4. Amick #3
“Fine,” she finally says. “I’m angry. I feel betrayed, lied to, manipulated.
And worst of all…I’m fucking heartbroken.
I literally just accepted that I was ready to let them go.
Then he stepped out from in front of the original Gods Binding and stared at me.
He just stared. He dropped the barrier around Meridamus like it was nothing, and I was supposed to what?
Say, ‘Oh my gods, how exciting, both men who raised me were secretly Beginning Gods all along.’”
The muscles in her cheeks twitch from how many times she flexes her jaw. None of us rush her or break the silence.
“It’s all too damn much right now, and I want to put everything in little boxes inside my mind.
I can work through them as I go, but right now, I do not want to fix our relationship.
I don’t even want to acknowledge that we have one.
We don’t have one, actually. I’ve lived my life without him longer than I lived it with him.
I don’t need him as my father or Meridamus as my godfather.
I need to know where the God of Boundaries and the God of Consequence stand in this.
That’s all I want right now. So where do we begin? ”
She scans us all, waiting for someone to speak. Her attention whips to Nero as he clears his throat.
“The first step from here needs to be setting up a meeting.”
“I do agree, and I know that, but I can’t sit across from him and pretend we’re going to have some heartfelt reunion,” she says.
“You don’t have to pretend shit,” Creed grunts. “If you don’t want to tell him you’re not ready to build a relationship, we’ll do it for you. We don’t give a fuck what he thinks about us.”
“Yeah, I think you all made that clear.” She chuckles the tiniest bit, and I inhale deeply at the sound.
“Your meeting expectations have to be set, and they begin with a purpose,” Nero adds. “Every mediation requires one.”
Kyzen hums. “Especially in a fractured relationship. If emotional reconciliation is off the table, then you redefine the relationship temporarily. Your purpose for communicating with them right now is finding out their intentions. Are they here to help us? Stop us? What role do they plan on taking in our lives?”
“Right,” Nero agrees. “It’s easy to assume they’re here to help, given everything we know. How they plan to offer that help is the question.”
The two of them focus on each other like the rest of us aren’t here. It irritates me, but the tiny twitch on Thayla’s lips keeps my mouth shut.
“Given the God of Boundaries’ extended absence and the God of Consequence’s secluded nature, I don’t foresee them announcing themselves to all of Godsden,” Kyzen says, and Nero hums in agreement.
“So this conversation will obviously be held in private,” Thayla says. “I don’t want to invite them here, though. This is my space, and I don’t want them thinking they have an open invitation to show up as they please.”
“Well, also, how do you plan to contact them and request this meeting? If you don’t want to open communications with either of them on your own, you’ll need a middleman,” Nero says.
“Derivius.”
Thayla, my brothers, and I all share a look as his name leaves each of us.
“Well, looky there.” Riven grins. “Easy enough.”
“Easy,” Thayla scoffs, and Kyzen lets out a chuckle.
“We can talk to him privately first and ask him to set up a meeting with the other two. We’ll make sure he knows we want that first interaction purpose-driven,” Kyzen says, focusing on Thayla.
“We’ll discuss the realm, their role within it now, their knowledge, and responsibilities.
You can lead the conversation or I will, but we’ll keep it centered on what happens now rather than emotional conversations. ”
“And if they try to push past that?” she asks.
“Then I punch them,” Riven says, sounding mildly murderous.
Thayla tries to give him a disapproving look, but she can’t hide the affection in her gaze. He, like Kyzen, Creed, and me, sees right through it.
“The actual answer is she reinforces her boundaries,” Iric grunts.
“Right.” Thayla laughs. “So we need to get with Derivius, form a plan with him, then meet with them. Do we want to ask him to come over tonight?”
“We—”
“Nah, I’d rather go to his temple. I’m dying to see what you did with that place,” Riven says, cutting Kyzen off.
“Oh yeah, none of you have seen my handiwork yet.”
“I have definitely seen your handiwork.”
Thayla’s face flames as she glances at the snorts cut short around the table. Then she glares at Riven.
“Please don’t say shit like that in front of the Beginning Gods.”
He rolls his eyes. “Fine. No promises.”
She huffs and ignores him as she picks up her fork.
“Okay then. We’ll take care of our roles today, Derivius tonight, then go from there.”
“Do you feel better about this now? At least a little?” Kyzen asks.
“Yeah, I do. It’s still just…surreal, unnerving, you know?”
He smirks. “You’ve got four gods born from Beginning Gods sitting around this table, gorgeous. We know better than anyone.”
It’s not that she forgot that fact, but a weight seems to lift off her shoulders as her gaze scans over us. It’s as if she’s realizing she’s the furthest thing from alone in this.
None of us are alone, and we never will be.
“We’ve got a long day ahead, so let’s finish breakfast,” I say, picking up my corrected, much better cup of coffee. “Riven, I need you to check the locked hallway when we leave. Make sure there are no obvious signs of what we did last night.”
“Oh, such a responsibility for little ol’ me.” He laughs, and I don’t miss the worry on Thayla’s face.
She has nothing to worry about.
I picked Riven for a reason, obviously.
He’ll be able to tell—and possibly sneak by—any boundary Val put in place.
Or, push comes to shove, he’ll literally shove him without a care in the realm.