The night sky was clear, contrasting with the mist rising from the stream, illuminated by the small sparks of magic that floated around the improvised camp. The crackling flames of the fire reflected on the attentive countenance of Aries, as he fixed the leather shields with a slight sigh. His sword was stuck to the side, as if it were an extension of his body.
"We managed to fulfill the goal of bringing the boy back..." he broke the silence, without taking his eyes from the fire. "What's the plan now?"
Cale was sitting on the other side of the fire, his knees folded and his arms resting on them. He was still accustomed to his own movements, as if that restored body were at the same time familiar and strange. His fingers drew distractedly the golden lines on his arm.
"Well, the plan was to resurrect me." he said with a crooked smile. "You got it. Cheers for both of you."
Aries raised an eyebrow, as if that answer disarmed him for a moment. Yvaine, beside him, smiled lightly and closed her eyes as if she felt the peace of the night around.
"The stars did not guide me after that", she said, serene, with her eyes turned to the sky. "All we knew was that we needed to bring him back. Nothing else has been revealed since."
"It seems that the Universe is having fun to leave us in the dark." Cale crossed his arms, looking at the fire as if he was waiting for the flames to give him answers.
Aries observed him in silence, the green eyes evaluating each gesture. Behind that sarcastic facade, there was tension. A different tiredness of the physical. Something was burning inside him.
"You have changed" commented Aries, the low voice.
Cale raised an eyebrow.
"And you're still a lousy liar. I bet you're trying to decide if you say I'm 'better' or 'more wasted'."
"I was going to say "more stubborn," but we can keep your version." Aries looked away, but a corner of his lips rose slightly.
The silence that followed was not uncomfortable. It was dense, yes, but full of unspoken memories. They remembered the brief touch before the ceremony. The stolen kiss and the violent separation soon after.
Yvaine pretended not to notice the weather, shuffling her bag with herbs and scrolls as if it were the only task in the world.
"About your return..." she began, keeping the tone neutral, "Although I have said we resurrected you, I must say that we did absolutely nothing but be in place and on time. "
Cale hesitated, despite keeping his eyes fixed on the fire. Noticing that, Yvaine continued.
"If I may, I would like to know how you left the World of Chaos... alone, my lord."
The weight of those eyes that contained the universe was immense and mysterious. Cale felt no secrets could be kept. However, he needed to think. He needed to assimilate what happened.
"I didn't go out alone" he replied, finally, "But it wasn't the damn gods of Keonna who reached out to me."
Aries widened his eyes before the blasphemy. Although understandable, after Krynt pushed him into the arms of Nuria five hundred years ago, it was still surprising considering how devout Cale was.
He still remembered perfectly the image of Cale kneeling in the hidden temple of the Academy of Othea. The peace and serenity of someone who really believed in the gods. Now it was filled with a flaming grudge.
"So who helped you?" asked Yvaine, without seeming bothered as Aries.
A heavy silence floated. Cale breathed deeply, his fingers closing in involuntary fists.
"Who knows what it was? Something mysterious and..." the expression of Cale relaxed a little, although not in a positive way. The eyes shrank softly with a latent doubt, "Dangerously familiar."
He said nothing more. However, the two Theiodesmos realized that Cale would keep the secret for now. Aries just put his hand on Yvaine's shoulder, and nodded silently at a request that she not question the matter anymore. Defeated, she acquiesced.
"What do you want to do, boy?" Aries asked calmly "Although we can not be outrageous, since you should not have left your exile. We should stay hidden for a while and think of a way around the situation."
"Why do you ask me if you already have a plan, little dragon?" sighed Cale, supporting his face in the palm of his hand.
"Because..." he hesitated, but finally sighed as well "I feel like I need to know what your next move is."
The exchange of glances between them was tense. Cale remembered very well the moment when something within him had moved and gained meaning. But the person in front of him looked different from the Aries that he used to provoke before all that mess.
That guardian... looked like someone tired of holding the world on his back.
He hesitated for a moment. There was a pain there, that seemed to tear his throat every time he swallowed the memory. Finally, he said:
"I want revenge."
The words did not come out as a threat. They came out as a lament that hardened over time. He raised his eyes, staring at the emptiness between the flames of the fire.
"They threw me there like I was a trash. No explanation. No chance." He touched one of the golden marks on his arm, fingers shaking. "I cried, begged. Not one of them appeared."
Cale's purple eyes shone with something more than anger. It was contempt. And tiredness. A kind of pain that words could barely contain.
An uncomfortable silence hovered over the group. The flames of the fire burst out, as if trying to fill the void that those words left.
"Y-You mean... take revenge on whom, exactly?" asked Aries, hesitant, as if he feared the answer.
Cale turned his face to him. There was no hesitation in his eyes, just a rock-hard certainty.
"Of the gods of Keonna."
Aries burst out with a brief, incredulous laugh. But he died on the lips before he was fully formed.
"Are you serious? Do you know what you're saying? You barely managed to fight those monsters of Guyel, and do you think are able to go against the twelve gods?"
"This seems blasphemy to me, though I am not surprised" Yvaine sighed calmly, turning to Aries, "Remember the prophecy."
"I know the damn prophecy!! But this here... is real!" he stopped and took a deep breath to contain the frustration "You may have seen in the stars that this boy rebelled against the twelve divine thrones, but we know very well that this does not mean it will be easy. I saw him train before the ceremony, and this demigod project is incapable of doing anything on a battlefield!"
"It is our duty as your Theiodesmos to guide him. Aries, that's what we were born for. Besides, we saw what Krynt did with him. It is natural that he should feel betrayed. But my lord" she turned to Cale, "I must express my concern about your motives. I understand that you're aiming your fury at Krynt. But... what about the other gods? Some of them did not attend your ceremony either. Would they be shot by your fury seeking justice?"
The eyes of amethyst shone with something more than anger. It was contempt and tiredness. A kind of pain that words could barely contain.
"I don't want justice. Justice is for those who still believe in them", strongly inspiring, Cale firmly said, "I want them to taste the poison itself. I want them to know what it is to be afraid of existing."
"But, my lord—"
"I'm not asking for permission, Yvaine", Cale cut it cold. "I was granted the chance to clean this world of this filth. And I will do it with or without you."
Aries leaned against the sword, looking at it with a strange intensity. Was there anything there... pride? Concern? It was hard to say.
"Then start by yourself" he said, after a while. "If you want revenge, you need to be ready. And you are not yet."
Cale raised an eyebrow, with a dry laugh.
"Will you tell me that I must undergo rigorous spiritual and physical training, as in the tales of warrior monks?"
"Something like that." Aries shrugged. "But no monks and no forced spirituality. I train you."
Cale stared at him for a few seconds. Then he raised one of the corners of his mouth.
"Now that sounds like a decent idea."
Yvaine, with a serene look, observed the two. A gleam in her eyes revealed that she could see what was going on between them, even if she said nothing.
"There is a place." she said. "The training tower of Othea's Academy."
Cale's eyes were blurry for a moment. Would he already be returning to the place where it all began? Crossing his arms on his knees, he sank his fingers in the flesh with hesitation. Clenching your teeth in restrained anger was not enough to express that conflict within him.
Aries' chest felt that stir. It was as if a red wire connected them, burning in flames and transmitting only the vibration of hell that their master lived inside him.
"The god of scholarship was not in the ceremony" Aries calmly recalled. He sustained the gaze of Cale, being his anchor not to drown in himself, "He is one of the neutral figures who rarely appears in the rituals of the twelve. We can hide there for a while."
"You're right", Cale muttered gazing at the fire again "Not all the gods were in that ceremony. But that does not mean I see them with good eyes."
"You must be kept hidden" Yvaine intervened, looking calmly at him, "My lord, the Academy of Othea will be the place where we can prepare. You need to rest... assimilate the information. We have a lot to talk about."
Looking at her, Cale understood her concern. Yvaine... the goddess of prophecies. One of the few divine beings who ascended to the divine throne after the rise of the gods of Keonna. She had always been given as a mysterious and unseen woman.
But she was his Theiodesmos. An ascended goddess, she was calling him with respect.
"Indeed. There's a lot we need to talk about."