Today, I was searching other legends. Anything that pointed toward the gods, their war Echnid had mentioned, or how todismissthem, should Ophelia be wrong, and the Warrior God was in fact as dangerous as I feared.
While wars raged among gods over the Balance Realm, beings of equal measure built their own. On Revarris, the inhabitants fought deities by discovering their fatal flaws and building their armies around the pantheon’s weak point. The keen battle strategists planned for years—decades—digging into the core of the world to reach troves and treasures known only to the highest powers who had birthed the realm.
They summoned beings to their side and unearthed blades made of precious ice said to be the downfall of the highest. In the end, it was an arrowhead of the deities’ own trove that pierced their heart with a deadly throw. One no mortal archer could have fired, one no founder could have survived.
And the Balance rejoiced.
The Balance rejoiced.
According to this, the Balance of Power didn’t want those powerful beings to win. If that was the very force holding magic to responsible standards, it stood to reason that it monitored thegods as well. And the Balance in this myth endorsed the brutal murder.
There had to be a way to slay a god for good.
I blew out a rough breath, leaning against my chair and tipping my head back to study the ceiling.
The gods created Ambrisk. That much we knew. They were responsible for the Angels—or Ambrisk’s magic was—thus, the Angels answering to Echnid. Had the gods created worlds before Ambrisk? If so, why was Ambrisk the heart of all magic?
Or were the beings in this Revarris not our gods at all? Perhaps they were Fates or Angels, and that would have made them easier to kill in the myth than a god. There were stories about how to kill those things. But the myth implied these mysterious beings created that realm, which meant they couldn’t be Angels or Fates.
Spirits, it was a mess to unravel. How had this fucking book gotten on that shelf in the first place? Clearly, the rest of the volumes were missing, judging by the large number three on the spine signifying this was part of a set. Very few of our books actually spoke of other realms beyond acknowledging that they existed. Why was that?
I’d never questioned it before, but now it seemed odd. WhyhadAmbrisk been silenced after the War Among Gods? If it hadn’t, would we have known of Echnid sooner? Would we know a god’s weakness?
As the questions ran through my head, I studied the mural on the ceiling. I’d memorized the fucking thing recently, always finding myself in this position. A warrior dipped his sword into a lake, the blade glowing blue for whatever damn reason.
The more I watched it, the more I wanted my own weapons back. Lucidius’s dagger burned into my skin as it slid further down my spine.
A chill snaked through the room, the papers on the desk ruffling as I squinted at the mural. I was vulnerable with only this one weapon. So fucking?—
A cloth clasped down on my mouth and nose.
I struggled for the knife, but the slim hand was surprisingly forceful as it pulled me back, and my vision spotted.
“Shh,” a familiar voice cooed in my ear. “It’s all right.”
Chapter Ten
Cypherion
“Stargirl?”I asked, pushing open the door to our room on Meridat’s estate. The Soulguider Chancellor had been kind enough to loan our group a guest house about a hundred yards east of her manor.
The single-story, six-bedroom building sprawled across the land, sandstone pillars curving around the edge of a serpentine river. This wasn’t the spirit-laden source of the clan’s magically imbued waterways, though. It wavered harmlessly outside the floor-to-ceiling window of our bedroom, shadowed by tall palm trees on the opposite bank.
And Vale stood before the window, one arm crossed over her stomach and her chin propped on her other fist. The late afternoon sun slanted through the fronds, heating the space. We should have lowered the wicker shade, but Vale was lost in thought.
The only part of her moving was the ripple through her chiffon skirt, the rich maroon fabric trimmed in gold. She’d purchased a few of them from the nearest market when it became clear we were staying here for a while. The style was similar to her clothing from her home in Starsearcher Territory,but with a scarf that wrapped around her torso instead of the tops with long, cascading sleeves and tight bodices she normally favored. She’d seemed to liven a bit with finding the clothing, like it was a part of the new self she was discovering since Titus.
“Vale?” I tried again. The room’s thick rug swallowed the thud of my boots against marble as I stopped beside her.
She jumped when I placed a tentative hand to her back. “Oh, sorry.” She shook her head. “What did you say?”
Her round olive eyes searched mine, silver tinting the irises. That damn hint of swirling power hadn’t gone away since the night she read about the ascension before the Gates of Angeldust, and every time I saw it, a defensive beast rose in my chest.
“Nothing.” I took a breath, trying to force away the aggression, but Vale caught it.
“You don’t need to protect me from my power, Cypherion.” She sighed, exasperated. I was a fucking idiot.
“I know I don’t, Stargirl,” I said.
