WAR STORM (Red Queen 4// Alternate Version)

Chapter 41

Hello! Apologies for the late update! I have plenty of chapters, however, locked and loaded to be published in the near future! These coming chapters promise betrayal and passion!

Enjoy, lovlies.

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Iris

"Are you religious?" I ask Mare on a stroll through the garden in the evening.

"No," she says, still donning gear and sweat from her afternoon training session with Tyton. I don't know why she bothers to keep up such a vigorous exercise regiment anymore. It's not as though she'll have to fight again. The entire continent is united under Cal.

Personal reasons, then.

"I never have been," she continues. "Though the worshipping of your Gods isn't outlawed in Norta, it's not looked upon very fondly."

I nod, sweeping a braid out of my face. "It's just... I enjoy our talks, Mare. And I find it absolutely hilarious that five years ago, a Nortan Red girl like you and Lakelander Silver princess like me couldn't have been friends. Someday... if you'd let me, I'd like to share my religion with your country, and perhaps my message could start with you."

A sadness flickers in her eyes, but only in a flash. I don't ask her what it is. Maybe someday we'll be close enough for me to.

"I'd like that," she says at long last. "Our countries have already come so far. I don't see why we couldn't share that, too. Besides... maybe having something-someone-to believe in would be good for me. Would make me start living for something-someone-more than this war."

Hope sparks in the little lightning girl's electric eyes. I dare call Mare Barrow a friend for all the time we've spent together over the months.

So I tell her about the legends of the Lakelander Gods.

A half an hour later, edging dangerously close to when the practice wedding is scheduled to commence in the throne room, I find myself with Mare in the temple Cal had the decency to build for me and my fellow Lakelanders. I gave Maven months, but he failed to do much more than point me to the door.

The temple his men built is small, but it is a home away from home, and good enough for me. The outside is a pale sand color built from sandstone, and the interior is but a couple of rows of pews and a worshipping shrine at the front. There couldn't be room for more than fifty people in the pews, but there are never more than fifty Lakelanders in Norta, Cal probably figured.

But in time, as I gain the respect of the Nortans, I'll have a new temple built for Archeon and all the other cities.

We kneel before the altar together, backs straight but heads bowed. Besides for the two of us, the building is abandoned.

"What should I do?" Mare asks, still in the outfit she wore earlier. "I've never-"

"Shush, you," I say, smiling at her. The girl can wield bolts of lightning and steal the hearts of men left and right, but she's on edge, out of her element in this temple I haven't yet named. "A prayer isn't the type of thought that has much of any restrictions. You pray to the Gods. You ask them for wisdom, courage, help, maybe a dash of sanity. To admit your sins to them when you're ready. And prayer doesn't have to occur here. As long as your heart it with you. I simply feel most comfortable here, rather than in my Nortan-designed rooms."

"Thank you, Iris." Mare nods, closing her eyelids.

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