Daevas -I- ✔️

Chapter 7.4: Love

 The world around Ari seemed muted as he walked through the encampment. There was no color either. Everything was drowned in a sea of grays and whites with some black blended into the mix. Sanclii passed before him, all blurry faces with mouths moving, but Ari did not hear them. Well, rather, he did not want to hear them. There was growing disgust and resentment festering deep inside himself. He hated the feeling. The Khaeo once meant something as a home for him and now morbid thoughts of how many of them within a small amount of time could he kill.

As it rained, Ari kept his head lowered and continued on toward the temple. He hated how his clothes would stick to his skin and his hair would sop onto his neck. It felt to him like small bugs tracing down his skin. The hair on his neck made his skin itch. Although he had all those reasons for disliking the rain, Ari knew it was not the true reason why he hated it.

Sanclii were looming around the decrepit temple that had fallen into ruin since long ago. He had not been here since he was a boy, but he still remembered each engraving on the sides. The words of the gods, Nolan would say to him. He said the gods had spoken to him on the day Nolan had found him. That they said, he was to be brought up and raised by him. Ari threw away a smile threatening to appear on his face. It was mocking one; a saddened one.

Ari looked at the moss growing in between the cracks, crevices, and all along of what remained of the building, taking him away from those senseless memories. There were char and soot burned onto its walls. It did not take much to know it had seen war in its prime. He walked inside and noticed how bits of light made it through the stained glass, showing him the colors of a sunset. It had been his most favorite parts of the temples. Statues with missing limbs and faces, even heads was littered around the ground. Ari walked deeper inside and went down the steps into the altar room. It was where Nolan would be waiting, he was sure of it.

Instead of light from the outside, there were many candles lit among the large, empty room save for one person. As Ari walked closer to the man on his knees, Ari came to realize it was Einar. His head rose and gave Ari a small smile through glassy eyes. Had he been crying? Ari did not take him a devoted believer in the faith.

"Are you here for prayer or repentance?"

"I do not believe in such gods," Ari stated matter-of-factly, "because they are not my gods. They are yours."

Ari could not withhold the bitterness from his tongue even if it was for someone who was undeserving of it. Not all of them were bad, he would say to himself, but he could hardly come to accept that, these days.

"So it is for repentance?" Einar laughed and brought Ari down on his knees along with him.

Einar handed Ari a small blade near the foot of the god, Oliya, but Ari threw it onto the ground.

"A blood penance is needed, Ari."

Einar grabbed his left hand and sliced through the flesh of it which made Ari balled it into a fist. He let the blood drip into a golden chalice laid to each side of the altar. By the sound of his blood dripping into the cup, it was nearly full.

Ari snatched his hand back from Einar and kept it near his stomach.

"Is this not a priest's role?" Ari said.

"Priest Reynold is nowhere to be found, so we go through the rituals ourselves until another priest can make it here."

No matter how Ari looked at him, there was something sad about him that he had not noticed before. Had he lost something so precious? Ari knew he was not a new recruit. Usually, they had lost their families due to some acts of war or tyranny of a king. He wore the same expression as them. The hurt of it must not have left him yet.