THE CIRCLE OF GODS (A Blood of the Gods counter-story)

Part 9.5

Darius

Darius god of oaths basks in the freedom from structure, from physicality as his conscious moves from water source to water source. Allowing the freedom of liquid matter to hold his core self as he flows.

Some moments he feels as though he should let go of even this physicality and connection to a planet and just be where and when he needs to be as if travel were only a matter of thought. He supposed that talent would come, perhaps slowly the way fire had. Being of water through his female creator Anahita, fire had felt very uncomfortable at first, but once he realized how his faulty thinking limited him and set the childishness away, he'd mastered the element.

His senses warned him. The trespassing Terra gods grew closer, so his contemplations came to a halt, and instantly he could feel the anchor of Astrin and Inanna. Their influence could not be hidden from him if they were close. At present they were not twenty miles away.

As the leader coalesces, he finds that he is standing under an ancient pine which lives in the center of a field of hay. Turning about he searches the twilight.

He blends himself with the darkness and the tree's spirit as two humans pass nearby on horseback. Watching the young mortal's, he sees movement two hundred yards away, on the edge of the field.

The anchor inside him pulses and the leader is certain he has found his query.

Focusing his view, his sight tightens on the spot, and the image of Astrin and Inanna, hiding in the shadows becomes clear. Now locked in his attention, he opens his hearing to them.

"...are you sure? We have watched her all night."

"I saw her with him and she reacted as the others but let us test her once more."

Darius glances to the 'she' the deities refers to. The dark-haired, mortal, seems completely ordinary. And yet... familiar. Looking closer, Darius instantly knows this human. Never would he have remembered such an inconsequential mortal except she is the crazed barista.

Intrigued by this coincidence the leader stays and watches.

After several moments, he feels the need to report, but he does not use the wind. Kylas is on guard over the circle, thus he pushes into the eagle god's mind. They follow a young mortal. They are convinced she is of worth. I feel we can learn more of their plot from this. I will stay close. I will watch the mortal and see what comes to pass.

Do you still plan to use Khrysaor? The eagle god inquires.

I must.