41. Chapter 41
Chapter 41
Viola
I should've fucking known.
It was all too easy. The rituals went too smoothly. Everything made too much sense.
The pieces fell into place as if they had been suspended, waiting for us to release them.
It was clean.
Of course, we couldn't just bring back the Gods, get rid of an unruly one, and live a normal life.
Why do I keep deluding myself into thinking a normal life is an option for me? It never will be.
This is all there is for me.
Forever fighting.
Forever struggling.
Forever.
Literally, forever, because I found out I'm fucking immortal.
I just wanted a quiet, normal life, and now I am fucking immortal, and I have to get rid of some not-so-benevolent Gods.
If Max could see me now.
"Even if we reach Ytopie, you'll still be miserable."
She didn't know how right she was going to be with that proclamation.
It's my own damn fault. I brought back Himureal. It was my idea to bring back the other Gods. Himureal warned me about these three, and I didn't take him seriously, and now look where we are. Four Gods who do not give a damn about the people of this realm.
It ends tonight.
"Go gather the others, and then come back to me, high priest," I tell Zeph, clasping his forearm and watching his retreating back as he leaves. "You too," I tell Mace, pushing him out the door. "Quickly, then meet me near Solarius' home." He nods and then is gone, leaving me with my swirling thoughts and itching magic.
Shadow slithers up my body and wraps around my neck, and this time, I am positive he's bigger than he was before. I drag my fingers across the back of his head, and he burrows into my shirt, his head finding its place in the center of my sunfire brand. "I think you're keeping secrets from me," I whisper to my familiar.
My hands shake as I tap my fingers on my thigh at a rapid pace. I count the impact of each tip, but the familiar ritual does nothing to settle me.
No, I don't think my self-soothing methods will help this time.
I don't rush, taking my time as I make my way across the city on my way to Solarius' home, trying to ascertain which one Amaryn is sleeping in as I go.
Zeph slips out of the shadows in a move that is so subtle it startles me momentarily. He has no control over shadows, but you wouldn't know it at that moment. He points at a home directly across from where I stand. It doesn't even cross my mind to wonder if he's right or wrong.
I trust him implicitly.
Zeph is stealthy, and I have no doubt he was able to peek in and see her without being detected.
Mace, Tulip, and Morrow turn the corner. The latter two are bleary-eyed but determined, with an axe in Morrow's hand and Tulip's javelin clasped in hers. Mace has his mace thrown over his shoulder. We don't speak as they approach. We just nod at one another.
The moon is high and bright, bathing us in an orange glow that highlights the exhaustion on our faces. Every one of us is tired of fighting, tired of traveling.
Fuck, we're just plain tired.
Tulip slides beside me and squeezes my hand tightly, leaning her head onto my shoulder. For just a moment, we are just two women, two friends. But then that moment is over. I return the squeeze, and she drops my hand and steps away from me. I center myself, feeling the tether of magic that lives within me, writhing and readying itself to answer my command. I do not need to set intentions. My magic responds to my desires immediately, an extension of my body and will. It surfaces, crackling under my skin like lightning, itching to get out.
As if releasing an animal from its restraints, I allow my magic to flow out of me, manifesting as a mass of shadows that blanket the ground like a dense, dark fog. It seeps through the cracks of the doorway to the home where Amaryn sleeps, and I can feel when the shadows wrap around her, responding to the magic within her and attempting to suffocate it.
I slam the door open with a snake-like tendril and reveal the God of Spring restrained on her bed in a mass of shadows.
"You bitch!" she screeches, thrashing against my magic. "You dare to think you can challenge me?"
"You came into my home, threatened my people, and thought I would not retaliate?" I reply as I stalk into the room.
Amaryn's vines are creeping around her, trying to pry my shadows from her form, but I strengthen my hold, watching as the ropes of shadows pull the restraints tighter, depressing her flesh.
"Viola!" cries the pained voice of Mace. I spin around to see Solarius, shirtless with a face full of fury, surrounded by my people, who are covering their eyes from the bright light emanating from the God's skin. He pushes the light into the room, banishing my shadows and knocking me flat on my ass.
I'm not sure how he got the jump on my crew, but I am not a fan of being caught unawares. At least he underestimates my friends and does not seem concerned about paying them any attention.
Amaryn is on her feet, whipping her vines to me and trussing me up as Solarius dims his Light. A shield shimmers around his body. Tulip and Morrow are away from the fray, within a shield of their own. My high priest focuses his energy on me. Mace begins hurling bolts of Lightning at Solarius' shield to weaken it.
The vines tighten around me as Amaryn cackles with glee. "Stupid little God, do you think you can come after us with magic you stole and think you could overpower us?" Every time I try to call upon Shadow magic, Solarius casts Light and washes them out, and I wrack my brain with what I can do to get out of this.
It hits me then, and I coax Light and Shadow to mix within me, focusing on an illusion that the ground has fallen out beneath Amaryn. To her mind, she is balancing precariously on a small platform of rock. It only takes a moment for her to notice, and the sound of her shouts for help from Solarius quickly joins the thunder from Mace's attempt to break the shield surrounding the Radiant Sunfire.
"How did you do this?" Amaryn yells at me as I burn the vines from my body with Fire. I have to get out of this house. I cannot fight like this, backed into a corner. I rush out the door, barely managing to dodge a fireball hurling my way over Solarius' shoulder as he rushes to Amaryn.
A loud, angry scream echoes from the house. Amaryn lost her balance and shattered my Illusion. It served its purpose, though, because I am free from her vines, outside, and standing next to my high priest.
"How are you feeling?" he asks me, throwing up a shield around me. There is a light sheen of sweat on his forehead, and his skin glows with an innate power I've never noticed before. "Your magic level seems okay for now."
"I'm fine, but don't waste yours shielding me. I need you to be able to pull as much devotion as possible. I'm one God against two."
"Make that three, Shadowweaver." Avidor's voice sends chills down my spine, and I turn to see him standing behind me, hands on his bare hips. The rot that travels from his hands to his jaw is on display in the moonlight, and he shakes his head at me. "I expected more of you, Shadowweaver."
"Now, why would you do a stupid thing like that?" I snarl. Zeph drops the shield as I throw a bolt of Lightning at Avidor, who deflects it with one of his own, a shower of sparks raining down around us.
"You use my own magic against me, Viola? I'm hurt."
Shadow hisses loudly, his face pushing my chin and turning me just in time for me to see another fireball heading straight for me. I douse it with Water and then barely have time to Decay vines that begin to wrap around my ankles.
I swear loudly, drawing the attention of my companions. Mace looks at me from his position near Solarius. Like a bug circling around your head at mealtime, Solarius is barely paying Mace any mind. He tosses a bit of Fire in his direction every so often in an attempt to shake him off. Tulip stands stricken, unable to move, her knees locked.
Morrow makes eye contact with me, shaking his head, and I know what he's trying to tell me. Tulip should not be here. It's too late at this point, though, so Morrow will just need to figure out a way to hold his shield over her and command some Fire because Tulip getting hurt cannot happen.
The Gods still seem to be fighting lazily, with no real concern for the aggression we are hurling their way. And maybe they're right to feel that way, that we don't pose much of a threat. But as they start to approach my friends, my family , to take their magic or hurt them, I lose all semblance of control and feel a tightly restrained part of myself unlock.
I cannot allow these Gods to get close to those that I love, and I cannot allow them to get together and gang up on us.
With a shout, the ground beneath me begins to shake, large cracks forming and splitting the Gods apart with chasms in the earth.
The jagged cracks are only a few feet apart, but I throw an Illusion on them to give the impression that the gap is much larger and that the fissure beneath them is an endless pit of black.
"What the fuck did you do?" Avidor shouts, attempting to use his Geomancy magic to seal the cracks. Mine fights against his to keep them open, and my Illusion holds strong, making him believe his magic is not responding how it's supposed to. "What have you done to my magic, Shadowweaver?"
Avidor charges me, a bolt of Lightning hitting the ground between Zeph and me, sending us flying apart. I land awkwardly on my right arm, feeling something snap.
I attempt to Heal myself, and my magic responds sluggishly like it's making a difficult journey uphill. It was a long shot, thinking I could heal myself. I stop trying to fix a non-mortal wound to conserve my magic, opting instead to rip off my vest and shirt, using the shirt to awkwardly tie up my arm to keep it from getting further injured.
While I'm doing this, Zeph staggers to his feet, throwing a Shield around us. And it's just in time, too, because more bolts come from Avidor, and vines from Amaryn snake across the chasms, breaking my Illusion.
"Your magic is low," Zeph hisses at me.
"Then get me more," I tell him through gritted teeth. "I cannot stop now."
Mace finally succeeds in breaking Solarius' shield and I watch as he strikes the God with a bolt of Lightning in the gut. Solarius flies backward, hitting a stone house and slumping on the ground.
I know he's not dead and will heal quickly and be an issue in just a few minutes, but for now it's nice to have one down.
A screeching roar catches my attention, and I turn to see a monstrosity attacking Tulip and Morrow. It's got the wings of a massive bird, a muscular, fur-covered body, and the head of a stag, and it flies around them and dives, trying to catch a bite of them with its horrifyingly sharp teeth.
I reach out with my magic to control it away from them when Zeph grabs me. "Don't. Let them fight it. You have to conserve your magic. They can handle it." It goes against everything within me not to help them. I turn away from him to ignore his words. He grabs me again, stepping in front of me. "You're not fighting alone, so stop acting like it. Let them handle it. You need your magic for the Gods."
In my distraction, Amaryn has managed to get to Solarius and heal him, and they stalk towards me. With them at my front and Avidor at my back, things are looking quite bleak. But the Gods are underestimating Mace, turning their backs on him. His Decay magic creeps up their legs, and I boost it with my own until they both stumble, their legs weak beneath them.
It is nothing but another temporary solution. Amaryn is already healing Solarius, and he's throwing Fire my way.
Zeph takes control of the magic midair and redirects back to the pair so I can focus on Avidor.
The Harvest Lord has been weaving a massive glaive out of the minerals in the earth. I feel a burst of magic within me as Zeph filters devotion to me. I am able to take control of the glaive as Avidor hurls it at me. I quickly dismantle it.
Is there even a chance of me winning against them?
It's everything I can do to keep up with the spells they're throwing my way, and I can tell they're not even fully powered yet.
A scream of pain from Morrow draws my attention to Tulip, who is rapidly jamming her javelin into the heart of the beast that attacked them. Morrow is on the ground, hand on his side that has a massive chunk taken out of it, gushing blood.
I don't think. I just run. I'm at his side in a moment and run my hands over his wound, knitting it back together. It's not perfect, but it's quick and passable. He'll be able to keep fighting.
Tulip is feral, stabbing the beast over and over despite it being on the ground, unmoving. "Tulip, it's dead!" I shout over her angry roars.
"IT HURT MY HUSBAND!" she screams, pulling the javelin out. The mangled heart of the beast sticks to the blade.
Morrow, fully healed now, jumps to his feet, grabs Tulip, and kisses her deeply, uncaring about the fact that we're in a fucking world-ending battle and Mace and Zeph are on their own trying to deflect the attacks of two Gods.
Two Gods.
I spin around right as a giant ball of fire comes hurtling towards me.
It stops before it can hit me, control of the magic taken over by Morrow, who is struggling to hold the power of a God in his hands. "Go, Shadowweaver!"
I duck and run, tossing a shard of Ice at Solarius. It melts the moment it touches his overheated skin.
The screams of my family as they hurl and dodge magic fill my ears, and I become intimately aware of every nerve ending in my body. I feel like I am on fire, every piece of me screaming and fighting and furious that it has come to this. That I am fighting the Gods who are supposed to take care of our realm.
How did I steal a piece of string tied together with feathers and cause all of this strife?
It's an uneven battle, despite us having more numbers, as the three Gods hurl magic at us relentlessly. The only saving grace we have is that none of them appear to be able to fight without their magic.
If I can just find a way to take theirs as they took Plume's, we may stand a chance.
A sharp pain radiates from my spine. I spin around to see Avidor grinning wildly, rocks of various sizes floating around him. He looks so relaxed, his sleepy eyes and handsome face out of place in a battle for control of the realm.
"Shadowweaver, come now, you're one of us. There is no need for all of this fig-"
His words are cut off by the bludgeoning of a mace on his shoulder, and he falls, shouting in pain. My love grins at me wildly, the blood from Avidor's wound speckling his face in a beautiful pattern of chaos.
Solarius still has Tulip and Morrow cornered, and we both focus our attention on the three of them. We do not move, opting to command our magic from here. I've lost sight of Amaryn, but I cannot focus on that now. We have more pressing issues. I pull water from the atmosphere and drench Solarius in a small shower. I didn't think it through. It has the unfortunate side effect of rendering Morrow's Fire useless as well.
With a shrug, the fae picks up his axe in his remaining hand and swings widely, hitting Solarius in the shoulder. Solarius roars and raises his shield, spinning around and looking for his siblings to be reinforcements.
Next to me, Mace shouts, alerting me to a whip-like vine heading my direction that I burn easily with Fire. Before it can reform, Shadow crawls down my body to the ground. Instinctively, I pull every shadow from the area around me, filling the courtyard with coils of darkness that drown the area so completely that momentarily, no one can see. Solarius tries to banish it with Light, but he only manages to clear a small area around him.
It does not bother me. I am at home in the shadows. Lightning from Avidor hits all around me, temporarily illuminating spaces around the grassy area between homes that we've taken over with our fight.
The shadows twist and turn, snaking around my body and forming around Shadow, who is raised and ready to strike. Every strip of darkness that wraps around his body increases his size. It is painful to hold such a large amount of magic, but I push more towards him, marveling as my familiar grows to be ten feet tall and towers over me.
His pointed head turns and looks at me, massive tongue slipping out and tasting the air. His eyes, so familiar yet now so large, bore into me with affection. The ridges over his eyes shimmer with iridescent scales, his face changing slightly in shape as the magic continues to pool around him. When the final shadows form around his body, adhering to his head, I realize what Shadow truly is.
A seps.
My familiar that has wrapped around my arm, my neck, my head, who has brought me an untold amount of comfort, is a fucking seps.