B6 Chapter 15: A Consideration

(So saw some confusion. And granted, it's been like 3 books since. But at the very end of b2, start of b3, Cyrus had a small conversation on the beach during the farewell party chapter. This is tying up this end... or is it?! Read and see :) Also hi, been a hot minute, doing better. Another chapter will be posted later as well. Just getting back on my feet and not actively feeling like death so yay. Also Moogs isn't sick... that I know of, just dead. Since he never read's these, if you're in discord give your condolences for something ridiculous, like "RIP Moogs. I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to that bag of pepperoni..." :D ~~~~Enjoy the chap! Also comment below what you think the skillstone from Ysanna is going to be))

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I expected a flash of light, or some grand magical effect to come crashing through the ceiling and turn the young boy into a Christmas light.

Instead, everybody froze.

No… Not everybody,  everything. The water droplet that slicked off Teldren’s boot was stuck midair, unmoving.

I sighed and turned around, finding a pair of bright, slitted blue eyes. The woman’s skin was dark and her hair was black with undertones of blue from the sunlight hitting behind her head. Her orange robe rippled around her as she floated a few inches above the ground.

“Not even gods have access to time magic outside of their inner realms, right? How are you doing this?” I asked.

Ysanna smirked. “Still as arrogant, but I always did like that about you.”

“Sorry,” I sighed.

“No need!” She floated closer and tapped my chest. “You should be able to feel it, my mana. My essence.”

I did feel the distinct signature of the goddess’s mana, but her mana had permeated the island. It was no different inside the temple, if a little subdued with foreign, other aspected mana sources coming from the statues positioned around the room. Except, when I probed deeper, there was a richness in quality that reminded me of her realm. It covered the ceiling and walls, stopped just short of the entrance.

“Are we in your realm?”

“Almost, but not exactly.” She raised a finger and a bolt of electricity zapped into the ground, creating a ripple like a stone dropping into a calm pond. “It’s costly, but a god can expend their soul and bring out a partial manifestation of their inner realm. Luckily, I’m doing rather well on energy, and this temple was long exposed to my mana. While I can’t do chronomancy normally, I am able to configure the time distortion of my realm, even one as small as this.”

Ysanna landed with grace and she smiled warmly at the people in the room. 

I probed again, but unlike the goddess, I wasn’t able to create a ripple in the mana. “You know, I do have one question.”

“Yes?”

“Wasn’t the city named Moldrula? Why Skyennja? I would have thought the rift-borns would have wanted to keep the old name.”

Ysanna turned around and met my gaze with her draconic eyes. A storm brewed inside the slits, similar to Eodyne’s. 

“Moldrula was a kingdom drowned and torn. I pushed no agenda and simply waited. My people chose to honor the old but continue onward and live their new life.”

“What does Skyennja mean?”

At this, the goddess chuckled. 

“Skyennja is a nonsense word. It was simply the mispronounced babbling of a child born several centuries ago. I believe it means sky star. But she would call everything a skyennja. Even her parents.”

Silence lapsed, and the goddess hummed to herself as she moved from one person to the next. She left Sereza and Zog alone, but she gladly poked Khrem a few times before nodding.

When she started smiling at Teldren’s parents, I finally cracked as my eye started to twitch.

“Why?”

Ysanna slowly turned around and cocked her head. “Why?”

I pointed at Teldren with my tail. “Why all this? You know what I’m going to say. You could have warned them, not… This.”

“Are you certain? That’s your choice then?”

My tail lashed the air as I clicked my fangs. “He’s twelve, Ysanna. Twelve! Or whatever he is? Eleven? He’s not even a teenager!”

“He is certainly young,” she hummed.

“Ysanna.”

The goddess straightened and the very air changed. The sunlight from beyond bent as a cloud of spectral grey spilled forth like fog. The blue in her eyes and hair shone brighter, her presence deepening in my senses. 

Yet, I didn’t back down. 

She tisked and gestured to the boy. “I know some. I remember your explanations in my realm. You’re even right, an eleven-year-old mortal is truly a child. But you are forgetting something, Cyrus.”

“What is that?”

“He’s not from your world. He’s not soft. If you look closely, you’ll see calloused hands from gripping weights and weathering the blows of older men as they strike at his training spear. His muscles are refined, just enough bulk while maintaining optimal flexibility. If you look behind him, you’ll see several white scars, thin, faint things. Marks from the first beast he ever took down on his own.”

“None of that justifies the insanity of taking him with me,” I growled.

“Then don’t.”

“I–wait, what?”

Ysanna shrugged. “You don’t have to do anything, Cyrus. I never once said you had to take him. I even told you directly. That skillstone in your familiar, if you agree to take the boy, then give it to him. If not, then Callen or Aimon will return it. There are no worries.”

I searched, scanning the room, examining the divine being for any form of duplicity. Her gaze was even, and she remained untensed. Nothing about her mana revealed anything out of place.

She smirked. “It’s rather arrogant to think you could read a god if they decided they didn’t want you to.”

“What game is this? What’s the point of all this?”

Ysanna dropped the smile and sighed. It was an exhaustion beyond a mortal’s tiredness. Gone was the scary youth standing before me, and in its place was the eyes of an immortal who’s lived ages.  

“I’m here for a few reasons. One is to show you an aspect of the divine. Your recent troubles with the pantheons and your reveal to the world stage will push you into the light. So far, Aurelion has kept the waters as contained as he can. He’s kept the secret of a Reborn close to his chest. Same with the Luneterra pantheon. Not that I could ever read that crazy bitch.” 

She scooped her hand through the air and formed a bubble of concentrated water mana. With a flick, the bubble flattened and revealed a spot in the sky overlooking the islands. In one spot, a shining ball of light hovered suspiciously, blending in with the cloud cover. 

“Another reason,” she continued. “You’ll find yourself targeted by things you shouldn’t have to deal with. Unfortunately, your entire existence is in defiance of that, so here’s me helping you because you're the scion of my ally.”

“What am I looking at?” I asked.

“You’re looking at Aurelion’s spark. It’s not a thing but a who. One of the church’s spies is watching over the islands. I am as trusted as a serpent with a stinger. I could only shroud your movements the moment you touched the water, but he no doubt knows you are here. My interference will be noted, but there’s not enough probable cause for Aurelion to turn the others against me. As far as they are concerned, you are visiting for mundane reasons, finishing business of some sort for your teammate. When we are done, I’ll pull you all into my realm and send you through another portal. That is one of the main reasons I am here, Cyrus.”

I looked at the plane of water and examined the so-called spark. I vaguely sensed a signature hidden behind a blip of wind and light mana. Whatever it was that allowed the spy to hide, his form obfuscated the surroundings like a chameleon. Even with my senses, he was high enough that I most likely wouldn’t have been able to sense him. 

I relaxed my fists slowly. “Thank you…”

Ysanna waved me off.

“It’s a minor inconvenience, but it’s what I can provide.”

“Ysanna… You said one of the main reasons. You still haven’t told me how this involves Teldrin.”

“I already told you. You don’t have to–”

“That’s dragonshit and you know it.”

“You’re a brat,” she said. Before I could protest, she held up a hand and nodded toward Teldrin. “I mean it when I say that if you decide to walk away, nothing will be done against you. I’ll even talk to the boy myself; they’ll understand. However, if you want to know what I think you should do, that’s a different story.”

“I’ve fought a god. Battled a demigod.” I shook my head. “I survived a god. Survived a demigod. I survived catastrophe after catastrophe. Not without damage. My best friend, my sister, she is still who fucking knows where. Teddy is in a coma; he fucking died! Igas is trapped in some weird bullshit. Isaac has gone edgy lone wolf. Celenae and Eodyne… I’m being hunted by freaks from a church. None of that is what an eleven-year-old should face.”

Ysanna weathered my rant with patience. More than I wanted her to. When I finished, she raised a hand.

“May I speak?”

I wanted to scream. Instead, I rolled my eyes.

“Ugh, fine. What?”

She floated closer and tapped my chest. “You are a lot of things. Scary things, really. Scary to gods. That should say something. You are also a child to me as well. A more grown child, but still a child.”

“Insulting me is not exactly helping sell your pitch,” I said, deadpanned.

“My point is,” she stated. “That you are still growing yourself. At an accelerated, drastic rate, sure, but you are growing. You have a team, lop-sided. It’s a common practice to take on a brave. He can help, he can learn. He will learn, and he will reap benefits from being in proximity. It’s not like he gets nothing out of this.”

“He’s a child!”

“And so are you! Look, Cyrus, I think you should take him. I think you should take him, because I think he will help you. Not the team, not your adventuring group. You. I think the bit of humanity you can see, the innocence in him that has only just blossomed, will help temper you. Frankly, you need that. Calstrax would want you to need that. You’re already more like him than you know, and that scares him.”

“That’s unfair.”

“It’s reality. Granted, he may say differently if he were here in person, but I’ll be honest with you, because you deserve to know as his scion. The gods have been busy; we all have. A meeting that should have lasted but a moment took course over a month in real time. Not dilated, real. The Weave itself showed up and froze our world because you ascended to tier one.” Her expression softened. “Calstrax being what he is, and you being what you are, he’s been busy. He hasn’t stopped moving, not even once. He fears for you, cares for you in a way that goes beyond the normal bonds of even a scion. He’s older than all of us besides Eraztis, perhaps. He knows what to fear; he’s seen enough hearts changed in mortals. I think you should take on the boy because it’ll force you to consider your actions. He’s not a miracle, he’s not a cure. It’s a stopgap, but one you’ll need.”

“You’re talking about me, as if I’m a bomb waiting to blow up.”

Ysanna didn’t flinch from my accusation. Her eyes were steel.

I scoffed. “So that’s it? You sacrifice the boy?”

Ysanna poked my chest again, but it was strong enough to nearly send me tumbling. Her eyes glowed like plasma, bright and dangerous.

“Do not mistake me. He is a precious child of mine. If I ever find out you abuse him in any way, I’ll personally punish you. Calstrax and Eraztis be damned. Do you understand me?”

She’s talking so assured of herself. Damn gods and their arrogance.

“Cyrus…” she warned.

“I would never.”

“Good.”

Her eyes mellowed and she skipped back into the air, drifting once more on an unseen wind. “So, have you made your choice?”

I wanted to scream. I almost did scream, but even I had some shreds of dignity left in me. When I started to pace, I stopped and stared at the rest of my party. Khrem was calm. Sereza was curious. Zog, well, he looked solemn. 

Half expecting him to be bored, but he regarded Teldrin and his parents with a critical eye. 

I clicked my fangs and examined his parents’ faces, his sister’s. There was excitement, joy, but also a hint of apprehension. 

His mother especially had a look of worry behind the softness of her eyes and smile. 

Slowly, I turned and breathed in.

You’re fucking crazy. Sam would kill you.

A smiling, blue ogress of a woman flashed to mind, with a loving gaze that held every ounce of judgment. Not maliciously, but she mentally nodded like I was being an idiot.

Fucking fine. 

“Fine,” I repeated out loud. I breathed out and groaned inwardly. “Fiiiiiiine.”

“Good!”

Ysanna clapped her hands and extended her arms. A coiling serpent made of pale blue shimmered into existence with the crackle of lightning dancing at the edges of its scales. It was barely larger than Sturmrorex in length and looked more serpentine without the mane of a dragon.

She winked and the serpent shot upward in an arc, reaching the apex with a hiss. I took a single step back as the serpent curved and slammed downward into the boy with the fury of a lightning bolt.