A flame flickers and jumps, weaving into a single silhouette that splits into two figures. “The sky god took a thread of his own power, and he molded and twisted it until he created a silhouette different to his own. He gave her breath from his own lungs, eyes from the deepest depths of the night, and hair of the softest, ethereal light. Caelum created seven moons in order for him to see his goddess, and as a gift, he gave her dominion over those moons. And finally, he gave to her the craving he felt so deeply—to beloved, and adored, so she might feel as he did and never leave him alone in the darkness again.”
My gaze travels, almost despite myself. It lands on eyes that reflect the sky above us. Eyes of light, the stars within them shifting as Selene watches Merrick, leaning forward to listen. She pays me no attention, as deeply entranced by the low cadence of his words as I have always been.
And yet I find myself watching her instead.
“He named his goddess Hala. And at first, he knew only happiness, where for so long there had been only inertia. Hala brought Caelumlight, filling his dark sky with stars that scattered across the endless void. And so Caelum followed his goddess wherever she chose to go, enthralled with this creation he had built to love him.”
The figures entwine, wrapping around each other before splitting apart, circling the other.
“But Hala grew tired,” Merrick murmurs. “She had only Caelum for company, and she desired more. Always, more. She grew listless, and bored, and begged him for companionship. And when he refused, for he needed nothing more than her, her light began to fade, until it threatened to go out. Leaving him in darkness once more.”
Across the flames, Selene’s eyes glimmer. Merrick tilts his head. “Desperate to bring Hala back to his side, Caelum tookmore of his power, pulling at those threads, and created something new.”
A small ball of flames forms in the center of the hearth. It flips, twists, growing in size and raising up. Merrick lifts his hands, and the ball raises above our heads, spinning on a single axis and illuminating our faces.
“He created a world.” Merrick’s voice deepens. “A world for Hala to watch over from the safety of Ellas. She was pleased with this gift, and in his hubris, he wished for more of her gratitude.”
Flames spit. One, and then more. Many. “And so, he created the Caelumnai. He molded them, gave them life, and set them down upon the world, all for the pleasure of his goddess. They worshipped him, and in return, he rewarded those he favored with gifts of maegis.”
The dozens of flames lift, rising up as if they would engulf us. “Those without Caelum’s favor, untouched by the maegis, became known as inritus. They left the Caelumnai behind, finding new land and building the territories we know as Terrosa. And so, the world grew. And Hala and Caelum watched.”
“Hala was enthralled with our world.” Merrick grows louder. His hand sweeps, and more flames join those above us. “But she envied Caelum the worship he received from his Caelumnai, and wished for her own acolytes. So she took a piece of her own power, of the power Caelum had given her, and she created her own priestesses. She built the faeytes in her own image, shaped them with the light of the stars and the shimmer of the final moon, and she set them down on a small island of moonlight and mist that they named Asteria.
“She blessed her faeytes with gifts of their own. She blessed them with souls that craved thelight, just as their goddess did. They loved, and they laughed, and they felt more deeply than anything that world had seen before. To hold the love of a faeytebecame a thing of legend, and as word spread, many traveled to Asteria in an attempt to be chosen as their mate.”
“That’syou.” Leo’s excited hiss has me glancing down. He points at Selene theatrically.
She raises her eyebrows. “So I see.”
I hide my smile in my hand as Merrick’s arms lower. The flames die down to leave burning embers once again. And his words grow heavier.
“Many years passed. Many lives, born and lived and ended. Hala grieved for each and every loss, calling their spirits home to Ellas. The sky grew bright with a million stars. A million souls. And as that time passed, she became more and more obsessed with the world Caelum had built for her. He tried to draw her face to his, to win back the love he could feel fading, but she would not look away. And when the time came, it was almost inevitable.”
Another figure rises from the embers. “Hala fell in love with one of Caelum’s creations. She saw the inritusmale, Endymion, and could not look away. She saw the way he searched the sky each night, his yearning for something more calling to her own, and she took human form and went to him despite Caelum’s pleas to stay. He begged her on his knees not to leave him alone once more, but she could see nothing but the love she held in her heart for Endymion.”
Heat threatens to singe my cheeks as a wall of fire leaps up, devouring the figures. Leo’s quiet gasp is the only sound aside from Merrick’s rising timbre.
“And from the Ellas sky, Caelumraged. He raged, and he vowed retribution on this worthless male who had dared to steal the love of his goddess. He hunted Endymion down, and he killed him with a bolt of lightning before taking Hala back to Ellas.”
The third flame sputters, and extinguishes.
“Caelum refused Endymion entrance to Ellas and created a barrier in the sky so that Hala could never leave him again. He vowed the two would be forever parted. Caelum believed that Hala would forget Endymion in time, that she would remember his love for her and return to his arms.”
Darkness. Only a single flame remains. It falls in a graceful curve to curl itself against the bed of ash.
“Hala’s grief was endless,” Merrick says, his voice nearly imperceptible. All of us lean forward to hear. “She begged Caelum to relent, to allow Endymion to take his place amongst the stars. When he refused, she grew cold, and distant. The love in her heart turned to anger, as it so often does. Hala vowed that Caelum would never know her love again, and to spare her faeytes the agony she felt from a broken heart, she reached down into the world.”
A hundred small flickers around the folded figure. Merrick’s fingers dance between the flames, twisting. “And she stripped the love from their hearts. Between one heartbeat and the next, the Faeytes ceased tolove.”
A crack in his voice. “And the world was darker for the loss of those bright hearts.”
Merrick snaps his fingers. In a moment, we’re plunged into darkness.
“The faeytes withdrew,” Merrick’s quiet words fill my ears as if he’s standing at my shoulder. “They hid behind the walls of Asteria, grieving a loss they could no longer recognize. They turned away from those who had loved them, unable to bear the weight of expectation that they could no longer meet. And as a hundred years passed, they turned their attention to learning. To healing. To the Callings gifted by their goddess, clinging to them in a world that had turned so cold, so suddenly. And it was almost inevitable that they too would grow colder.”
A hundred years.
“What then?” Leo is leaning forward, straining to see. “What happened then?”
