Chapter 13

  I stumble slightly as I land, fog lifting from my mind like a dust cover off an old antique. I was unsteady on my feet as I righten myself. I felt like I had awoken from a fever dream, I was shaky and delirious. Warm hands steadied me and I opened my eyes slowly, seeing the concerned face of my mum looking back at me. Her eyes were wild and her face was a mix of fear and amazement. I nod at her to reassure her that I was OK then gave her a tight squeeze before turning my attention to the figures I had been so sure I had dreamt up. Mum’s eyes kept flickering between me and them like she couldn’t believe this was happening.

  Honestly, I wasn’t sure it was real myself.

  Before I could say another word, the figure in black spoke first. Their voice sounded old and young and impossibly powerful. “You have questions, Veylyn” it wasn’t a question it was a statement. Like they knew what I was going to ask before I said it.

  I think shock might have made me a little ruder than I probably should have been and a lot less composed that I hoped to have been, but could you blame me?“Who the hell are you? What the hell just happened and what the hell was that?” The questions rushed out of me like flood water. I wouldn’t be surprised if the sentences sounded like a load of gibberish they came out so fast. I was still spluttering out questions until the figure in white raised a hand and I instantly fell silent. The questions dying in my throat.

  “Calm, child of Ruinfall.” their voice was kind but their face was a mystery beneath the mask they wore “All your questions will be answered in time. Some by us and some by others. Take each question one at a time.”

  I take in a deep shaky breath and force myself to slow down and take a minute to collect myself. I had so many burning questions and for some reason I had a feeling that I had to pick my questions carefully. “Who are you?” I ask first

  “I am Calian” the figure in white said first “I am the God of Life”

  “And I am Mornana. Goddess of Death” the figure in black added

  What?

  I blink in confusion, my mouth opening and closing in shock. I must have looked a bit like a demented salmon. I shake my head.

  “Wait – What? Gods are real?” I exclaim “Wait! Don’t answer that, I don’t want to use up one of my questions” I blurt out. I earned a chuckle from the two figures. One sounded like bird song and the other sounded like the creaking of crypt doors. Completely different but they seemed to compliment each other perfectly.

  “You may ask as many questions as you wish. We will answer what we are able in this moment” Mornana stated

  That’s reassuring. So I can ask as many questions as I wanted but they might not be able to answer them all? What’s the point of being a god if you aren’t omniscient? I thought gods knew everything?

  I push my existential crisis to one side to deal with later and nod before asking my next question “What happened? I mean, I’ve read a lot of books of magic and none of them have ever mentioned anything even remotely similar to this. Was it to do with the…” I falter. What the hell was that thing? I still didn’t know, but it didn’t matter the two otherworldly beings knew what I meant apparently.

  “Ryykthual. Yes. We know you are well versed in magic, but you must know that not everything is recorded, written or otherwise. Some things are lost to time or perhaps you are just not as well versed in things as you suspect.” Calian stated

  “Well obviously. I’m not going to know everything but I would have assumed that I would have come across even the smallest snippet of...Ryyth- uh, Ryykthual?” they nod reassuringly at my pronunciation as I continue “A being or creature that powerful would have humanity making legends or stories about it surely? Humans are drawn to power, everyone knows that”

  “Are they?” the God of light asks, it sounded almost rhetorical. I look at him with a face of confusion and my head tilted.

  “Can you really look at history and say that we aren’t?” I challenge before getting back on topic “Whatever, I’m going off track. What happened with Ryykthual? And what are they?” I reiterate.

  “Ryykthual is our creation. We made him to serve us. Before the others were drawn in.” Mornana removed their mask and I held back a gasp. I was looking at the face of a god and it looked...regretful? “He was made to be ruler of the seas and the air. Able to control and craft the very creatures of the ocean.”

  “But he was flawed, instead of cherishing the human life that we provided. He grew angry with them, at their need for control, for he loved his creatures but the humans would kill them. Humans tried to calm his seas and control them as their own so he brought down their ships, raised storms that raged against their lands, almost wiping them out completely. His own rage consumed him so we intervened.” Calian removed his own mask, his face too conveyed sadness and regret.

  “As the Goddess of Death I understand that everything has it’s time. Things must end so others can begin. It is a balance and a precarious one. Too much life and nature will be overcome. Too much death and the world will become empty. Ryykthual threatened that very balance. He had to be stopped”

  “So, we came together with the help of a mage who also sort to rebalance the world and put an end to the catastrophe that was happening.” Calian continued on, his voice was filled with guilt “We stripped him of his powers – weakening him and sending him into a slumber that was supposed to last for eternity. But like you said, Veylyn. Power is a terrible and addictive thing and the mage was drawn to it. They created a spell that could be used to summon him, to bind him with them and use him for their own gain.”

  “What happened now, was Ryykthual trying to break his bonds from the spell – and he almost succeeded too. Without the knowledge of his existence you were left defenceless and susceptible to him. We intervened before that could happen”

  My head was swimming with the information they had given me and I took an involuntary step back as I forced myself not to run from the overwhelming situation. My heart was beating wildly against my ribs and my lungs felt like they were being squished, as if I couldn’t get enough air into them. I took in deep breaths as I tried to stem the flowing panic that threatened to burst through my crumbling dam of resolve and calm. Emotions were running rampant inside me, some I could identify and some I couldn’t. And all the Gods did was stand there. Patiently waiting for me to ask more questions, like my inner turmoil was nothing to them. But being a god, I suppose it wasn’t.

  But how could I pick a question to start with when a million were fighting to be asked first? So much was happening. First of all; I was possessed by a god-made creature who was hell bent on escape his confines and casting down destruction on the whole of humanity for the destruction of his creations and his home. The god-made creature was apparently summoned by some sort of spell that I had no idea about. Gods were real! I had no idea how I would be able to settle my mind enough to even get my words together in a coherent fashion. Thankfully, I didn’t have to.

  “Is there a way to get rid of him?” Mum spoke up for the first time, her voice shaky and quiet but insistent as she spoke to the deities, she was scared but powering through for the sake of her child “Is there a way to get rid of him from Veylyn?”

  That was a good question actually. How the hell am I supposed to function with a fallen deity attached to me?

  The two celestial beings exchanged looks that I couldn’t read before turning back to Mrs Garrett and me “Only the one who summoned him may cast him back into slumber” Mornana informed. Her voice unemotional and flat.

  “Great, so what do I do?” I blurt out. That god thing had nearly killed me! There was no way I was keeping it around.

  Calian spoke up “You cannot do anything”

  “What? But you said-”

  “That only the person who summoned him can send him back his slumber” He interrupted

  “So who the hell summoned him?” I snapped, my voice rising. I was starting to lose my rag, as soon as I got one answer to one question a million more questions pop up in its place. It was infuriating.

  “That we cannot tell you.” Mornana added as she replaced her mask. Calian following suit soon after. Hiding their emotions behind their ornate masks once again. Her voice gave nothing away on how she felt.

  You have got to be fucking kidding me! “Why not?” I thunder, my fists were clenched at my sides, my nails digging into the palms of my hands. I was struggling to keep my anger in check. After everything that had happened I was frazzled and incredibly close to a breakdown of some sort.

  “The truth will be revealed in time.” came their cryptic reply, “But please, any more questions you wish to ask, we will be willing to answer, within reason of course”

  I took a breath and calmed myself down. I was curious as to what would happen to my magic once Ryykthual was sent back to his slumber, if I ever found out who summoned him. “Alright, so lets say I find out who summoned Ryykthual. Once he’s sent back to his eternal slumber or whatever, what happens to me? Am I still going to have magic? I’m assuming my magic is linked to him, right?”

  Calian tilted his head slightly, his mask annoying obscured any expression he might have been showing. “Your magic is separate but you are both linked”

  I let out an annoyed groan and run my fingers through my choppy hair “I know you’re gods but must you always speak in riddles and cryptic bullshit? Every single answer I receive leaves me with a thousand more questions” I shake my head before putting my head in my hands, pushing the palms of my hands into my eyes until I saw stars and patterns. Exasperation leaking into my tone “Can you just answer my question? What happens to me when the link is broken?”

  Mornana’s gaze was intense through the eyeholes of her mask, black speckled with grey. “Your magic does not exist because he is within. Your magic is not his gift – it is ours”

  So it’s true? My magic was a gift from the gods? The dreams I had, the same ones as the Saint – they were real? I really was an omen?

  “What...what are you saying?” I ask quietly, shocked by their revelation “Are you saying...I was chosen?” my anger stared to flare up again “that I was chosen to be some host to your overzealous sea god? Glad to know I had a choice in the matter” I add sarcastically

  Calian’s tone had an edge to it but it was still irritably calm in comparison “Your magic was not meant to be awakened so soon. It was meant to lie dormant until it was needed the most. Undetected and unusable deep within you. But the actions of another caused your powers to manifest earlier than they should have. Ryykthual was drawn to you because of the power – our power, that lay dormant inside you. Not because you were destined to become his host.”

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  My anger was back, overtaking the shock and awe of everything that had happened “So, what?” I snapped, my tone biting and harsh “I’m just some accident? The Gods too busy dealing with their celestial omnipotence and holier-than-thou nature that you just- what? Said ‘fuck it’ and let it happen?”

  “Calm, child.” Mornana replied firmly, patient with my anger like it was some fleeting inconvenience she had long since grown out of. “We may be gods, yes, but we cannot deny human’s their rights to free will. Your powers awakening before they were supposed to was not part of our plan but that does not mean you were an accident. You were sent to this world by us to bring balance. A task that not many are ever privileged- or cursed- to ever see or receive. The world is on a weighing scales. Life or death. Creation or destruction. The choice will always be left to man-kind. The choice will always be yours.”

  “Wait- you’re saying that the very fate of the world – perhaps the whole fate of human kind as we know it – is in my hands?” I gasp, feeling overwhelmed and panicked at the very idea of it all, that now familiar feeling of racing heart and tightened chest coming back with a vengeance. How the hell was I supposed to make a decision that could decide the fate of every person on Earth?

  “So let me just get this straight. I was sent by you guys to make a decision about the human race” I start talking with my hands, like I was piecing together a puzzle. “but at the same time as my birth, someone, somewhere, summoned a literal god, which instead of linking with the summoner, was drawn to my dormant magic”

  I look at the two deities, they nod in unison, so I continue on. Battling the panic that threatened to take over, it’s own tendrils of fear wrapping around my organs and sending shivers up my spine. I start pacing like a trapped animal, trying to trick my mind into thinking I was running away. But it didn’t work. “that said dormant magic was meant to be awakened at a later stage, but was awakened earlier. Which – I’m guessing, in turn, made it possible for Ryykthual to come forward? Do I have that right?” They nodded once again.

  “OK, so, I don’t understand. Did you send me my magic because of Ryykthual? Or is the humanity ending catastrophe shitstorm separate to all this?” I question, folding my arms against my chest, glaring at them in turn.

  “We cannot say much, that is a question that will, in turn, be answered fully.” I go to interrupt Mornana but she held up a hand to silence me “But- we can answer partially”

  “Mornana is correct.” Calian added “Originally, the summoner of Ryykthual wanted him for his power and abilities. To be able to take over the kingdoms. But your birth threw off that balance. Your birth forced the events to change. The consequences of which are still taking shape.”

  “So whoever summoned Ryykthual, is the same person I’ll have to make a decision over?” I tilt my head in confusion.

  “Potentially.” great. A one word answer. The hell do they mean by potentially?

  I blink my tone linked with confusion “Potentially? There could be more than one person?”

  “We cannot say” Calian said quietly “If we chose to tell you, it could affect the nature of human free will. That is something we cannot intervene with. We have told you what we can. It is up to you now what you do with the information we have provided” his tone was measured but absolute. There was no changing their minds on the matter.

  I couldn’t help but let out a dark chuckle “Typical. You drown me in information and riddles and expect me to float.” I put my hands on my hips and stare them down coldly “Well bad news, pals. I can’t swim. Guess you’ll have to find a new sucker to play chosen one with”

  Their eyes seemed to flash with amusement but remained sharp. “You stand here challenging gods,” Mornana commented humorously “Yet you believe that you will sink?”

  “If you cannot swim, then you will drown. If you wish not to do so – then learn to tread water. The choice is yours. We cannot interfere or change your mind. We are bound by our rules. It is our law” Calian added, his voice was like a double edged sword. Kind but with a hint of danger to it.

  A thought suddenly struck me, the nightmares I used to have. Were they just like Saint Elowen? A way to communicate with me? Or was it just an overactive imagination and too many scary films as a child? Could all this have been told to me sooner?

  “Somewhat random question-” I said as nonchalantly as possible, my voice betraying me as it shook slightly “I read in Saint Elowen’s diary, you know the patron saint of magic and all that, that he had dreams that you guys used to communicate with him. Well, I had the same dreams – nightmares really. Big black shadow monster with a huge mouth and massive teeth, used to chase me through the halls of my house? Does that ring any bells to you at all?”

  “Yes,” Calian confirmed, his tone still as measured as before “but when you kept running away from us, we took it as a sign that you weren’t ready for what we needed to tell you”

  I looked at them in disbelief, my arms limp by my sides “I was six! You came in the form of a hideous shadow monster that liked to stalk me through my house! You had knife like teeth! Of course I was gonna run away from you”

  “You terrified my baby all so you could talk to them?” My mum suddenly blurted out, her face filled with motherly rage. “they were terrified to sleep for weeks! They even had accidents because of you”

  I flush red with embarrassment. I hastily try to shut her up before she revealed more embarrassing things about me. “Yes thank you, mother!”

  “No!” she turned her fiery glare towards me and I almost back away it was so intense “I’m sorry Veylyn but you were and still are a child. You’re my child and I will not have some cosmic being using you to fix their mistakes.”

  She stepped towards them, putting herself between me and them as if shielding me from them. “It’s your fault Veylyn is in this situation in the first place! They would have died had you not come to fix your mistake. Ryykthual is your creation, your mistake to fix. Why the hell are you roping my child into this? You say that you cannot interfere with us and our free will, but here you are! Changing people’s lives to clean up your messes. Why the hell should we help you?”

  I stood their in stunned silence, my mouth was open as I listen to Mum, her love for me so strong that she was willing to fight the gods for me. My heart had never felt more full of love for the woman in front of me. I was flooded with gratitude and awe for the woman in front of me. She continued as she took another step towards the celestial duo, her voice filled with a quiet, terrifying fury I had never heard before.

  “You speak about free will, but you never gave Veylyn the freewill to choose if they wanted this life. You just thrust it upon them from birth. You blame this summoner for the toppling of balance but in reality, it’s you! You’re gods. You wouldn’t understand what it feels like to used for someone’s game but I’m not going to sit back and let you play celestial chess with Veylyn like they’re your pawn. I won’t let you take them and twist them into whatever you need. Not without a fight.” Her voice because low and dangerous, sharp with conviction, it was almost a whisper but I heard her clear as day. “I will fight tooth and nail for my child. I don’t care if you can’t die. I will fight until I die of exhaustion, I will never let you know peace or serenity. I will kick, punch, scream and bite. Even when I am dead and gone, I will make you second guess every decision you ever make. You may be gods but you will learn to fear the wrath of a mother.”

  Her confession hung in the air, silence heavy in the hallway. I was open mouthed in shock and I knew the Gods were too. I didn’t need to see beneath their masks to know. It was a few moments before they replied, sharing a look between each other. Mornana was the first to speak, her eyes looked unsettled but her expressions were hid behind her mask before they narrowed through the holes in the mask “You..You speak to us this way?” her tone was a blend of anger and something else, something almost like...confusion or disbelief “Some, unimportant mortal dares speak to the gods of life and death, The creators of this world, like they know better than us?”

  The gods, so calm and serene the past few minutes suddenly seemed defensive and angry. Calian stepped forward, as if trying to get Mrs Garrett to back down or cower away. His voice was no longer like a double edged sword but more like a dagger, sharp and cutting. “We created the very world you stand on, We created the first humans to walk the land, we took the lives of our creations as easily as we gave them and you dare stand before us and accuse us of- of mistakes” he seemed lost for words, the concept foreign and wrong in his mouth, once so put together now seeming to fall apart at the seams. “I have given life to hundreds of planets and thousands of galaxies! You are nothing”

  His neat composure was cracked and there was a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes that was overshadowed by anger that had long since been felt. Mrs Garrett’s comments had gotten under their skin. It reminded me a little of the Queen. A woman so spoiled with the luxury of class and so used to getting her own way that, if faced with the unmoving will of a strong charactered individual, would probably react the same way the Gods have. The similarities between the three of them was both scary and humbling. Perhaps these gods were where we got our flaws from?

  Mornana’s hand tightened around her scythe, her already pale knuckles grew white with the grip, her masked moved slightly, giving the impression that she was clenching her jaw. Her eyes flashed dangerously. But still Mum never wavered for her position.

  “We have seen empires rise and kingdoms crumble to dust before our ancient eyes. We have forged worlds and blew breath into the solar system itself and yet you – some tiny, miniscule human – believe that we owe you an explanation?” Her presence towered over Mrs Garrett, the scythe glistened menacingly in her hands, Mrs Garrett reflected in the blade as a skeleton. It was unsettling to say the least “I have destroyed planets and snuffed out stars, I have taken worlds”

  Mum did something none of us expected.

  She chuckled. She stepped forward, standing toe to toe with the most powerful beings in the whole universe as if it was nothing. Her eyes were ablaze. Intense and raw with power and anger. The wrath of a mother was nothing to laugh at. The gods both took an involuntary step back, so unused to being on the receiving end of someone so determined and steely.

  Although the gods towered over her, they seemed to cower beneath her gaze “You create and take worlds? You think that makes you gods?” she scoffed bitterly “You may have breathed life into the world but since then? The hundreds of thousands of years of human creation and innovation has been down to us. What we have accomplished. You merely gave us the world to start on, you do not understand the love and heartbreak and tears that go into making something. You have no right to call this your world any more. You want to know what it is like to make a world? Veylyn is my world, they are my everything, my child, my life, my very reason to live on this world you created. They were never just a pawn in my games!” her voice cracked with emotion but she ploughed on taking a step, driving back the gods until their back were against the wall. “You do not know what it is like to create a world that consumes your very soul. You have to raise them, love them, fight for them – fight with them! Every day. Not just a millennia ago. So if you think, no – if you even entertain the thought that you just get to ‘take and destroy’ my world, my child, like all the other worlds without suffering the consequences, then you have another thing coming”

  Her gaze kept shifting from deity to deity, fury radiating off her like the heat of hell “I raised that child, I helped shape them, I cared for them, nurtured them. The only person who should get to decide their fate is Veylyn. Not me, not you. Them. You’re so used to controlling ‘balance’ and deciding the fates of others because of your mistakes, that you lack the very thing that makes a world so special. Love. So you best believe that I will stop you from twisting Veylyn into your perfect little celestial soldier because you are nothing – Nothing! Compared to the love of a mother. I will make you regret ever playing with their life like it was nothing when it is everything to me!” her voice had raised to bellow by the end and she was shaking with fury and adrenaline.

  I watched as the duo softened and surrendered their rage transforming to sadness, suddenly feeling their thousands of years of existence. “You are right, our lives are so long, we see the births and deaths of different ages in the blink of an eye. Fleeting moments in our eternal and immortal lives. We see only fragments of your lives. We see the bigger picture but we have never attempted to see the forces that drive you individually.” Mornana’s eyes fell to the floor almost in shame at their behaviour “We cannot ask you to fully understand our position nor can fully understand your own.”

  Calian was just as regretful and apologetic with his tone “We never considered what it might be like to live a life as short as yours, to live as you do. We sat back and watched you build and shape the world around you but we never saw you. We never saw what drove you. We gave you freewill but never looked into what made you make those decisions. We are the very beginning, we never felt the love or pain of being a mother or parental figure. We love our creations, even with their flaws but we love them as a collection, not individually. We do not...understand it” he admitted softly.

  His eyes flickered to Mrs Garrett from behind his mask “Your words have taught us more than we ever thought we could learn. We grew complacent with our knowledge and never thought to try and learn more. We may be gods but we too are flawed.”

  Mornana’s voice was also filled with regret and guilt as she spoke “You are right. We have watched countless empires rise from the ashes of the old only to crumble into dust, but we have never stood within their walls, we have never walked amongst them, to feel the lifeblood of our work. We have not loved like you have. Perhaps, it is time for that to change. We thought that you were dispensable and replaceable, as common as ants. But you are far more complicated than that. You are special, every one of you.”

  Mornana let out a deep sigh, one they seemed to have been holding back for hundreds of years “We cannot and do not expect forgiveness, only understanding.”

  This earned a scoff from Mrs Garrett. “I’m glad you understand that you won’t be forgiven.”

  Mornana continued on as if not hearing the outburst “It is too late now to take back what we have done, the wheels of human freewill are in motion and we cannot stop them. Veylyn will either choose to deal with the catastrophe or they won’t.”

  Mornana turned to me, her ancient eyes boring into mine, I felt like a part of me died inside, like I would be cold forever. “But know this Child of Ruinfall. The eight kingdoms fate rests on your shoulders. Their futures are in your hands. Whatever route you take, you shall not be judged for.”

  If her words were meant to be comforting for me, she did a shit job at it.

  “We shall leave you now, but before we do,” Calian turned his attention to Mrs Garrett “we wish to gift something to you, Evalinena Garrett. We bestow you a name, fitting for a woman as strong willed and loving as you are.

  Evalinena Garrett Heartfire the Torch-bearer of Souls.

  You were named so after the eternal flame burning within you brighter than any star we have created, burning bright enough to enlighten us and free us from the shadows of complacence we had shackled ourselves to. You have enlightened the path for others to take, you are both a guardian and keeper of souls, not just your own. For that we bow to you”

  both of the Gods dipped their heads in respect before speaking once more “The other Gods will know of you – and the Child of Ruinfall. You will be welcomed with open arms when your times come.” there was a small moment of silence before they answered a silent question that had been bouncing around my skull yet I had been too nervous of the potential outcome to ask it “Do not worry either. The Queen’s arcane beacon will be unable to detect what occurred here, our power will have overloaded it, making it useless until we leave”

  Calian and Mornana are suddenly enveloped in a ball of light and darkness their figures now obscured by the combination. Calian’s voice called out before they disappeared “We hope you can forgive us. We shall see you again one day.”

  There was a small whoomph then the feeling of my ears popping, as if the pressure changed around us and then they were gone. Me and Mrs Garrett stood dazed, confused and angry in the middle of our hallway. The silence that settled between us was loud and unsettling

  Out of nowhere, our front door opened and we both jumped, the sound of the handle moving rousing us from our thoughts.

  Lucan stepped through the threshold his voice a stark contrast to the silence we had let develop “OK, I’m here. What did I miss?”