Chapter 23: Escape

The carriage stopped minutes later on a small hill. To one side, white sand ran into sparkling water, both bathed with light from no discernable source. One the other, a forest obscured the horizon. Widely spaced trees shared room with thick brush, the kind that threatened to mark your legs with a million red scratches if you dared to disturb it.

“Aria?” Achi’s lips did not move, but she heard his words.

She remained silent, partly because the interaction was surprising and partly because, what do you say to the son of the person you now hate more than you fear death?

“I know you’re awake,” he said. “I heard you.”

She considered maintaining her silence, but the ruse held no utility. “Yes, I am.”

“When did you wake?” He climbed down from the carriage, leaving his trunk on it, and turned to face the direction from which they had come.

“When I first called you.” She saw no point in telling the truth. Let him believe that their fight had been private

A look of disbelief crossed Achi’s face, but he let the statement stand. Facing the trees, he planted both his feet and closed his eyes. Tivelo exerted his power without even a grimace, but it seemed that his son required more effort. As Aria watched, power flowed from a ruby ring on the prince’s left hand, visible as a pale cloud to her enhanced sight. It spread from him and covered the sky forming an orb, miles in diameter, around them.

“What is that?” She asked.

The prince did it twice more and then her enhanced sight, showed that the ring was mostly empty of power.

She answered her own question. “To keep your father out? Would that work?”

This time, Achi spoke out loud and grinned. “It will.”

She waited for an explanation. When he ignored her and merely retrieved his trunk, she decided to voice the request out loud.

“My father is as close to all-powerful as deities come,” he said. “Facing him head-on is always foolish. But, with a subtle touch, he can always be influenced. “That barrier doesn’t block him. It takes any probing or attacking force levied against it, and redirects the force at me. My father can break through it whenever he wishes. He will simply have to hurt me in the process.”

Aria inspected the barrier. To her previous eyesight, it would have been invisible. With her new sight, she perceived it as a net woven out of gossamer thread. Somehow, its existence had also limited the range of her sight. She tried to press through it, to see the world beyond.

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Achi yelped and dropped his trunk. “You - what did I just tell you? I said, ‘any probing or attacking force’.”

Aria felt a surge of anger. “Do gods gain power from condescension? Do you have a minimum number of people you must irritate each day? Obviously, I didn’t realize I was included.”

Achi rubbed his face in evident exhaustion. “That story I just told you is only partially true. I can put up any barrier I want against my father. But if he believes that I am in danger, every one of them will be useless, no matter how much power I invest.”

Aria chewed on that. “His power scales based on his need?”

“No. It scales based on my need. You overheard our argument. He is a god of love - by nature, not by function. That class of gods have powers limited only by the need of the one they love. He can do anything I need him to do and he will go insane against anyone who harms me - as you’ve seen. Right now, he is asking me what went wrong. And I can’t lie to him because he can detect lies. Until you leave this place, I advise you to avoid hurting me in any way you can. If he gets suspicious, well, you know how that ends.”

Fire. Smoke. Heat.

The house was made entirely of pale wood. The doors and windows opened outward on hinges. Aria saw that the windows were already open, allowing a free flow of breeze across the house and out the windows on the sea-side.

Inside, the entry room smelled of dirt and green plants, though there were none in sight. It also seemed surprisingly small. There were two armchairs facing each other in the center of the room, and another door across from the one they had used. Other than that, and a scatter of shelves reluctantly holding a handful of books, the room was empty. To the left and right of the door, square openings led into two other rooms.

They took the opening on the left, Aria still somehow attached to Achi, and climbed a staircase onto the upper level. There, they found a bedroom with one bed, one wooden door leading to a balcony, and a wall of shelves with large sections.

“What about the other deities?” Curiosity overcame Aria’s irritation. It was not everyday she found the opportunity to learn deities’ secrets. “Are there other gods of love? Besides Evera?”

“Evera is not a god of love.” Achi lifted his trunk and placed it on the shelf’s sole free section. The rest of the shelf held rectangular boxes with detachable lids. Each held curiosities - childhood toys, drawings, and children’s books. “Gods are classified by nature, not by function. And I’m not going to share their secrets.” He smirked, then. “Well, except this: if you ever get into trouble with Garo, challenge him to a duel.”

“A duel?”

“Yes. Scare the old baldy a little.”

Aria turned the idea in her head but, try as she did, she couldn’t see the purpose. “Wouldn’t he pulverize me?”

Achi laughed. “I didn’t say go through with it!”

“Why would a duel scare him?”

Achi gave no response to that. Instead, he opened his trunk, and found a smaller wooden trunk. In there were several small glass bottles with wooden corks. Tivelo must have put them in, but she did not know when. He chose two of them - one black and one gray - downed the liquid in them, and put the bottles back in the box. Then, he shut both trunks and left the room.

She asked a less fraught question. “Does your father sleep? His room didn’t have a bed.”

“I’m the only god who needs to eat or sleep.”

“Because you don’t have powers? Why is that, again?”

He ignored that question as well.