Veleria found herself outside following a grueling two hours of academics. She was pleased in many ways, but disappointed in others; namely, that despite Cromwell preserving history he had done little to describe Caellach in detail. Even his abilities, what he was, it was all bogus wordplay meant to dance around the truth. To the world he was some sorcerer tyrant who had committed genocide against multiple peoples, and ultimately dismantled his council before committing suicide.
What use was literacy if it taught her nothing? Kicking a rock into the nearest tree, Veleria went for a walk.
From one of the two frontward facing windows Caed watched her with mild interest. He supposed she could run off, but it wasn’t as if that would be a bad outcome with Raker as a looming threat. Eventually he would have to make a decision…And that decision would likely end with Caed dropping her off nearby Ashvale. That was, unless Cromwell showed beforehand. He had a deal to make with that one.
Out in the surrounding forest, a jay gathering loose twigs caught Veleria’s attention. She watched it for a while, followed it to its budding nest, and allowed her thoughts to wander while the jay pruned its future home.
Caed was a character, certainly, and she hardly appreciated his antics, but Raker was in a class of his own. She had only ever seen him once, and only in the presence of Alk’Hath. The sorceress had made it quite clear that she should never find herself in a room alone with him. This, naturally, begged the question as to why Alk’Hath would house such a lunatic.
Apparently, she was the only one Raker respected. He was rather smitten with her.
The jay flew off to find more twigs. Hands on her hips, Veleria wondered. Raker had terrified her. Back when she was under the sorceress’s wing, she gave Raker the wide berth he required and any mention of his antics made her recoil. She had been scared when Caed told her he was coming, but…Veleria realized that it was all rather muted. Raker could try tearing her apart. He would melt. What happened if he got a limb off? That was concerning, but Veleria found that the idea did not frighten her.
She rubbed at her chest, pondering, and came upon an idea that the old Veleria would have cried over.
Caed had used Istvar’s eye on her, but Caellach had stalled him. During one of her nights here, she had interrupted Caellach’s reminiscence. She had spoken to him, and whether or not Caellach graced her with a response, Veleria found this significant. They had power over one another. But it was her body.
She could wait for Cromwell, of course…And yet…
Veleria found that she didn’t want to wait, not with Caed’s ability in front of her. He had used her, so why shouldn’t she use him in return?
Later that night, Veleria returned to the cabin to find Caed lying on his bed. He had a book open on his chest, and one of his cigarettes bobbing in between his lips. He didn’t even look at her.
Approaching him, Veleria stood beside the bed. He offered her a glance.
“Does Istvar’s eye show only the objective truth?” She asked.
Caed removed his cigarette and blew the smoke out and away from her. The look on his face was one of curiosity.
“Yeah, it’s fact. It’s her gaze, not the recipient’s, though she does borrow theirs during her trips. Pain in the ass since now I got a damn insane asshole on—“
Caed dropped his smokes to the floor. Right in the middle of his tangent Veleria had straddled him. At first, he was shocked and it showed. Then, as her fingers closed around his wrists and guided his hands onto her chest, Caed eyed her suspiciously. The right orb was beginning to change. The circle was moving, complicating itself. It wanted to see what was in front of it.
“Try again. I want you to tell me if Caellach is who I think he is.”
“Now, Vel, that thing inside of you is rather dangerous, and I don’t know if I can—“
Veleria silenced him by taking his mouth against her own. After a stalled moment, Caed leaned into her, felt her breasts, her thin shoulders, and outlined her shoulder blades against her back, then locked eyes with her after she pulled back. He could level a city with what was coursing through him now. This close, this contact—He would never need another source again.
“Consider this a transaction. I won’t let him hurt you, but you have to get something substantial. Can you do that?” She asked. Her breath was hot.
His mind racing, Caed’s lips peeled back over his teeth in a wide grin.
“No problem, but ya can’t back out once we start. I already like what I see.” He said, reaching one hand into her hair. Embers died against his skin.
Veleria leaned in to kiss him again.
* * *
Veleria never saw how poorly Vos’iin had treated her corpse. Given what had happened between them, the sorcerer and his goddess figured that Vos’iin had despised her. He threw her into the pit with all the grace of a drunk fool on Mooncarver’s night.
They waited. Once her path crossed with the one who would resurrect her, Istvar made the switch. Together, she and Caed delved deep into the unknown, into a being not of their world. Istvar made this clear to him. He braced himself.
For a brief moment they both encountered him. It. Whatever they were, they only caught a glimpse of them, and then Caed thought it looked more like Veleria than the man he had seen previously. Free to continue, his goddess continued their descent.
Silence.
There was only silence and darkness. For several millenia the being known as “Caellach” had forced themselves into isolation. Rarely did they think or feel, and when they did, there was only sorrow. Between realms, in a vast unknown that not even Istvar could access, there was only Caellach and their pain.
Finally, there was fire. Rage surrounded them, even pain—Istvar took them past this, though Caed glimpsed a thin, weak man, who shouted at Caellach in their final hours. He used their true name.
Orthenheim.
Using this name, Istvar gave Caed what he needed. Twin stars shown before him, and a bright, colorful world on the brink of collapse. Devoured, utterly. Only one star remained, a brilliant golden-eyed beast that would flee, instead, to their home, and don the name ‘Caellach Fauror’ after assuming a recognized, accepted form.
Before he could detach himself from the images presented to him, Caed found his eyes wide open while his featureless goddess revealed one last detail to him through the mirror of her cosmic body. Before her death, Veleria had seen something.
She had not known what it was.
In their world it was powerless, without such powerful stars to devour, to feast upon. But, it had sustained itself upon the only source that was most similar to what it previously ate.
It came here for Orthenheim, Istvar told him. But they had already fled.
Caed breathed laboriously. In his arms he held the naked form of Veleria, though he found that, empowered as he was, he could easily denote the form her magic took as it pulsated outward from her reformed heart. Within it was doubtlessly the remnants of the golden-eyed beast. Looking her over, he ran his fingers gently down her arm. He had taken her more times than he intended. Still, she recovered easily, in seconds, and hadn’t seemed to mind.
Instinctively, he reached for his smokes, but paused. He realized he didn’t need them. Despite having spent close to an hour in intense, otherworldly visions, Caed did not feel his hunger. He was satiated. Satisfied, in more ways than one. Pulling Veleria against him, Caed chose to lie with her for what little of the night remained.
Knowing what he knew now, he could not allow Alk’Hath to have her.