Chapter 21 Thayla #2
“Then how does it work? Because I, for one, am over this shit. I’m over the cryptic clues, a half-assed prophecy being told, running off to the Abandon or Hell because someone’s in trouble.
It’s getting old knowing we’re in the middle of something we don’t fully understand and having no idea exactly what it is we’re supposed to be doing. ”
My outburst echoes through the forest behind us, and I take a calming breath as I let the power of the hot spring sink into my bones. The anger slinks from my skin and I flex my fingers under the water.
“That’s because no one knows exactly what it is you’re supposed to be doing.”
“Seismet,” V and Verlet bark.
“No. I’m tired of this as well.” He neighs and a flow of power rips across the land as he slams his hoof down.
The guys and I stare at the three of them with our mouths gaping open.
It’s obvious they fall into their own conversation without us. They huff every so often, and V continues to point his wings at one or both of them.
“You all are the generation that never should have existed. None of the five of you ever should have been born, but you were. It threw the realm even more out of balance than it already was.”
“Brother,” Verlet warns, but Seismet shakes his entire body out as he stands.
“Your role in the realm is the confusion you’ve already been experiencing.
Just as I told you that day in the meadow, you five are right in the middle of it and there will be a time you must pick the side you want to stand on.
Only, in your case, picking a side isn’t a one-time thing.
It’s constant. Righting the wrongs or making the wrongs worse.
Each decision you make shifts something else. ”
“Enough, Seismet! This instance.”
Power washes across the hot spring in a wave that has the water flowing and the meadow grass flattening. Everything thunders within me as the massive, incredibly formidable Veilatara stand muzzle to muzzle with one another.
“The two of you go. I will take this conversation from here,” V orders gently, but more firmly than I’ve ever heard him speak.
“Seismet.”
“I’m sorry, Thayla. I shouldn’t have approached this conversation this way. I shouldn’t have approached it at all. It’s not my responsibility.”
“No, it’s okay. Are you okay? Are you and Verlet okay?”
“Don’t fret over us. We’ll be fine.”
He gallops off without a glance in my direction. Verlet stays in stride beside him and the fierce worry that I caused a fight between them eases.
They wouldn’t run off together if they were mad at each other, right?
“What the fuck just happened?” Riven asks.
All of us shake our heads and stare at V.
He hoots a quiet hum, almost like a sad sigh, as he ruffles his feathers out and nestles down on the hot spring’s edge.
“I understand since your arrival, Thayla, everything for all of you has felt heavy and confusing. You don’t know what it is you’re really doing or how much it actually matters.”
“Yeah, exactly. So can you explain that and what Seismet just said?” I plead.
“To an extent. Seismet lost himself for a moment because he’s been too focused on forcing something into fruition that’s not meant to happen yet.”
“You mean completing our connection? He snapped just now because he’s been zeroing in on me and my emotions.”
“Yes.”
I close my eyes and sigh as I lean my head on Amick’s shoulder. No, I know it’s not my fault for Seismet’s crack in attitude because he’s the one eavesdropping constantly but still…
I need to get a better rein on myself.
“We’ve always known our existence never should’ve been. Our father broke countless realmly rules bringing us about. That doesn’t explain throwing Thayla into this mix.” Amick says.
Gods, he’s got that right. I was born just a simple little no one…
I sit straight up, wide-eyed from the scattered thoughts shooting across my mind. I don’t even know if they all fit together, but something does.
“V, you told me my parents’ greatest desire was a child. The Valories promised to give them me in exchange for their dedication to righting the realm. Granted, allowing my mom the ability to get pregnant before her time doesn’t seem like a great compromise, but whatever, besides the point.
“Seismet said our role had something to do with constantly picking a side to either right the wrongs or make the wrongs worse. Did I somehow inherit their responsibility? What wrongs is he talking about? To me, there’s a shit ton wrong.
We can’t really be responsible for fixing that alone, right? Or is it—”
“Calm yourself, my Vedae.”
My lungs empty. Creed, Kyzen, and Riven, who were still standing around, finally come take a seat with Amick and me.
Kyzen laces his fingers with mine, and I squeeze as I try to slow the rapid thoughts still running through my brain.
“First, it wasn’t just a desire for your parents to have you because they were ready for a child before their time. Your mother was infertile, Thayla. She never should have had any children at all.”
The wind gets knocked out of my chest and my mouth parts.
“That’s incredibly rare. So much so, we don’t even have enough women to base good research on why it may happen.
All the accounts recorded have stated the assumption that something had to have happened to the women’s development while they were in their own mothers’ wombs or later in life, they sustained an injury that caused that. ”
Amick delivers that information gently, but factually and a pang thrashes through my heart.
Valories…what happened to my mom?
“Let me have a crack at this shit.”
Riven hops up and runs his fingers over the water as he wades through the waves he’s making. A slow smirk continues to stretch across his face as his eyes swirl individually.
“So basically, what’s going on is, the five of us are little heathens that never should’ve been born, but because we were, it shifted what was already fucked in the Valorian Veil.
Now every time we involve ourselves in something realm changing, for example, I don’t know, keeping a Gods Binding, we shift something else.
That then brings about another situation.
“If we involve ourselves in that situation, it then gives us a decision or I guess like Seismet said, a side to choose. Over and over again, that pattern will continue until either the realm is right or inevitably wrong. Am I making any sense? It feels like I got that right.”
My gaze bounces between him and V repeatedly. I hope like fuck he’s wrong because if not, that feels a lot like we are the center of the change. Just like I freaking told them we were the day after I met V and soaked in this exact place we are now.
We never finished that conversation because the topic switched to my poor shredded soul.
That now feels whole…
Creed’s stubborn ass was actually the one who said the realm had been changing and we weren’t the catalyst.
He must be thinking the same thing because our gazes collide. He tightens his lips and sighs heavily, confirming my thoughts and feelings.
“What the hell are we going to do?” I ask with a huff and rub at my temples.
“Easy solution. We stay the fuck out of everything,” Riven declares and Creed grunts.
“Agreed.”
“Your silence is telling, V. We’ve always known our births caused a rift. The Beginning Gods can’t just break their most sacred law and there not be consequences from it. If what Riven is saying is true, which my mind tells me it is, that means we create a ripple effect for everyone.
“Everyone the Valories are using to bring about more change in the realm will have to shift their roles according to ours. Doren is the perfect example. He thought his role was over by giving the Binding to Thayla like the Messenger told him to, but now he’s tied in a Valtrue Pairing to her Attendant. ”
“Correct.”
V’s begrudging tone and hesitation at answering Amick makes the hair on the back of my neck stand.
“Back to my plan. Let’s just stay the fuck out of everything from this point on.”
“Again, I agree with Riven,” Creed says as he makes his way to stand beside my smiling psycho, then he crosses his arms.
“Is that even an option at this point?” Kyzen asks.
“That’s always a side you can choose.”
“But what happens if we choose to do nothing? Whatever’s going to happen with the realm, happens?” I ask.
“It’ll continue down the path it’s set on.”
“Which is…” I push, raising my eyebrows.
V’s lack of being forthcoming with more than a few words is not getting past any of us. A soft sound slips through Amick’s lips as he stands and rolls his shoulders out.
“We do nothing, our father continues to do what he’s always tried to do. Rule it all. We aren’t the determinants of the realm. He is. We’re his inhibitors.”
“Okay, so we go back to our very original plan. We kill him, then do nothing,” River hollers after Amick as he makes his way out of the hot spring.
I don’t bother trying to stop him. The emotions rolling from his soul to mine tell me if he doesn’t get space to find peace and quiet, he’s going to lose his shit.
“It’s never going to be that simple, Riven.”
Amick’s starshoot steals him away and I lay my head back to the rocky edge. Nothing ever feels simple. Even the things that have seemingly gone our way, now feels like that was only because someone else had to go through the hardship of it first.
Like poor Doren…
Thirty-five years in the Lost Sea basically alone, protecting a Binding, to just hand it over to me.
“You know, I’ve got to give it to the Valories. This is Chaos at its finest.”
I cut my eyes to Riven’s chuckle, then scoff.
Yeah, sure, this is all chaotic, but that’s just because it’s a lot.
Why are we being put in this position because of what our parents did?
To me, this shit feels manipulative on our creator’s part.
I’m about to add them to my shit list as well.