Chapter Thirteen #2
“Yes, my Queen. But the path towards it is no straight line.” He retreats slightly as if he is choosing his words carefully.
Skyphorah spins slowly before settling down and curling into a comfortable position on a patch of sand below.
“The gem was hidden by the original God of the night. Lunaris. She made the demigods of the Moon.”
“Demigods?” Ryder questions, and I share the same puzzled look he does.
“Yes. The Gods you know are her children. She granted them power and chose their roles.”
“So that means the Sun Gods,” I add, the pieces of the puzzle starting to take shape.
“They are also demigods.” Versivias continues. “Auryn, the original God of the Sun, created them.”
Ryder and I share a look.
“The sisters could never see eye to eye, so much so that they created night and day to split the land into two.” His skin ripples again with pinks and greens before returning to a dark purple.
“The demigods were chosen, handpicked.” He states, his tongue slithering back inside his jaws.
“People no different from you who stand before me.”
“You’re telling me the Gods were once… human?” Ryder states in disbelief, I would’ve said the same thing, but my mouth has been stuck in a permanent ‘o’ shape for the last minute or so.
“Yes.” He says plainly. “Each one chosen for their specific attributes.” His fangs glint in the low dim of the sun. “The power granted to them is only a fragment of the power Lunaris and Auryn possess.”
“They created the Gods we know… They created Oriah?” My mouth is still open in shock.
“Oriah was created as a byproduct of their creations. They had never planned for those of Sun and Moon to reproduce, but in doing so, a new race was created, thus a new God.”
All this information is making my head spin.
“The sisters were happy in their creations until the word got out amongst the people that there was an alternate source that could grant power.”
“An alternative source?” I repeat his words as if doing so will make them make sense.
“Yes, my Queen. The sisters created an energy pool—a powerplant that would keep the energy flowing in this realm, so that the sun and moon would be everlasting and thus the powers of their children undying.” He pauses, his diamond eyes blinking.
“But they made a huge mistake. They created the pool in this realm, thinking no one would ever find it.” He pauses.
“But someone did. The Gods did not choose him; he stumbled into it, his heart impure. It granted him power, but with nothing but greed in his heart, his power became the epitome of him.”
I look to Ryder, but he is as mesmerised as I am.
“A Siphon; he absorbed the power used against him, only making him stronger. He wished to void the sun of its power and then the moon, so there would be no beings with greater power than he. The sisters tried to stop him, but he latched onto their power. In the end, after finding no other way to defeat him, they had to drain all of their magic to forge a cage strong enough to hold him.” Skyphorah hisses slightly in his slumber, breaking my concentration for a second.
“They fashioned the contents of the pool into two gems, and with their last remaining power, they placed a protection spell on the stones, so that the impure of heart would never be able to retrieve the power within.”
“Two stones?” I question.
“The power inside the original gem was too immense to be contained in a single vessel, so the sisters were forced to divide it—two stones, equal in strength, opposite in nature. They swore a sacred pact: neither would reveal the location of their half, not even to each other, so the power could never be reunited or abused again. But Auryn… she broke the oath. Fear swallowed her whole. Terrified that her stone might fall into the wrong hands, she destroyed it—shattering her half of the power forever.”
The hope that sits in the shallows of my mind is nothing compared to the deep sea of doubt that weighs me down.
Even if we do find a stone, who’s to say any of us is pure of heart?
I killed a man, in the shadow realm, in cold blood.
I have hurt people before, lied to my friends and the people who care about me.
My face turns pale as I dance with doubt.
“Maybe Auryn was right… maybe no one should wield such power,” I mutter, my eyes wide with upset.
“Power is but an accessory in the right hands.” Versivius snakes forward and bows his head to me. “And a God is not such a huge leap from a Queen.”
“This is the only way, Asha.” Ryder places a hand on my lower back and pulls me into his side. I lean into him and exhale a deep sigh.
“I know,” I say as I swallow down the hesitation. “How will we know when we find it?”
“Simple. You’ll either bear the power of an original God, or you’ll cease to exist.” Versivius hisses before sliding close to Skyphorah and curling up next to him.
“What was he called…the Siphon?” Ryder asks, his question lingering in the air between us.
Versivius doesn’t move from his position close to the heat of the floor.
“I don’t know his human name, but the people called him Nyxos.”
I find myself shivering at the sound of his name as if it just got ten degrees colder in here. If the sisters couldn’t kill him, and the power is somehow draining.
Maybe Nyxos has found a way out of the cage.