Chapter 14 Chapter Seven Part Two - Orenda
As I continue to fly through the sky keeping my senses perked, I feel it. I feel the cold, bone-chilling sensation of nothingness. That shadow of endless loneliness that leaves my feathers perpetually ruffled. I dive down, bringing myself lower to the Earth but too high to be noticed and keep my eyes trained, scouring the ground for signs of eyti. It doesn’t take me long to spot them. Below is a small forest, but I can see one part of the forest is completely shrouded in darkness as if it’s devouring all light around it. As I approach, my ears pick up the unmistakable sound of snarling. There’s only one being who snarls like that.
I tuck my wings in and dive fast just as I see a number of eyti about to swarm two sanguidae. I let out a piercing squawk in warning to the eyti as I let my feet out to brace my landing and stretch out my wings to slow my descent. As I land, I wrap my wings around the two sanguidae shielding them from the oncoming eyti.
The two women look up at me, their blood-red eyes wide open in shock as their razor-sharp teeth all retract.
“You saved us,” the young blonde woman breathes out in stunned relief.
I feel the eyti clawing at my grand form, their shadowy figures feeling like shards of ice scrapping at my body leaving icy chills in their wake. I try to ignore the sensation as I focus on the two women nestled beneath me, the sounds of their hearts pounding so loud in my ears that it’s almost drowning out my own thoughts. Right now, I have to ensure these two get out of here. I can tell they’re not in a craze, which is good for the human population but bad for them. Sanguidae are only immune to eyti when their craze takes over and they are at the complete mercy of the blood curse that lives within them. I can’t let them be forced to trade one curse for another.
I throw out my wings with great force, hurling back as many eyti as I can as I shift back to my human form.
“Run,” I order the two women. “I’ll hold them off.”
“But what about you?” nervously asks the woman with neon yellow hair.
“I’ll be fine, but you won’t, now GO!” I shout. I don’t bother shoving them. As long as I’m in human form, shoving a sanguidae would go about as well as punching a mountain.
The two women look at each other, then look back at me. “Thank you,” they quickly say before taking off through the forest in a blur.
I see some of the eyti begin to turn in the direction of the sanguidae and as they do I let the energy of my essram surge forward. I feel my eyes begin to burn brightly as my scalp tingles and my long, dark brown locks rapidly fade into rainbow strands beaming luminously around me. Instantaneously every eyti turns their sights on me, their hollow purple eyes glowing intensely as they charge at me on mass. If there is one thing an eyti is drawn to more than malice, it’s light. Like moths drawn to a flame, craving that which they have been denied, like seeking out the warmth they once knew to soothe the cold void they have been condemned to.
While Azadou was made from Jartre’s malice, Ayawamat and I were made from the light and hope that lingered inside him. He used the last remnants of his humanity to create us, the perfect antithesis to the eyti and I’m using every last bit of that light to keep their attention on me, giving the sanguidae enough time to get long gone.
As the eyti swarm, launching themselves at me, I raise my left wrist into the air, the large opal in my bracelet giving off an opalescent glow as the eyti come into contact with it, letting out high-pitch shrieks as they disappear in a cloud of smoke. One by one they’re drawn to the light of my essram and one by one they disintegrate as they come into contact with the opal. But quickly, those remaining begin to dog pile on me, their suffocating forms feeling like a dark crushing weight that knocks me off my feet.
As I hit the ground, I feel my wrist hit a large tree root. I look on wide-eyed as I see the opal get dislodged from my bracelet and roll away. The eyti pile on me, and my instinct screams at me to summon a single bolt of lightning. That’s all it would take…but I refuse. I won’t destroy them while there is still hope. Just as I’m about to make my next move, I feel the weight begin to lift off me and I watch in bewilderment as every eyti looks to be sucked away by a giant vacuum.
I sit up and take in the 7’2” statuesque figure of Merlos standing just a few feet away. If you looked up the image of a Goddess, she is exactly what you’d expect to find. Bright golden hair cascading in waves against radiant, cream skin as her piercing silver eyes shine brightly. Her slender yet curvy frame is on display in a floor-length white, silk dress with side slits that go up to her hips and a halter neckline that goes down to her belly button, with the waist adorned with gold lace and beading.
I blink rapidly, watching as this ethereal-looking Goddess devours the eyti, swallowing them whole, her jaw unhinged unnaturally wide like an anaconda. As the last eyti is devoured, light returns to the forest and Merlos’ features return to normal as she wipes the edges of her mouth as though she just feasted on a delectable meal.
“Thank you,” I breathe out, my body still reeling from the eytes presence.
“Since when are you so inept?” she brusquely asks.
I frown, getting to my feet and dusting the dirt from my pants. “I am not inept. I was using myself as bait so some sanguidae could get away,” I retort, collecting the opal from my bracelet and shoving it in my pocket.
“Why didn’t you just strike them down?” she questions in a bored tone.
“Why didn’t you?” I retort.
She snorts. But I can tell that’s her amused snort. It takes practice to differentiate what snort means what. She’s not a very vocal God.
“You are going to free those eyti at some point, aren't you?” I question suspiciously.
“When I feel like it,” she shrugs.
“I don't understand. Why don't you just swallow all the eyti and hold them until we're able to turn them back?” It would be the perfect solution to all our problems.
“There's a very simple explanation for that.”
“And that is?” I prompt.
“I don't want to,” she chirps, turning to walk away but I quickly take a step in her direction.
“Wait, Merlos, I’ve been calling to you for weeks,” I stress to her.
“Funny, I’ve been ignoring you for weeks,” she says offhandedly.
“Please. I need your help,” I plead.
She turns back to face me, rolling her eyes, “Of all the Gods, why would you seek out my help?”
“Why would I not seek out the most powerful God in the cosmos?”
Merlos raises a perfect blonde brow, “Can’t argue with that. Go on.”
“I have questions, and you’re the only one who can answer them,” I beseech her.
Merlos lets out a deep dramatic sigh, “Very well, but I’m not continuing this conversation in the dirt,” she says with revulsion.