Hands tangled.
Mouths explored.
Magic sparked at her fingertips, crackling violet and silver in the space between their skin. She cried out, pleasure crashing through her so violently her vision blurred and just as her climax hit, tearing her apart like a star being born, they vanished.
The air was ripped from her lungs.
The dream twisted.
She now stood naked and glowing on a cracked, bone-dry lake bed, the mud beneath her feet turned to ancient dust. The sky above was black and heavy, as though holding its breath. A strange pressure coiled in the silence.
And then she appeared.
The goddess Eiren.
Wreathed in light and shadow —her form glided forward like she walked on time itself. Her robes whispered across the air, threaded with constellations that shimmered in arhythm only known to the stars. Her eyes were galaxies, her voice both lullaby and thunder.
“You burn brighter each day,” she said.
Maris trembled, heart thundering from more than pleasure now.
“Did you cause that dream?” Maris questioned.
Eiren only smiled. “A mirror. A test. A truth.”
Maris clenched her fists. “You’re inside my head playing games.”
“No. This is your soul, little starflame. I only looked to see what crawls within.”
She stepped forward and brushed her fingers to Maris’s chest. The place her heart still hammered like it was trying to remember which name it beat for.
“You will be more powerful than I.”
Maris blinked, looking upon the face of the goddess.
She continued, “Tread carefully, power always draws hunger.”
The stars in Eiren’s dark hair dimmed. Her expression turned grave.
“They are watching you now.”
“Who?” Maris whispered.
“The others. The four who remain.”
Yseron. Syrathe. Thaleia. Vaerith.
The cursed gods.
“They crafted the cage you and I live in, and now you threaten to unravel it. They will send terrors, shadows from the oldest corners of the Veil to stop your rise.”
Maris’s throat tightened. “How do I fight gods?
As Eiren had begun to speak but suddenly tilted her head to the side she heard something beyond what Maris could detect. A darkness consumed the dream space, Eiren faded and Maris' eyes widened with terror.
A silhouette of a hooded figure came forward and reached into the folds of its robe and pulled out a faint glowing sigil.
It held it out for Maris to take it, pressing it into her palm..
