Heart of Leoth: [HAITUS]

Part XVI ~ Theodan

When he woke for the second time it was inside the Temple of The Goddess—immolated on the floor before her effigy. It was not a slow awakening but a quick one, a snap of fingers, a rush of consciousness, and he was awake. He felt...new. That feeling when freshly bathed. Scraped clean and raw. His skin tight over his bones and awareness pulled taught as a bowstring.

His hearing was sharp — for outside the small grove, beyond the patter of the rain, he could hear the twins of Aphelion discuss who would enter to fetch him. The sun is about to rise, they say. They must leave soon if they are to make it to the Court of the Moon by the settle of the dawn. He could hear something else too, more troubling; the steady beat of their hearts and the rush of their blood, can almost taste it on his tongue. He pushed out that awareness and felt even more: Their anticipation, their exhaustion, hunger and thirst, and there too in the recesses of their minds, fear. When he opened his eyes the overwhelming awareness calmed, his mind snapping closed like the lid of a chest. Then he could control it.

He brought his hand up to his face first and noticed his claws were pushed out from their beds. His teeth were too he realised when he scraped his tongue over them. Battle ready. He felt it in his veins too but duller than he was used to. Like a pot that had been removed from the fire to simmer not boil.

He only needed to think about standing and then he was, as though thought equalled the action preceding it. He tried it again, thought about the flattened grass outside the temple and then he was there, standing under the cool rain. He tilted his head up to the sky and unleashed a roar. Thunder crackled across the sky.

Behind him, the two Aphelion warriors raced into the grove. When he turned to face them he saw their bodies shudder from it, from the power. Fear and awe shone in their eyes before they both dropped to their knees in the soaked grass, heads bowing.

"High One, they said in unison."

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Nux trembled beneath him, fear quivering through her flank and spine, but she did not throw him nor did she try to. She rode stronger and faster than she ever had, her wings beating louder and more powerfully than the two Varveh behind him. Yet he could hear the shrieking of fear in her mind, a chaos of terror at the now stranger who'd compelled her obedience. He leaned in low and whispered;

"It is I, it is still I. Do not be afraid." And though she relaxed at the sound of his voice, the glimmer of fear still remained inside her.

They took off into the sky as the roar of thunder and slashes of lightning rattled around them. He sensed the twins' uncertainty, for they would never normally ride through the skies when they were so volatile, but the moment they took to the air the sounds shifted, dulling, as though they parted for them. They could not keep up with Theodan and Nux's speed, but the Twins of Aphelion rode in their wake, pulled in the forward suction they created as they cut through the air.

The Court of The Moon awaited. Paeris's reign as Iliphar had come to an end.

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He sent the Twins of Aphelion to the meeting point where Draden would be waiting and rode to the Court of the Moon alone. This time the twins did not hesitate to follow his command. For they knew as he did that there would be nothing Paeris could do to stop him now. Nothing the Menodice that guarded the court would be able or willing to do.

The sun was beginning to carve its way through the dark sky as he brought Nux in to land on the circular forecourt outside the great stone gates. He slipped down from her saddle and sent her away with a word, watching her leap back into the sky a moment before turning to face the row of Menodice. Sixteen in total. Their black armour shone in the breaking dawn, their blackswords held to their chests with both hands — a punishing exercise he knew — their feet apart and their stance prepared.