Goddess by Liv Savell (autobiographies to read txt) 📕

we need for Alphonse to be free of you is a Vassal, I’ll do it.” Etienne flinched at the darkness in Delyth’s voice, surprising after the Gods’ frivolity. It had the same air of desperation as her old dealings with the Goddess. Don’t misuse Alphonse’s body, and you can drink my blood. Let her free, and I’ll be your Vassal.

He shuddered. To willingly give up your body, even for a short time…

Enyo leaned forward, firelight reflecting in her too-wide eyes. Of late, her face had been hollowing out, skull-like. “Oh, would you, Ba’oto? That’s a deal I would make.”

Moaz, who had said nothing the entire day, coughed—his version of a laugh. Enyo’s gaze flickered to him. “Jealous that I might fly, beast?”

“You will not fly because you cannot inhabit her,” he murmured, voice flat.

“She’s my priestess. I’ll do what I please.” Enyo sneered, struggling forward to stand, clearly ready to make the transfer immediately.

“I am not anyone’s priestess. Not anymore,” Delyth shot back, her teeth bared. “Besides, I meant that I would be a Vassal for Aryus. Can they inhabit me?”

“No.”

Etienne looked between Maoz and Enyo, drawing his knees to his chest. If Delyth couldn’t do it, then did that mean he should? The silence stretched on long enough that Enyo growled in frustration. “Why not?!”

“She’s of my bloodline. Any descendant of a God cannot be inhabited.”

Enyo’s gaze snapped to Delyth’s face, sharp and accusatory. As if it were Delyth’s fault.

“Why can’t they?” Meirin asked, tone curious.

Esha sighed. “Think of it as you would a father bedding his daughter or a sister with a sister. It’s not meant to be. It’s not right. They are our children; we cannot inhabit them as such.”

“We protect our children,” Moaz murmured, eyes shadowed. He had been fixated on Delyth from the moment of their meeting, though he rarely spoke to her. It made sense now. They were kin, in a manner of speaking.

Delyth did not speak again, and it seemed to Etienne that her relation to Maoz came as no real surprise to her, though he could not fathom how she would have known—unless Enyo had told her? Either way, she did seem rather more downcast, if it were possible. As though she had thrown her last gamble.

Etienne shifted a little uncomfortably in his seat. He was not related to any God, was he? He could be a Vassal. And yet, he could not quite make himself offer. Perhaps it was cowardice, but he could not make himself give over his body.

“I want to know just how Mascen keeps finding us,” Va'al growled from his position wrapped up with Enyo. “Who’s giving us away?”

To Etienne’s left, Delyth looked down at her hand, rubbing at some spot on her wrist he couldn’t see.

⫸

Meirin’s gaze snapped to Va’al. “What do you mean, giving us away? He’s a God. Can’t he just find us whenever he wants?”

“No.” Enyo’s good hand was a vice around Va’al’s knee, her fingers going white at the knuckles. “They cannot. At least not without some deal or means of tracking. Va'al is the only one of us who could—can—will be able to slip through the shadows and appear somewhere, but even then, he has to know where it is he’s going. Mascen never had that ability.”

“So… That means he’s tracking us with magic?”

“More likely, he’s found a physical means to locate us. Has he drank any of your blood?”

Meirin’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “No.” Etienne was shaking his head as well. When would they have had time to let him drink their blood anyway? “You’re his mother. Wouldn’t he just be able to find you?”

“Not in this body. He doesn’t know this form.”

That stumped Meirin. How was he finding them? It wasn’t as if they were that obvious. Not like him, with a trail of smoke and fire following him every which way.

“It has been three hundred years; perhaps Mascen has learned a thing or two,” Esha suggested, yawning and covering her mouth with a broad hand. “There are dozens of settlements along the river; we will find a village or a caravan. It’s only a matter of days before Aryus is with us, and we can fix this.”

Unless, of course, Mascen kept sneaking up on them. Meirin frowned. They had been hopping from place to place, trying to avoid him and find a body. It had already been a week, and they had no progress to show for it. Thloegr was getting torn to pieces while they failed to find a single Vassal.

Mascen needed to be stopped.

Meirin turned to Etienne. “Are you going to bed now?” she asked, though it sounded much more like a suggestion.

“Yes?” Etienne said though it sounded more like a question. “Are you?”

She took his hand, nodding, and Delyth took it as an excuse to escape to her tent. Even the Gods were yawning so in short order, all were retiring, as though Meirin’s question had been a signal, sending them to sleep.

✶

Etienne pulled off his boots and trousers and lay awake for some time, scribbling thoughts in his journal. There was something important in the idea that all magic came from the Cursed Realms, some essential truth he was on the verge of grasping. He soon gave it up, though. His mind kept flashing back to the image of the caravan on the road, swallowed in seconds by a maw only Mascen could command open. He would never forget their screams. No amount of good or quiet things would ever be able to drown them out. Gods, he wanted to go home. He hadn’t thought that since leaving Moxous—he’d been too mired in guilt over his part in Enyo’s return. Now, he thought he would give anything to be once more amidst the dust and whisper smells of Moxous’s library.

Sleep would not come easily, for all that Etienne knew he needed it, but the mage was just beginning to close his eyes when someone stepped into his tent, startling him to full wakefulness once more.

“Meirin?”