44 Observation

Turning to face the god, Riku raised a brow as Themis loomed over them like the proper judge that he was. With his robes billowing to a nonexistent breeze, his stern gaze cast a wide shadow over the entire room, his instincts almost telling him to run away just from the sheer presence this god was washing over them.

"Themis," Riku firmly stated. "We're here now. What's the challenge?"

To his surprise, the God of Order scoffed at his question. "Eager, are we? Well, Nyx certainly chose wisely, even if she did break the rules once she did," Themis sternly chuckled. "Nevertheless, you are here, and you will go through my trial like the rest of your fellow Champions. Take a seat for now and wait for your turn."

Beside him, Nyx visibly shrank at being called out, her hands quickly pulling her hood back up to fully conceal herself from his brother's gaze. On top of that, it would seem that some of her siblings were also present by the jury stands. He counted around five of them... Tyche, Astra, Brahma, Ragnarok, and Kali, the last goddess having just appeared in a shimmer of glowing blue water as she gracefully took her seat.

"Ah, little Nyx!" Brahma boisterously greeted. "Come and sit with us! Let us watch our Champions go through Themis's trial!"

"The view here is rather fitting, if you must now," Tyche followed up, his smile reeking of condescension. "It would be a waste not to use it."

Riku observed the gods against his better judgement. He knew that he should focus more on the two Champions currently clashing weapons in the center of the courtroom, but seeing Nyx interact with her siblings might also give him valuable information on how he should approach them.

"Oh, I guess I have to go there," Nyx weakly chuckled beside him. "I'll be with my brothers and sister then. I'll be cheering you and Shizu on from there."

With a shadowy tendril of primordial chaos wrapping around her, Nyx disappeared before promptly reappearing in one of the seats available in the jury's stand. Notably, she sat down next to Ragnarok, and obviously away from Kali as the latter was seated next to the former.

"I'm not the kind of person to enjoy drama, but even I can tell that there's something wrong with their sibling dynamics," Shizu whispered to him as they both waited for their next set of instructions. "And Tyche... I know he's my patron god, but he didn't even bother talking to me."

"They are still gods, after all," he shrugged. "Perhaps your god is the more arrogant sort like the old Greek gods."

Shizu pouted at the observation, and he could already tell that she didn't like the comparison that her god was like one of the many gods that were notoriously horrible to their mortal champions in myth and legend. Then again, implying that she might get used and discarded like a tool wasn't really the best of things to do for her.

"I wish Nyx was my goddess instead," Shizu whispered back. "At least she's with us actually supporting you. Supporting even me, and I'm not even her Champion- Ah..."

Riku raised a brow at her sudden pause. "What is it?"

"Tyche just bid me good luck, and he's currently looking at me, actually..." she weakly chuckled. "I... don't know how to feel about that, really."

He turned to stare at the god in question. To his surprise, Tyche actually turned to smile back at him as well, his gaze almost feeling pervasive despite him being literally seated meters away from him. It was disconcerting, almost like he was reading his future like it was nothing.

/Stop staring into his eyes, my Champion./

Nyx's warning came too little too late even as Riku quickly turned away. It had already been a few seconds that he maintained eye contact with the God of Fate, and he probably already had a look into his future for far longer than he should've.

/I thought it would've been a given since you know I can read your mind, but my siblings can do it to,/ Nyx advised him, her tone serious once more even as she remained unmoving from where she was seated. /But while I can do it whenever I want since you're my Champion, the others can only do it when they're looking straight into your eyes./

Riku did his best not to feel horrified at what he had just done. It was the worst breach of operational security he had ever committed. Thankfully, he wasn't thinking much during those few seconds beyond his observations regarding Tyche himself, but it was still a bad precedent to give away his own thoughts to what was probably an enemy.

Still, what's done was done. All he had to do now was move on and try to apply countermeasures wherever they were applicable.

/I'll keep that in mind,/ Riku mentally nodded. /I'll go ahead and warn Shizu about it as well./

/Go ahead. Though knowing Big Brother Tyche, it wouldn't stop him from reading her mind anyway./

Cutting off their connection, Riku turned to his allied Champion, the fortune teller already turning anxious with the way her hands constantly hovered over her deck of cards. She was watching the match between the two other Champions before them, and it was clearly keeping her on the edge.

"Calm down, Shizu. We'll get through this," he advised her.

"But what if I'm not good enough?" she fearfully asked. "What if I die in there?"

"No, you wont," he insisted. "Just keep what you learned in mind and move forward. There's nothing you can do that will get you killed out there unless you do literally nothing."

Shizu shook her head, a weak smile forming on her face. "Y-You're right... I just have to remember what you taught me and I'll be fine, right?"

"Exactly."

Riku nodded in approval even as his gaze turned to the fight proper. There, he saw what was obviously a medieval paladin fighting against a woman that had no weapons on her person for some reason. It was highly improbably that the defenseless woman would defeat a grown man wielding a sword and a shield, but this wasn't the real world. Powers were at play here, and it would do for him to observe what he was up against.