The Pain of Loss

Chapter 2

We followed the guard force into the council chambers, I had come here on rare occasions and was never disappointed by the view. The twinkling sight of a galaxy embedded in tiles was something that all gods marvelled at. Despite spending 1000 years of my life here, the beauty of the god's architecture never stopped amazing me. My footsteps slowed to a stop as I gazed at the hall.

"Are you going to move in the next century?" Loran walked into me, obscuring the view. I snapped out of my trance and huffed, shoving past and falling back into line. We continued to follow the guards and I felt Tori watching the two of us with a close eye, I could feel his gaze but whenever I turned my head, he would quickly change his focus to something else. Eventually, I got sick of his staring and spun around to confront him.

"What is it?" I folded my arms in front of Tori and gave him a hard stare,

"Me? Nothing," He tried to sound innocent and began to hurry towards the other gods,

"You're staring at me. What do you want?"

"Maybe what I want is nosy little Norsewomen to keep to their own business!"

Tori stalked off leaving me alone. The council chamber was full of lower gods, and many of the council members were sitting in their chairs. Loran gave us a cheeky smirk when Tori and I reached the open hall,

"You finally decided to show up!" He roused,

"Shut up Loran!" both Tori and I replied in sync. Loran rolled his eyes, holding his hands up in surrender. The sound of the council staff hitting marble vibrated through the hall. The meeting was now in session.

"We gods all believe that the people should know what has occurred," Belenus addressed the gathering of people clustered together. "There was an attack in the mortal realm, from a goddess of the underworld. Mista Ingriðottir has agreed to take her place as Valkyrie general after the brutal murder of the previous recruits."

Belenus nodded to Zeus who continued with the address. "This attack shall not stop this night of feasts, for the festival shall continue!" A loud cheer went through the crowd.

"Festival?" Loran and I asked,

Tori whispered down our necks, "Yes, there's a festival. We're celebrating the coming Rain of the Gods." Of all the times I could have returned, it had to be just before The Rain of the Gods; the largest festival in all of godly history. The rain itself was said to bring truth to those who sought answers, which many thought was a great tool, but in reality, it only brings pain to those who have found the answers to their questions. The festival only occurred once every thousand years. I had seen it once before, back when Valen was alive and Loran wasn't the villain he was now. My choice to come back was now having more unforeseen side effects; but as the rain did bring truth, there was a possibility it would give me the answers I needed.

"When's the rain coming?" I asked,

"The celebrations started a few days ago, which means that the day of the rain will probably be in about a month," Tori explained, shrugging the question off.

"Tori this is serious, you know as much as I do, sorcerers play an important role in the celebrations," Loran seemed unimpressed, as usual. But, he did have a point, the sorcerers had an important role in the festival. I remembered it was the very people who practised the magic arts, were the ones to summon the rain. Which mean that as a sorcerer, I would have to use my power to summon the rain; as would Loran.

"And as sorcerers what are we supposed to do about this?" I barged into the brothers' squabble.

"Don't ask me, I'm not a sorcerer!" Tori hissed back at me, his breath hitting my face unpleasantly.