MATED TO THE SECRET ALPHA-Chapter 242: Aethera Is Sick

"The Celestial Palace sends a messenger!" a voice boomed from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

"A messenger? What for? Shouldn’t High Goddess Aethera be here instead?" murmurs broke out from the audience, hissing and circling like wind through reeds.

Aethera’s absence at her own final trial was unthinkable — until now. Even among the divine, such audacity was rare.

But the deities held their tongues. For now.

"Let them in," said Varyn, Orbiter of Oath, his voice a binding cord over the murmurs. "Truth stands tallest when heard whole."

The space at the center of the marble platform rippled like disturbed water. Light bent, curled inward — and from it emerged a young woman floating inches above the ground. She wore a flowing dress of soft sky-blue, embroidered with white crescent moon and ancient runes that shimmered faintly with lunar energy. Her hair floated as if underwater, and her eyes — a calm shade of silver — held no fear as hundreds of divine eyes bore down on her.

She bowed low, the edges of her dress flaring like petals.

"I greet the gathered divinity," she said clearly, her voice melodious and unhurried. "I am Lysara of the Wind Veil, voice of the Celestial Palace, and personal courier of the Moon Seat. I come bearing the word of Divine Healer Salith and the Moon Seat."

A weighted silence followed. Even the gods who typically scoffed at ceremonies sat straighter.

Lysara lifted her chin. "Acting Moon Goddess Aethera shall not attend this trial."

Gasps and snarls echoed around the arena.

Varyn’s eyes narrowed. "On what grounds?"

Lysara’s gaze remained steady. "She is... unwell."

That word –unwell– rippled across the gathered immortals like a slap.

"She dares to stand us up?!"

"How brazen!"

"She needs a better excuse!"

The outraged voices of minor and supreme deities clashed like steels. Yet, some were still stunned. Blatantly avoiding trial was unheard of.

Well, the only one capable of that shenanigan was the demon god. But even he knew to be deceptive about it, not act with such impetus.

Varyn did not move. "Speak clearly, courier. What manner of affliction bars her from standing before the Wheel?"

Lysara did not flinch. "Acting Goddess Aethera has been struck with Umbracite."

Gasp!

Eyes widened.

The deities were beyond stunned and still.

The marble beneath the gods trembled slightly. That word had not been uttered in ages.

Umbracite.

A corruption created by the first demon god to avoid trial. It is a mind-sickness. A poison that twists a deity’s mind. If an afflicted deity stood before the Wheel of Truth while under the influence of umbracite, the verdict would be void — because the afflicted mind could not discern truth from self-deception.

"Impossible," Helios snapped like a wire pulled taut. Flames of fury seethed behind his eyes. "That curse hasn’t touched the skies since the Binding Era!"

"A convenient lie," another spat. "Or worse, a deliberate infection to avoid trial! "

"It’s a stall," muttered another god. "She fears the verdict."

Lysara let the storm of accusations wash over her, standing silent until the wave passed. Then she spoke again, unwavering.

"The corruption is real. Confirmed by Divine Healer Salith himself, under oath, before the Celestial Flame."

That silenced even Helios for a moment. The man was so furious, he almost drew his weapon. He should have known that Aethera would do something like this. But unfortunately, he didn’t think that the seemingly innocent-looking, elegant, and poised goddess was capable of such cunningness.

All heads turned sharply to the far left of the circle.

There, leaning lazily on a pillar, was the source of that damage; Demon god, Vaurenox.

He was all black silk and crimson smoke, eyes like molten ruby and a grin carved from wickedness. He gave a theatrical sigh and raised a jeweled hand lazily.

"Truly... the amount of attention I attract," he drawled, his voice velvet and poison. "I haven’t done anything. Recently."

"You mean to say you didn’t give Aethera the Umbracite Affliction?" Lady Seraphae asked, her voice sharp and crystalline.

Vaurenox shrugged, his smile tilting dangerously. "Oh, I give many things, darling high goddess of judgement. Curses, dreams, kisses, weapons, riddles. If someone knocks on my door and begs for a taste of shadow, who am I to deny them?"

A collective snarl vibrated through the crowd.

Helios growled from his position, his golden cloak ablaze in the ethereal light. "So she came to you."

"Did I say that?" Vaurenox’s eyes gleamed. "I said if. Maybe she stumbled. Maybe she sought me out. But then, she’s imprisoned, no?" He tilted his head to the side. "I didn’t see the likes of her in my halls. Not recently, anyway."

"You taint her and delay the judgment!" Helios snapped, voice like a storm on steel. "This is treachery!"

"And yet," Vaurenox mused, pushing off the pillar, his form towering and elegant, "you cannot prove a single thing. Aethera is ill. Her mind is compromised. And we all know that the Wheel cannot pass judgment on a broken soul. It requires clarity."

"Enough riddling," Varyn’s voice cracked like thunder, stilling even the wind-deities. "Did you infect her?"

Vaurenox gave a dramatic sigh, placing a hand to his chest as though wounded. "You wound me, Varyn. Truly. Must we always assume the worst? Perhaps, somehow, she merely wandered too close to the Hollow. Perhaps the corruption drifted to her on its own. I am but a humble god of shadows. Shadows go where they please."

"You lie," Helios barked. "You’ve always been a corrupter. And now you seek to twist the Wheel itself?"

"Oh please," Vaurenox drawled, examining his black-crimson claws as if they were far more interesting than the accusations flying his way. "Twisting the Wheel would take far more effort than I care to spend on your political theatre. Besides, wasn’t it you all who left Aethera unsupported, in a prison to REFLECT?" He nodded slowly, "she did a lot of reflecting, I must agree. What a poor soul." He sighed.

"Watch your tongue, demon," Lady Seraphae said coldly.

"I always do," he replied, baring his teeth. "And Aethera did too. Until it slipped."

A heavy silence followed.

Lysara took a step forward, breaking it.

"As dictated by sky law, no divine trial may proceed while the accused is under the influence of a mind-altering corruption. The Wheel itself would reject her testimony. The trial must be postponed."

"She planned this," Helios muttered. "Crafted it like a weapon."

"Maybe," Vaurenox said, almost cheerfully. "Or maybe it’s a gift from the gods she replaced. You remember her, Helios, don’t you? The one who bled so nicely when you took her flower for the first time? Or did she bleed like the mortal girls do?"

"Shut your mouth, Vaurenox!" Sun god thundered, but Vaurenox merely rolled his eyes and leaned back on the pillar, like he was done wasting his energy, talking.

Varyn raised a hand.

The air went still.

"This court will not descend into slander and speculation," he said, and his voice left no room for argument. "We abide by law. The evidence presented is binding. The trial of High Goddess Aethera is hereby suspended until her mind is restored to divine clarity."

Several deities rose in protest, but they did not dare speak against the Orbiter of Oath directly.

Vaurenox stretched languidly, like a cat satisfied with the chaos it had sparked. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Lysara bowed again. "The Moon Seat will inform the court when the purification rites are complete."

With a shimmer of light, she vanished.

Helios shot a hateful glare at Vaurenox. "One of these days, I’m going to carve your soul out from your chest and feed it to the Flame."

Vaurenox didn’t blink. He smiled, slow, sharp, and deeply entertained.

"Promises, promises," he purred. "But we both know how poor you are at keeping them, Helios. Ask your last lover. Or the one before that." He lifted two elegant fingers, counting lazily. "Or was it three?"

Suddenly, with a deep growl, a golden spear blazed into being in Helios’s hand with a crack of thunder and light.

But before he could move, a dozen sigils sparked in the air –ancient, celestial bindings– and locked around his wrists and ankles like chains of starlight.

The wheel of truth spun, a yellow dome with sigils flashed, then dimmed.

It was a warning.

The place was sacred, no fights are allowed.

"Enough," said Varyn again, the word cutting cleaner than any blade.

The gods fell silent.

The Wheel, ever ancient and impartial, loomed behind the Orbiter like an eye that could not close.

"Let the record show that this court is adjourned until the Moon Seat reports Divine Clarity. Until then," he turned his gaze to the gathered deities, "none shall interfere with the purification process. Any violation of this decree shall be met with unmaking."

Even Vaurenox, the trouble-seeking villain, raised his brows at that.

Varyn’s eyes swept the circle. "Does anyone contest?"

Silence.

Even the minor gods, who had begun whispering again, shut their mouths.

"Then let it be known," Varyn declared, the marble beneath him glowing in threads of oaths woven into the stone. "Aethera remains neither condemned nor absolved. She is to be protected under divine neutrality until healed."

Helios turned away sharply, teeth clenched, fury radiating off him in heatwaves. But he did not speak again.

As the gods began to disperse. Some vanishing in streaks of color and light, others walking solemnly from the ring. Vaurenox remained where he stood, smiling to himself.

He turned his gaze upward, past the sky of shifting constellations, toward something beyond the known sky.

"Time to see what she does by herself now," he murmured, then chuckled, almost to himself.