“Isadora, please, you win, ok? You win, Isadora! I’ll let you have the Layer!” Odessa plead.
“You have always regarded me as a sniveling child, a shadow at your feet…” Isadora's blade began to morph as well. The thin silver blade doubled in length, and black flowers and vines danced down the handle and up her arm, cementing the bond between the wielder and weapon. “You are not the only demoness fit to be a ruler. As a matter of fact, you are not fitat all, and I will prove that to you and everyone else who has doubted me.”
“I’m sorry, Isadora! I swear I am!”
“It is too late for apologies.” Isadora brought her arm back and swung. Her sword whistled through the air and met Odessa's neck, and in an instant, sawed her head straight from her shoulders. Odessa's decapitated head bounced across the platforms until hitting a rock, where it laid still after rolling. Her scarlet eyes died to the pale grey of death, and the rest of her body, still suspended by the souls, crumpled into a mass of cloak, hair, and black blood.
The souls, no longer having anything fun to play with, released her arms and crawled back into their pit, leaving Isadora with her sister’s corpse. She dropped her sword and fell to her knees before her body, placing a hand over her mouth as she swallowed what she had done. “I’m so sorry, Odessa…” she whispered brokenly.
Isadora sipped a hot mug of tea as she decompressed after the fight. Evris had Elias and Decimus clean up the remnants, and Dad went to inform Endymion about the death of his daughter, leaving me alone with Isadora. I came up behind her and wrapped a cozy blanket around her shoulders, which made her flinch, but she relaxed when she realized it was me. “Long day, eh?” I asked as I took a seat in front of her.
“Longest ever,” she mumbled in return.
I combed a lock of hair behind her ear. “You know, things happen like this sometimes. We both knew she wasn’t going to go down without a fight. I’m sorry it had to be this way, but I don’t think it would have happened any other way regardless.”
“I know, I know, I just... she was my sister, ya know? She was all I had left of my mother. Even with her faults, I still loved her.”
“I understand, kind of.” I lightly punched her knee. “I’m an only child, so I only understand to a certain degree. I can’t imagine how much pain you’re in.”
She heaved a low sigh before pulling the blanket around herself better. “What’s done is done. I will one day forgive myself, but not today. In the meantime, I have a Layer I need to rebuild. Beatrix and Evris have done more than enough, and they have their own Layers to worry about. I need to take some of the burden off their shoulders.”
“Don’t rush yourself. We have plenty of time to get you adjusted.”
“To be honest, I want the distraction. It will make the pain hurt a little less...”
I frowned heavily as Dad returned with Endymion, who rushed to Isadora’s side and took her hands to squeeze in his. “My darling! What happened?”
“She wouldn’t accept her fate,” Isadora recounted.
Endymion scoffed to himself. “She went as far as to get herself killed? I do not understand. Why would she do this?”
“She’s never been one to lose a fight. She wanted to try and override the Gods’ wishes but failed in the end. I’m so sorry, father...” she hiccupped before becoming inconsolable again.
Endymion shushed her and pulled her into the circle of his arms. “It’s alright, my child, it’s alright. I am not angry with you in the slightest...”
Isadora buried her face in her father’s chest. “I’ve lost everyone, everyone! Why is the universe so ungodly cruel!”
Her words struck my core. She was right, after all. Why was the universe so unforgiving, especially to those who are chosen to protect it? Why did it constantly bend us over and fuck us every time we turned around? For beings who were meant to beall powerful, all knowing, we surely knew nothing at all. We were confined by our own self-made prisons, forced to be slaves to an entity we had no hand in creating, but seemed to dictate every aspect of our lives.
I watched Endymion console his daughter, but the entire time he did, a subtle rage bloomed within my chest. All the pent-up rage I’d swallowed since meeting he and Erasmus bubbled to the surface once again, a festering wound that I couldn’t seem to close. This universe was his doing, his mistake, yet here we all were cleaning up after him once again. Even his own children, his biological children at that, could not be spared from his stupidity.
Dad ruffled my hair, sensing my abhorrent energy perfuming the room. “Why don’t you head home for today? I can handle things while you rest.”
“You’ve been at this as long as I have?” I reminded him.
He flashed me a toothy smile. “I've been at this much longer than you, kiddo, centuries longer. I got the fort handled. Have some faith in me!”
“I never said I didn’t,” I chuckled, thanking him for my out before laying a tender kiss to Isadora's cheek. She flashed wide eyes at me as I waved gently. “I’ll be back to check on you soon. Feel free to call me if you need someone to talk to, ok?”
“Yes, I will.” She touched the spot where I'd kissed her as I conjured a portal back to Odrikius, stepping through with a sigh that sat in the back of my throat.
The grounds were wet from a steady trickle that fell over the school. Our Elite Elementals were out and about, studying for classes or practicing in their arenas. They were unbothered by the weather and raced along sidewalks, splashing in puddles and trying to keep their socks and nice shoes from getting wet. I smirked at the sight of this and decided I needed to decompress a little before heading back to the academy.
I found Praxis sitting under one of the covered stairs by the library doors, smoking a cigarette. The smoke mingled with the passing rain and disintegrated under the droplets, but that didn’t stop her from puffing large clouds across the campus. My throat burned at the idea of sharing one with her, so I crossed the wet pathways to nudged her with my boot. “Hey, you mind letting me hit that?”
“You smoke?” she questioned, though she offered me one with no hesitation.
I lit the cigarette skillfully, handing her the lighter back before taking a long drag. It tasted of tar and burnt garbage, but I somehow liked that. “Not all the time, but when I'm having a rough day, I like to have something in my mouth to calm my nerves.”
