Gathering of the Chosen (35 page)

“It's just that you have been out for a
couple of days now,” said Carmaz. “Granted, the katabans have been
working their magic on you to help you recover more quickly, but I
didn't think that you'd wake up for at least a week.”

“My head still hurts and I want to throw
up, but I feel fine aside from that,” said Raya. “And, I know I
just said I would throw up, but I can still eat that food you've
got there. I'll be able to keep it down no problem. I'm
hungry.”

That last part was true. She was very
hungry, probably due to the fact that she had been unconscious for
the past couple of days without getting even one bite to eat. The
food on the tray didn't look nearly as delicious or amazing as the
food that she had grown up eating in Carnag Hall, but at this point
she was willing to eat just about anything, especially if Carmaz
fed it to her.

Carmaz looked a little skeptical at that,
but he shrugged and said, “Well, that's why I brought you this food
in the first place. I didn't know you were awake, but in case you
were, I made sure to have some food with me.”

Carmaz walked over and placed the tray on
her lap. It felt warm on her legs and the soup, whatever it was,
smelled really good. Raya started eating as Carmaz pulled up a
chair leaning against the wall and sat down in it.

“Where do you want me to start?” asked
Carmaz, resting his arms on the back of the chair, which was facing
her.

“How I got here,” said Raya, gesturing at
her room in between gulps of soup, which she shoveled into her
mouth with a spoon. “Last I remember, I fell unconscious in the
ethereal. How did anyone find me?”

Carmaz frowned. “You were in the ethereal?
No, we found you on the streets outside the Stadium after the Void
left. No one knows how you got there. Even the gods aren't sure how
you got there. But you mentioned something about the ethereal?”

Raya nodded. “Oh, yeah. I'm part katabans,
as you know, but I've never opened the ethereal before. Didn't even
know I could, but I did because I had to escape the Void and that
was the only way I knew how. It took a lot out of me, though, so I
lost consciousness when I entered the ethereal.”

“Very interesting,” said Carmaz, stroking
his chin. “Did you see anyone in the ethereal? Any katabans,
perhaps?”

Raya shrugged. “No. I just remember seeing
this light, but don't ask me about it, because I honestly don't
remember a whole lot about it. It might have just been a natural
phenomena in the ethereal or something.”

“I'll have to let Alira know about that,”
said Carmaz. “So anyway, after we found you in the streets, we took
you here and I was given the task of keeping an eye on you and
helping the katabans doctors heal you. Looks like all of their hard
work paid off.”

“Of course,” said Raya. She paused her
eating. “Wait, did you mention that the Void left? Of her own free
will?”

“Yep,” said Carmaz. “Braim somehow managed
to convince her to go away. Don't ask me how. He just went in
there, talked to her, and then she was gone. I wouldn't have
believed it myself if I hadn't seen the Void leave with my own
eyes.”

“Impossible,” said Raya, shaking her head,
though she kept eating nonetheless. “I don't know much about the
Void, but when I was in its embrace, I felt that it was too
powerful to reason with. You'd have to be a god to come close to
getting that thing's respect, and Braim isn't even half of a
god.”

“Tell that to him,” said Carmaz. “Anyway,
the fact of the matter is that the Void is gone. But Braim thinks
it will probably return at some point, as do the gods, who are now
setting up security measures to ensure that it won't come back
again.”

Raya shuddered, causing tiny droplets of
the soup to fall on her sheets (which dismayed her quite a bit).
“What will happen if the Void comes back again and doesn't listen
to Braim?”

“Hopefully by then the Tournament will be
over and there will be a bunch of new gods around to keep the Void
from returning,” said Carmaz. “From what I've gathered, the reason
the Void attacked is because the 'natural laws' are weakening. If
we get a God of Martir, then they might be able to strengthen the
natural laws and thus keep the Void out of Martir for good.”

“I do hope you're correct,” said Raya,
“because I was right there in the midst of the Void and I know just
how powerful it is. I'm afraid that we won't be able to deal with
it next time it comes around, whenever that might be.”

“Got to say, I have to agree,” said
Carmaz. “Had Braim not talked it down, we'd all be dead by
now.”

Carmaz stated that rather
matter-of-factly, which Raya found herself admiring about him
because she could never have stated such a blunt truth so calmly
herself.

“Speaking of the Tournament, did I win?”
said Raya. “What was Alira's verdict?”

“Alira says you won,” said Carmaz. He
frowned. “Well, 'won' is not exactly the most appropriate term for
it. See, when the Void attacked, it killed half of the Hollechian
godlings. The others are in critical condition, like you, though
they will probably survive and be ready to take on the next
challenge soon. That means you technically won by default.”

Raya smiled. “Who cares if I won by
default? I
won
, which is an amazing honor. It means I am
that much closer to achieving godhood, which is what I rightfully
deserve.”

“I thought you'd be angry about that,
considering how much of a hissy fit you threw when Alira assigned
you to the Hollech Bracket,” said Carmaz in surprise. “Resigned to
your fate already?”

“No,” said Raya, shaking her head. “I've
just learned to take advantage of whatever comes my way. A far
healthier way of looking at things than whining about it, in my
opinion.”

Carmaz was now looking at her as though
she had come from some other world, but he said, “All right, then.
Sounds good.”

Raya nodded and said, “So what about the
next Hollech Bracket Challenge? When is that supposed to be?”

“Alira said it will be after the rest of
the sub-bracket challenges are done,” said Carmaz. “According to
her, the next one is going to be the Human God Sub-Bracket
Challenge, which I will be participating in.”

“That's great,” said Raya. “I just know
you will do wonderfully. And think about it. If you and I both win
our respective brackets, then we will both become gods and get to
live with each other forever.”

Carmaz looked like he had not thought
about that. Unfortunately, he was frowning at the thought, like it
disturbed him greatly, which annoyed Raya, because she saw no
downside to spending all of eternity with him.

“Anyway,” Raya continued, looking around
the room, “where is your friend? Saia is his name, right?”

“Was,” Carmaz said. His frown became even
more pronounced. He rubbed his eyes, as though he was trying to
fight back against the tears trying to burst out from them.

“Was?” said Raya. “Whatever do you mean,
Carmaz? Have you and Saia had a falling out recently?”

Carmaz shook his head. “No. Saia … the
Void got him before Braim made her leave.”

Raya stopped eating her soup. She suddenly
felt rather embarrassed about asking that question due to the sheer
pain in Carmaz's voice. She wasn't sure what to say.

But she had to say something, so she said,
“Well … that's awful, Carmaz, and I am sorry to hear about it.
Would you mind telling me the details or—”

“No,” Carmaz said abruptly. He looked away
from her. “You just need to know that he's dead. That's all you
need to know.”

“But I want to know the details,” said
Raya. “Is it really that hard for you to—”

Raya was interrupted by the screeching of
the chair's legs against the floor as Carmaz stood up. He glared
down at Raya with anger in his eyes. It almost reminded Raya of how
Father sometimes looked when he got angry at her for doing or
saying something that she was not supposed to, but it was much
wilder and more primal, like the kind of anger she always imagined
that violent criminals had.

Carmaz pointed at her soup and bread and
said, “Eat up. I'm going to go tell Alira that you are awake and
recovering. I'll tell the Soldiers standing guard outside the
apartment to get you any food or water or anything else you
need.”

Carmaz turned and walked back toward the
door of Raya's room. Raya held out a hand, saying, “Wait, Carmaz,
when will you be—”

“I'll be back when I get back,” said
Carmaz without looking over his shoulder at Raya. His tone was so
harsh that Raya didn't say anything else as Carmaz wrenched open
the door, stepped outside, and slammed it closed behind him in one
smooth motion.

Raya leaned back against her pillows. She
looked at the soup and bread on the tray on her lap. The warmth of
the soup felt nice on her legs, but she didn't really feel like
eating it anymore, even though she was still hungry.

What did I say?
Raya thought.
I
just wanted to know the details about how Saia had died. I wasn't
disrespecting his memory or anything. Must be a Ruwan cultural
thing or something.

Raya tried to tell herself that she didn't
particularly care if Carmaz was offended or not, because she didn't
do anything wrong. Even so, she found it hard to enjoy her soup and
bread afterward, mostly because she wasn't sure if Carmaz would
ever speak to her again after this.

***

T
hough Carmaz had said that he was
going to go tell Alira about Raya's awakening, he didn't intend to
do that right away. He left the apartment building and walked off
in a random direction, not even thinking about where he was going.
He just followed the street wherever it led, keeping his head down
and his hands jammed into his pockets. There was no rush. Alira had
said that the next sub-bracket challenge was going to start whether
Raya awoke from her coma or not. He had plenty of time to stew over
the dumb question Raya had just asked him.

Raya's a class act,
Carmaz thought,
ignoring a katabans merchant who was hawking what looked like
oddly-shaped shoes, though he didn't stop to look at them.
Just
want to know the details, huh? For royalty, she sure doesn't act
royal.

Part of him should have expected that,
considering how much tact Raya lacked. Still, he had no tolerance
for that kind of disrespect from her. He didn't care that she was
royalty. Here on World's End, in the Tournament of the Gods, she
was just another godling to him, and not a particularly bright one,
either.

Of course, part of the reason Carmaz was
so angry was that he was trying to avoid crying. He could feel the
tears trying to well up in his eyes, but he didn't want to be
overcome by his sadness. He had already cried over Saia's death a
couple of days ago. Besides, he was used to tragedy. During his
twenty-five years of life on this world, Carmaz had seen men get
torn apart by crustaceans, watched young children die due to a lack
of nutrition, often in the arms of their weeping mothers. He had
thought that he had gotten used to tragedy, yet every time he
thought about Saia's death … it almost overwhelmed him.

Carmaz kicked a stone in his path, which
bounced along the street before him. That was when he saw a crowd
of katabans coming his way, a large crowd that made a lot of noise
as the katabans in it chattered among each other. Not wanting to
interact with other living beings at the moment, Carmaz stepped
into a side alley and continued his wandering of the city in
there.

The streets are too clean,
Carmaz
thought, scowling as he looked at the back alley he had ended up
in.
I know that this is the Throne of the Gods and all, but it
seems almost unnaturally clean. Wonder if the God of Cleanliness is
behind this.

But Carmaz didn't really care much about
the gods. He cared about Saia. Saia had been his childhood friend.
He had known him for as far back as he could remember. To just lose
him like that … so fast, without a chance to say good bye … Carmaz
was truly at a loss for how to deal with that.

I can't handle the grief,
Carmaz
thought, wiping the tears that were starting to flow from his eyes.
I should throw the upcoming challenge. Then Alira can send me
back to Ruwa and I can tell everyone else there about Saia's death.
There's no way I can compete in this sorrow. I'm not that
strong.

If only there was some way to bring Saia
back …

Carmaz stopped in the street and frowned.
Where had
that
thought come from? He certainly didn't think
it on his own. He looked around, but did not see anyone else in the
alley with him.

Resurrecting Saia is silly,
Carmaz
thought.
He's dead. It's impossible to bring back the
dead.

“Braim would disagree, I would think,”
said an unfamiliar voice above him that made Carmaz look up.

Floating in the air above him was a
pale-skinned, armored brute with a wispy, ghost-like tail. Carmaz's
first thought was that it was another half-god, but then he
recalled seeing a statue of this god near the apartment building
where Raya was staying, though that didn't make him any happier to
see the deity.

“The Ghostly God,” said Carmaz, watching
as the god floated down in front of him. “God of Ghosts and
Mist.”

“So you recognize me,” said the Ghostly
God. “Am I really that famous now?”

“No,” said Carmaz, shaking his head. “I
don't think we've ever met.”

“But you don't need to introduce yourself,
Carmaz,” said the Ghostly God. He smiled and leaned forward, though
Carmaz didn't move from his spot. “I know the names and faces of
every single godling participating in the Tournament of the Gods.
Including yours, though it's hardly one to remember. I have no idea
what Raya sees in you.”