The Platinum Divine Book 1 (Ongoing)

Brewing Storm

The room was silent, with the only sound to be heard within the home was the fire cackling from the fireplace. Leo, Turk and Geuche sat silently at the wooden table, none of them willing to utter a single word. Sarah, who at the time of the incident was in the town square with friends, suddenly threw open the door, completely soaked from the downpour currently happening outside.

"Geuche, what is going on?!" she suddenly demanded of her husband, who replied only with a long sigh.

"Somebody say something! I came running home because I saw a black flame engulf the sky all the way from the town square which caused a widespread panic, and I come home to you three just sitting here!" Sarah screamed, tears forming in her eyes.

As she continued, none of the men made a sound, the only way they seemed to know how to communicate in this moment was by laying their face in their palms. Looking around, Sarah suddenly had a feeling she knew what was happening.

"Leo, where is Layna?"

An exhausted looking Leo did not utter a single word, instead he silently stood up from the chair and rolled up the sleeves from the shirt he put on after the training ordeal. As he did this, Sarah noticed the multiple scars that had not completely healed. For Leo, whose body rapidly healed naturally, only an extremely concentrated amount of either spiritual or divine prowess was necessary to keep him injured this long.

"Leo, don't tell me...is she?" Sarah hesitantly asked

"I managed to stop the flames before they completely engulfed her, and she should make a full recovery, but..."

Sarah breathed a heavy sigh of relief as Leo said that Layna was alive, but Turk, who was trembling trying to keep himself together, suddenly slammed his fist on the table.

"Does someone mind telling me what the hell is going on?!" he demanded, but Leo simply shook his head.

"Turk, you should go home for the day." Geuche said, finally breaking his silence, "There's something I need to speak with Leo about, privately."

Turk was annoyed that he was suddenly getting the cold shoulder, but he was not one to question his own teacher. He quietly collected his things and left for the day.

As Turk left, Geuche stood up and walked over to the window on the wall to the far left, staring intensely out of the window. Without looking away, he started his talk with Leo.

"If Sarah says that she could see it engulfing the sky from the town square, there's a real chance that they have noticed, too"

"Yea."

"And if that's the case, you're aware of what will happen, right?"

"Yea."

Sarah stood silently contemplating Geuche's words, then silently muttered,

"The Gods Hand"

"Right."

"The Gods Hand" were the five most powerful divine warriors of Elfrain. As the name implies, they've earned heavy favor amongst the gods and are seen as the speakers for them. In other words, to anyone who worships one of the five gods, their word is law. Geuche and Leo are powerful, that was no question, but compared to The Gods Hand, both of their powers combined would likely prove futile in an attempt to best even one of the members. If they caught wind of what had just transpired, they would not ignore it.

"Hopefully they didn't notice" Leo said while rolling his sleeve back down, "I'd rather not have to fight any of them again."

"You'd rather not die an early death is what you're saying." Geuche said, clearly in agreement with Leo's aversion to The Gods Hand. "Though I'd rather not have to deal with them either, we did both agree the night you rescued Layna that if the situation reached this point with the forest, you would have to turn to her for help"