Page 40 of When Death Called Life Home (When Deities Awaken #1)

Chapter 40

The Trial

ALORA

V erena returned, what Alora believed to be two days later, with Suoh and Cónán in tow. They didn’t say much, and the air about them was anything but positive as they each grabbed Alora, Ascian, and Maelo.

Verena, who held Ascian within her sharp nails, turned to Riven before they left. “The Elders are letting you off with a warning. Once we leave, you’ll be released to return to the Academy. Don’t be stupid. ”

“My guardian?” Riven asked.

“Will be released at the same time and brought to you once outside the Grotto,” Verena answered.

Riven nodded. He shifted his attention to Ascian, and then Alora, offering them each an encouraging smile. Alora returned it, although she knew hers was shakier than his. Yes, they had a plan, but plans didn’t always go smoothly.

“I hope to see you again, Commander. Little butterfly. Maelo.”

Verena didn’t allow them to respond as she directed them up the stairs and back the way they’d come into the Grotto.

“Where are our guardians?” Alora asked. Verena ignored her, but Suoh shifted his head closer to her ear.

“They’re kept in cages at the other end of the Grotto,” he whispered. “And, Osiris wishes to apologise for the torture you were subjected to before Ascian arrived.”

Alora’s head snapped to the side, catching Suoh’s eyes. He offered her a quick, apologetic smile before his face shifted back to a blank canvas. She nodded slightly, gaze flicking towards Verena to ensure the woman wasn’t looking.

“How far are we going?” Alora asked quietly when she was certain Verena wouldn’t notice .

“About a half day's ride,” Suoh answered quickly. Verena flashed a look back at them, her brow rising in question to Suoh. He raised one back, his blankness turning into a hardened stare until Verena rolled her eyes and carried on.

Alora sucked her tongue to the back of her mouth, then turned her body back more as she said, “Is she meant to be in charge?”

Suoh’s shoulders shook with a silent laugh. “No. She’s hoping the Elders will promote her upon Ascian’s punishment.”

“Sounds like you don’t think that will happen,” Alora murmured.

“I don’t, and you already know why. She came into the kitchen after you dropped it on her, ranting about how wrong you were and that she’d prove otherwise.”

Alora scoffed. “Spite is a great motivator.”

“That it is.”

Three large guardians waited for them as they stepped through an exit of the Grotto Alora hadn’t used before, or more so one she didn’t remember using. Suoh brought her closer to a large cheetah. It turned its head towards them as they approached, and she couldn’t help but reach out and brush her fingers up over its head. A deep purr left its chest as it slowly blinked at her then looked to Suoh. He chuckled.

“She likes you.”

“I’m glad to hear it considering, I’m guessing, I’m going to be riding on her back with you,” Alora replied. “Would prefer to not have a chunk bitten out of my legs.”

A grin broke out on Suoh’s face. “Good to know you haven’t lost your sparkle.”

Alora’s brows lifted as she turned to glance back at him.

“Stop chatting,” Verena snapped from atop her fox. She sent a glare Suoh’s way. “We’re on a strict schedule, Suoh, and you shouldn’t be conversing with a prisoner.”

Suoh rolled his eyes so hard they almost disappeared into his skull. “What is she going to do, Verena? She has energy-consuming Nymph cuffs on, and I could easily blind her if she tries anything. Not to mention, she was technically abducted from a place that’s meant to be safe for everyone.”

Verena’s eyes narrowed. “Are you saying you support rebel actions?”

“No,” Suoh replied carefully. “I’m saying I support the laws of Elysia, which are extremely clear about the Academy being neutral territory where — unless extreme circumstance occur — you cannot take someone from as a prisoner for ‘wrong doing.’”

Verena tilted her head as she studied him. “Yes. Laws put in place by deities that abandoned us. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Elders rid us of them in the near future. Get on your guardian so we can leave.”

Suoh’s jaw tensed, the muscle twitching. He turned away from Verena and helped Alora onto the back of his guardian. Once she was securely sitting on the cheetah’s back, he pulled himself up behind her and locked an arm around her waist. Alora didn’t miss the narrowed gaze of Ascian on Suoh’s hands and arm. She shook her head at him after catching his eye and she swore he pouted. Ascian. Pouting. It had to be a figment of her imagination.

They took off towards the mountains, using a hidden path with little overgrowth. Alora basked in the sun warming her skin through the tree leaves which seemed to stretch for her and brush against her arms with the most delicate of touches as they passed. Alora relished in their affection, closing her eyes and letting the comfort they brought wash over her body.

She didn’t miss the grunts from Suoh behind her as the tree branches were far less gentle when connecting with him. After a while, when the grunts caused an unpleasantness to rise within Alora, the branches retreated and the grunts stopped.

Alora didn’t understand it, and questioning it made her head hurt. The answers were there but she couldn’t access them. Similar to the memories still locked away without any implication they’d be free to access in the future. Was it important? Did she need to understand why the forest acted how it did? Did anyone understand its actions? Alora didn’t know where she’d start finding answers to the questions.

Her mind wandered as they travelled, taking in the different environments of the forest and the plants as they changed the closer they got to the mountains. The trees thinned out and the bushes thickened and grew into wild hedges.

They slowed as they neared the border of the mountains. The incline was steep and made up of a rocky surface, covered in boulders and shrubs. At the front, Verena’s fox guardian turned and trotted parallel to it. The other male Reaper, and Suoh, followed suit.

Alora tilted her head back and looked up to the sky to find the sun past its peak. They’d left early, but the sun had already risen so she estimated perhaps only a little bit longer until they reached where they were meant to be heading.

“It’s up ahead, just around the bend,” Suoh said behind her. His hand lifted up in front of her and she followed its line of direction to see where the mountain curved away from view.

“That’s where the Elders are?” Alora asked.

“Yep,” Suoh muttered. “Where they carry out councils, anyway.”

Alora nodded and they both fell silent for the last of the distance. The atmosphere around the group shifted gradually with each metre they covered. Anticipatory to anxious. Nerves fired up at the realisation of who they’d stand before and what outcome would be delivered.

When they rounded the corner Alora saw nothing extravagant, not like she’d been expecting. There were two large, rounded pillars that stood either side of a door. They were simple, made from smoothed stone with vines climbing and curling around them until they disappeared beneath boulders above the doors alcove.

The guardians stopped before it and Suoh helped Alora to her feet on the hard ground. Each of the beasts shook, a heavy presence – that even Alora could feel – pressing against them. Its origin came from the open doorway, a heaviness Alora didn’t wish to go towards. None of the others appeared to feel it. No one except Ascian who peered back at her with a simple question in his eyes.

‘Are you okay?’

She sent him a subtle nod and sucked in a long, slow breath. She could do this. They could do this. They had to do this, for future Elysians and the forest itself.

Alora followed Verena and the others through the door, the guardians remained outside and stretched out in the sun. Inside grey marble lined everything. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made from it, polished and carved to however the artist wanted it to be. A Solar, surely. Who else would have the power to carve and manipulate such a stone? And by themselves? Unless it was the work of generations. The thought brought complicated emotions forth in Alora’s mind. The amount of work needed over generations would surely lead back to when the deities were present, and now the Elders tainted the space with their intentions.

Marble stairs led them higher through a passage of tunnels until they entered a massive room filled with middle-aged looking women and men. More of the latter than the former. They sat in uncomfortable-looking marble thrones on a raised marble platform overlooking everyone else in the room. Like the deities they apparently so often claimed no longer existed.

Bile stirred within her as the heaviness pressed harder down on her shoulders, making her want to curve them in and make herself smaller. Something she fought with everything she had. Alora wouldn’t give the Elders that satisfaction.

Their gazes swept past Ascian and Maelo to land on her, a couple of them tilting their heads as they studied her. One of the women spoke first, addressing the other Elders more so than the Reapers who had brought them.

“Seeing her in the flesh still does not make believing her alive any easier.” Had everyone believed her dead when she’d been pushed through the portal? No one thought it odd her entire body simply disappeared?

Another, a couple elders down, nodded in agreement, his eyes meeting Alora’s and signalling he spoke to her directly when he said, “You have not visited your parents since your return.”

Alora swallowed and did a quick glance at Ascian before she replied. “I did not believe I’d be welcome, if my memory serves me correctly.”

The elder at the very end motioned towards the cuffs around their wrists, and then flicked his hand towards a side door. Suoh took Alora’s cuffs off first before he moved to grab the other sets. Her energy simmered within her, crackling beneath the surface of her skin and sweeping protective butterfly wing strokes along every stretch of her muscles. Every nerve alight with a new fire she hadn’t felt since she’d first gained access to it.

A couple metres down, Maelo dropped to her knees, hands pressing against the stone as she forced her energy into the mineral. Tiny cracks splintered out from beneath her palms, and colour brightened her cheeks once more. Cónán helped her back to her feet, and then he and Verena placed Ascian and Maelo closer to Alora before they, and Suoh, moved to stand beside the exit. From the side door, a healed Osiris walked out. His gaze slid over them, lingering on Maelo, and then he moved to stand beside the elder who’d motioned for their cuffs to be removed. His broad sword sheathed at his side.

“You remember your parents?” Another elder asked. “Your brother made no mention of seeing you back in Elysia.”

At least he tried to keep her safe for once. If that was his intention, and not to keep his leverage out of enemy hands. Alora paused, her gaze narrowing as she realised the elder mentioned her remembering. Like they knew she’d lost her memories, but how could they know that unless they also knew she’d knocked her head going through a portal? And then they would have to have known she’d been on Earth this entire time, and had done nothing.

She felt a new pressure on her mind, probing for her memories. Recent ones. Instead she brought forth the memory of her and Ascian’s shower. The heat of it on her skin, the skim of his touch, and the wetness of his tongue. Her gaze shifted to the elder at the end beside Osiris. Watched as his face screwed up and his presence tore from her mind, leaving her be. Alora forced her smirk down. Thank you, Riven .

“Well, I would assume that’s because he’s not my brother. Like my parents, he disowned me so why would I seek him out upon my return?”

“Instead, you decided to entice our most respected commander into abandoning his duties?” The elder in the middle asked, voice layered with different intentions. None that Alora could isolate, though. They likely held centuries of experience at guarding their truth, hiding behind walls of power and lies.

She folded her arms, her skin prickling with wild, pent up energy. “It’s not hard to entice someone away when you were doing as fine a job as any in pushing him to his limits.”

The elder narrowed his eyes, lips pursing.

Alora flashed him a grin and added, “If you got to know your Commander better, you’d realise trust is rather important to him, and you lied a few too many times with no care in the world about being caught.”

Warning flashed in the elder’s gaze, the woman beside him placing her hand on his arm but he shrugged it off. “It is not a commander's job to determine whether we tell the whole truth. It is their responsibility to follow the orders we give and ensure all tasks are completed.”

The way he said it, the emotion driving him causing a slip in his guards, the shrugging off the woman who clearly cared for him. They’d been lying for longer than anyone realised.

“You should perhaps state that in the job booklet, or something,” Alora replied instantly.

“Amorsa…” Ascian warned, his hand brushing her hip. Not a ‘stop talking’ warning, but more a ‘step carefully’ type. If anything, Alora could only feel humour radiating from him. His simple touch kept her grounded here while surrounded by so many different energies. Reminded her where her own body was, and that she was safe. That as long as he was there within arms reach, she would always and forever be safe. He’d never needed to say it for her to know.

“Yes, keep your pet in line now, Ascian.” No Commander , just Ascian. They were dead if this plan didn’t work. “Do you think the Reaper's work is a joke, Miss Vaine?”

Alora gritted her teeth at the last name. “It’s Lexington, and no. I actually find it honourable. The Reaper’s work , that is, but not a useless war that will never end.”

“Useless?” The woman beside the man speaking asked. Yet, she completely ignored the part about it never ending, because that was the truth. Useless, as much of a fact that was to Alora and Ascian, it wasn’t to the Elders. They needed a continuous war in order to keep the Reapers busy and have less questions to answer. Anything that threatened that was a threat to them and they would immediately find a way to be rid of it. Even the likes of the Vitarce’s leverage .

“Yes,” Alora replied. Her arms unfolded and she slipped her hand into Ascians, fear gripping her stomach. You are Life, Life never fears Death. She swallowed and added, “If everyone knew the truth, I doubt it’d continue for much longer.”

Another woman, on the opposite end, shifted in her seat and cleared her throat. “How about we move to punishments?”

Another male elder nodded in agreement and Alora cursed them all silently. She wanted to push more, expose them for what they were really hiding, but how many people did they have control over in the room? There were the four other reapers Alora had already met, plus another five spread out throughout the room with their weapons within easy reach. Not to mention, her own energy felt as though it would explode out of her at the slightest advance. Dread kept it unsettled, and her instincts knew what was coming before the Elders even voiced it.

“Yes. Good idea,” the head elder replied. His lips curled up in a disgusted snarl. “Ascian Kuolema, you have been found guilty of abandonment of duties and your post, consorting with the enemy, withholding information from, and lying to, your superiors. Do you wish to offer any explanation for these?”

Ascian ran his tongue along his top row of teeth, then clicked it as he shook his head. “Not particularly.”

The elder nodded slowly, lips pulling tight in a disappointed frown. “In that case, the punishment for your crimes is death.”

Ascian’s fingers tightened around Alora’s. So close. They were so close, they just needed to hang on a little bit longer. Get a little bit closer to them.

“However,” the elder hummed, his gaze shifting to Alora and that dread gripping her stomach curdled the contents. “Due to your usefulness and skill in this war, we are willing to allow you to live on one condition.”

Ascian’s eyes narrowed at the elders' change of attention. “Which is?”

“Drive a blade through Alora Vaine’s heart.”