“First, it isn’t their power. It’s yours. Second, no, she isn’t evil. She’s just…I don’t know how to describe the Goddess of Creation. She never wanted to pick a side. So she didn’t.”
A hum slips through her lips and she mindlessly runs her fingers across my thighs as she drifts into her thoughts. I force myself to think about anything and anyone other than those two Beginning Gods.
It’s impossible, though.
“I know what happened in Hellveilious warped the way you look at the power of Obliteration, but it isn’t evil.”
“I find that very hard to believe.”
“Do you think my power is all bad?”
She jerks her head, smacking me in the face with her messy bun in the process. I rub away the itch tickling my nose and meet her glare.
“You know good and well I don’t. Why would you even ask that?”
“Because the power of Obliteration and the power of Death go hand in hand to an extent. We both can kill on contact. You can’t believe mine isn’t all bad, then turn around and say the other is.”
She stares through my soul for a good few seconds, then huffs as she turns back around and flops herself against my chest. I cough and sputter as the air’s forced out of my lungs.
“I can’t stand when you make me see reason.”
“Well, you shouldn’t contradict yourself so blatantly and I wouldn’t have to.”
“Okay, asshole, I get it.”
I chuckle and twirl some of the loose strands at her neck around my finger.
“You know you do the same thing to me all the time, right?”
“Yeah.” She sighs. “I know.”
We fall silent and stare as the breeze blows the meadow grass in a wave of green. Her small, quiet laughs are directed at the young Veilatara in the distance playing with one another.
Even trapped, they still find peace.
“V.”
“Well, hello, stranger.”
I keep my scoff mental.
“I literally told you good morning today.”
“Yes, once I was allowed to return home.”
“If you had returned home any sooner, you would’ve seen things you had no business seeing.”
His sound of disgust forces a laugh from me, but Thayla’s still too busy chuckling at the younglings to notice I’m paying attention to something else.
“That’s far too much information for me. I’m very pleased you all finally admitted your love for one another, but I don’t need specifics.”
Love…
It’s still a crazy concept to me, but there’s no denying the love I have for my Binder.
My soul knew long before I allowed myself to acknowledge it.
Once I did, though, really once Kyzen asked me flat out if I loved her, I couldn’t even attempt to lie to him or myself.
