Of Gods & Valkyries: Book Three

Game of Gods

– K Á R A –

I stared at the cat-eyed helm of Athena in her hand. The gleaming gold that spoke of endless and timeless power. In the hands of Ares original.

Then slowly met her eyes.

"Remember this was your doing..." I warned in a low voice, watching it practically hum with energy around us. 

It called to Thanatos on my back.

I checked my own power and watched Tayah flex her fingers before it. This was her true fear and also her method of confronting it. The last time that helm had been used was high upon the Fang mountains with an unworthy wielder. The White Paladin.

"I'll learn on the job–like with everything." She muttered, now doubting her own sanity as she stared at the face of a god cut into the relic.

"Tayah." I stated.

She looked up at me across the small meadow in between the trees.

"You have no room for doubt. Your power must be sure and your will unbreakable."

"Got it." She answered, staring back at Athena's relic.

"Whatever you do. Do not try to hold onto that power. Release it through yourself. You are merely a vessel for it."

She nodded and rolled her shoulders as if preparing for a battle. In many ways she was–if she fought this energy. I stood near but not close enough to attract the pull of Athena's relic. My own was already humming in its proximity. Like a magnet too close to its fellow opposition.

"I'm ready." She stated as plain as day. Then, without hesitation she took the helm in both hands and slid it over her head.

Her cloak was aflame the moment it was secure. An instant reaction to heightened power. But the winds were also upon us now in full force. Tearing a howling gale above and through the trees and ripping branches and leaves into the air.

"Breathe! Tayah–feel the surge–then let it go!" I commanded over the winds that grew in speed and aggression.

I drew Thanatos off my back and braced it against a rock that came hurtling for my head. It bounced harmlessly off but did not stop smaller debris whipping at every other part of me.

But Tayah's flames upon her back grew larger, fuelled greater by additional power. My fear spiked seeing it rise and knowing I had no control over it if she exceeded her limit. This was not like cutting away a Valkyries energy. This was pure power in its original, god-imbued form.

She shut her eyes and threw a fist into the earth beneath her.

The ground shook for metres and heated beyond the point of burning. She melted the earth itself. I stared in a mixture of wonder and terror that she had gone too far. The ground at her fist sank in deep as it liquified. I had never seen the like of such heat before. For a moment I wondered how much further she would go... How much hotter she could burn...

But the moment she raised those star like eyes to me was the moment I knew she could control this. She could handle the force of the gods. And she could do it damn quickly.

Tayah Ashrive, daughter of Ares and original of the fire elemental, took her fist out of the molten earth and watched the liquid magma roll off her fingertips with eyes brighter than I had ever seen. Then, like you would blow out a candle she called off the raging storm around us and the fire on her back.

The silence fell around us like a curtain. Like one who controlled true power.

I lowered my shield slowly and watched her.