The Mirror (Completed)

Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

How do you kill a god or goddess? That has been all my mind is focused on ever for two days ago, when Dregh surrounded me with her words that flowed from her silver tongue like a river. Kyril is right in the fact that you can never trust a word that his mother speaks; however, I am to never underestimate Dregh, as I know she loves a good old game. She wants to play a game of chess, but not one against me, no, but one against other gods. It was clear when she spoke to me, how she said she knew other deity's weakness and how to use them to her advantage. My one question in her game of chess, is not which piece am I to her, but who is her opponent? If Dregh plans on using a human from the line of the strongest hunter, a human with no knowledge or ability to kill someone of her stature, then is this opponent that weak, or does she just want to play a game? With my mind wrapped around those thoughts, I completely disregard the conversation before me, as Kyril talks to his trackers, showing them a map and he points along different mountain ranges and bodies of water. King Kyril of Iduna, a naive and weak king for his kingdom. Sure, before I saw him as some strong and mighty king, the way he conducted himself, how people talked of him, and hell, how my first impressions of him was him holding me over a balcony as I screamed. However, I see it now, I see his arrogance in a new light, his yearn for someone to belong beside him. Being King at a young age and having grown up in a palace where you have seen your father murdered, your mother never visiting because she is a goddess who gives no concern for you, and his only friend to be his mentor to teach him academics and battle skills, I see how that has made him appear weak to me now.

The king I once thought of as mighty and bold is nothing more than someone my age now, prone to being taken advantage of, someone so desperate for the company of someone their age that could offer them a simple slice of happiness, and someone I too will play just has his mother has played him. Kyril does not believe Dregh because he always thinks she is to lie, to try and take a piece of his happiness from him, while in reality, he should have listened to the woman he detests. Dregh told me of a possible future, yet I wish to disprove her, to show her I will not murder, and to show that I will leave Iduna with my father. So, what if my relative was some mighty hunter, for he has been long dead and any fighting skill I have in me, Kyril has easily been able to disarm me. If I cannot even defeat a demi-god, then how can I defeat a god? I have been told that Heka has slayed many demi-gods, as if that his is goal here, but he made a mistake in slaying Kyril's father and not Kyril himself. If this is true, then I do not know the image I expected my father to have.

"Lady Candice?" My presence in the discussion around me is acknowledged once more, snapping me out of my thoughts as I sit before a group of men that overlook a map, their eyes locked on mine as my throat runs dry. "Did you not hear the plan?" Duke Gravon asks, his voice a tad shaken as it has been since the day on the mountain when I saw in his eyes a fear not caused by Dregh but caused by me. Ever since that day, Duke Gravon has tried to pull himself away from me, no longer someone for some friendly conversation, but someone who makes comments every now and then, avoiding me as much as possible. Why? He knows not of what Dregh said I could be capable of, but he knows that Dregh confided in me, treated me as if someone to associate herself with, and wished to see me again. That alone is enough to make him fear what assumes me to be capable of. All of Kyril's other men see me just as a mere human, seeing me as no threat as they only think that I am here to help their king find a man that has erased himself from the maps. "Our plan is to head out tomorrow morning, before the sun rises, and to head west into the Forest of Zella, taking a shortcut through there and then into the mountains Heka is said to be residing within."

"How long of a journey?" I ask, sitting up straight as I remember the golden eyes of Dregh the moment she told me I would murder my first enemy on the day that I am reunited with my father, before the sun can even set. But who would be my first enemy? It would have to be someone here from the camp, someone already plotting something against me, but who? Duke Gravon is a no, as he is too scared me of, plus, he knows his king is head over heels for me, meaning he would not dare threaten the life of the king's supposed mate. The king looks to me, his head probably filled with conflicting thoughts. He must be smart than how he is acting now, some part of him knowing that because his mother left with haunting words hanging in the air, I am more than just some human who came to Iduna on accident. Kyril believes that his mother was playing another game, trying to take some form of happiness from him. What happens when he discovers who my father is? My father who has traveled around this realm, murdering the children of the gods, and here Kyril is, unaware that I am the daughter of the man he wishes to kill. Why do I hold such high loyalty to a man who I barely know, who perhaps has murdered so many like what I have heard? He is family, flesh and blood that has been missing from my life for years. It is not just loyalty alone that keeps me persistent on finding my father, but the fact that I want to know why he never returned home to mother and me, why he spent so much of his life trying to leave his perfect life back home behind for one of a lone traveler seen as an enemy or a demon. A sense of curiosity aids my determination to find my father, not to mention he may hold the key to return back home.