A Vengeful Realm: Book 3 - The Age of the End by Tim Facciola

Author:Tim Facciola [Facciola, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: First Torch Books
Published: 2024-04-24T00:00:00+00:00

INTERLUDE III

Arkadia

Valencia

Arkadia buried her face in her hands, and she slumped her back against the wall of Arcamedes’s tower. The glow of Incinerae’s embers cast dancing shadows at her feet, but that was the only light the Goddess gave off. Every other word out of her mouth was “can’t,” “won’t,” or something equally as bleak.

“If we do nothing,” Arkadia said through her hand, “then Paxoran has already won.”

“There h-has to be a w-way to warn the Creator,” Incinerae said. “Instead of l-lo-looking to a mortal to save us, w-why not—”

Arkadia cast a glare that iced over Incinerae’s smoldering coals for eyes. “Because if we could speak to the Creator whenever we wanted, Klayvorine wouldn’t have needed me.”

She seethed, clenching her jaw enough to aggravate the injuries inflicted by Ferrocles and the wall he punched her into. “If the Creator could have stopped the traitor when Klayvorine discovered the sands of time had been tampered with, why did the Corners sacrifice themselves to imbue their power into the bracers and greaves? Why did the Giver and Taker of Palogia do the same to impart their divinity on the mortals?”

Incinerae’s short tongues of flaming hair grew to an inferno. “Look at the g-g-good it’s done!” Steam came from her ears. No longer did magma drip from the corners of her eyes, but at this point, Arkadia would have preferred somber, broken Incinerae to the adamantly defiant, nay-saying Incinerae.

“They sacrificed themselves for the mortals,” Arkadia said. “Not the Creator. Vykannis split his soul and bound himself to the mortal realm to impart the courage to fight back. You may mock their sacrifices, but what have you done while the pantheon crumbled?” She didn’t need to wait for an answer. “Nothing! And you may continue to do nothing, but I will not. Klayvorine wouldn’t have sent me to Perillian to replace the Vykane Blade with a fake and hide the Relics of Kataan for nothing. They will make the difference, but if—and only if—the one who bears them can ascend to the divine realm.”

Incinerae’s tendrils of flame retreated, as did her defiance.

“Please,” Arkadia said. “If I somehow manage to get a gemstone, from Ferrocles or Paxoran, and place it in the slot below the Celestial Falls…”

“The gates will open,” Incinerae said. “But if you c-can’t keep Paxoran and F-Ferrocles clear of the anchor room, they will kn-kn-know what you’ve done—they’ll take the gemstone and close the g-gates again.”

“Which means I’ll have to open the gate just as Vykanicus arrives at it,” Arkadia said, more to herself than Incinerae. She understood the Fire Goddess’s doubt; for any chance at success, she would need more than a few things to go her way.

“It’s im-impossible. Our only chance is to h-h-hide until Hameryn s-s-summons the Creator and hope the C-C-Creator defeats him.”

Arkadia released a slow and painful exhale, rubbing her sore ribs from where Ferrocles must have struck her. How is it that a Goddess can’t understand this? It is up to us.

She pushed herself away from the wall.

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