They deserve the worst that we've got.
“I thought you had been here for longer? You're not very good at hiding how you feel yet, or hiding the robot nature.”
I incline my head at it. “We're not here to discuss me. You have information that I want. You can either give it to me without blood and pain or we can make this very fun for me and very unpleasant for you.”
He stares at me for a moment, looking me up and down. “Why do you and the Corvus always look the same? Why are you always born into the same family, untouchable to the rest of us? The Draven bloodline has protected you all for generations. Even when the others tried to stop you from coming, you still found a way.”
They were behind the manipulation of the Bonded Groups, the pairing of Gifted to people who were not right for them in an attempt to stop us from cycling.
All it did was make us stronger.
The vessels that we were born into now are more powerful than they ever have been before. I brought the shadow creatures to my vessel, but they are not the only weapon in our arsenal now. I know that the Corvus has even more abilities lurking within him. I don't know how my brother managed to win over his vessel so quickly, but he has access to it all without there ever being a fight.
The truth of the matter is that my vessel doesn't want me taking over, so I have not learned yet how to act in the way that the Gifted do in this time. I haven't had the opportunity to mimic them. Instead, I have nothing but the long and shifting sands of time under my belt, the old and tired soul who desperately hopes that this is it. That this is the last time I will be here. That this will be the one perfect lifetime that I will get to have with my Eternal before we all go to rest together in whatever comes next, finally finished cycling.
“Are you going to answer my questions or not?”
The god-bond in front of me sighs and shakes his head, muttering under his breath, “You haven't even asked any yet. Do you know how to make friends, or is that too hard for you in this lifetime as well?”
“I don't need friends. I have a Bonded Group and the Eternal. That is all I need. Tell me which gods are awake, which gods are here. Tell me who has already woken and died. Tell me everything you know in this lifetime.”
He sighs again, splaying his hand out on the table and staring down at the scars there as though there are a hundred stories behind them, a whole life that he has lived here on this earth this time along with his vessel.
I care for none of it.
“When I woke, there were six of us. Now there are only four.”
My eyes narrow at it. “Including yourself.”
He nods. “They killed my Bonded, and your group took out another. They were hunting for you from the beginning. They knew you were due back, but none of them guessed that you’d all arrive together. They made a mistake.”
Of course they did, but I cannot blame them.
The Draconis was not due to wake again for another hundred years or so, his cycling taking much longer than anyone else’s. The fact that he has awakened in the first place is a miracle of its own.
“That's why they took the Eternal and didn't just kill it. They wanted to see how far they could push things, what they could force it to do. They really didn't think the rest of you would find it before they had taken their fill.”
The room around me explodes into darkness, the shadows forming so suddenly and completely around us both that the god-bond is choking on them. The black smoke curls around him, smothering him, engulfing everything until there is nothing but perfect night around him, the sort of darkness that is terrifying in its completeness.
“Which one? Which one took it and did that to it? They are all marked for death, but I need to know which one.”
It makes a gurgling sound as the words squeeze out. “Pain. Pain has always been the ringleader. It’s always pulled the strings and done everything it could. It doesn't just wield pain. Itispain. It cares for nothing but suffering for all of us. It doesn't want its Bonded. It wants everything to burn, over and over and over again. While the rest of us search for completeness, it wants nothing but destruction. The last cycle, it killed its own Bonded, and if its Bonded comes back again in this lifetime, I'm sure it will do the same. It wants nothing. Madness like that needs to be dealt with swiftly, or it will swallow the rest of us whole.”
My vessel agrees completely, eager to be done with all of this.
“Tell me how you did it,” the god-bond says as the shadows leak away, slowly drying up as they filter back into my body.
He's shaking like a leaf, his teeth chattering together. Even in this state, he begs me for what he truly needs. “How did you all wake up together? How did you keep the Eternal safe? How? I just want my Bonded. I just want what you have.”
I shake my head slowly. “You'll never have what I have. When we are done with the rest of them, the Eternal will kill you and consume you too. You'll never cycle again.”
I stand to leave and he stands with me, his hands flying out from his sides. One of the Gifted watching from their own cell startles at the sight of it. “I’m trying to help you! There's no use in killing me.”
“You said it yourself… You're tired. You want this to be over with. We're going to make sure that that happens. This time, we'll make sure it's permanent. You should be thanking us. The time of the gods warring on this earth is over. There will be nothing but peace for my Eternal.”
He shouts again, trying to get my attention to beg for his life, to stop me, a hundred other things, but I let go of control of my vessel as we exit the cell, creeping back into the dark recesses within his mind as I plan.
I plan to deal with everything to give the Eternal a better life. The life that it deserves, where it knows nothing but joy and pleasure, a life that they both deserve.
