The Reviver’s Passage: Chapter XVIII
By: Prappies
What are you the god of? She had asked.
Guess he had answered.
The Realm of her godly ally was empty. There were no souls who came to attack them. Instead they walked around a land almost barren of the dead. The dead in this realm were few in numbers. In the 30 minutes they had been walking around, they had encountered only 4 souls.
“Wandering souls” was what Hestia had called them. Empty wandering souls. When she had seen her first soul, he unsheathed her sword. The soul heard. He turned around slowly and looked at her for a few seconds. Hestia waited for the dead soul to attack.
The dead soul turned back away and kept walking. This scenario repeated for the other 3 souls. The god behind her gave them each a lingering stare of regret.
He pushed past her gently and continued his walk. She followed suit. Her eyes strayed on the depressing souls, so few in number, but so much with sorrow.
“How much longer?” Hestia asked the god. There was no enemy in this domain. But the souls unsettled her far more than the cruel souls of Animus, or the manipulative souls of Avaricious had. She wanted to get out as soon as possible.
“Not for a long while,” said the god. “We need to go the long way around to my father’s palace, if we don’t want to go across Sin’s realm.”
“I see, so if we cross through your realm, none of the souls will not attack us, is that right?” Asked Hestia.
“I can control the souls here in this realm, unlike those in the realms of my brothers. The souls here will be of no bother to us.” the god comforted.
“I see…” she acknowledged. She remembered she still had to ask him about the conversation from yesterday. She was unsure of how to bring up a confrontational topic to a man who had just saved her life. But she knew it was a conversation they must have, so she swallowed her nerves and hit him with the question that had been plaguing her for a long while now.
“I wanted to ask you a question…” she began.
“Only one?” he joked. He laughed at his own joke, while Hestia gave a nervous smile. He took notice of her wide eyes, and shaking hands, and his smile turned into a frown.
“What’s bothering you?” He asked.
“Yesterday after I left, you and your brothers had a conversation…” she began slowly.
The god’s face fell. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped. The smile that was on his face had turned into a stunned, but nervous grimace.
“Yes…” he began slowly. “We did have a conversation of sorts after you left.”
“What did you talk about?” pressed Hestia.
“Nothing of great importance. We talked about our father, my last brother. Just simple brotherly chat.” The god lied. Both looked at each other. The god’s mouth was open in a fake smile, his hand on her shoulder, squeezing with too much force. He was clearly hoping that his lie was enough to satisfy her, that she would take his answer and continue on.
But if Hestia had known that what he had said had been the truth, she never would have asked in the first place. And the god himself knew that.
“That isn’t the truth and you know it. I think we both know it.” She put her hand on his shoulder. Smiling softly. “Please, just tell me the truth. I was behind the door.”
The god’s eyes widened. “You were behind the door?” he asked her in shock softly. His voice was just above a whisper.
“Kept the door slightly ajar, walked off, and silently walked back. I heard everything. But even when you thought there was no one listening, you kept your tongue in check. Didn’t leak any of the details. So now, I am here asking to be told of those details.”
“So you were there the entire time,” he asked. His voice sounded far away as if he was being told of an idea he had never once considered. “How did you manage to evade me like that? To think, a mortal can surprise a god. Good grief.”
The god sighed. There was nothing malicious in his speech, just a tone of acceptance and… dare she say it… admiration. Hestia felt her smile widen.
“Good grief indeed. Can you now please tell me what happened? What is your true purpose here… back in the land of the dead after all this time?”
The god walked away from her, worried that she may have angered the god she had come to put so much faith in, she followed him. Sticking right to his back. But she needn’t have worried. The god walked up to a large marronish boulder placing his hand on a large boulder by his legs. His fingers brushed against its hard surface, before he lowered his hand further, now pressing his palm against it.
Hestia watched confused as he lowered his body into a sitting position, resting himself on the boulder. He spread his legs out in front of himself and folded his hands in his lap. He looked over to Hestia and motioned down at his feet.
“Sit, you have asked for the truth and now I shall exempt no information from you Hestia,” he seceded. “If you want the whole tale, take a seat. It will take a long while.”
Hestia sat down. Her legs crossed in front of her, her eyes looking up at the god towering over her. The scene reminded her of an old man telling children back home stories to soothe them as their parents worked. Her mind was reminiscent of her past, but also wondering about his.
If his tale was going to take a long while, she might as well sit to hear it. There was a long journey left and tiring before reaching would do no one any good.
“I’m listening,” she said, leaning forward.
“Well then let me begin from the very beginning. My story begins 13 years ago, at the foot of my father’s throne. The same one you and I will be kneeling at soon enough,” he joked good naturedly.
Hestia smiled in spite of herself.
“I was at my father’s foot with a goal. A very specific goal in mind that I needed his permission to complete…” his voice lowered in volume with each word, speaking each word with more hesitance and fear. Like a sword impaling him bit by bit as each word, syllable and sound found its way out of his lips. Until he completely faltered to a stop.
“What was the goal?” prodded Hestia. She put her hand on the god’s knee, patting it supportively, but still egging him on.
He sighed, patting her hand back. He took a deep breath, and revealed everything in the span of a single sentence.
“To reign havoc among all of mankind.”
And so the honest tale of the god with no name began.
<–The Reviver’s Passage: Chapter XVII The Reviver’s Passage: Chapter XIX–>
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