A Tale of One Deviant (Book 2) (Technically Hiatus, but kind of not)

Chapter 198: The Red Heads

     Was what Paivla told me even somewhat accurate, or were they lies meant to confuse me?

     Because suddenly, while some things were making sense, other things were spinning out of reason.

     Arion wasn't always the God of Demons - check. Though Paivla hadn't told me he was the God of Light, she had told me part of the truth.

     Zuelis was not always God of Light - check. But what was he before that? Where did he come from?

     "Wha...what about Zuelis?" This was very important, seeing as he was now the main god.

     "He was born seventeen billion years ago, created by me so we could have a brother.

     But where did he come from?

     And who was Paivla in all of that? Still the Goddess of Nature? Clover Brook, what was the meaning of that name? Was she not always a goddess too, then? What world did she come from?

     "Mine present name art Paivla, Goddess of Nature and Tasega. Mine given name art Clover Brook of Teryl village-"

     Where was Tiyana in that, and where was I...

     Teria. I had to find Teria. But where was she-

     Teria released, standing a little taller than before. "I would very much like to have lunch with you and the...children, and will be in my room until then. Say my name, and I shall appear."

     Her room. In my dungeon.

     Did she say that because she was going to go choose one, or because she already had one? In the dungeon that supposedly belonged to a goddess that every other god hated, and therefore killed, because she was trying to hold them accountable in a world they chose to run rampant in?

     But as much as those questions spun through my head and made it hurt, as I finally almost passed out from being unable to breathe, I was brought to peace being in the presence of that sword. Feeling the holy power emanating from it, reaching up to just put a few fingertips on the thing on the anvil, to calm myself using the power of someone who couldn't care less about me.

     The God of Light, who became the God of Demons.

     Why does your old light comfort me so...

     I woke up. Hadn't realized I'd fallen asleep, actually, as was almost always the case.

     "Mademoiselle," someone said as I blinked, and blinked, trying to get used to the light of the forge trying to seep its orange luminescence into my gaze carefully.

     "Mr. Bhemus..."

     "You've been out for a while," Grant Bhemus whispered, trying not to shock me out of it as my eyes roamed up to the stone ceiling above. I was in a little alcove in a wall, where they probably slept to get up to immediately start forging again, always close to their work.

     My eyes closed again, reaching up to my face-

     "..."

     "I'm sorry," I said, feeling my one hand sliding across the scars of my face, forearm trying to hide it. "I'll leave."

     Not only did I feel ashamed, wearing standard de Libellule and therefore showing off a lot of my injuries on my face and hands, the collar on my neck, I felt embarrassed. My magic went haywire and I caused trouble for people who'd been nothing but nice to me.

     I hated when I did that the most.

     "Jeremy told us you were seeking the origin of the sword. And I must say," the old Dwarf nodded, feeling for the ends of his beard and pulling on the braids. "Those were quite the origins, if I do say so myself. Major ran right out to pray at the temple before coming back to begin working again, but the forge has cooled down in the meantime. We were going to wait for you to wake up before heating it, since your barrier dropped."