A/N: Making their way down the road of life~

  -x-X-x-

  pared to their flight from Amberwell, their travel on the road over the couple days is positively uful… and quiet. Awkwardly quiet. Its not like Sophia WAhis to happen or anything… but they didly have need of horses up in the Heavens. The Heavens weren’t nearly as big as the Mortal Pnes were, and even for the parts that were somewhat far away on foot, one could usually just will themselves there with a simple burst of divine power. No mounts necessary.

  Fortunately, the stable master had a rather rge stallion to sell them, on top of a saddle made for two people. It wasly cheap… but Oren had made quite a lot of off of betting her, so they were set all the same. And it robably still cheaper than two saddled horses would have been.

  Still, there was definitely something a little awkward about riding behind Oren as they made their way down the road through the rest of the day before stopping and making camp for the night… followed by more travel on horseback the day. Sometimes Oren would hop down and just lead the horse by the reins while letting her occupy the saddle by herself, but most of the time she just had to suck it up.

  … She retty sure going off of stories she’d read that usually the passenger went in the front of the rider when two people were riding a horse, but as previously mentioned, it wasn’t like she had any firsthand knowledge of such things… nor did she necessarily want to kick up a fuss. Not wheill found herself pting the events ba town.

  Sophia was starting to feel like she might have judged Oren too harshly. He really did have her best is at heart, and more than that… he wasn’t nearly as bloodthirsty as she’d been taught to expect from Otherworlders. Sure, there was the wanton sughter of those God Hunters back when they’d first met, but even there he’d tried to show mercy. And it wasn’t like he’d taken any pleasure in the killiher. He’d been dht stoic as he slew each of her hunters.

  That was all to say… she fave him, even if she had yet to say it out loud. She fave him for betting her in the card game with Gentleman Grays, and she alsave him for being so forward as to grab her and leap out of a window with his hand c her mouth. All things sidered, he’d made the right call and they’d escaped without anyone else needing to die. That had to t for something, right?

  However, just as Sophia is starting to develop something of a good mood te into their sed day of travel… it’s like the universe itself is stepping in to correct her. As though the os are saying “no, no you fool… you don’t get to have hings.”

  They e upon it he tail end of the day. Just as the sun is setting over the horizon. Buildings in the distance. When Sophia first sees them, she perks up a little iement. Maybe they won’t have to make a camp tonight, maybe they’ll actually get to sleep in normal beds.

  With her arms holding Oren from behind so she doesn’t fall off the damn horse and break her neck, Sophia feels him stiffen up wheices the vilge too. But she doesn’t uand what his rea really means at the time. Instead, she makes something of a fool of herself.

  “Looks like we might get to sleep in a real bed tonight, Oren!”

  “… I wouldn’t be soddess.”

  Blinking, Sophia only be fused until they finally get close enough for her to pick up what his far better eyes were able to see from leagues away. The buildings that remain standing are bed and half-burnt down. The vilge, in fact, starts a lot further out than she inally thought… but the outskirts have been pletely reduced to ash, only the barest remains of rui behind to signify that structures oood there.

  The road ges from dirt to soot in short measure, with Oren keeping them going even as they ehe burnt out husk of a town. From the look of things, the pce was burnt down weeks ago. Sophia doesn’t see any bodies… until they get deeper in and find the first pile. And then another. And another.

  The fires have burnt the corpse piles down to sm heaps of bone fragments and ash, but its still obvious what they are, especially when a half-charred skull peeks out of a mound here and there. Someone came here and put this entire vilge to the sword. They sughtered the inhabitants and then burhe corpses in a merary fashion to prevent the spread of disease. Then, they burned dowown toood measure.

  “W-Why… why would anyone do this?”

  “Religious differences, I suspect.”

  estures and Sophia stiffens up as she looks to where he’s pointing. With a choked cry, she all but flings herself off the horse, only really saved from a bad fall by rabbing her by the nape of her neck whearts to drop forward aing her down more carefully. The instant her feet hit the ground though, the Minoddess is off like a rabbit, darting forward as though getting there any faster will somehow save what’s already been desecrated and defiled for weeks.

  Finally reag her destination, Sophia drops to her knees in front of the half-ruiatue, sobbing as she reaches out for the pque beh it with trembling fingers. The statue itself has been broken beynition. Nothing above the waist remains, with the torso head and arms pletely removed and gone. Judging by the sheer amount of stone fragments around the base, someoook several hammers to it after it was broken off.

  The pque is vandalized as well, but not so much that Sophia ’t make out enough letters. Evehough… she would reize who the statue was supposed to be. Even if there was nothi, she would be able to feel it. Because beyond the ruiatue sits a stone building that was clearly the ter of this vilge, the pce where everyone gregated… a church.

  And not just a church but a church to her father Law, who the statue had clearly once represehe King of the Gods, worshipped by the inhabitants of this vilge for being a God of Justid Righteousness. The sort of deity that one could build aire society around, that one could look to and know what to do and what not to do under his aegis and his prote.

  … Except Law was dead. There was no more divine prote for his followers.

  “God Hunters must have e through. I see signs of a fight… the vilgers didn’t just give in or surrender. Maybe they were even offered a ce to renouheir god and refused it. And so they all died.”

  Sophia fli Oren’s somewhat emotionless depi of events. She see it… fuck, she see it all too easily. Her Father was an inspiration to so many. Both among the divine and among the mortals down here beh the Heavens. How could he not be? Law had ruled over Creation for thousands of years. He was GOOD. Those who followed him were simirly good.

  “It was my father… they worshipped Law in this vilge. And the God Hunters m-murdered them for it.”

  Even now, Sophia feel flickers of her father’s presen this pce. Its how she knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was a church to Law, and a unity that worshipped her father and followed his teags. And all of them had died for it. It just… it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t RIGHT.

  “… We keep going, if you like. Travel for another hour or two before making camp. We don’t have to stay here for the evening.”

  She reizes that Oren is trying to be kind. Frankly, Sophia is half-tempted to take him up on his offer. Roughing it for anht in the woods sounds preferable to staying here in a lot of ways. But… she ’t do it. They’ll have to move on in the m, she uands that much, but for tonight at least she o be here.

  “N-No… no, we’ll stay here for the night if that’s okay. In… in the church.”

  Oren hums his firmation… and that’s that.

  -x-X-x-

  As it turns out, the church is just as ruined as the rest of the vilge. The walls were made of stone, but the roof was not. From the outside, the church looked retively intact. But the inside… well, the roof is colpsed inwards obviously, and the first few bdes of grass are already starting to grow in the dirt and ash where the ceiling is open to the sky.

  They wind up making camp anyways, just with the stone walls of the church surrounding them instead of trees and wilderness. Sitting there by the campfire uhe moon and stars overhead, Sophia stares into the crag fmes and swallows thickly. Finally, she breaks her silence.

  “Oren… what do you believe the differeween justid vengeance is?”

  There’s a long pause before Oren finally answers her.

  “… Where I e from, justice was supposed to be about fairness and impartiality. It was supposed to be unbiased… about what was actually right rather than what felt right in the moment. In parison… vengeance would be about retaliation and personal retribution. About letting your feelings get the better of you. My world’s greatest philosophers would say vengeanly promoted cycles of violence. A very on phrase back where I came from was ‘an eye for an eye will make the whole wo blind’.”

  It takes Sophia a moment to parse the unfamiliar quote. An eye for an eye, meaning equal retribution doled out for every bad thing doo you. But when taken to its logical extreme… she supposed she saw the logic. Say your father was killed by another man. And so you kill that man. But then his daughter es after you. And your broes after her. And her son goes after your brother.

  Cycles of violence, yes. But…

  “What do YOU believe though? Don’t think I didn’t notice you never actually said you agreed with any of that.”

  Oren smiles slightly at being caught out, though its gone in a fsh. If Sophia didn’t know aer, she would have thought the Otherworlder didn’t wao like him or something. N-Not that she DID like him… he was just a means to an end, ultimately.

  Finally his hesitation passes and Oren sighs.

  “… I think in a lot of cases, justice fails. Nobody is perfed justice, as a whole, is a system that must be perpetuated by imperfect people. There’s going to be mistakes. Fuck ups, if you will. That’s why I think there are times when vengeance picks up where justice leaves off. When justice fails… vengeance is icks up the sck.”

  Sophia… liked that. Or rather, she wao like it. By her father’s name did she want to like it. It spoke to a dark part of her, a small kernel of hatred and anger and grief that had only been growing sihat day in the Heavens when she lost everything. A, she ot ignore her domains. She’s a Minoddess of Wisdom after all, and that part of her is screaming that Oren’s words are not that wise.

  … But they are rather fair in a way, araitorous part of her whispers. Her Domain of Wisdom is quite certain of itself in this matter. Justice is good, vengeance is bad. The end. But her Domain of Equity is a lot less sure of things. On the one hand, its like Oren said, justice is supposed to be about fairness and impartiality.

  Oher hand, it’s like Oren also said… sometimes justice fails. Sometimes those who are meant to uphold justice do not succeed. Sometimes… sometimes the God of Justice is killed unjustly in his throne room by a monster.

  Sophia’s hands curl upon themselves so tightly that her knuckles whiten and her fists shake as she digs her nails into her palm. Her chest is tight with emotion for a moment… until she feels a featherlight brush against her cheek and along the back of her neck. Gasping and jolting up onto her feet, Sophia looks around with wide eyes, even as Oren immediately rises as well, his hand on the pommel of his sword as he looks around to.

  “What? What is it?”

  She blushes when she realizes what happened. Shaking her head, she sits back down.

  “My father. Or at least, the fading remnants of his presence here. I felt him for the briefest of moments. Even as fragments of his power, he tries to e.”

  A smile lifts Sophia’s lips upwards… but it does not reach her eyes as she looks at Oren with uears.

  “I think you are right, Oren. Sometimes justice does fail. And sometimes when that happens, its up to vengeao take the reins.”

  Looking vaguely nonplused, the Otherworlder shifts bad forth on his feet for a moment before sitting back down as well.

  “I suppose, yes.”

  His response is quiet and uain, but Sophia doesn’t pay it much attentiohoughts are already onto other things… bigger things. Survival is still her priority. She o make it to her refuge, to stay ahead of the God Hunters and find a pce where she finally recharge her divine power without fear of being hunted down and caught in the process.

  … But even once she’s fully empowered again, Sophia is forced to aowledge that she’s not a fighter. She won’t be sughtering God Hunters by the dozens any time soon, and she’s certainly not going to be able to storm the Heavens and face the God Killer if he’s still up there. At least, not if she wao have any hope of survival, anyways.

  Ahat doesn’t really matter does it? Because for all that Sophia is not a fighter… she has oh her now. A mate batant with limitless potential and enough training and strength to both fight when he has to fight and evade his enemies when he does not have to.

  The God Killer took everything from her. There be no justice when the Heavens staied, coated in the blood of her father and the rest of her kin.

  But vengeance… vengeance was still possible. And what better way to end an Otherworlder… than with aherworlder?

  -x-X-x-

  A/N: Oren: "I just need her not to get attached or find out I'm the God Killer."

  Sophia: "I just o cozy up to him so he'll sy the God Killer for me!"

  Womp womp. As always, leave a Like and be sure to let me know what you think!

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