Page 19 of A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness

Though we’ve been given no information about what's to be expected of us here in this ‘Academy,’ we follow the corridors back towards the main hall that we came through the day before. The sounds of voices lead us to a secondary hallway and antechamber where long wooden tables are filled with Mortal Gods and Terra are stationed against the wall, their faces waxen with long dark circles beneath their eyes.

I scan the sides of the room, searching until I find Niall—looking much like his companions with a ghostly pallor embedded into his skin. When he spies me back, he seems to straighten and gain some life back. His lips quirk and his hand twitches at his side as if he wants to lift it in greeting, but with a quick glance to the end of his row, he keeps it where it is. Following his gaze, I spy one of the Terra of Ortus standing asif presiding over the Terra brought with the Mortal Gods of the other Academies. As if under his direction.

For all I know, they could be.

“I see Maeryn,” Ruen murmurs, cutting towards the front of our group and heading towards a table on the edge of the room. “Come.”

I don’t hesitate in trailing after him and both Kalix and Theos take up positions at my back. The dining hall is wide and expansive with double the amount of tables that Riviere’s dining hall had boasted. No doubt, it’s due to the extra mouths they now have to feed. As we walk towards the table that Maeryn is seated at, I scan over the masses of both familiar and unfamiliar faces.

Mortal Gods talk animatedly about what’s to come now that we’re here. While some seem apprehensive about their new surroundings, more are exuberant and excited by the prospect of catching a God’s eye. Their voices and the snippets of conversation that I catch as I pass them serve to remind me that for most of these people, becoming a high-class servant to a Divine Being is what they think will be their best future.

My gut twists with disgust at the insight I have. Most likely the Gods will keep many alive to act as servants, but just as likely—these people, the children of the Gods, will end up being fodder for their greed. Facing forward once more, I keep pace with Ruen until we reach the table that Maeryn has commandeered for herself. She looks up from her plate as we approach, no surprise shining in the depths of her eyes as she spots the four of us.

Shuffling over to make room, she offers me a seat next to her and I take it gratefully. The Darkhavens, in turn, prod and shove their way onto the opposite bench seats, their massive bodies and dark glowers threatening anyone who has the misfortune of sitting too close to find new accommodations as expediently aspossible. Maeryn reaches forward and snags a bread roll sitting in a basket at the center of the table and begins tearing it into small bite-sized pieces, dropping most of them into the bowl of brown and orange liquid in front of her.

“What’s that?” I ask, pointing.

She looks down and grimaces. “I’m not entirely sure,” she admits, “but it’s all they offered for breakfast.” She bites into the remainder of her roll, her jaw working just hard enough to tell me that the bread is stale.

I return to glancing around the cavernous dining hall. “They’re not even trying to hide their dissatisfaction with the Mortal Gods,” I murmur absently.

Gone are the large, ornate tapestries and the gilded paintings that adorned the walls of Riviere Academy. Ortus, in its place, depicts nothing but discontent and absence of care. The deadened eyes of the Ortus Terra seem to stare over the vast space of the hall, unseeing and yet, seeing too much. As if their sight cannot be weighed by what is in front of them but by what lies beyond the realm of the tangible.

“Do we have any idea of what they’re planning for us?” Maeryn asks, drawing my attention back to her as she swallows her bread with a barely repressed look of disgust.

“Kalix and I went out last night,” Ruen admits, lowering his voice so that only those in the closest vicinity can hear his words.

I lean closer to the table, my eyes fixed on Ruen’s scarred face. “What did you find?”

There’s a light creeping sensation on the back of my neck, where my hair has been lifted and tied into a plait down the back of my head, as if someone is watching me. Unwilling to turn and see if that’s the case, I keep my gaze focused on Ruen as he speaks.

“It’s not so much what we found as what wedidn’tfind,” he begins.

“What does that mean?” Maeryn asks, frowning.

Ruen’s brow creases and dual lines form between his eyes as he seems to consider his next words. Then, with a sigh, he says,

“There are no classrooms. This is supposed to be the original Academy, but there are no signs that this place was used for anything at all. The other accommodations for Mortal Gods are all the same—unkempt and dirty. Many from both Riviere and Perditia have complained to the Terra of Ortus, but they haven’t done anything about it.”

“I’m surprised the Mortal Gods haven’t lashed out at them,” I say mildly. Back in Riviere, a Terra could have been slapped or beaten for daring to even look at a Divine offspring wrong.

Ruen’s midnight eyes meet mine. “They have.”

Maeryn inhales sharply, and when she turns to glance back I know without looking that she’s searching for Niall to make sure he’s unharmed. Doubtful that anything would’ve happened between now and when we walked in and I saw him, I maintain my concentration on the man across from me.

“They’ve lashed out?” I clarify.

He nods.

“How? I haven’t heard anything?”

“Oh, you know how we are, Little Thief,” Kalix says, leaning back on his seat as he reaches for a bread roll. “They slap, they scream, they demand better treatment.” He shrugs. “The Terra of Ortus don’t respond. Not to any amount of abuse. Therefore, the others have figured out that no matter what they demand, only certain things will be provided. Cleaning their rooms and offering better food than this,” he pauses to gesture at Maeryn’s sad excuse for soup or stew or whatever the hell it is, “will not be provided here.”

“What do they want with us?” Maeryn’s quivering question cuts through the rapidly thickening tension over the table.

“That’s the question we all want answered,” Theos says as a Terra I recognize from Riviere pauses by the table with a tray in hand. The man, already too slender, looks as if he’s lost even more weight even though we’ve only been here for a day and night, but his hands are steady as he sets down four bowls to be passed out to the Darkhavens as well as myself. I take the bowl and lift it to my nose, sniffing.

Sour pepper spices and a thick meaty scent wafts up from it. Even knowing the kind of shit I’d eaten in the past simply because there were no other choices when training under Ophelia, I don’t want to eat this. Not only am I concerned that it has something that’s turned foul amidst its questionable contents, but I am suspicious of anything given to us by the Gods at this point.

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