ALL NOVEL Ch.63 – Not with a Bang but a Whimper
POV: Velen
She still remembered how her ordeal began; she was near the river that had generated her and of which she was the Guardian Spirit, since Tamara had left her area of responsibility Velen had no longer heard from her, even though people had arrived in Stanbroodge who confirmed with their actions being members of the Heliolite nobility and that they had come there in search of Nightmare Tyrant that was dwelling within the Sleepy Swamp dungeon.
She had mentally smiled knowing that the duo accompanied by an escort of knights would not be able to find what they were looking for down there, in the dungeon, and when they were not inside the dungeon, she often dedicated herself to peeking at what they were doing and what motivations were driving them to that quest beyond the vast domains of their kingdom.
It was an ordinary day for Velen, one of the virtually infinite days of her very long life when she felt the presence of a god who was trying to grab her… and it wasn't Gornowayl. Even though it was completely useless to try to resist a god, Velen tried anyway only because of the slimy, sinister feeling that was trying to squeeze her in its grip like a fly in a giant's fist felt terrifying to her.
As said: resistance against a god was useless, and in a very short time she was dragged away from her tranquility and the normality of her days.
Velen was unable to sort out what had happened in a period that as far as she was concerned could have lasted a few hours as well as centuries; the god who had captured her and taken her hostage was Slaarvin, who had apparently somehow managed to discover that she was involved in something the gods didn't know.
At first he simply asked why she had intervened to help Luchael, and when the answers she gave him were considered unsatisfactory, he proceeded with more creative methods suited to the God of Ruin and Deceit.
“She promised me,” her mind slipped unwillingly.
And every time she refused to answer what she was referring to, the God of Ruin got a little more creative. Velen's very essence was torn apart, abused, broken, his very thoughts were ravaged by Slaarvin. She then tried not to think about anything, or to think about anything other than Tamara; she had promised her that she would return and that she would free her, she had promised her...
“So this person is called Tamara,” the entity murmured in a pleased tone.
‘No! Stay out of my mind! Stay out! STAY OUT!’
“If I'm not mistaken she's the Earthling girl Lyndvrath stole from her universe,” Slaarvin chuckled, “the story is more complex and interesting and intricate than I thought. Come on, little spirit, tell me more.”
. . .
By the time Slaarvin had finished extracting all the information he wanted, there was very little left of Velen: her very essence had been devastated to the point that she had to desperately fight to keep together the fragments of that central nucleus that constituted her, and even in that it was slowly but surely failing.
'Am I... am I about to disappear? I played with fire too much, and now I'm burning in it.'
The entity wasn't finished with her yet: after squeezing every information out of her, he dragged her away again, this time quite literally throwing her like a sack of potatoes in front of the entire Divine Court, which was once again in session without letting Velen understand if it was a special situation or not.
Besides, she felt so drained that she couldn't even make herself care.
“And what does this mean?” Said one of the entities, their mere presence was such as to make it even more difficult to keep in place all the pieces that made up her shattered essence. “This Guardian Spirit has been damaged to the point that it is dissolving, be advised that this will bring punishment for harming and killing a Guardian Spirit without the consent of this court.”
“Yes, of course, but great Teityr, I believe this Guardian Spirit has information that could help the court establish Gornowayl's guilt in allowing that prophecy about Nightmare Tyrant to come true,” Slaarvin replied, “come on, say what you have. said to me."
'Gornowayl? Nightmare Tyrant?' Velen couldn't understand, - perhaps due to her condition -, she tried to look towards the entity that transmitted the mystical energy she knew, but even for a Guardian Spirit it was impossible to understand what the gods were thinking while in their authentic forms: they were so beyond matter, time and space that only another god could have been able to understand what they actually were and what they were thinking.
“This is absurd! Does it make sense to you that I would take such a huge risk knowing that if I succeeded I might find myself without heroes to play with??” Protested the God of Heroes, “this trial is a farce!”
“Little being, speak,” Teityr ordered Velen.
Velen hesitated, she tried not to speak, but with everything she had suffered the words came out anyway in a monotone voice, as if she were a golem, "the soul that Lyndvrath wanted to transform into her champion was saved by me, Tamara still exists and is trapped in the body of a salmadrer.”
The various entities that made up the Divine Court murmured in surprise among themselves.
“With Gornowayl's help, I helped Tamara grow and become stronger, with the explicit request of asking her to accept being recognized as Nightmare Tyrant. He believed that..."
Velen stopped when the power of the entities present became stronger, she felt like an ant trapped in a fight between children who were trying to snatch a particular toy from each other's hands, fortunately for her, that toy was not the ant... the ant in that case was just an accidental victim of the whole affair.
“P-please…” Velen whispered.
“Let her finish speaking!” Shouted Gornowayl, “her testimony is not over yet!”
The gods calmed down after a few more seconds, allowing Velen to speak again.
“He believed that someone within the Divine Court was plotting behind the backs of the other gods to bring destruction to the world and that Tamara would have to pose as Nightmare Tyrant to thwart these plans.”
“And isn't that what someone like Gornowayl would do?” Slaarvin interrupted her again, "it seems like the perfect situation for one of his heroic stories, he has caused similar events in the past, perhaps this time the situation is simply getting out of his hands... and now he is trying to shift the blame onto someone else."
“THIS IS NOT WHAT'S HAPPENING, YOU ROTTEN VERMIN!” Thundered Gornowayl, “YOU'RE BEHIND ALL THIS, AND I KNOW IT!”
“You're making very strong accusations, Gornowayl,” Teityr murmured, “do you have any proof of what you say?”
“W-well…”
“Then we will have to judge based on the information we have at our disposal,” Teityr replied matter-of-factly, “we vote now, the accusation against Gornowayl is that he masterminded all this without the approval of the court.”
“This is absurd, it must be a joke,” Gornowayl grumbled.
Velen was being ignored; despite her precarious conditions she managed to follow the event between the various entities, which in the end after some further consultation between them decided - with just two votes against - on Gornowayl's verdict of guilt.
“Idiots! I'm not the danger here! Is it possible that you won't get it??” The God of Heroes shouted as the power of his presence began to be sucked in the direction of a stormy, purple vortex, “Slaarvin will destroy the world! If it isn't stopped we will all lose!”
'This… this is my fault! It's my fault!' Velen thought horrified, if only she had accepted her imprisonment all this wouldn't have happened, instead she must have been childish, she must have wanted more than she had, she wanted something she wasn't allowed to have... and those were the consequences, 'I'm sorry Gornowayl… I'm so sorry…'.
In less than a minute, the vortex completely consumed Gornowayl, dragging him inside despite his desperate struggle: the only ally she and Tamara had had just been confined to what could be considered the corner of punishment for virtually omnipotent beings... the Grey Zone.
“And with that concluded, we must decide of the Guardian Spirit,” said one of the entities, “what do we do with her? Her essence is so damaged that it is impossible for her not to vanish.”
“Bring her back to her domain, we will think of a replacement as soon as she ceases to exist.”
Velen remained silent, returning to the river Velenaria… yes… that was her home, her world, her prison… if only she could rewind time to correct what her lack of reasonableness had caused…
“And what about Tamara?”
‘Tamara?’
“At this rate her soul and that of the salmadrer will finish merging very soon, it is a matter of time before she turns into a creature of limited and psychotic reasonableness, in her case her monstrous body is weak enough that adventurers should not have have trouble killing her when she will finally go mad,” replied an entity with a feminine voice and which seemed to express intelligence… perhaps a deity of knowledge?
Velen noticed the slow movement of one of the entities that seemed to be slugging, crawling away from the debates of the Divine Court, she wasn't very familiar with all the deities, but she was able to recognize some of them thanks to the types of mystical energy they emanated, and the one that was trying to slip away inconspicuously matched Lyndvrath's.
'Please help her, Tamara didn't want any of this, I got what I deserve but she's innocent,' thought Velen before being transported back along the banks of the Velenaria, alone once more, back to her prison without bars and now waiting to fade.
