Dreams, who was sitting on the floor with his eyes closed. The child always kept his eyes closed, because "only with closed eyes do dreams come true". And closing the eyelids one can face Fear.

Father Kaos picked him up. How small that little boy seemed in the arms of that God, so tall and with such undefined contours!

The whole body of Disorder, made of fog and smoke in continuous movement and mutation, merged with his weaving hair, and it really was difficult to tell where it ended.

The child, especially if compared to his father, was clearly born presenting many traits of his mother, starting from the raven hair for example. Kaos's hair had many shades of gray although it was dark. Furthermore, the child's voice was relaxing and hypnotic, very different from the cavernous voice of the parent.

"How do you want your little brother or sister to be?" asked Disorder.

His son smiled at him: "Like in my dreams, dad!"

The father put him back on the floor and the child returned to his world of illusions and terror, and sat down again. He waited... he waited for the door in front of him, diagonal and with too many frills, to open and let Death or Life enter and tell him if his second child was born and if everything had gone well.

The Gods of the neighboring palaces began to arrive. Everyone wanted to know what this new God or new Goddess was like. The Sun, a man with broad shoulders and flames drawn on his bare chest, stood at the east door. At his side was his young child, with just sketched tattoos, which were going to be defined. Both dressed in red, with their hair high and agitated like flames, they were wrapped in a warm, luminous light that cast strange, creepy shadows on the hall floor. The Goddess of the Night watched from outside the window. She had moved a curtain and was sitting on the balcony. Hope, on the other hand, was large and, with her hands joined, stood next to Kaos, who looked at her rather annoyed.

Suddenly, Life opened the door and smiled.

Death remained in a corner and folded its arms: "I won't work tonight" it said in a deep voice, a voice that came from the bowels of the earth.

No one knew the true aspect of Death. Was it male or female? Was its skin light or dark? Its face could only be seen by those who had already reached the end of their journey. That night, with the hood on, it bowed its head and left the scene smiling.

"As usual, Life and I have challenged each other in our game of whites and blacks and tonight she won. Great match. Congratulations for your second son, Kaos" it spoke. And it vanished.

Before each birth, or in case of serious injuries and conditions of indecision between Life and Death, the two deities challenged each other in a game similar to chess. The game could only be seen by the object matter being in the balance between the possibility of living or dying. Gods, of course, are immortal, but only after their birth. If Death wins, the new God will never see the light and Life... but that night Life won!

Kaos felt again in the mood for mess. Life, radiant and beautiful, one of the most beautiful Goddesses, carried a white bundle in her arms, from which a tuft of raven hair came out.

"Is it a boy?" Kaos asked, anxious and happy.

"It's neither!!" exclaimed Life, with enthusiasm, and continued: "It is a beautiful thing. Neither male nor female..."

"What is it?! The God of inverts?!" the Chaos croaked, back to his usual personality.

Time slapped him behind his neck.

"You're a beast!!" shouted Life, probably addressing both deities who were about to fight, which was unusual for Time but ordinary for Kaos.

"What deity will it become?" the Sun asked in a warm and serene voice.

"Balance, I think" War whispered, leaning against the door where Life had entered. Kaos widened his left eye, leaving the right one half-closed (he was particularly good at doing that) and he looked at War, his consort.

"My darling, dear wife" he said "How can our son, the son of War and Chaos, be the God of Balance?"

War shrugged. The Goddess, so beautiful, was enchanting even that night, despite her exhausted look. And still her mood was the same one that only Kaos could stand...and love.

Kaos looked at the child. It was something undefined, which emanated light and darkness, joy and fear.

The baby looked at him, with two beautiful light blue eyes.

The father smiled: "He has got my eyes..." he admitted "... and I am the only God with that particular tone, so I have to deduce that you did not do what I thought with another God, woman"

He looked at War, who, with her usual frowning look, threatened him to death with a hiss.

It was their way of showing love to each other.

Chaos took the child by the scruff of its neck: "Balance cannot stay in my house"

"There already is a God of Balance, my fellow Kaos..." Time hastened to say "...nothing will change! Evidently this is the future God of Balance, destined to take the place of the present Lord of the Order when the time comes, that is, when the present God, who annoys you so much, will be tired or admitted among the High Gods"

The High Gods were considered "conscious" Gods. Gods who had lived, worked and learned rules and procedures of space and of all things. They were Gods who made decisions, thanks to their experience and wisdom, and communicated them to other Gods, who worked by playing their role. But the High Gods had never been able to command Kaos anything, because he was beyond rules and schemes, so he felt no fear when they were mentioned.

The father kept on holding his son like a cat.

"Do you think I like the idea?" he addressed Time first and then the others "Do you think I like, fellow Gods, the idea of ​​having another Balance in my way?! Of course not. I always hope that my current opponent is fed up and go away, in order to have wide space and full power. This can never happen if this runtlet takes its place"

Time intervened: "First of all runtlet is not a word. And, second, you'll grow fed up and tired too, one day, and you will be admitted among the High Ones"

Kaos burst out laughing. A gloomy laugh that made the smoke and the tufts of his hair expand and most of the Gods in the salon shiver.

"Seriously, Time? I am the eldest God among you. I am the first one created by the Supreme Gods and I have seen numerous Gods fulfill their task and been admitted among the High Ones. I will not be among them. I am destined to survive and work for a long time, far beyond all those in this room! I will never get tired of my work, I love making a mess and no High One can ever tell me what to do"

"Well... then... let's find a solution!"

There were various proposals. Whom to entrust the future God of Balance? How to keep it away from a father who evidently did not appreciate its presence? Some suggested taking it to the current God, who was going to be replaced by the little baby one day. Or asking the High Gods...

But Kaos did not listen.

Holding the child with two fingers, he looked out of the window: "Behold..." he whispered "...behold, my son, how many pathetic, small, silly mortals there are. Look how many are scattered around the Worlds. Their life is just a blink for us. Their prayers reverberate every night and every second in our heads, but for most of us it is so easy to ignore them! Do you want to go to them? Do you want to crawl and wait for death, looking upwards for a sign that I will not send but by means of destruction and pain? Do you want..." but he did not finish the sentence.

A voice suddenly burst from the center of the room.

"What are you going to do, Kaos?"

She: Destiny! The one with decision-making power over practically everything, in direct contact with the High Ones, was now pointing her finger at the only God she had never managed to bend.

"What are you going to do, Kaos? You can't act like you please!"

Chaos turned: "What do you want from me, woman?" he blurted out. "Besides, you are not very inclined to be the Goddess of Destiny, since you ask me what I intend to do. You know you were never able to command me and you will never be, my dear! Do you mean the High Gods don't want me to act like I please? Well, I don't care. I DON'T GIVE A FUCK!!" he screamed full of anger, expressing all his hatred towards those who dared give him orders.

The Goddess of Destiny did not move.

"There will always be someone above you. Remember that, Kaos. Always!" she murmured then.

But the Chaotic God continued to look at her with the air of one who does not admit in any way to be stopped or contradicted.

Someone above you?! Who can be above me?, the master of the house thought, The Supreme Gods, who created me... he kept on repeating in his head ...who have never interfered up until now, therefore who cares if they are "above"!? Surely you, Destiny, are not to consider yourself above me, Kaos and primordial disorder!

The Goddess of Destiny, with a small sphere in her left hand, pointing at the child again, said: "It will come back. As soon as it regains consciousness of its divine nature, it will come back. You cannot prevent it, Kaos"

"Of course I can!" the God affirmed, with a wide, creepy smile that stretched on his misty face.

And he threw the child out of the window, towards one of those distant and barely visible planets in the sky. He threw it far away and no God moved because the fear for Chaos, for his anger and irrationality, was stronger than any pity.

The little God fell like a star, leaving a long trail of light behind him, but it didn't utter a single groan. Perhaps it wept a tear from those beautiful blue eyes, but not a single sound came out from the newborn mouth.

And that night, slowly, the trail of its light disappeared from the sight of the City of Gods.