Chapter 29
Lunch was a somber occasion; we were all too tired and hurt to talk much.
Lythandra had returned from her court, which had luckily been unaffected by the attacks.
She had only stopped by for a quick coffee before making her way to the Citadel.
As Goddess of War she was now in charge of the military operation ahead.
We had nearly finished our food when the Abbot and three of his higher-ranking sentinels entered the room.
“Auretheos, may we have a word?” the Abbot said, not even stopping to greet any of us. Theo’s tone was tense. “Out with it, Abbot, you can speak freely.”
The Abbot clicked his tongue disapprovingly but went ahead anyway.
“Fine then, if you wish, my lord. We have discussed the matter of the wordsmith and we think it’s in all of our best interests if we harness her power now, before we go to war.”
I sat upright, the shock like ice in my veins.
Theo only looked irritated.
“What are you talking about, Abbot? Maelis has worked tirelessly on controlling her heka and has spent all night healing our people. We will not be harnessing anything.”
The Abbot stood firm. “I do not deny that she has given every effort to improve herself, but she isn’t ready for war, and she is in no state to fulfill the prophecy. With more time, we might have been able to train her to her full capacity, but we are out of time.”
Theo got up then and rose to his full height. “You misunderstand me, Abbot. You are not going to lay a single finger on her. Is. That. Clear?”
To my surprise, the Abbot didn’t back down. “Look boy, I know that she has twisted you around her little finger by batting her eyes at you and you are inexperienced in the world of… desires. But we have worked too hard to let you get distracted by a little mortal harlot.”
I was about to stand up in protest, but Lydia pulled me back down.
“I advise you to watch your tongue, Abbot. This has nothing to do with my feelings for her and you know it. The prophecy clearly states that she has to give her powers to me freely. Nowhere in that prophecy is it written that we are to take her powers by force. It’s an insult to the Fates to think you know better than the prophecy, Abbot!
” Theo’s voice was calm, but icy, and barely contained the rage I saw behind his eyes.
The Abbot threw his hands up in the air and laughed haughtily.
“The prophecy is just words! Interpreted by priests who lived hundreds of years ago, who knows if they were even written down correctly!” He was nearly shouting now, the vein of his forehead looked dangerously close to popping.
“All that is important right now is that you will fulfill the prophecy and you need her powers to do that. That’s why we are taking her to perform the ritual. ”
The three sentinels walked towards me and were about to grab me, when Lydia unsheathed her sword and stepped between me and the sentinels.
“Not one step further.” She seethed.
Theo looked at the Abbot. “What do you mean, the prophecy is just words? All my life you have told me that in order for the prophecy to be fulfilled, I had to live by every word of the prophecy. I did your bidding to ensure the safety of our realms and now you have the nerve to come in here and tell me to willingly hand over the only person who has ever looked at me like more than just a tool for the Fates?”
He was shouting now, the rage visible in the protruding veins on his face and his biceps.
“Everything we have done is to ensure that you are safe. She is the one putting our lives at risk and you know it! She can’t be trusted, she is a wordsmith after all!” The Abbot repeated.
Theo lifted his hands and magic spilled from his fingers, gripping the Abbots throat.
“Please, my lord,” he begged. “I understand that you care for her, but this is bigger than us. The fate of the world depends on it.”
Lydia approached Theo and locked eyes with him.
“Let him go, Theo. We will deal with him the right way.”
Auretheos didn’t let go instantly, the Abbot struggling to draw a breath with Theo’s magic holding him captive.
Theo looked over to me, as if I could tell him what to do. His eyes softened when our gazes collided and he hesitantly pulled back his magic.
He tipped his head towards Malek and simply said, “Arrest him.”
Malek strode forward and pulled the hands of the priest behind his back. The Abbot and the sentinels protested, but were quickly silenced by Malek and taken to a cell in the basement.
It was silent again in the room when they had left and Theo turned towards me.
“I have some business to attend to, but please meet me outside the temple in an hour.”
I nodded and Theo left, leaving me alone to deal with the feeling of dread deep down in my stomach.
* * *
It took Theo a little longer than an hour to get his affairs in order at the Lodge.
But when he did, he appeared beside me on the temple steps, wearing gray slacks and a white shirt.
Gone were the tunics and the fighting gear.
Gone was the golden paint. This was just Theo, the man I had eaten Zerquins with in a small restaurant, the one who wrote little notes to make me smile and the one who had defended me from every enemy that had approached me.
“I am sorry for the behavior of my sentinels,” he said quietly.
“It’s not your fault, Theo. And maybe they are right? Maybe it is foolish to think that I could help you? I have hardly any experience in fighting and I am just mortal and—” Theo stopped me right there.
“They are not right, Maelis. They don’t know what they are talking about and I don’t think they ever truly did.”
He stood up then and offered me his hand.
“I want to show you something, if you aren’t too tired.”
I stared at his outstretched hand. The movement was so intimate that my eyes filled with tears. This was more than a gesture. It was him, offering me a part of himself that no one else was privy too. It was trust and vulnerability and rebellion.
He was choosing this moment. He was choosing to be touched by me.
“Take my hand, Mae,” he said softly. I lifted my hand to his and the moment we touched, everything shifted.
My hand fit into his perfectly and the warmth of his body started spreading all through my body.
He pulled me closer, his pulse going wild underneath my fingertips.
He shifted his fingers so that our fingers were interlaced and the feel of his skin sliding along the inside of my fingers elicited a shiver down my back.
He pulled the veil wordlessly over us, traveling at lightning speed across the Luminaris. We stopped after only a short trip.
Theo had taken us far up into the mountains, high above the clouds and the Lodge where winter was already out in full force.
The ground and the trees were covered in deep snow and it looked like nobody had been here in quite some time.
But what was just as beautiful as the snow glistening in the sun was the house that stood right in front of us, just a few stretches away.
Nestled amidst the pines of the ancient, snow-covered forest, the house stood like a beacon of warmth.
With a twist of his hand, Theo cleared a path through the snow for us, and we made our way to the entrance of the house. Theo opened the door for me and we were greeted with a warm fire in the hearth and the smell of freshly made coffee in the air.
“I am sorry I was only able to prepare the house a little, but I wanted to get out of the Lodge as soon as possible” he said and motioned for me to walk on ahead.
The foyer opened into a grand living space with high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows.
The open-plan kitchen was black and spacious, perfect for cooking for a large family.
To my right, a huge sofa dominated the room.
Bookshelves lined the walls, filled with volumes of all shapes and colors.
“Uh, looks like a maniac has arranged these books by color,” I teased, and the smile that spread across Theo’s face was a sight to behold.
“What is this place, Theo? It’s so beautiful,” I breathed as I walked further into the room, marveling at the old wooden beams that connected the rooms with each other.
“It’s my private home. The place I come to when I need to unwind or get out of the temple. I built it right after the sentinels decided that it was time for me to withdraw from society. I haven’t been here in a while, but I wanted to spend some time with you before all hell breaks loose.”
My heart lifted and despite what I knew we were going to be facing in a couple of days, I felt something like hope that everything was going to be all right.
“I think that was a fantastic idea, Lord of Wisdom.”
He smiled and led me over to the kitchen. He handed me a mug with hot coffee. He even added a shot of caramel and when I was too stunned to speak upon his sweet gesture, his brow furrowed.
“That’s the way you like your coffee, isn’t it?” I just nodded in response. He had made the effort to remember my favorite way to drink coffee and little butterflies spread through my stomach.
“So what else is there to see here, apart from… books?” I teased him.
“Let me give you a tour of the house,” he offered.
It turned out that this place was actual heaven, because the house not only had huge bedrooms with the coziest looking beds ever, but also a spa room with a wooden hot tub and a sauna.
The attic room had been turned into a reading room, filled with books and cozy chairs next to the windows.
From here we had a fantastic view over the valley and with a little bit of imagination I could spot the Lodge deep down on the plateau.
We went back downstairs, and Theo asked if I was hungry.
We had just had breakfast, so I declined and went to lounge on the huge fluffy white couch.
Theo stood in the middle of the room and it seemed like he didn’t know what to do with himself.