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“You are the one who brought her, are you not? If she was too old, you should not have made such a decision.” Odarum wasn’t budging on the subject, no matter how hard I pushed.
I groaned as I leaned back in the saddle atop the chestnut mare. It would be much faster if he would have just Traveled us to Ilrek or even let me ride him as he flew. The prospect of flying was something that sounded both exhilarating and terrifying. But after practically begging him for the past day, he still wouldn’t agree to it. Odarum walked next to me and the mare, his wings folded to his sides. He was almost twice as big as my horse and I knew that his long legs had to shorten their strides in order to keep her stubbornly slow pace. The trip back was taking nearly twice as long as when we had traveled to Dusan for the Trial. Perhaps I had pushed her too hard on the journey and even a few days’ rest wasn’t enough.
“Wouldn’t you rather get there sooner? At this rate, it’ll take four more days just to reach the Riyah border.” I was becomingirritated with both of them. The mare, for refusing to go any faster, and Odarum for not helping.
“I am in no rush. And I enjoy the pace of a walk. Have you not given her a name?”
“No. Just…mare.”
“You should name her. It is the respect and honor of a rider.”
I pondered for a moment. I had thought of naming her, but with everything that had happened lately it wasn’t exactly at the forefront of my mind.
“Quilla,” I said, patting the horse on the neck over her long mane. She perked up and even quickened her step at the sound of her new name.
“Good. And you should speak through your mind. You need to work to build upon the bond with me,” Odarum said.
I mumbled a curse under my breath.
“There. Happy now, you stubborn ass?”
He jerked his head up and looked at me in what I assumed was offense to my retort. “I am no ass. My form is that of ahorse…with wings.”He added on that last bit.
I chuckled, and he turned his head forward again. I thought of what he had said to me yesterday before we left the temple grounds, that I needed to work on discovering the magic granted to me by Kleio. And that by working with him, his gifts to me would begin to manifest.
I didn’t understand how I was supposed to discover them. I didn’t feel any different, besides the burning in my chest, and nothing unexplainable had occurred. I had doubted that Kleio had gifted me anything, though I also had no idea how to tell. My terbis felt the same, I couldn’t move things with my mind, and as far as I was aware, I didn’t have unfathomable strength. The Worthy were all granted different magical abilities, and it wasn’t the same from each God every time. With each new Worthy, they had new and different magic.
On top of my newly gifted magic from Kleio, I also had my gift from Odarum to figure out. With every Spirit animal, the Worthy was able to partially shift into their form. It was a lot and almost overwhelming to think about.
And I needed to figure out mine.
“Do you already know what magic I’ll get from you? Or what I’ll be able to shift?” I asked as we walked through the grassy field.
“I do not know what you will shift from me. I have never been a Fylgjur and it could be different with each one anyway.” I nodded as he continued. “The Spiritual magic you received from me will manifest once you are ready.”
“Why can’t you just tell me what it is? I don’t understand the purpose of keeping this information from me.” His vague answers were becoming increasingly frustrating.
He stopped and turned to me. I pulled on the reins to bring Quilla to a stop as well. “You are correct, you do not understand. You must discover it for yourself. I do not have a choice in what I have given you, and I do not know which you will receive. It is a manifestation of myself just as it is with the shifts.” I recoiled at his harsh tone, his deep voice thundering down the bond through my head. “Obviously you have not gained my patience,” he grumbled, with what I assumed was a glare, before continuing to walk again.
I deflated inwardly as I nudged my horse to walk as well. Odarum was right, I was being impatient. But I couldn’t help feeling like I was running out of time. I had a feeling like something was coming. Something big. I couldn’t explain it. And I could still feel the burning inside of me and it was really starting to piss me off that it hadn’t lessened.
Despite having completed the Trial—what I had always seen as my end—I still felt like something was coming. I had thought, perhaps, that the feeling of death shadowing me would haveended when I was chosen. But it hadn’t. I could still feel it licking at my heels, sitting just at the edge of my peripheral.
We continued to walk for hours until we came upon a small lake on the outskirts of a forest. We decided to rest there, allowing my horse to graze and drink after I dismounted and removed her saddle. I set up my tent underneath a large tree and sat against the trunk with my palms against the ground, eyes closed in concentration.
I felt Quilla’s hooves as she walked through the tall grass. Deer and other animals were in the distance, deep within the woods behind me. Thankfully, I didn’t feel any large creatures or fae around and I opened my eyes to the field and lake before me. I still didn’t feel Odarum through the ground, just like the other Spirits from the Temple. They were huge in comparison to their mortal counterparts, and it made me curious as to other Spirits.
“What other species of Spirits are there? I’ve seen descriptions of some of the Worthy’s Spirit guardians and I know about you and the big wolf, the griffin, and the serpent, but are they all similar to the animals in this realm, Taeralia? It’s so different. I can feel the Spirits in the living things around us, but those don’t have a physical form.” I spoke through the bond, hoping that would please him enough to answer me.
Many Spirit animals have been recorded, but most were never actually seen unless they were with their Worthy. Until I met Odarum, I had never personally seen one. He turned to look at me from the other side of the small lake between us.
“No. Spirits have the bodies of creatures that are not of this realm. Though many of the animals here have a similar likeness to a few of them. Such as a horse does to myself, a pegasus, but without wings. When this realm was formed, they were made in some aspect after us.”
“A few of them?” I played with the grass beneath me.
“Yes. The Spirits have many forms that are unknown to your world. Forms that your kind could not imagine.” He turned and walked away before disappearing altogether. I took that as a sign that our conversation was over.
I pondered his words, only made more curious about the mysterious beings and their realm. As dusk arrived, I remained by my tent thinking over all that had occurred with the Trial and the Silent Goddess, and her task for me—what it meant. I replayed our conversation in my head over and over.
