The Mythos Trials

Chapter Ten

"So, the Leden Siva have finally come out of hiding, eh? Took Noc long enough."

Phenex gave a snort of disgust, his eyes glimmering with the fire's glow. Gwen darted a nervous glance at him, unable to escape the feeling that like Reeves, Phenex had some unspoken history with Noc; but aside from knowing he was Prodosi—an ice demon—and heir to the Frost King's throne in Prodosia, Gehenna's eastern quadrant, she knew little else.

Aside from the fact that he and his clan had tangled with Set's forces, at least, and lost.

"Frankly, I'm surprised it took them this long."

Gwen accepted the cup Forneus offered her, barely registering the heat seeping into her fingertips through the porcelain as she listened to the discussion unfolding around the campfire, the golden liquid within smelling of something tangy and sweet.

"But to make a move on Set right after the Spectrum fell? What the hell does he have," Phenex scoffed, "some sort of death wish? Reeves was still packing all that shadowy heat when they left. The Leden Siva are lucky to be alive, much less in one piece."

"Noc seems to have come to the same conclusion," Rem said, wry amusement creeping into his tone. "I don't know how they got here, but my money—at least if I had any—is on them being holed up somewhere in Gelida Vix."

"They'd have to be insane to go there. Boreas isn't exactly lax, you know." Phenex leaned forward, idly trailing his hand through the campfire, allowing the embers to lick his fingertips. "Anyone sets foot there, he'll know about it."

"Where, then?" Rem argued. "It's not like anywhere else in Mythos would be accommodating to their kind. They get anywhere near Mount Pyre and they'd be dead within the week."

The discussion went on for some time, Gwen's attention drifting away like the steam from her cup, lost in thoughts of her own.

Shortly after arriving, Rem had begun filling them in on what had happened to him upon the exodus from the Spectrum, and then of his eventual run-in with Aquis and Cienna. Gwen hazarded a glance at the latter, ignoring the way her stomach tightened at the nymph's near-flawless appearance, both her heart-shaped face and honey-coloured hair radiant despite the tattered state of her gown.

Aquis she knew and liked well, and Rem—whom she had learned was a daemon, like Forneus, and second-in-command to the Fourth Unit—had proven to be laid-back and friendly towards her.

But Cienna... Well, Gwen hadn't sorted out her feelings regarding her just yet. She remembered her from Apollo's garden the day she'd helped repair Cerridwen's cauldron, how she had been making eyes at Phenex—just as she was now, Gwen's stomach twinging in response—but beyond that, she knew little else.

Aside from the fact that she was gorgeous, and Gwen was...what, exactly? Plain? Ordinary?

Just another human. The thought made Gwen bite her lip, nails digging into the palms of her free hand to distract her from the ache in her chest. Another human, destined to age and die, while Cienna would probably go on living forever, untouched by time.

Everything that separated her from current company: Mortality. Maybe Phenex could die, but he would be reborn. Maybe Forneus wouldn't live forever, but he'd already lived many lifetimes longer than Gwen could ever dream to, and he likely would live on for centuries more. Aquis, Rem...they both had long lives ahead of them, too. Gods, demigods, daemons—the Spectrum's best and the non-combatants who lived there. They would all exist, long after Gwen's body had decayed in the ground or her ashes had scattered in the wind. They would all live on long after her soul journeyed into the Underworld, assuming it ever did.