She examines his dried blood left on the blade, then flicks her focus back to me.
“His essence is embedded in this object,” she states, passing the dagger to Sabelline, who then passes it to my father.
I set my sights on him and what reaction he’ll have now.
He scoffs without glancing at it before passing it back around.
“It may be his object, but all that confirms is it’syourmurder weapon, not his.”
He doesn’t even attempt to hide the disdain in his tone. I knew prior to stepping into this place, I was already fighting against two Beginning Gods’ votes and that they’d be willing and ready to argue every point I made.
“It is,” I agree. “But it’s his as well. His embedded dagger doesn’t just cut, or in this case, stab. It witnesses. Every action taken with it is inscribed in Harriseen’s personal records that he kept on himself. I found it locked in his office, in this very illusion cube.”
“How did you get into his locked illusion cube without his essence?” my moth—Calista asks.
“I had his essence.” I nod at the dagger the Goddess of Accord sets in front of her.
Instead of waiting for her, I starshoot his book that holds all his confessions inside in front of her.
All their eyes move toward it.
A hum behind me, and the small stroke against my soul fills my very being with warmth.
Thayla’s confidence in me is so addictively potent.
Even when my secretive, sometimes falsely nonchalant mannerisms drive her crazy, she supports me.
I felt like such a failure as I sat in her bathtub, coming down from the sexual high, and sitting with the weight of what I had done.
After explaining why I did what I did to Harriseen and what I had been working toward with the agreement made on our behalf, I was too ashamed to admit all I found in his office was the sleep paralysis drug and a cube I knew held everything I needed but couldn’t access.
That wasn’t going to be enough evidence to get me through this undisputedly.
I made it seem like I just wanted—needed—to keep the evidence to myself and work it out the way I always do.
The truth was, I was panicking.
If I couldn’t get that cube open, my life was basically over.
The drugs, the dagger, and even the bodies weren’t going to be enough to sway the four gods before me that are so very wishy-washy in their treatment of us.
I didn’t want to burden my brothers or Thayla with that worry.
I couldn’t bring myself to tell them last night that I had no substantial evidence and this trial wasn’t going to go in my favor.
Sitting there, leaning over my desk, staring down at the dagger, the cube, and the drugs after I shut the door in Kyzen’s face, I was ready to accept my fate. So I piled everything on top of the cube and stepped away.
The essence from the dagger popped the lid right open.
I only spent a moment shaming myself for not trying that sooner.
I blame it on all the emotions that have been in my way lately.
“I find it incredibly hard to believe that a man with stature such as Harriseen would be so careless to record his own crimes,” Sabelline scoffs. “Who’s to say Amick didn’t manufacture this text?”
“The fact you believe Harriseen to be a man of stature is telling, Slutlline,” Derivius says, and from behind me, multiplesnorts are cut short. “Besides, Amick’s essence is nowhere near the text.”
“Then give us a plausible reason as to why in the realm Harriseen would keep such records, Chaos.”
