Twilight of the Gods
Chapter 22: Chess Pieces

Matthius holds up a candle, illuminating the shadows on his face. “Thank you for gathering on such short notice. My apologies for disturbing your rest.”

The Elysians glared at him, all in various states of undress. Julia was in a nightgown, with cream smeared on her face. Sabine’s eyes were circled with dark bags, making her look more exhausted than she already was. It seemed that the Mage was still adjusting to her soul being returned to her body. Hubert was standing on crutches next to her, with bandages peeking out from beneath his pants. Daeva imagined that he was digging bullets out of his legs mere moments before Nyx’s arrival.

Behind them, Iris’s curls were in a disarray, sticking out at all angles. Tristan’s glasses sit crooked on his nose, hastily placed on his face after he heard the bell. Vivian’s nightshirt was buttoned improperly, with the lowest button fastened to a higher loop. Ezra, of course, looked pristine as ever. His clothes were neat and not a single hair was out of place on his head.

Haydn stands to the side, his clothes covered in dirt from digging up the dead body. She does her best to brush the debris off, making him look less suspicious. Uriel appears next to her with a cloth, wiping Haydn’s face.

“Guys, I’m fine,” he said, pushing their hands away. “A little dirt never hurt anyone.”

Matthius clears his throat, silencing the group. His eyes turn black instantly, Nyx taking over his body. She smiles at the Gods and Elysians, stretching Matthius’s mouth wider than Daeva thought possible.

How creepy, Daeva thought.

She’s doing it on purpose, Anhel said. She likes to throw us off balance. Arriving in the middle of the night, wearing an unsettling expression – she’s establishing control through her arrival.

And it was working. The Elysians were on edge just looking at her.

“Greetings,” Nyx said. “Nice to see that you’re all here. I want to give a round of applause to the Gods, for completing their last tasks so quickly. They have risen to the challenge of the Board far better than I anticipated.”

The Lady of the Night claps, prompting the Elysians to join her. The Elysians do so half-heartedly, filling the air with scattered claps. Daeva and Haydn stand there uncomfortably, both disliking the attention.

Nyx sets the candle down on the table, summoning the Board near it. She calls the Gods forward, once again asking them to put their hands on the game set. But, before they do so, Hubert steps forward to voice his objections.

“Stop,” he said, maneuvering himself with his crutches. “Don’t start the game yet.”

Nyx gives him a cold gaze, bristling at the interruption. “Is something wrong, Soulmaker?”

“Yes,” he said. “I have reason to believe that you’re plotting against me and my brethren. You’ve drawn the Gods into this conspiracy to dethrone us under the illusion of a game.”

The Elysians around him shift uneasily, but none step forward to disagree. They merely observe him, waiting for the consequences.

Nyx laughs at his remark. “Hubert, have I made you lose sleep? Once this round ends, I will send everyone back to bed. Now –”

“I’m not acting crazy,” he said. “I have proof.” He slaps the paper slip on the table, revealing Daeva’s previous task. “It says to ‘remove the Soulmaker’s mark.’ Why did the Board order her to do that? How can such an undertaking make her fit to influence thousands of mortals?”

Nyx’s eyes glitter with malice. “I don’t control the Board, but even I know it would never make the Gods do something so ridiculous. You are all under my protection. I don’t know why you entertain these paranoid delusions. I mean, to go as far as to make up slips of paper and say that the Board ordered the Gods to do this is incredible, to say the least.”

“I didn’t fabricate this,” he said. “Daeva is going after every one of us under the instructions of the Board. She took Sabine’s soul and she hurt Julia and Iris. Why else would they have been missing for the next few rounds of the game?”

“Sabine looks perfectly healthy to me,” Nyx said. “As do the rest of the Elysians. Unless anyone would like to say otherwise?”

Hubert looks at his soulmate, his eyes pleading with her. Sabine sighs, stepping forward.

“It’s true,” she said. “My soul was taken by that God. I’m still recovering from the incident.” She looks at Iris and Julia, asking them to step forward.

“She used torture instruments on me,” Julia said. “But maybe it wasn’t the Board. I believe she did it of her own free will. I don’t think anyone would tell her to hurt me, especially not you, esteemed Lady of the Night.”

“She cut my face,” Iris added hastily. “But I don’t think she meant any ill will. It was most likely an accident.” Her eyes darted nervously to Daeva, reminding her to keep her secret.

“I see,” Nyx said. “I notice that none of you have mentioned Haydn. Did he hurt any of you? Come forward. I value your honesty.”

Sabine makes eye contact with Haydn, getting ready to speak. But the God sends a glare so vicious that she clamps her mouth shut. She was well aware that the Gods knew of her planned coup. If she still intended to take over the Council, then it was in her best interest to stay silent.

Nyx nods after no one speaks. “Hubert, it seems that there is no conspiracy to overthrow the Elysians. I think it’s strange that you only mention Daeva in these crimes. Considering how everyone treated her in the past, I assume you all have a vendetta against her. It’s unbecoming of you to fabricate these stories. It’s even more dishonorable to have your fellow brethren lie on your behalf. I expected you to act maturely when I requested her presence in Otherworld. You’ve disappointed me greatly, Humble One.”

Hubert sputters, attempting to say something to address the absurdity of the situation. He knew he was right. Heck, even Daeva knew he was on to something. But Nyx had backed him into a corner by calling him the very thing he strongly felt he wasn’t: dishonorable.

“I’m sorry, My Lady,” he said. “I swear on my life that I’m only telling you the truth. I never meant to accuse you of anything. I just seek to bring Daeva’s actions into the light.”

“You’re forgiven,” Nyx said. “But we must continue with the games.”

The candlelight flickers as a cool wind blows into the room. A heavy weight settles over the observers. As the Gods approach the Board, the flame grows dimmer. The light shrinks in the expanding presence of darkness. Daeva places her hand on the Board, feeling the wood soften into flesh. Haydn does the same, mirroring her actions.

For a second, the light disappears. The Elysians are bathed in darkness as their sight is completely blocked. But then the flame reappears as the papers materialize beneath the palms of the Gods.

Her eyes darted over the letters of her latest task. She almost vomits on the spot reading the details of what the Board wanted her to do. She looks over at Haydn, who also seemed displeased with his latest task.

She looks over at Nyx, who regarded them impassively with her black eyes. For once, she wondered what the woman was thinking. The tasks that the Board gave them never felt random. And even though Nyx said she had no control over the Board, Daeva got the sense that she did have some influence over the tasks.

She was certain that Nyx saw them as chess pieces in a bigger game. The Elysians may have thought they were in control with the Boards they already had, but they were just as much a player in her game as the Gods were. The question was, what role did each of them play? And what did she want from them?

Judging by the tasks she was given so far, Daeva knew two things. One, much like Hubert suspected, Nyx wanted her to punish the Elysians. Her latest task made that abundantly clear. She didn’t know why Nyx desired to see the Elysians suffer, but she knew that Nyx was manipulating her desire for revenge to do so.

Two, Nyx wanted Daeva to know the Elysians’ secrets. Every punishment revealed something about them that she hadn’t known before. Well, not every punishment. Julia’s punishment merely proved that she was just as nasty as Daeva remembered.

I wonder what Nyx is, Anhel said. She’s neither Elysian nor God, but she has powers of possession and access to instruments that control the universe. If we could just replace out what she wants, then maybe figuring her out would be easier.

Do you think that will help us escape? She’s the one who asked the Elysians to bring us here in the first place, Daeva thought.

I think it will help us avoid her in the future. She may not be our foe now, but I think she could be a potential enemy, later on, he remarked.

She looks down at the piece of paper again. I don’t know if I can do this task. I don’t like how Nyx is using me. This is my revenge and my revenge alone.

If I recall correctly, you agreed to this because you wanted your memories back. Revenge was out of the question, especially since Nyx said you couldn’t kill the Elysians, he pointed out.

While Anhel was right in that Daeva couldn’t take revenge on the Elysians the way she wanted to, that was not the kind of vengeance she was seeking. No, what she truly wanted was to avenge her past self by killing the person who ended her first life. She agreed to Anhel’s possession because it gave her the power to destroy that person, whoever they were. Her reincarnation would be for naught if she couldn’t replace them.

Daeva’s memories were returning slowly, much to her frustration. She constantly relives the scene of her murder, but the face of the killer continues to elude her. She wonders if this is Nyx’s doing, a way for the Lady of the Night to partially fulfill their agreement.

No, Anhel informed her. The purple candy she gave you unlocked all of your memories. You’re the only one getting in the way of seeing them.

That makes no sense! I want to see my memories so they should show themselves, she thought.

Your memories are also traumatizing, he added. Your brain is trying to protect you by blocking out certain parts. The person who murdered you still scares you deep down. It’s why you hate them so much.

She wanted to pull her hair out. How could she, a powerful – albeit restrained – chaos God fear a mortal? Her eyes slid over to the Elysians, who were filing out of the room. They were able to torture her easily. Maybe her murderer could do the same.

She takes one last look at Nyx, who was still watching her through Matthius’s body. Then, the man blinks and the Lady of the Night vanishes, leaving her servant behind.

How about you show me the memory? Place the image of my murderer’s face in my mind? Maybe then I could see who killed me outside of the context of my trauma, she thought. Just as Nyx could completely take over Matthius’s body, Anhel should be able to flood her mind.

I’ve tried, Anhel said. Your mind refuses to see the image. Similarly, if you tried to put my powers back in my control, I wouldn’t be able to grasp them.

Damn Hubert for banishing us to Limbo. If he hadn’t done this, we wouldn’t be fused in this confounding way, she thought.

We can overcome this. We were a force to reckon with in the Mortal Realm even with these weaknesses and we can be just as powerful here, even with our restraints.

She wasn’t sure if he said that to reassure her or if he was stating the simple truth. With most of the links on the Binding Chains broken and Anhel’s return, she wasn’t sure which abilities she regained. And there was still the matter of the latest task.

Vivian deserves it, Anhel said. You shouldn’t feel any hesitation completing it.

I don’t want to be like the Elysians, she thought. The act would make me a monster.

We’ve done worse, he argued.

I won’t feel guilty about it. I just don’t want to do it. It’s disgusting, she thought.

The “it” in question was eating Vivian’s heart. Even saying the task to herself felt surreal. The premise was so absurd and violent that it sounded more like another torture the Elysians devised for her rather than a task from the Board.

We could always cook her heart, he said. Add some seasoning and it will make it taste good.

The feeling of disgust intensifies. His advice was too specific to have not been put into practice before.

Human sacrifice used to be a tradition among extremist groups in Myrania, Anhel said. It was good practice for young necromancers, but it also meant that I received many human hearts as offerings.

I really didn’t need to know the details, she thought. Just picturing Anhel eating bloody hearts made her feel uncomfortable. She shared a body and soul with him, an ancient God who did monstrous things, things she couldn’t fathom. Things she had to do now.

You won’t be a monster for doing this. It’s just a means to an end. He didn’t seem offended at her insinuating that he was barbaric. If anything, he seemed more concerned for her sanity.

But I will feel like a monster, she thought. In fact, it was no secret that she already felt this way from her other sins.

If you can’t bear it, then let me take over. Give me the reins and you won’t remember a single thing, he offered.

Like before, she thought. When we killed those children. It was the easy way out, the only way out truly.

Surrender, he insisted. We won’t even need to involve the angel.

And that was enough for her to agree. She closes her eyes, sinking into the darkness.