“Sorry,” she murmured, playing with her hands.“I know they’ll be…” She blew out a breath and straightened.“My mam and sisters are down the hall.”Ami pointed, her eyes still limned with tears.“D’you mind if I…?”
Of course, someone said.Go, go.There were hugs, goodbyes, see-you-laters.Lina felt herself smiling; saw herself lock the door, reach for Ione’s hand.
And deep in her gut, Sowelan raised His head.
“We’ll be fine, of course.So will they.”Ione broke away, paced the perimeter of the room.Checked the door, the window.“I might nap.Let time go by faster.”She glanced at Lina, looking slightly stranded.“Right?”
Lina nodded, dazed.“Right.”
Fools.Weaklings.Cowards.
She resumed her pacing, floorboards groaning beneath her feet.“It’s lucky, actually,” Ione said, nervously re-making the bed.“This could’ve been me, traipsing down the mountain to face Rigel and a bunch of adrenaline-addled pyromancers.”She fluffed out the faded pink duvet.“Better we stay out of the way.”
Sowelan swelled within her ribcage.Is that what you want?
“Kai won’t let anything make it past him.He’ll – ” Ione snapped up, a pillow slipping out of her hands.“He’ll have to use Menon.He doesn’t want to, I know, but surely he understands he can’t…”
Claws – talons – trailed across Lina’s lungs.The slightest touch, laced with warning.
Listen to me.
Lina shook her head, shook Sowelan away.“He understands.He’ll figure it out.”
Matters between gods cannot be solved by the children of man.
Ione plucked the pillow from the floor, hugged it.“You think so?”
You are weak.
“Lina?”
Weak.
“Lina…?”
Weak!
“Well, what do yousuggest?”Lina shrieked, throwing her fists down.She clamped a hand over her mouth, rattled by her own outburst, by the way Ione drew her arms up, frightened and small.
Ione set aside the pillow and advanced, step by slow step, like Lina was a cornered animal.“Sowelan is speaking to you,” she said, cautious, as she took Lina’s hands in hers.“What is He saying?”
The room felt too hot, the air heavy and dead, but still Lina shivered.“Nothing.”
Ione tugged Lina with her, a gentle tide, towards the bed.“We’ll lay down,” she said, coaxing Lina to sit.The starched duvet crumpled beneath her.“We’ll sleep.We both need rest.”
The pull between gods is ceaseless.
Let two gods meet on the mortal plane.
Let Sowelan settle this matter once and for all.
“Ione.”Lina rubbed her eyes and focused hard.There, Ione, long hair plaited, an errant strand falling over her shoulder.Sweet grey eyes, that little worried wrinkle between her brows.
Listen to Sowelan.
Let Sowelan save that which you love.
Was this what they were missing?The hatred between sun and moon had begun aeons ago, before mortals ever became involved.
