Doing nothing to allay my fears, he looked over my shoulder. “Just watch.”
Rooted in place by fear, I made myself look away from him toward whatever truth he’d hidden from me.
Five obelisks worthy of giants stood in a proud circle around the cavern’s center. The halos of light that twinned my powers poured into the stones, illuminated five fae that formed the epicenter of the scene; each one facing their respective pillar, backs to each other.
Thaddeus’ tale on how I’d come to be flashed in my mind, and I knew what I was witnessing.
“The fall of the Celestial Court,” I breathed.
Endymion slid his hand into mine and intertwined our fingers before answering.
“Yes.”
I looked up at him, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze.
“But”—my voice wavered—"this is a memory."
“Yes.”
Heart in my throat, I turned my focus back to the Celestial fae.
One of them, a male, began speaking in a different language. The cadence of it stirring something deep within me.
Endymion spoke over the fae, translating the words to me.
“Back to stardust,
your loss we shall mourn.
Greed was the catalyst,
for desperation to be born.
We beg of the Mother,
the moon, and the stars.
Bestow your mercy,
preserve what’s ours.
Grant us rebirth,
to hold back the dark.
We’ll pledge our lives
to restore the spark.”
The cavern went silent.
I watched as a tear slipped from the lone female as her form burst into the brilliant colors I’d witnessed in the void—the mirror of my own powers. As her energy became one with the others, the black surface of the obelisks absorbed their essence. Then, unimaginable glittering white magic poured from Lumnara herself, until the giant pillars could hold no more. Bursting at the tips, pillars of white power incinerating the roof of the cavern as it reached for the heavens.
As fast as it had begun, it had finished.
In the aftermath, the only thing left were five piles of onyx ash, and that single tear which had fallen to the earth.
Slowly, I turned my gaze to Endymion’s and was met by deep regret and sorrow.
