The Reviver’s Passage: Chapter XV
By: Prappies
Hestia couldn’t help but realize that she and her new companion had fallen into a nice, warm repetitive habit throughout their journey. The walks were long and agonizing. They would walk for hours before setting down for the night. The god would disappear quickly into his own tent, leaving Hestia outside to wonder about anything her mind felt like.
When they did walk, the god remained behind her at all times. She could not see him, but she could hear him behind her. Whether it was from his loud stomps he called “walking,” or the little hums he made. Every so often, she turned around to see him looking somewhere in the distance, or straight at her. When he was looking straight at her, she was greeted by a small smile. But either way, it was clear his mind was elsewhere.
The journey was long, even within Avaricious’s own domain. So when in the distance, Hestia could see a group of pillars, connected to walls, reaching high above the ground, she couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.
“Tired of the walk already?” joked the god. “That was the easy part my dear, the hard part is the fight itself, which lays right ahead of us.”
“Walking for hours at a time is not easy!” she begged to differ. “It’s a long, arduous task. While it is not difficult exactly, walking for a long time just gets boring.”
“Ok, whatever you say my dear. Just keep your head up, and let’s go inside.” He said. He walked past and in front of her, taking the lead to this brother’s palace. For the first time, in the last few days, Hestia was the follower.
They walked down mountains, and climbed up others, for another few hours… until the palace gate was over their heads.
This palace was as large as the palace of Animus, the architecture was very similar. The only difference was that this palace had a tint of dark green to it, unlike the blood red of Animus’s. This castle was more tall and less wide. It seemed to have been made by multiple tall rooms, which were just glued together to make an even taller building. Hestia could swear the castle tip reached the overworld.
“Avaricious brother had this built like this to represent that ‘the sky is his limit.’ Greed makes one take any steps necessary to get the money or the possessions they desire. They will go to any lengths to get it. That is the reason for this tall structure he calls ‘his’.” The god said.
“So Avaricious brother is a philosopher?” Hestia asked.
The god shrugged. “I always thought he was more a figuratist than a philosopher.” He leaned forward and knocked on the large, intricately designed, double-door of the palace.
The doors opened immediately, and revealed a tall, pale, man cloaked in a long, jade green robe. It reached his toes, and the sleeves reached the tips of his fingers. His eyes looked at them with an empty gaze, and his skin was pale white. Almost as white as Wally’s, Hestia mused, but not quite.
“I’ve been told you were coming,” he deadpanned.
“Was it Animus, my dear brother?” asked the god.
“Yes,” said Avaricious. His eyes moved from his brother, and landed on Hestia. His gaze lingered, his eyes thinning as he took her in. “Is this the girl I’ve heard so much about?”
“Yes brother,” said the god. “Can we come in?”
Avaricious gave the god another look, before stepping to the side. Giving Hestia and the god space to enter the abode.
The god walked in first, giving his brother a smile of thanks. Avaricious was not looking at him, and as Hestia walked in after him, she could feel the god of Greed’s dark green eyes, zeroing in on her.
“He answered the door,” whispered Hestia, leaning towards the god when they were a distance away from Avaricious.
“He indeed did.”
“Why’d he do that? Answer the door by himself?” Asked Hestia, she turned around to see Avaricious following them.
“Perhaps he was just curious as to who exactly you were.” Hestia beamed internally at this.
At the end of the hall was a throne room, very similar to the one in the Castle of Animus. The overall shape was nearly identical, but the designs and, once again, green color, separated the brother’s tastes in luxury.
The throne at the end of the room was decked in far more jewels than Animus’. Hundreds of emeralds, kilograms of gold and diamond created the throne. Smoothed gems created the backrest, sharper chunks of diamond were found along the arms. The pillars were made of pure gold, melted and mixed in with a green dye. Perhaps another precious metal, but Hestia found that unlikely since she, a blacksmith, was acquainted with metals. She could think of no green metal that could have created such a color of gold like so.
“Do you want a cup of tea?” said a dry voice from behind her. Hestia, torn from her thoughts, turned back to Avaricious.
“Oh…. uh…” she began, surprised by the question.
“My dear brother,” the god interrupted. “When have you ever offered a cup of tea to anyone? Even if we were to say yes, would you give us a cup?”
At this, Hestia could swear she saw the glint of a smile on Greed’s face.
“Maybe,” he said.
“Ah, well we must decline your offer. Thanks though brother, we appreciate the thought.” the god answered for her. Which Hestia thought was unfair, she would have killed for some good tea after eating nothing but white rice for the entirety of the trip.
“Well then,” said Avaricious, “should we get started?”
Hestia’s godly ally smiled, showing his glistening white teeth for Avaricious and Hestia to see. He made his way over to Hestia, and put a hand on her back.
“Gladly,” he answered.
Insert fight scene. Yaddi yadda. Yaddi Yadda.
Hestia was laying face down on the ground. She tilted her head to the side to make breathing a little easier.
She realized that the walk wasn’t that bad, when compared to this. She would walk the distance from Animus’s castle to Avaricious’s castle if it meant not having to do this fight again.
To the side, she heard footsteps, she lifted her gaze up without moving her head, and saw the god above her. He lowered himself to a crouch. He was grinning from head to toe.
“Did you like the walk better, or this better?” He asked.
Hestia didn’t even have the energy to argue with him.
“I was just thinking about that actually,” she said.
“Oh, and what was your answer?” He prodded.
“My answer is simple: if I ever say that the walk is hard and that I would rather fight instead, please throw me into that damn river we keep passing. Drown me in its waters.”
“Well I am glad I have your permission to do something I would have done either way if you acted up again. I appreciate it.”
Hestia turned her head away from him, a smile on her own face. She only turned back around when she heard a third set of feet make its way over to them. When she looked up, she was met with a pair of piercingly green eyes. Avaricious turned to his brother, who was pushing himself into a standing position.
“Is she dying?” Asked Avaricious.
“Nah, she’ll live.” said the god. “We didn’t come this far for her to die now.”
“He’s right you know,” supplemented Hestia, her mouth struggling to form the words as pain surged through her body. Even with all her cuts, broken ribs, and other gnarly injuries, she decided to try and stand up. Avaricious watched, his mouth curling into a slight discouragement. But he voiced none of his opinions as he watched his brother take one step forward and pull Hestia to her feet. One hand supporting her stomach, and the other holding her arm.
“See, she’s fine!” said the god enthusiastically, while holding her entire weight. She now was coughing out blood, splattering Avaricious’s floor with the metallic smelling liquid.
“Do…” began Avaricious. “Do you want tea, it might help.”
“Ah yes brother. Tea. She is here throwing up her insides, and you want to put more inside of her. Great…” mockingly scolded the god.
“Yes! Yes, I want tea!” Hestia screamed, mid-vomit.
She then blacked out then and there. The god managed to catch her before she fell face first into her own blood puke.
“Oh, and she is out like a light.” the god groaned.
“What do you do now?” Asked Avaricious.
The god picked the blacked-out Hestia up bridal style. Her arms and head hanging loosely as he kept a firm hold on only her body.
“Well brother,” began the god. “Do you have a spare room?”
<–The Reviver’s Passage: Chapter XIV The Reviver’s Passage: Chapter XVI–>
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