The Arcane God (Omnis #3)

Prologue

Ena

Twenty years ago

The wind was howling outside the window, causing the tree limbs that surrounded the matriarch’s house to creak ominously. Alone in her bedroom, seven-year-old Ena tucked her worn woolen blanket up to her chin, hiding half her face from the darkness of her room.

It had only been a few months since the last huge storm had hit, and Ena remembered it well.

That gale had rattled the glass panes in the windows, too, and had even caused a tree to fall on the house next door.

Everyone had been alright, thank Gaia, but what if that happened again?

What if one fell directly on her this time—right where she was laying in her bed?

Her heart thumped in her chest as another huge gust of wind pushed against the stone house, seeping in through the cracks in the walls.

She couldn’t take it anymore.

Jumping down off her bed, she scurried on bare feet across the cold floorboards to the door of her room and then down the hall into the bedroom next to hers.

“Greya?” she whispered into the darkness as she pushed open the door. “Are you awake?”

“Huh?” Her sister groggily raised her head from her pillow, her pale-blonde hair reflecting the scant light in the room. “Ena? What’s going on?”

“Don’t you hear the storm?” Ena asked, crawling onto Greya’s blanket-laden bed without invitation. “Do you think a tree limb is gonna fall on us?”

“Of course not, don’t worry about that,” Greya said, her tone a mixture of annoyance and gentleness. “Go back to sleep.”

“But what if it does?” Ena asked, insistent.

“It won’t,” Greya insisted back. “Go back to bed.”

“I just…” Ena hesitated, her eyes darting to the window. “I feel safer here with you. Can I stay? Please?”

Greya sighed and rolled over, making extra space for Ena on the mattress next to her. “Okay, fine,” she said. “But you have to try to sleep.”

Ena tucked under the covers, snuggling in next to her sister until the two of them were facing each other, only their small heads poking out above the blankets.

“Can you tell me a story first?” Ena asked quietly.

Greya yawned, flipping onto her back so she was blinking at the ceiling. “Which one?” she asked sleepily.

“The one about the seer that you learned from Father,” Ena said.

Greya was blessed that she’d been old enough to learn it from him before he died; Ena herself had only ever heard it from Greya.

But anytime there was a storm, Ena was reminded of it, so she thought it would be a good one to hear right now.

“Alright,” Greya began, letting out another deep breath.

“A long, long time ago, there was a young and beautiful seer from Aquilo. Her visions were a Gift from Gaia, and were praised by her Coven, but that was not why everyone loved her. They loved her because she had the kindest heart of anyone. But a kind heart can be both a blessing and a curse, for one day, she had a vision that changed her life forever.”

Ena snuggled into Greya’s shoulder as she spoke, listening raptly to the story she’d heard at least a dozen times already.

“In her vision, she saw three mortals traveling through a treacherous mountain pass.

The snow they walked through was deeper than you are tall, and with every footstep, they sunk to their waists.

The wind whipped around them, the snowfall so thick they could barely see.

She Knew they were exhausted and needed help, lest they be stranded and die, but Gaia did not show her the rest of their future, only enough to cause her concern.

And so, not Knowing whether they were to live or die, she decided to try and find them, in case their fate required her assistance.

“So, swift as the River Wry, she packed up a horse full of supplies and journeyed into the Chasm Mountains.

The harsh weather nearly made her turn around several times, but she persevered, knowing she was the only one who could save them, and she found them just in time.

They were hunkered down in a shallow cave cut into the mountainside, shivering and half-starved—but, of course, the seer had come prepared.

“She stayed in the cave with them for three days and three nights until the storm passed. She fed them with her supplies and stoked their fire with the dry wood she’d packed, but as she began to befriend them, she found them to be quite strange, and unlike any mortals she had ever met.

They had skin as white as the snow and eyes as dark as the moonless sky, and while they could communicate with her, something about the way they spoke and the words they used confused her.

It was as if they were speaking the same language, just differently, and she found it fascinating.

But, while all three of the travelers were grateful and friendly, there was one in particular that caught the seer’s eye.

He was kind, with dark hair and even darker eyes, and—”

“Don’t forget the part about—” Ena chimed in.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot. He was the most handsome mortal she’d ever seen,” Greya added pointedly, and Ena smiled at her favorite line.

“They spent every waking minute together, talking and laughing, and soon, they became lovers. But in time it became clear that they were not ordinary mortals at all—they were from the other side of the Chasm Mountains, a place no witch had ever been. Not only that, but the seer quickly learned that the place they’d come from was in trouble, and they’d been traveling because their people needed help.

Food and game had become scarce, and destructive storms were making it difficult to live, so they’d been sent to find a safe place to relocate.

“The seer, being as kindhearted as she was, immediately promised that Aquilo would host them, and help them get established on our side of the Chasm Mountains, because that was what witches did—they helped mortals.

So, when the storm finally cleared, the seer described to them in detail how to get to her village, and the seer and her mortal lover reluctantly parted ways, with the mutual promise that he would return soon with the rest of his people, and the Aquilo Coven would be there to welcome them all.

“Only, after they parted, months went by and the mortals never returned. Meanwhile, the seer found herself with child, and though the baby was a blessing from Gaia, she was never reunited with her long-lost love, and no one knows what became of the people on the other side of the Chasm Mountains.”

Ena yawned, the cadence of Greya’s voice having lulled her into a near-sleep state. “Is that story real?” she asked, her speech slurred with sleepiness.

“As real as anything else,” Greya responded confidently.

“So there are people on the other side of the Chasm Mountains? Mortals?” Ena asked, nuzzling into Greya’s warmth once more.

“Yes, I think so.”

“Well, where are they? Why didn’t they come back?” Ena asked, a little annoyed that the story was so unresolved.

“I don’t know. Maybe they don’t need help anymore,” Greya replied, unperturbed. “Now go to sleep, Ena.”

“Okay,” Ena mumbled as sleep began to claim her.

She slept deeply and safely the rest of the night, warm in her sister’s bed, as she dreamed of the deepest snow imaginable, and people with skin even paler than her own.