Hankirk, eyebrows up and knit together, looked down Meran’s arm at the simula’s hungry expression.
Talis could maybe stop Meran from killing him. Talk her out of it, or ask nicely.
But she could also finally be done with him.
Meran looked over her raised arm at Talis, then tossed Hankirk at her feet.
He coughed and rolled himself up into a fetal position, cradling his useless arm.
“He is your adversary, Talis,” said Meran. “I have my own.”
Meran turned her fierce gaze upon the three surviving gods of Peridot.
Chapter 40
Meran crossed her arms over her chest. She looked downright cocky. Go ahead, try me, her posture challenged.
Arthel Rak spoke. In his voice, Talis heard the blowing roar of a fire, and she felt heat tighten the skin of her face.
“Two of us are lost because of you.”
Meran laughed. “The dawn of these consequences began with your own actions, seventy-five generations past.”
“We atoned for what we did. There was a natural order that emerged. What was lost is beyond restoration, but we gave this planet new life. New purpose.”
“You stole from me all that I was. Nearly destroyed me. Destroyed this world. You mistook the ability to wrench my power away for the right to wield it.”
Lindent Vein, eyebrows up over blind eyes, moved a hand as if to stop her words. Argued, “We mended the world. Rebuilt it.”
Helsim Breaker agreed. “Look at all we have achieved. There is no world elsewhere among the stars that has flourished as Peridot has under such conditions. We have created something entirely unique in the universe.”
“Fractured,” spat Meran.
Even Talis had to bristle with wounded pride at the derisive tone. It was her home, after all, whatever shape it was in.
Meran continued, one lip curled in a snarl, “Had you joined your powers instead of hoarding them for yourselves, you could have reversed this precious Cataclysm of yours in moments. Mended everything. Restored it, as though it were untouched. If you had worked together these aliens would have not made such fools of The Divine Alchemists of Peridot.”
“Yes!”
Talis turned her head toward the sound. Hankirk was on his knees. His face was alight with reverence. Meran was confirming everything he believed.
It unsettled Talis. She felt dizzy.
Helsim Breaker and Arthel Rak looked at each other. Lindent Vein protested, “We work well together.”
He sounded like a child bargaining with a cross mother.
“You have never worked together.” Meran’s voice grew in volume as she spoke. “You have never seen the interconnectivity of the elements. Never used my gifts to ensure balance. You created your little playpens within Nexus and left your creations to squabble among themselves. To steal from and murder each other. To raise barriers that kept them as much apart as you five kept yourselves isolated.”
Quickly, Arthel Rak said, “It was Onaya Bone. This is her fault.”
Meran turned her gaze upon him sharply. He visibly flinched.
“I am aware of her treachery. Her greed betrayed you at the moment of transference. She would have seized all of my powers for herself and destroyed the rest of you, had Silus Cutter not contained her. For her betrayal and her failure, I have spared her. Her greed, at least, did not hide behind a mask of benevolence. Her greed, at least, allowed some small piece of me to survive.”
She moved toward them. Put one foot on the railing and stepped up, as though about to jump.
“You three will not be so lucky.”
They outnumbered her. But she had taken back Silus Cutter’s power from the Yu’Nyun. Had stripped Onaya Bone of her powers with a kiss. Was already imbued with the energy that had been stored in the ring for all these years.
And they knew it.
Arthel Rak and Lindent Vein braced themselves. The ocean behind them trembled. Its surface rippled as the Master of Water flexed his connection with his element.
Meran took a step, as though the air before her were solid. Wind gently ruffled her again.
Helsim Breaker was nearest to Meran as she approached. He moved back, tentatively. She increased her speed as she moved toward him, lowered her head and shoulders, balled her hands into fists.
He flinched. Broke the line. Floated backward, almost stumbled in midair as he turned his back on his fellow gods in panic.
She didn’t pursue him, but turned her attention to the others.
Lindent Vein’s longer arms came up defensively. Arthel Rak’s eyes were wide, his eyebrows raised, lips parted in panic. They moved backward from the small woman. Slowly, still facing her.
Meran moved faster. Pumped her legs and sprinted across open skies to close the distance between them.
They turned in earnest retreat.
Helsim Breaker reached the perimeter of Nexus ahead of them and disappeared inside. The spheres moved again, and before they sealed into a tight shell, Talis saw the interior reshape itself with glowing walls that formed twisting corridors, overlapping and fusing together. A labyrinth.
How desperate Peridot’s gods had become.
Lindent Vein and Arthel Rak, together, reached the arched gate to Nexus. They paused only for a breath to see that Meran was still following them, then continued inside in a scramble.
Never slowing, she raced in behind them.
The archway slid shut, the surface of Nexus sealing tight with a slam that reverberated through the air. Talis felt it rattle her chest. Her sternum ached as though she’d been physically pushed.
The markings on the surface of Nexus flared, reformed into a new pattern. The churning of the ocean settled, sliding back into its usual depths to spread over Nexus and close it off. Its surface calmed again, gently rippling green and white beams of light.
The pain in Talis’s chest subsided, then slipped away. Proximity to Nexus no longer held a vise grip on her heart. She inhaled a deep gasping breath, as though she’d just risen out of that ocean water and could finally fill her lungs again.
Hankirk lay curled up in a trembling fetal position, cradling
