Thayla
My breath fans through my lips, flipping the page I was reading in this massive ass tome.
Gods, there are so many books.
This is undoubtedly Amick and Lambrit’s paradise, but the rest of us are so out of place. We’re doing as we were told, though. Just at a much, much slower rate than Amick and Lambrit.
Amick had to take a break from touching shit and seeing their truths after about an hour and a half. He laid his hand on a random block of stone and ended up watching the creation of the Court. He said it was a fascinating process but created a strange sensation within him.
He couldn’t actually see the Beginning Gods, but he felt their powers all mixed and working together.
They’ve fallen a long damn way since then.
That blast to the past took a great deal out of him, so he decided to take a break and jump into the text with Lambrit.
The rate at which those two can read is astonishing to watch.
No, Lambrit can’t read nearly as fast as Amick, but years of keeping his nose stuck in a book have created a sense of speed reading in him that vastly outmatches the rest of ours. Not to mention, I’m sure he doesn’t easily get distracted by every little thought.
I still can’t believe he did this.
I’m going to fuss at V for not being completely honest with me.
He sure as fuck didn’t specify that this is where Lambrit was going within the Athenaeum.
“Guys, I think I found something,” Havar says, breaking the peaceful ambient noise of pages turning. “I did. I definitely did.”
He lets out a soft, breathy laugh, but his smile slowly fades.
“What is it?” Yemi asks, instantly picking up on his shift in mood.
He shakes his head and picks up the book he was reading as Yemi, Nero, Lambrit, Amick, and Riven crowd around him. I stay seated, studying him as he brushes past them, pacing and continuing to read.
“No, that can’t be right,” he mutters.
“For fuck’s sake, Havar. What?” Sevryn barks from the door.
He slowly lowers the book.
“That contraption doesn’t just suppress their power. Each time they use it, a piece of it is fed to the Beginning Gods. They strapped them so they could siphon their power.”
“What?”
Everyone shouts.
Well, I don’t. My question comes out as nothing more than a painful breath.
“Let me see that,” Amick says, snatching the text from Havar’s hands.
“Out loud, Amick,” Riven growls.
Amick’s jaw tightens as his eyes scan the page. For a moment, it looks like he might refuse.
Then he exhales.
“They were not forged, nor conjured. The Valories, from their gates, rained stars down across the realm. Each crashed into the earth, planting a seed of connection that grew into powerful flesh. The Veilatara were born of the realm. For the realm.”
Amick swallows, and his grip tightens on the book as a knot tightens in my throat.
“Each was shaped with purpose. Some were guardians, drawn to protect, their bonds strengthening those who stood in defense of life. Others were keepers of growth. Their presence coaxed land to flourish, rivers to swell, and power to root deep within the soil. Their bonds were not given but chosen by the stars and souls themselves.”
Just like him, my brows furrow, but he doesn’t stop reading.
“When the passage between Elementra and the Valorian Veil closed, the flow of her divine current was severed. In their desperation, the Beginning Gods turned to the Veilatara, for they could absorb and redistribute what the realm no longer could.
“But where the Veilatara dispersed power, the gods had grown accustomed to its concentration. Thus, the constraints were conceived. Not as instruments of cruelty, but of control.”
A sharp silence falls over the room, and my breathing falls uneven as Amick scans the next few lines without speaking.
“They anchored the Veilatara to Godsden, forcing the current to gather rather than flow. And so long as the constraints remain, the flow will never return to balance. Through binding, their natural dispersal was suppressed, and each time a Veilatara channels its power beneath the restraint, it’s diverted in half.
To the land of the gods and to those bound within the original agreement. ”
My stomach twists as Riven curses under his breath. His eyes swirl, both colors fighting for dominance.
Amick’s voice lowers.
“The Beginning Gods do not merely control the system. They feed from it. Let it be—”
He falls silent, staring down in disbelief.
“What? Keep fucking going,” Riven shouts.
Amick spares him a small glance, surprisingly softer than I expected.
“Harriseen recorded this,” he says. We all flinch like he just spoke a different language.
He carries on before any of us can question him.
“Let it be recorded that the Veilatara did not yield willingly. When first approached by the Beginning Gods, they refused the bindings. Not out of defiance alone, but of understanding. For they perceived what the gods would not name. To restrain the flow was not to preserve the realm…but to alter its nature.”
A chill crawls down my spine as he swallows roughly.
“The Veilatara stood as equals in that moment. Not beneath the gods, or above them, but beside them. Their voices carried warning. The Beginning Gods, having already felt the absence of abundance, would not acknowledge the threat being foretold.”
He pauses, letting his gaze shift to Riven’s for a moment long enough that my soul twitches in my chest.
“Thus, the accord was not formed in unity but in fracture. Among the Veilatara and the Beginning Gods. Terms were given, not agreed upon. Submit to restraint and serve the preservation of this realm as we define it or be struck from it and let your kind’s purpose fade into nothing.
Some bent, choosing existence over extinction.
Some resisted and were unmade for it. Their fall marked the first true break within the realm. ”
“No,” I whisper.
“The strappings themselves were wrought not of simple forge, but of convergence. Four divine signatures bound willingly, three of stolen essence. All molded into one working restraint. It was completed not as a gift, nor as protection, but as a cage disguised as necessity. Once bound, the Veilatara were confined to the divine region, their movement restricted, their dispersal of power suppressed. Where once their bonds blossomed, now they stay trapped in the soul. Where once they carried the will of the realm, now they carry the will of the Beginning Gods.”
Silence presses in from all sides, and Amick doesn’t turn the page. For a long moment, he just…stares at it. His jaw clenches and he shakes his head.
“No,” he mutters under his breath.
Sharp apprehension curls in my soul, and I rub my chest, attempting to ease the pain.
“Amick,” Riven warns.
He exhales slowly, like he’s bracing himself.
“Let it be known that the binding of the Veilatara cannot be undone by decree nor by the will of the Beginning Gods divided.”
My heart stutters as his eyes flick up. Straight to mine.
Something cold slides down my spine.
“Only when the seven powers are brought—”
“No.”
The word leaves me before I even realize I’m speaking. I slowly stand from my seat and lean forward.
“Into true alignment—”
“Don’t you dare say it,” I snap, banging my fist on the table. “Amick, please, don’t say it.”
His knuckles whiten, but his eyes soften for a millisecond as they flick to mine, then back to the words.
“Will the restraint crumble, the binding be broken, and the flow be restored.”
My pulse pounds so hard I can feel it in my throat, my temples, my ears. Every-fucking-where.
“No!”
My bellow echoes around the room as I sling all the shit off the table in front of me. Each piece hits the ground like thunder banging in the sky. I grip my roots so hard, my scalp screams in pain.
“No. Fuck no. They would’ve…” I gasp for breath, shaking my head. “They would have told me. If my powers could’ve fixed this, they would’ve fucking told me.”
No one speaks.
Which makes it so much worse.
My gaze flicks wildly between them. Amick, Riven, Lambrit, over to Creed and Sevryn. Back to Yemi, Rose, Havar, Nero, Iric. If Kyzen and Doren were over here, I’d seek them out as well.
My eyes beg for someone to agree with me.
“Why wouldn’t they tell me?” I whisper.
Their silence is suffocating.
“Because you would’ve fixed it.”
I whip my attention to Havar.
“That’s literally the whole fucking point.”
“I know it is, but the Veilatara are creatures of purpose and the overall well-being of the realm and of their kind. This is only an assumption based on my understanding of them, but it more than likely had a lot to do with timing. If they had told you the moment you realized you had a touch of all seven powers, and you started stripping the contraptions off them, you would’ve made them vulnerable.
“Like the passage said, not all Veilatara are guardians. Some prosper by solely providing for the realm. I see that relationship with Verlet’s herd.
He walks around them, watching over them, ready to defend them at any moment.
Just like Seismet did to Ike that day he whipped that youngling.
The Beginning Gods could’ve retaliated, re-strapped them, killed some of them, or gone after you for freeing them.
There are a number of reasons, and up until recently, you nor any of us were in any position to actually protect them. ”
My eyes slam shut and my foot taps to the tempo of my racing thoughts and heavy breaths.
Fuck.
He’s right.
“They’re safer strapped right now and they know that.” I sigh, running my hands down my face. “The moment I start breaking the restraints, the Beginning Gods are going to feel that shift and notice the lack of power coming from them.”
He nods. So does everyone else.
Well, except for Riven. He seems as upset as me.
“Is…everything okay in here?”
I peek to the side at Doren’s concerned face as he approaches us with three more books in his hand.
“Everything’s okay,” Yemi says, but she’s looking at me, not him. I give her a clipped dip of my head. “Are you doing okay? What else did you find?”