?He continues to whistle and I close my eyes as I raise my face up. The hum begins in my blood. It vibrates along my bones. It whispers through my soul.
?. . . devouring this world in cursed blood moons and noise.
?That fifth key twists.
?That ninth-seeing oracle had been right all those years ago. I remember her voice speaking to the skies and stars. The damnation of the red sun. Except they got that part wrong too.
?The gods are knocking. Their imprisonment is almost done. And then I’m going to do what I should have done before. I’m going to slaughter them all.
. . .
Mavyn – Decim 17
My bare feet crunch in the snow as I make the long walk back towards the school. It’s a quiet night. Starless, but I never needed them anyway.
?Tomorrow we get to start training in the arena with the second years and up. Or depending on how late it is it might be today. Self-defense and some offensive combat. The school is even welcoming teachers and trainers from outside of facultyto help with specialized training for specific abilities and larger scaled attacks.
?The wind whips and it drags my hair behind me as I finally reach one of the streets. The rough stone digs into my cold feet as I keep my blood flowing smoothly through every vessel. I also crack that first door open to let small flames flow alongside my blood. Keeping me from going numb or initiating frostbite. It is cold enough for that, after all.
?Another stiff breeze blows and it drags my hair to the side instead of behind me. It’s gotten too long. Nearly down to my knees, not that it hasn’t been longer. The blue and pink a symbol.
?A bell strikes, ringing three times indicating the hour. It’s been exactly forty-eight hours since I was last here. Two days, and yet nearly a century of time has passed. I held out the longest I ever have this time. Eighty-one years I kept my back to that house and my eyes on that red flower.
?It shouldn’t have hurt as much this time because of all the training with the shifter. But it’s the same reason I can never leave on my own or use my magic against him. A different realm owned by a god who has hated me since my birth.
?I begin rounding the front of the school and I pause when I eventually get to the front of it. The large double doors shut with a disc above them. The stone is carved with the same symbol as the one in the ballroom.
?In the silence of the night, I twist those four keys within me and let their doors swing open. My aura swarms like a dam finally crumbling. It washes the grounds like a tsunami and it feels like I’m able to fully exhale. That weight from all the containment, all the control, all the constraint. . . it lifts for a moment.
?A presence builds behind me in response as I look up to the glass dome visible that leads directly to that Willow of Lore. Dead and silent, now simply a piece of wood and decaying flowers that will never wake again. Yet, it is the last defense preventing another war from concepting with the gods above.
?Nearly five thousand and twenty-four years it lived and its spirits sang and roamed these grounds.
?God, of all the times to be born in.
?I sigh and it ends on a light chuckle. My breath clouding before me as snow begins swirling in flurries around me. It makes my hair drift and the strands tickle my exposed body. I’m going to go broke simply from having to buy so many new uniforms.
?I turn my face towards the empty sky. I imagine seeing that veil. I imagine seeing the gods beyond it.
?Softly, into the silent night, I whisper, “What a fucking bitch.”
?Far into the Hinterwood Forest thunder rolls and it’s repeated through the ground. I chuckle again and then turn and finish walking back to my dorm. When I open the door to enter I’m greeted by the same desk I see every time, and the same green-eyed blondie.
?She turns with furrowed brows – probably because she didn’t expect anyone to be coming in this late, or early – before she chokes and stumbles over her legs to stand and round her desk.
?“Mavyn. . .” she whispers, and I let out a long sigh as I carefully begin locking everything back up within me. “What. . . oh gods, are you alright?”
?Her eyes that are the same color as her lightning rove over my body before slowly dragging back up to my eyes. I relax my shoulders and give her the same soft smile I gave Varian before. Gentle, and comforting, and sure.
?“I am alright, Ricka.” It doesn’t do much to ease her haunted expression, but I still try. “I am not physically wounded and theses scars are very old. Do you know if Jullia is in our room or is she staying with Asher?”
?“Here,” she nearly chokes. Then I nod to her and turn to the stairs. “Wait!”
?I turn back towards her and she builds a mental shield around herself as she straightens her back. Clearing the shock and sorrow and haunted expression and locking it behind the shield. She replaces it with respect and slight veneration. It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her I am not a god, but hers is more on the side of admiration verses reverence.
?“That story you told us. . . in the library. . .” I dip my chin for her to continue. Recognition flickering in her eyes. “I invoke the moral of name and soul.”
?How. . . disappointing.
