His expression was serious as he passed me on his way further into the common space of the cabin. He turned to face me a few feet away, watching me closely as he spoke.
“The ninth Trial,” he spoke quietly but firmly.
Every muscle in my body tensed.
The ninth Trial. The one they’d questioned me about, the one that seemed to be dangerous for me to recall, the one where something had happened that had even the gods off kilter.Kleio’stone was clear. He was going to instruct me in this, as all others, but I needed to be careful.
“How did you discover this ability?” He asked easily, folding his hands behind his back and pacing away from me in a way that might have been casual if his shoulders and back weren’t so tense.
“Ad—my partner did, actually,” I confessed.
Kleio’sgaze flicked up to me briefly before he asked.
“How?”
“It was an accident. She was having an argument with my…with a former friend of mine. I guess it got heated and the girl tried to attack her. Adrian phased away before she could.”
Kleionodded slowly, giving nothing away of his thoughts as he rounded his table and turned back to face me.
“Did you train with the ability before using it in the avalanche?” He asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “Every chance we could.”
“And yet when it came time to use the skill, you couldn’t manage the task.”
“We can only hold the phasing for a few seconds. The avalanche—”
“You think the gods would gift you with a fewmeaslyseconds of intangibility and then task you with surviving an avalanche? Your Blessings were always meant to be just that; Blessings. You were meant to use them, Dante. You were meant to be grateful for your gifts and, as a result, train with them, hone them, perfect them. You and your partner hurled yourself into every Trial with the training of a mortal man, not that of a god. You didn't survive the Ninth because of what you were Given. You survived the Ninth because of what you took. The others are not pleased with that success.”
“Took? I don’t understand.”
“You aren’t meant to. And I can’t tell you any more than that. In truth, I’ve said too much as it is. Take it as a warning or foolishness, whatever you choose. My point, Dante, is that you were supposed to have come to us far more adept with your Blessings than you are. Your people have not passed the Trials for centuries because their focus has shifted. It's not the body which needs to be honed for the challenges you face but the mind, the soul. And you, Dante of House Viper, come to us woefully short in both.”
I had the distinct impression I was being insulted. I couldn’t help but scowl at him as he paced before me.
“I don’t blame you,”Kleioadded quickly, his tone one of resignation. “Deimos and the others have all but given up onyour race. You’re far too distracted with your internal power struggles and material luxuries to fathom the larger battle at play here. You’ve proven yourselves inadequate. So imagine our surprise when, for the first time in generations, your kind managed to prop up a pair that looked as though they might actually have the makings of Champions for the first time in a thousand years. Sure, your plight was intriguing, vastly entertaining for the lesserGeistwho began to crowd the arenas to watch. But it became clear to those of us who truly understand the game that Trial after Trial you were making it through by the skin of your teeth. Not through skill, not through power or Blessing, and not through faith. You were blind rats particularly lucky to stumble upon a piece of cheese again and again. So when the Ninth came and you made it through, once again, but this time via the power that you stole, rather than what they gave you, it was the ultimate insult. You spat on their Blessings and succeeded anyway. You cannot imagine how furious that made them.”
“That’s why you warned me that first day,” I said then, understanding dawning upon me. “Because they were angry we had succeeded.”
“They were,”Kleioadmitted with a nod. “But no longer. Now, they're simply suspicious. And paranoid. I'm certain I don’t need to tell you how that can be even more dangerous.”
I didn’t respond. I just allowed his words to sink in, to truly understand the danger I was in for the first time. The gods I’d worshiped my whole life, had been raised to believe in with absolute certainty, had dedicated my life to proving I was worthy of joining, were suspicious of me. They were paranoid because they believed I’dstolensomething from them. What that was, I couldn’t fathom. How could I have taken something from them when I’d never been all that convinced before they even existed?
“What do you know about the history of your people?”Kleioasked, so suddenly I practically wrenched my neck being pulled out of my reverie.
My gaze snapped up to his and I could tell he saw my confusion because he sighed and began to pace in that way of his.
“Deimos and his council would have you believe we're your gods,”Kleiobegan. “It’s easier that way, I suppose. Religion is an excellent way of winning yourselves loyal, unquestioning followers. But we are no gods. We're but physical beings, just as you are, though entirely too convinced of our own superiority.”
I blinked, brow furrowed.
“I don’t understand,” I said slowly, stumbling over the idea that everything I’d ever known, had ever been told, the foundation of it all had been a lie. They weren’t gods? “Then what are you?”
“We areGeist,” he told me as if that explained it. At my furrowed brow, he continued. “We came from another world, through a portal which the devising of took the immortal lives of some of our finest warriors. We didn’t wish to leave our second home but we had no choice. We were fleeing an evil which threatened to corrupt the very core of what we are.”
I frowned. What evil could be so great as to defeat theGeist?
“Humans were already here when we arrived,” he continued, no longer paying any attention to my confusion. His eyes glazed over as he stopped pacing and gazed at the maps scattered about his table. Remembering, I realized with a chill. “At first, they welcomed us. Cautiously, of course. But they were curious about us, as we were them. We were on our guard, having come from a world in which evil reigned. But the humans seemed…simple by comparison. They lived simple, short, nonthreatening lives. They always seemed to do more harm to each other than theyever did to us. So we settled among them and lived peacefully for a time.
