All around was pitch black, impenetrable darkness. I shivered, remembering the inky blackness from Vae’s vision. This darkness, however, didn’t drink in the light like that had, but seemed to emit a soothing sensation of comfort, like the entire cavern was at peace.
“What is this?” I asked, my voice barely audible, afraid to disturb the stillness, the absolute perfection of the…nothingness surrounding us.
“This is a beginning.” The words had barely left her mouth when the darkness was split apart by a chasm, and a ragged rip appeared in the fabric of the night accompanied by a shockwave that if it hadn’t been a memory might have burst my eardrums.
A landscape took shape in front of me, light flooding from the crack in space into the empty world. I stood on a vast, barren plain. I looked around in all directions but there was nothing. No trees, grass, not a spark of life in sight as far the distant horizon.
The chasm seemed to pulse and widen and settle to the surface of the plain. As it touched down, color began to leech into the ground, greens and browns flooding outward, gaining speed as they went. Shades of red and orange shot into the sky and flew toward the distant horizon that now held a mighty range of mountains. I watched the tips of them explode with fire as the colors painted life into them.
To my left, a smudge grew on the horizon, and as a spark of crimson lit the horizon I saw it. The forest. I almost cried at the sight of the Tree shining in the center of its clearing.
Another range of mountains grumbled and groaned its way into existence, grasping for the heavens even while halting far short of the height of the distant fire mountains. For this was my world.
I was witnessing the creation of Teralia.
Then came the most wondrous sight of all. Within the chasm, forms began to materialize, hundreds, no, thousands of them emerging from the gateway. That’s what it was, I realized at last. This rip was a gateway from another place. Where, I had no idea, but these people were coming from somewhere, flooding out onto the plain in their thousands. I saw elves, dwelves, brownies, faeries, and finally, they emerged. Dragons shot out of the opening. Golds, silvers, blues, greens, and browns, dozens of them. I heard their bellows from the distance and my chest swelled. Herds of unicorn swept onto the plains, running to the four winds.
But wait, the people were running out of the gate. Hundreds were supported by others as they ran from something. The dragons circled back around to take up positions on either side of the gate. Some of them had ripped and torn wings, but still they took their places, guarding the refugees from whatever it was that chased them.
Mothers carried their children as males hastened them through their lines while trying to form defensive lines of their own. It was chaos.
“What is this?” I asked again.
Wash stepped up beside me, pausing her song. The scene continued to unfold before me, the echoes of her tones continuing the tale. “Some call it the arrival. Some, the escape.”
“But is it real? Did this happen?”
She nodded, her expression grim. “It happened.” She said it with such certainty. “It has happened many times and shall no doubt happen many times more before the cycle is broken.”
I looked at her in confusion. I had no idea what she meant but before I could ask, a cry of fear and warning arose from the multitude scattered on the plains. Dragons roared a warning, smoke billowing from their mouths as a black ripple erupted from the gate. My hand shot up to my mouth as the black tide overtook the stragglers, sweeping over dozens of figures. As the wave swallowed them, their voices, their screams of terror, were silenced.
The dragon horde unleashed a wall of flame so intense I imagined I felt it even though this battle must have been thousands upon thousands of years ago. Hundreds of elven warriors with shining blades ran at the darkness. The faeries and dwelves rallied whatever forces not being used to evacuate the injured and attacked with a stirring battle cry.
The cry lasted the blink of an eye as the darkness pulsed out, consuming thousands of the warriors. Within the dark maelstrom, over a dozen dragons struggled to free themselves, but it was useless. The mightiest golden dragon I had ever seen seethed up out of the murk and belched bright golden fire over his kin, ending them before the blackness reached up to drag him, roaring in defiance, back into the shadow. In a final act of rebellion, the dragon pulsed with an inner fire before exploding in a brilliant flash of heat and violence as he ignited his inner furnace, dying rather than be snared by whatever this force was.
It seemed hopeless. The gathered defenders continued to resist, to buy time for some remnant of their peoples to escape. But how could they escape? The darkness wasn’t slowing. It was like a living thing, a blanket of death sweeping out to smother the life from whatever it touched.
A dozen unicorns come to the rescue of a group of survivors trapped on a hill with the black tide rising toward them. The unicorns cut a swathe through the dark, reaching the summit and carrying the group to safety. All but one. The rearmost creature carrying a mother and two children was swamped by the darkness, as if whatever magic it had used to resist had given out at the last possible moment.
Wash put a hand on my arm, squeezing gently. “This has already happened, remember? There is nothing anyone can do now to bring them back.”
My eyes stung with bitter tears as I turned to her. “How do you know?” I asked, my voice quivering with rage and grief. “How am I seeing this?”
“Because before life came to the lands of this world, life already lived in its oceans.”
By the Great Maker. I looked at Wash with amazement and respect, but her face was a mask as the scene continued. The inexorable darkness continued its assault. Hundreds died before my eyes, the gleaming swords momentarily halting its advance before it surged to overcome them. Only a handful were left now.
“What are they?” I asked.
“Soul sabers.” Wash’s voice was somber and quiet. “Each blade holds a portion of the wielder’s soul. They are the mightiest weapons ever to grace the surface of Teralia, but they are gone now. The knowledge to remake them was lost in the escape, and the blades—” She gestured with her head and I followed her gaze to see the last soul warrior fall. A single tear slipped down Wash’s cheek, a silver droplet that shone like a diamond.
I don’t know what made me withhold the knowledge that at least one blade had survived, and that Vaeolet’s mother had used it to save her daughter, but then I supposed it didn’t matter. That blade was lost now, just like the others.
An almighty crack sundered the heavens as the rift snapped shut. Renewed screams of terror and pain rang out as the shockwave flattened anyone within five miles of the gate, and the creep of utter dark continued to sweep over the fallen survivors.
I didn’t want to watch anymore. I was reeling with the death and destruction, with the utter hopelessness. I went to turn away but Wash held my arm.
“You need to see this.” She gazed skyward.
The sky was as black as pitch. “I don’t see anything…oh!”
A tiny speck of light sprung to life in the heavens, impossibly bright against the backdrop of nothingness. It was miniscule, and so far away it did little more than provide a reference point for the horizon. The only light left on the surface of the planet came from the fire mountains in the distance and from the flames of the dozen or so dragons who remained in the hopeless defense. One by one I saw them fall.
I closed my eyes. Surely this couldn’t be it? I couldn’t be witnessing the end of the world, could I? Not when Wash had said this was a beginning.
I felt warmth on my face, imagining it was the fire from the dragons’ last assault on the darkness. I chanced a glance, unwilling to watch these mighty creatures end, but my eyes flew wide open as I saw the plain in stark, bright light. By the Maker. I looked up, and the tiny pinprick had blossomed into a bright, pulsing star, shining down like a living beacon and seeming to breathe life into the world.
More than that wa
s the effect it had on the darkness. The wretched inky pool had stopped its advance. Indeed, it seemed to shudder, the edges of the pond quivering in…fear? I didn’t know, but it seemed that way.
The light continued to intensify as the star grew closer and closer to the surface, and then I saw it. The darkness was retreating! My heart leapt and I wanted to scream, but before I could, the plain was filled with mighty roars of defiance. The defenders became the attackers, but even as they rallied, the darkness fled. But where could it go? The portal it had come through was gone, and the light from above seemed to sear it. I was sure I saw smoke coming from somewhere deep inside the shadow.
By now the light was almost overhead. It wasn’t a star at all, but a jewel, like an enormous diamond hanging in the sky, beating the darkness, driving it away. Killing it? If this was indeed the beginning of my world, I knew from Vaeolet’s memory that it hadn’t been defeated.
But it could be driven away.
The survivors were all around it now, beating it with whatever mundane weapons they carried. They weren’t actually doing anything to it, but their attack was a release from the terror of the flight. The dragons renewed their assault too, until the darkness was no more than one hundred feet wide, a receding stain on the already recovering grass of the plain. It was as if the light above breathed life and vitality into anything it touched, while leeching the power from the darkness.
They were winning. They were going to survive. My heart swelled, only to collapse again as the darkness swept out a tendril of shadow and wiped out a thousand lives. The light above faltered. Had the darkness been waiting, been drawing the light closer to attack it directly? A shaft of utter black flew out of the center of the black mass and struck the heavenly gemstone. An enormous cracking sound sent most of the survivors to the ground, holding their heads and crying out.
No!
The star fell toward the southern horizon—to become the Star Isles, I realized—but its light remained, magically enshrining the sky, turning it blue. I gasped. It was beautiful.
The screams started again. I couldn’t look. I screwed my eyes shut. I held them shut for a long moment before I realized the screams weren’t screams of terror but of triumph. I gingerly opened one eye, then the other.
A herd of unicorns were racing around the dark pool, their hooves sparking with magical light, and with each revolution the pool grew smaller, until it was nothing more than a small pit in the ground.
A rider dismounted. I hadn’t noticed him until now. He was tall and wide-shouldered, with long black hair. I saw the telltale ears of the eldar pointing through as he unsheathed his sword. It shone, and even from this far I could make out the runes and other symbols dancing along the blade like blue lightning.
He approached the hollow that the darkness had receded into and I wanted to cry out a warning. I needn’t have bothered. A sliver of shadow desperately shot out, attempting a final attack, but the blade swatted it away. The finger of darkness disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Was that it? Had they beaten it? Was the darkness Vaeolet witnessed some other enemy?
The warrior held his blade aloft. The air sizzled with magic and his blade grew brighter and brighter, drawing in the light from the southern horizon so that in a few seconds he held aloft a brilliant beacon. Along with the light, a presence emanated from the blade. Soul sabre’s, Wash had called them, but I knew with certainty that the soul contained within this blade was like nothing I’d ever felt before. It wielded the eldar warrior as much as he wielded it. They were a perfect killing partnership, and I gaped as he turned to look at me. We were miles apart, but he could have been feet away as his dark blue, almost black eyes bore into mine. He was terrible, but I was caught. I couldn’t look away as he smiled, perfect teeth gleaming in a perfect mouth. How was this possible? I was watching history unveil before my eyes, but this being could see me!
Then, as if remembering the task in hand, he turned away. I felt the release, and momentarily longed to be caught up in his gaze again, although I knew that would have been a terrible thing. He bought the sword up and two voices spoke as one. They spoke words in an unknown tongue, and the magic continued to build. The hairs on the back of my neck rose up, then the warrior plunged the blade into the hollow in the ground.
A scream unlike anything I’d ever heard split the air. It hit my soul, ripping into it, trying to tear it from my body. I could only imagine what the people there were experiencing, if I felt such agony.
Then it was gone. The pain vanished. The horror dispelled. The hollow was gone. And so was the warrior.
Chapter Twelve
Confusion
The walk back to the villa was silent. Wash had stayed quiet as the cavern had lightened and Talyn awoke, and there passed an unspoken agreement between us that Talyn couldn’t know what we’d shared.
Talyn walked beside me, trying to hide his emotions…and failing.
I felt like kicking myself. How had I missed it? His mother had been absent at the greeting on the beach, then at the dinner. I was a terrible person. I’d assumed she was busy, or…something else. But this?
Part of me longed to take his hand in mine. It would be so easy. The tunnel forced us to walk close, so close our hands brushed together, but the words Wash whispered in my ear before I’d left the cavern echoed in my mind, driving a wedge of conflicting emotions between Tal and me.
‘You cannot love him.’ I didn’t know whether her words were filled with jealousy or something else.
I took an intake of breath as Talyn gently entwined his fingers with mine. He’d clearly read my hurt and confusion, but this time, at least, I didn’t care.
I gently squeezed his fingers. “I’m sorry.” It was a pitiful attempt to assuage his grief, but when his fingers returned the grasp, I sent a silent prayer of thanks to the Maker.
He opened the adamantine shield around his mind for the briefest instant, sending a feeling of gratitude at me, before snapping it shut again. I gasped. It was like a window in the darkness had opened up to the brightest sun before being snuffed out. I felt a sense of loss I’d never experienced before.
“You know,” I whispered, “as much as I hate you reading my thoughts, I think not being able to read yours is worse.”
His steady step faltered. The diamond pinpricks of light dappling the tunnel caught a spark in his eye as he drew us both to a stop. His eyes bored into mine, like he was stripping my soul clean, but he simply smiled. He took my free hand in his. “You know…I could show you…” He hesitated.
“Show me what?” I asked.
He sighed. “What I see, what your mind reveals to me…to Ember, and others like us.”
“Shouting my feelings?”
He grimaced. “More like screaming.”
I didn’t have a clue what he meant. To me, my thoughts and emotions were my own, something private to me.
“Show me,” I said, a steel edge to my voice. “Show me what my thoughts look like.”
His expression darkened.
“What?” I asked. “Show me what you see.” I began to get angry with him again. “Look, you can’t offer to do something this big and then just…Argh!!” I began to stomp off but he held me back.
He shook his head slightly. “You don’t understand, Jes. It doesn’t work that way. I can’t show you what you shout out for anyone talented enough to read.” He fixed me with a stare, his eyes narrowing. “I have to show you what I feel in mine when I hear you.”
The penny dropped. I was subconsciously transmitting my inner thoughts and emotions for everyone to read—at least to beings with the ability to do so. Talyn had kept his feelings hidden behind an impenetrable barrier for decades. Now he was willing to drop the shield, to let me into his mind.
Part of me felt privileged, a very tiny part. The rest of me was terrified. The emotions I’d felt from other beings so far were about to pale, like the shadows of the forest under a noon sun.
I wasn’t ready. If I�
��d prepared for a thousand years I could never be ready. I nodded anyway.
Grief mixed with fury struck whatever barriers my subconscious imagined were there, like a winter wind whipping through a pile of fallen leaves.
I’d expected my own thoughts. Hadn’t he said I’d see what he felt when he read my thoughts?
Instead, visions of his mother appeared in my mind, songs echoing through his soul as it battered mine. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. He must have buried these memories deep for them to be erupting like this.
A lullaby sang in an impossibly sweet voice. Waves swept into the shore, embracing the birdsong of the jungle.
Each song echoed the other.
Then the echo stopped, and they intertwined. Two songs became one.
Talyn took the hand of a tall, lithe being. She was so beautiful my eyes filled with tears. I was Talyn as he walked through the surf with his mother…his mama.
Then fury bubbled over it all like a volcano, and rage swept away his grief. Wash had told me the way she’d stoked the fires of his hatred, but I had no idea how strong a love had been turned so completely.
The thing is, I felt it too. All that Lyssa had done came back to me, and I saw the vision, felt the pain as she took my wings. I understood that my memories and suffering at her hand had added to his hatred. I looked up at his face. This bit wasn’t his memory, it was mine, but his expression told me he saw it too.
My fists clenched tight enough to cramp. My teeth ground together until my jaw hurt.
Then the rage was gone, slipping beneath a gentle wave as the vision of his mother returned. My tears kept flowing as he looked up at her, squinting against the bright sun flashing over her shoulder.
The memory shifted, and the little boy knelt on the beach, pleading for his mama to come back to him. Tears flowed, hot and salty. I tasted them on my lips, even after Talyn raised my head, grazing a calloused hand over my cheek, trying as best he could to wipe them away.
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