31. Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Viola
T ulip's hair slips between my fingers as I braid it in one long braid down her back. She hums to herself, munching on a crisp green fruit Jaz and Plume found foraging this morning.
"Have you tried this yet, Lola?" she asks, holding it in the air.
I lean forward and take a noisy bite, juice squirting out at the impact. It's tart and makes me wrinkle my nose, but the texture makes my teeth feel clean in a way that I quite like. "What's it called?" I say through my full mouth.
"An apple is what Jaz said. Never seen one before," she responds, taking a bite herself.
"That's because there isn't greenery at home like there is here. I don't know about you, but we never had much fruit at all." I wrap the end of her braid with a thin strip of leather and tap her shoulders. "All set."
She jumps to her feet, smoothing out the flowy brown pants she wears today.
Since I absorbed the power from the Spring artifact, subsequently ruining my ears, Plume's magic has experienced a significant boost. It only took a day for her to get a large farm set up at the bottom of the hill, and with Mace's Prosperity magic, they were able to harvest it quickly. With the influx of cotton and hemp, we now have fresh clothing that hasn't been worn across the realm. Tulip has taken advantage of it, wearing a wrapped blouse that's been stained a lovely shade of pink with a wide neckline that exposes the tops of her shoulders.
We've been here in Rainworth for about a week, and Avidor is the only God I've brought back so far. He's been an interesting addition to the town who has mainly kept to himself. He takes his meals alone in his home, but he does seek me out frequently to train me in his magic and test my strength.
I know I should be bringing the other two Gods back, but most of our focus has been on making this place habitable. And luckily, it is now. Mace and I decided to share a home, which is where Tulip and I are today. It's a small, one-room stone structure with a bed of straw stuffed in a cotton covering. A stone table with four chairs is in the center of the room, and a small counter with a basin resting upon it runs along the wall. We also carved in a wood-burning stove, but it's not getting any use. All meals are currently served as a community, and I can't see that changing any time soon.
Like she was reading my guilty mind, Tulip asks, "When are you going to bring back the next God?" With a loud crunch she finishes the apple and tosses the core up in the air before catching it. "I figured you would've brought them all back at once."
"We haven't exactly figured out the rituals for the other two," I say, ducking my head. "Plus, there is no telling the strain it will have on my body or magic."
"But Himureal is no doubt getting worse," she remarks, raising a brow at me.
"Don't remind me." I rest my elbows on my knees. "I know we need to get them here, but honestly? I'm a little nervous of what they're going to be like. Avidor is…"
"Weird? Creepy?"
"All of the above."
Tulip laughs, tossing the apple up again. Before she can catch it, I Decay it, and she squeals when the rotten core hits her hands. "Lola! Gross!"
"Who's gross?" Morrow says, poking his head in the doorway.
"Me, apparently," I say with a laugh. The Summer Seasonale leans against the open doorway, holding his left upper arm with his right hand. His white shirt is stretched tight across his broad chest, but something looks different about him, and I can't quite put my finger on it.
"You've changed your hair!" Tulip squeals, charging towards him, grabbing him by the chin, and turning his face side to side. "When?"
"Just this morning," he says with a soft smile. "My braids had been growing out for a bit, and they were getting so heavy. Since I can't restrain them the way I used to, I just decided to shave it all off."
His newly buzzed hairstyle sharpens his features. It's a good look, matching his personality well.
"I love it," Tulip says with a broad smile.
The air between them is charged, but not in a good way. It's like their easy camaraderie and relationship are gone, replaced with two people who don't know how to interact. "Shadowweaver," Morrow says, turning to me. "Zeph sent for you. He's working on the next ritual and could use some assistance."
"I guess duty calls," I say, pushing past the two of them and heading up the stone walkway to the small home Zeph lives in now. It's a short walk, all of us choosing to cluster our homes together, and when I get there, I find him poring over a journal, his shoulders hunched. When he looks up at me, I notice deep bags under his eyes, his beard is overgrown, and his mouth is turned down at the corners.
"Shadowweaver," he says, rising to his feet. "Thank you for joining me."
"Sit down, Zeph," I say, crossing to him. "You look like shit."
"Well, hello to you too."
"What's going on with you?"
He sighs, scrubbing his hands across his face before looking at me with bloodshot eyes. "Can I speak freely?"
"Of course, why wouldn't you?"
"You're a God, and I'm your high priest, and it's not like we're friends. There is an inherent power imbalance."
A startled chuckle escapes me. "I'm sorry, what? Zeph, that's so fucking stupid. You're a great high priest, but before you were that, before you lost your mind, we were on our way to being friends."
He winces a little but nods, his expression weary. "I'm exhausted, Viola," he says quietly, slumping down a bit in his chair. "Not just physically, but emotionally. Serving as Himureal's fake high priest didn't prepare me for being your actual priest, and fuck, it is draining."
"Why haven't you told me this before now?"
"Because we're working to save the realm, Viola. Me being tired isn't really something that weighs high on the list of priorities."
I lean against the table, crossing my arms over my chest. "You've seemed to be enjoying yourself."
"It's not that I dislike my responsibilities," he says kindly, "it's just that it feels like my responsibilities are all that I am now."
"I wish you would've told me sooner." My voice is soft, and I know no one outside of this room can hear me. Zeph is a great high priest, and I know I ask a lot of him. It seems like I have neglected my duties as his God, though.
It should be my responsibility to ensure his mental well-being.
"When was the last time you did something that wasn't related to being my high priest?" I ask, narrowing my eyes at him.
Zeph gnaws on his plush lower lip and shrugs. "Probably a while ago."
"Get up." I circle the table and grab him by the arm, pulling him to his feet. "Let's go, come on."
He protests, but I drag him out of the house. He barely struggles, quickly resigning himself to follow me into whatever I have planned. His feet are bare, and he wears olive green trousers and a billowy white shirt that puffs up in the breeze as I haul him across the town, through the keep, and out onto the other side of the walls.
"What are we doing out here, Viola?"
I point towards a flat point on the hill, a short walk from the keep. "Follow me." When we arrive, I kick off my boots, sinking my bare toes into the grass, grounding myself. He stands in front of me with his arms crossed, looking confused and a little frustrated with me.
"What is this about, Viola?" Instead of answering him, I throw a ball of snow at him, which crashes into his nose before he can react to it. "The fuck, Viola!"
"Don't you remember, Zeph, when I almost hit you with ice, and you melted it before I could?"
A nostalgic smile crosses his face. "After the gala. You nearly killed me. But what does that have to do with now?"
"We're using magic, Zeph," I say, lobbing another ball of snow at him. He sees it coming this time and melts it with a well-placed flame. "Practice with me."
He laughs, shaking his head, but still chucks a ball of fire at me. I pull forth Water and douse it. He quirks his head to the side. "I just realized you can answer the question that has plagued Ytopie since the beginning. Which season does Water fall under?"
Wrinkling my nose, I try to focus and see which part of my magic Water comes from, going as far as conjuring it in many different forms to test my theory. "I can't tell," I say after a minute. "Feels like all of them and none of them."
"That's of no use," he says with a laugh. A bright flash of Light assaults my eyes, and I quickly smother it in Shadow.
"Did Morrow tell you about what we've learned about Light?"
"The extracting truth and Illusion functions? Yeah, briefly."
"Want to make an Illusion?" I say, letting my Shadow magic seep out of me and swirl around my feet like fog. Zeph's grin is childlike in excitement, and he gathers the particles of it that float around us.
As they pile in his hands, he looks at me curiously. "I can't hear your magic."
"I couldn't hear Himureal's either," I respond.
"Strange, I wonder why that is?"
"He never told me." Zeph contemplates it for a moment and then shrugs, drinking down my Shadow magic as his eyes flutter closed. I almost forgot the others have to drink to combine their magics.
Almost immediately, we're plunged into darkness, and then when the light returns, we're standing in the middle of his apartment in Ytopie.
He laughs, looking around us with awe. "Wow, it really looks like we're here."
"Just don't touch anything," I say. "It disappears when you touch it."
Zeph yanks his hand away from the chair that is pushed into his polished dining room table. "Damn. It looks so real."
"Why did you bring us here?"
"It'll never be like this again, you know?" He looks around the space, eyes lingering on throw pillows and dishes in the basin. This must've been how it looked when he left. "I can't move back here again. I'm not that Zeph anymore."
"I understand that. When I went to my home in Dalery, it was such a strange feeling. Like I knew it was my home, and I was supposed to be comfortable there, but I didn't fit within it anymore."
"Exactly," he says, turning to face me. His eyes are shiny as he gestures around him. "This Zeph would go out on that patio over there and drink with Loris and Plume. He would sit at that table with a human from the Lowlands and fantasize about what it might be like to wake up next to her." His sheepish grin and flushed cheeks are only visible for a moment before he continues. "I guess I just wanted a chance to say goodbye."
"To your home?"
"No," he says sadly, reaching out to dissolve the Illusion around us. "To that Zeph."
Crossing the distance between us, the sun shining high overhead now that we're back outside of Rainworth, I place my hand on his shoulder. "You're not the sum of your pieces, Zeph."
"Isn't that exactly what we are?"
"Yes, no, well," I groan, looking up at the sky for assistance. "What I mean to say is every piece of you that you give someone doesn't make you who you really are. Only you can determine that. If you want to be that Zeph, you can be that Zeph."
"It doesn't feel that way."
"Regardless, you are in charge of your destiny. I may be your God, but you are not my servant, Zeph. You are free to live this life however you see fit. Shit, when I first saw you, I was prepared to ignore the draw entirely and just make you do your own thing."
"Yet here we are," he says with a chuckle.
"Here we are." I turn back towards the town, motioning for him to follow me. "For what it's worth, I quite like this Zeph you are now. But you could stand to loosen up a bit."
"I'll take that under advisement, Shadowweaver."