“I…my decision..”
Karan wanted to curse himself out for being this oblivious. Of course, Minerva had found out about his connections.
First of all, Minerva was a shrewd lady. It would be foolish of Karan to think of her as anything but cunning.
Then there was the fact that Minerva was the oldest goddess.
Being the oldest, she held a great advantage over everyone else. She had practically seen all the other gods and goddesses grow up and embrace their powers.
And then there was her intuition. It was unlike anything Karan had ever seen. She could just look at you and know your deepest, darkest desire.
Karan was about to answer her when he felt that happen.
The abyss erupted with power beneath their feet.
But that was not all. Somewhere in this tower, a great surge of power was converging. It felt like a curious mixture of the abyssal and bestial energy.
It almost felt like a divine power. But it was much stronger than Karan had ever felt before.
Had it not been for the small ray of familiar magic mixed in it, he would not even have known who that power belonged.
“That power? A new goddess? But there is something familiar about it? Was it the young woman who Astoria brought with her?”
It did not surprise Karan to know that Minerva had found out Aurora’s secret with just one glance.
But it did surprise him to know that Minerva remembered Aurora’s magic signature in just the first meeting.
“Did you know about it beforehand? Is that why you helped vouched for her?”
Minerva was asking questions now. Questions that made it hard for Karan to keep up with the conversation.
Did he know about Aurora’s power beforehand? Of course not.
In-face, he had not even known that it was Aurora that wanted to set up the academy. The resistance had not provided him with any such information.
Karan had just decided to help on a whim because he had seen Rex’s name on the report. That was all there was to it.
“Maybe I knew that about her. But why does it matter? Will you take the permission back now that you know about Aurora’s real nature?”
Karan had to be careful about his words and actions now.
Aurora was in a delicate situation and he did not want to make it any worse.
“If you want to lie, the at least practice your skills. I can see through your words easily enough.”
The jab hurt Karan. But Lady Minerva was not finished with her words.
“As for permission? I will have to think about that topic. But frankly speaking, I do not want to make an enemy of her if I can help it. Her power level looks to be on a similar scale to a high-goddess.”
This was good. It was better than good.
Since Minerva was conscious of Aurora and her power, she would not take any hasty decision. She would also not cause any problems for the academy.
“We need to stop Mei before she does something drastic.”
Now that one problem was dealt with, Karan could focus on the other side of things.
Mei was a powerful force of nature but she was not without flaws. She was hot-headed and easy to distract.
Karan had to believe that Aurora could take care of herself and had somehow gotten away from the calamity goddess.
“That we shall do. But we are not done with you yet. Whatever your reasons were, you still tried to help traitors. We need to take action so that the news doesn’t spread.”
Karen cursed his twisted fate and Lady Minerva’s insight.
He would not have minded getting his reputation tarnished. It was something he was used to in a normal situation.
But now the situation involved the tower and Minerva’s subordinates. She would be a bitch about everything being proper.
It was better to indulge her and to be on her good side.
After all, the resistance was counting on Karan to get the inside information and plant their moles. He could not leave the resistance hanging on his end.
“What do you want me to do about it?”
Karan already had an idea of what he would be asked to do. It could not be anything public since it would defeat the whole purpose of keeping things quiet.
But it would not be something small this time either.
“Take a voe to be on the tower’s side for the next sixth months I won’t ask any more of you but this much you will have to do.”
Minerva’s words caused Karan to groan in irritation.
Six months was not a lot of time in terms of gods and goddesses. But it was enough to reinforce the image Minerva was trying to set up.
Taking a voe would mean that Karan would be powerless against Minerva’s and the tower’s orders.
But not taking it would also put him at odds with Minerva and the tower.
And while he did not care about what happened to himself, he did care about what happened to his fellow clan members and those under his command.
“Fine. But only six months. And I will not take any action against that new academy or the resistance. Do not try to use me to deal with them.”
Karan laid his terms down.
Under natural scenarios, there was no way a god would be called down to handle such matters. It fell to the soldiers.
But Karan was not going to take any risks.
“Alright. I understand. And I was not going to ask you to do ant’s works anyway. Now let go and find Mei.”
Lady Minerva was a hard lady to please. But Karan could not help but feel like he had gotten away with something huge.
The pair found Lady Mei almost about to jump down the broken window.
“Well, fuck it. You don’t get to escape me like that. I will follow after you for my match.”
But before the goddess could make her decisive jump, Lady Minerva interfered and stopped her actions.
“That is enough damage you caused. We can’t afford to lose you right now Lady Mei. You need to calm down and listen to me.”
Lady Mei looked like she was pouting. It felt wrong to see that expression on the face of someone so old. (That was all in his mind. Lady Mei looked 21 in age.)
“B-But they got away. I need to pay them back for this humiliation.”
Lady Mei looked pissed but so did Lady Minerva.
“Mei, don’t cause problems. You will get your chance to face that goddess and dragon in the future once we secure them as allies. Don’t make matters worse for us. We can’t give Lord Alan such a strong ally.”
Lord Alan was the god who had deserted the cabinet and formed the resistance. He had been too in disgust to see where the tower was headed and had made his decision.
Karan had never actually seen him but he was the second oldest god alive.
Legends said that his power was unbeatable but he had suffered an injury that made him unable to fight.
“You should understand this. There are 4 of us and three deserters in the cabinet. We cannot make the odds 4 vs 4.”
Lady Mei finally calmed down.
Lady Minerva did have a point in her words. And if she suspected Karan as well, it would be even worse odds stacked against her.
“But the other three don’t get along while we do. Won’t we win if we attack them now?”
Lady Mei pouted as she spoke those words.
Karan took a step away from Minerva. The eldest looked like she was about to explode.
“Mei, behave and don’t make things difficult for me. The damage control I will need to do is massive enough as it is.”
And there went all the chances of peace Karan could have. Now he had to deal with an angry and annoyed Minerva on top of all the questions his subordinates would ask.
‘I am so fucked. Why did I think helping the resistance was a good choice?’
==========================
They were falling down.
They were falling down fast and would hit the ground at any moment.
Astoria had already lost consciousness due to her lack of energy and Aurora was no better at the moment.
Aurora’s magic was all over the place. It was lashing out and she could not even control it to slow her fall.
They were about to hit the ground and the fall would hurt, if not outright kill them.
Aurora wanted to live. She wanted to live and bring Astoria back home.
She wanted to live and make the tower suffer for all it had done to her and her previous life.
She wanted to live and come back to those who loved her. She still had things left to do after all.
And her magic responded to her honest wishes and slowed her fall.
It still hurt when Aurora touched the ground but she did not break her spine.
But Aurora could not stop her consciousness from fading.
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