Page 8 of The Gods Veiling (The Valorian Veil #1)

Amick

“Amick, is the Athenaeum cleared?”

I turn toward the voice and dip my head as the High Chancellor approaches me. “It is, sir.”

“Good. All the Escorts have now departed. The Chancellors and I will be in the Gods Sanctum preparing for the Chosen’s arrival. I expect to be informed of any who may venture in here rather than preparing the Assembly.”

“Of course.”

“I also expect you and your brothers to be front and center at the ceremony. I will not tolerate a repeat of last year. You may relinquish your duties with enough time to return to your home and dress accordingly.”

“We’ll be at the ceremony.”

Not front and center, but we’ll be there.

“Very well. No one in or out of the Athenaeum today. Am I clear?”

“Yes.”

With a flick of his robe and hurried steps, he makes his way to the double doors that exit what’s formally known as the Gods Athenaeum. The click of them echoes through the enormous space, and I inhale the calming scent of parchment and ink.

“Come out. We can’t waste any time.”

From somewhere deep within the towering shelves, a laugh pierces the silence. My eyes fall shut with the warning noise just as the sound of a book slapping the ground mingles with it.

“Gods damn it, Riven. Where does that go?”

My brother Kyzen barks, but it’s no use. There’s no telling where one of our other brothers Riven took the book from, then waited for the opportune moment to let me know he messed with things he had no business messing with.

Riven’s the type, unfortunately, that’d tear a page out of a tome just to force a reaction out of me. If anyone else dared to test me like that, though, he’d lay them out where they stood. It’s a confusing emotional response on his part that I don’t fully understand.

He thrives in both chaos and harmony.

He’s a being who’s, how do I say this gently…

Energetic, impulsive, sporadic, wishy-washy at best.

“Sorry, Amick. I’m not sure—”

I hold my hand up to Kyzen. “We don’t have time for it. Let’s move.”

Wordlessly, the two of us leave a snickering Riven standing in the spot I just was. I don’t allow myself to get distracted by the irritation budding in me from his idiotic little stunt that could get us caught.

Every book in here has already been cataloged for the day. I’ll have to worry about putting it back when this is over.

We approach the foreboding double doors in the back of the Athenaeum and slip through them silently. Our feet fall still, and I listen to the pattern of footsteps pacing ahead.

Our backs press to the wall, and we become shrouded in shadows as we maneuver down the dimly lit hall. The entire time, I count the steps.

I appreciate a predictable person.

It’s an unfortunate attribute for a god, but in this case, I can’t hold the man accountable. He’s not at fault for the limited power he has or the fact he’s at the mercy of the Chancellors.

“Thirty seconds, Amick.”

Kyzen’s voice doesn’t rise above a breath as he steps closer to my back and passes me a mask. I peek around the corner and observe the Chancellors Attendant.

He takes twenty steps in one direction, turns, and then twenty steps back in this direction. Every single rotation .

Nothing distracts him from his duty to guard the door that we have every intention of breaking into. He’s a loyal pawn who follows every order given with no questions asked.

The issue with his unwavering patrol is just that. It doesn’t waver, and he’s grown comfortable.

Predictable as I said.

This dark hall attached to the Gods Athenaeum is off-limits to anyone who isn’t a Beginning God, a Chancellor, or one of their Attendants. Kept locked away within this restricted space is their most treasured history.

It’s their secrets.

It has information I’m searching for.

“Now.”

Kyzen’s power flows across my skin and the Attendant’s footsteps fall sluggish. I speed across the distance separating us unseen and stalk behind him.

My gloved hand glides into my pocket and wraps around the small plastic pouch. The fine white powder fills my palm and I’m careful not to inhale too deeply. It’d be quite disastrous and idiotic for me to accidentally put myself to sleep rather than him.

Kyzen’s power releases me and time catches up.

Eighteen, nineteen, twenty…turn.

“Hey—”

The man chokes on his shout as I blow the powder directly in his face. Inhalation or ingestion would’ve worked just fine. His absorption through both methods will speed up the same result.

He continues to sputter as he sways, and I grip him under his arms to hold him up. I don’t utter a word as I lower him to the ground and prop his back against the wall.

“How much sleeping powder did you use?” Kyzen asks as he kneels on the man’s other side and unlatches the keys from the rope holding his robe together.

“Twenty minutes’ worth.”

“Twenty minutes? That’ll get you two hours in here today. You know they increase the block on the Veiling Day.”

“I’m well aware.”

I honestly can’t fathom why the Chancellors only leave these protections in place for this godforsaken day. It’d be wiser to have them active all the time.

My head tilts to the side when he smirks then sighs at me. The noise carries down the hallway, breaking the peaceful silence. I lay the Attendant down rather than leave him sitting so I won’t have to worry about him tipping over and bashing his head while we’re inside, then stand.

I take a few steps away and keep my eyes peeled around the corner to the long corridor as Kyzen finds which key will unlock the door. The likelihood of anyone getting past Creed first from outside then Riven in the Athenaeum is nearly impossible.

That nearly is enough to keep me vigilant.

If someone’s smart enough to get past Creed, I wouldn’t put it past Riven to simply allow them to get by him just so he could see what would unfold.

The last thing we need is to be caught doing this.

Only a few moments later, Kyzen ushers me in, then shuts the door behind us. “Your time starts now.”

My senses devour the room I crave access to. What I wouldn’t give to study every inch of it. I understand the rules that prohibit me from coming here, but I don’t agree with them.

I knew more at the mere infancy of fifteen than many of the Chancellors combined know now. They’re the ones who don’t deserve this luxury.

I do.

Just like the hall, this room is minimally lit and the rows of tomes, books, artifacts, relics, and scrolls obscure even more of the light. The bookshelves are precisely organized, and I map them in my mind.

Not a thing can be out of place.

Where would I place the tome with my most sacred stories and secrets?

Ridiculous question.

I wouldn’t have my most treasured secrets so easily accessible.

My fingers run across the untitled spines. The textured leathers give me no indication as to what content is inside. I don’t touch any objects, relics, or artifacts. They’d surely possess some important information, but I can’t risk being sucked into their secrets with my limited time.

Kyzen’s power continues to flow through the room and across my skin. If we were standing in reality right now, it’d seem like I was sprinting through the rows of books.

The back of the room is where I head. It’s an instinctual response to want to protect our backs. That’s a normal reaction that passes on to even how we hide and guard our belongings. Objects of more importance, we tend to obscure better from initial sight .

As expected, behind multiple rows of bookshelves, a corner, and a curtained wall, seven massive tomes sit on top of stone podiums. It’s not lost on me that there are seven Beginning Gods, and these particular tomes seem to be displayed specially.

Let’s see if the gods will give me their secrets today.

It’s also instinctual to be drawn to the one in the center. A normal individual would view that placement to hold the most importance, but the men who laid these here aren’t normal.

The Chancellors are the highest of the high in the intellectual divide among the gods. They’ve spent their entire lives studying and are bound to knowledge. They can only speak what’s permitted and have sworn their lives to protect what they can’t.

That binding was solidified by the creation of my undivided desperation and attention.

Despite everything I just said, the Chancellors, all gods with that level of power actually, are conceited. They’re so sure of themselves and their abilities, they’d never think someone would dare be disrespectful enough to search through this room.

My fingers trail over the book in the center. The black cover with pressed filigree has no words, no clues as to who the god that wrote this is or which one it’s written about.

The creak of the spine echoes and I stare at the first blank page, then the second.

No dedication, no scribbled notes, nothing.

My power flows freely from me the moment ink appears on the third page. I dive into the knowledge and the parchment flips faster than the wind. Six hundred pointless pages into the ten-thousand-page tome and annoyance pounds through me.

It’s not shocking in the least bit that the first percentage in the text is self-glorification of the Beginning Gods. They act just as superior in their everyday dealings. You’d think for a valued moment in history, they’d be honest. At least with themselves.

“Kyzen.”

His hurried steps echo through the distance between us until he comes to my side. “You found something?”

“Has this tome been read through more times than the others? And how much longer do I have? ”

“Fifteen minutes,” he mumbles as he floats his hand over the top of the covers.

When he continues to drift back to the center one, I stop him. “That’s enough.”

I’ll stick with this one rather than wasting my time on the others.

I plunge back into the tome with abandon. I start right at the place I left off and skim through as many pages as I can that have the words Gods Binding on them.

So many mentions. So much pride in their creation.