Page 30 of When Death Called Life Home (When Deities Awaken #1)

Chapter 30

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ASCIAN

H e’d sensed it. The adrenaline. The chase. The victory when Alora heard his voice. Never mind the literal threat he wove into his words at seeing the wrath on Riven’s face directed at his love. No matter how much playfulness joined it. Riven knew Alora could be healed quickly here, and he wouldn’t hold back on that fact alone. Ascian would kill him before he let a lick of flame touch a single strand of Alora’s hair.

One of his oldest friends. He would rather kill than see Alora hurt by them. It should scare him, but it didn’t. It felt right. Like that was the perfect reaction to have. Justified. Protecting the one person who gave him purpose.

Riven’s jaw clenched, fighting an expression Ascian didn’t care to recognise. He spun his scythe in his right hand as he closed the distance between himself and Alora, stopping two inches from her back. She stepped back into him, and he wrapped his free arm around her chest protectively. The edges of his vision frayed.

“Perhaps you could beat me alone, but can you beat us ?” Alora asked, her amused voice soothing the restless darkness threatening to come out.

A flash of reflective light hit his eyes, drawing his attention to the solid ice dagger in Alora’s left hand. Her right came up to rest on his arm. Alora easily manoeuvred the dagger around her fingers, the weapon an extension of herself, the molecules taken directly from her own body to form it. There was always something about making your own weapon that allowed you to use it more efficiently.

Ascian lifted his darkened gaze back to find Riven watching them curiously, or more specifically Ascian. “I’d started to think you’d lost your sharpness, Ascian.”

“You thought wrong,” Ascian replied. “I just no longer need it all the time.”

Riven hummed in thought. “No, I guess you don’t. Not with her protecting your back.” His flames swayed before flickering out. He took a step away from them, and the edges of Ascian’s vision smoothed back to normal. A crowd stood around them, watching the pair with critical eyes. Vitarce and Reapers alike, all eyeing the fighting stance the two had automatically fallen into.

“Everyone back to training!” Tallulah’s voice growled into the silence. The crowd splintered apart, returning to their respective fields but continually looking back towards the four. Tallulah's owl swooped down from the large tree on the opposite side of the fields, landing on her shoulder and ruffling its feathers. “What the hell happened, Ascian? You can’t just shove a thought of my body being frozen and then leave training.”

Ascian swallowed. Alora’s grip on his arm tightened, the muscles in her back tensing as though she’d launch herself forward if Tallulah presented herself as a threat.

“I thought Alora was in danger,” he answered.

Tallulah raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s the answer you’re going with? ”

“Yes.”

“What about yesterday when she trained with me?”

He paused, shifting his stance. “She didn’t get the spike of adrenaline she did this time. It didn’t feel like she was in danger.”

Tallulah slowly looked up at Riven, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms across her chest. Riven froze under the stare.

“Yes?” He asked.

“Were you going to hurt her?” Tallulah asked him slowly.

“Probably,” Riven shrugged. “She’s gotten to use her energy on me for the last how many days? I thought it was only fair that I reciprocated.”

Ascian’s gaze sharpened into a glare, something Tallulah noticed immediately. She smacked Riven’s chest. “She’s learning how to use them, you intolerable menace, get another person to join you if you don’t want to be the target.”

A small laugh left Alora’s chest. It travelled through Ascian’s body and calmed him further.

Riven turned his back to them, addressing Tallulah quietly but still, unfortunately, loud enough for Ascian to hear. “And who would I use other than Ascian, Tally? Everyone here wants to hurt them in far more malicious ways. I, at least, wouldn’t have killed her.”

Ascian felt Alora stiffen again and press back into him more. Tallulah frowned at the information. Somehow it hadn’t crossed her mind, nor had she apparently witnessed some of the looks the pair received throughout their day. Though, she did tend to get sucked into training, and training alone, everyday. He couldn’t really blame her when that was her passion.

Tallulah’s gaze connected with Ascian’s. “Maelo is still here, yes?”

Ascian nodded. “She’s my second. She doesn’t like leaving me when I’m being threatened.”

Tallulah hummed before squeezing Riven’s arm. “Use Maelo. And, Riv? If you put yourself in danger like that, again, it’ll be me finishing the job off.”

Riven bent down, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Yes, my love.”

“For now,” Tallulah sighed, motioning for Alora to join her. “I have a task for you.”

Ascian reluctantly pulled his arm from her chest and followed behind her as Tallulah led them away from the training fields and into the section of the forest that surrounded the Academy. He attached his scythe to his back, dodging beneath a nest of low hanging vines.

“I’m guessing it’s not associated with training?” Alora asked. She glanced back at Ascian, offering him a brief smile.

“Not in the sense that you’re probably thinking,” Tallulah answered.

Banging and clanging filled the quiet of the forest, growing louder and louder until Ascian needed to collect moss to stuff into his ears. He didn’t ask Alora before he did the same to her. The flinches each time the sounds rang out around them were enough to tell him she’d appreciate it.

New foliage growth died off, the remaining vegetation dulling gradually into a dry, crunchy brown. Above them, the forest canopy changed abruptly into that of stone, the open space shifting into a cave mouth that tapered in for another few metres before expanding into a wide circular room. Inside, one other person stood before a large anvil, a hammer in one hand with a longsword in the other. They glanced up as the three of them entered before returning to their work.

“Today, I want you to make your own knuckle blades.” Tallulah led Alora over to one of the free anvils. “You are welcome to use your Solar abilities; in fact, I encourage you to. It’ll create a stronger weapon, and one that is even more so an extension of yourself.”

Alora’s brows shot up. “This is common practice for Elysian’s?”

“Yes.” Tallulah nodded. “Normally once they finish their training, but given your situation, an exception can be made. Ascian can make their sheaths at the same time.”

Alora chewed at her bottom lip. “I’m really in danger here?”

Tallulah sighed. “In all honesty, every single person in Elysia is in danger while there’s a war. Even at the Academy.”

And they would be until the deities returned and ended it. At least, Ascian hoped they’d be the answer. Enough powerful energy to finally put an end to both sides. Just defeating the Reaper Elders wouldn’t stop it, they’d have to defeat the Vitarce Elders, too. Not to mention put a council in place after both of those things to ensure it didn’t happen again. He took in a breath and slowed his racing heart. One thing at a time. Defeat the Reaper Elders, keep Alora alive.

“Hopefully we can bring you peace,” Alora replied gently. She offered Tallulah a smile that almost broke Ascian’s will against slaughtering everyone involved in the war. Anyone who didn’t lower their chin against a new order of things.

“Thank you.” Tallulah returned the smile. She moved past Alora, to a row of shelving and pulled a mould off, passing it to Alora. “Use this as a guide to get the basic shape, and then use your energy to fit it to yourself. From your ice daggers, you won’t need much help getting the sharp edge.”

“Okay.” Alora nodded, taking the mould from Tallulah and then watched her leave. She glanced across at me, that breathtaking smile expanding her lips.

Ascian chuckled and moved to where the strips of leather lay. “Where would you like the sheaths to sit on your body, amorsa?”

He glanced over in time to see her pull that damned bottom lip between her teeth, again . She stared down at herself, glancing at the different places they could possibly go before she looked up and grinned.

“How good are you at making sheaths?”

Ascian chuckled, his gaze sliding up and down her body again. “For you? The best.”

Alora flashed him a smile and motioned around her torso and one thigh. “I’m thinking I'll make eight of them.”

“How many are you planning on losing?” Ascian baulked.

Alora giggled and shrugged. “I’m not planning on losing any, but it’s good to have a few extras, isn’t it?”

She wasn’t wrong, per se. Ascian’s scythe wasn’t his only one he’d made. It’d been the best one, and the others he’d stored away at his family home in case anything ever happened to his favourite. To carry eight knuckle blades, though?

“I’ll make you five sheaths,” he hummed, closing the distance between them and dragging a fingertip around her torso. “Four around here, two at the front and two at the back, and one down here.” Ascian pressed his hand to her thigh where the sheath would sit on the outside.

“And I keep three as spares?” Alora asked, slowly nodding at the idea.

“If you want the rest strapped to you later on, I can make more sheaths.”

“Okay.”

With a final nod from her, Ascian got to work. He measured her before she could start on her weapons, marking the leather where it fit around her perfectly and ensuring he made a couple buckle holes either side for gain or loss. The skill flooded his mind, his muscles immediately picking up the motions and particular pressures needed for carving, cutting, slicing, and hole-punching.

He worked in silence alongside Alora, helping her whenever she had a question about the blacksmithing process. At some point after about an hour, the Elysian who’d been there when they first arrived left with their new weapon. After that, Ascian relaxed into the process more. No longer needed to keep watch of a stranger’s movements around Alora. No longer fearing they might try and take her from him permanently.

Ascian finished before she did, which was expected with the longer process of creating a weapon from metals compared to crafting with leather. He waited until she wasn’t using the forge to step up behind her and attach the sheath belt around her torso, then her thigh. He knelt to do the latter. The movement before her as natural as breathing

“How does it feel, amorsa?”

Alora twisted and shifted, crouching and standing back up. Each action testing the comfort and manoeuvrability. The grin at the end portrayed enough about her thoughts, and yet she still answered him with words.

“It’s perfect. Thank you.” She turned away only to grab the first of her blades and slide it into one of the sheaths around her torso. The blade itself looked like any other, except for being an obsidian colour compared to the usual silver. His gaze snagged on the handle, though. Wooden with grooves that swirled like the vines Alora commanded. The handle moulded to her hand perfectly, with sharp, thorn-like spikes lining the outside to deter anyone from trying to grab them off her. It was perfect. The others that she slid into the remaining sheaths were similar. All had their own unique imperfections, but they were just as dangerous as the first. As deadly as Alora willed them to be.