Chapter 453: Deities interest in Jolthar – 1
Captain Eran, still on edge from the earthquake, looked at his lord with confusion.
“What happened, my lord? What child? What are you sensing?”
Caelum’s expression became more plex—surprise mixed with something. He was sure that the energy he felt just now was the aura of Jolthar. When he fought on the clan grounds, Jolthar had used the aura. Though it was faint, he could feel it; he was sure that it belonged to Jolthar.
Focusing his senses, he probed the area from where the tremor had occurred. He could feel it again: Jolthar’s aura mixed with something far stronger than his own aura.
“Jolthar,” he said quietly.
“That signature… the energy resonance… it’s unmistakably his. But the scale of it, the power behind it—”
He shook his head slowly.
“He’s grown stronger than I realized. Far stronger.”
“Young Master Jolthar is here?” Eran asked, surprise evident in his voice.
“In the Dreadland Depths? But why would he e here?”
“We have been out of touch with the affairs of the human realm that we don’t know what’s happening.”
Caelum sighed, “He must have e here for some reason.”
Eran then said, “Did the young master e here to meet you, my lord?”
Caelum shook his head. “Probably not. He must have e here on purpose.”
“Should I go search for the young master and bring him here?”
“No need.”
Caelum looked in the direction from which the tremor had originated, his expression thoughtful. “That attack came from near the Veil, which means he just entered the Depths. And his opening move was powerful enough to shake the ground for miles. Either he’s bee considerably more formidable than the last reports suggested, or he’s deliberately announcing his presence.”
Near another fire, members of the Naemarys expedition had noticed the disturbance as well, and discussions were already beginning about what it might mean and whether it presented an opportunity or threat to their own objectives.
Caelum sat back down, his mind working through implications and possibilities.
Jolthar was here, in the Depths, apparently not just surviving but dominating the environment from the moment of entry.
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And most importantly, it meant that whatever happened next in the Dreadland Depths, it was going to be interesting.
Very interesting indeed.
*
Jolthar had carved a path through the Dreadland Depths that would have been considered impossible by anyone who hadn’t witnessed it firsthand. Several hundred nynthralls lay dead, scattered across miles of corrupted landscape like broken toys discarded by a careless child. Jolthar had moved through them with cold petence, Vorthak singing through pale, ashen bodies, chaos energy doing the rest.
Haryntha had watched, assisted occasionally with navigation, and largely stayed out of the way. There was nothing to protect him from. That realization had settled over her gradually, like understanding arriving in stages rather than all at once.
Even if she wanted to, she can’t help him. She was warned by Ivyona to not meddle in his affairs, she was just there to support him. If she tries to help him, then her presence will be detected by her brother. And it would bring a lot of unnecessary headaches.
They found a relatively stable patch of ground several miles into the Depths, an anomaly where the corruption had somehow created a small clearing of hardened ground rather than the usual writhing, diseased soil. Not fortable by any measure, but functional.
It was enough to take a moment to rest for them.
Haryntha gathered materials, constructing a small fire using techniques that kept the flame clean and the smoke minimal. The fire burned with a faint golden tint from the purifying energy she wove into it, creating a small sanctuary of warmth and relative normalcy in the surrounding nightmare.
She was being more thoughtful about her ways of doing such simple tasks, limiting her use of deity powers. She also liked being a mortal for a while. In her own eyes, she saw it as a brief adventure with a dashing young man. That was her way of thinking.
She sat cross-legged beside it, finally allowing herself to exhale.
Jolthar settled across from her, the firelight catching the exhaustion and satisfaction on his face in equal measure. Several hundred nynthralls were genuinely impressive work for a few hours.
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He hadn’t used much of his energy, and he could still go on for hours, but he felt like it would be a long-drawn battle against them. Those nynthralls kept ing, like their number was infinite.
He must find a way to quickly find the dukes and deal with them.
And for now, his thoughts were focused on the deity present before him and he had been observing her, how she worked to set up the fire, and how she was being attentive to him.
“The deity queen,” Jolthar said without preamble, his voice conversational despite the directness of the question.
“Ivyona, why does she care about a mortal like me? And before you give me another elegant non-answer, I’d appreciate something resembling actual information.”
Haryntha poked the fire with a stick, watching sparks scatter upward into the diseased air before the golden purification consumed them.
“You’re rising in ways that concern certain powers. That’s genuinely all I can tell you.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s as much of one as I’m authorized to give.” She looked at him steadily.
“Ivyona cannot meet you directly, not yet. The political implications among the divine hierarchies would be significant, and she’s not ready to make that statement.”
“So I’m being watched by a deity queen who won’t introduce herself, avoided by other deities who apparently find me inconvenient to deal with directly, and surrounded by divine factions using me as a chess piece.”
Jolthar leaned back on his hands.
“Anything else encouraging you’d like to share?”
“The deities who oppose you are genuinely angry,” Haryntha admitted.
“But they’re being careful. You have wounded a deity, and its no small matter. You survived Aphyana’s schemes. You’ve demonstrated that direct confrontation with you carries real cost. So they’re maneuvering rather than attacking openly.”
She paused; her expression changed for a second.
“That’s actually a significant shift in how deities normally handle mortals they find troublesome.”
“Normally they just kill them,” Jolthar said.
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