Chapter 59 Romie
WORD OF WHAT HAD TRANSPIRED at the Institute traveled fast. When Atheia returned to Aldryn College a few days later, the reception she received was cold.
There was another protest in motion calling for justice for Eclipse-born after those who’d escaped from the Institute shared their stories loud and wide.
On top of that, whispered rumors ran rampant of the carnage that had taken place at the Institute, of the Tidal Council turned to stone by Atheia’s own hand.
No one trusted her anymore, not even the people who’d previously been so loud about their views against Eclipse magic. She was here to put an end to that.
When the gods had called on her earlier that day and asked to meet here, Atheia had agreed, pretending she had seen reason and was willing to give herself up. But she had other plans in mind for them.
The gods stood in the center of the quad next to the Fountain of Fate, surrounded by people from all over who were calling for Institutes to be shut down and Regulators and Tidelore leaders to be held accountable.
Demanding answers from the Tides of Fate themselves—not only answers, but the magic she had promised them and failed to deliver on.
No one seemed to bat an eye at the vessel of gods standing in their midst. They had reclaimed their emissary, who’d made a miraculous recovery.
In their possession was Sidraeus, bound at the wrists.
Atheia hadn’t anticipated this. “Did you get yourself captured again so soon, Sidraeus?”
“I’m here of my own volition.”
His unexpected answer gave her pause. “Why the binds, then?”
“It’s to ensure he doesn’t go back on his word,” the gods answered. “But it is true: Sidraeus here has valiantly offered himself to us in sacrifice. The question is, daughter: Will you?”
“That’s what I told you I would do, didn’t I? It’s why I’m here.”
The gods gave her a pitying look. “Did you really think we would not see through your lies? We know you’ve allied yourself with Clover. We know you’ve lured us here so he can bring us to the sea of ash where we will be vulnerable.”
Atheia’s mind raced. She pressed close to the Fountain of Fate, adopting a nonchalant air as she ran a hand over the water’s surface. “Then why show up at all?”
“To give you the chance to do the right thing. Call off your beast of a god and give yourself over to us so we can fix everything.”
Atheia huffed a cold laugh. “I will do no such thing. And I don’t believe for a second that Sidraeus has suddenly become so self-sacrificing.”
“It’s the only way, Atheia.” Sidraeus swept a gaze over the onlooking students, the patch of darkness still open in the quad, the destruction of the cloisters it had wrought.
“All of this started with us. The Tides and the Shadow and the choices we made. I’m done evading responsibility for what I’ve done.
If our sacrifice is the only way to save these dying worlds—all these people who are suffering because of us—then I will gladly lay down my life. ”
“None of this is my fault,” Atheia hissed. “Everything bad started when you stepped into the realms of the living and created your Tidecallers. It’s your corrupt magic that coursed through Clover’s veins and led to this. You are to blame, Sidraeus.”
“If you want to play that game, then let’s not forget you helped bring me into these realms. The first pebble in the landslide that followed.
” He shook his head slowly. “But it shouldn’t matter who or where or how it started.
We both had a part to play. We both made mistakes.
We are both flawed, Atheia, like everything we created and everything that came after us.
I finally understand that the flaws are what makes the good shine through.
I’m trying to climb my way through the cracks of past mistakes instead of letting myself tumble deeper into darkness. Why can’t you?”
“I will not die for them,” she spat, gesturing to the gods.
“What about for your people?” Sidraeus asked. “For the worlds you love?”
Everyone was watching them. Murmurs in favor of the Shadow. Whispers of the Tides abandoning them.
Part of Atheia knew this was her chance to sway the lunar mages’ opinion of her for good. If she went willingly with the gods, if she chose to sacrifice herself to save these people, just as Sidraeus had seemingly decided, then they would finally see everything she was doing was for them.
But she was in far too deep now to take accountability for something she did not see fault in.
And she didn’t trust Sidraeus or the gods in the slightest. Besides, the damage was already done.
She saw the looks thrown her way. Knew she’d let her emotions get the better of her, and now they’d seen the truth of her, plain and simple.
The Shadow was willing to die for them; their beloved Tides were not.
And this, perhaps, was a bigger shift in their world than every other horror it had endured.
Atheia had lost their belief. And without it, she had nothing—except for her determination, and a plan that would ensure both their survival and her own. If they hated her for it afterward, so be it.
Too quick for the gods or Sidraeus to know what she was doing, Atheia dipped her hand in the fountain, just past her wrist. Her spiral mark shone faint silver as the salt water activated it, and as she called on Clover through his own blackened mark, a maelstrom of ash opened behind her on cue.
She smiled wickedly at the gods, at Sidraeus. “There is only one way to save the people and the worlds I love. And it’s not with my death, but yours.”
The maelstrom swallowed her and the gods and Sidraeus whole, bringing them into the sea of ash.
Right to Clover.