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45. The Many-Faced

"So . . . yeah. That's about it." You shrugged. You and Eris were searching for Helion in his extensive white granite manor. "I hope it wasn't too confusing."

You entered a long hall lined with statues. It led to the backyard, where there was a garden.

"So—" Eris paused to bark out a laugh and then looked at you, incredulous. "So I attacked the Heir to Anima? And you let me?"

"Let you?!" You were arm in arm, so you elbowed him without a second thought. "Wow. Forgive me for not wanting to break up a pissing contest. That, and you were breathing fire, Eris. I didn't feel like getting burned."

Eris furrowed his brow. "You know I'd never burn you, right?"

You looked down, but the corners of your mouth curled up at his seriousness. "I know, Eris." You patted his arm. "Anyway, enough about Azriel and me. What about your bluefire?"

Eris hummed, the sound clipped, annoyed. "It's called godsfire, and I . . . I don't know. My mother's been hounding my advisors and librarians for answers, but we just . . . don't have them. That's why I came here, actually. Lucien wrote that he'd found something I'd like to read, but he'd been lying, of course. The fox."

You nodded. "A fox indeed. But really? No one knows anything else about your godsfire? Only what it's called?"

You and Eris were nearing the backyard. You could already feel the muggy summer air.

"There was . . . one myth," Eris said, but he shook his head. "But . . . I don't know. It was about how when the Mother ascended, she displaced a part of the blue sky, and as it fell, it burned. It almost razed her brand new world to the ground, and in her panic, she started to cry, and her tears saved it. They became what we now know as the ocean. Odd, isn't it? That our myths are so far-fetched? And then I have to remind myself that sometimes, there's some truth to them, and . . . That's a thought."

You watched the toes of your low heels poke out from under the skirts of your dress as you walked.

You tried to wrap your head around the Mother and her broken sky and her tsunami-sized tears. The more you learned about this world and its history and myths, the less you understood it. If the sky could really, truly break, then was this world limited? Was it not part of a solar system?

You groaned and rubbed your temples.

"Don't think too hard about it," Eris teased. "You may hurt yourself."

You hit him over the head with a wing, but he laughed.

When you got to the end of the hall, you spotted Helion in the garden with Elain.

"There he is," you said, pointing. "Ready?"

"Of course." Eris freed his arm from yours and then took a few steps down. Smirking, he offered a hand. "M'lady?"

You rolled your eyes but slapped your hand in his.

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Helion's library was nothing short of magical, and even though you'd expected nothing less from the excessive High Lord, you were still surprised.

He'd winnowed you, Eris, and Lucien to a sky-scraping white granite building on a cliff, and as you climbed the stairs with everyone, you could smell and hear the ocean on the other side of it.

"Reminds me of the Pantheon," you said breathlessly. "But much, much bigger."

"Careful," Lucien warned, glancing back at you, "my father's ego doesn't need to be fed any more than it already is."