The meeting stood silent. Caeran and Aurelion walked out red with anger, moving in a straight path. The grins that Lyne and Nyx failed to hide spoke instead.
Something clicked inside Caeran. His foot planted firmly with his next step. He turned by rotating his whole body, keeping his balance on that one foot. Then he left the room. Right as he crossed from the kitchen into the hall, his neck turned back.
"Next time, don't come to me to save you."
His eyes were looking somewhere behind them, but the direction of his words was clear.
Aurelion looked at him and unfolded his hands. He didn't have the energy for perfect posture or the ever-present poker face.
Then it was Zeph. As he was about to take his first step behind the walls, he pulled it back and turned around. For a moment, he just stood there, anger flashing across his face.
The next second, it turned into a smile.
"Nah, I don't have something to break down for."
Nevyziel grabbed his collar from behind and pushed him upward. She grabbed his hand as soon as he stood up. Her face was saying a lot to Lyne and Nyx behind them. She led him to his room.
Kaelen once again found himself in the same situation. His body refused to let the sensation go. Before he could move, he found himself lying on his bed with Nevyziel sitting on a chair in front of him.
"So, how did it go for you?" she asked.
That's when he realized how bad the fight really went for him. As he tried to lift his upper body, the wounds slightly opened up. His back fell hard onto the bed. His nose gave up with it too. He tried to breathe through his mouth, but it wasn't any better. The air entered through the splinters at the corners of his mouth.
"Yeah, it was fine," Kaelen said, trying to smile awkwardly.
"I get it." Her voice was pale and soft. "Now be a man."
She added it immediately, with energy suddenly summoned into her body. She slapped Kaelen's thighs where the wounds had opened up, as hard as she could.
For a second, Kaelen wanted his upper body to be separated from his legs. Now his legs felt like sticks with no weight in them. He didn't dare look at them even once. His face remained fixed toward the ceiling.
"No, really. How was it? Your first mission. Introduction to your new life."
She stopped and caressed her chin.
"I remember when I could still enjoy my youth like you. Oh, good ol' days."
She said it in her best monk impression.
Kaelen was too deep into the ceiling and the pain to hear anything.
Suddenly, Nevyziel giggled and slammed his legs again.
Kaelen rolled onto his stomach.
"Nice glutes!" Nevyziel said, followed by an exaggerated tongue-click.
Kaelen turned back, his back facing the bed.
"Getting harassed by a girl is finally off the bucket list."
"You're funny," she said, laughing as her hand slammed onto his legs once again.
Kaelen turned back again.
"Nice glutes!"
They laughed, almost for no reason. They kept laughing. At least, that was what it seemed like on the surface.
They were the only support they had for each other.
Fast regeneration took its time, but it got the work done. Kaelen finally sat on his bed, facing her.
"So, what did you used to do before this?"
Nevyziel leaned back in her chair.
"Me... I never went to college or had to work. My father involved me in his work almost every day. But I couldn't go out."
Her eyes shifted, looking somewhere far beyond him. Something deep within her seemed to surface.
"Then I found someone who gave me a new life. In just one meeting."
Kaelen raised his eyebrows.
"Love at first sight?"
"Yes."
Her eyes remained fixed somewhere beyond Kaelen, her expression softening as if she were seeing someone who wasn't there.
Kaelen waited for her to say something.
Nothing came.
"Who was it?"
Nevyziel smiled and lowered her eyes. She opened her mouth.
But someone else did too.
"Is this what I worked for? I gave everything to this, and now everyone gets the same responsibility as me?" Silas shouted from above.
Nevyziel immediately got out of her chair, opened the door, and peeked around the hallway.
"Oh, you are going to tell me. Now or later. It's your choice."
She turned back and bit her lip.
"Yes, I will."
Upstairs, Aurelion and Caeran stood a few steps inside the doorway. Silas stood in the middle of his almost empty room, facing his bookshelf.
Lyne and Nyx followed the voice. Caeran looked at them, then at Kaelen and Nevyziel.
"Come," he said to them.
He slid against the door, making way for them. And slammed the door in front of Lyne and Nyx. Their legs barely managed to stop in time. Their legs shook and they lost their balance almost falling right there.
Their frail movements made no sense for someone under the protection of a god.
They had to be pretending.
Silas opened his lips. A weak voice from somewhere inside of him.
"The father of this world who favoured failures."
Kaelen looked at everyone. They were all in the same position. No one understood it.
Before they could figure it out, his mouth opened again.
"They taught me the story of a god before anything else. I never understood what it meant. But now it's here in front of me."
Everything about his speech was wrong. His face showed no expression, and his voice carried none. He stopped between words, trying to remember how humans spoke.
And who the hell were they?
"I won't hide anything from all of you. I made mistakes. Some you might think were the greatest achievements I will ever have. But in truth, I never made you the way you were supposed to be."
He placed his hand over Aurelion's shoulder.
"Nor did I make any of you what you should have been. What you deserved."
Aurelion reached out for his hand as it slipped from his shoulder. Aurelion didn't even notice it. His eyes opened wide and mid stopped processing anymore. He wanted to hear what Silas had to say. But, he didn't want to listen to his words.
"You were supposed to be machines doing Identity's bidding. And now I realize why the king was never given a story. Only quotes that gave him an identity."
He paused.
"The king was yet to be born. And he made the same mistake."
His voice remained empty.
"The mistake of never becoming king."
The thought of losing himself was nothing new to Kaelen. Nor was it to anyone else in the room. Their faces didn't change even a bit.
"What was your mistake?" Kaelen asked.
Silas raised his hand and pointed a finger toward Kaelen.
"You."
"You should have never been a human for so long. You should have been a god."
His finger shifted toward Aurelion.
"Not just you. Aurelion should have been in the place of Identity."
Then Caeran.
"Caeran should have been what Aurelion is right now."
Then Nevyziel.
"And Nevyziel was to be the god killer."
His hand fell.
"I protected you."
He pause.
"My failures."
The words should have made them feel lesser. They didn't.
All of them shared the same thought. How do we pay this person back?
Saving someone from the worst corners of the world could never be a failure.
Aurelion hugged him. Their grip tightened on each other. Then Silas joined them. Then Kaelen and Nevyziel. They surrounded Silas in it.
"Come on. You ain't kids anymore."
They tightened even more.
A small laugh escaped Silas.
Their grips loosened and it had to end.