(no subject)
Cherry Vanilla Binge with Butterscotch & Caramel
Story : knights & necromancers
Rating : PG
Word Count : ~2.5k
So full of spoilers, I almost can't believe I am posting it. But Olram has demanded it (and I think she already knows the secret anyway) so here goes. Being a binge, it is somewhat disjointed and lacking context, but hopefully it still works? Also, yay I wrote something!!!
15. careful what you wish for
What do you mean, you can hear me?
Kuro looked about, confused. “It’s hard to explain. I hear you speak. But at the same time I don’t. Not with my ears.” He paused a moment, blinking. “It’s as if you’re in my head. Speaking to me like you were a part of my thoughts.”
I’m in your head, she repeated, incredulous.
“Where are you really? What do you see? Maybe if I can find you-”
Nothing, she answered, struggling to fight the rising panic she felt at the thought.
“What?”
I see nothing, because I’m nowhere.
Kuro stopped, swallowed hard. Clearly, it had all gone horribly wrong somehow. “I’m sorry.”
Stop that. It doesn’t do either of us any good.
9. my reflection
Chisel still in hand, Kuro stood back to admire his work.
I don’t like it. Not that her protests were going to change a single thing. The statue’s perfect, solemn features were far too familiar.
“But it looks just like you.”
Exactly. Too many things have begun to make sense. Like the fact that one day the statue would serve as a model for the very thing it had been modeled after.
“Should I change it?”
The thought was tempting, but, No, she said, bitterly. As it was, so must it be. She had never hated those words more.
14. cliffhanger
There was a satisfaction she couldn’t even begin to describe at watching the very mountains heed her call and rise, with crash after earsplitting crash, towards the heavens. Energy flowed through her, from a source whose depths she still could not comprehend, and out the hands of her disciple.
The imperial forces tumbled, like so many toy soldiers among the churning rocks. Those that still possessed the presence of mind and the clear path to do so fled as swiftly as their legs or mounts would carry them back across the border.
Around the Chosen, a cheer rose up, as the weary soldiers saw their enemies fall away.
19. the dream that isn't a dream
“Tell me another story,” Luka murmured.
The boy was curled up beneath the covers, a tiny mound at one end of the bed. No doting parent hovered near with a book in hand. Not so much as a candle lit the room. He was alone with the distant stars and the warm, soothing voice that played within his head.
Shall I tell you of the princess who went to war?
“Yes, I love that one.”
It’s true, you know. They’re all true.
“Then when did they happen?”
A long, long time from now. You’ll see one day.
20. tying off loose ends
The seed of the hand that defies death- no, those words exactly.
But that sounds like nonsense. It’s confusing.
I didn’t make it up. I’m just repeating it.
What do you mean, you didn’t make it up? You’re a god. If you’re not making it up, then who-
As it was, so must it be.
The worst nonsense of all. What about the Godslayer? Can’t we write something about him?
No.
But that’s the best story.
Nothing will be written, because nothing has been written. The world will not know.
Then how?
You will find him.
7. the haunted house
The light edged farther down the stairs, keeping slow enough pace that it never quite left his view. Corwin hung close to the wall as he hobbled from one ledge to the next, feeling each out with his cane as he went. The familiar territory of the palace’s new construct lay well behind them and the stones that surrounded him now had an air about them of incredible age.
“Come on, come on!” came the eager cry from ahead.
The lantern paused and each step now brought him deeper into its reach.
He stopped short at the base of the stairs, where the walls opened up and his friend waited to greet him, lantern in hand and a broad grin on his face.
Though the stairs had been roughly hewn, the chamber was a perfect circle, domed at the top and softly lit throughout by some unidentifiable source. Deeply etched lines laced the stone floor, creating broad, sweeping forms that framed what could only be an altar, though the statue’s back was to him.
“What is this place?” he asked, scarcely able to find his voice.
“Home.”
12. fish out of water
Nekha blinked as the world assaulted her with its light, and even more forcefully with its smell. In just a breath she was keenly aware of every mouse that had passed through the room that night, of the kitchen, floors above, and the grass outside the windows overhead. But most of all the stench of two boys accustomed to sleeping in the musty basement badly in need of baths. Had the mortal realm been such a fragrant place the last time she visited it?
Rather than dwell on such things, she thought to stretch her new limbs and nearly leapt in shock as not five fingers but a set of pads and claws spread before her face.
Horrified, she opened her mouth to alert the boys that their plans had gone dreadfully wrong, but all that came out was, “Meow.”
6. love at first sight
Roul found himself, amidst the filth and chaos of yet another visit to yet another orphanage, standing over a huddled mass of bones and rags that peered up at him with the widest eyes he’d ever seen. Tiny as the boy was, he had an even smaller child - perhaps not even old enough for walking - clutched to his chest.
There was no need to consult the goddess; this was the face that had haunted his dreams for as long as he could remember, even if it was decades younger than he’d ever seen it
“Berwyk,” he called, and his companion was soon at his side.
“This one,” said Roul, pointing at the boy as he might a piece of merchandise on a shelf. “We’ll be needing him. And his sister.”
1. a dark and stormy night
With the heavily swaddled infant pressed tight against his chest, Kairn peered over the wall. Bodies moved in the field below. Dark, rolling clouds of them gathered along the horizon.
He watched them with a hollow detachment. Shasa was dead. Sethan and Reida and everything he knew a world away. Which left him standing here, holding the softly snoring and unassuming bundle meant to summon the wrath of the gods.
Perhaps it was already happening. The army before him had swollen to terrifying proportions, all manner of man and demon gathered together. He wondered what would happen when it reached the fort.
“You need not worry.”
It was the blue knight, the commander of the squadron that led the fort, come to join him at the parapet. He turned to face her, at a loss for words.
“The safety of you and the boy is our priority,” she continued. “You will be making your escape long before the enemy reaches us.”
“But...what of the rest of you?”
“We are prepared to meet what fate we will.” Her tone was so calmly certain, he could picture her marching as assuredly to her death, and it sent a shiver through him.
2. there's something in the air
“You’re telling me you lived here.” Reida was still gaping at the statues, drifting about the room in a daze as it were another world she had stepped into and not merely a temple in the woods. “Here, where we’re standing now?”
“For a few years, yes,” said Rune, still lingering near the door.
She turned around, fixing him with a scrutinizing look. “And it never occurred to you what this place was?”
“Well, I know it’s not just a building, if that’s what you’re after.” He was beginning to feel a bit indignant. Sure, he’d learned to ride it out as the temple whisked him about the country, even to call it back when it left him stranded too long, but that didn’t mean the thing had let him in on all its secrets, and he wasn’t certain how this earned him her derision.
“The gods, Rune,” she said, shaking her head. “You lived with the gods.”
5. the mysterious stranger
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” Rune said, sourly. “Just a bit?”
Of course, Rune seemed to think everything he did to be either an overreaction or example of his incompetence.
“It doesn’t just fit,” said Kairn, still staring at the rock. “That’s my hand. Every last line and wrinkle.”
“And that’s a thousand year old brick.”
Rune had said he felt the gods’ discomfort when they’d entered the room. He was beginning to feel quite uneasy himself. What sort of temple had no statues along its walls? And worse yet, his handprint on its altar?
“M-maybe we should leave.”
13. deus ex machina
“Did it work?” Shamino asked. He felt like a fool, but someone had to say it.
The body had ceased its convulsions, its frantic gasping of breaths. It now lay still, eyes closed as if in peaceful slumber, chest rising and falling almost imperceptibly in slow, measured breaths.
The boy looked to his uncle, who tore his eyes from the body to meet his gaze before turning to Sethan.
“Well?” said Kairn.
Sethan gave a shaky nod.
“Of course it worked.” They all snapped back to the body, now sitting upright, regarding them with a look of cold disdain.
A startled gasp from the doorway told them the goddess was not the only new arrival.
4. what a twist
“It’s not working.” Sethan gave the construct a shove with his foot. The thing’s arm flopped lifelessly from the toe of his boot back to the floor.
“I-II don’t understand,” Kairn sputtered. “Everything is the same as it was last time. Except the body.” He dropped to his knees beside the construct to examine it. “Is something wrong with the body?”
As Kairn fell into a checklist of parts and systems, Sham cut in. “It’s me,” he said. “I’m not the key. I never was.”
“Nonsense,” Sethan snapped.
“It’s true,” Sham insisted. Kairn was running his hands down the arms and legs of the construct, feeling out its muscles and bones. He caught him by the shoulder and forced him to look his way. “It’s not the same as the other times. Something’s missing. Something important.”
Kairn looked puzzled for a moment. Then his jaw dropped. “Mara,” he said.
11. a greater evil appears
Cheva marched steadily forward, a lone and seemingly harmless woman amidst the churning sea of armed and armored bodies. A path unfolded before her, soldiers toppling like wheat before a plow to clear it. Their struggles with each other ceased, swords and shields clattering to the ground, abandoned as their wielders fell, lifeless to the ground. Their cries as the energy was ripped from their bodies swelled to drown the din of the battle.
Now and then, on the fringes of the destruction, one would turn their attention her way only to fall with the rest. Before long the soldiers began to create a path for the goddess themselves, trampling friend and foe alike as they fled in blind panic.
16. damsel in distress
The lines around her rapidly fading, the woman slumped from her knees to the ground. A paint stick slid from her trembling hand to roll across the dirt.
Still shocked by her sudden appearance, Rune edged cautiously toward her. Her skin was the deep pink of artificial flesh, laced with the swirling lines of countless sigils, and bare head to toe. He’d seen such a figure before, a vessel, Reida had told him, for a god. He was about to ask what a god not his own might want from him, when the woman strained to raise her head and fixed him with a look so desperate it stopped him cold.
“Rune,” she pleaded. “I need... help.”
“I don’t understand.”
She clutched at his feet, struggling to haul herself up from the ground. “Rune, it’s me, Reida,” she cried. “Help me.”
10. et tu?
They stared at each other, transfixed, for what felt an excruciatingly long moment; Reida on her knees amidst the rubble and Kairn with his arm thrust to the elbow into the solid rock wall as dust rained down on him from above.
He tore his gaze from hers, settling on a point over her shoulder. She couldn’t bring herself to look. The temple walls, slowly shedding their stones were too terrible a sight to turn away from.
“Take her away from here.” His voice was weary but his tone was firm. He wrenched his arm free and reached again for the wall. his hand sinking into the stone as if it were soft clay.
“No!” Reida wailed, and she pitched forward, ready to claw her way across the floor.
A hand caught her from behind and with a deafening snap, the temple vanished.
8. amnesia
“So, that’s it? It’s just...gone?” Reida stared at her hands rather than meet the eye of the man seated beside her. The looks people gave her were still too uncomfortable to bear.
“That’s right,” Roul answered.
“All of it?” Her fingers were pink. Bright, unearthly pink. And longer and thinner than they ought to be.
“All of it. You could draw sigils until your hands are numb, but nothing’s going to come of it.”
She wondered if she could draw proper forms with these alien hands. But it didn’t matter. “Because there’s no one listening.”
She took his silence for an affirmative.
“So I’m stuck,” she said. “Like this.”
“‘fraid so. As it was, so it must be.” He gave her back a pat before rising from his seat and it was such a patronizing gesture, Reida leapt from her own to stop him.
“That’s your smartass answer for everything, isn’t it?” she snapped. “What the hell does it even mean?”
Roul turned to face her and she saw none of the shock, the revulsion, or the pity she was growing to expect, just the very young face of a very old man. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” he said. “You’ve got plenty of time.”
17. prince charming
“Kuro.” She said his name slowly, as if she were tasting it.
Kuro just nodded, still amazed that she’d see fit to even speak to him.
She pursed her lips, eyeing him up and down thoughtfully. “You look like your grandfather,” she said, before amending, “Like all your grandfathers, I suspect.”
“You look like a goddess.” It had to be the most idiotic thing he’d ever said, and she was probably considering her error in having approached him in the first place, but he didn’t know what else to say. It was like looking at a shrine statue come to life.
The annoyance was plain on her flawless features, but she made no move to leave. “You wouldn’t believe how quickly hearing so grows tiresome.”
3. that fateful day
“It’s ready.” Reida lay down her chalk.
Every inch of every surface of the cavern was laced with interlocking sigils. Powerful magics, or so she’d told him. Kuro had never seen the true effects of the marks he’d dedicated his life to studying. That was soon to change.
She ran a hand over the top of the central altar, and Kuro felt his breath catch at the sight. A living goddess where a stone one ought to have stood.
Reida paused, eyes and fingers lingering thoughtfully on the deep impression of a hand that marred the pedestal’s otherwise flawless surface.
“Reida?”
Shaking herself from her reverie, she turned to face him with a toothy grin. “Well, then,” she said. “Are you ready to meet the gods?”
18. flashback
The world flew away. The walls, the floor, the light of day, all melded into an endless sea of nothingness. The roar of gathering magic swelled in her ears, devouring the sounds of the real world until it too ceased. She’d never quite settled on what to expect once the forms had been activated, but this certainly wasn’t it.
Direction no longer held meaning. She could not feel the ground beneath her feet. Wasn’t even sure she had feet anymore for that matter. Her body felt light and hollow and as if it were expanding to fill the boundless space it had come to inhabit. She thought to scream, but there was no breath.
Then she felt a tug, a steadying presence, like a hand on her back, if indeed she still had a back.
She’d know that touch anywhere.
Even if he’d been dead fifty years.
Kairn?
There was silence for what felt an eternity. Then, Reida? It was the wrong voice.
Reida, I can hear you. Where are you?
Story : knights & necromancers
Rating : PG
Word Count : ~2.5k
So full of spoilers, I almost can't believe I am posting it. But Olram has demanded it (and I think she already knows the secret anyway) so here goes. Being a binge, it is somewhat disjointed and lacking context, but hopefully it still works? Also, yay I wrote something!!!
15. careful what you wish for
What do you mean, you can hear me?
Kuro looked about, confused. “It’s hard to explain. I hear you speak. But at the same time I don’t. Not with my ears.” He paused a moment, blinking. “It’s as if you’re in my head. Speaking to me like you were a part of my thoughts.”
I’m in your head, she repeated, incredulous.
“Where are you really? What do you see? Maybe if I can find you-”
Nothing, she answered, struggling to fight the rising panic she felt at the thought.
“What?”
I see nothing, because I’m nowhere.
Kuro stopped, swallowed hard. Clearly, it had all gone horribly wrong somehow. “I’m sorry.”
Stop that. It doesn’t do either of us any good.
9. my reflection
Chisel still in hand, Kuro stood back to admire his work.
I don’t like it. Not that her protests were going to change a single thing. The statue’s perfect, solemn features were far too familiar.
“But it looks just like you.”
Exactly. Too many things have begun to make sense. Like the fact that one day the statue would serve as a model for the very thing it had been modeled after.
“Should I change it?”
The thought was tempting, but, No, she said, bitterly. As it was, so must it be. She had never hated those words more.
14. cliffhanger
There was a satisfaction she couldn’t even begin to describe at watching the very mountains heed her call and rise, with crash after earsplitting crash, towards the heavens. Energy flowed through her, from a source whose depths she still could not comprehend, and out the hands of her disciple.
The imperial forces tumbled, like so many toy soldiers among the churning rocks. Those that still possessed the presence of mind and the clear path to do so fled as swiftly as their legs or mounts would carry them back across the border.
Around the Chosen, a cheer rose up, as the weary soldiers saw their enemies fall away.
19. the dream that isn't a dream
“Tell me another story,” Luka murmured.
The boy was curled up beneath the covers, a tiny mound at one end of the bed. No doting parent hovered near with a book in hand. Not so much as a candle lit the room. He was alone with the distant stars and the warm, soothing voice that played within his head.
Shall I tell you of the princess who went to war?
“Yes, I love that one.”
It’s true, you know. They’re all true.
“Then when did they happen?”
A long, long time from now. You’ll see one day.
20. tying off loose ends
The seed of the hand that defies death- no, those words exactly.
But that sounds like nonsense. It’s confusing.
I didn’t make it up. I’m just repeating it.
What do you mean, you didn’t make it up? You’re a god. If you’re not making it up, then who-
As it was, so must it be.
The worst nonsense of all. What about the Godslayer? Can’t we write something about him?
No.
But that’s the best story.
Nothing will be written, because nothing has been written. The world will not know.
Then how?
You will find him.
7. the haunted house
The light edged farther down the stairs, keeping slow enough pace that it never quite left his view. Corwin hung close to the wall as he hobbled from one ledge to the next, feeling each out with his cane as he went. The familiar territory of the palace’s new construct lay well behind them and the stones that surrounded him now had an air about them of incredible age.
“Come on, come on!” came the eager cry from ahead.
The lantern paused and each step now brought him deeper into its reach.
He stopped short at the base of the stairs, where the walls opened up and his friend waited to greet him, lantern in hand and a broad grin on his face.
Though the stairs had been roughly hewn, the chamber was a perfect circle, domed at the top and softly lit throughout by some unidentifiable source. Deeply etched lines laced the stone floor, creating broad, sweeping forms that framed what could only be an altar, though the statue’s back was to him.
“What is this place?” he asked, scarcely able to find his voice.
“Home.”
12. fish out of water
Nekha blinked as the world assaulted her with its light, and even more forcefully with its smell. In just a breath she was keenly aware of every mouse that had passed through the room that night, of the kitchen, floors above, and the grass outside the windows overhead. But most of all the stench of two boys accustomed to sleeping in the musty basement badly in need of baths. Had the mortal realm been such a fragrant place the last time she visited it?
Rather than dwell on such things, she thought to stretch her new limbs and nearly leapt in shock as not five fingers but a set of pads and claws spread before her face.
Horrified, she opened her mouth to alert the boys that their plans had gone dreadfully wrong, but all that came out was, “Meow.”
6. love at first sight
Roul found himself, amidst the filth and chaos of yet another visit to yet another orphanage, standing over a huddled mass of bones and rags that peered up at him with the widest eyes he’d ever seen. Tiny as the boy was, he had an even smaller child - perhaps not even old enough for walking - clutched to his chest.
There was no need to consult the goddess; this was the face that had haunted his dreams for as long as he could remember, even if it was decades younger than he’d ever seen it
“Berwyk,” he called, and his companion was soon at his side.
“This one,” said Roul, pointing at the boy as he might a piece of merchandise on a shelf. “We’ll be needing him. And his sister.”
1. a dark and stormy night
With the heavily swaddled infant pressed tight against his chest, Kairn peered over the wall. Bodies moved in the field below. Dark, rolling clouds of them gathered along the horizon.
He watched them with a hollow detachment. Shasa was dead. Sethan and Reida and everything he knew a world away. Which left him standing here, holding the softly snoring and unassuming bundle meant to summon the wrath of the gods.
Perhaps it was already happening. The army before him had swollen to terrifying proportions, all manner of man and demon gathered together. He wondered what would happen when it reached the fort.
“You need not worry.”
It was the blue knight, the commander of the squadron that led the fort, come to join him at the parapet. He turned to face her, at a loss for words.
“The safety of you and the boy is our priority,” she continued. “You will be making your escape long before the enemy reaches us.”
“But...what of the rest of you?”
“We are prepared to meet what fate we will.” Her tone was so calmly certain, he could picture her marching as assuredly to her death, and it sent a shiver through him.
2. there's something in the air
“You’re telling me you lived here.” Reida was still gaping at the statues, drifting about the room in a daze as it were another world she had stepped into and not merely a temple in the woods. “Here, where we’re standing now?”
“For a few years, yes,” said Rune, still lingering near the door.
She turned around, fixing him with a scrutinizing look. “And it never occurred to you what this place was?”
“Well, I know it’s not just a building, if that’s what you’re after.” He was beginning to feel a bit indignant. Sure, he’d learned to ride it out as the temple whisked him about the country, even to call it back when it left him stranded too long, but that didn’t mean the thing had let him in on all its secrets, and he wasn’t certain how this earned him her derision.
“The gods, Rune,” she said, shaking her head. “You lived with the gods.”
5. the mysterious stranger
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” Rune said, sourly. “Just a bit?”
Of course, Rune seemed to think everything he did to be either an overreaction or example of his incompetence.
“It doesn’t just fit,” said Kairn, still staring at the rock. “That’s my hand. Every last line and wrinkle.”
“And that’s a thousand year old brick.”
Rune had said he felt the gods’ discomfort when they’d entered the room. He was beginning to feel quite uneasy himself. What sort of temple had no statues along its walls? And worse yet, his handprint on its altar?
“M-maybe we should leave.”
13. deus ex machina
“Did it work?” Shamino asked. He felt like a fool, but someone had to say it.
The body had ceased its convulsions, its frantic gasping of breaths. It now lay still, eyes closed as if in peaceful slumber, chest rising and falling almost imperceptibly in slow, measured breaths.
The boy looked to his uncle, who tore his eyes from the body to meet his gaze before turning to Sethan.
“Well?” said Kairn.
Sethan gave a shaky nod.
“Of course it worked.” They all snapped back to the body, now sitting upright, regarding them with a look of cold disdain.
A startled gasp from the doorway told them the goddess was not the only new arrival.
4. what a twist
“It’s not working.” Sethan gave the construct a shove with his foot. The thing’s arm flopped lifelessly from the toe of his boot back to the floor.
“I-II don’t understand,” Kairn sputtered. “Everything is the same as it was last time. Except the body.” He dropped to his knees beside the construct to examine it. “Is something wrong with the body?”
As Kairn fell into a checklist of parts and systems, Sham cut in. “It’s me,” he said. “I’m not the key. I never was.”
“Nonsense,” Sethan snapped.
“It’s true,” Sham insisted. Kairn was running his hands down the arms and legs of the construct, feeling out its muscles and bones. He caught him by the shoulder and forced him to look his way. “It’s not the same as the other times. Something’s missing. Something important.”
Kairn looked puzzled for a moment. Then his jaw dropped. “Mara,” he said.
11. a greater evil appears
Cheva marched steadily forward, a lone and seemingly harmless woman amidst the churning sea of armed and armored bodies. A path unfolded before her, soldiers toppling like wheat before a plow to clear it. Their struggles with each other ceased, swords and shields clattering to the ground, abandoned as their wielders fell, lifeless to the ground. Their cries as the energy was ripped from their bodies swelled to drown the din of the battle.
Now and then, on the fringes of the destruction, one would turn their attention her way only to fall with the rest. Before long the soldiers began to create a path for the goddess themselves, trampling friend and foe alike as they fled in blind panic.
16. damsel in distress
The lines around her rapidly fading, the woman slumped from her knees to the ground. A paint stick slid from her trembling hand to roll across the dirt.
Still shocked by her sudden appearance, Rune edged cautiously toward her. Her skin was the deep pink of artificial flesh, laced with the swirling lines of countless sigils, and bare head to toe. He’d seen such a figure before, a vessel, Reida had told him, for a god. He was about to ask what a god not his own might want from him, when the woman strained to raise her head and fixed him with a look so desperate it stopped him cold.
“Rune,” she pleaded. “I need... help.”
“I don’t understand.”
She clutched at his feet, struggling to haul herself up from the ground. “Rune, it’s me, Reida,” she cried. “Help me.”
10. et tu?
They stared at each other, transfixed, for what felt an excruciatingly long moment; Reida on her knees amidst the rubble and Kairn with his arm thrust to the elbow into the solid rock wall as dust rained down on him from above.
He tore his gaze from hers, settling on a point over her shoulder. She couldn’t bring herself to look. The temple walls, slowly shedding their stones were too terrible a sight to turn away from.
“Take her away from here.” His voice was weary but his tone was firm. He wrenched his arm free and reached again for the wall. his hand sinking into the stone as if it were soft clay.
“No!” Reida wailed, and she pitched forward, ready to claw her way across the floor.
A hand caught her from behind and with a deafening snap, the temple vanished.
8. amnesia
“So, that’s it? It’s just...gone?” Reida stared at her hands rather than meet the eye of the man seated beside her. The looks people gave her were still too uncomfortable to bear.
“That’s right,” Roul answered.
“All of it?” Her fingers were pink. Bright, unearthly pink. And longer and thinner than they ought to be.
“All of it. You could draw sigils until your hands are numb, but nothing’s going to come of it.”
She wondered if she could draw proper forms with these alien hands. But it didn’t matter. “Because there’s no one listening.”
She took his silence for an affirmative.
“So I’m stuck,” she said. “Like this.”
“‘fraid so. As it was, so it must be.” He gave her back a pat before rising from his seat and it was such a patronizing gesture, Reida leapt from her own to stop him.
“That’s your smartass answer for everything, isn’t it?” she snapped. “What the hell does it even mean?”
Roul turned to face her and she saw none of the shock, the revulsion, or the pity she was growing to expect, just the very young face of a very old man. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” he said. “You’ve got plenty of time.”
17. prince charming
“Kuro.” She said his name slowly, as if she were tasting it.
Kuro just nodded, still amazed that she’d see fit to even speak to him.
She pursed her lips, eyeing him up and down thoughtfully. “You look like your grandfather,” she said, before amending, “Like all your grandfathers, I suspect.”
“You look like a goddess.” It had to be the most idiotic thing he’d ever said, and she was probably considering her error in having approached him in the first place, but he didn’t know what else to say. It was like looking at a shrine statue come to life.
The annoyance was plain on her flawless features, but she made no move to leave. “You wouldn’t believe how quickly hearing so grows tiresome.”
3. that fateful day
“It’s ready.” Reida lay down her chalk.
Every inch of every surface of the cavern was laced with interlocking sigils. Powerful magics, or so she’d told him. Kuro had never seen the true effects of the marks he’d dedicated his life to studying. That was soon to change.
She ran a hand over the top of the central altar, and Kuro felt his breath catch at the sight. A living goddess where a stone one ought to have stood.
Reida paused, eyes and fingers lingering thoughtfully on the deep impression of a hand that marred the pedestal’s otherwise flawless surface.
“Reida?”
Shaking herself from her reverie, she turned to face him with a toothy grin. “Well, then,” she said. “Are you ready to meet the gods?”
18. flashback
The world flew away. The walls, the floor, the light of day, all melded into an endless sea of nothingness. The roar of gathering magic swelled in her ears, devouring the sounds of the real world until it too ceased. She’d never quite settled on what to expect once the forms had been activated, but this certainly wasn’t it.
Direction no longer held meaning. She could not feel the ground beneath her feet. Wasn’t even sure she had feet anymore for that matter. Her body felt light and hollow and as if it were expanding to fill the boundless space it had come to inhabit. She thought to scream, but there was no breath.
Then she felt a tug, a steadying presence, like a hand on her back, if indeed she still had a back.
She’d know that touch anywhere.
Even if he’d been dead fifty years.
Kairn?
There was silence for what felt an eternity. Then, Reida? It was the wrong voice.
Reida, I can hear you. Where are you?