32. Creed #2
The Court is booming from side to side with Defenders in armor. There’s barely enough room for them to get a few practice swings in with their swords. It’s nearly impossible for them to part for me, Sevryn, Gladian, and Barir as we make our way to Kyzen and Mara.
His attention shifts right to me as soon as I’m a few feet from him.
“How did it go?” he asks.
“Hell is officially locked down.”
“Good.” He nods. “Some of the Attendants were receptive to our announcement and some weren’t like we expected. We got Defenders here, inside the chambers and outside the Court. All fully powered Defenders are at the barrier since we ran out of room here.”
“Have Thayla and Riven made it there yet?” I ask.
“I’m not sure.”
“V. Will you ask…”
My body falls still as the words in my mind trail off and my gaze grows distant. For a solid few seconds, I don’t breathe.
I forgot.
How the fuck did I forget?
Kyzen eyes me as a sharp line forms between his brows. I jerk my head a couple of times, snapping myself back into the present.
“You starshoot out there real quick and see if she’s made it or not. We’ll get shit organized here. We’ve got to have some room.”
He gives me an unsure nod that I ignore as his power wraps around him and whisks him away.
“Mara, get the female Defenders organized. You three get some of these people out of here and see who’s all outside the Court. I’ll be in the weapons room,” I say and peer over my shoulder.
Val stands there with his arms crossed, staring at me like I’ve kept him waiting a ridiculous amount of time.
“You’re with me.”
The corners of his lips tilt up as he nods for me to lead the way.
When Kyzen said there were people in the chambers, he meant that. I’ve never seen so many people scattered about these damn halls and stone rooms before.
“So what task is so important you needed my assistance?” Val asks as we turn the corner and head toward the locked double doors of the weapons room.
“You sound utterly thrilled to be spending time with me,” I chuff.
He hums, and I side-eye him.
“What?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard sarcasm come from you,” he says.
“End of the realm and all. Impending war will have anyone acting out of character.”
“Are you acting out of character, though, or are you just growing used to me?”
I regret asking him for his help.
He chuckles to himself all the way to the double doors. I ignore him as I press my permission through and shove them open without sparing a glance at him. I know without looking that he’s smiling at me.
My stoic stare roams over the steel that glints from every direction.
Rows upon rows of swords, daggers, axes, bows, shields, spears—enough weaponry to arm an army twice the size of ours—stretch across the chamber that you’d never guess was this large.
Val stops beside me. His gaze slowly sweeps over the room before settling back on me.
“Love what you’ve all done with the place.”
“This wasn’t the weapons room back in your day?” I ask.
“My day. You make it sound like I’m so old.”
I blink at him.
He’s as old as the fucking realm.
“So,” he says with that infuriating, I know what’s coming smirk. “What do you have planned?”
I step farther inside, trailing my fingertips across the nearest rack.
“My swords, the ones my father made me, which are embedded with power. I’ve embedded my own power and permissions into Thayla’s daggers. They can’t kill my brothers, me, or her friends. I need to do that but to all of these.”
He lets out a low whistle as he picks up a blade.
“Hundreds of weapons embedded with the power of Death. That’s quite the risk.”
“I’m aware,” I say. “But it’s a risk we have to take. Some of those Defenders have been fortunate enough to never cross the barrier to the Abandon. They’ve never seen a Dark God or Oblirian. They need every advantage we can give them.”
He studies me for too long a moment.
I sneer. He laughs.
“Okay, okay,” he says, holding his hands up. “What do you really need from me, Creed? You already know how to embed your power and permission.”
I pick up a sword, weighing it in my hand. My thumb runs along the flat of the blade.
“Yeah, but I don’t know every Defender or god standing with us and wielding these. I don’t know all their souls.”
“Why would you need to?” he asks.
I gesture around the room.
“If I’m embedding my essence and power in these weapons, I need to know who not to kill. I don’t know how to layer my permissions so they don’t accidentally kill themselves or our own people.”
“You don’t.” He shakes his head and I frown. “You’re trying to ask essence and power to recognize faces and names. That’s not how this works.”
I lay down the sword I was twirling and cross my arms.
“Explain.”
He chuckles low, picking up a spear and spinning it around like he’s getting used to the feeling of it.
“When you embedded permissions into Thayla’s daggers, you weren’t truly teaching the weapons who Thayla is. You were teaching your essence what to allow. Your essence and power already knew hers. Trying to force yourself to learn hundreds of new gods and their being will never work.”
“Then what am I supposed to tell my power when I embed it?”
He looks toward another rack of weapons. All the while he’s still handling that spear.
It’s kind of impressive.
“You tell it what to seek and what to reject,” he says. “Essence recognizes essence. Power recognizes power. Corruption can’t hide from either. So you don’t ask your power and essence to recognize allies. You tell it to recognize corrupt essence and power.”
My arms slowly untangle and hang at my sides as I stare at him.
That’s…
Brilliant.
Fucking smart-ass. He’s as bad as Amick.
Granted, this is why I asked for his help.
“Do you need me to tell you how to embed your power as well or do you believe you know how to do that?”
“Are you being a smart-ass right now?”
He laughs and shrugs.
“Just making sure.”
I scoff and roll my shoulders out. I pick up the sword I just discarded and turn my wrist over as I examine it.
The moment I reach inside myself, Death answers. A black thread stretches outward, searching.
Not for names. Not for faces. Not for souls.
I direct it to the weapon in my hand and command it to spread through every ounce of material. My essence sinks deeper into the steel, and as it goes, I give it my order.
Seek corruption. Recognize it. Kill only it.
The sword hums softly as my power accepts the command, recognizing the difference between who I want it to kill and who I don’t.
“Seems like it worked,” Val says.
“Want me to test it out on you?”
He frowns.
“Just because it won’t kill on contact doesn’t mean it won’t cut.”
I let out a low chuckle, then command my essence to spread across the room. Into every blade, axe, spear, every weapon waiting to be carried into a war none of us know if we’ll survive.
Hundreds of pieces of steel become extensions of the same purpose in a matter of seconds. A faint pressure settles over the room as the last weapon accepts my essence. The connection fades, but the command remains.
“Very good,” Val says, sounding actually proud.
“Thanks. Pick your favorite. That can be the one you swing out there.”
The smile fades from his face, and I frown at the sudden shift in him.
“I won’t be on the battlefield. Neither will Meridamus.”
“What?” I ask.
The glare and utter disbelief on my face have him holding his hands up.
“The second the replicas are placed back into the Gods Binding, your father is going to attempt to get to it. That may be his immediate reaction, or he’ll attempt to tear through our army first, then march his way through the Godsdawn.
Who knows. What I do know, though, is he will come for it, and it has to be protected.
We could put twenty Defenders on that hall if we’d like, but that will end in nothing but senseless death. ”
A long, annoyed sigh rumbles in the back of my throat.
Fuck. He’s right.
“What about Derivius?” I ask.
“Chaos will no doubt be in the fray. If we need his help at the Binding, though, he’ll come.”
I nod.
“What are you going to do if he does show up there while we’re all fighting?”
“I’m going to do what I should’ve done a long time ago.
” His serious tone has me straightening my back.
“I’m going to place a barrier around him that he can’t escape, then I’m going to use the Binding to strip him to nothing more than an ungodly being.
He won’t be able to leave a bruise on someone by the time I’m done with him. ”
A slow, sinister smirk crosses my lips. The weaker he is, the easier it’ll be for us to get our year’s worth of licks back.
“Good. Make sure it hurts.”
He returns my smile, then he gives the weapons room a full sweep with his gaze.
“This is still an astounding number of weapons embedded with Death. After all is said and done, what do you plan to do with them?”
“Destroy them,” I say.
“And leave the Godsdawn weaponless? It’ll take a while to replenish all this.”
“Nah. Thayla will have it stocked back in no time.”
He chuckles.
“Does she know you already have a task for her as soon as this war is over?”
“Of course not. She’ll find out after the fact.” I smirk to myself, thinking about the sass she’s going to throw my way. “Anyways, your turn.”
His brows scrunch.
“My turn to what?”
“Embed your power. It’d be a shame if every other swing snapped them in half. Oblirian armor is thick as stone.”
For a long moment, he simply stares at me.
Then, somehow, he manages to look offended.
“I wasn’t aware I had been recruited into your project.”
“Well, you were, so come on. We got other shit to do today.”
He presses his lips together and gives me a pointless shake of his head.
“This is going to be a long life with four sons-in-law.”
His eyes glow as his power flows through the room.
He might as well get used to it.
None of us are going anywhere anytime soon.
Ever. Actually.