In the Pursuit of Death| ONC 2024

10| Akul

*

STONE CRUNCHED BENEATH Eris's boots as she walked the path to Akul's temple. There was no sun in the sky, but neither were there clouds. Still it was gray, and chilly. Eris had let her hair down.

The columns that once stood tall at the temple's entrance were little more than waist-high mounds. The gold had been stripped, by scavengers no doubt, but for what reason, she couldn't fathom. Gold had lost its value, in a world that had lost most its life.

There were no acolytes amongst the rubble. Akul must have turned them all away, and they'd obeyed, afraid to bring their god's wrath upon them. She turned to Windwalker, unbridled beside her, gazing at her with dark eyes. Eris bent down, kissed the horse between her eyes. "You have been like a shadow, following me for years. A better companion I could have not wished for." 

Windwalker softly neighed. 

Eris ran her fingers through the horse's mane. "But where I go now, it is not for you." The horse stomped her hoof. "Go back to Amarna, she'll treat you well. A horse will be useful in the Ash lands." 

The horse shook her head.

"You know I'm right." Eris tied her pack to the horse's saddle. "What little I have, give to Amarna. She showed kindness, it ought to be returned." 

Windwalker pressed her nose into Eris's shoulder. 

"Go," Eris commanded, and the horse reluctantly obeyed. 

Eris watched Windwalker gallop, wind catching in her mane and tail, her hooves barely touching the ground. She walked on wind, as the goddess Byru had made it so. "Be well friend."

*

Akul's temple groaned as Eris passed through the entrance, the high-ceiling sagging, its weight splintering the support beams. Braziers and their broken chains littered the ground. In the back, was Akul's altar in ruins, his throne behind it, absent of its king.

He stood beside it, in fine black robes, and draped in shadow. His hair was unbound, and its ends touched the floor.

"Akul."

He glanced up and gave a wane smile. "My heart."

She stepped toward him, skirting around rocks and larger debris. Echoes of her footsteps filled the room.

Akul watched as she moved. Every so often his eyes lingered on her, as if recalling a memory attached to that part of her - her fingers, the curve of her neck, the roundness of her hips, her lips. She could recall them to, the way Akul had sought her out, hot and feverish at night, reverent and adoring during the day. She recalled how his breath felt against her skin, how his mouth tasted, and the anguish that had consumed her that day he rejected her from Greenworld.

Three thousand years of bitterness rose up, and curled her lip. She scowled, hating the god before her.

Akul nodded at her hands, empty though they were but still balled into fists. "You rejected him."

She flexed her hands, blood rushing into her fingers. They tingled. She stopped at the foot of the altar, four paces and an eternity seperating them.

"I thought you'd come to kill me. I had hoped–"

"I thought about taking it," Eris said, the words rushing from her mouth.

Akul winced, as if her revelation pained him. He smoothed the front of his robes. "Then why didn't you?" He glanced up, looking at her through his eyelashes, sheepish and afraid of her answer.