Chapter 6 Creed
Creed
It’s been many years since I’ve had to teach someone how to hold a sword.
Even the new Chosen comes to Godsden every year having basic training in battle techniques.
Rose knows fuck all nothing. Due to her being an Attendant and having a domain under the Goddess of Affection, there was never a need for her to have any Defender training.
Yemi picked some things up observing in the Court, but she’s stiff, uncoordinated, and timid like a wounded animal anytime I step near her.
Havar learned a thing or two when he had rotations at the Court. Since he began growing through the Plentiful ranks and had more power released, though, that’s long since dropped from his routine. Nothing he learned stayed with him as it should have.
Except for maybe knowing how to properly grip a sword.
Lambrit utterly confuses me if I’m being honest.
He’s built like a god that works out, but the sounds of disgust that fell from him when we told them we were training made it loud and clear that the only thing he likes to work out is his mind.
I thought, great, he’s going to moan and groan the whole time, but then he got very stern and scolded Thayla when she started to tell her side of the story about the Court and how her power settled.
His tone shocked the shit out of me. I’ve only ever heard him speak calmly, factually, and much like Amick. Every now and then, he’d joke on his morning runs with Thayla, but he usually just grumbled about running.
I waited patiently for her to cuss him out.
That never came.
The moment he said he wouldn’t know what to do without her, although his voice was raised in anger, she melted like a cup of butter.
It was easy to see he wasn’t angry at her, but at the fact that something like that happened to her.
Hearing it all again made my blood boil. My power thundered in my heart and the desire to find Gladian and rip his soul clean from his body was—still is—strong.
I didn’t put my two cents in, though, and forced myself to settle.
I also didn’t add any of the details she left out when she started explaining everything else that’s been overwhelming us these last few days.
She filled them in on the fact we were required to meet with the Beginning God of Obliteration, and that the God of Chaos showed up, but she left out who they are to us. Our past, and anything we’ve told her, she didn’t mention either.
With a touch of fury in her voice, she told them they were sending us on a quest to recover a Godly relic like Amick told her to call it.
Leaving out the bit about what will happen if we don’t succeed.
Lambrit went mental. He tried a million times to guess what we were going after. Thayla just smirked at him and let him go on and on.
None of us told her what she could or couldn’t say to them. I would’ve stepped in to stop her if she said something I didn’t want known, but it seems she knew all on her own what she could fill them in on.
Surprisingly, she didn’t mention the sacred hot spring or V either. I don’t believe she wants to keep him a secret from them. More so, she knows how important a conversation that’s going to be and decided to do it privately.
Not as we very fucking slowly walked to the back of the meadows, where I’m going to train them from now on.
After she finished filling them in, Lambrit tried to get out of training. He declared he didn’t need this. Thayla, nonchalantly as shit, told him if he planned to go on this adventure with her, then he did.
He damn near fainted, then proceeded to drop the sword he was limp wrist carrying like three times.
Yemi, Rose, and Havar were silently listening until that part. Then the flood of questions started.
Luckily, Kyzen’s here.
He noticed my growing frustration with this conversation and Thayla’s mounting irritation at not having the answers to all their questions.
He took over and said Amick would fill them all in later this morning at the Athenaeum.
They left it at that since we were approaching the meadows anyway.
Now, for the past fucking hour, I’ve been trying to show them all, except for Thayla and Kyzen, how to hold a damn sword right.
Havar almost got it, but when I told him to show me a downward swing, he fucking threw it.
They’ve got a lot to learn in a very short amount of time.
“There you go, you all got it now. Let’s take a water break and pick it back up in a few minutes.”
Kyzen’s proud voice has all their shoulders slumping in relief and I glare at the fluffy clouds. The four of them were finally standing in the proper position with their swords ready.
A damn break.
“Thank the Valories. I’m dying.” Lambrit flops to the ground dramatically, causing Thayla’s laugh to ring in my ears.
“Still excited to go on a trip with us?”
“That’s the only thing keeping me going. This is worse than when you used to make me go with you to the markets and we had to walk.”
“Walk being the key word, Lambrit. It was only a couple of miles.”
“Miles being the key word, Thayla.”
I can’t help but stare over at her as she lowers herself to the ground with a huge smile on her face. Kyzen tucks himself close behind her, just as content as he can be. He seems to have let go of the obvious concerns I saw written all over his face yesterday.
It appears they’ve escaped her as well as she leans into him.
I won’t lie to myself and say I wasn’t crushed for a split moment when I watched the true fear well in her eyes. Her soul went ballistic for a moment, but it never tried to get away from myself or my brothers at any point.
She nor it attempted to truly flee us.
I can take a few guesses what ran through her mind, but by now, she’s thought through it all and has let it go.
My assumption is basically confirmed when she laughs once again and tilts her head back onto Kyzen’s shoulder. She doesn’t flinch, tense, or anything as he drapes his arms around her waist.
I’ve never had a desire to be near anyone longer than necessary. Plus, most don’t want to come too close to me.
It’s both a mind and soul fuck that I crave and despise being close to her.
The truth coming out brought about the exact situations I predicted. My brothers are pissed with me, but it pushed Kyzen and Amick closer to her, and while it may have confused the fuck out of Riven—who still hasn’t spoken directly to me—he now looks at her as someone that’s permanently his.
For me…it just made my dilemma even more difficult. Now I don’t think I can separate her. Not because I’m unable to, but because of them. I just have to fight this internal battle alone.
For the rest of my fucking life.
I’ve yet to figure out, and I don’t think I ever will at this point, why my soul wants to consume hers rather than hold on to it.
There’s a clear divide in my powers when it comes to how I handle a soul. I do one of two things.
Hold it until I can release it into Hellveilious or into the essence of the realm and allow the Valories to decide their afterlife.
Or…I devour it. Consume it completely until there’s not a piece of it left. It destroys the being entirely and gives them no possibility of an afterlife.
The literal black hole that lives inside of me has devoured countless souls and it can’t be given the ability to do that to hers.
It’s nothing but purity and light.
That fact shocked me to my core when her soul first attached to me, but as I’ve gotten to know her, it isn’t that surprising.
Despite her sass and readiness to lay a grown god out with nothing but her fist, her being is still as pure as the day she was born.
It doesn’t take much to taint your soul.
It may sound like a hard task, but it really isn’t with the never-ending lifespans we have. We’re given ample opportunity and time to fuck up.
Many of us do one way or another.
You harm an innocent, tainted.
You make selfish decisions that have a negative impact on those around you, tainted.
You don’t have to be the one to physically do something to someone, but if you’re the master manipulator behind the scheme, tainted.
My father is a prime example of that.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s gotten his own hands dirty enough to ruin his very being, but daily, constantly, he orders unforgivable acts. They leave a stain on him just as much as the ones obeying his order.
My brothers and I were spared a stain for the countless things we did that we had no choice in.
The day we rebelled changed that, though.
We left a mark on us that may never be healed.
May being the operative word.
As the thought crosses my mind, Kyzen belts out a laugh at something Havar said, and I can’t help but check his soul for myself.
I continue to convince myself that his and Amick’s black spots aren’t shrinking with each passing day. It’s only my mind and desire playing tricks on me.
If, and it’s a big if, one day his spot completely disappears, then I’ll believe it’s her soul’s doing.
“Thayla, why aren’t you doing much of anything and we’re all working our asses off?” Havar asks before tilting his drink back.
“What do you mean, asshole? I’ve been helping the lot of you.”
My lips twitch and Havar scoffs. “Helping. More like standing around, making lovey eyes at Kyzen.”
“I have not been making lovey eyes at him.”
“You could and I’d be perfectly fine with it.”
She presses her lips together, attempting to hide her smile, but her cheeks give her away.
“I’d rather not see that, thanks. I’d like to see you get up and do something with your sword like the rest of us.”
A saucy stare crosses her face as she holds her hand out for Lambrit to pass her his sword. “Are you trying to spar with me, Havar?”
Kyzen clears his throat teasingly as Havar blanches and Yemi falls to the side, gripping her stomach.
I think that’s the first time I’ve heard her laugh that freely.
“I’d like to see that. My cousin needs a good ego check.”
He glares at her. “I’m a smart-ass, not stupid. Hell no.”