Thayla #4
“I had my doubts about that at first. Until the day her angry little voice rang in my mind. She chose me before all others. I found it fitting and flattering. We both were on a path we had no clue about and needed guidance that would come from unlikely sources. I chose her right back. Despite her sass and smart-aleck ways, she’s my favorite. ”
A watery, sad laugh slips out of me and there’s a drunk smirk twisted on his lips.
“It could’ve been worse. Instead of me, Seduction could’ve had the fifth like they planned.”
“Oh, my sweet, sweet Thay—” he hiccups, then pats his mouth as a yawn breaks free.
Silence stretches as I stare at his still form until a snore startles me.
“Derivius,” I say. He snores louder. “Derivius.”
Not even a flinch.
I grip my roots and take countless deep breaths as I try to wrangle the emotions brewing inside of me. My gaze never leaves his face, and the longer I trace his soft features, the harder it becomes to hold back my tears.
They eventually break through my restraint and tumble out of my eyes in streams.
“Are you okay, my Vedae?” V hoots.
“No,” I mumble as I peer over at him. “Where are their lines and limits, V? Is there no boundary they aren’t willing to cross?”
“Once upon a time, there was.”
“I find that incredibly hard to believe.”
“I’m telling you the truth. I witnessed the truth.”
My head whips toward the melancholy in his tone and I sink into his teal irises.
“You had a Calling with one of them?”
“I was the first Vedarya. I was all of theirs before I was anyone else’s.”
I close my eyes and bite my trembling bottom lip.
“When did they take such a horrible turn?”
His sigh flutters through my mind.
“Shortly after the Goddess of Seduction decided she wasn’t satisfied with having only one Beginning God by her side.”
“So all of this is that bitch’s fault?”
“Not completely. Maybe in Derivius’s eyes and his version of the events.
It is true, she wanted power over her counterparts and in her mind, the way to get that was to have control over the men.
The God of Obliteration, though, realized what he could gain from controlling the entire realm. Including the Valories.
“Once the two of them passed the line of corruption, there was no coming back for them. Both Suma and Derivius always flirted with the line, depending on their wants and motivations, but neither truly crossed over. Creation and Accord, well…the two of them are both good and bad in their own ways. They don’t always agree with Obliteration.
Accord disagrees more than Creation, but there have been many times they should have stood up rather than give in to him. ”
“And what of the God of Boundaries? He’s the Valories favorite goody two-shoes, who always follows the fucking rules?”
“He’s made his own mistakes as well.”
“Yeah, I’d say. Like hiding away while all this taurnshit went down.”
“He did what he thought was right. They all thought they were doing what was right,” he whispers.
Silence descends across the temple.
It doesn’t stretch long. Barely a breath. But it’s enough.
Enough for the words to settle.
Enough for them to mean something.
Enough for something deep in my chest to go very, very still.
My fingers twitch as vibrations slither through my body. My pulse stutters like my heart doesn’t quite know how to feel about what it just heard.
They thought they were doing what was right.
The words echo, hollow and wrong.
The realm.
The power stolen.
Unjust murders.
Dark Gods. Oblirians.
The Veilatara.
His own species.
The Attendants.
The manipulation of gods standings and pairings.
My men.
Me.
My chair crashes behind me with a sharp, violent crack, then completely disappears as I surge to my feet.
My hands fly up, like I can physically throw the rage out of my body, but it only makes it worse.
The heat burns hotter under my skin, making every inch of me vibrate out of control.
My stomach rolls so fiercely, I could puke.
“Don’t give me that shit, V. We aren’t talking about ungodly beings or even becoming gods who don’t know what they’re doing. We’re talking about the very first beings to walk this realm.”
My foot crashes through a pile of rubble, sending dust plummeting through the air.
“They were meant to make the realm thrive. Not take everything from it. They were made as equals and were supposed to complement each other. Not lie, betray, scheme, fucking rape one of their very own.”
The torches flicker in and out of existence as the crumbling walls shake from my bellows.
“They all—even Derivius—have made choices that have truly and utterly screwed us all up. You. Kira killed your kind, V. They created men with the intentions to turn them into monsters. Now we, me and those very same men, have to fix this shit, and it is so unfair. It’s cruel. Manipulative. Fucking wrong!”
I release my scream and all the pressure building inside of me.
Power pours from my hands in a vicious storm and my Chaos complements what’s coming out of me.
My eyes drift shut and my arms stretch out as I unleash myself, yet I refuse to add to the wrongness around me.
The echoes of rubble rising and moving blare around me.
It doesn’t feel like destruction.
It feels like something right’s tearing free.