Chapter 52
Chapter Fifty-Two
They were at the summit just after sunrise the next day. Kneeling to the Highest who had been waiting for them. Light smiled at Autumn, but the expression was slightly strained. Autumn smiled back, knowing that her nerves showed in the expression.
Light chuckled, “We are a pair this morning.” She waved them to their feet. “I have summoned the lower residents of the Mountain this morning; we will begin at the bottom and move through the hierarchy.”
“Yes, Highest,” Autumn replied with a nod. “Where would you like me to stand?”
“You will have a chair at my side, as does Chaos. You are as much my advisor as he is, and you will be backed my your loves as I am by mine.” She looked past Autumn to where Boreus and Auster were standing, nodding as if she’d had a question answered.
“We will begin; this is likely to take several days.”
Light moved to the edge of the room and carved through reality, stepping down into the throne room in the Bastion.
It had been rearranged slightly, with two chairs that weren’t quite enough to be thrones, but the next thing down from a throne next to and slightly back from the throne Light settled into.
She smiled at Autumn, patting the arm of the chair. “Come and sit, Compassion.”
Autumn nodded, stepping back and sliding into Compassion’s hold. “Highest,” she bowed, taking her seat at Light’s side. They were joined by Chaos soon after. The Elder looked better, but then, the last time Autumn had seen him, it hadn’t been him until later.
Autumn sank further into Compassion’s hold, smiling behind Light’s throne at Chaos. “Hello Elder,” she said quietly. “Are you well?”
Chaos nodded, reaching behind the throne to gently poke her in the forehead. “Well,” he nodded again, eyes going suddenly lucid. “Thank you.”
“I couldn’t let them think that of you.” Compassion smiled, but didn’t manage to say more before the doors opened and the first resident walked in.
They looked incredibly nervous, and Compassion was out of her seat and went to them, to stand at their side and look at the Highest.
Light looked slightly startled, but the expression smoothed out, and the Highest locked their eyes on the minor goddess of a river that ran through a desert and smiled. There were some words exchanged, but the goddess was so nervous that it was difficult to make them out.
Compassion reached out and laid a hand on the Goddess’ shoulder, looking at Light and shaking her head, very slightly.
“You may go, Kiyira,” Light said calmly. “We thank you for your attendance.”
“Y-yes, Highest.” The goddess practically scampered from the room, and Compassion returned to her chair, looking across the room where her loves stood near the thrones of Love and Intellect.
The day was entirely taken up with that, one god after another, called forth and examined. By the fifth one, Compassion was not going back to her seat, because all of them were nervous messes and it pulled her to them each time.
Until the 14th one walked through the doors and Compassion felt a little like a cat, hackles up and bristling. There was something wrong with this one, a minor god of a lake somewhere in the highlands. Something greasy and strange that grated on her nerves and made her want to both vomit, and flee.
But she would do neither. Instead, she walked to his side, laid a hand on his arm, and nodded up at Light. “Another, Highest.”
“Ness,” Light rose from her throne and stepped towards them. “What have you been doing?”
“Highest?” Ness looked confused and then terrified when Chaos stepped down to Light’s other side to peer at Ness. “What?—”
Light reached towards Ness, towards his throat, and pulled back with her hand clenched into a fist. Ness collapsed, but in Light’s hand was another of those thick, blood-wound, black threads.
And Chaos reached towards his head, poking him in the forehead with a single, glowing fingertip. Ness’ body arched, a scream leaving him as a greasy, filmy, disgusting thing left his mouth. Chaos reached for it, gripping it in his fist and crushing it until even the memory of the scream was gone.
“That will be all for today,” Light gestured, and the immense doors into the throne room closed. Compassion knew it was the unseen; she could see them at the corner of her eyes.
Light went back to her throne, gesturing to Compassion. “We are done for today, Autumn. Come for supper.”
“Alright,” Compassion closed her eyes, and Autumn opened them, staggering with a sudden, deep exhaustion.
Auster got to her first, supporting her until she found her feet again. “Are you alright?”
She nodded, smiling up at him. “I’m fine, love, just tired.”
“She is rising without the proper support structure.” Intellect said, peering at Autumn. “It is rather remarkable that she is able to do it at all. And not the least bit startling she would be tired afterward.”
“I don’t think I understand.” Autumn said.
“Your sphere,” Intellect pointed up to the sigil. “It does not spin, correct?”
Autumn shook her head. “I haven’t saved Skirion yet. And even when I do, he may decide I am not someone he can love.”
“My point,” he said with a smile. “Light is tied into the spin of the sphere as we are tied into her, and it is that support that allows her to stand as Highest. You are standing on yourself, with side-in assistance from the winds, and you rising under those conditions should not be possible.”
“Much of what she does should not be possible.” Light said calmly. “There is still something that we do not know, but I do think we will figure it out in the days to come. Now, come to supper.”
They moved through the back halls of the Bastion, guided by little floating lights, to a villa deep in a place Autumn had never seen.
It was a homey place within the caverns that served as rooms in the Bastion.
It was nice, reminding her of the home that they shared on the rise above the spring, or the little villa in the olive grove.
In fact, it was remarkably similar to the little villa. Enough that Autumn looked at Light, opened her mouth, and closed it again.
“It’s ours,” Light said gently. “Our place from where Love first brought me home to the Mountain. It’s the place he made for us, and when we were called to rise, we re-built it here.”