Vantaiga stormed down the Hallway of Eternity, her dark, needled cloak flicking out behind her to the thud of her heels. She had clad herself in the dark, dense wood of Palatine’s armour, making her feet land more loudly than ever. Zephlyn flowed up to greet her, but as her piercing eyes fell upon him, he sheepishly stepped aside without a word.
She burst into the Chamber with a roar. “What on earth do you think you are doing?”
Startled by the interruption, Coronus thumped his fist on his throne. “You can’t barge in here like that!” Flame and molten rock splashed onto the World Table.
Vantaiga barked at him, “Or what? You will stare at me? All you ever do is stare.”
Coronus fixed her with the full scorching heat of his gaze. Vantaiga drew the hood of her cloak across her face as she was engulfed by light and heat. The hardy needles of her cloak darkened but would not wither. “I will not be intimidated so easily anymore.” She turned to Aridus. “You’ve made most of the world unbearable with your sand and storms, yet you destroy what place there is for people to find shelter?”
Aridus replied through clenched teeth, “Little girl, I keep people in their place. You should learn yours.”
“Ha! My place is protecting my people, not listening to the likes of you.” She then turned to Styiock. “And you! You should know better. You chop down what is free for all so that a few can make beggars out of everyone else?” She thrust a finger to Aridus. “Only to end up feeding that ass instead?”
Styiock bit his tongue and turned to Hydar with a look that took her a few moments to recognize. A flood of memories and feelings of a hungry, confused girl crashed in on her. It was the look from the head maid as she was sold into slavery by her mother. It was a look she hadn’t understood then—but now she did. It was a look that said she was not a person, but a problem to be passed on to someone else to fix. She realised just how fictitious her welcome to the World Table really was, and it made her seethe even more with rage.
Hydar fumed and sparked with electricity as he stood up from a grand, turbulent throne. Instead of the soft, flowing grey clouds he’d had when she’d first arrived in the heavens, it was now a dark, broiling storm that seethed with an internal tempest; an occasional flash of lightning within illuminated the cloud with a hauntingly powerful glow.
The rain god slammed his hand down on the Table with a booming thunderclap. “Enough! You can’t talk like that here. This is our world, and things are done our way.” He thrust his own finger at Vantaiga’s throne. “You sit and take your place.”
Vantaiga crossed around the table to look him directly in the eye. “I’ll be damned if you think my place is at your side.”
Infuriated, Hydar struck her across the face with the back of his hand. A yelp and flash of electricity rang out in the Chamber. Vantaiga tumbled against the table and fell to the floor, her left side paralysed with vibrating stings.
Hydar stood over her and bellowed, “I saved you! I saved you TWICE! From the venom as a child and from your masters as a slave! I gave you your forests! I gave you your followers! I gave you immortality! I gave you the most beautiful domain in the world! And I gave you my love! You owe me your gratitude woman!”
Vantaiga wiped blood and char from her face and restored her numb limbs. His words bit into the back of her mind and made her thoughts swim with fury. He was right that he had spared her from the brink of death. And yes, he had given her forest water and life. He had also passed down the secrets of the mantel. But he was wrong to think he had given her love and wrong to think she should be grateful.
Uneasily, she rose to her feet, her voice controlled yet shaking with anger. “You used a pretty realm to manipulate a confused spirit into neglecting her duty and to grow your own power. You tricked a kind and generous man into creating a novelty for you. You abused people’s thirst and lives, so they sought shelter beneath my trees. You made a holy leader spend three centuries reshaping the landscape so her followers could be safe. You let a young woman be beaten and left for dead in a bush. And you stood by as a poisoned and broken child crawled through rocks for days.”
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She drew herself up to glare at him in defiance. “You only played a game with a new toy. You did me no favours by loving me.” She stood back and looked across all the gods seated at the World Table. “This is not your world. It is their world! It is their faith that gives us life and their fears that give us power. It is you who should be grateful to them!” She looked Hydar coldly in the eyes. “Because we don’t owe you anything.” Vantaiga turned and stormed out of the Chamber, leaving the gods to grumble angrily amongst themselves in the fading echoes of her heels.
*** bonus scene ***
Syffox sat by the edge of a stream in Vantaiga’s cavern paradise. He rubbed his forehead in growing frustration while Vantaiga swam with a couple of nyxies in the water. “So how is yelling at them going to help?”
Vantaiga rolled on to her back and floated beside him, hoping to change the subject with her wet glistening breast. “You’re spending too much time worrying about it.” She kicked a bit of water at him as she passed. “You should relax and join us.” She pulled herself into the arms of a nyxie. “It’s more fun when there’s a man to swim with us.”
Syffox groaned and rubbed his eyes. “We have a problem here. I don’t like them any more than you, but we need the gods to survive.”
Vantaiga splashed more water at him. “Ha! I don’t need them.”
“Easy for you to say when you’re underground submerged in water. We will need Hydar’s rain eventually.”
Vanataiga let her arms wave in the water while the nyxie rocked her back and forth. “There is an ocean of water under the earth. We will draw it up and feed our own rivers.”
Syffox sighed. “There isn’t an ocean available to us. And what is available will take a tremendous amount of effort to draw up. These are rivers we have to fill, not well buckets.”
She swam up to Syffox, bringing the nyxie with her. “We don’t need that much water. We already make our own rain.” She and the slender creature, reached out and grabbed his feet. “Now come in and play.” She gave him a coy smile. “Your Goddess commands you.”
Syffox resisted the warm pull of her voice and withdrew his feet. The nyxies’ face dropped with a hurt look as it swam away; Vantaiga gave Syffox a disapproving scowl. A sad pall crossed his face. “They are assaulting the forest directly now. They don’t come to settle or to hunt or to glory seek. They come to burn and destroy our way of life. We drive them off, but they keep coming back in larger numbers.”
Pangs of guilt churned in Vantaiga’s stomach as images of the fighting at her boarders flashed through her mind. “We will fight them together then. There is no place for me in the heavens. I will stay and defend my dominion with you.”
Vantaiga drew herself to a rock and rested her chin on it, while the other nyxie swam up behind her and rested its head on her back. She allowed herself to enjoy the elegant creature’s soft skin and warmth for a moment. “I just want a moment longer to enjoy the quiet down here.”
Syffox drew in a breath. He wanted to say she could stay and enjoy herself. He wanted to say he looked forward to fighting at her side like they use to. He wanted to say it would be ok. But he needed to say that it was different this time. He needed to say what she wouldn’t let herself hear. “It won’t matter you know. Eventually they will overpower us.”
Vantaiga closed her eyes to shutout the pain and guilt building in her heart. She didn’t want to turn her people into warriors. Couldn’t he see there was enough already? “No, they won’t. We will defend our boarders and eventually they will tire of us. Festor let his people get out of hand. We will keep to ourselves and eventually the fighting will stop.”
“And what if it doesn’t? What if that is not enough to appease the gods?”
Her guilt was beginning to turn to anger. He was baiting her in to a conversation she was not able to have; not while things were finally so perfect in her cavern paradise. She gave him a scolding, “Stop it.”
A tear slipped from Syffox’s eye as guilt overwhelmed him for her anger. He wished she wasn’t a Goddess. He wished he could get angry back at her. He wished that her divinity wasn’t so overwhelming it stopped him from speaking his mind. He was left only to reply, “I’m sorry Goddess. I only want you to be happy.”
Vantaiga gave him a soft smile. “I’m happy here. Can’t I be happy here? If only for a little while?” A sad tremor crept in to her voice. “It won’t be for very long. But for now, I’d like to be happy while I can.”
Syffox thought of another time when she was happy, when they were both happy. Those days were long past now, and the days to amend things were slipping away. He managed to draw a small smile across his face. “Ok Goddess, be happy while you can.”
Vantaiga’s face brightened and she reached out for him, “so will you now come in and play with us?”
Syffox shook his head. “No thank you Goddess. I’d rather just watch and see you be happy… while I can.”
by CanOfTuna
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