“You… find this funny?” Vir asked, thoroughly confused.
“No, not funny. My apologies,” Ashani said. “Just that you are wrong.”
“I’m… sorry?” Vir said. “I saw Janak’s memory. It was a… diary, of sorts. He confessed to this, Ashani. He confessed to being the cause.”
“Vir, Janak would have given his life to save his daughter. Tell me, how would the destruction of our people possibly align with that goal?”
Vir shook his head. “It… didn’t seem intentional. In the memory, Janak had driven himself half to death to find a way of ‘undoing the wrongs he’s wrought.’ I don’t know what that was supposed to mean, but he didn’t look well, Ashani. His hair had gone white, and he looked half-dead.”
Ashani’s smile slowly ebbed. She sat back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling.
“That’s…” she trailed off. She needn’t have said any more. Vir knew exactly what she was thinking.
“In his endeavor to find a cure for Siya, he might have caused the destruction of the Prime Imperium,” Vir said softly. “I’m sorry. I hope it’s not true. I hope he’s mistaken. But I felt you ought to know.”
For the first time since he’d known Ashani, her gaze contained no playful smile or motherly warmth. Instead, she regarded him with the same sort of eyes Janak had.
Hollow. Empty. Dead.
Ashani pushed back her chair and walked away without uttering a word, but halfway to the door, she stopped.
“There must be more,” she muttered, just barely loud enough for Vir to hear.
“It might have been an accident,” Vir admitted. “But that doesn’t alter the results.”
Ashani shook her head, returning to the table where Vir sat. “No. You might have seen Janak through memories, but I knew him. I knew of his brilliance. There was no mind in the Imperium sharper than his. No soul more brilliant. He would not make a mistake like this.”
“He seemed to think he did,” Vir said.
“He would,” Ashani fired back. “Don’t let his bravado fool you. Underneath the posturing and supreme confidence was a man who second-guessed his every decision. Who fretted sleeplessly over his daughter, and who worked himself to the bone. I would not be surprised if Janak felt he had erred somehow.”
“Yet you disagree,” Vir said.
“Janak did not make stupid mistakes,” Ashani said firmly. “There is something more to this. I am sure of it.”
Vir rose from his seat and squeezed Ashani’s hand. “Then let us find it together. Janak left several more of these tablets, sprinkled throughout the realms. If there is more to this story, as you say, I need to find it.”
Ashani nodded, and her smile returned, though it was clearly forced. “Then what are we waiting for? Let us depart at once.”
Forced or not, Vir returned her smile. “Let’s.”
He had arrived in Mahādi alone, fearing the health of his wolf.
He would leave with the goddess he’d left behind.
Let’s see what the Demon Realm thinks of this…
Demons weren’t ready for the return of a living goddess. No realm was, and if he was honest, Vir wasn’t sure if he was ready, either.
None of that mattered. Because Ashani wasn’t just divine company. She was a close friend. And there was a whole world out there he couldn’t wait to show her.
112RETURN TO THE LAND OF DEMONS
“Do you see those mountains?” Ashani cried from beside Vir. “How high their peaks soar! And those beasts! What are those called? Look, Vir! Curious. What they—oh! They seem to be mating! Let us take a look.”
Vir rolled his eyes. Ashani had been commenting nonstop since they left Mahādi. While he’d initially wondered whether she could keep up with his full power Leaps, he needn’t have worried. While he’d never had a chance to test the limit of her speed in Mahādi—the city’s buildings prevented rapid travel—Ashani proved more than capable of matching, and even outstripping, his pace.
Moreover, with the obscene amount of prana filling her core, she could maintain that pace for years. Even Vir needed sleep at some point, to say nothing of replenishing his prana from the surroundings.
“Just for a moment, but we really ought to get back. The time flow here isn’t nearly as pronounced in Mahādi, and my tournament is coming up.”
“I promise I’ll only be a minute. These are new beasts, Vir! They don’t exist in Mahādi. It must be done. For science.”
Vir raised a brow. “Science?”
“It’s… Hmm. I think you have something similar? Thaumaturgy, I believe?”
“Ah.”
Ashani bounded away at a pace that honestly frightened Vir. Never in a million years would he want to fight any demon who could move half as fast as her, even given her relative lack of offensive armament.
While Vir might never hope to match the goddess’ speed, he took solace in the fact that Ashani was, in fact, a cutting-edge creation of a race that may as well have been gods, even ignoring superstition. He also took solace in the fact that he was the only living being in the world capable of refilling her cores.
Unfortunately, Ashani’s enthusiasm terrified the mating beasts, who took off the moment the goddess arrived.
She returned with a pout.
“Maybe be a little more stealthy next time?” Vir said with a wry smile. For all her immense intellect and vast capability, when it came to experiencing new things, she possessed the spirit of a child.
“I miscalculated. I shall remember that.”
Ashani’s ooh’s and aah’s grew less and less frequent as they neared Thaman’s Ash Gate, and her wide eyes became narrower and narrower.
Is she already bored with the Ash? Vir wondered. If so, he worried the Demon Realm wouldn’t hold her interest for long at all. Compared to the Imperium, what was even the great Colosseum of the Bairans?
Vir glanced at the goddess, who frowned with concern. She wasn’t the only one with concerns, though Vir’s were of a different sort.
“Say, Ashani, I don’t really know how to say this, but… You don’t really look like anyone in the realm we’re about to enter. Your platinum hair, for sure. And your blue eyes. And fair skin. Your… incredibly perfect features might be an issue as well.”
The more Vir thought about it, the more hopeless the situation became. To return quickly to Camar Gadin, Vir would have to use Thaman’s large Gate. A Gate which, due to its importance to Clan Baira’s national security, had guards posted round the clock. There would be no hiding Ashani from them.
Had this been the Human Realm, Vir might at least have passed her off as a shockingly gorgeous woman, but in the Demon Realm? Her appearance alone might cause people to prostrate before her, which was something Vir got the distinct impression she wished to avoid.
“Hmm? The Demon Realm?” Ashani said. “Ah, yes. You had once mentioned it was populated with beings who resembled yourself.”
“I wouldn’t say that, exactly. I’m somewhat of a rare type, being a gray-skinned demon. The most common ones have red skin. Red eyes and black hair, like me, but there are giants, monkey people, and Ghaels, too. They look like—?”
Vir’s body jolted, and thanks to years of training, he Blinked back before his mind had formed a coherent thought.
“A-Ashani!” he squeaked, half out of embarrassment for having reacted as he did, and half at the goddess’ transformation.
Ashani had a red-skinned hand over her mouth, and was quietly giggling at Vir’s antics.
“Is it really so shocking?” she asked.
“Um, yes. Very,” Vir replied, returning to her side. He circled around her, inspecting her from every angle. “It’s not just your hands and face, is it? You’ve changed your whole body’s skin color.”
“But of course! It wouldn’t be much of a disguise, otherwise, would it?”
“Right,” Vir said, chuckling wryly.