It was complete silence inside the carriage; no one dared to speak a word, not even her. Her brother and teacher looked to be furious; it was frightening.

She didn't know what happened. But her teacher suddenly said that they were going back to the Blue Rose, but didn't tell her the reason.

She was happy that she was finally going home, where she didn't have to worry about surviving to the next day, where everyone adored her, and where she could continue to grow at the academy with her friends. And where she could finally challenge that book.

She looked out of the window, seeing how the people of the Withered weirdly came together to watch them leave with happy smiles on their faces. She didn't think they did anything bad while they were here, so it was strange to see.

Her teacher seemed to be even more enraged seeing this sight, Keres too.

She wondered what was going on inside her master's head at the moment. She could never guess what he wanted to do, what he was thinking.

...

She was going to miss the Withered... while it wasn't the best place, and she was moments away from death many times, probably. She had met many cool people in this place, like Lyra, Riven, and...

Aether.

He was such a mysterious person, someone from he same class as her yet so much stronger and smarter. While she understood the former, she was supposed to be more cunning; after all, she was of the Blue Rose, she had gotten an education, while he hadn't.

He was someone who seemed to be really close to his friends, not letting them behind, like the time he refused to conquer a book together. It had broken her heart that he didn't allow her to know how the chocolate river tasted, but still.

Maybe it's because of the little things she knew about the Withered, that was why he was so mysterious in his eyes, because they didn't look at the same world. They didn't breathe the same air, and they didn't hear the same sounds.

Their lives were like the two opposite sides of a coin.

And yet, if she were to compare him to someone like Orion, a boy from the Blue Rose, who was trained to protect her and only her... There is a part of her who would say that Aether was stronger, or if not stronger, smarter.

What she wanted to say was that there was doubt in her mind that Orion could beat Aether in a battle. And if Orion, a Knight, couldn't, then no other reader could. Well, maybe one with a high Knowledge rank, but good luck even getting to echo, he doubted even Aether had reached the echo rank.

Of course, there was still someone she could name who was a reader and could beat him.

...

But was it correct to compare a normal reader to one who is the Vessel of a God?

'Well, not really, but I also compared myself to him, and I'm also the Vessel of a God.'

But it wasn't the same, since while she was a reader and a vessel, her affinity, path, and abilities were made to fight, not to break others, but bless them instead. But while... for him, everything that was given to him by the Codex was meant for destruction.

The strongest of all the vessels, or at least that she knew of. So far, there were five, and she hoped it was going to be that way.

...

Praise, Fallen, Fate, Freedom... and Abyss. Those were the five names of the gods; well, the Abyss was also called the Forgotten, or Chaos for Fallen. There were many names. But, while each god had a name, the names of the Gods aren't known by all. Well, Praise was pretty much known by most, since she blessed their kingdom. The public didn't really know how the order of God's names was. But rather, they were told others' names.

The World Above was Praise. She was given this name to show how she was on a different level than they, watching them from above and blessing them.

String Maker, fate, it was probably the most straightforward name, but so hidden at the same time, since most didn't know its powers. The Strings of Fate, that was how she liked to call this God. And how it was given this fake name in the first place.

The One Lost from The Path... Freedom, it was a hard name to understand. Someone who walks one who has gotten lost from the path of fate, and walks his own road, without anyone to decide where he should turn or stop. That was the meaning behind his name.

The World Below, Fallen, someone who was evicted from a higher world, and got sent down into the void. The Fallen is the representation of chaos, which is where it got its second name, only known by higher nobles, of course. The complete opposite of Praise, which is why it got this name.

But now, after learning about the Abyss, she didn't know what to think of it. Until now, it seemed as if each god had a pole opposite, Freedom with Fate, and Praise with Fallen. But Forgotten appeared out of nowhere, which made her wonder if there was a sixth; that way, it could also have a pair. Yet at the same time, she felt as if Praise was more different from Forgotten than Fallen.

From what she knew about at least.

It didn't help that they were the Vessels she spent the least time with. She hadn't even met the Abyss, and she had talked to Fallen once. So it was hard to draw a conclusion.

Either way, she didn't think the Abyss had a fake name, because its identity is supposed to be a secret, so why would someone bother with making a name?

She sighed, looking out of the window, annoyed that she couldn't come up with anything. She watched the others outside the Window.

...Iris wanted to see if she could find Aether in the crowd, maybe saying goodbye, but he was nowhere to be seen. Which made her wonder what was going on.

Where was he?

...

...

"Shit!" Aether quickly sacrificed his palm, grabbing the sword thighly by the blade, and blocking the incoming pierce that had been going straight to his heart after he had been caught unbalanced.

He had underestimated his opponent, ironically, knowing that inside Frozen Crown, he had killed all the Knights using the same method. He had been attacked by another clone, or at least that was what he thought, as now, he realized that this was the real deal.

It would seem as if he was in trouble... if he wasn't waiting for this in the first place.

"Now!"

Suddenly, a boy came out of the shadows, his red hair was the same as the crimson eye inside the sky, and yet, his own eyes were of a more violet color. As if they held a whole galaxy inside them, with solar systems and comets all over them.

The Priest noticed him, but it was too late, as the boy had already wrapped his arms around his neck and brought him to the ground.

'Good luck getting out.'

The boy's affinity made him physically stronger whenever he was hated by others, yet his bane made it hard for others to hate him... but in this world, it didn't matter; all that everyone cared about was the mark on your hand.

Plus, it wasn't like the boy was a Reader, no, he was a Seeker.

...

Aether quickly regained himself, letting go with his second hand, glancing at the cuts left on his hand, they were bleeding, and hurting a lot, but he had more important things to do.

This bastard had been chasing him for so long now, and it wasn't only him; everyone who had a dim mark. They were hunted... for purification, he learned this from Jay, the boy he met that day on the street, and his now best friend for the moment.

This purification... wasn't what you would think... but rather something worse. The holy church, which managed the Sanctum and the Heartforge, captured those who saw the true world and fed them to the Heartforge to make the illusion stronger, to create the world that everyone who is blind sees.

Aether gripped his blade tighter, suddenly angered. He brought his blade to the head of the Priest, Jay making space so he cut his head off, but did not let him go.

Yet as he was about to do it, the priest finally spoke.

"Wait!... Who is your God, who do you serve? Back at the castle, you spoke of him."

That was the last thing he wanted to learn about. What did he want to leave this cult and join the Abys... well, the Abyss wasn't so good to its own members. But he could at least grant this request.

..."The Abys-"

Actually, he would rather not say its real name, even if this was just a book.

...

"Fallen Eden"

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