NOVPUB
Chapter 109 – What If She Finds Out?
[Ovia POV]
“…” I was left entirely speechless just from hearing those few words.
…
If I could be down there with her…
What am I supposed to say back now? Do I say I want to do that too? I do want it, but…
I can’t…
I don’t want to promise something impossible. But I can’t just say nothing to her. What would that make her think? She’s been doing so much better with everything lately, what if I ruin it now?!
There has to be a correct answer here.
“Sister?” Ellaria suddenly called out to me from the other side of the room.
I immediately snapped around looking for her. Somehow, I hadn’t even noticed her enter my domain; it could have happened just now or… maybe she was…
“You seemed to be having quite the interesting conversation,” She said as my eyes finally found her resting up against the door frame.
“What?!” I blurted out.
Conversation? What did she hear?
Wait! How could she hear? Isn’t it all inside my head?
Instead of answering, however, she just made her way over and sat down just across from me, a slight smirk teasing at the edge of her lips.
“I don’t know if I really want to tell you, but… my sister may have picked up the habit of saying the messages meant for her friend out loud instead of just in her mind.”
…
…
I didn’t know how I was supposed to respond to that. Even Kierra didn’t have trouble with that anymore. If she saw me making an embarrassing mistake like that, what would she think of me?
My hand frantically searched for something to cover my face with, but to my dismay, there simply wasn’t anything nearby to grab onto aside from my own dress.
…
“… H-how much did you hear?” I eventually managed to ask.
Maybe it wasn’t that bad.
“Oh, now what exactly did I hear… hmm…” She hummed, “Well, I first came in on quite the interesting little topic. Something about a dra-”
“No!” As soon as I had realised what Ellaria was about to say, I jumped out of my seat and covered her mouth.
But immediately after, a realisation swept over me that if she had heard what I was talking about… then I must have accidentally said the word out loud at some point too.
Ellaria then slowly pushed my hand away, “Why is this getting you so worked up? Have you even met a dra-” She stopped herself for a moment before continuing, “Have you even met one of them before? I can’t quite recall.”
“…” I remained silent.
“It couldn’t have been from when we were in the village… so it must have been after you ascended…”
Why are you doing this?!
Despite my internal protests, my words ironically just wouldn’t come out.
“So, a deity who approached my sister…” She continued to think out loud, much to my dismay, “It’s hard to remember with just how long ago that was now… but I do vaguely remember someone from before you closed your domain… Oh!”
No. Please.
“Was there not the Goddess of S-?”
Once again, I covered Ellaria’s mouth, although this time, maybe being a little too forceful as I almost tripped over in doing so… But… if those words ever left this domain, I wouldn’t even be able to guess what would happen.
“Shhhh!” I said in a panic, “What if s-she finds out?”
“Finds out about what?” Ellaria asked back immediately, “I seem to vaguely remember the two of you getting along fairly well before you decided to shut everyone out. You even adopted much of her style, and it doesn’t look like that stopped.”
She glanced over at one of the chains hanging from the ceiling.
“That’s… That’s different.”
“Why are you now so scared of her?” Ellaria asked as she spun me around and sat me down next to her, “I don’t remember anything significant happening between the two of you? She just visited you quite regularly, did she not, more so than she visited any of the other deities up here.”
“T-that…” I was stumbling over my words again as the memories of when I first ascended started flashing through my mind, “T-that’s not…”
“That’s not what?”
I tried to stand up and move away from Ellaria, but she held onto my wrist tightly to stop me.
“That’s the problem,” I blurted out in hopes that it would be enough for Ellaria to move on.
“That’s the problem? That she visited you often?”
Why won’t you just forget about this?
The more we talk about it, the more likely she or someone she knows might notice.
If you managed to enter my domain without me noticing, what if someone else did?!
“I-I actually had a question!” I shouted as I finally managed to free my wrist from Ellaria’s grip, “I-I was wondering if there was any way at all for me to descend? E-even just for a little while…”
Silence fell over the room as Ellaria looked over my face from top to bottom, not once but twice.
“Sister…” She muttered in clear disbelief, “If you really didn’t want to talk about her, you should have just told me. All I wanted to know is if something had happened between the two of you, but if you really don’t want to tell me, that’s alright.”
…
…
“But I-” I frantically tried to explain myself.
“I will play along for now and answer your question, but I do hope you eventually tell me what happened back then. Okay, I know you already know the rules when it comes to descending into the mortal realm. You are not allowed to-” She stopped for a brief moment before continuing, “Hmm, I was really expecting John to show up now that we’re talking about this. He’s normally all too eager to stop us descending long before we actually try… Maybe he’s busy with something more important at the moment.”
I didn’t say anything about it, but in truth, I was glad that John didn’t show up then… it would have only led to one more person who might overhear something that shouldn’t leave my domain.
“… B-But I know there are some deities who descend, even you do it sometimes,” I eventually said, “There must be some way to get permission…”
“Well, that’s up for me to decide. So I’m not really sure why you would be asking your sister about it,” Without warning, a man stepped out from behind me, his painfully flashy coat glowing brightly despite the surrounding darkness.
“Joh-” Ellaria tried to address him.
“It’s all a matter of appropriate timing,” John interrupted without a second thought, “I’m sure you’ll come to understand in time. It wouldn’t do to simply show up when expected; it would take away too much from my image. Oh, and I must say, this domain really does make this coat shine. I knew I had the right idea the last time I was here.”
My lips were firmly sealed, unsure of what I was supposed to do or say… at least that was how I justified it. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to do much as John turned to face me.
“And to answer both your previous and future questions. I’m not going to stop you from descending if that is truly what you want. I don’t have the power to do so anyway. Although that isn’t to say I won’t step in after the fact, I just don’t like to punish someone before they’ve actually done anything, even if I know it’s going to happen. Let’s call it a refined sense of morals on my part,” John’s words came out relentlessly, “Now, if you found a way to walk around down in the mortal realm without getting involved in anything significant, and without being recognised, there wouldn’t be any reason for me to do anything at all. My only real concern is making sure everything works as it is supposed to. Oh, though in saying that, there is another oh so minor caveat. It wouldn’t do if you were noticed by any other deities. I would rather not see a litany of other gods and goddesses trying to descend all at once. Well, in saying that, I could bend the rules if you have a good reason to descend, at least in my eyes. In the last few centuries, I have taken to allowing deities to descend when passing authority to their emissaries instead of having them come here. It just has a bit of extra flair for everyone involved.”
…
So, it’s not impossible?
I just have to not be noticed…
“I see you’re already racking your brain over this,” John said as he took a step closer, “I’m quite excited to see what you come up with in the end. I only hope that it doesn’t take too long for that plan of yours to come to pass.”
“What does-” Ellaria once again tried to speak up, but it didn’t end any differently.
“Oh, and before I forget, this is more of a personal request than any kind of advice. You mentioned Esyllt just now, did you not?”
My blood ran cold as that name reached my ears.
Why did you say her name?!
“I do hope you choose to at least send some words to her,” John simply continued to talk as if nothing had happened, “Aside from a small incident where she had to come find me around nine years ago she has done nothing but stand still in her domain for many many many many years. Coming from me, that might sound like an exaggeration, but it’s really quite disconcerting if I must be honest. I can only imagine the sheer overwhelming pressure of boredom to do absolutely anything else. She is someone I will never come to truly understand.”
There was another awkward moment as John simply looked back and forth between me and Ellaria as if expecting us to say something. Which, of course, we didn’t, assuming that he would just continue to say whatever it was he wanted to the moment either of our mouths opened.
“This was a great conversation, I must say. However, I’m running on quite the tight schedule today as I’m sure you can understand,” He spoke as he checked his wrist despite nothing being there, “I’m supposed to be meeting with my own sister in approximately twelve seconds and I’ve yet to decide what would be the best outfit to wear. If it were up to me, I’d bring her here to show off this magnificent piece I’m wearing at the moment, but if I did… well, you probably don’t need to know as it won’t be happening today. Which means the only thing left for me to do is say goodbye.”
With an extravagant twirl of his coat, he simply vanished in front of my eyes… which also led to my domain suddenly getting noticeably darker. It was astonishing how much more light a simple coat brought into my domain, especially considering Ellaria, the Goddess of Light, was already there.
“Um… I guess that answers your question, Sister… I think anyway,” Ellaria said, as she got up and walked over to me, “At least to me it didn’t sound a no, just a ‘not yet’, which means a lot coming from the God of Fate.”
“Mm,” I hummed, unable to hide my disappointment… at least that’s what I thought I was feeling.
So much happened in such a short time that I wasn’t quite sure what it was I was even supposed to be feeling.
…
Not yet…
