Page 51 of The Gods Veiling (The Valorian Veil #1)

Amick

The third repetition of three knocks at my door finally draws a sigh from my lips and I push from my desk to go answer it. I’ll never be able to focus with the constant interruptions.

I’m fully aware of who’s on the other side. Each of my brothers has a distinct knocking style and the one currently banging away is none of them.

With a chipper smile, Thayla gives me a small wave as she stands, pretending to be innocent at my door. “Hey, Amick, do you have a minute?”

“No.”

Her face falls. “Then why did you answer the door?”

“You wouldn’t stop knocking.”

Must I explain everything?

She crosses her arms over her chest, which I realize is a cue for annoyance. I’m not sure why she’d be the one annoyed, though. I’m the one being interrupted.

“I only knocked three times.”

“You knocked nine times.”

She presses her lips together and closes her eyes. While she thinks about the insane number of times she knocked, I take this wasted minute to examine her up close.

The minor injuries she acquired during training today are almost healed. Although the Healer that helped her is quite skilled, her body’s accelerated response to it is another sign that her power’s settling in as it should .

Over dinner, Creed interrogated her ineffectively about how she learned the skills she did and what the issues with her and half of Gladian’s Valtrue are.

I appreciated her short, straightforward responses.

He didn’t. When she started to return the questioning to him, he stomped off, and she grunted something about hypocritical gods.

The entire meal, Kyzen and Riven continued making comments to her about how she was glowing.

I studied her closely to see if I saw any sign of power within the domain of the God of Light.

All evidence so far would prove that to be a highly unlikely domain.

Yet it’d be a chaotic twist of events, so I can’t rule it out.

I never caught a glimpse of the glow. Her skin fluctuates between her tanned, sun-kissed shade to a richer, darker tint when she’s experiencing emotional responses. Such as right now.

Blood’s beginning to rush to her cheeks now that she’s realized I’m observing her.

“Well, it would seem like you do have a minute since you’re just standing here staring at me.”

“I’m standing here, waiting for you to say whatever it was you needed to so I can get back to what I was doing.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re kind of an ass?”

“Other than Riven, no.”

“Well, you are.”

“If that’s all, I have more important things to attend to,” I say as I go to shut my door, but she has the audacity to push back on it.

“No, no, wait, please. I really do have a request.”

I arch a brow.

“Can you explain to me what’s going on with my powers and when I can expect something to happen? Or at least when I can expect to be able to control the lights in my room?”

Well, that’d be a topic that falls under my domain and responsibility to explain.

“Come in. Shut the door behind you.” I reach my desk to close the text I was reading at the same moment the click of the door resounds around the room. “Don’t touch that.”

“How did—you weren’t even looking at me.”

“You’re inquisitive like I am but reckless like Riven is.”

“Ugh, don’t compare me to him. I’d never drop a statue head in someone’s food.”

“But you’d steal a statue head. ”

Her silence is answer enough even though I already knew that.

“Do you have specific questions?”

“Do you really believe the Valories made the decision to take all our power, or it was the Beginning Gods?”

My eyes blink repeatedly as I stand straight. I contemplate what I want to say as I rotate to face her. “Why would you ask that?”

“I’ve always believed that the Beginning Gods had more to do with it than they led the realm to believe. Now, being here and seeing that they can seriously just release however much or little of it back to us as they please, it kind of solidifies that assumption in my mind.”

Interesting.

I may have underestimated my Binder.

“I believe the Beginning Gods had more to do with it.”

She crosses my room to one of the seats in front of my desk and kicks her feet out of the slippers she has on. Instead of sitting normally, she crosses her legs underneath her as she climbs in the chair.

I can’t help but watch her every move. “What are you doing?”

“Taking a seat so I can listen to you.”

“Why are you sitting like that?”

She leans back and shifts herself around before falling still once more. “I’m comfortable like this.”

“Do you absorb information better when you’re comfortable?”

A thoughtful smirk crosses her face. Kyzen does that to me when I’ve said something he finds funny, but I didn’t say anything akin to humorous just now.

“Yes. I do learn better when I’m relaxed and comfortable.”

I make a mental note to get a chair for my office tomorrow in the Athenaeum. Until her arrival, I never allowed anyone in there aside from my brothers and unfortunately the Chancellors.

If she needs comfort to learn more efficiently, I’ll make sure to accommodate that while she spends her required time with me.

“We’ve already told you it would take some time for your powers to settle as your body grows accustomed.”

“I know that, but is there a specific or average time frame I should be expecting? Signs I should be looking for? Is there already enough in my body that I could access to control the lights in my damn room so it’s not so dark when the sun goes down?

If so, how do I do that? And Kyzen mentioned you may have a torch lamp I could use until I can do that. ”

Her powers aren’t at that point yet. She knows that, but she appears to be looking for another answer to curb her denial for some reason.

I cross the room to one of my shelves, grab one of the many torch lamps Kyzen knows I have, then walk back to my desk. I set it down and make sure she’s watching me. Which she is.

“Turn this to the right twice.” I show her, turning the mechanism that rubs the flint and steel together, and a flame flickers to life. “This one, twice to the left will douse it.” The second knob controls a covering device that smothers the fire.

“This is an ancient and outdated method of a light source from the nonmagical realm. It’s fickle and volatile. Don’t burn our home down. Make sure you don’t leave it on while you sleep.”

“Understood.”

“Show me you understand.”

Her brow arches as if she’s asking a silent question, but when she doesn’t vocalize anything, I nod for her to do as I instructed. She leans forward in the chair and lightly runs her fingers down the glass casing and around the controls. She seems fascinated, so I don’t rush her.

It’s a good thing she’s cautious and willing to examine something thoroughly before implementing what she’s learned.

Finally, she turns the controls on the lamp just as I showed her. Her eyes flare with excitement, then she cuts it off properly.

I hum. “Very good, Thayla.”

Her body falls still. Her eyes widen, causing her pupils to dilate a fraction. That’s both a physiological and psychological response to a number of things. Interest, anger, fear, attention, surprise, and even arousal.

Given the subtle intake of breath and the reddening surfacing again from her chest to her cheeks, I’d presume either anger or arousal. The latter in this scenario doesn’t make sense to me, but she’s not having an outwardly negative reaction either.

I’ll be more observant of what’s happening around us if it happens again so I can see what triggers that response in her.

“There’s no specific time frame as it’s unique to every god.

It’ll depend on your domain, the amount of power released, and your body’s acceptance of the changes.

The more power released, sometimes the longer it takes.

My brothers and I received a significant amount this Veiling.

That leads me to believe more than the average has been released for you .

“As for signs, you’re already exhibiting them.

In the healing villa, your eyes were layered rings of gold, green, blue, and brown.

Now they’ve merged into a multitude of colors.

I can spot at least five different ones, now including a darker, almost black shade.

They resemble stained glass. That’s a change that represents your sight sharpening. ”

“You noticed the colors of my eyes?”

“Of course. Also how well you’ve healed. Your skin is flawless, and I’d imagine it’d be quite smooth to the touch—”

“Aww, Candyman, you’ve noticed my skin as well?”

I’m going to figure out why in the realm she calls me that.

She smirks once again as I ignore her and carry on with what I was explaining.

“Given today’s display of your fighting abilities, the natural heightened strength gods have has already begun settling in as well.

The way you handled the number of opponents, all of whom can access their power already, was very impressive.

“Another telling sign, it’ll be the most prominent that your power has come forth and settled, is the actual use or you’ll experience the sensation of it.

It can be described as tingling, numbness, or pressure building in a specific area of your body.

As an example, my power resides mostly in my mind.

My head can grow heavy when I use too much of it at once. ”

“Is that painful for you?”

“Painful, no. A nuisance at times, yes.”

“So for now, it’s a waiting game. You said actual use or sensation. So I’ll be able to feel it?”

“Absolutely. You may experience a vibration throughout your whole body or maybe a warmth spreading. It’s typically comforting and natural, but obviously a different sensation than one you’ve ever felt before.

Depending on what your domain is, it may trigger an event, or it may just be something you subtly experience on your own. ”

“Great, so something bad could happen,” she groans and places her face in her hands.