Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 110079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Tyche chuckled for the first time. “The man could trip on air while walking, but he could also make his magic work for him. A mother accidentally made too many sweet buns, and she gave him one. Or a rabbit running from a fox slips and accidentally lands in his trap.”
“I’ve seen your luck run like that.”
Tyche hummed. “True. I think that’s why we got along so well. There was a definite art to controlling our magic that others didn’t quite understand. If gods and goddesses weren’t so troublesome, I think we could have been friends.”
“Do you think that’s why you held on to his powers?”
Tyche snorted and stared at Shey as if he were insane. “Now you think too highly of me. I kept them out of fear. If I found myself in a desperate spot, I could merge his with mine to escape Zyros. And later, the excuse was to protect myself from Kaes and any of the other major gods.”
Shey could feel where the story was building to. The point where he’d been left with no choice.
“And then they murdered Yesuntei.”
Tyche bent his head and covered his face with both hands. He scrubbed his hands back and forth several times as if to clear his thoughts. “Yesuntei. She survived Zyros only to die in that fucking place.” He dropped his hands to his legs with a loud slap. “The plan had always been to take her sarira to Brightspire and the protection of her temple. And I thought, maybe, I could finally put Wu’s powers to rest as well.”
“Do you think Cirina appeared when she did because of Kaes?”
“Yes. No. Maybe? I wouldn’t put it past him, but Cirina was rarely far from her sister. I wouldn’t put it past him to force my hand, expecting me to merge Yesuntei’s powers with my own.”
Shey glared at a patch of golden light thrown down onto the marble floor from the bedroom. “I don’t understand. Why would he want you to take on the goddess’s power? Why didn’t he try to take it from you for himself?”
Tyche grinned at him. “Why would he? He’s a major god. The powers of the minor gods are a raindrop compared to their ocean of magic. I don’t pretend to understand the schemes of the major gods. Maybe he’s trying to stir up new problems between the major gods. Or he wants to challenge Caelan because he’s the new guy. Maybe he was fucking bored. Immortality is a really, really long time, and there’s only so much to watch on TV.”
Shey snorted and bumped his arm against Tyche’s. “Ridiculous. I guess he didn’t expect you to put Yesuntei’s sarira in a dragon.”
“Nope. But then again, neither did I.” The wind picked up and blew several strands of hair across Tyche’s face. He hooked them behind his ear and sighed. “I had my own powers and Wu’s tucked away. I was sure if I tried to hide Yesuntei’s inside me for safekeeping, they’d end up merging with mine. And with Wu’s up here…” He tapped his head.
“Bad things would have happened.”
Tyche grunted. “Mostly, I was scared. I didn’t know what would happen. The only thing I didn’t want was to become another Zyros. She slaughtered countless gods and hundreds of thousands of humans. She soaked Thia in blood for centuries before the godstones stopped her.”
“It was never going to happen.” Tyche looked up at Shey, who tapped the tip of his finger on his nose. “What I heard from Caelan, Zyros was a ruthless, bloodthirsty hunter as a human. The gods had nothing to do with that. She just used the powers to be more of that. Tyche, God of Luck, is nothing like that. He’s funny, kind, crafty, a bit crazy, and a connoisseur of coffee. At worst, you would have gone crazy and forced us all to convert from tea to coffee.”
“Think what a better world this would be if I did,” Tyche murmured.
“Or…should I call you the God of Chaos?”
Tyche’s shoulders immediately slumped. “Pfft…who knows? I said that ’cause I thought it sounded impressive.” He tipped his face up toward Shey. “Did it?”
Shey smiled. “Very.”
“Ugh. Kaes. He appeared after I’d gotten Yesuntei’s sarira out of Haru. The dragon was still flat on his back with a hole in his gut. Kaes wanted the sarira, and giving it to him seemed as bad as giving it to Cirina, so I merged it with my powers.”
“Yet, it wasn’t enough. Kaes attacked, threatening you, me, Haru, Adrian, and all of Sirelis. You merged the God of Accidents’ powers with the others to fight off Kaes.”
Tyche snickered. “Please don’t make me sound noble. I was scared and pissed. Tired of being bullied by that asshole. Tired of being the helpless little guy. But now I’ve got this mess of powers and no idea how to use them. All I know is that I don’t want to kill you, Adrian, or Haru.” He paused, and his face scrunched up. “Well, I don’t want to kill anyone, but I especially don’t want to kill you—”