Goddess by Liv Savell (autobiographies to read txt) 📕

Had she created this? Had her bloodline remembered the ways of the Cursed Realms when she fought so hard to forget? Ought she have tried harder before he was banished to somehow teach him right and wrong? Should she have argued against his banishment?

It was pointless to think this way. Mascen had been banished so long ago; she could not change that now. He was here, ruining everything he touched. Everything she loved. He would ruin her too if he got the chance. Then, would she be flung back into banishment, or would she return to the Cursed Realms? Slip back in the way she had gotten out? Enyo didn’t know, but she would not risk finding out.

They needed one more artifact.It would be easier to take back the one Delyth had stolen than go hunting for Ruyaa’s, which likely dwelled in the dream world. Kirit and Tha’et’s artifacts lay even farther away, hidden at the edges of Rhosan.

They didn’t have time like that.

They needed their bodies now. 

“Left,” she murmured, sniffing again and finding the trail. She had stopped looking at Va'al some hours ago. There was nothing to be said about their son, and Enyo couldn’t decide if she wanted to know whether or not he was as ashamed, horrified, and proud of Mascen as she was.

⚀

Va'al turned left, too irritated to make Enyo any real answer. Her fits since leaving Gwynhafan had alternated between spitting anger and a stubborn determination to stop and heal the land, as though she would have been able to do much in her useless, human form, weakened further by her worsening injuries. The Goddess’s earlier haste to be off had not lasted nearly long enough for his taste.

Esha’s presence, of course, had not made being around Enyo any easier even though she was trapped in the fairly unappealing body of the priest. He could not even sit next to the Fertility Goddess at meals without setting Enyo off. Had she been so jealous before their banishment? His memories were distorted with age, but he thought not. He missed their easy camaraderie.

Truthfully, many of these complaints masked Va'al’s deeper discomfort. He did not wish to think of Mascen, of the horrors his son had committed. Instead, he sulked or thought of the future, eager for the day when they had their bodies back and could put the upstartGod-offspring back into his place.

First, they had only to catch Delyth and the boy.

“How much longer until we reach them?” Va'al asked, ignoring Maoz and Esha behind him.

“Do I look like a bloodhound to you?” Enyo retorted, though her voice lacked its typical sharpness. She sniffed again and then shrugged. “They can’t be too far off; it’s getting stronger. The boy has started to work around my binding, so he could be a problem. But since we’re taking them by surprise, he won’t have had time to set a trap. Va'al, you take him, and I’ll get my priestess in line. With her dead and out of—” Enyo grimaced and touched her chest, “—of the way, we can get the artifact and leave… Or use that girl they have to bring back the fifth God.”

“How can you be so sure we’re taking them by surprise?” Va'al demanded. “That priestess of yours has never had a hard time finding us before.”

In fact, she’d proven herself damnably good at it from the very start. Even on the way to Thlonandras, she had always shown up just when he was about to have a good time with the Goddess, and Enyo’s ascension had hardly seemed to hamper that ability. He glanced back in time to catch Esha’s thoughtful expression. Maoz seemed just as restless as always.

“What makes you think we’re not taking them by surprise?” Enyo shot back, a senseless rejoinder. Va’al knew her well enough to understand that she couldn’t think of a better argument. She was fiddling her fingers above her heart again when Esha cut in.

“You could simply ask for the artifact.”

“Ask? Why would we ask? We’re Gods, and they stole it. Something that belongs to us!”

“Are we Gods? I seem to recall having more power than this…” Esha murmured, her gaze level as Enyo spun, growling.

“Yes we are Gods. We’re simply … We’re just—hampered by these bodies, which is the precise reason why we need that artifact back!”

“I understand. But the humans are suffering under Mascen’s experiments too. Instead of fighting them, perhaps if we simply explained, they’d give us the artifact, and we’d not waste time battling?”

“Explaining would be a waste of time!” Enyo spat. Va’al couldn’t imagine how the two Goddesses had ever had a daughter. They were polar opposites: reason versus wrath. “Why? Why should we bother? It’ll be simple to kill them.”

“Your form is failing you, your arm is almost entirely rock now, and your heart is softening. You let Delyth go rather than kill her or take the artifact for yourself. I know you’re unfamiliar with the sensation Enyo, but you are fond of the priestess. You don’t want to kill her.” Esha’s watery human eyes were unblinking.

Enyo rounded on Va'al. “Do you agree?!”

“If it means we’ll get our bodies back sooner, I don’t give a flying fuck,” Va'al grumbled, much to Maoz’s subdued amusement. “If asking the winged mutt and the others is what it takes, then so be it.”

As if to prove his point, Va'al took the lead, pressing on down the road with greater haste. He had been trying to get Enyo and Maoz to hurry from the beginning, hadn’t he? In a way, all this mess was their fault. If they’d already had their bodies back, Mascen would have never been able to wreak so much havoc.

“Listen to yourself!” Enyo exclaimed. “You’re Va'al! You don’t ask! Who asks? That is ridiculous! Besides, she lied, stole, her hair is too shiny, and we can’t trust her! For all we know, she’ll give us another fake artifact, and we’ll be