Crisis of Faith by Benjamin Medrano (z-lib.org)
Page 34
Medaea laughed with the sound of echoing bells, and belatedly Nadis realized that all the others save for Sistina were on their knees as well. The goddess glanced at them, amusement in her eyes as she murmured, “No, I don’t think I am. I care for you a great deal, Sistina, and I’m not going to give that up yet. No, I think this is enough for now. I’ve changed a great deal from who I was… but I believe I’ve changed enough due to the whims of others.”
“Lady Medaea?” Elissa asked, the name sounding a bit alien coming from her lips, but Nadis couldn’t blame her.
“I’m saying that I’m going to make a few decisions for myself, Elissa,” Tyria said, smiling back at her. “Now stand, all of you. Baldwin agreed to reforge my armor and sword into something more suited to me, and I think it’s time to try it on. Who would like to help me with that?”
Nadis opened her mouth as she climbed to her feet, but it was Jaine who spoke first, her voice filled with eagerness. “Ooh, I would, please?”
The laughter that filled the room was infectious, and Nadis couldn’t help joining it, as she felt contentment fill her at last.
Epilogue
“Goodbye, Urda,” the Eternal Empress murmured, dropping the body of the man into the remains of the tree. His body fell toward the coals that burned within the tree, and she watched them go, then turned away. Urda was only one of thousands that she needed to lay to rest, so she wasn’t about to stop now.
The ripple through the ley lines, though, that stopped her, and she smiled slightly as she looked up at the funnel surrounding the crater, at the winds which had been raging ceaselessly since the Godsrage. Before her eyes, the winds faltered, then began to die at long last.
Power rippled and surged beneath the Empress’s feet, and she leaned down to touch the ground, closing her eyes as she reached out, drawing a breath ever so slowly as she tasted the power within the ley lines. It was a dangerous game, that much she knew, but the Empress had practice with it, and it wasn’t as though the power would kill her. Maim her for a decade or so, perhaps, but not kill.
Through the ley lines, she was able to sense the sapling of the world tree, as well as the power it was pulsing with. The idea of it being Marin’s soul within the tree amused the Empress to no end, considering how resistant the woman had been to becoming fey.
“‘I don’t want eternal life’ indeed,” the nymph said, laughing softly as she shook her head. “What twists and turns your life has taken, Marin. Still, I cannot say that I am displeased.”
More importantly, from the power she sensed, Sistina had gained the power of all six nodes at last, and that made the Empress smile wider and stand once more.
Already the skies were beginning to clear, and the air was warming, to the fey’s delight. She looked out across the frozen mountains, then laughed, her voice louder now. “The Eternal Wood isn’t gone. It has merely been asleep, for generations on end. Now that ends. Now, my dear godlings… the hunt shall begin.”
No one answered the Eternal Empress, of course. She hadn’t expected them to, for the reawakening would take time, for those that had survived. On the other hand, she was patient, and could wait. After all, vengeance was a dish best served cold.