"I can't get used to this," Kai muttered as he looked into the mirror.
Dark brown eyes stared back at him. Shorter and healthier black hair, cleaner and younger skin. Less muscled body than he remembered. He was never one to gain too much muscle, his body just wasn't built for it. But he remembered that he was lean and more muscled than what he currently saw in the mirror.
He had almost forgotten that he used to wear white shirts with black trousers. Because all he wore when he was in the capital was black. It was better to go around in. Better to not stand out in.
But the young him did look good in white.
Kai turned at the sound of the factory door opening. Bella came in, closing the door behind her, steps light.
"How did it go?" Kai asked, rolling his cuffs back up.
"Apparently they have been circling all the stalls. Asking for you." She plopped down on the couch, pulling her stick out of the pocket with a grunt. "Only you though."
Kai blinked. "Only me?"
Bella nodded.
"Did you get stripped of fugitive status without me knowing?" Kai scoffed.
"Thats what I thought." She shrugged.
He certainly didn't remember ASA sending officials to look for him in Cinder alley. The resident guards were so used to not being able to catch him that they had almost given up. And the stalls never betrayed him. They feared him enough to think twice.
So why now?
Did something change?
Bella grinned as she leaned from her seat. "How about we just find them and kill them?"
"Why is it always extreme for you?"
Bella scoffed. "Says the devil himself."
"There's no reason for me to kill them."
And if it really was them, he would probably have to try hard to keep them alive. He sighed.
"When did you go so soft?"
Kai turned to Bella. "What?"
"You were more 'grrr' before." She bared her teeth, clenching her fists.
She then dramatically released her hands. "Now you are just 'poof'"
He scowled. "The hell are you talking about?"
"I don't know." Bella frowned as if she didn't understand it. "You let those guards go yesterday even when they were clearly trying to land one on you. At the bar, you were so lenient with that slimy woman."
Does she mean Vetle?
"I was lenient?" Kai raised a brow.
"She asked you for pay," Bella counted on her fingers. "-said she would steal your plans."
Bella looked at him. "Plenty for you to kill her on the spot."
He rolled his eyes. "Bella, its unnecessary blood."
Bella scrunched her face up in disgust. "You are acting like you want people alive."
Kai paused.
"Don't romanticize it." He tilted his head. "Corpses are inconvenient, that's all."
Bella hummed as if she didn't believe him. "Da-da." [Russian for yes-yes]
He shook his head and turned away, reaching for his coat.
"Besides," He added lazily. "-if I wanted them dead, you wouldn't be questioning it."
Bella grinned at last. "Ah. There it is, the 'grrr'."
It was a twenty minute walk to the church. A denire church of course.
Since the founding of the empire, gods have always been split into two.
Gods of the gifted.
Gods of the denires.
Gods of the gifted are timeless beings. Beings that granted mana to the first ever gifted to walk on land. The conduit of their powers. Defying gods was defying the origin of their birth, their purpose.
The Denire believed in something else entirely. Their gods were not eternal forces of creation. They were souls. Devoted and watchful. Lovers of humanity above all else.
To the Gifted, that sounded like a myth. To the Denire, it was devotion.
Now what would make a gifted like Malakai D'yavol enter a denire church that worshipped Moira, the god of fate?
Kai stopped just before the steps of the church, hands tucked into the coat pockets. Wind howled against his hair as he looked up at the door.
"Moira will always protect us"
A forgotten sweet voice hummed inside his mind. His mother's.
Kai's jaw locked.
"Aren't you going in child?"
Kai blinked, face relaxing, before he turned around to the source.
A man clad in black cassock stood at the bottom of the steps, looking at him with a warm smile. He had his hands clasped in the front, his rosary hanging by his chest.
Kai tilted his head.
He wasn't wearing a hood. His face was open to see. Yet the man in front of him had just asked him if he wasn't going in?
Is he new here?
"It's cold out here." The priest's smile didn't falter. "But I must say. You are just in time for dinner." He chuckled.
"Maybe fate willed you to come here now." He said
"I don't believe in fate." Kai said, flatly.
The priest raised his brows, only mildly surprised before he smiled again, the skin near his eyes crinkling. "Moira believes in everyone, child. Those who deny fate are often the most tightly woven into it."
He walked up the stairs and patted Kai's shoulders. "Come on in." He said, gently.
Soft candlelight flickered along stone walls lined with wooden benches. The air smelled faintly of stew and old incense. A handful of people moved quietly inside, setting bowls, pouring water, speaking in hushed voices.
Few of them looked up in alarm, their gaze instantly flickering over to the priest who just seemed to smile.
They averted their eyes almost too soon.
Yes. That is the normal reaction.
"Sit anywhere you like," the priest said gently. "Dinner will be served shortly."
Kai didn't sit. Instead his eyes drifted toward the altar at the front.
Moira.
The statue was simple. A robed figure with veiled eyes, threads carved into the stone flowing from her hands like strands of woven silk.
Was that fate?
He was standing here. Alive.
Didn't that defy the very existence of fate?
The priest moved ahead, speaking quietly with one of the attendants.
Kai stepped closer to the altar. The carved threads seemed almost deliberate in their direction. No single strand ran alone. Everything seemed to be connected.
A quiet voice spoke behind him.
"Do you believe you are outside of it?"
Kai didn't turn. "Outside of what?"
"The weave."
Slowly, he glanced over his shoulder.
The priest wasn't looking at him. Instead he was looking at his god.
Kai paused before turning back to the altar. "I think I deviated from that yarn a long time ago."
The priest didn't say anything for a while. "Don't worry." He whispered.
"Moira will definitely guide you back."
Kai's fingers curled slightly at his side.
He did not like the sound of that.
A low tremor passed through his body and Kai's hands immediately flew to the hilt at his waist.
Mana.
He looked around the church. Everyone was absorbed in their work. No one had noticed. What did he expect? They were Denires.
The priest however, did not seem to move.
He was staring straight at the statue. Almost as if....
Kai's brows crinkled. He tilted his head slightly to the side. The priest's eyes did not flicker. He waved his hands in front of the priest's eyes
No response.
Does he not see me or what?
[Malakai Do...….]
Chills ran through Kai's spine as he inhaled sharply at the outrageous amount of mana that surrounded him now.
His hands gripped the hilt of his sword.
[Mala.... Do]
The voice did not echo. Rather it pressed as if by restraint. Were they calling his name?
And why couldn't he properly hear it?
Kai exhaled, sharpening his senses as he scanned his surrounding.
He closed his eyes.
Not the front.
No.
The…..back?
Kai's eyes snapped open as he turned back to the altar.
His breath caught.
The stone platform stood empty but the candles still burned. The threads carved into the pedestal remained.
But the statue—
Gone.
Moira was gone.