Aaron levitated a few inches of the ground from the wooden wall as people filled into the city. His injury wasn’t too bad but why put his wait on it.

William should be done with the resupplying soon if not already the city was smaller than Cromerth by quite a bit but still large so I won’t get lost this time Aaron thought with embarrassment I won’t get lost this time. levitating to Daisy and rode to the back of the marketplace even though he doesn't have a copper to spend William should be there. a city isn’t that interesting without money. passing colorful booths were vendors selling clothes and other such goods and I can’t buy anything I just want to leave tomorrow morning. can’t come soon enough since William needed to recover from last night more than I do. It's nice being a godling. That owl saved me. I need to thank him for that. William waited on a wooden bench and stood up stiffly.

“Come I want to show you something” Aaron stared at a temple of his father the sky blue everywhere was a give away.

“it’s beautiful” Aaron said in wonder

“Yes it is,” William agreed. The temple was the biggest building in the city with round blue domes of some kind of rock as they entered Aaron’s jaw dropped. Never before did he see such wealth, the floor of marble polished till it gleamed. statues of the gods were all along the wall in such exquisite detail they almost seemed alive. depicting the creation of the world to when Caelum created man and the other big five created the other four races to treaties with other gods showing man that the god's worked together so crusades were stopped that day at least most of them evil men still used the gods as a cloak. it still happened but not nearly as offend and all the gods condemned them Aaron went from statues to paintings showing how to honor the gods

“I brought you here to learn about your inheritance” a few priests came and went some praying others making sure the altar was clean in the center of the room a display of three gods and a goddess sitting above a spirit where death brought him

“my father Caelum Spirituum goddess of spirits and Inferis god of the underworld the three judges of the afterlife”

“Do you know about the afterlife?” William questioned

“Not much but those who honor the gods are sent to the havens, the pretty good people are sent to the spirit world and the evil people are sent to the underworld to be punished by Inferis”

“It's a lot,” Aaron whispered. How can I become someone deserving to be worshiped? “what's that?” pointing to a pair of doors carved with blue stone of his father

with two priests at the door

“That's a meeting room, it's sacred so we can’t go into it and I won’t explain much but that is where the priests talk with their god or goddess” not wanting to press the matter. walking side by side towards the sacrifice altar Aaron’s feet an inch of the ground.

“I wish my mother taught me theses things” Aaron muttered

“Yes but don’t be too hard on her she must have her reasons” William replied after walking the hallways with more stories of the gods some statue’s caught his eye of men and women carved in a way as to look like they were hovering “who are they?” William’s face darkened

“the archons” William answered with a curse

“we should go''

“ok” passing priests as we exited and walked the streets and stayed at the inn till the sun went down.

In the morning after getting dressed in one of his new tonics and out of the inn saddled the moa’s and rode out the city.

On the road the flat plans rolled by slowly as the mountain grew slowly in the distance but still tiny.

“why did they not take the statue down?” William seemed surprised by the question

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“I don’t want them to take it down we should remember the past of how it was not how it should be we need to remember it even if it’s so horrible that said they were built before they betrayed the gods I just wanted to leave because I wanted to see more of the city”

“makes sense,” Aaron said hesitantly. A screech from Daisy made him jump a little stroking her long neck dismounting to eat lunch the chilly air making his breath frost. eating bread and cheese,

William’s and Aaron’s attention was on the lone mountain that just came into view, remembering something, getting out the map of the continent from the chest and unrolling it. The detail was astonishing. What’s worrisome is that around mount Iroswell was the wilderness for miles where no large cities or villages could be found in the southern part of the kingdom. it was just too out of the way from the two trade routes to the southern kingdoms monsters will be there looking south on the map three other marks on the map fire, sea, and earth, who will become the other elemental gods and where are the other’s there are twenty missing one thing at a time one thing at a time. Aaron thought with frustration

“it’s quite a map” William said between bites pulling him out of his thoughts

“it’s the four elements, where is the sky?”

“I don’t know but you will find them and once you ascend to godhood you can easily find the others wherever they are” with that they started riding again.

After three days on the road and sleeping on the cold hard ground Aaron stood watch

“Hello again son of Caelum “ the moon owl said sitting upright. The silver owl stood on the ground for there were no trees to perch on “thank you for saving me but why contact me now?”

“I have my reasons” looking at William’s tent “yes I know who you travel with I had to gather knowledge” he said flatly

“it’s not hard to catch up to two you riding moas or no”

“What did you have to gather knowledge about, aren't moon owls supposed to be smart?” Aaron asked the owl stared at him flatly scratching the ground with his talon

“You can never gather too much knowledge and I don’t know everything besides I had to talk to someone about William” the owl said like it was obvious why would he need to know all about William

“I will not tell you about what I found without him here” Aaron woke him up William came out of his tent rubbing his eyes. focusing his large silver eyes on William “who are you?” “I’m Omari and I will be leading this group from now on the boy needs someone else than a priest who lost his magic to lead him”

“That's not fair the gods are dead it’s not his fault he lost it” Aaron protested shifting his gaze on Aaron

“but it is. he lost it before they died he betrayed them!” looking at William it can’t be true right?

“Yes it’s true and it has shamed me for the rest of my life I tried to honor Caelum but by then it was too late and I became a knight” he said sourly

“it’s in the past now surely you have the wisdom to see that”

“Perhaps perhaps not I'm here to give wisdom but If I may ask what are you doing? If I’m to lead you I need to know what we're after” Aaron’s head was spinning. Is William lying? I'm I going to let this owl take over? But what if William betrays me?

“we are going to restore the gods” he gave a slow laugh

“do you honestly believe that you-

“Here is the map to prove it” showing Omari the map. he inspected it for a while “it’s deftly made by the gods I’ll give you that but which one is the question”

“by his father” William added staring at Omari with a frown “yes but where are the other twenty powers especially the sky”

“we don’t know” Aaron admitted

“it does not matter anyway it can’t or should not be done”

“Just because Aaron could have the power of a god doesn't mean he has the virtue of a god”

“We have to try,” William said, yawning

“should you? is it wise to just get the power without the implications? how can you guarantee he won’t be too arrogant or too harsh like the archons”

“He won't, he's a good lad” William argued

“yes but giving such power changes a man. I see you are tired. I will be leading you and keeping watch. We need to keep this secret and safe, maybe bury the power forever” with that he unfolded his wings and flew off into the night they went back to bed too tired to say anything but with questions on his mind unanswered. In the morning packing away his blankest eating breakfast alone

“I’m tired of cold food when do we hunt or anything” Aaron muttered

Thinking on what the moon owl said that no one is worthy to replace the gods that

us mortals are too weak to wield the power correctly. It left him troubled but it can’t be worse than no gods at all right? looking at Williams sleeping form he had a falling out with my father it should matter a lot but with the way he’s been acting it matters not a lot to me. well I guess two becomes three. soon William got up seeing Aaron and he walked over to him hesitantly

“I know I lied but-” “just give me some space ok” William teared up a little but he hid so fast it could have been Aaron’s imagination.

“saddle up we ride” the mountain grew steadily in size as the days went by when something hit him. How did he get the celestial iron spear?