CH 63 - The Truth Hurts

Break of Autumn, Week 3, Day 7

From a blank slate to a towering woman, the statue transformed in the blink of an eye. The flesh turned silver, and white hair shimmered into existence. A pale green blindfold emerged from the aether, and a matching rope stretched around the Goddess’ neck in a noose. Her clothes were a swirling marble of green, silver, and white and shifted as she raised her hand. In her open palm a mallet appeared, its silver the same hue and shine as Abelia’s skin.

In the silence that followed, all that could be heard was the dripping of my blood and my heavy breathing. The pressure building under my skin was giving me a heady feeling. It was strange, to summon a God on command.

It worked.

I couldn’t decide between feeling frustrated or vindicated. It meant my choice to pray to Morloch was the right one if a prayer such as this could bring a Divine forward.

“Ah, a little Sun.” The Goddess spoke, and her aura nearly caused me to crumble. I was able to hold strong by sheer force of will.

“Ah, a Goddess,” I retorted, my frustration overwhelming me enough and fueling my impertinence in the face of true Divinity.

“Morloch was right,” Abelia smiled, revealing two distinctly long canines, “You are a fun one. Why have you called?”

No lies. No lies. No lies, or she’ll kill me. I felt my heart speed up. Everyone knows what it means to lie before her. I would not be the fool destroyed.

“I called you to testify if Baroness Perry is telling an untruth,” I said carefully, intentionally. No lies, no half-truths. Simply fact. Simply what I needed.

I looked behind me, where Sir Rellar and Lady Perry were kneeling—not in the way I was nearly crumbling, but in supplication. They practically had their foreheads pressed to the ground. I took a step forward, bending over and peering at Lady Perry.

“Don’t be scared now,” I whispered into her ear, “We’re about to find out the truth of the matter.”

“Excuse me,” Abelia called from behind me, her arms wide open, “But I believe your torment can wait. You have not yet received my response.”

I turned, feigning the confidence of a stronger soul.

“It’s well deserved. She is suspected of heresy. Of having a corrupted mana source. Of empowering the blights that have been plaguing the countryside.”

Maybe I didn’t have to pretend so much. This felt very much as if I was back in a boardroom, presenting data to executives. It was as if every aspect of me from elsewhere filled me, without inhibition. The harsh lines, the cold voice, the strong back. It was me. Me in a different body, with different abilities. But maybe that was it.

Maybe this was the point where it all changed. Maybe this was when I reconciled who I had been with who I was.

“I am Eunora Killian Dawn, [Young Lady of Darkness], and this woman has sworn on your name to the truth.”

It felt true. Saying I was Eunora. And little Eunora didn’t put up a fight. In fact, I could feel the approval radiate through me.

Maybe that was the point I realized little Eunora was me too. Not a separate being but a new facet of me. Not something to overcome but something to embrace.

“I do not believe her.” I snarled, the calm face on the Goddess unfazed by my anger, “I believe she is a danger to the people. I believe she is conniving and cruel. So, I pray once again. I pray for your arbitration, Abelia.”

Again, I could feel it. My will become solid. It permeated the air around me and pushed back on Abelia’s aura of Divinity. As my aura mingled with hers, I could feel the moment Abelia lost her patience. It was like a hot snap into my back. It put me on edge.

“Yes. Child, I hear you. No need to say it again.” She waved the mallet in her hand and gestured toward Lady Perry, “Very well, you impudent child of the Dawn. I will grant your prayer.”

And with that, she stepped forward, her body shrinking and shifting until she was a child. Like me. Her dress shortened to her knees, and her hair grew backward into her skull, leaving it falling to her shoulders in white locks. The mallet remained oversized in her hand, but her blindfold was scaled down. Her silver skin sparkled in the light. The noose, however, was hovering around her neck as if she was being hanged. Abelia was barefoot as she took another step.

“You two were right to bow. For I am Abelia, Goddess of Truth and Lady of High Noon. I am the Overseer of Deception and the Patron of the Blind. I was eternal before eternity had a name, and my children cannot utter untruths. Neither should you attempt so before me.”

Her voice shook the room, and I could hear my blood pulsing in my ears. Could feel my heart beating out of my chest. This was a Goddess. A Divine being. She was more in every way.

“Stand.” She commanded, and I watched as the same forced movements overtook Sir Rellar and Lady Perry. The same way Scylla had puppeted me. It was uncanny, the way you could subtly tell the force in it.

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“Yes,” Abelia said, taking yet another step forward. Her free hand snapped out, gripping the loose fabric of Lady Perry’s shirt and forcing the woman to look down at the child Goddess, “You are right to be afraid. I can taste the untruths on your tongue. I can feel the slime of your lies.”

“Your–” Lady Perry started, then choked on the words, forcibly restarting. Her voice was faint. Unlike I’d ever heard it before. “Your Divinity, I have sworn no lies upon your name. No half-truths or deceptions. I am not the cause of the blight attacks.”

Abelia did not release the shaking woman, but her head turned back toward me –a degree too far for a mortal. And my expression fell. I knew what was coming before she spoke.

“Truth, child. What will you do now?” Her voice was almost amused. And I could feel my stomach constrict.

I stretched my hands out, feeling every tendon as I did so. I tensed every muscle, tightened every tendon. And then I thought.

“[Sophism]” I said it so viciously, I was unsurprised every head turned toward me.

But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that I needed to think. And for that, I needed time. Time only [Sophism] could give me. I didn’t care about the red and white lights that lit up the prayer room –they mattered little. Chaos or Order, who cared? I would do what I wanted without regard for the twin Gods.

“Ah, a touch of Brel in your soul. Think quickly, child. Lest I grow bored.”

“Shhhh–” was all I could get out. My body didn’t follow my mind in time.

I thought back to all the moments in time that mattered.

To the way the blights started attacking after Adeline. How Adeline was my Awakening. How I bled and blinded and I did so to dozens of people. I thought about the way Ugar hadn’t even alerted the Dusk Knights yet, the way Perry had just started suffering the attacks recently. I thought back to the first time I witnessed a monster.

The mimic. It was in the tent. Who had access to the tent? The knights, yes. But more importantly, the Dawns.

A thousand thoughts ran through me, and I felt [Sophism] break.

There was only one person who had physically attacked me.

Only one person had tortured little Eunora so viciously.

“Eve.” I snarled.

“Ah, the elder daughter of the Sun,” Abelia replied, dropping her hand from Lady Perry. “Evelyn Mallory Dawn. I know of her.”

“Lady Nora,” Sir Rellar shouted, his hand on the pommel of his sword, “She is not the one!”

Abelia’s head snapped to Sir Rellar. In a single movement, she climbed up his armor –her small body perched on his chest. Her heels dug into the metal and left a dent, her free hand gripped the front of his throat. Lady Perry crumbled and scrambled back toward the wall.

“You lie.” Abelia’s mouth widened to display her fangs. “Lie to me again, and I will drain you until you are but a desiccated corpse.”

“I’m not lying,” Sir Rellar gasped, “She wouldn’t –despite her Class! She isn’t powerful enough!”

I watched Abelia tighten her fingers, and as she perched her mouth up, I interrupted, pushing my whole soul into it, “Wait.”

The world twisted, reality bent, and Abelia pulled her head away from Sir Rellar’s neck, “He tells a half-truth, divineling.”

“I need to know the truth. Not just the lies.” I said, approaching the pair. I looked up at the man who had protected me, who had calmed me, who had worried over me. I felt the betrayal through my rage, but it didn’t hurt. It felt known. As if this was meant to happen.

It seemed as if it was a mortal problem.

As if it didn’t truly matter.

“Tell me the truth, Oberon.”

And then I became the puppeteer. I watched as his jaw clicked, fighting my command, but ultimately he spoke.

“She would. It’s in her nature. Lady Evelyn is rotten. She’s spoiled and rude. But she doesn’t have the power. A [Young Lady of Monsters] is not able to control monsters from such a great distance. Not unless she’s released them with a single command. Attack. Despite her failings, she’s still a member of the Dawn. A sworn protector of the ducal lands and a vassal of the Queen. Your mother would never let it slide if she knew that Lady Evelyn was hurting her domain.”

“Mallorica barely knows I exist, and you expect me to believe she shows Evelyn such attention? No. I don’t believe you.”

“You’ve had your time. I will have my R E T R I B U T I O N.” Abelia snarled, and before I could react, she sank her fangs into Sir Rellar’s neck and pulled.

It was a shower of blood after that.

“NO!” I screamed, breaking out of the trance I was in, “Stop! Sir Rellar! Stop it!”

Abelia spat blood out of her mouth, a feral smile on her face, “Oh, poor divineling. You haven’t learned yet, have you?”

Sir Rellar’s body fell to the ground, his eyes dull. Abelia jumped off him and landed gingerly on her feet, her blindfold meeting my eyes. I could feel the pressure of her Divinity ramp up. “You are nothing. A single command. That is what I gave you. If you want anything else, you’ll have to earn it yourself.”

I could taste the iron in his blood. It permeated the air.

My stomach churned, and I had to swallow down the urge to vomit.

And then I felt it.

That burning sensation in my veins.

That feeling of being a victim vanished.

Instead, it was replaced with vindication.

“Sir Rellar tried to charge Lady Perry with heresy, you know?” I grit out, my voice weak, “But why is that a crime?”

I spat at Abelia, but it did not bridge the gap.

“You Divines are monsters. Irredeemable. Monsters. I thought I was a monster in the making. But, no. I take it back. That’s not me. I’m not morally bankrupt.”

I held up my hand.

“I’m not a monster.”

I felt what was left of my power turn to ice in my veins.

“I’m nothing like you.”

In between one breath and the next, the shadows on my nails decompressed, exploding out towards Abelia.

“And I never will be.”

The last thing I saw was Abelia dispersing into the aether. Then the world went black.