Nobody remembered the first god Elias turned human.
Maybe because once they became human, they forgot themselves too.
Elias was no prophet, no magician. He worked at a repair shop fixing watches — small ticking worlds of brass and patience. People said time ruled everything, but Elias knew better. *Something* ruled even time itself.
And he had found a way to bring it down.
It started with the god of Fire.
The creature came to him in a dream, all flame and pride, demanding worship.
> "Bow, mortal," the god said, "for I am eternal."
Elias looked at the fire and asked quietly,
> "If you're eternal, why are you afraid of being forgotten?"
The fire flickered. Then it coughed. Then it *breathed*.
When Elias woke, there was a man sleeping in the ashes of his fireplace, burned but alive — and crying for the first time in his existence.
That's when Elias understood:
The divine could not bear the weight of a mortal question.
So he asked again.
And again.
He found the god of War in a soldier's reflection, the god of Love in a broken photograph, the god of Wisdom in a dying scholar's eyes.
Each time, Elias asked something simple, human — something only mortals had the courage to ask.
> "Do you ever doubt yourself?"
> "Does your heart ache when no one prays?"
> "What do you fear in the dark?"
One by one, the gods became flesh. They forgot the taste of eternity and learned hunger, loneliness, laughter, sleep. They built small lives in small towns, not knowing what they once were.
The world grew quieter.
Miracles stopped.
But people started holding hands again, not out of worship — but warmth.
---
When the last god came — the one who called herself Creation — the sky went black.
> "You have undone everything," she said. "You've made the world hollow."
Elias smiled sadly. "No. I've made it *full*."
> "And what will you make of me?" she whispered.
Elias looked into her endless eyes and asked the only question left.
> "If you could start over… would you still make us need you?"
Creation trembled. Her light dimmed. And in her place stood a woman — cold, confused, alive. She touched her chest as if feeling her heartbeat for the first time.
Elias took her hand gently.
> "Welcome to humanity," he said. "It's not paradise, but it's real."
And so, the gods walked the earth — not above it, not below it — as equals.
They worked, they wept, they fell in love.
And Elias, the man who had turned gods into people, fixed watches in peace —
listening to the ticking of time, now finally free from eternity.