Chapter Fifteen: Lessons in Restraint - Jartre

My nostrils flare and I feel heat prickle up my spine, but I manage to reign myself in. She is not someone I wish to snap at.

“You have a lot of nerve to show such disrespect. Has it not yet sunk in that you’re talking to a God?” I say bitingly.

“Has it not yet sunk in that I don’t care? I mean, whatcha gonna do, smite me?” she says mockingly before her body slumps in confusion, “What does smite even mean?”

I stare at her, once again stupefied by her ambivalence to the fact she’s talking to a God. She genuinely doesn’t give a flying fuck. She’s the first person besides the Gods themselves to never fear me. On one hand, I don’t want her to fear me, but on the other, it’s disconcerting to have such a weaker species feel no fear or reverence for me. I’m not accustomed to it, and I don’t like it.

“It means to strike with a firm blow,” I begrudgingly answer.

She snorts, “That’s it? So all this time when people talk about being smited by God they just mean God’s gonna smack a hoe? That