There was no fanfare, storm, or announcement about the death of a god. No one would know she was dead, aside from the ones who knew she was alive at all.
But Gaius wept.
Even if he initially hated her with all his godly being, this stemmed from his unfathomable love for her.
And now that he had taken her life away, it hit him like a meteor slamming into a planet. Gaius forgot everything about the seven individuals he had captured as he left with Psyche, and wandered the stars, thinking about how he could have done things differently.
This gave more than enough time to the Progenitors of magic to escape their darned prison, and leave behind a little gift to the god for capturing them.
They wouldn't stick around to find out if he liked it or not, though.
And when they reached back into their realm, the seven of them quickly boosted the power of the veil between the mortal and god realms. An incident like this shouldn't happen ever again.
Especially considering the casualty count Edith found out about when she teleported back to her mage tower and found nothing but a crater. Her heart squeezed a little, thinking about the lives lost.
But there was nothing to be done about it now.
If she had been there at the moment of the event, maybe she could have done something and brought their souls back. But it was too late now.
'They have rejoined the wheels of fate. May their souls find respite in their next coming,' Edith prayed, clasping her hands together.
She walked into the crater's center, searching for any remnant of her mage tower which she could use to replant it. Although it would take centuries before it grew back to what it had been, at least she would have a home again.
'I could always go back to Themisca… The Ley lines there were strong enough for me to perform the injection. But… Do I want to go back to what attached me to the mortal realm?' she mused, as she walked through the crater, letting her senses wander about.
But something caught her attention, and her mind snapped back to reality.
"Teleportation remnants?" she muttered, noticing a flutter of mana, about twenty feet above the ground, where the main room would have been.
She floated up and touched the remnants, trying to see if she could guess who had left them, and saw the face of an ash elf with white hair and icy-blue eyes.
"The court mage? The trace is so faint… Did he manage to escape?" she kept muttering.
There was only one way to find out.
With a swift movement, Edith pulled out something she seldom used.
An item that had more power in its twelve inches of length than most mortals had in their entire bodies. An item that should have become the embodiment of her power had she ascended to godhood.
The Quill of Origin. The artifact that represented her domain.
Glowing in a powerful golden halo, this quill, made from the feather of the first Phoenix and imbued with her very own domain through decades of pouring Aether into it, radiated in enough power to alert every being even slightly mana-sensitive in a thousand-mile-radius. Novel Fire - novelfire.net
The other Progenitors, although farther than this from her, also felt the spike in power coming from her location.
"What caught her attention so much that she would use that?" Aravelle wondered, back in Bastion City.
But Edith's entire focus was already on her task.
She weaved her quill in the air, runes of power inscribing themselves upon the world itself as they took shape before her.
"Show me what happened here, oh world mother. I offer thee my essence for a glimpse inside your sacred memory," Edith chanted, scribbling more and more runes into the air.
And with a flash of Aether, coming directly from the ground where the Ley lines connected, the world mother responded.
The runes started taking shapes, bodies, furniture, a room. It was like the mage tower rebuilt itself around her, and she saw a re-enactment of what had happened after Gaius had appeared.
She saw the lettering copies almost all fall to their knees or explode as the power of Gaius pushed into their souls and killed them, and she could guess who these were.
But she saw people who weren't immediately crushed by his powerful presence.
Amongst them, herself and Nemus, of course. But there were also a few people who were still moving amongst the mage tower.
One of these was a copy of the court mage, with an evident tether between him and the prince, Nalafein. A barrier could be seen around him, and Edith understood that the court mage had protected him from the presence as he tried to get him away from there.
But he wasn't the only one.
She quickly found another room where someone was moving, trying to get to some other figures who were getting crushed by the mighty aura.
Touching the runes, Edith focused and tried to see through the world's eyes. She gave up more of her Aether in hopes the world would agree to her request and wasn't left hanging for long.
Her eyes started glowing in the same golden hue as her runes, and before long, it was like she was back in time, observing the situation through a bird's-eye view.
But this time, she could see the faces and hear the words.
"Prince Nalafein! We must go! With this kind of pressure, if his presence alone doesn't kill us, I can tell that the god will not leave without retribution! We must go!"
"No! Gelum'vire! Think about the people! We may have only started rebuilding, but I cannot abandon them! Not again! Save them! Save as many as you can!"
Gelum'vire wanted to refuse his prince's orders. But the vow he had made prohibited him.
Teleporting away from the room, he went to save those who were loyal to the prince. He couldn't save the Abnormals, as most of them had already erupted into dust, but there were still plenty of surviving allies he could save.
Appearing in the garrison room, where Kloud and his soldiers often rested, in between patrols, he found a few of them struggling to crawl to each other.
"Kloud! Come with me! We have to leave this place, Prince's orders!" Gelum'vire shouted, trying to grab onto the general of their future force.
But Kloud dipped under his hand, trying to grab hold of his friends.
"Save them, court mage! I'll manage on my own!" Kloud shouted back, trying to reach Korin.
But Korin shouted back, "No! Obey the prince's orders! Save what remains of the Ash Elves' power!"
Gelum'vire took this as his queue and grabbed onto Kloud, teleporting away as he went to another spot in the tree.
There were many more he wanted to save, after all.
If he couldn't save the prince, then he would save as many of his loyal followers as he could.
Edith focused on other parts of the mage tower, trying to find something else. The world was egging her toward something she couldn't see.
And soon enough, she found what it was.
A pair of Ash Elves, both crouched over a smaller life force. One that was quickly fading.
Edith focused on the memory, trying to understand why the world was pointing her toward this, and the colours and sounds rushed at her.
"Please, Aj'axx. You know your strength won't be enough to protect both me and the baby. Save just the child. Save our son. I implore you!"
"No, Serene! I can't let you die! Who'll take care of our child if we are both dead?! I refuse! I will protect both your lives!"
Edith felt the soul of the man spike in power as his essence suddenly started covering both the woman and child, leaving his body at a rapid pace.
But something happened that surprised Edith just as much as the man, Aj'axx.
The woman, either out of desperation or motherly instinct, could tell this would never be enough to protect them both, and Edith could see that she was right, grabbed a dagger hidden in her cloth garments, and stabbed herself through the heart.
Her life ended in seconds, as her mate, who was already weakening faster than he could manage, was powerless to react.
The essence covering her immediately drifted toward the child, and a solid blue cocoon formed around him as the man's last words slipped out of his mouth.
"Ultimate Defence: Life Shell. Live, my son…"
Edith snapped out of the world's memories.
Her gaze refocused on the surrounding reality, and she rapidly scanned her surroundings.
"That shell would have held. Where is the child?!"
She rushed to the ground, looking for traces of mana that came from after the blast.
Expanding her senses over the crater but focusing on detection power, Edith quickly found a trace of that man's essence. But it was fleeting, and there was no life within it.
She dashed to the area where she felt it and frantically dug into the ground, using her bare hands.
"Please be alive. Please be alive. The world would never forgive such a young life to vanish!"
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