V informed me that he told Thayla the truth and I figured she had relayed the message to them. I guess that slipped her mind or she didn’t find it an important topic to discuss along with everything else.
“What Thayla is claiming is true, but I’m not wasting time getting into it now. We’ll cover that history lesson another time. As for the role of checking on the regions, it became permanent over time, for many reasons.
“Many gods, especially those who the masses didn’t pray to, would go, show themselves, and flash around their power to gain followers. Some enjoyed the company and attention ungodly beings give gods. Others, despite all better judgment, formed romantic relations with ungodly beings.”
“Why did you say it like that?” Thayla snorts.
“I don’t mean to say it in an off-putting way. It’s greatly irresponsible for gods to fornicate with the beings of the regions. The result of a pregnancy would be dire. The ungodly parent would have no way to get an infant to the Gods Veil. They’d release an unknown power among powerless people.”
“Fuck, I didn’t even think about that. Has that happened?”
Creed grunts. “Yes, but not in our lifetime or at least not our time in the Godsdawn.”
She holds his gaze for a long moment before looking back down at the map. “The reporting isn’t surprising. Abernie is the wealthiest of the regions, and the numbers decrease as we move down to Oddian. In all my years of living there, I never saw a god aside from Chancellor Gulliver or Havar when he picked us up.”
“Are you blind? Look at all those hits. All clustered together too. That’s not suspicious or anything,” Riven says, dragging his finger below where hers is pointing.
“Thank you so much for pointing that out to me. I completely missed it.” Her face is blank, unreadable as she glares at Riven.
“Always happy to help you.Any wayI can.” He winks, earning himself a look from Kyzen and myself.
I allow him to tease her because I know she can handle her own with him, but he’ll have to express some real emotions toward her before I actually get on board with himhelpingher as he insinuated.
Unless she initiates it, then that’s a different conversation.
“Anyways,” Thayla groans, pulling a laugh from Kyzen and other unneeded noises from the others. “Those clusters are on the barrier. Who’s to say that’s godly activity and not each time someone passed through it? It’s powerful all on its own.”
That garners my full attention.
“What do you mean? Is it not the same as the barrier to the Abandon?”
“Not at all. A power, really in my opinion, magic of some kind, pulses off it. It neither deters you nor draws you in. It’s just…there. Vibrating.”
“You’ve seen it with your own eyes?” Creed asks.
“Seen it.” Lambrit chuckles. “I couldn’t tell you the number of times I had to trek all the way out there to look for her.”
“Good to know she’s always been nosy. So what’s it like on the other side? Who did you Oddians have protecting it?”
Thayla’s scrunched nose that was aimed at Lambrit slides over to Riven. “I have no idea what it’s like over there and no one guards it.”
“It’s unprotected for whoever to come and go as they please?” Kyzen asks.
She and Lambrit exchange confused glances before she looks at all of us. “Have you all just assumed it’s like the barrier at the Abandon? We can pass in and out as we please and whoever is over there is being kept in?”
We all murmur yes, and my eyebrows draw down as hers widen.
“I’m not sure why or what god reported that, but that’s the furthest thing from the truth. If that barrier accepts you and allows you through, there’s no coming back out. At least, we’ve never seen anyone come back out. If it doesn’t want you to enter, it’ll send your ass flying backward. I never crossed because of both those reasons. Fear of being accepted and rejected kept me right there on the edge.”
“Well, and your—”
“Lambrit,” she scolds, cutting off whatever other piece of information he was about to spill.
We don’t comment, but I tuck it into the back of my mind to figure out what it was he was going to say later.
“We’ll still visit Oddian. I’ll think on it and consider if it should be our first or last destination, seeing as it has the fewest spots to investigate. Thank you, Lambrit, for compiling this so timely. It’s very helpful.”
“I enjoyed it. I’m still working on the list of repeat gods who were spotted, but I’ll have it finished up in the next two days or so.”
