God of Discovery [high fantasy, slow build, mlm]

Arc 3 - 36. God of Destruction

Maybe it was time to get sober. D'Argen smiled into his bottle as the thought crossed his mind. Why? What was the point? There was around another four thousand years left before he reached the time in the real world. Real world? What was real anyway? The pain in his heart felt pretty real when somebody ignored him or the whispers got too personal.

But, since the event that would not be named but had shaken all Never Born, the whispers had slowly changed course. There was too much drama happening in the castle of Evadia for D'Argen to be the focus of all rumours. Especially when mortals started visiting from far and wide, petitioning the queen for help as the demons had returned.

D'Argen wondered if he should offer his assistance as yet another petitioner walked out of the receiving hall. The line going into the hall was long. Acela would not be able to leave her seat until the sun set, if even then. Vain was going around already and culling the line, writing names and locations for demon sightings, and turning the mortals away.

There were so many.

Soon, Acela would cave and finally send someone to investigate. D'Argen wondered who she would send. In his other memories, she had sent Thar. He was both one of the strongest and his penchant for fighting had garnered him a large following among the mortals. And D'Argen suspected only now that he knew what would follow, Thar's fighting prowess had helped establish the Kesenese Empire to their east, an Empire that stood in Acela's way for quite a while at one point.

But with Thar gone, not having ever fallen in this realm, D'Argen was curious. Curious enough to wait until the line was over and ask, but not so curious to stand in it. He sat on one of the benches near the door as the line got shorter and shorter and the sun came lower and lower. His latest bottle finished long ago, and though his mouth and throat were dry, he saw the end of the line nearing.

Once there were only five mortals left waiting, D'Argen got up and stood in line behind the last one. He startled the old woman who nearly fell, but even without his mahee and with alcohol coursing through him as much as blood, he was fast enough to stop her from falling. She thanked him profusely and then started talking to him about her daughter, who went off to fight in the north and had not written to her in months. She went, following one of the gods.

"Foolish girl, that one," the woman said to D'Argen quietly when there were two mortals in front of her, waiting in line.

D'Argen was only listening to her with one ear, trying to hear the quiet pleas of the man currently sitting in front of Acela to discuss his woes. When he realized it was something about his farmlands, D'Argen dismissed him. Just in time too, to hear the woman say a familiar name.

"What did you say?" he asked, louder than intended, interrupting the mortal talking with Acela. Acela was glaring at D'Argen, but she quickly turned back to the mortal to answer him.

"My apologies, what did you say?" D'Argen repeated the question, quieter.

"I said, she was always good at fighting, didn't want to sit at the weave and picked up a bow instead. She used to fight bandits when they came to our village, but it's one thing to fight against rogues and nomads and another to fight beside the God of Destruction."

"A name, you said a name," D'Argen tried to rush her. "God of Destruction..."

"Thar," she said. D'Argen felt his blood freeze over. "At least—" she continued, her eyes wandering to the ceiling in thought, "—that's what I think it was. A strange name, that one."

"Thar," D'Argen breathed out the name. "Did you see him?"

"Yes, yes. He passed through our village personally."