Page 41 of The Gods Veiling
“The three tests will consist of the Designation Revelation, the Attendant Worthiness, and the Pairing. At each stage, I will explain to you what is expected. Do not ask me questions, for I have heard them all before and I will tell you what is relevant for you to know at that given point. You will not learn everything in half a day. Do not interrupt me and do not fall behind. Am I understood?”
“Yes, High Chancellor,” the entire crowd answers and I glance around, gobsmacked.
Is he serious right now?
I have a million questions and the only one he’s answered is what’s immediately about to happen.
“Good. Drop your things. They will be retrieved and returned at the end of the ceremony. Follow me.”
Right before our eyes, he waves his hand and the platform they were standing on, plus the Volreen, disappear. The five Chancellors are left standing on the ground feet from us and the rush of water drops into the ground.
My jaw follows suit as I gawk ahead of me.
The white and splattering gold of the palace…fortress—hell, I don’t know what to call it—is somehow even brighter than the wall surrounding us.
The stark color makes the six smooth obsidian statues that are chiseled to perfection stand out even more. Each figure seems to play a role holding the structure up, like they’re protecting it.
As we draw closer, quickening our steps to catch up with the Chancellors, who aren’t waiting around for us, my heart races in my chest as we approach the gargantuan statues. They’re at least three times my height.
With a quick bow, the Chancellors keep on moving, not giving me enough time to analyze each one like I’d like. I observe enough to realize some crucial things, though.
First, the engraving in the stone above their heads readsThe Gods Sanctum.
Second, those are statues of the Beginning Gods.
Third, and very telling…
One’s face is smoothed over so you can’t identify him.
I know exactly who he is.
What I don’t know is why they’ve left another one completely out.
The Gods Sanctum is exactly what I imagined everything in Godsden would look like.
This first room we enter is a lobby-like area. It’s very orderly and pristine. It reminds me of a display room. We have a very tiny one in the Grand Library back home. It held our most precious items, documents, and history.
The more important items were kept safely in glass cases or on display with someone watching over them. The books, tomes, scrolls, or documents were free for all to look through.
I’m pretty sure the High Chancellor would smite me if I touched a single thing in here.
I’m nervous to even keep walking. I refuse to look down at my feet in case dirt from my beat-up shoes is leaving a trail with each step.
The marble floors shine as though they’ve just been swept, mopped, and polished all for us. The walls are perfectly styled with beautiful paintings of different natural environments.
I’ve never seen any as gorgeous as them. The depictions are either all from Godsden or there’s an incredibly talented and imaginative artist living somewhere among us.
Chiseled full-body statues, as well as just heads, sit on top of pillars that hold them up proudly. Some of the gods I recognize from books. Others I don’t have a clue who they are.
“This will be my last warning for you all to keep up. I am not a god that repeats himself.”
The crack of the High Chancellor’s voice has the entire group of us—who had slowed our steps to gawk—practically racing to get feet from his back.
He’s a no-nonsense kind of god obviously.
Typically, I’d respect that straightforward, to-the-point attitude, but in a situation like this, it’s getting on my nerves. His little speech on us being tested and he’ll tell us only what we need to know doesn’t sit well with me.
There’s a common look etched across the faces of the twenty of us. Some hide it better behind their excitement, others behind their fear. Regardless, I detect the underlying confusion and desire to know what the hell is going on.
