Rebirth

Thirty Six

The Pit was a single chamber that was dark and empty. Every soul in it thought they were alone but Freya knew they were not. So many souls were trapped in that horrible place. No door. No window. No light. Just dark stone hewed from evil and vile. Most like Zebel's doing. The bastard had kept this place for eons. Freya could feel its age and cruelty. No souls left here but Freya was not a soul. She remembered who she was and she would use that as her defense.

Her way to liberate these souls and go back to her family. It was endlessly silent but the misery was there Freya felt it the second was thrown in by one of Zebel's cronies. Orpahim had laughed while he shoved her in. He was going to die for that.

She had spent her time there not only feeling for the souls in there with here but she had also sensed other beings. Other gods. Two men with eyes of gold. gods of fatos. Yet, Sulas had not torn this place down to find them. She was glad that Helias was her sire and not Drasel.

She did not know what she would have done if that was the case.

So, she let herself feel every nuke and cranny of this dreaded place. In the hopes of raising an army out of it and taking back her throne.

Eleonor needed hours of sleep.

She woke at intervals to eat and relief herself to sleep. The twins stayed at her side. Despite their initial altercation, Ainara had stayed with her. Slept beside her. Eaten with her. She didn't ask her the children had done it. How they had skipped over a decade of growth and just came out stronger and older.

She had not spoken to anyone. No one had been allowed except her husband into her room by Ainara. She was told that Wallace did the same thing for Eric.

She slept and built her strength, she felt different as well. She did not know what that meant for her power but she would find out. She woke up one morning and felt stronger. The fog of fatigue had lifted. She stood from her bed and almost felt like she could hear and feel everything on Opir with her.

Ainara watched her as she cleaned herself and put on a loose shirt and fitted pants. Boots followed. She missed the heaviness that came with being alive. She missed it and she didn't think she was ready to leave this life soon.

Ainara followed her to where Callahan had said he would be, the King's council room. It had nearly overwhelmed her at first. She breathing hard and eating painful. She had been unable to walk and had cried when she saw her family. No one asked about Ainara and Wallace and Eleonor did not bring them up in conversation to avoid having to explain how wreckless toddlers had become teenagers in a mere span of weeks.

Ainara had changed her clothes before they arrived at the warden's council room. Now a war room. Watching his long lost daughter, Cora, die had snapped something in him and he had decided to join them. Khorat, the most powerful nation in Havern, had matched for Asha's sake. Zain of Saath had not appreciated the attempt on his family's lives.

Samira, Queen of Aderhan, had been hurt by Freya's death and Colin, her husband, had not taken Darin's threat of conquest lightly. More people than she had anticipated stood in that room. Her father, her husband, her brothers, Clair, Eric, the Warden of Opir, his sons, the Grand Prince of Saath, the King of Aderhan, the Emperor of Khorat and the Lord of Xir. Derrick shivered at the sight of her so did the others who knew her to be dead and now alive.

Ainara stayed silent as they were both silently scrutinized.

'Sister,' Wallace said from the table, it was only then that Elenor noticed Ainara's stubborn twin.

'What?' Ainara asked.

'They want us to go to Welkamia first,' Wallace informed her and immediately Eleonor said no.

The boy looked at her as she said, 'Out now.'

'I don't answer to you,' Wallace snapped.

Stupid boy.

'If you make me walk there...' Eleonor's threat didn't end with her words. They ended with fire, engulfing her palms. The stupid boy summed thick darkness and Eleonor was angry that he was Freya's son and she loved his mother like a sister.

'Wallace,' Ainara said in a warning tone and Derrick's head snapped in their direction, looking at the girl he had raised for two years. 'If you want to shower your wrath on anyone, it should be that sorry excuse for a man.'

'Children,' Callahan warned but they ignored him.

Eleonor felt another power and looked at Ainara had conjured dark flames. Her sights set on Derrick. The bastard took a step back.
Eleonor absorbed her fire before looking at Ainara, pleading with her to do the same. The girl did but she still had that look of rage.

Wallace absorbed his power as well.

'May we continue?' Fadri asked rather bored with the display. Eleonor approached the desk which had a map of Milkarea laid out. Forests around Goxa had been marked. Ainara looked at it frowning.

'The children can go to Celina,' Eric said when silence truly fell. 'Tell her to rally Xathanians and Welkamians in the weeks that we sail. 'Our troops are in Saath, the closest Isle to the continent, we are the only ones who remain.'

We can go on Riye, Ainara said in Eleonor's mind. She is faster.

Eleonor nodded in agreement and told her to suggest it to Callahan in the same way. She seemed to have because her husband spoke next. A suggestion he called it.

'The troops will sail first and make ready. We may go after them,' Callahan suggested and only few on the table seemed to agree and she understood. Reid had never left their side and the second that he did she was ripped apart.

'Anyone who'd sail with their troops are allowed to do so,' the Warden added and the tension in the room simmered into nothing.

The room cleared an hour later leaving her, her father and brothers, Eric and Clair, Callahan and the twins.

It was not right to hold court in another sovereign's council room but it was all they had.

'The children have to go,' Eric said as soon as the last foreign nobles were well out of earshot.

'They will do no such thing,' Eleonor snapped before Wallace and Ainara could speak on the matter.

'Then, who? They are the most powerful beings right now. Their grandsire is in a cage of webs, their mother is probably in the pit. Who will go, Leo?'

'I will,' she said and so many heads snapped in her direction.

'No,' Callahan and her father said in unison.

'Not up for debate,' she said dismissing them.

Her brother looked just as crossed as her father. Callahan looked scared but she ignored them. For there other ways to get to Goxa that did not require physical transportation.