Chapter 16

Nyx

The Wishing God

Leaving the Path

225 Years Prior

This particular cavern that Nyx was held within had a natural spring running through it, beautiful flowers, and vines which illuminated the inner cavern almost as if there was sunlight even as night fell. She wondered if Titus could find her and if the string that bound them would be strong enough?

When the vines stopped shining sometime around 2 or 3 am torches were lit by masked warriors who guarded the caverns only entrance. If she weren't captive, she might admire the cavern and grotto more. Gore had pushed her into the Veil, she didn't understand how. She wondered if it was his connection to Wrath, who had sealed her from it. Her Essence was in limbo between the Veil and the elvish world. She could feel herself tethered between both as she bled, and new it was Gore's intent to torture and kill her. He loved to wait and watch his victims squirm. His favorite pastime was torture. Suspended between worlds, and with a god blade no less, there could only be one outcome for her.

You could only kill a Paragon within the Veil and with one of the blades. She had thought they were hidden and fractured. How had they found not one, but two? And then repaired them? She called to her father, her mother, Wrath, or Belacrus, anyone... But no one came. She had run out of tears, and decided she would face her fate. Within the Shroud, the Weavers were still. The small spiders did not move along the Tapestry, or feed her threads to pull. They watched her in eerie silence, their normal chittering having gone quiet. She lay in the cool water, suspended between the Veil, the Shroud, and the living world. This was it. She would have true death.

Was this was it felt like for Tyrankrill? Was he this scared? She felt pity, and sadness. A tear for him falling down her cheek and causing a stroking in the cracked mud.

"Titus" She whispered imagining him the first night they had made love. She felt the flicker of the silver strand between them as she called to him. What could he do? How could he fight off a god? Besides, he was a King now. He had gotten his wish only four years ago.

The old King had come to the temple intent on killing Titus, he was becoming too powerful and had too much influence over the people. It was true, Titus did not need to lift a finger. The people turned on the King ripping him apart. They had both taken great joy in watching the people murder the king. Titus had his final revenge, and he did not even need to reveal himself as heir by blood to the throne. What did he need from her now? He could finish the prophecy without her. Perhaps even save the balance of the world. She was without Syriah. Life was not worth living. None of it was worth it to her.

She thought of his face, held it in his mind. He was a mixture of beauty and seemingly otherworldly features. Nyx always wondered how he could look so godlike, and be so mortal. Perhaps it was the perfect mixture of human an elvish features, his dark brown hair with its charming curly texture that suited his prominent jaw bone and chin. His nose, long but not sharp or hooked, and his beautiful eyes a slight gold from holding her Essence within himself. He was a large man, and seemed to be getting more muscular as he aged. Nyx pulled herself free of her revere.

"Goddess." She heard as a whisper on the wind.

"Have you found me?" She cried out. The two men who watched the cavern in masks startled, and looked at her. "Titus?" She asked again but heard nothing.

He had found her when she thought of him, and she wondered if that was the key. She imagined him once more. A shared kiss in his study. His hands between her legs, caressing her there. She slipped into her mind, allowing her memories to flow in front of her, she resisted them in the shroud.

"Goddess." She heard again.

"Titus." She whispered. "Please, please save me." She begged.

"I don't know where you are..." His voice hissed on the wind. She leaned towards the wind, caressing it with her cheek. Thank you old friend. She thought to it.

"I think I'm below my temple..." She whispered, allowing images of him to pass by her again. Him, the night he took the Palace. The card bowing before him.

"I have men looking for you. I've felt your pain. We will find you." He said.

"It's a cave of sorts, below the temple. Deeper than I've ever been." One of the men guarding the entrance turned and began to walk towards her. "I can't speak anymore." She told the wind, which carried the message.

"Who is that you're talking to?" The masked man asked in the darkness. The stalactites around then glowed as she spoke.

"You speak to one of your gods that way?" She shouted at him. He didn't flinch, and instead he came forward, shoving Nyx's head under the water.

He allowed her up only for a moment to breath.

"Look at you. Do you think that I'm scared of you." He said hoarsely, out of breath from the effort of thrusting her down.

"Cymi, enough."

The man stood, "What, I can't kill her without a Godblade, and I can't get into the Veil without a god." He shrugged.

She recognized the voice of the other elf who had spoken to captor but she couldn't immediately place it. The only distinct thing about them were all of their red eyes.

Nyx grew weaker, her place between worlds splintering her from her Essence. Soon she would be as Chaos was, shattered. They had drained her of most of her blood, and to her horror some had taken her wrists into their mouths and drank it. Their eyes had grown darker when they did so, and their speed and strength had intensified to almost that of her own.

"Sister." Nyx looked up, shaken at the sound of him.

Gore was one of the largest of the gods, besides Wrath and her father. He was terrifying to behold in his Orc form. His arms rippled with muscles, his nipples pierced, his back covered in orc tattoos.

"So that's how you choose to appear these days?" She asked him. She hadn't seen him since he's snuck up on her in the Shroud. She hadn't understood how he'd entered there, but now with the blade she did.

"I'm resurrecting them," He smiled. "I'm certain it will piss off father."

Some thousand years ago, their father had commanded Gore to stop making orcs. "Chaos told me I could. She said I didn't need to listen to our father anymore and truthfully... I'm sad I didn't think of it sooner." He smiled, revealed teeth filed to points. "So, besides your capture in the city, and then by me, how have you been my darling?" He pulled free Tidebringer and sharpened it on a he had picked up beside him.

Nyx collected what little liquid was left in her mouth and spat on Gore's face sending it flying so it landed directly in his eye. Her hands were bound above her and she yanked herself violently so she could catch him. His hand came forward striking out and knocking her on the chin. She felt her jaw bone come loose and click sending a shock wave of pain through her face, nose, and eye. Disconnected from her spirit her body was more mortal now than ever before. She knew she would not live, so she leaned forward to spit again. Gore covered her mouth and brought his face close to her own, his sharpened teeth shining in under the light of the green vines and stalactites.

"Try it again, and see what pain I make you endure before I kill you Nyx." He told her. Nyx swallowed. "You can still feel pain split like this Nyx, choose wisely." Nyx closed her mouth and looked down. "Good choice." Gore growled and then he say cross legged beside her. He lifted her left leg from the mud bath and placed her foot in his lap. He pressed her toes down on Tidebringer so each one had a small poke that drew blood. He sucked at her toes, pulling the blood into his mouth and then he slide his hands up and down her calf before putting her foot on his engorged member where it pushed through his pant. "You see what you do to me Nyx?" He asked her smiling. "Should we take it slow?"

Nyx feared speaking, she didn't know what could set him off or make it worse. Gore slipped a hand up her legs and massed her calf. "I've always been a foot guy, they're the same on every species, elf, human woman, orc, you name it... God." He looked up at her from behind pleading gray eyes. "So what do you say?" He smiled.

Nyx replaced her foot in the water gently and eyed Gore as she did so. "Aww, well see now you've hurt my feelings." He told her, slipping into the water with her. Was this it then? She asked herself.

She watched his face, his expression angry and filled with hate.

Gore closed the distance between them licking her cheek and holding her wrists to the cavern wall. She bit down on her lips, holding in a scream. He grabbed her by her throat and brought his sharp teeth down so that they sunk into her neck. She screamed in pain. He twisted her nipples and she cried out once more. "I like it when you scream." He licked his lips and stepped away from her taking her in.

"You know what they say about you Nyx?" He asked her, "That you and your sister are the most beautiful of the goddesses. Do you think that's true? They call her the Weaver, and you the Wisher. But I think they could have called you something like, the The Radiant Sisters." His teeth shone with her blood. "It's got a certain ring to it, don't it?"

Nyx looked away from him. She hoped that if she didn't look at him this would be it for now, he would lose interest. It wasn't enough. He licked the tips of his teeth and closed the distance between them. "Don't Gore." She told him.

"So prideful, so selfish." He growled into her ear. She felt his hand around waist. He pushed his knee between her thighs so that they opened. She closed her eyes. She imagined Titus's face. His golden flecked eyes. His brown curls. She heard the splashing of the water as he pushed her towards the cave wall. Her head hit the wall hard and she cried out.

"I have always wanted to know you Nyx."

Nyx thought of Titus, of the girl in the vision. Of the Shroud, and Chaos's power. Her absorption of Syriah. Without Nyx, who would rescue Syriah. Her mind existed further from her body. Further from Gore. Further from the cavern.

She needed to survive. Without Syriah to weave the Tapestry or instruct the Weavers who would defend fate? She needed more than to survive.

She needed to kill Gore.

She returned for a moment to the cavern, to her body and promised him. "I'm going to kill you." Tears soiled her face.

He brought his own face too close to her own. She smelled his foul breath and odor. "This is the reality of power, Nyx. I break you because I can and because you're a woman, and I'm a man. It's a tale as old as time. You can try to kill me." He brought himself even close to her, his chest touching her own. "We're gods Nyx and this is a Gods war. You've chosen your side." She felt him turn her over on her shackles and press her into the cave wall. He slipped a hand around her waist and crudely opened her legs, then he took her.

She watched the wall repeating her silent chant. I will survive, she told herself, and I will kill him. She was more than just this moment and soon Gore would know that too. She would remember this and Gore would never forget it.