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  Sylfic

  Ascension #2

  Kenna Bardot & Tove Madigan

  Copyright © 2020 Kenna Bardot & Tove Madigan

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Cover design by: Kenna Bardot & Tove Madigan

  Printed in the United States of America

  Disclaimer

  Sylfic is the second book in a reverse harem bully trilogy where humans serve the Descendants of the Gods. It features dark, dubious scenarios that may offend some readers and may be triggering, as well as graphic content including m/f, m/m, and group scenarios. Please read at your own discretion.

  About the Authors

  Kenna lives in her tiny house with her husband and two rambunctious hellions (under five) who she adores. When she’s not chasing all three of them and her shepherd/husky mix around the house, she spends all her free time writing and adding to the hoard of plots stored on her bookshelf and hard-drive.

  Kenna always wanted to write, and did from the time she was 10 when she wrote her first full-length fantasy novel. The subject matter has changed over the years, but that passion for writing never went away. She has a degree in Psychology, and prior to having her kids she worked as a therapist using horses in her treatment strategy and working with adults and kids with disabilities.

  A full-time mom with her eldest about to start preschool, four days before the release of Kenna's debut novel InkSpelled, Kenna is making a go of making a living from the real passion that has haunted her all her life.

  Tove has always had a passion for writing but it started with non-fiction. She was editor of her school paper and wrote heavily for the yearbook committee as well. This funneled into a love for short stories that were entered into contests and, eventually, to the wonderful world of fanfiction.

  Tove never thought she'd write as a career but Kenna, who is the yin to her yang, has been the best foil to her insecurities and weaknesses and now she has embraced the darkness, the insanity and, yes, the depravity with nothing but pleasure.

  Ten years ago, Kenna & Tove met on an online graphic-design community when they were 19-year-olds. Though they’ve never met in person and live on opposite sides of the world, they’ve talked mostly daily since then. Now 30, they’re using those graphic-design skills they honed in a new way and making their own book covers.

  Full circle, right?

  Glossary

  Core Gods: The four original Gods

  Zeevar: God of Death & Reincarnation

  Rhiannon: Goddess of Life

  Caprice: Goddess of Emotion

  Anselm: God of the Physical

  Descendants: Children of the Gods

  Sylfes: Middle step in the Ascension process where humans who pass the Challenge are granted longevity and ethereal beauty.

  Godsvail Academy: Where the Descendants are sent at age 7 to learn and prove themselves worthy of God status.

  Sylfeshire: Where the Sylfes live

  Mt. Demiorgo: Where the Gods live

  12 Houses of Mt. Demiorgo

  Northern Houses - Moons

  Tovenaar: Necromancy

  Kald: Cold/Ice

  Vide: Pain/Mute

  Eastern Houses - Lightning

  Byta: Shapeshifters

  Tempestas: Weather

  Leven: Life/Healing

  Southern Houses – Suns

  Svadeni: Seduction

  Sutre: Heat/Fire

  Springen: Warp

  Western Houses – Stars

  Majele: Poisons

  Nastroj: Emotional Manipulation

  Karfi: Strength/Invulnerability

  Prologue

  Five years ago

  My feet carried me up the elaborate, etched steps at the base of Mt. Demiorgo. Despite the central location, Sylfeshire was a paradise carved into sandstone. Filmy white sheer curtains hung in the windows, billowing in the balmy air that surrounded the luxurious house. To someone like me with bones used to thriving in the cold, the air felt hot on my skin. I imagined the Gods wouldn't be pleased if Sylfeshire were too cold for the Sylfes to wear the sheer and silk fabrics they were constantly adorned in.

  My feet were bare against the tile as I reached the landing at the top of the stairs, feeling the cool porcelain sink into my arches as the sheer fabric of my dress fluttered around me and tickled the tops of my toes. I could feel Colm at my back, giving me the time I needed to take those final steps into my new reality, waiting for me to take my future in my own hands and let go of the past.

  My human past. Behind me was my family, the people I’d said goodbye to but still loved with all my heart. The life I’d lived in Godsvail, however brief, was just a memory as I stepped forward into the start of my immortal life.

  With a deep breath, I stepped up the stairs that led to the grand entrance built into the low stone wall that surrounded the building. Colm placed a hand on my shoulder in silent support, and I wanted nothing more than to sink into the touch. Not for sex, but purely for the sake that he was the only person who was remotely familiar in my new life.

  "Before you formally enter Sylfedom and make that vow, you can make a choice. You can be whoever you wish to be here. Many forsake their human names and choose an entirely new identity as they reinvent themselves in the shadow of the Gods," he murmured, as we passed through the main gate and into what looked like a huge garden littered with benches, beautiful trees and luscious bushes and flowers.

  I nodded but said nothing as he urged me to follow him down the cobbled path and towards the grand building that was Sylfeshire. Windows wrapped around it and gave an impression of light and brightness. At the center, a grand marble fountain filled the space with the peaceful sound of running water. But even that wasn't enough to soothe me against the feeling of eyes on me.

  Gods looked, eyes bored but curious. Sylfe females who looked like me and dressed like me, eyed me with curiosity and not a little bitterness. I was competition. Male Sylfes with teal hair and eyes where we had pink, swathed in silk that barely covered their torso, looked on with interest.

  It was a sensation that caused me great discomfort when I should have been used to it. They stared at me like fresh meat once again.

  I thought over Colm's words, wondering if I should take the opportunity he presented. Give myself a new identity, a fresh start, but to do so would be to erase everything I'd lived through. To do so would erase my family and the men I loved enough to vow to wait for.

  "I can't be anyone but who I am," I whispered even as my heart thundered in my chest. "And I wouldn't want to be anyone else, at any rate." We left the lush garden to enter the building, stepping from the cobble and grass onto cool marble. He veered to the left and to a great room that I saw also connected, through another entrance, to the gardens that we just left by a pathway made of thick glass.

  "Mireyah it is then." He smiled at me proudly, appearing satisfied with my decision. "I'd have been disappointed if you'd chosen to forsake the reputation you so painstakingly crafted for yourself at Godsvail. There will come a day when another Sylfe comes, and I will be quite surprised if he or she does not tell the tale of the great Mireyah Bolstad who turned Godsvail on its head."

  I huffed a laugh, knowing that by then everyone would have forgotten me. I didn’t care. I only hoped that my men didn't forget me nor forget one another and the bond we'd forged with pain and joy. He reached out a hand and
gave me a tiny chest to hold. “That is your Sylfe vow. You may look upon it, but you cannot touch whatever is inside more than once. I advise you not inspect it until you make it to your room.”

  A warmth seemed to encase me, flooding my inside with sensation and for a moment it was so overwhelming it was like I couldn’t breathe. Then it was gone, and everything felt normal once again. As he stared at me, I nodded, running a finger down the smooth lid of the chest I held in my hands.

  “Okay then.” He led the way, and we walked out of the spacious room of glass and gilt and walked towards a slightly less luxurious part of Sylfeshire. I wanted to ask questions. Wanted to know why I wasn't already besieged with curious Gods, but Colm didn't make me ask the questions dancing in my head. "Now that you are officially a Sylfe, Mireyah, you will learn that it is a journey you undertake in very specific steps. You aren't ready for the Gods just yet. Only Mother Caprice herself can deem you ready for such an honor as the Sire bond. This is the final step."

  I nodded, feeling relief at the proclamation. For a time at least, I would be free of the pressures and demands of those in a class above me, and life as a Sylfe would give me more rights than they had afforded me as a human. "So what do I do in the meantime?" I asked as we stepped down a hallway where magenta-haired female Sylfes and teal-haired male ones loitered about. Through doors left open, Sylfes also sat or stood around. Things seemed centered on self.

  Making the self better, making sure you presented yourself in the best light. It didn’t truly make sense to me when all were beautiful, ethereal in the way Sylfes had, so much so that everything blended together.

  "The emphasis of Sylfeshire, while we encourage carnal relations, is to find your mate based on a soul-bond and not solely a physical attraction. After all, with a place that houses great beauty, a physical attraction is easy to foster."

  "I understand, but if I'm not to interact with the Gods yet, then what am I to do with myself?"

  "You learn, Mireyah. You prepare yourself for the day that Caprice deems you worthy of the Sire bond, and you find peace within yourself so that one day your mate may also find his peace within you as well. The body of a Sired mate soothes a God’s troubled soul, but it can also offer you a feeling of completion that you’ll not find anywhere else." He stopped in front of a closed door which he threw open and gestured me inside.

  I nodded, as if any of that made sense, and it drew a chuckle from the Svadeni master of Sylfeshire. "This is your room. You deserve to rest, for you’ve had a very long day. One day, you'll understand the gravity of a Sire bond."

  The rest of the words were unspoken but rang clear, regardless.

  One day, but not today.

  Chapter 1

  Mireyah

  I re-positioned my body on the lounge at the center of the glass-encased viewing room on the second level. It was far removed from the Gods but gave them a view regardless as the floors were made of a clear glass too. With my legs curled up underneath me as best as I could manage in my light indigo dress, I ignored any eyes on me in favor of reading. Let them look at all the other Sylfes in any of the two rooms in the viewing area. There were enough of them who paraded themselves like peacocks on display.

  That was not me. I was more interested in my book on the mythology of the Old Gods that Lysandra loaned me - one of her favorites. After five years at Sylfeshire, I'd thoroughly enjoyed all the books on flora and fauna that the library offered and had no choice but to broaden my horizons to the subjects that interested my friends. Instead of reading about my beloved plants, I immersed myself in her favored tale of Hades and Persephone.

  My eyes darted forward towards the second level of the viewing area where a God stood looking at me, his eyes darting over me and what I imagined was a part of my leg the position I’d maneuvered myself into revealed. He kept looking, even when I showed no interest in returning the favor. Who he was didn't matter. It became clearer and clearer with every day that passed that all the Gods were the same.

  Selfish. Pathetic.

  Liars.

  The lock clicked on the back door to the viewing room signalling that it was time for someone to leave and someone else to enter. I tilted my head to look at the clock and realized that my hour was up and I was free to go. Rising from the lounge, I made my way to it without glancing back at my admirer. He wasn't any of the males I'd waited for so I didn’t care for him. He wasn’t any of the Gods I'd thought would come to see me as soon as they could. Not to say that they’d never come. Over the years they had, one by one, until eventually Hollis finally made his appearance.

  And that confirmed that they'd all Ascended. All reached the goal they needed to meet to become Gods themselves.

  But still I sat in Sylfeshire. Trapped in a house determined to make me into a proper wife, like who I was and what I wanted was irrelevant. We all looked the same, were all trained to behave the same. Interchangeable. Given their habits, I’d been certain that they wouldn’t be there that day, but it still made me sad to be proven right.

  I stopped by the guard, a male Sylfe with muted teal hair. He had passed his time, and being Unwanted, had chosen to live a life of eternal servitude in Sylfeshire. “Mireyah?” he asked, and I nodded. He allowed me to leave even as a teal-haired male Sylfe walked in.

  We were so regimented at this point. First levels who were only for viewing did not possess the same freedom those who could Mingle were afforded. It had started with five-minute visitations and over time; it became longer until lately I’d always had to stay there for one-hour sessions all the time and on nearly a daily basis. Hence, the running out of books.

  And my Gods appeared to be just as regimented, because for whatever reason their visitations were always scheduled, regular, as if maybe they were just as strictly regulated as I was. But I thought it was my hope talking, nothing but a wish.

  I hadn't considered that five years might pass before I spoke to them again or touched them once more. If I had, I might have handled our goodbyes differently. Might have acknowledged on that day that the bond we'd shared had always been meant to be temporary.

  As I walked down the hallway, I ignored the Sylfes I passed. Some of them were back from Mingling and gossiped while others were waiting on their turn for Viewing. As I was a newer Sylfe, my journey was still at the very beginning legs of it. I had a feeling, though, that it was about to change. If Colm had his way, I'd have been Unveiled within a matter of days, but he wasn't the only one responsible for determining such things. Though, it appeared he was about to be very pleased.

  The soft patter of Lysandra's feet sounded behind me down the hallway, entering my room without an invitation. "Did you finish and did you like it?" she asked, grinning up at me with pink eyes that matched my own, but seemed so much more vibrant against her bronzed skin.

  "Sure, Lys, invite yourself into my room. It’s fine,” I said dryly, to which she just shot me an unabashed smile before plopping down on my bed.

  I rolled my eyes as I joined her on the bed and handed her the book back. “The Underworld sounds like the Land of the Unwanted, with the hopeless souls and the monsters." I returned her smile, but in truth worried that my friend's obsession with that myth had a deeper root. Lysandra was one of the few like me who didn't bow down to the Gods. Even worse than me likely, given the fact that she'd spent nearly fifty years in Sylfeshire and not once entertained a God.

  "I saw the Majele there again. I’m guessing he watched since he was in the viewing area during a better part of your hour.” I resisted the urge to wince. I truly hadn't cared to see who watched me, and part of the reason was because of the possibility that it might be Lathyn observing me.

  Waiting for me.

  He wasn't as bothersome as some, didn't creep me out in the way that many of the others did. No matter how direct his perusal might be, it was never disrespectful or garish. I rarely listened to the way the other girls gossiped about the male Gods, chattering about who would make the best match, but wh
at I couldn't ignore was the way they postured for him. Wanted him. Desired him as their Sire.

  But if I was on display, he always politely displayed his disinterest and looked at me instead.

  "Not that it should matter, but you know what happens once you move out of Viewing and he expresses interest in you….”

  "I know," I interrupted. I didn't need to hear their gossip to know that he was well-respected. His presence at Collection Day and at the Challenges at Godsvail showed he was no ordinary God, and I doubted there would be many who would risk his anger to deny him something he wanted. "I could do worse,” I admitted.

  “For a God that’s true, but I thought you were waiting. For them?” she pointed out matter-of-factly even as she flipped back through the pages of her book. I said nothing, didn't need to ask who she meant. Even if I didn't want the reminder of the uncertainty that danced within me anytime I thought of them. So much time had passed, would they still want me?

  Would I still want them?

  "I guess we'll see when the time comes. But I won't accept anything less than I deserve. Not after everything that's happened." Lysandra nodded at me, and I knew she understood. It may very well come to a day when I had to accept a Sire unless I decided my journey had to follow a different path.

  Maybe if I was lucky, I’d be able to have a say in who it would be, and having options to choose from couldn’t hurt. It was also possible that the choice would be entirely out of my hands, but either way it would serve them right to watch me toy with the idea of choosing someone else over them. After all, I'd spent five years in celibacy, but I couldn't expect the same of them. To do so would be unrealistic.