DIVINE WRATH

32. Revelations

I had found the sphincter in the memories. I pulled myself through it. I returned back in my body. The jump left me dizzy. I stumbled on my feet.

Una caught me by my arm. Her lips were drawn in a tight line, her eyebrows were plucked. Max was panting. He was braced over, with both of his hands on his knees. He was breathing heavily.

"She is nuts."

Everybody turned to the one with the zebras. The small one shrugged.

"What? Haven't you seen what she did to him?!"

"Shut it, Mere."

Lila begrudgingly said under her breath. She moved and, in a few blinks, she was with one hand on Max's back. I wanted her hands off her. My scars burned. I wanted my clothes off. I wrested the cape off me. I threw it at my feet. I got my blouse off, too. They did not avert their eyes. Of course, just Max, because he still believed himself to be human.

"Look here. Look at my back."

I turned with my back to them. I let their gaping mouths, their gasping breaths.

"When was this?"

Una.

"Who had dared?"

Thass.

"In the name of all-"

Lila was the only one to approach me. Maybe it was foolish of her. Her touch startled me. I flinched.

"I am so sorry."

I hear the tears in her voice. She was prone to emotional displays.

"This is not your fault, Lila."

I was not sure if they heard me. I was whispering. I was barely recovering from that memory. It was almost as if I forgot that I was a part of something, too, that I could speak.

"Stop staring at her."

Max snapped. He got near me, but whiteout touching me he held the cape.

"I don't want to cover up."

He looked away. Maybe he was too embarrassed to see my naked chest.

"I see that. You want to make a scene."

"Are you accusing me of theatrics?"

Was he mocking my pain? And to think that mere minutes ago I felt something remotely to pity. I should have relished in his pain.

"You have your methods of making yourself heard."

He said, still holding the cape, still looking away. He was mad if he thought that I will buy in his mortal prudish ways. Yes, I was trying to make a point. And yes, the scares would help me deliver it home.

"These are the scares done by whips."

"Sand whips."

Max murmured, but just for my ears. He let his arms fall, but he did not back away. I caught his arm. He looked surprised for a second, then weariness gathered on his countenance.

"What are you doing?"

He demanded.

"Those whips are twins to the ones that marred his skin, too."

I could rip his cloth off his arm, I could choose to expose him, too. I could do that. He was not yet trained in his divinity to know how to act quickly when attacked, I would have had him stripped to the middle before he could react. But, I did not want to do that to him, not when that memory was still fresh in my mind.

I watched my crowd, each pair of eyes, individually.

"You know what I can do. You know that I can see memories."

Max strained under me.

„The reason for my disappearance laid in a enemy that is too strong to be taken down just by an order."

I let Max go. I should not drag him into this, more than I already did.

„These are the marks left by the Earth God. The reasons behind my long absence from the gods world. He is the reason why I went undercover. He is the reason why I cannot let you leave these grounds whiteout swearing another vow of fealty to me."

„I knew that something was off."

Thass muttered. He lingered closer to Mere than us. He seemed worn out. I strained his powers enough as it was. When I was succumbing in someone's mind to go fumbling around for memories or thoughts I had to emanate another negative pole of power that would be the equivalent to the power used to drill inside the respective person. Thass had had to keep that power in check, not to harm someone else or the medium around.

„What does the bastard has to you?"

Lila was all talk. She was fiery.

„You have to swear it, first."

Una said in a light hearted voice. She seemed really unfazed. Unsurprised, by it all. Max did no worse. He shrugged.

„I guessed as much. Since He came and force himself on me , I knew that he had to harass you, too, but in a more godly manner."

He said it matter of fact. Was h enot touched by anything? So calm and so posed as if he was borne in the god business.

„Repeat after me."

„Repeat after me."

I glared at Max. He grinned and winked.

I dragged my throat.

„I swear to not reveal, under no circumstance the true identity of the sprite that goes under the name of Axel. I swear to not reveal under no circumstance the whereabouts of the goddess Roia, not until she deems it so."

The swore aloud in the same manner. I clenched my fists.

„The Earth God- he goes by the name Maro."

Una would knew him, Max, too, but the others not so much. He was an inferior God when the Emperor ruled and even in the revolution, he played no major role, he swore no allegiance. He was alone wolf, scrapping at cadavers.

„These scares were his art work. He like sculptures. He likes imprints in stone."

I had to look down. I picked the cape from where Max left it to fall.

"After the war I went to the safe place. I went to pick my family. Blood relatives."

I quickly added throwing a glance towards the ones that had been a part of my inner circle some years back.

//10.09.2020//00.36//