UNHOLY (GxG)

Chapter Forty-One: The End

The light was dim in the council room, the only illumination coming from the massive array of candles that flickered openly across the room. The fireplace was not lit, leaving the room cold and unwelcoming. There were more than a dozen people all around the low wooden table, kneeling on the floor. Some of them I vaguely recognized. Others were little more than strangers to me. Katarina sat in the middle of the table, Seyla by her side. There was an intense discussion going on when I first walked in, but silence quickly fell over the room at the sight of me.

I didn't care for it. I didn't think being the center of attention suited me.

I did my best not to make eye contact with anyone as I hurried over to a spot off to the side and kneeled down.

"Judith." Katarina said to me. It took all of the resolve I had left inside of me to look her in the eyes.

A nod was all that I offered her.

"You have been chosen by a goddess to drive the children of the moon back into their lands." She continued.

I flinched at her words. Did she have to say it in such a direct way? Did she have to bring it up immediately? I thought I would just be sitting in on their meeting. I didn't know I was going to be the main focus of this discussion. I knew nothing of war. I knew nothing of leading anyone. I wasn't prepared for this.

What could I possibly hope to contribute to such a thing?

"Hopefully for a few good centuries." Seyla quipped from beside her.

"I suppose I have." I mumbled.

"You'll need a better attitude than that if you want to achieve victory." Seyla added.

Katarina ignored her.

"I can only hope that you will answer this call." She said, "Our people will be more than happy to assist you. Our people want them gone just as much as your people. They have done enough to us over the centuries."

My mouth was dry, but I somehow managed to find the words on my tongue.

"I assume I have no choice." I said. "I can't exactly ignore a direct order from the goddess- and I can't let my homeland be taken over and my people enslaved either. I just don't know that I am suited for such a thing as war."

"If a goddess chose you there was a reason for it, even if you don't see it yet." Katarina said.

"I just wish things didn't have to be this way." I said. "I can't help but feel that I bear some of the responsibility for your village being attacked in the first place. If I had not been here, they would have never come."

"It was only a matter of time. It was going to happen." Katarina said. "And I would much rather have a saint as an ally than an enemy."

"The Vanslovian Kingdom has been getting away with too much as it is." Seyla said. "Someone needs to drive them back to the dark corner they crawled from, and if they want to be the ones to instigate their own eventual slaying then that is fine by me."