Chapter Fifty Nine
1520 Words
I never expected that Kentan would be defeated by mortals. I always thought that deities like us were invincible. We are formidable in battle because we can summon nature when we need it and use it against our enemies. So I never would have thought that Kentan... the proud deity of the sea, would fall into the hands of those ship-sailing mortals.
"Those were pirates," Ova told me. She's one of the leaders of my Gypsies, and she was the one leading the chant that helps me wake up from being unconscious. I woke up three days after the incident and they brought me here in my home so that they could nourish me back to health and heal my wounds.
"Pirates?"
Ova nodded. "Those were pirates roaming the seas in this region, though they are widely known in other areas too. They come here once in a while because a lot of them originated from here."
"So that's why they were there at the bay. They were returning here from their journey, I suppose?"
"That's right, my dear deity."
"But what are they, really?" I asked inquisitively. "They don't look like regular humans to me. They even managed to defeat Kentan. No ordinary mortal should have been able to pull that off."
"Oh, I guess that's because those pirates are used to fighting deities abroad. According to them, in some other kingdoms and in other regions, deities usually are pro-active when it comes to protecting their territories, so have knowledge on how to deal with them," she replied. But still did not convince me.
"But what did they do to defeat Kentan? Did the deity of the sea really got defeated just like that?"
"Those arrows that the pirates used are imbued with gold particles," Ova replied and that answered my question. "They learned from their journeys that deities get weakened when they are exposed to gold in places where they were born. And because that deity of the sea was born in Plumba, it weakened him when he got shot by those gold-imbued arrows."
"What? So that what has happened?" I could not hide my astonishment from what I heard from Ova. So there is a 'way' to kill us. And mortals already know about it!
"It was good that we were told that when you woke up, you instantly engaged in that battle to protect the kingdom of Aure, my dear deity. Then we learned that you went to Plumba to rescue the deity of winter who was being held captive by another deity, but we got suspicious that it was a trap to lure you there so we rushed to intercept you to stop you from going there. But of course, we failed to catch up with you. When we reached the bay, you were already sinking with the golden ship that those fools brought here together with that evil deity. We rescued you with the help of those pirates."
I could not comprehend what she just told me. "You mean to say, you were able to remove me from that ship made from gold? I could not even detach myself from it! It was like I was glued to it permanently!"
"That's what happens when you touch something that is pure gold in Plumba, my dear deity. It is where you were born, that is why you got totally weakened the moment your skin touched the golden ship."
"But how were you able to remove me from that ship?"
Ova smiled weakly as she answered my question. "We are mortals, my dear deity. So we were able to remove you from that golden ship."
I was speechless. So the mortals could do the thing that I could not do at that moment? It sounded so unreal. It sounded so ridiculous. It sounded so blasphemous. How could it be possible that mortals could do something that we can't? How is it possible that our weakness as deities are not also a weakness of the mortals when they are weaker than us?
I could not understand the logic behind all of these things. And there's more. The fact that these mortals actually know how to defeat us deities terrifies me. "Ova, can I ask you another question?"
"It would be my pleasure, my dear deity," she replied. "You can ask me anything you want to ask from me and I will try my best to answer them to my capabilities."
"This knowledge that you have about my weakness... about how to kill a deity, where did you get that information? And how long did you know about it?" I almost did not want to ask her that because what if she was planning to kill me? And now that I know that they have that knowledge to their advantage, what if my Gypsies decide to turn against me?
"I have known about how a deity gets weakened for quite some time already, my dear deity," she said slowly. There was no tension in her voice and somehow that calmed me a bit.
"You know it already? Even before that incident at the bay?"
She nodded. "My sister, who got too weak to continue serving you as part of the Luria, left our home and went on to Plumba to get treated there. She got well, but she did not return her anymore as one of us as she met a pirate who was born in Plumba and married him. They have now settled in the hills facing the ocean and have their own family. It was from that pirate that my sister learned about the nature of the deities and when we met years ago, my sister shared that knowledge with me."
My mouth was gaping open from this revelation. So I was right. They have been keeping this secret to themselves all this time. They have this knowledge uo to themselves while I don't even have a clue as to what was going on. I did not even know that we could get weakened when a deity is exposed to anything made from gold back there at Plumba. And yet, Ova here knew it all this time. The thought that she had kept it from me terrified me, but also comforted me. I did not know what to do with this new information.
"You don't have to worry about it, my dear deity. I have never shared that information with anyone else," she said to calm me. "Though I can't assure you that the others still don't know it already, if you want to keep it a secret like that. The fact that I obtained that information so easily means that others could have gotten the information too. There are a lot of pirates in Plumba, after all, and I assume that all of them knew about it already from their journeys abroad."
That was true. Even if Ova decided to keep that secret out of loyalty, it was not an assurance that everyone else doesn't know about it yet. And I understand why Ova kept it from me. She was scared that if she shared it with me back then, I would have killed her. She was afraid that I might kill anyone who knows about that piece of information, and I think I would have killed them back then if I did found it out.
But today, my opinion had changed. I don't need to silence Ova and anyone else who knows about that piece of information. All I have to do is to always alert myself and avoid lowering my guard down. I have to be conscious about anything that is made from gold, and that I will never set foot in Plumba once again. That would make it harder for anyone who wants to kill me to accomplish it.
Ova explained further why she decided to keep it to herself, and why she never mentioned it to me before. I was right in assuming that she just feared that I might kill her for learning about that, but also, she was not keen on spreading what seems to be just a rumor. Of course, for someone who is not a pirate, that kind of knowledge has yet to be proven to be true. So naturally, not everyone would believe that it might actually be true.
"What about Volo? What happened to him too?" I asked when I suddenly remembered that he was with me too. "Where is he?"
"The deity of winter is at now at the Palace," said Ova. "After we managed to save him, some Royal Guards from the Palace went to get him. They said that the King ordered it. And I forgot to tell you this, my dear deity, but the deity of winter has left you a message."
"What? What message?"
Ova gave me a piece of parchment. I opened it, and read what Volo wrote in there.
"Come see me at the palace if you want to learn about why Kentan wanted to kill us that badly," I said, reading the message aloud.
- Writer
