The Star, The Demon, and The God - 43. Into the Moonlight

Luno

I bounce from foot to foot and pull on my fingers.

“What do we do?” I call out to the both of them.

Tobias and Laneer are standing near the edge of the forest.

Apparently the moon is out in the sky when the sun should be there instead.

Something is very wrong.

I flinch slightly when Kulu’s tongue all of a sudden flicks against my collarbone.

Did we do this? Did that beam of light absorb the sun somehow? What happened to the sun god? Does he know we did this to his light?

Oh gods!

Is he going to come after us now?

Tobi and Laneer are arguing over something. I can’t hear because they are so far ahead of me.

“Maybe you both should go on without me!” I call. “The desert is only an hour away!”

Of course, they ignore me.

What else is new?

Sighing, I move to sit on a giant tree root that is sticking out of the ground.

What do we do?

Wait a minute! We should call Drulai! I am positive she would know what is going on!

“Hey!” I cup my hands and yell through them. “There are angels coming my way!”

As expected, they both immediately start running towards me.

Tobias pulls me behind him, then the both of them get into battle stances.

When they realize that nobody is in the cluster of white trees, they both turn to glare at me.

I cross my arms and pout because they deserved this for ignoring me!

They are not the only ones who can come up with ideas.

“Now that you are here, you can listen!” I say with a fake smile.

Laneer grunts and Tobias’ glare somehow gets even meaner.

“We should use the mirror to call Drulai,” I say. “She should know what is going on. Something big happened and she should know what is going on.”

Laneer shakes his head.

“We only have two gems left to call her on,” He says. “We already used one. Breaking another would be wasteful.”

“No it wouldn’t,” I frown. “The sun is missing and we have no way to know how! I am pretty sure this is a good time to use it.”

Laneer thinks it over before shrugging. “I suppose you’ve got me there.”

Tobias has been glaring at me this whole time.

I have been careful not to look him in the eye, but I am really tempted to only because I like looking at them.

“I’ll contact her and show her the sky,” Laneer says before walking off while digging into his satchel.

Now that we are alone, I take a peek at Tobias.

Yup. Still glaring a hole into me.

“Don’t you ever,” He gets all up in my face to jab his finger into my chest, “And I mean ever, pull some shit like that again!”

I blink and take a step back, almost tripping over my feet.

He grabs me before I end up falling flat into the water.

I want to be mad at him for ignoring me earlier, but him being angry is sort of making me nervous.

When I try and meet his angry glare with my own, I end up having to hide a smile.

Why am I feeling a bunch of giggles coming on!

Kulu lifts his head up between us and sticks his tongue out at Tobi.

The corner of his lip quirks up but he quickly tries to hide it and pull out his scary face once again.

“Don’t ever play like that again,” He says in a bossy voice. “If you ever got hurt without me knowing...I mean you almost did when I was in that weird state! The last thing I want right now is for you to be hurt. Understand?”

Now I wish I didn’t say it was angels.

What else could I have said? They were ignoring me!

“Okay,” Is all I say in response, “but can you please stop ignoring me? I don’t like it when you do that. It makes me feel lonely.”

I can see the guilt in his eyes and I take that as a small win.

“Fine,” He says, playing it off as if he is reluctant to do so. “Only because you were right about Drulai. Nice thinking I suppose.”

I beam up at his praise.

He smirks down at me before leaning down to peck me on the lips.

That is when Laneer returns with a mirror with Drulai’s face in it.

She sighs, looking slightly out of breath.

“The fate of the world is in your hands and you both are busy staring into each other’s eyes?” She exclaims. “We are doomed!”

Tobias grunts and pulls away from me.

“Fuck off. Also, tell us what happened to the sun,” he says in a weirdly calm voice.

Drulai’s glare through the mirror almost makes me worried it will crack into pieces.

“My husband is dead,” She says, her voice cracking slightly.

She clears her throat.

“He was killed by Raiyo. Not too long ago as well.”

The Sun God is dead? The Sun God?

Maybe it is just me, but out of all of them, besides Drulai, he seemed the most important!

He was in charge of watching over the sun for gods sakes!

“How do we bring the sun back?” Laneer asks. “How are we suppose to travel across the desert with the moon staring us down?”

Drulai’s lips press together into a thin line as she thinks things over.

“I am not sure,” She says after a small moment of silence. “All I know is that you must hurry. I have tried my best to slow Raiyo down, but we need you all to hurry. He could have freed himself by now and he will attack us again.”

Biting my lip, I glance between Tobias and Laneer.

How are we supposed to hurry when Morgoren is out there?

“I better go,” Drulai says. “I fear any wondering eyes who could be hearing this conversation. Be safe and good luck.”

She disappears.

I blink and look up at Tobias.

“Now what?” I ask. “Do we stay here until the sun situation is fixed?”

No answer for either of them.

At least this time I know that they aren’t ignoring me. They are trying to think of some kind of solution.

“You heard her,” Laneer says. “We need to hurry.”

Tobias shakes his head. “But how? That tent can’t be moved while we walk so we can’t hide underneath it.”

Laneer scratches the back of his neck. “Would a hood help? I have plenty.”

“No that won’t work,” Tobias sighs to himself. “Maybe there is some kind of rune or spell that can help? Drulai did one for me to keep Raiyo from seeing me, though I learned that it wasn’t really needed.”

“Yeah that is for being mind controlled by the gods,” Laneer replies. “I doubt it will work with the moon watching us.”

They keep bouncing ideas back and forth but I feel like I know what we should do now.

I clear my throat and glance at the moonlight in the distance.

“Maybe,” I start. “Maybe we should just go. No cover or anything. Morgoren didn’t come and see us last time right? Maybe we will be okay?”

Laneer shrugs. “That’s a lot of maybe’s but I see no reason why we shouldn’t. Sure we’ve got the risk of him showing up but what else can we do?”

Tobias’ famous glare is back again.

“Luno,” He says in an angry voice. “I literally said I didn’t want you in any danger. Why must you test me every time?”

I grin at his words and shrug. “It’s what I’m here for!”

He rolls his eyes and looks away.

“I am serious though,” I say. “Whatever is in that desert, we need to get there fast. Drulai said so, so we need to hurry and bring Raiyo to our side.”

Laneer nods and walk on. “Let’s go then. No use wasting time.”

I go to follow him but I end up being pulled back by Tobias.

I whine at the slight pain in my arm but then I freeze when arms wrap around me.

Well! I can’t say I’m too mad at this now.

“Tobi?” I call gently. “We’ll be okay! You don’t need to worry. You said this was going to be dangerous remember? Something like this was bound to happen right?”

His head nods and then rests on top of mine.

He chuckles above me.

“It is a bit funny that you sound so ready to do this. Before you were terrified of walking into a war room. Now look at you.”

I smile and lean back to look up at him.

“Is it bad or are you proud of me?” I ask, a bit scared.

I just want to do a good job! Is that too much to ask for?

He grunts and smirks. “Sure. Why not?”

Beaming up at him, I lean up to kiss him.

He smiles into the kiss and lightly squeezes the back of my neck with his hand. It is weirdly comforting? I want more of it.

Sadly we have to get moving.

“You both coming or not?” Laneer calls. “Let’s get this over with already!”

Right.

We hurry over to stand next to him.

Seeing the moonlight up close has my nerves spiking up a bit. I swear it feels even colder now. Is that just me freaking out slightly?

Oh gods!

What if we are making too big of a leap of faith? Morgoren could come out as soon as I step into his moonlight!

Laneer walks out from the shelter of the trees.

I wait for something to happen to him.

A scorching beam of moonlight? Laneer randomly combusting on the spot? No explanation but he simply drops dead?

Nothing happens. Nothing at all.

Why do I all of a sudden find my body unable to move? It is like my legs have frozen over and turned into stone.

A hand touches the small of my back.

Tobias stands next to me.

“You ready?” He asks. “There is no shelter out there for miles. When we are out there, there is no going back.”

I gulp and turn back to the open world.

All of a sudden this forest feels too small.

We have to do this. It is to stop Morgoren. Once Raiyo is on our side, I will not have to worried about hiding from moonlight ever again.

I blink when I think that over and over in my mind.

How did I not think of that before? I could finally be free to walk through the night and see a real night sky!

I want that. I want to walk under the stars without any fear!

Using that as my fuel for courage, I step out into the moonlight.

I may have shut my eyes tightly as I did so…

Tobias’ hand is still on my back so I know he is still there to support me. I am incredibly grateful for that because I really need it.

Finally taking the chance, I open my eyes and look up.

A shaky breath escapes me as I stare up in awe at the giant dark blanket that covers the sky. Tiny lights twinkle and sparkle like...magic!

Perhaps the scariest thing of all, but also still beautiful, is the moon.

It’s light coats everything with a gentle touch that does not burn. It doesn’t even hurt your eyes.

How could something so sweet and tender be controlled by someone completely the opposite? It is almost impossible to believe that such a travesty could occur.

“You okay?” Tobias says, rubbing my back and holding my hand now.

I nod and turn to him.

My heart just about stops when I see his pretty blue eyes almost glowing in the moonlight.

They aren’t literally glowing like Raiyo’s does, but with the way the moonlight shines on them, it might just be the prettiest thing I have ever seen!

“Yeah,” I whisper, unable to look away. “Yeah I’m fine.”

He gives a small smile before looking up towards Laneer.

“How much longer before we reach the desert?” He asks.

Laneer pulls out his map, but before he even unfolds it, he says, “Not long. About thirty to forty minutes at most.”

Tobias nods and then he gently pushes me forward so that I am walking between the both of them.

I swear with each step we take, it feels like someone is watching us.

It may be my nerves playing with me, but it certainly freaks me out right now.

~~~
~~~

Tobias

After an hour we reach the edge of the desert.

It took an hour only because when we first started walking, we were a little scared about walking under the moon.

We still are for sure, but now we have some kind of backbone.

“Here take these,” Laneer says as he hands Luno and I headwraps. “We’ll need them incase the sun decides to come out or if there are any sandstorms.”

Ah well that is slightly terrifying.

“If the need arises,” he says to Luno, “I am sure you can break a storm down. I highly recommend not doing that though. It could be used as our cover from the moon.”

Luno nods along but he stares off at the open desert in front of us.

The sands look like they are coated in a blue light. Some parts of the sands look white like snow.

It is very pretty, so I can see why he’d be a bit distracted.

“This place is beautiful and so open,” Luno breathes. “Have either of you been here before?”

I shake my head.

Can’t say that I have. Never had a reason to come before there aren’t many humans here for angels to terrorize.

Laneer nods and he looks a tad bit more sad if that was possible.

“Yeah I came here with Yinx,” He says. “There was a small village here. It had a stable full of camels that they would rent out for you to use to travel to one of the great city.”

He looks over at a pile of stones that are slightly buried in sand and sighs.

I frown and stare at Laneer as he starts walking into the desert.

He is very old. Definitely older than most beings in the afterlife. There is a lot who die in their second life. How Laneer was able to survive for this long is a mystery.

Now that we are moving again, he will hopefully give me more answers.

“So Laneer,” I start. “How have you been able to live for so long? Your story with Yinx was over a thousand years ago. What’s your secret for survival?”

Laneer glances over his shoulder and he looks almost surprised by the question.

What can I say? I find him strange and I want to know his secrets.

I also want him to admit Raiyo is Yinx.

I am still seventy percent sure that I am right. I only need him to confirm it for me.

“Drulai,” He says. “She made a pact with me when she made me her champion. It’s a bit complicated honestly.”

I shrug. “Do tell.”

Luno lightly swats my arm and sends a frown at me.

“I, uh,” Laneer scratches the back of his neck and stumbles on his feet slightly as he walks.

“You don’t have to say if you don’t want to,” Luno says.

Now I’m the one glaring at him.

We need to know these things!

“No,” Laneer shakes his head. “I guess now you’ll be getting an answer to a question you asked before, about what happened to Yinx.”

Luno’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

“Yinx did die,” He says. “He was sacrificed for Morgoren. My father and the people of the city thought he was a demon only because he was different and knew magic.”

I wanted to add that Yinx also destroyed a city and killed hundreds, but it is probably best that I don’t bring it up.

“When he had died, Drulai, Morgoren, Taisla, and the God of Darkness were there. They saw how Yinx’s soul was being called back to his body. When they slipped it back into him, Raiyo was born.”

Luno stops moving when he hears that.

I have to grab his hand to make sure he keeps walking.

Meanwhile, I am smiling like an idiot for already figuring this out!

“Well, before all that, the God of Darkness slipped into Yinx’s body and unleashed something inside him. Whatever it was, that is what destroyed the city. It also killed me.”

That’s new information to me.

The book said that Yinx simply became a demon when he was presented for execution. Nothing about a god corrupting his body.

“Drulai has hidden away my spirit in some realm and told me that if I wanted to keep living, it would be as her champion. Two downsides to being her champion were that I would still live with my curse of the wolf, and that I would never be able to die so long as Raiyo lives.”

A bit of silence now. Laneer chose that time to finish.

It is rather wild that all this happened to him.

The fact that Drulai is pushing him to quests like this is a bit rude to me. Shouldn’t he be living in peace after the fucked up ending he received?

“If Rai-er...Yinx can’t ever die,” Luno says, “does that mean you will never die as well? What if someone were to pierce your heart?”

Laneer shakes his head.

“Nothing would happen. I would feel the pain, but I would not die. I heal rapidly as well, but I still keep the scars.”

Luno frowns and bows his head slightly. “That explains why you didn’t want my help earlier.”

Yeah that does explain it.

Poor man.

“Have you spoken to him,” I ask Laneer. “Even once throughout all these years?”

Laneer glances at me and I swear his eyes have gotten even sadder and more tired. So much to the point that I feel bad for even asking.

“No,” He says in a soft voice. “No I haven’t.”

He turns around and this time I leave him alone.

Biting the inside of my cheek, I sigh and look up at the sky, mentally sending the middle finger to Morgoren for messing up yet another innocent life.