Book 2 Chapter 27

“Okay…” Mari replied, for a moment she thought she had seen real terror on Tirr’s face, but it had come after the titan had been defeated. Though she was curious, she didn’t question him, instead carried him out of the icy cavern as quickly as possible.

Nerida followed along quietly with a refreshed look and a small smile on her lips. As they walked, Maria realized Tirr had fallen fast asleep, so they kept quiet to let him rest. They traveled for an hour, only stopping when they reached the underwater tunnel.

There Maria set Tirr down carefully before gently rolling up the legs of his pants. His feet were a broken mess, still covered in frost and the damage it had caused in that brief moment of impact. Nerida watched as Maria put her hands over him and started to channel her Blessing.

“So...” Nerida started as she watched, “Have you and God encountered those things before?”

“No…” Maria answered, still focusing on Tirr’s wounds. “But they must have something to do with the great disaster, right? Was there nothing about them in the memories you got from the water shard?”

“The memories the water spirit passed to me were very fragmented, yet extremely focused. There was little that didn’t have to do with God himself…”

Maria finished with Tirr’s legs and sat back, taking a breath as she looked at the water priestess, “That pillar of ice came from the Water Blessing didn’t it?”

“Most likely,” Nerida replied thinking back to that ancient ice… “I could sense something familiar from it. It was most likely created by the Water Spirit herself.”

Maia became quiet, thinking back to what Tirr had told him about Bren’s memory. They had been running from something then. Were these stone golems the enemy that led to the Great Disaster?

“We should move, we’ve already been done here longer than we thought, and we still need to make it back.”

Nerida guided them through the flooded tunnel once more as they continued out of the tunnel. It took them another few hours to work their way through to the cavern’s entrance. They were greeted by the moon’s light as they left the dark cave behind and started working their way towards the boat.

“Did you see it?” The sudden voice from her arms caught Maria by surprise, she realized that the young god had woken up quietly as they walked.

“The titan?” She asked confused.

“I don’t think we could miss it, my Lord,” Nerida cut in, smiling down at him, “I’ll never forget the sight of your dashing figure striking that giant down”

Tirr stayed silent for a moment, and Maria could tell there was something off. He muttered to himself, “So you didn’t see it…”

She was about to ask what he was talking about when he moved to stand up on his own. She let him down and he walked by himself, a heavy aura hung around him that made it hard for Maria to continue questioning him.

They continued towards the boat in silence as neither Nerida nor Maria wanted to disturb Tirr as he went. They reached the boat quickly climbing inside as they planned to rest for the rest of the night before heading back towards the capital.

Just as Tirr had climbed aboard there was a slight scraping sound as a small form launched itself at him. Tirr was too caught up in his thoughts to even notice, yet Maria behind him let out a shout as she tried to intervene.

She was too late however as the dark shape struck Tirr squarely in the chest. He let out a small grunt and was forced to take a step back under the weight of the blow. As Maria and Nerida both prepared to attack. Tirr turned around with a somewhat annoyed look on his face.

There shivering on his chest, was the Starfish beast with the missing leg. It clung to his chest just as Tirr had clung to Maria’s not long ago. As they looked over the creature confused, Tirr grew irritated and tried to pry it off of him. As he removed it from his chest, it stuck to his hand, winding its arms around him tightly as it clung to him desperately. He tried to throw the Beast off of him. but each time it found some new place to cling too.

“What’s it doing here?” Maria asked curiously watching as Tirr kept fighting with the Beast. “It almost seems like its scared…”

“I’ll give it something to be scare about. Clinging to God like that… this creature must want to die…” Nerida replied, her voice tinged with jealousy as water started to spin around her.

“Behave!” Tirr finally ordered, flicking the Sea Beast with a finger while channeling his Blessing. The blow seemed to take what little strength the creature had managed to restore and it hung limply in his hands.

“I wonder if it knows about the Stone giant?” Maria asked while trying to calm Nerida.

“If it was able to sense that thing waking up, That would explain why it and its kin left the island…” Nerida answered while icicles sparkled above her head, “ Let me take care of that pest for you my Lord.”

Tirr looked down at the limp creature in his hand and thought back to the scene in the ice cavern, and the voice that had appeared in his mind. He raised the creature up so that it was in front of his face…

“You…” Tirr started plainly, “Swear yourself to me and I’ll heal your arm…”

“My lord…” Nerida started but was forced to halt as Tirr held up his other hand.

The Sea Beast wiggled its arms in agreement and Tirr channeled his blessing, healing the creature’s missing arm ion seconds. It swayed the new arm gently as if testing it, before letting out a cheerful chirp.

“Tirr… Why now?” Maria asked, looking at the happy Beast in his hands.

Tirr stayed silent for a moment before continuing, “Because I feel like I need all the strength I can gather…” He let out a sigh and slowly told them the vision he had had of the shadow and the voice that had sounded in his head…