CH75

“Why are you asking about that now?” She asked, curious and a bit worried about how it related to what they just went through.

“Because I was an idiot who tried to prepare tools without trying to understand the gods who made the trial. I should have tried to get in their heads more when figuring out what to do and how to prepare and now I want to correct that if it’s not too late.” His biggest mistake had been assuming the trial would be combat-focused. In his mind it just seemed obvious, the gods wanted strong believers to try and fight off the coming invasion. What he hadn’t accounted for was that many of these trials originally hailed from each god’s homeworld. Just because they currently needed strong believers didn’t mean that was always what they wanted to see from them, and he wouldn’t be surprised if the gods couldn’t alter their trials once they were made given what Myriad told him. If it was hard for gods to make something that could exist in the mortal realm then presumably changing it could have some drastic results, not to mention how long it could take to make or alter one to begin with.

As all of those variables ran through his head Thera started telling him about her god. “I’m not sure how much I can really share, I do worship Anailia but I haven’t delved too much into her history and stories, I really just know the common ones. She’s the mother goddess of the succubi and rules over love and seduction, the second aspect being why all succubi and incubi have access to charm magic from birth.”

“I guess that makes sense for a love goddess, gotta win hearts somehow.”

“Well when I say love it isn’t just about romantic attraction, it’s about all sorts, like familial love and friendship too.”

She went on to spend the next hour telling the stories that she knew. Raising the first succubi and growing their civilization, teaching them how to use their charm, as well as how to use it responsibly, how to live well, and many more, ending on the death of their world, where Alailia’s husband sacrificed himself to let their people escape.

He felt a picture begin to form in his mind of the trial but wanted to know more. “And what about her husband then? Tolona right?”

She shook her head as he asked. “He’s been dead for a long time now, I know plenty of succubi still learn about him but I’m only really familiar with him to the extent he’s part of Anailias stories.” She paused and thought for a minute. “Well, other than the fact that he represented unity and strength.”

“Wait, are succubi particularly strong? No offence or anything but you and Sonya are pretty much what I would expect strength-wise from my own race.”

Again she shook her head. “I’m told it was more about emotional strength. Being a pillar that could support themselves and the people around them.”

“Okay, so if we focus on what your gods represent and how it’s related to the trail so far, I guess the last one has to do with the condition for the trial itself, I needed to be in a position where I would choose you over someone else important in my life. The one before it tested our knowledge of each other, though we kind of worked around that aspect. Before that maybe it was testing our ability to work together and trust each other while angry maybe? As for the first one, if I had to guess it would be teamwork or problem solving, but come on, if that’s what it was supposed to be, surely they could have figured out something better than pits in the ground…” He trailed off as he muttered to himself, trying to work out how everything they had gone through might relate to the properties of the gods that built the trial. Some of the connections he made felt a bit weak to him, but he couldn’t figure out anything else it might be. That just left a problem. “It doesn’t really give us any clues about what might be next or how much more we’d have to go through.” He sighed.

It had already been five days, and he had no way of knowing if they were being fast or slow about it. He knew it took between one or two weeks to finish the trial based on past results, but that didn’t really help him. If he assumed that in the past people had done roughly one section a day like they were doing and made it out in seven then they were almost done. Alternatively if the ones who made it out in a week somehow managed to finish two a day then they still had over a week to go, which wasn’t a fun prospect, especially since he currently wasn’t in a good emotional state to keep going immediately.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

It was getting pretty late anyway so they decided to make camp for the night as Ben tried to get his thoughts under control.

As they sat down and ate, Thera spoke up, breaking his silence. “Can I ask about your family?”