Page 174 of The Gods Veiling
A mocking one.
Creed makes a noise more akin to a growl and the child thrashes in his hands until she’s no longer a child.
A full-grown adult creature throws her head back, laughing as black saliva drips down her chin. I startle and stumble back. My hand flies to my mouth as bile races up my throat.
Creed must see on my face what he’s looking for because he finally drags the sword across her neck. That daunting laugh stops and I stumble back again as he lets her body go.
“That…she…she was a child.”
“That was what we call a Taunter Oblirian. They tease you with many things. Your dreams, desires, secrets, fears. That’s how they drag up your emotions and draw you in. Don’t believe anything you see, Thayla. If they’re an Oblirian, of any kind, you kill. There won’t be any real children here. I promise.”
Embarrassment and fear pound through me in equal parts. My heart feels like it just got trampled on by a herd of Veilatara. I don’t even want to stand anymore.
I don’t want to be here any longer.
This place is wrong on so many levels.
“We almost have it cleared. Come back to me. Get out of your mind for another minute, then we’ll go home. We’ll leave here.”
Go home…
This isn’t my home.
Godsden, the Godsdawn, hell, even Oddian…they aren’t my homes.
I don’t even know where or what that is, what it looks like anymore.
Each adult I built a home around left me at the orders of the gods or maybe the Valories, maybe both.
The three homes, built in the shape of men, that provided me the most comfort, safety, friendship, and love, two of those betrayed me. They cut me from my core to my surface. They believe a bandage can just be slapped on the wound and it’ll heal. When really, I’m bleeding internally.
The last one…his house is expanding, and I refuse to stand in the way of his growth.
I don’t have a home.
But this place…this vile, wrong fucking place was once my Valtrue’s home. How could they have lived here and survived? I never want to return here.
I want to be anywhere but here.
Creed takes a few steps toward me, but I turn on my heel and start sprinting back through the madness. The number of deadly creatures is dwindling significantly, and the never-ending flow seems to finally be stopping.
Wordlessly, he joins my side as our swords cut through the air and in seconds, we’re surrounded by his brothers.
I shut everything within me down. I blissfully fall into ignorant silence as my body moves through the motions. Any emotion that tries to swell within me, I douse it before it can rise.
In my mind, this isn’t real.
Nothing is real.
This is a fretful dream of extreme training that I’ll learn a valuable lesson from once I wake up.
Unfortunately, that delusion doesn’t last very long.
That last Oblirian body falls at a Defender’s foot and he raises his sword. He bellows to the starless sky and nearly all the surrounding gods respond. The resounding noise creates a symphony I can’t get out of my ears. The ferocious ring makes my hands shake.
They’re celebrating a victory. I guess it was a well-deserved victory seeing as lives were on the line. But at the end of the day, this shouldn’t be happening.
This place…the Abandon shouldn’t exist.
