Amortal Song

10.Shadows

Calypso

Stunned silence ensued a frozen, horrifying kind. Arden was gripping the table hard enough to make his knuckles white, my mouth had dried and my tongue seemed to stick to the roof of my mouth, and Odysseus had stopped blinking in and out. Vespera was smiling, a sickly, prideful smile.

"How?" Arden finally uttered, his voice shook of its usual confidence.

Vespera's smile grew wider, "A little blood never hurt anyone, dear Arden. Something I had to learn."

He looked dead at Vespera, "How are you not a spiriost? How did you become the deity of..." His voice trailed off and slowly I put it together.

She had killed Leorn.

"Why, Arden. Not as smart as you were 2 years ago, hmm? You know me, and know I would never stop at anything to get my revenge and power." She trailed one of her long fingernails down Arden's cheek, leaving a fine trail of crimson blood, almost identical in shade to the tea. "Getting you to sit at my table has proved easier than I thought it would be."

She turned to me and her voice relaxed, "I could help you become immortal, you know. I could tell you all the things I did and we could rule this level together. We're not so different, you and I. Both are lured by the thirst to live forever and by the trap, Neortis had set up. Both led by this trickster." Vespera pointed to Arden, "I assume he didn't tell you about his past with other amortals such as us."

When I slowly shook my head, she clicked her tongue, "Such a shame."

She turned back to Arden and said, "Now I'm sure you want my whole story on how I became the lovely deity of this realm. But are you sure? It gets rather messy."

Arden glared, "The more you talk, the more evidence I can bring to my father to get you banished to the farthest level of Umbeunter."

Vespera smiled, "Oh, but he is well aware of my new position. He came to bless me with the powers after I had gotten the blood on my hands."

Arden looked like the wind had been knocked out of his lungs and I was sure I looked the same. I was unsure of whether what she was saying was truth or lie but no matter the case I remembered the way Neortis had forgotten Vespera's name in the throne room. Was that all an act or a way to cover up from his son?

"Oh, I'm sure still want to know how I did it, Arden." She smirked at him but turned to me, "But I'll tell it your pretty Blondie over here because, who now's, you may betray her as well and she'll end up as a spiriost."

The word 'betray' made me go pale. While I didn't want to hear what she had done...another part of me was curious, curious to how she had gotten the power she now held over us. Vespera must've sensed it because her eyes twinkled with the look of caught prey as she started the tale, luring me in like a fly to a spider's web.

"You see after Arden betrayed me and left me on that bridge, I thought all hope was lost. Until I remembered how the statuses of the gods work. Kill one, you take their place. And it was in my favor that Leorn took a shining to me, granting me sanctuary in his realm and allowing me to slowly break into his heart." She looked at Arden, who had gone pallid, and curled her lip. She turned back to me and said, "I have a way with men."

  "And he wasn't bad looking either. But that's beside the point. You see, one night I had had enough of waiting, being patient, and trying to find the best time to kill him. Impulsively, I went to the kitchen of his home and took one of the knives, one that had these black, thin vein-like lines running through it. Such a beautiful thing, full of witchcraft or whatever dark magic was used to form it."

Very carefully, Vespera reached into her dress, pulling from the folds a dagger with black lines running through it. She placed it on the table and pushed it toward me to look at. The veins seemed to pulse, wicked and alive. Something about it was compelling, the way the shadows seemed to grow and weaken like it was alive. Arden reached out and pushed it away from me, sending it back toward Vespera.

She smiled and stroked the edge of the blade with one finger, pricking small drops of blood to form. The shadows seemed to twist around the blood, sucking the crimson substance in and feeding on it. She removed her bloody finger and I watched in horror as the blood on the blade was swallowed by the black lines, disappearing in a matter of minutes. Vespera uttered in a light voice, "It was very handy, cleaning itself up so that I didn't have to."

I felt my insides twist at how easily she talked about killing someone. But the gleam in her eyes showed that she was playing some kind of game with us, that she wasn't a crazy, blood-starved woman, that she knew what cards to play to throw us in a loop. Especially Arden. He was looking paler than her, a sickly look on his face as he looked anywhere but her...or me.

He must be crazy if he thinks I'm going to listen to her, spoke the voice in my mind. But a tiny part of me found it interesting like it was something I was also capable of doing. Yet, I wasn't a villain and I would never be.

Right?

I pushed the thought aside as Vespera continued her tale, "Not soon after Leorn took his last breath, Neortis visited me, granting me the blessing to take his place. He also promised to not tell you, Arden. But of course, I can't forget a small detail."

Her gaze focused on mine, "You see, Blondie, you can't become a full deity, a full god, by only killing a minor deity. It takes two to become a full one. Or kill a full god and you take their place. Killing a full god, one of the Ancient per se, is very tricky and is almost impossible to do without getting yourself killed in the process. Touch a full god's blood, their ichor, is poisonous and will kill you in return."

She smiled and she said, "I need one more kill and then I'll be a full goddess, one to rule beside the Ancients and take my place. Most amortals don't have the guts to kill, too scared they'll earn anything but favor in the god's eyes...but not me. And I earned a certain level of respect from Neortis. Yet I'm only halfway there to my goal. I still have one more kill to make." Vespera stroked the dagger, making the shadows dance eerily. "And I think you can figure out who he is. The one who made me strive to have this power, the one who caused me this heartache."

She touched the tea and flicked it, spraying us with the crimson liquid. Her eyes turned to Arden, "You. And since you won't drink the tea, well, we're going to have to do this the hard way."

Dagger poised, she lunged at Arden-

And I knocked her out of the air, sending her rolling off the marble and into the flowers. She gritted her teeth and rose, turning on me with a seething look in her eyes, "Why did you save him?"

I narrowed my eyes, "Because it's not right for you to just kill someone. If it were me-"

She cut me off, her lip curling into a smirk, "If it were you, later on, you would do the same thing as me. Because he will betray you and leave you for dead just to save his pretty little head. You're just like me. You thirst to be better, to escape your curse and be done with it. Help me kill him and I'll help you achieve it, help you become a goddess and we can rule side by side, united in a betrayal of the heart."

I was her looking at Arden, probably deciding where to stab him, and quickly tried to distract her, asking, "What was your curse?"

"Everyone I loved in each life died," Vespera looked at me, "And I watched them be taken by Death's hands, swept away into this darkness. But I'm smarter now. And nothing will stop me."

She stared at me, more determined than before, "So join me. And we can end this. No stupid little games for you to play with Neortis- rescuing your little spirit friend and getting out. Join me and this will end now."

Vespera held out her hand and-

I took it.

_________

A/N:

Quite the cliff-hanger there, am I right? Whatever the case, please remember to vote, comment, and read, my lovelies! I read each and every single comment (No matter how many there are, just saying) so please give your criticism and reactions any day!

-Rae