Seasons in the Abyss (Book 4 EptaBorromean Realms)

Chapter 4.24

Within the walls of Hyreath Viktoria bristled as she took a seat in her office, her hands clenched tightly in her lap. "You'll have to excuse me if I am not as at ease with this situation as the two of you. Would someone kindly explain what the fuck is going on?"

Asmodeus smirked. The woman across from him was not what he had expected from a high priestess at Hyreath. She was stunning to look at, even given the telltale signs of aging evident in the fine wrinkles around her eyes and wisping gray hair woven through her curls. He assumed she would be older, given the years they had corresponded with one another through the journal, looking more like the ancient hag Clara from his first year at Hyreath.

Qyseil cleared her throat. "Eh-hmm. There are questions that need to be answered, but first we need to clear the air a bit," she started. "Asmodeus was a founding teacher of Hyreath Academy, before the Szyzgy. There are very few who remember the realm as it was, but he would not be here if he harbored ill intentions."

Viktoria nodded slowly. She had no recollection of the world before the Szyzgy, and came to work in Hyreath much later.

"The book that you carry was given by me," Asmodeus stated, gesturing toward Viktoria. "While I would like to take credit for its creation, it was a means to an end, and serves a purpose greater than I could devise."

Viktoria snorted. "That was a lot of words with very little substance. Let me get to the point. What the fuck do want with my charge? If you plan to bind or breed her, I will kill you myself right now," she snarled.

Asmodeus's eyes widened in amusement for a moment. "I have no interest in your charge. The only way to get what I want is if your charge is successful in her path. Qyseil can attest to the fact that my interest is singular in nature, and your girl is not the one I am looking for."

Viktoria glanced over to Qyseil to see her bristle uncomfortably before nodding in agreement. "He was in love-"

"Still. I am still in love," Asmodeus corrected her.

Qyseil took a deep breath before continuing. "I had a young ward under my charge when I first started at Hyreath. Before," she clarified. "Asmodeus met her as a young woman, and they developed a bond. When she died, we were both broken by her loss. After the Szyzgy, I thought perhaps I had dreamt of her existence. There were no records of her anywhere in the realms. There were no records of my time at Hyreath for that matter.

Can you imagine remembering an entire lifetime, and finding no evidence to support it ever existed? When I saw him on the battlefield, I wanted to kill him on sight. It was then I knew that everything was real," she said, her voice trailing off.

Viktoria's brows furrowed. "How is that possible? I thought everything we knew of the realm before the Szyzgy was recorded and passed down by the Tenebri."

Asmodeus chuckled. "That's because my father altered realities. He caused the great Szyzgy."

"How was that possible?" Viktoria asked.

"What do you know of the history of Hyreath?" Asmodeus asked instead.

"It was a temple, converted to a make shit orphanage before becoming a school."

"Hyreath was not just a temple. It was the temple of a Goddess. You could even say she was the first," he explained. "My father was obsessed with her, but she was beyond his reach. He attempted to turn her chosen against her, and when that failed, he began corrupting the lesser gods to block her power."

"You mean to remove her faithful from worshiping her?" Qyseil asked.

"Something like that," Asmodeus acknowledged. "But there was a flaw in his logic. You see, the first Goddess was made of night and shadow itself. She was the incarnation of life and death. Her power... Her strength was never derived from faith. She was born of chaos."