Chapter 66: 66. Trapped

“Make them gather around,” Achi said to his father, his tone commanding.

Aria noticed the odd shift in the world again as if even the wind froze for a second. Then, Garo, Alogun, and Chalik were gathered around Achi, confusion on their faces. A chair appeared behind Achi made of wood and cushions. Either he or Tivelo had conjured it. By his evident exhaustion, she suspected Tivelo.

Achi took the seat, looking exhausted.

“Make them line up, he said.”

Again, the world froze for a moment. Tivelo waved a hand and all the deities, Aria included, appeared in a line in front of Achi.

Aria understood, then. Achi was controlling Tivelo. He had commanded him to stop the flames and to bring the others closer.

He ran a hand along his arm as if trying to rub away something, a phantom pain. From the angle of his body, Aria suspected that he was avoiding her gaze. He attempted the same confident expression that his father had worn, but he did it badly. Neither his eyes nor body would cooperate. His fingers shook on the arm of his chair. He was still shaking and his eyes were still red. Tivelo put a blanket over him again, gently, and Achi Accepted it. But he did not look at his father.

“Who put Aria in the statue?” He asked. His gaze was fixed on something over the water, something invisible.

“We all did,” Alogun said.

Achi snapped his face toward Alogun, impatience on his face. “Answer in detail. What were your roles?”

Aria itched to end the charade. She had plans to kill every person in the gathering, and this delay in the plan was making her anxious. Still, she let them continue. She told herself that there was no hurry.

“Garo kidnapped her parents to back her into a corner,” Alogun said. “Chalik talked her into meeting with us and I neutralized her powers. Then, Garo and I put her into the statue.”

Achi nodded, chewing on his lip. “And why did you do that?”

“The realm was breaking apart,” Alogun said. “We needed to revive you and I didn’t know how. I presumed that your father had a plan. As long as we set it back into motion, all would be well.”

Achi nodded again, but he might not have heard the explanation. His gaze was distant again. After a long silence, he turned to Aria.

The anger was gone from his expression and the sadness had doubled. “I am very sorry for what was done to you,” he said. “You are right to be angry.” He looked as if he would say more, but he swallowed it. “As the aggrieved party, you are entitled to a proper hearing of your case and any necessary restitution -”

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Aria had heard enough.

She set the whole area on fire, from the tip of the shore, up to the top foot of the statue, in a half mile-circle.

Yelps of pain and surprise followed. Tivelo and Achi disappeared almost immediately. Garo followed soon after, using whatever power had taken him away after his last defeat. Aria paid them no heed. They would be back. Alogun, and Chalik, the only two who could not teleport, remained. Chalik was screaming at the top of her lungs while she ran in the direction of the water, but Alogun was standing still and ignoring his pain. His book was already open and a spell was on his lips.

From a distance, Aria ripped the book out of his hands and tossed it into the water.

A second later, every deity was back where they had been before their movement - Achi in his chair and the others in a line in front of him.

Garo swore. “What the hell is this, Alogun?!”

“She has three aspects,” Alogun’s voice was strained, but more composed than the others. “Fire, Time, and, I suspect, Vengeance. Compose yourself. You’ve been through worse. Take the north. I have south. Tivelo to the east. Chalik, stop screaming. Take the west.”

“This is your worst idea in centuries!” Chalik screamed.

She moved anyway, taking the direction that Alogun had assigned her. A moment later, they were back in their original positions, but that did not phase them. Garo moved first, creating four dirt walls around her. Aria panicked for a moment, believing herself trapped, but her instinct took hold of her, and found herself on the other side of the walls.

“She has me!” Garo sounded furious. “What is that?! No one escapes my traps!”

No one responded. Alogun’s book had returned to his hand during the reversion, but he was ignoring it. He fired off a series of quick, short spells, each one doing a different thing: freezing the air around her, putting out the flames, breaking the ground under her, and even covering her with a black fog. Aria teleported, her way out of each obstacle. For the last, when the fog robbed her of her sense of direction, she reset the area to its state before the fog.

“I’m done!” Alogun sounded relieved. “She has unrestricted short-range teleportation, fire summoning, and time reversal. There’s probably some minor foresight as well, but that’s everything.”

“Good for you!” Garo screamed. “How do we kill her?!”

Alogun replied angrily. “How would I know?!”

“You don’t,” Tivelo said. Of them all, only he had not moved. He had himself wrapped around Achi, and repeated the action after every reversion, protecting Achi as much as he could, but not completely. “You don’t kill vengeful gods,” Tivelo said, “so stop making fools of yourselves.”

The flames disappeared, this time snuffed out by Tivelo, but Aria re-summoned them a moment later. She felt Tivelo’s powers resisting hers as she acted, but she held fast and won.

“Achi,” Tivelo said, “order me to stop her.”

“Stop the fire,” Achi said, his voice pained and tired.

The flames blinked out again but this time they stayed out. Aria strained to bring them back and felt Tivelo straining against her. Each time she thought that she would win, he seemed to find new strength. Whenever he seemed close to winning, she remembered her pain and surged ahead of him. They struggled silently for a few minutes, their eyes locked on each other’s until Aria came to a conclusion: neither of them would win. Tivelo could do anything that Achi commanded him to do and she, it seemed, drew her power from her need for vengeance. They could each grow in power indefinitely and the stalemate would keep her from her retribution.

She ended the battle. TIvelo withdrew a moment later, still wrapped around his shivering son.

“So we’re trapped,” Chalik muttered. “Lovely.”

She glared at Alogun, as if every part of the current situation was his fault.