Chapter 35 Creed #3
I know she can do this.
“Okay,” she whispers.
As if he were waiting for his opportune moment, V pops in right beside us with the plant I requested in his claws.
“The two of you planned this?” she asks as her narrowed glare bounces between the two of us.
“Without all of us, apparently. Rude, isn’t it, little burden?”
I peer over my shoulder and huff as Riven, Kyzen, and Amick march up behind me.
“You three aren’t needed.”
“We may not be needed for your lesson, but we won’t be missing out on her achieving this,” Amick says, not sparing me a glance as he kneels beside Thayla and gives her a kiss.
“Nothing like a little extra pressure, huh?”
“You perform amazingly under pressure from us, little goddess.” Kyzen winks, making her face flame, and we all chuckle at her.
“Yeah, well, that’s different.”
“Okay, that’s enough. Shall you begin?” V cuts in and our amusement shifts to him.
“Riven, where’s the Obliteration in her body?” I ask.
She turns her attention to where he’s taken a spot in the grass beside her. His hand wraps gently around her throat and he tugs her toward him until their lips collide.
I huff as they deepen the kiss more than necessary.
“Right there, angel.”
“My throat? Really?” she asks, strained, as if the power itself is cutting off her ability to speak.
He nods and rubs his thumb in a circle against her skin.
“Obliteration is about endings, removing, and swallowing things out of existence. The throat is a gateway where words die, breath ceases, and silence forms. It’s the physical threshold between being able to speak something into existence and stopping it.”
She exhales as he releases his hold on her.
“Obliteration isn’t complete annihilation or pure destruction. Its original purpose was to be a divine cleanser of the slate, so to speak. It’s about removing what should be removed so something better can take its place.” I say.
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“I told you it wasn’t.” She purses her lips at me, and I wink as I carry on. “That field you and Riven went to the other day. Instead of it being asleep, it could’ve been overtaken by fire-ivy. Fire-ivy will spread to the roots, killing a tree completely.
“Once that happens, there’s nothing you can do to save the tree. If that had been the case, you could’ve used your power of Obliteration to completely clear the field of the dying trees and fire-ivy. Then the owner of the field could’ve started anew.”
“Couldn’t he have got a Plentiful to help get rid of it or help clear the field?”
“No. Fire-ivy is invasive once it’s disturbed. It’ll keep growing back until it’s destroyed.”
“Okay, so in that sense, I understand. I can even see where it’d be helpful but…”
She trails off and what she really wants to bring up, but isn’t, is clear to me.
“I know it’s hard for you to separate this power from our father. We all understand that, so I just need you to look at it this way. Obliteration was always supposed to be the person who gave the ability to create room to breathe.
“He was supposed to be the person who obliterated corruption in the minds and hearts of his counterparts and all those who came from them. He didn’t. He gave himself over to that brand of power. No one else could’ve wiped the slate clean but him. Do you ever see yourself doing the same thing?”
“Absolutely not.”
Her answer is immediate. Certain. She now needs to accept that.
“Then your power is nothing like his. End of story.”
A long breath falls from her lips. Her single, determined nod is all I need. I grip the pot that’s still sitting in front of V and slide it between us. Her gaze observes the madness blooming from it.
“Do you see this flower here in the center?” I ask, and she gives me an uh-huh. “This is what’s supposed to be in this pot. All these little thorns sticking out around it are Mesquite briars. They’re killing the flower slowly. You’re going to obliterate them.”
I smack her hand away on instinct and apologize with my eyes when she glares at me.
“I reacted faster than my mouth. Don’t touch them. If their thorns prick you, their poison will eat away your skin.”
“What the fuck? Why didn’t you or V warn that sooner?”
“I guess I didn’t think you’d touch a random plant.”
Riven snorts and makes a comment about how that was a na?ve assumption on my part and he saw it coming a mile away.
We all roll our eyes and ignore him as Thayla focuses back on the pot.
“Okay, so I need to basically get rid of all the thorns sticking out around the flower in the center. Right?”
“Right.”
“Is there any way to do that without turning it to ash?”
“No. When physically obliterating something, the remnants will always be ash. That’s okay.”
She sucks her teeth and nods. “Okay then.”
The meadows fall completely silent as she lifts the pot and observes it from every angle. When she sets it back down, her chest expands with her inhale.
We—including V—hold our breaths as she hovers her hands over the pot.
The energy in the air shifts. The power that skirts across my skin makes my jaw tense for a millisecond before I force it to relax. After all my lecturing, I refuse to even acknowledge the similarities I sense.
“No, no, no,” she whispers repeatedly, more frantically with each murmur of the word.
A cloud of ash plummets a few inches in the air and her shaking hands slowly sink into her lap. Her chin trembles as she stares down at the pot.
“Thayla.”
She jerks her head at me.
“I killed it. Obliterated the whole flower.”
The disappointment in her tone slices across my soul. I want to tell her that it doesn’t have to be perfect on the first try every time. It shouldn’t be. That wouldn’t help her right now, though.
Her determination here lately is coming from a place of fear.
Every failure—what she views as failure—makes her more fearful.
“You can’t see beneath the soil. Therefore, for all you know, the thorns had already wrapped itself around the flower’s roots. So it needed to be cleansed so you could create something better.”
She grunts in disagreement.
“I can’t create—”
“You most certainly can create something.” His words are surprisingly stern. “As Creed said, Obliteration was always meant to provide breathing room for creation.”
He hoots and hops up until he’s perched on her shoulder. His wings nuzzle against her cheek, either trying to get her frown to fade or just giving her some comfort.
“The Goddess of Creation can manifest anything from nothing. No raw materials. No constraints. Pure conceptual-to-physical translation. It hasn’t been for the best. That unchecked ability creates the desire for more, when one already has enough.
You won’t be able to do that, but you can refine, rebuild, or reshape something that already exists. ”
He climbs his way down her arm and pecks at her wrist. She hisses, snatching it to her chest and sneers at him.
“You don’t have to stab me. Just tell me what to do.”
“The doubtful thoughts running through your mind tell me otherwise. You obviously need a little push for this lesson.”
“Valories, you can be so bossy and testy sometimes.”
“As can you. Now, no more of the senseless arguing with yourself. Stick your hand into the pot and get a feel for the soil and for your power.”
She does as she’s told, but she also cuts her eyes over to Riven.
“Where is this power at?” His lips twitch at the annoyance in her tone. He raises both his hands and wiggles all his fingers at her. “In my fingers? Of course. So what, V? You want me to create, or I guess grow a flower? How in the realm am I supposed to do that?”
“You’re not simply growing any ol’ flower. You can’t summon life or command the earth like an earth elemental would.”
What the hell is an earth elemental?
“You’re reconstructing a pattern that already existed. Think of it like this. Every object, creature, or plant has a metaphysical impression they leave on the realm. A memory of what it was or was meant to be, so to speak.
“When you accidentally destroyed the flower with Obliteration, you didn’t erase the soil’s memory of it. The pot still holds the echo of the flower’s pattern. Your Creation will allow you to call that pattern back into form, using the leftover matter.”
“You said I can’t summon life. That sounds a lot like I’m bringing the flower back to life. “
“You’re not bringing that exact flower back into existence. You’re reconstructing a new one from the remnants it left behind. It’ll be the same species but not the same flower. Feel for the root’s fragments in the soil.”
She sighs, but again, does as she’s told.
My brothers move in closer around her and we watch as the dirt on the surface shifts with the movements of her fingers. Her gasp has us all sucking in a breath.
“There’s like a twig. A tini-tiny little stick.”
“Good, Thayla. Close your eyes and focus on that twig. Call your power of Creation forth and allow it to do its thing. You guide it and it’ll guide the flower.”
Her breath fans through her lips and my brothers stare down at the pot. Their anticipation is heavy in the air, damn near distracting. I don’t focus on them long, though.
I watch her.
The worried lines ease from her forehead as she continues to take measured breaths. My soul strokes hers gently, encouragingly. I pull its stubborn ass back, and a small smile crosses her lips as she returns the sensation.
The energy around her transforms.
Her disappointment morphs into determination, and I hold my breath when it becomes glaringly obvious she releases her power.
It breezes across my skin, raising chill bumps along my arms. Although her lids are still shut, there’s a faint glow highlighting her lashes.
Riven squeals like a child when a bud follows her fingers out of the soil and startles her out of her concentration.
“Riven,” Amick, Kyzen, and I all bark at once.
“Fuck, my bad, Thayla. I saw the sprout and got excited.”
She sighs but not in the upset kind of way. It’s tender. Fond.
Her fingertip lightly brushes her creation.
“It’s okay, my little psycho. It’ll grow.” Her eyes widen as she peers at V. “It will grow, right? I didn’t stunt its growth by pulling my power back, did I?”
“No. With normal nourishment, like any plant, it’ll grow.”
A whoosh of relief pours out of her, and she grabs the pot as she pushes herself up. We stand right behind her.
“Let’s go find a place for our new plant at home,” she says as she walks away with a genuine smile on her face.
“Oh, what are we going to name it?” Riven asks as he falls in step beside her.
The two of them go back and forth, proposing the craziest fucking ideas for names I’ve ever heard while Kyzen, Amick, and I trail behind them.
“They’re two plants in a pot. Where do they come up with this shit?” Kyzen whispers with a chuckle.
“Fuck if I know. Did she just counter his Snugglepuss with Lady Snuggleballs?” I ask as I tilt my head and curl my nostrils at their backs.
“There isn’t a thing I don’t love about her,” Amick says, nonchalant as shit.
Kyzen and I gawk at him. He’s none the wiser as he smiles at Thayla.
Smiles…
Fuck.
I love her even more simply because she causes that reaction in him.