Re:Creation Book 1: Allegiance

Thirty: Two

Lysidia woke with a start, finding herself back in the castle infirmary surrounded by a world of color. A wave of relief washed over her as she realized she'd successfully returned to her own body. With the influence of Reif's calamity nearby, she worried about her chances of success, but he left her with few other choices. Reif was very rapidly losing control of himself, endangering everyone in the castle, including them. By forcing the both of them back into their physical bodies, she hoped that she might quell his calamity, if even for a moment.

Her plan seemed to have worked. The tremors had ceased and there was nary a trace of the dark haze in the infirmary. If Reif's spirit was correctly placed back into his body like hers, then he ought to just be unconscious, thus preventing his emotional distress from leaking out.

Lysidia took a moment to rest her hand on her chest, feeling her heart race. She'd never seen Reif in such a tempestuous and unstable state. Even knowing what his power was capable of, nothing could have prepared her for what she'd just experienced. The terrible screaming, the dark plumes threatening to swallow her spirit; even Reif's appearance had changed. His eyes had turned completely dark and his skin--she'd never seen anything like that before. Normally, whenever Lysidia or her siblings expel a great deal of divine power, the Gvoriyan runes that the gods placed on their bodies revealed themselves. The symbols that covered them from head to toe were evidence of the power sealed within them and weren't visible under normal circumstances.

What she saw underground, however, was much more than mere symbols scribed by O'rin. Reif's very skin had changed color. Rather than the Gvoriyan runes Lysidia had expected, Reif's arms and legs were completely stained the same inky blue that represented the god of calamity. Dark lines eerily resembling human veins ran all over his face and presumably covered the rest of his skin. Was that part of his power? Was O'rin himself responsible for Reif's monstrous appearance? The runes covering their bodies already held an immense amount of power from the gods--far more than any normal human could handle. For so much of Reif's body to be coated in O'rin's divine essence--it was no wonder he had trouble keeping it in check. Bearing that much power from any of the gods would almost certainly be detrimental to any of the priests, even without the three other divine energies that resided in them. And for it to be O'rin's power out of all the gods--Reif may as well have been a walking bomb waiting to go off. Lysidia simply couldn't fathom what the god of calamity could have possibly been thinking by bestowing such power upon Reif, nor how Reif was able to keep from destroying everything he touched daily. All she knew was that Reif's calamity was far more powerful than she initially thought. It was something to be feared and must be prevented from ever reaching its fullest potential, otherwise who knew what could happen?

As she stirred from her resting position, her mind was invaded by a different, far more disturbing realization. Jeyre. He truly was down there. He'd been in Castle Ralhana the entire time and she had no idea. He'd been struggling to reach out to her--to anyone-- for so long and she never noticed. And then he was gone. Just like that. And she watched him. She watched as he took his final shaky breath and couldn't do anything about it. All the eons the four of them had spent together as a family, and it only took a moment for four to become three.

"Lysidia."

Lysidia snapped her head up, startled by the sound of her name, and found herself face to face with Lev. He had moved from his previous position and had now placed himself between Reif and Khelmer, who was also awake.

Great.

"Oh, thank the gods you're up." Lev breathed a sigh of relief as he spoke. "Did you not feel the tremors? I can't believe they alone didn't wake you of Reif."

"Yes," Lysidia replied quietly. It took everything in her to keep her voice from shaking. "I mean no, I did feel them, as did Reif. I sent our spirits to the astral plane so that we may converse, hence why we didn't stir. He should be waking up soon, though."