Page 56 of Goddess of the Broken

She took Kirata’s hand. “Hold on tight. This might be a bumpy ride.”

Kirata nodded, and Tempest reached into the box. The light swirled around them, enveloping them in its brightness. Tempest could feel Kirata’s hand gripping hers tightly as they were pulled forward. Suddenly, the light vanished, and they were standing in a dark forest.

“Where are we?” Kirata asked, looking around.

“I’m not sure,” Tempest replied.

She stepped forward, and her foot sank into the soft earth beneath her. As she pulled it back out, she noticed her foot was covered in blood.

“Tempest, look,” Kirata said, pointing.

Tempest’s gaze followed Kirata's finger, and she saw bodies strewn about the ground. Some looked as if they had been there for years, while others looked fresh.

“What is this place?” Kirata whispered.

“I think we just found the answer to your question,” Tempest replied. “This is the underworld, Toph.”

“How did we end up here?”

Tempest looked more closely at the bodies around them. Most were from the army of Soleil and Aloysius. How had they gotten inside the gates?

A glint of gold caught her eye. Tempest squatted down and picked up a dainty chain from the ground. A golden egg followed out from under the arm of a body.

“Is that...”

Tempest nodded. “It’s our prison.”

She pocketed the necklace and looked around to get her bearings. The walls of Toph stood in the distance behind them, and a mountain towered over them.

“This way,” Tempest said confidently as she stepped forward.

Kirata hesitated. “You’re sure?”

Tempest angled her head towards the mountain. “I’m guessing you’ve never been to Toph before. I used to spend a lot of time here. The god of the dead’s home is in the mountain.”

Tempest led Kirata towards a river nearby. A group of Aiden’s soldiers stood on the bank, throwing corpses into the river to allow them to travel to the underworld and find their rest.

She kept a close eye on Kirata. The goddess of the heavens she remembered was so different, much more confident and intimidating. Tempest would have wondered what happened to cause the change, but now that she could remember everything she had trapped within the egg, she knew exactly what had broken the goddess of the heavens.

It had broken Tempest herself, and she wasmadeto take on others’ emotions and problems. Kirata wasn’t, and had been trapped there.

“Goddess,” one of Aiden’s men called out as he noticed her. He ran and knelt before her. “We thought you were dead.”

“As you can see, I’m not, although Soleil certainly tried her best,” Tempest replied.

The man got to his feet and gestured for her to follow him. “Come; my Lord Aiden will want to see you.”

An empty ebony boat floated down the river until it came to a stop at the edge in front of them. The man gestured for the two women to climb in and joined them in the boat. Tempest sat down as the boat floated towards the mountain.

The silence was deafening. Tempest had never traveled through Toph without Aiden and found it unsettling.

The boat stopped before a large cave opening, and Tempest helped Kirata climb out of the boat. After a quick wave goodbye, the two entered the mountain.

“Stay close to me, Kirata. There are beings in this mountain that only answer to Aiden. We do not want to run into them.”

Kirata nodded her understanding and followed closely behind.

The cave grew brighter as they ventured deeper into the mountain. A small group of Aiden’s men stood in the center of a vast cavern. One of them noticed Tempest and made to rush towards her. He stopped when she held her hand up. Tempest held her finger to her lips to indicate they should be quiet.

---