𝕴 𝖜𝖆𝖙𝖈𝖍 𝖆𝖘 𝖁𝖎𝖛𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖑 𝖋𝖆𝖎𝖑𝖘 𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖗𝖔𝖜 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖉𝖆𝖌𝖌𝖊𝖗 𝕴 𝖌𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖍𝖊𝖗 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖒𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖍 𝖙𝖎𝖒𝖊.
It is quite funny, I must admit, seeing an heir fail multiple times at something as simple as cocking your arm back and throwing an object. It makes me want to laugh.
But I don't, only because I know that if I did, she would lash out and practically kill me like she did Ea last time.
I chuckle as I remember Ea's shocked face after he lost from Viviendel.
"What are you laughing at?" Viviendel asks with a glare. She has another dagger, the tree she is trying to embed it in free from any harm.
I already taught her how to hold the blade, something most people don't even realize is a necessary skill to learn. Most people just skip through that part of the training, and I will never know why.
Her footing is off balance, but that takes skill and many years of practise to learn how to master. So I don't hold it against her.
"Not you," I reply. "Just remembering when Ea died last time you two trained together."
Viviendel's glower turns into a grin as she beholds my words, "That was fun," But then- as she replays the scene in her head, no doubt- she narrowed her eyes at me. "The only problem is, you weren't there."
"I wasn't?" I croon. "Are you positive about that notion?"
Her smile falters, "I mean, yes. You weren't there, only Ea and I."
I grin, "It's not every day that somebody appraises my ability to hide expertly and spy."
Her smile vanishes, "I thought we were friends,"
I look around at the shrub and everlasting blooms around us, "Whoever said such a thing?" My eyes land on a small flower which is not an everlasting blooms- I think. I pluck it from the ground without a second hesitation, muttering an apology to the Earth for such cruelty. "Did you?" I eye the flower.
Viviendel, once again, glowers at me. "I just assumed." She grumbles as she throws another dagger at the tree.
I place the flower down and walk over to her. "That is what you get for assuming. I don't do friends, that aspect disgusts me on a good day, makes me sick to my stomach on a bad one."
She nods, her glower gone and replaced with pity. "That is just sad,"
I chuckle, "Not entirely." I pluck out the dagger I stole from Anul earlier, who stole it from Thanatos before that, and Ea stole from me before even that, and I stole it from Viviendel to begin with.
Viviendel's eyes bulge as she takes in her dagger, before she looks down and curses. I smile.
"When did you steal that?" She looks back up at me.
"I didn't steal it from you," I say matter-of-factly. I can lie. But that was true. "I stole it from Anul."
"Anul stole my dagger!" Pure rage flashes in the heir's eyes, and I have the self-preservation to step back.
"No," I sheath the dagger back. Already regretting my plan. "And you won't get it back until you embed that stupid dagger into that tree." I nod at her latest failed attempt. "And just for you to know, Thanatos was the one who stole it." Hurt flashes it in her eyes, and I almost feel bad for the heir.
Her heart will be broken, and I can only hope she bounces back from it like Anul did.
I use it to my advantage, nodding towards the tree. "Thanatos stole it, he took it from you. Your only means of protecting yourself, how do you feel about that." I fuel her anger. "Now, imagine that tree is Thanatos and imbed that dagger into the bark like it is his flesh."
I can almost make out the fire building in her veins, her blood, turning it more Fae and moody than human. She brings her arm back, flicking her wrist and sending the dagger flying.
It is almost in slow motion, yet I know she threw the dagger so fast anyone on a battlefield would have missed it until it made a new home in their neck.
The hilt twits in the air before it flips, about to hit the tree with the hilt and not the blade. But then, right before it nicks the tree, it turns around again. A perfect blow.
The tree bark splits and the dagger's hilt is only a spark against the dark brown cloak of the shadows.
I clap my hands in a gesticulating gesture. "Why look at that, you actually did something in life." I smile proudly.
"I do many things in my life," Viviendel swaggers over, her dagger discarded and forgotten.
It is the type of sight that you would imagine a Queen in. Viviendel walking away from the dagger she just threw, her black spy suit still pristine and shining in the dull sky. Water dripping from her hair even as a bright light erupts behind her. Her dagger was magical... also known as a bomb!
Delta used to always say that my mind is too imaginative... and well... in all honesty...
He is kind of right.
My mind is very imaginative, creative, and deceptive... but that just makes it all the more unique and well wonderful.
Life is not as fun as fire, but sometimes you can fuel your life- your choices- with that same fire. Sometimes you have to imagine taking risks, saving planets, taking over continents, or even falling in love with people who are not real. Sometimes you have to. Not only for yourself, your mental health, and the knowledge that you are lonely, but so you can have an adventure.
You can go out and fight villains, you can go out and take over continents, you can save planets, and you can be sons and daughters of some supreme god. While the rest of the population is too busy lollygagging and being boring. Doing talky-talk haberdashery stuff that you wish you could do, but you are not social enough.
But then again, those are the same people who know that you actually have to be nice to somebody to be their loved one. (Which makes no sense, how else are they going to absolutely hate me but eventually fall in love?)
Those are the same people who are not as lonely as you.... The same people who are not always cooped up in a room with a book doing nothing.
I love to read, but it has become an obsession, almost. I have a lot of classics, in fact about a sixteenth of my bookshelf are classics, but I never read them. People think I am smarter because I read, but I know nothing but how people in alternate universes fall in love in toxic, irritable, wrong ways.
And I know, one day, I will have to come with the realization that... they are not real. Those same people I have never fallen in love with in real life, yet love them like they are my soulmate- because sometimes they are for a few hundred chapters. They are not real; they are fictional. They are fake.
Yet I want to imagine for a bit more time that I am them, that I am a son of some god, that my rebellion is exactly that of my favorite novel. That I am something other than ordinary.
My broad smile twists downward, "Like what?" I say as I regain my cheerful disposition.
"Like... reading," Viviendel replies. "Having friends, perhaps, other than you." She cuts me a glare. "And everything else. Oh!" She nods behind my shoulder and I turn to see Ea standing near the brush. Watching, assessing. "I also win races against males who believe them better than everyone else. Too bad their pride is too fragile." She flashes Ea a cocky smile.
"That same male is about to win several spars in a moment," Ea cuts in. His dolphin hand folding over my shoulder as he walks over.
"I will leave you two to it," I nod at Viviendel, a cruel smile spreading across my face as I look from the two of them.
I wink at Ea before walking into the shadows and watching for one of them to come out and present themselves.
He does.
Thanatos is back...
"What time does our meeting start again?" He asks as he manifests.
"Dawn tomorrow, before everybody wakes up. We have one more village to go to tomorrow, so we have to wait till then."
"Should I warn the council, sir?"
I nod. "Yes, tell them to gather supplies. Cleaning supplies. I will bring the new recruit."
Thanatos smiles.