Time sped up. The deities around her dove away as Garo landed on top of a table, breaking it into several pieces. Aria’s own shock wore off seconds later, and she teleported herself away, cursing the energy expenditure even as she did so. She fell onto a pile of bodies, not having chosen her destination with care.
While she had moved, Garo and Evera had spotted each other. The path between them had cleared like a highway cleared of trees. Roses sprang up around Garo’s feet, snaring him, thorns stabbing into his legs. At the same time, an invisible concussive force sped out from Garo and towards Evera. She was gone before it reached her. Instead, it barreled into her throne, broke it into pieces, and continued into the wall behind it, turning a large chunk of the wall into rubble.
Evera immediately appeared behind Garo. The roses around his feet had turned into stone so that his ankles were locked together. He paid no attention to them. Instead, he twirled his spear so that the sharp end pointed backward and stabbed at Evera.
The spear met thin air. For a moment, Aria thought Evera was gone. Then, she realized that she could sense the goddess. She was appearing in different parts of the room for mere milliseconds and disappearing before Garo could turn toward her. The speed of her teleportations made her seem invisible.
Garo made no attempt to find her. With terrifying speed, a stone wall sprung up in the center of the room, growing up to the ceiling and cutting the room cleanly in half. A second wall followed immediately, perpendicular to the first and cutting the room into four equal-sized quarters. Evera was still teleporting, but she now seemed limited to one of the room’s quarters.
Aria ached to help her, but self-preservation demanded she leave. She could see Garo’s warriors running through the corridors, but teleportation was still an option. She attempted it targeting the storeroom she had spent the night in, felt the power expended leave her, but she did not leave the room. The attempted teleportation had simply moved her up against one of the walls. She made the attempt again and received the same result. She was trapped. She extended her senses past the walls and found an enormous orb encircling the palace as if it had been trapped in a giant water bubble. She pressed against the barrier and felt it repel her touch.
Garo was still using his strategy, subdividing the room into smaller and smaller cells that Evera could not cross until Evera was trapped in a tall box so small that her hands were pressed against the sides. She stopped teleporting, then.
Except for those trapping her, all of Garo’s barriers in the room disappeared, revealing smashed tables and cowering deities. Garo walked up to Evera’s prison, twirling his spear as he went.
“You are still holding back,” he said. “Go ahead. Charm them. Running? That is pathetic, Evera. Every person in this room is your army.”
“I’m sure you planned for that,” Evera said. “But I’m not you. If they want to fight for me, they will.”
Garo cast a glance around the room at the deities now dusting themselves off.
“Yes,” he said. “Why would you antagonize them now? A little imprisonment won’t harm you.”
Garo’s warriors rushed into the room, spears held steady, and corralled the waiting deities into a corner. He continued speaking to Evera.
“Cooperate, and I won’t slaughter your servants yet.” He put a hand into his sleeve and withdrew a length of thick, green rope. A hole formed in the Evera’s cage and the rope quickly disappeared through it. Then, the hole closed.
“Restrain yourself,” Garo said. “Do it properly.”
There was an air of unease in the room, but none of the watching deities attempted to help Evera. She picked the rope from where it had fallen at her feet, tied her left hand with her right, tied her right hand with her left, and then, with her mouth and a fair bit of contortion, looped the rope around her neck before securing it around her waist. The entire process took several minutes. Aria suspected that Evera could untie the rope, but it would take at least as long as it had taken her to tie it.
Once Garo was satisfied, he stepped around the cage and up to the dais. From there, he beamed at the captive audience.
“Good citizens of my new empire,” he flashed a satisfied smile, “I forgive you.”
Aria unadvisedly rolled her eyes.
“Running to Evera is an understandable response to the current situation,” Garo said. “You are afraid but you need not be. Nothing has changed. Previously you bowed to Tivelo. Now, you will bow to me, but your lives will improve. There will be no assigned territories. Conquer what you can claim. I have no interest in arbitrary regulations. Do whatever you wish, to whomever you wish. If you step on my toes, I will kill you. Otherwise, I have no interest in your business. Taxes will be required, but they will be less than what Tivelo took.
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The listeners seemed unimpressed. Aria guessed, from the fact that she did not know them, that they were the weaker deities. A culture in which the powerful took what they wanted was no draw to them. Despite that, they did not oppose Garo. There were almost fifty of them in the room. Aria did not know Garo’s complete abilities, but if fifty deities did not believe that they could challenge him together, the future was bleak.
She knew what was going through their minds. Evera had given them a mission to resurrect Achi. And, faced with Garo’s brand of tyranny, they would take the assignment seriously. It probably held a better chance of success than attempting to bludgeon the God of War.
“I see that you understand,” Garo said. “Then, we will proceed. Prepare yourselves. One at a time, come to me. As you did with Tivelo, you will tell me your powers, weaknesses, and how to kill you.”
That finally produced a response. Someone swore. Others mumbled and whispered among themselves. Altogether the mood was one of fear and disappointment, but not surprise. They had expected this but hoped against it.
While they digested the news, Garo motioned, and three of his attendants hurried over. One put down his spear and produced a notebook and pencil from his pockets. The other two appeared odd. For one, they carried no spears and dressed differently from the first. Instead of Garo’s black and red colors, they wore a pale gray, and each carried a glassy green orb. It took Aria several seconds to recognize the pattern. They were Alogun’s priests. The orbs allowed them to perform various magic spells.
When they reached the foot of the dais, one held the orb out before him and whispered something. A transparent barrier appeared between the dais and the rest of the room, taking the form of an orb that covered Garo, his three helpers, and the still-burning fire bowl. It became invisible a moment later, but Aria could still feel its presence as an odd sensation of pressure.
The gray-clad attendant walked up to Garo, standing far more closely than he should have and looking him in the eyes as if they were equals.
“I’m worried about Evera,” he said. “She capitulated too quickly.”
“Naturally,” Garo seemed less concerned. “She was fighting against the skill of two deities. She intends to escape at a later time.”
“Perhaps not,” the man said. “She can charm everyone in this room and escape while they wreak chaos. Or perhaps she predicted our coming, and this is her trap.”
Garo sighed in irritation. “Your paranoia bores me. I don’t care if she escapes. I care about those idiots standing around. Once I control them, all her plots will be pointless. However powerful she is, she cannot face us all by herself. Stop bothering me and search the place. And keep an accurate count. Steal even one thing, and this deal is done.”
The man looked disdainful, but he stepped back.
Their frank conversation indicated that they did not expect to be overheard. Presumably, the barrier the attendant had put up should have prevented eavesdropping, but it did not work on Aria.
The man held up his orb again, whispered unintelligible words, and the barrier disappeared. Then, he stalked over to one of the guards and requested a group to search the palace.
Meanwhile, Garo addressed the crowd confidently. “Who will be first?”
No one moved.
Garo showed no surprise at that. Instead, he pointed to a man and said, “You.”
The man slid speedily to the foot of the dais, eyes wide at his sudden malhandling. He fell to his knees as if suddenly pressed down.
Garo snapped his fingers, and the other gray-clad attendant used his orb to put up a new barrier.
“State your name, powers, and weaknesses,” Garo said. “Don’t lie and leave nothing out, or you forfeit the right to do this comfortably.”
The man swallowed and looked and about as if searching for a rescuer. His eyes lingered on Evera’s prison for a long time, but no help came from there. Finally, before Garo’s impatience could doom him, he let his head drop and spoke.
“My name is Ajuka. I have minor telepathy, enhanced hearing, and hypnosis. Loud sounds are my weakness. Above a certain level, they disrupt my telepathy and render me temporarily insane. To kill me,” he paused but put up a brave expression and barrelled on, “complete sensory deprivation will eventually kill me. It takes months. I don’t know of any other way.”
The god seemed to deflate as soon as the words were complete. Garo looked to the attendant beside him, who nodded, then he smiled.
“Thank you, Ajuka.” He made a gesture, and the attendant removed the sound barrier.
Garo gazed smugly at the audience. “As a reward for being the first to swear his allegiance, Ajuka will be awarded a tenth of Evera’s current territory.”
Ajuka’s mouth fell open. On his face, humiliation warred with pleasure at his good fortune, and, in the end, neither won. He gave a reluctant nod of thanks to Garo and then hurried from the room. The warriors guarding the room allowed him to pass.
The next deity stepped forward without being called. It was a woman wearing the same resigned expression as her predecessor. She informed Garo that she had telekinesis and the ability to burn anything at will and that fire would kill her. He accepted the information with a simple nod and offered no reward.
After that, the remaining deities needed no coercion. Some still hung back, but those who chose to step forward no longer dragged their feet. Aria had seen similar scenes in the past. A village conquered another village. The warriors fought as hard as they could but, when the war was over, accepted defeat and gave their oaths to the new chief. And as usual, they performed petty acts of rebellion. For example, no one had yet informed Garo that Evera had told everyone of his plot.