“I guess wherever is simplest. Where are we going? Why has this been so smooth so far when you all acted like we were going to get attacked the moment we walked in? The Veilatara? Any answer to those questions would make me happier than I am right now.”
A harsh exhale whistles from his nose. He bows and shakes his head before turning to me.
“We needed to be as prepared as possible depending on what part of Hellveilious we ended up going to. The respect you saw shown to me back at the Division slowly, but surely, fades out the farther in Hellveilious we travel. The lower level has respect for no one. Even though the God of Judgment made it seem that way, the beings down there would kill him the second they could.”
Sevryn grunts an agreeing sound. The threats thrown his way when our sudden death match was announced remind me of how fast they all turned on the God of Judgment. So yeah, that makes sense.
“As for the Veilatara…” His jaw muscles lock and he stares down at his white knuckles. “Do you know what happens when you kill a Veilatara?”
My head jerks. “No. It never really occurred to me to study such an awful subject either.”
“The pathetic fucks get a nice little power boost.” Riven growls, and my attention whirls to him and the infuriated scowl on his face.
“Like a permanent one or?”
“Nope.” The word pops off his tongue as a pleased smirk tilts his lips. “The fucking fools get to live out that glorious sensationfor only a blip in time. In the end, they suffer a miserable, usually self-inflicted, death as their minds fracture and the power rebels.”
A loud ‘HA’ barks out of him as his eyes swirl. Neither power takes control, but this is obviously a very sensitive subject for him, and I didn’t even think about that before bringing it up.
“You’d think all the pieces of shits would learn from each other’s mistakes. The Veilatara’s power is too pure to be held by the likes of us. They’re blessed directly by the Valories. They’re conducts of the original design. They’re living archives.
“Their hooves create pockets of fertile land with every gallop. Their breath purifies the air. Their presence near water prevents stagnation. We wonder why our realm is in such shit. We’re given precious creatures that give us fierce loyalty and balance and what do we do? Kill half of them off. Cause even more to go extinct.”
The passion in his words sends my heart pounding and fingers shaking.
He’s so undeniably right.
There’s no telling the consequences the realm’s really experienced from killing off the Vedarya and so many Veilatara.
Valories…it’s so fucking wrong.
Creed clears his throat and I focus back on him.
“The God of Creatures and the previous God of Death didn’t support the killings of the Veilatara, but they didn’t do shit to stop it either. Their solution was that if a slain Veilatara was found, the God of Creatures would bring it here and have it rise from the dead. They figured giving them a role here would be better than nothing.”
“Better than nothing? Such as decomposing in the ground like they’re supposed to when and if they die?”
He grunts. “Yeah. I’ve always disagreed with it, but I didn’t know what to do. Then Verlet came along.”
I take his cryptic, short sentence as he’s not comfortable with Doren and Nero knowing Verlet is their companion.
“I told him I would put them all down and give them a proper burial. He asked me not to until the Veilatara were no longer strapped. They’d like to give their fallen a righteous return. I’ve honored his request.”
The emotion lodged in my chest is suffocating. His guilt weighs as heavily as my hatred for this whole situation.
It bothers me even more that he takes responsibility for this. He wasn’t the one killing the Veilatara or bringing them back from the dead.
A process I didn’t even know was possible, but can obviously tell it doesn’t work right.
“Where is it we’re traveling? You didn’t address it, nor have you ever flown us this way. I don’t even recognize the landscape below us.”
Amick’s observation has my eyes widening. For multiple reasons.
One, he’s been silent since we got in the carriage. I figured he was zoned out in his own thoughts, but it seems he’s been listening and processing.
Two, I don’t know if I’m more surprised by the fact that they’ve come to Hellveilious with him more than I realized. Or that he’s kept wherever we’re going, a secret from even them.
Creed stares down at his feet with his eyes pinched closed.
