Ancestors’ souls, they rush in towards us by the thousands, as I feel our ancient dead crowd around us now, commanded by our power. The Soulstone shines like a fell dawn inside our Ouroboros, however, as I feel something else come now, drawn right to us like a hurricane of darkness by our power.
The star-stones give a massive thunderclap as they resonate with the Soulstone at our epicenter—to bring something other than what we seek, right to us. Because the Soulstone has acted like a lodestone for its power.
And it has responded, in spades.
13
RUIN
Darkness hurtles towards us as the Soulstone resonates with something ancient in the Void. I realize our vast mistake as the Ancestors previously drawn by our power shriek and depart, flashing away. Because we haven’t drawnsomeoneto talk about the Black Rift as we used the Soulstone’s energy. We’ve drawnsomething, as I feel an utterly dark, immortal energy drawn right to us.
The endless energy of the Black Rift itself.
We fight for our very lives now, far up in the stars. Darkness inundates my drakes and me in the vast ring of star-stones, as that terrible energy claims us, ravenous.
As if the taint of the Black Rift multiplied a millionfold, we are seized by countless tentacles of diabolical midnight now, as that indomitable power hauls us apart.
We’re separated by that most terrible magic, incarcerated, as it rips energy from us. It eats holes in us, sending our soul-essences back to the everlasting stars, as my drakes and I shriek.
That undoing energy divides us even from ourselves now, as it tearsour very souls apart. Shredding us back to the stars, it devours us. I realize too late that this is the exact same division energy Hedda used to shred her sister Aesa’s soul back to the everlasting universe.
Now, the same force that infected Hedda claims us, too. We’ve done this to ourselves, as we mistakenly invited the same cosmic division energy of the Black Rift right to us by using the Soulstone as our focus.
Worse, as that black energy pours right through myself and my drakes into the Soulstone, I feel how it eats the Soulstone from the inside out. I feel the Soulstone beginning to weaken. I hear the ear-splitting shriek of the Black Dragon and its sonic boom of power, as it attunes to what’s happening here out in the stars.
It feels Hedda’s wights trapped in the Soulstone; as they give screeching shrieks of eagerness now, fighting to get out, I feel Baldur’s binding sigils on them weaken.
The Black Dragon is calling them home, and the wights are responding. I roar, caught in countless ropes of midnight darkness, unable to get to the Soulstone to stabilize it.
Neither can the rest of my drakes. Only Baldur holds that line now, as he grips the Soulstone tight in his auric dragon-jaws.
Snarling to the entire universe, he gives his everything to his determination not to let our enemies out. Writhing in agony out in the cold emptiness of the stars, my drakes and I pour every iota of power we have now into Baldur to hold the line with the Soulstone.
It’s just not enough. Our auric fire gutters out in the cosmos, even as it gutters out in the cavern far below. Not just separated in the stars, our mortal bodies have been shoved apart even in the cavern.
I feel our bodies rush down, back to human, as we writhe and scream upon the cavern’s dimming star-stones, undone by this terrible force assailing us.
I’m not in my body, however; I’m caught up in the Void. All my drakes and I are trapped here, our consciousnesses held prisoner, and we can’t get out.
Worse, we can see the entire world from where we’re trapped. We see not just our bodies writhing in the cave, but also the Black Dragon now as it roars, aware of our vast mistake.
The Black Dragon calls the wights with its indomitable roar. And Hedda’s wights call the Black Dragon, as I feel Hedda’s own soul answer now in the Void.
Somehow, she still exists here, even though she’s poured most of her everlasting self into her creation. The piece of her still in the Void gives a vast cry of triumph now as her wights shriek in glory, soon to be liberated.
Hedda turns towards us now in the Void, and I feel her excitement. She knows what is happening within this ring of star-stones; she knows we have overstepped with what we believed our powers could do in the Void.
And she knows it’s time to make her next move, as I feel her call to Lithava through their bond. As my everlasting soul is devoured by this endless midnight, never-ending pain coursing through me as my essence bleeds back to the cosmos, my eternal gaze is drawn right to Lithava in the mortal world below.
She shifts up, using Hedda’s energy to rip open a gargantuan portal, and I see a tremendous army all around her, waiting to move out. That army includes the Black Dragon, as Lithava ushers her army through the portal now.
Right to the Old Palace.
As Lithava, her drakes, and their army of False Knights and allies pour through that tear in space, along with the Black Dragon, they engage in a massive attack upon our stronghold. The True Knights, the Eriksson clan, and our other allies pour from the Old Palace in a hurricane of dragons and bitter magic now, to engage them.
Power explodes through the night, even as the first hint of day lights the rim of the sky. But there’s enough light to see this terrible battle, as everything inside me screams to be trapped in the stars, unable to roar up into my own mortal dragon to join the fray.
I can’t protect those I love as the battle begins; neither can Bjorn,Ström, Mikkel, and Baldur, as they all echo my scream, watching the battle engage.
