Gods of Malcea ✔️

S I X

"This human survived, somehow." Ake's eyes flicked to Karos before going back to meet Olidus' wide eyes.

"You did not kill him? Why? He had threatened your life, killed your people," Oldius asked bemused by his actions. 

"They were everywhere... like parasites... When their numbers dwindled I had found my friend dead and human dragged to the cliff like a lamb to slaughter when they knew the battle could not be won."

 He watched as Olidus' mouth pursed at his utterance. His eyes strayed to Karos again who was still busily eating paying them no mind. It was not as if he could understand them, he reminded himself again. 

"However, the ground weakened causing it to crumble. Without a second thought, I coiled my tail around him and brought him down with me."

"You saved his life," Olidus said with some astonishment which caused Ake's eyes to narrow even further.

"I did," Ake breathed, "but the moment I awoke, my stone was missing. My stone that was given to me at birth, gone. I cannot go home without it. I cannot be my true self without it."

"Karos has no such stone, not on his person." Olidus gave Ake a quick look-over before continuing. "By the color of your eyes... it must have been a green gem."

"He has it," Ake stated with confidence.

"Because of his eye color? Ake, we are born with the same eye color unchanging, some grow darker with age but none ever change color." Ake shook his head at the comment.

"He holds my stone. That is why I said you cannot help me."

"... Why would, in all the realms of hell, he hold it?"

"The gods are players of cruel games, Olidus. They bring nothing but, misery, death, and destruction in their wake when they once brought peace." The look in the old man's eyes was as if he had known that for quite a while.

"They are crueler yet, Ake. As a dying, old man's last request, keep Karos safe as you have done up until now. He is a good boy who has done very bad things in his short life. He has known nothing but death."

Karos showed the empty bowl to Ake and plopped it onto the table after he had seen it causing Ake's eyebrow to raise.

"He has warmed to you." This utterance caught Ake's attention once more. "As you have warmed to him, an unlikely friendship." His eyes lowered. "Do not bother to deny it. When you get your stone from him, go back home. Do not worry for him any longer."

"That is the initial plan in mind," Ake admonished cutting his eyes away from the dying human who had read him so well.

"I fear that the gods are angry. No amount of prayer from the ones who still believe will appease them." 

Ake's eyebrows furrowed then. 

"The human has nothing—"

"That child has always been damned." There was a coldness about Olidus then that sent a chill down his spine.

"There... on the left side of his upper chest, you will find a mark. If you do not believe me, see it for yourself." Ake's eyes went to Karos who seemed bored with their conversation, tapping his fingers mindlessly against the table.

"He is a child of death," Olidus hissed.

"He is my friend and you will not speak so ill of him in my presence," Ake hissed back. The old man stared back at Ake wanting to say something. Soon, he dropped his gaze and focused his attention on the cup in his hand.

"What value does your friendship hold with him other than misfortune?" Ake stayed silent as he continued on. 

"You have lived for almost three-hundred years, yet you are still so young to dragons and still so innocent to the ways of humans. You see yourself wiser than an old, human man but eight and seventy, however, you forget yourself." He watched as the dying man's grip tightened around the cup.