AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Myter lifts their chin again. “I took her spirit—”
“With my blessings,” Mother quickly interjects, sensing my rising anger.
“And brought it here and bound it to the temple.”
“And her body?”
“I left it where I found it. I knew the Oterans would never destroy it,” they quickly add. “It was too valuable. It had served as your vessel for nearly a year. It had to have something special, something different.”
My head is spinning. Round and round it goes. And my ears are ringing. When my voice comes, it’s as if from far away. “So you just left her. You just left my mother there, among those monsters.” I turn to Mother, accusing. “And you allowed them to. You allowed Myter to kill you!”
“No, I allowed them to take my spirit so I could find a way to contact you. I couldn’t do anything imprisoned in that chamber, but here, I could slip into your father’s dreams and I could speak to Anok when she discovered me doing so.”
I still, brow furrowing. “So that’s how she knew?”
I’d wondered how Anok knew where Mother was without the other goddesses knowing. Usually, they all seemed to share knowledge, as if they were different facets of the same brain.
“Yes. She was almost too far gone to the corruption when we first met, but I was able to communicate with her. It was she who warned me to no longer travel through dreams. If she could find me, so could the others.”
“And that’s why you never visited me?”
Mother nods. “At first, the ansetha necklace prevented me from doing so. Then, Anok’s warning did.” She brightened. “But that’s the beauty of all this, Deka, don’t you see? You can follow my body.”
I blink. “Follow it? To where?”
“Your kelai.” Mother is almost gleeful now. “Your kelai is back in Otera. Exactly where, I’m not certain. The priests keep it hidden under all sorts of arcane objects and divine power. And they move it frequently, to keep the Gilded Ones from finding it. But they don’t do the same to my body—they don’t hide it with arcane objects, because they think no one will seek it.
“You can use that to your advantage, Deka: find my body, and you’ll find your way there, to your kelai.”
“And once you do,” Sarla adds, “all you have to do is reclaim it, then surrender yourself to the natural order—”
“Wait.” I hold up my hands to slow the god down. This is all moving too fast for me. “So all I truly have to do is die? That’s all?”
I’d already known this, but it seems too simple, somehow. It seems too easy.
My suspicion is confirmed when Sarla shakes their head. “Much more than that,” the god says. “You have to choose death of your own accord. Without coercion, without fear. Sacrifice,” they intone. “All becoming requires sacrifice.”
“Of course it does,” I mutter. It’s always sacrifice with the gods.
“Choose death, Deka,” Sarla finishes, “and you will be reborn to your true self. A god. A conduit for the Greater Divinity.”
“One that will destroy the Oteran gods and restore the balance to this world,” the gods all intone with a devastating finality.
I glance across the temple, the weight of the demand sinking into me. I can save Otera—the entire world, even. All I have to do is die a mortal death. Choose a mortal death.
It’s ironic, actually. All this time, I’ve known I would die one way or the other. But I did not know I had to choose it willingly. But apparently, I have no choice. Because no matter my objections, no matter how much I want to remain as I am, in this body, with my friends, who have all become family, becoming requires sacrifice—the sacrifice of Deka for the Singular, the sacrifice of this life for that of a divine one.
And once I do all that, give up everything that I am, I’ll be reborn a god. A creature I despise. A plague on this world. One that may bring it peace or, perhaps, succumb to corruption and finally end it all.
16
The dining chamber Keita, Britta, and my other companions are waiting in when I return is on the topmost branch of the tallest tree in Maiwuri—a sprawling, vine-covered behemoth that more closely resembles the highest tower of a palace than it does a tree. I have to use Ixa’s winged form to reach it. It’s an enchanting space. The tables and chairs are formed from twisting purple vines, and each one is adorned by the same glowing insects we saw as we made our way to the beach earlier, which hum and vibrate in the foliage. Softly shimmering night birds fly past the clear glass walls that protect the chamber from the wind currents outside, their ethereal glow and melodious songs lending a magical cast to the entire affair. It does nothing to calm my tension as I descend from Ixa, who flaps off into the night, to commune with the rest of his kind, no doubt.
“Deka!” Keita says when he spots me. “How was it?”
“Devastating,” I say as I exhaustedly walk over, doing my best not to meet his eyes. After everything I’ve learned, my entire body is heavy, as is my spirit.
I knew, of course, after I battled the goddesses, that ascending to the ranks of the divine would mean giving up my old life—not just my mortal body but my friends, Keita, everyone I’ve ever known and loved. That’s why my friends and I have remained so intently focused on finding Mother and overcoming every obstacle we met along the journey. If we stopped, there was not only the looming threat of torture and death but also that of the truth: gods and mortals don’t mix. Gods are too remote, too unpredictable. And mortals are too easily killed.
