The Dragon Knight; The Secrets of the Desert

The Secrets of the Desert (Chapter 17)

Varteni smiled at him, taking him hand. He opened the door for her, closing it behind them again as they walked passed their guards, fallen dragons. Gods and Goddesses walked along everywhere outside the buildings, some still hadn’t processed the news of what happened in Tubig Libis. But Earth and Varteni both knew that Tien would be out on the streets. She would be at her own palace, watching their chosen Knight just as the Elements had but away from all prying eyes.

Tien lived in one of the bigger palaces, and one of the oldest, being one of the oldest Goddesses. Like Varteni’s meadow was surrounded by the trees that were home for her, Tien’s palace was in the darker part of the sky, glowing like the moon would on the continent. It was made with high and thin towers that looked out over all the other places in the sky.

Only the big door had been made out of a dark stone and stood out against the rest of the palace. There were guards placed in front of the door, but they did nothing to try and stop the two divine beings.

Together, Earth and Varteni walked through palace in search of the moon Goddess. When they did eventually found her, it was in the tallest of all her towers, sitting in a big comfortable seat, staring at a screen in front of her. The walls were lined with bookcases, and there wasn’t a doubt in Earth’s mind that the Goddess had already read them all.

The Goddess looked up, obviously not expecting anyone to come and find her here in her own viewing room. Her dark eyes glided from the Element to the elfin Goddess; no emotion was visible in them at all. It was almost as if she wasn’t feeling anything. But Earth had known her long enough to know she could hide her feeling very well. Right now Tien was most likely feeling the same as Blanchefleur.

“Can I ask what you are doing here?” Tien asked, her voice strained.

“Well, I needed to get out of there, and there is something that I wanted to ask you,” Earth said, holding Varteni’s hand tightly in his. He wouldn’t admit it out loud but with the moon Goddess didn’t show her emotions she scared him; he never knew if she would attack them in the blink of an eye. And he most certainly didn’t want her to hurt Varteni.

But Tien only cocked an eyebrow at his words. “What do you want to ask me?”

“It’s about Seelan,” Earth started hesitantly. Seelan always had been a touchy subject with Tien as she was his former Goddess. “This guessing game of what he might do next is no longer interesting to watch; it is downright dangers. Since you were his Goddess before, I wondered if you might get a hold on him.”

Tien sighed and waved the hand across the screen, making it go blank before it disappeared. She got up from her seat and walked to the window on their left. As she looked outside, Earth could see her gaze up at the stars, as if they would hold the answers she was looking for. Then, finally she turned around, her eyes now sad and sorry.

“When he started leaving the path that I had slowly been building for him, I tried to get a better hold on him, to make him do the right thing; I even appeared to him, telling him to trust me and assuring him that things would get better,” she said. “He didn’t listen to me, didn’t want hear anything I had to say. He didn’t believe me, and the angrier he got with me, the more I lost my control over him. Believe me, I tried to keep him in check but he rejected me completely. His heart was broken; I can’t say I blame him for being angry with me.”

Earth glanced down at Varteni, who squeezed his hands. In her eyes, he could see the pity and the sorrow she was feeling for their fellow deity and he felt the same way. But just because Tien felt so sad talking about this didn’t mean he would drop the subject. In fact, now that she was talking about, it was the right moment to keep the talking going.