{"id":1008,"date":"2022-01-24T17:12:07","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T17:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/?p=1008"},"modified":"2022-01-25T04:53:44","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T04:53:44","slug":"the-court-of-the-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/the-court-of-the-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Court of the God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ayush Bhagat
Grade: 8
Kothari International School,
Noida<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shadows snaked around the swaying willow, which danced as if a corpse hanging from a fraying noose rather than the majestic tree that towered high above. Around the ancient tree, many graves lay tucked deep into the veins of the dying earth, but only one was of relevance to the sorceress that skulked at the midnight hour. Ishtar tucked away from the strand of black hair that fell upon her ebony eyes, scanning the bewitching darkness.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sprinting across the cold earth, she found the grave she desired. \u201cRaven Moonshadow\u201d, she read, her cheeks stained with a trail of clear, saline water. She shook her head, reminding herself what she had come for. Her gown, the hue of midnight, flew in the chilling wind, howling in terror. A circle of black candles lay surrounding the gravestone, anointed with blood. Ishtar gasped, staring at the iron knife as if to bore a hole into it. Was she doing this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. Yes, I am. It was too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never would she hear his stifled laughter whenever he was failing to hide something from her or see his radiant smile that lit up every day. She put the knife to her palm, blood blurring her vision while she carved the symbol into her flesh. Crimson splattered all over the stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wind howled, the willow, once serene, now thrashed about like a feral animal caught in a cage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eyes shut tight as if to expel the pain, she spoke, her voice deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHear me, god of the dead! I command thee!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rain pounded on her, and her bare feet ached against the now burning cold of the earth below. Grey, saddening clouds converged, and a metallic odour began to fill her nostrils. The stench of rot was sickeningly fragrant. The world twisted around her, warping into a barren landscape, where hellfire and darkness ruled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReturn my beloved to the realm of the living!!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBring back that I love, and I will pay as you wish!\u201d She begged, continuing to hurl her power at the seams of the world. Silence. An imperial figure stood on the bridge. It was raised above the caverns, and Ishtar was confident that centuries would pass before she touched the end if she fell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figure was pale, its fingers skeletal, and wings bony-white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho dares to summon me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do. I am Ishtar, and I wish to resurrect Raven Moonshadow,\u201d she replied, examining the god. He had many names, some forgotten in the pages of time, others popularized by the modern world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA Moonshadow? Leave and never come back\u201d, the god replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ishtar sighed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Moonshadow bloodline had performed a powerful ritual to summon Death itself in the old days. They had attempted to place Death upon a neighbouring enemy, but the eldest had another idea. He offered him water. It reached out for it, but at the last moment, the boy sent it into the face of Death. It was saltwater, lethal to spirits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Death stood still for one moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He reached for Death\u2019s shroud, and the god shrieked at him. A bone-shattering scream that shook the underworld but that did not deter him for long, as a vial of toxic liquid flew into his hand\u2014the soul of his grandfather. Later on, he would resurrect his beloved grandfather at a high cost. A price he would pay long after he drew his last breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Death never recovered, and the chthonian god never<\/em> forgave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an age-old matter.\u201d Ishtar pleaded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMind your tongue, witch, lest I tear it from your mouth\u201d, he roared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ishtar\u2019s eyes widened; her hands flickered with darkness. Then, the floor began to quake, and she grasped the handrails. Another figure stood alongside the first. She had an ethereal blue glow, and her hair flowed across her shoulders. She stared at the girl before flying towards her. Her touch was like cold fire, and she struggled to avoid flinching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou come and dare to ask orders of my family? Make your case, witch,\u201d She whispered, her voice accompanied by drums in Ishtar\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMake your case\u2026in the Court of the God.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ayush BhagatGrade: 8Kothari International School,Noida Shadows snaked around the swaying willow, which danced as if a corpse hanging from a fraying noose rather than the majestic tree that towered high above. Around the ancient tree, many graves lay tucked deep into the veins of the dying earth, but only one was of relevance to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-short-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1013,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions\/1013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}