Chapter 38

I felt numb as the realization of what had just happened hit me and in an instant, I was unable to stand. There were gasps of shock as I fell to the ground, and I struggled to keep my emotions in check. I didn’t even realize that I had collapsed to the ground until the healers in the evacuation area were helping me up. I was thankful I had put Amenthia down just moments before, or else she could have been hurt further falling down with me.

“Are you okay Pathios?!” Cassandra asked, panic and worry was pouring off every word.

“We need to go back,” I replied, absently as I tried to process what happened. “I need to go back and get her. I need to go get her!”

“Pathios, you need to calm down,” Katie said softly, trying to calm me down. “You know that it is too dangerous for us to go back, not to mention that it would take us nearly two hours to go back, even if we were to start back now.”

I glared at her, “I don’t fucking care! If it takes a week to get there, I am fucking going back to get Entivala!”

“Amenthia, you need to talk some sense into him,” Theresa pleaded, trying to appeal to the blonde’s affection for me.

“I will stay here, you four will take him back there,” Amenthia replied instead, shocking the others. “By the time you get there, I am certain that Odin’s men will be there. My arm is in no condition to go anywhere.”

Amber stepped forward, “I will stay with her, so that she isn’t here alone. When she is okay to move, if you haven’t returned, I will escort her to the transit tubes so she can return home safely.”

I bowed in thanks, “I appreciate that, Amber. When she is done, if you could reach out to let us know that everything is okay...”

In a flash I knew what I needed to do next. I closed my eyes and reached out to the god that came to mind through prayer.

“Odin! There was an ambush, and we were barely able to escape,” I explained, hoping he was listening. “Entivala wasn’t able to get away in time and I am afraid that something terrible has happened to her. We are going to return to see if she is there! Will your men be there in the next two hours?”

“Pathios, my boy, I am so sorry to hear that,” The one-eyed god exclaimed through this temporary connection. “I dispatched them right after you prayed to me, so they should be there in the next hour or so. I will let them know that you’re coming and instruct them to inform you of whatever they find when you arrive. Be careful, and don’t do anything rash!”

I felt the uneasiness leave me and I got up and began to head for the transit tubes. Katie, Cassie, and Theresa rushed to keep up with me. When I emerged in the pact house I raced over to the eastern gate, and I could hear the others calling for me to wait up. As soon as I was able to get far enough away from the village for it to be safe, I called upon Draco and Saphira. I knew that they may be too injured from the fight to help, but I needed to try. This time I cast it so they could hopefully walk out, and I was glad to see them stride through. There was noticeable damage to their wings, especially Draco’s, but overall they were okay.

“Why did you summon us again, Father?” Saphira asked, confused about being brought back to this floor.

“Entivala was unable to escape with us,” I replied, and I could feel the shock and concern coming from their link with me.

“I am sorry, Father,” Draco exclaimed. “The link I have with her has not been severed, but I cannot sense where she is. I know that I cannot sense outside of this floor at present, but regardless, the bond is still there and strong.”

“Thank you, Draco, that makes me feel a little bit better,” I told him as I placed my hand on his chest. “Would you be able to carry us to the site of our battle? Either by flight or by land?”

“The orc did a bit of a number on us near the end of the fight,” Saphira replied. “We cannot fly, but we shall have no problem taking you and the others on our backs. It should take us a bit longer, but it will be a lot shorter than if you went on foot.”

I turned to the others and said, “They can’t fly, but will let us ride them to where the fight was.”

I could see their hesitance, but Draco and Saphira laid on the ground to allow us to climb on. I wasn’t surprised to see an area that was smooth between their back spikes that gave an appropriate amount of space for us to sit. Once we were all seated, they rose up and turned to begin our trip. They started off slowly, allowing us time to adjust to their movements and the sensation of riding. I know I would have the harder time, given where my balls were situated, but I made the best of it. They increased speed into a gallop and gave us time to get used to that, before they started ramping up their speed to a full run. I could actually hear Katie giggling behind me, and I glanced over to see Cassie smiling from ear to ear, while Theresa held onto her for dear life.

Nearly an hour later, we arrived at the sight of our fight and there were many soldiers moving over the battlefield. Draco and Saphira stopped and allowed us to get off. We thanked them and I activated the return spell. Once they were sent back to the hatchery, we approached the soldiers. I could see the surprise on their faces, from seeing the dragons, but it didn’t seem to shake them.

“Halt,” Commanded one of the guards as he approached us. “This area is closed off as we work to determine what happened here.”

“I am Pathios Daxion,” I explained. “I was tasked to investigate where missing adventurers went and what might have happened to them. We enclosed twelve of them inside of a cavern up there,” I said pointing towards the entrance that Entivala sealed. “Katie here can tell you where the other two exits are so you can send soldiers there to make sure they haven’t escaped. We don’t want to interfere, but Odin was made aware I was returning.”

“Ah yes, Mr. Daxion,” the soldier exclaimed. “I apologize for my rudeness, but you know that we can’t allow random people to enter the area.”

“It’s okay we understand,” I replied. “Katie here will assist you in pointing out where the bodies buried outside are, then as I said she can guide them to the two exits. There are multiple bodies inside as well.”

“That help would be appreciated,” the soldier admitted. “I only hope that you can find the answers that you are looking for. I do have a question. There are a bunch of bodies all along the surrounding outcroppings of stone. Who were they?”

“They were part of the group that Odin is hunting, they were archers that thought they had the high ground, but they didn’t realize that something else had the height advantage” I answered.

“What do you mean?” Asked the soldier, unsure of what I was saying. “What had the height advantage?”

I gave him a smile and said, “My dragons had the height advantage, and our enemies were shown the error of their choices when they were burnt alive by them.”

I could see the shock and amazement in the eyes of the soldier, regardless of the helmet he was wearing. He gestured for Katie to follow him and after shooting me a glance, they walked off.

“Theresa, could you bring out Wolfie?” I asked, which confused her a bit. “He is a canine, so you could see if he can pick up Entivala’s scent and see if they teleported or if they left from here to go to another location on foot.”

She nodded and called our Wolfie, while we walked over to where she had been standing, more or less. After casting the speak with animals spell, she asked him to look for Entivala’s scent. He said he remembered and after he sniffed around for a bit, he started walking over towards where we had been running. We followed closely behind, and I looked around for anything that was now out of place from our fight. When he finally stopped, he sniffed around but after a few more minutes he sat down around where we had been running. Wolfie began growling and barking to Theresa and she turned to me with a sad look on her face.

“He was able to follow her scent,” She explained. “She followed us closely, but the mean man got too close before she could get away. She had been trying to use every trick to slow him down and it caused her to lag behind. I am guessing he got in range of her a split second after I left since she was only just a little bit behind me.”

I looked around, trying to see some kind of sign that she had gotten into a fight or struggle, but knowing Enti, she would have known not to try. She had done one hell of a job erecting multiple rock walls to slow the orc down. Entivala had gotten so strong, and I was soo proud of her. She had already seen firsthand just how much damage he could do. I just hoped that she was alright. Draco said she was alive, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t badly hurt. There was sign of a depression behind the last of the rock walls and I am betting that he had launched himself over it with all his strength and that had been how he got close enough to cancel out her stone.

Cassie placed her hand on my shoulder, “I am so sorry Pathios. I know that this is really hard for you, but you need to stay strong! This will be an extremely difficult time for you, but you will get through this, and we will find her!”

I turned to look at her, fighting off the tears that were forming in my eyes, “How do you know that we will? You have seen the shit these people have done for the sake of their cause. What if they think that Enti is better off dead?”

She kissed my forehead and answered, “Because you will not stop until you do, one way or another. I just pity all of those who will stand in your way, because they are in for a world of hurt. If they were to kill her, you would burn the world to the ground to get at them and they know it. You would become a demon the likes of which not a single god on Eden have ever seen.”

Cassandra was right, there was nothing I wouldn’t do to get Entivala back, but I also had to be careful. Flying off the handle wouldn’t help anyone, especially Entivala. We waited for Katie to return and found out that they had sealed the cave a little too well. They had tried to blast their way out, but all that did was help use up their air faster. The twelve cabal members were suffering from oxygen deprivation when the soldiers got to them and were quickly taken into custody. With nothing else left to deal with, we used our crystals to escape the dungeon and found Amenthia still there.

“I figured you would have gone back to the pact house already?” I asked, as I gave her a kiss on the forehead.

Amenthia shook her head, “I knew that you wouldn’t have the patience to make the trip back to the village, so I opted to wait here just in case I was right. If you had taken another fifteen minutes, I would have headed back and then waited for you there.”

“When they finished patching up Amenthia, I went to talk with Esmerelda,” Amber explained. “I heard back from Enlil, and he as far as he is concerned the quest completed. The reward funds of two hundred thousand gold have been sent to your coffers. On a personal note, I am so sorry for what happened. I feel responsible for your loss.”

I shook my head, “You didn’t do anything to feel responsible for what happened today. We knew that there could be threats, especially from Kail’s group, but we didn’t know that there would be this much of a threat. Up until now, we haven’t seen people like Catherine or Wor’cha before and that just means we are under prepared. They have had a long time to prepare, and this has left the council in the dark about things. We still don’t know which gods and adventurers are tied to this cabal. The circlets on their arm are from a much older time on Eden, meaning that both of them were people who had made it to the Capital for their reward. That means they were the best of the best at one time or another.”

Amber’s eyes widened, “Wait. You’re saying that the orc that trampled us was an adventurer that made it to the capital to live out their days? Then why the hell did they leave their reward to join this group?”

“From what I have been told, the reward means immortality while you reside in the capital,” Amenthia explained, wincing if she moved wrong. “The only way for that to end would be to leave the capital. We have no idea how long they have been alive, what they have seen or been through. Long life can slowly make someone jaded and make it difficult to see the world as they did when things were more natural and normal. To see everyone around you never changing, it could be maddening.”

“You have to wonder what kind of morality loss there would be after all that time?” I asked, wondering that myself. “Would you even think about or care about people the same after all that time? The circlets were many millennia ago and that means thousands of years in the capital.”

“All I know is that I do feel responsible for what happened,” Amber said, looking contrite. “When the time comes to get her, call on me and I will be there! I will do everything in my power to see that she comes home to you. I will investigate what I can on my end as well, so if I get any news, I will let you know.”

“Thank you, Amber. It really does mean a lot,” I replied, trying to give her a smile. “For now we need to go home. We need to rest, decompress on what happened and Tyr needs to know, if he doesn’t already.”