Hiru had been resistant to journeying to the surface, he had been in the earth so long, avoiding the site of his sins that the idea of walking in the sunlight terrified him. Sym was stuck somewhere between worry for his mental health and disdain for his actions, her previous joy at his survival tempered by the revelation of its cost. They had traveled to the surface through a series of tunnels that seemed incomprehensible to Alene, taking turns that looked exactly the same to her inexpert eye.
Sym had followed behind Hiru and Alene at first, before Veris had joined. She had hurried to put some distance between herself and Hiru’s accidental godmother. If there was any being more at fault for the genocide than Hiru, it would be Veris, Alene thought, eyeing the hyena god warily. The god wore a frightening smile, thick teeth ever visible, though Alene couldn’t tell if she was happy or that was just her resting face. She was uninclined to ask. Something about the god was deeply disconcerting, though it may have just been the knowledge that she had capitalized on Hiru’s vulnerability to commit a massive atrocity on humanity, for what purpose, Alene was unclear. She was glad for her own mother, though she was disinterested in humans, and had accepted their sacrifices in the past, she hadn’t seemed to have a disposition for their wanton eradication. Veris caught Alene’s eye, her smile spreading a margin wider. Alene quickly looked away. It was hard to avoid her gaze, she had several staring eyes in her crowning antlers amongst which thorned flowers intertwined, looking every which way manically.
As soon as they got to the surface Sym took off, walking purposely, headed in the direction of her swamp. Alene remembered retroactively that leaving her toxic waters was agony, and felt a fresh wave of guilt. Sym hadn’t said anything about the pain the whole time they were underground. It felt as if the delicate thread of friendship they had just begun to foster had snapped, leaving Alene bereft. She wondered if Sym felt the same way. If she felt betrayed, again.
She understood Sym’s perspective on the annihilation, from the human viewpoint what Hiru had done was an unimaginable atrocity, a brutality on an unforgivable scale. But Alene had committed to being a god. She had eaten the godflesh, had accepted her heritage. She was Alene that was also Una, the soul shard of a god that was now whole. She wasn’t quite ready to be Una again, still didn’t feel quite the same as the god in her memories, but she also didn’t quite feel like Alene, the lonely ghost. She felt…somewhere in between.
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Hiru had returned her shard. It had been drawn to her so strongly it had sprung to her when it left his fingers, burrowing through her body with fervor to reach her heart. Its lodging in her heart was a slightly uncomfortable feeling akin to having something stuck in her throat, a sort of congested feeling in her chest, but when it settled, the sensation of completeness sent a wave of warmth and contentment through her body, a feeling of peace, of wholeness.
Veris had left as well, after a hushed conversation with Hiru, one that left him looking annoyed, his jaw set as he returned to Alene’s side. Veris had watched him walk away, her many eyes trained on his back, before she blinked, all her antlered eyes at once, disappearing into thin air from where she had stood just a moment before.
Hiru and Alene made their way to Alene’s home, Hiru preferring to have something over his head, the raw expanse of the sky above too wide, too open for him. It had taken him a while to leave the entrance to the catacombs. He had to calm his breathing, sitting with his back to the walls, looking out from beneath the cave for a couple of minutes before building up the resolve to step out from its shadow. The first step hadn’t been the hardest, but rather when they were half way to Alene’s that he had needed to take a break from the sky again, finding refuge underneath a crumpled home, his arms wrapped around himself. Alene held his hand while he shakily calmed his breathing again, feeling the rough skin of his scars, where stitching had connected his hands to his wrists, tracing the glowing runes that were still visible, even under the light of day.
He had given his hands for her. Had dedicated an entire city to her. But his hands were what stayed with her, they felt more real, somehow. Perhaps it was just that she could touch them, rather than having to imagine the destruction of the city, which seemed so far away, whereas his hands were there in hers, tactile. She squeezed his hand tightly, hoping he wasn’t disappointed in his exchange, that she was worth his price. She wasn’t even Una anymore, Una was gone and only Alene was left in her place. She hoped it was enough.