Light moved beneath Vivianna’s skin as she stepped forward. “That’s why I am creating what can.”
Aelia’s voice fractured. “What will it be?”
Vivianna’s eyes traced the horizon again, seeing centuries that had not yet come. “Born not of good or bad. But choice.”
Orion exhaled slowly, death recognizing its equal. “And if it fails?” he asked.
Her expression softened into something that could almost be called love. “Then Selvarra was never meant to be saved.”
Orion turned his back to her, prowling the dais, shoulders rolling with restless disdain. “Perhaps this is what Deimos wants,” he mused. “For us to flee, to abandon. So, he may strike and reign in peace.”He halted before a guard stationed near the arch, staring at his reflection in the soldier’s armor, daring the steel to mock him.
“Deimos cannot rule above his depths as long as we exist,” Vivianna’s eyes blazed, her voice scorching his retreating spine. “He knows that."She stepped closer. “Youknow that.”
Orion said nothing.
“And the curse?” The depth in Zeki’s stare shifted, searching, desperate.
Vivianna returned to the chambers center, the stone bright in her palms. “Everything must have a counter, a balance. Even annihilation must birth a flicker of redemption.” Light surged through her veins, luminous and violent, cracking beneath her skin like fault lines of creation. “Where darkness rises,” she said. “Light will always follow.”
Aelia’s fawn-brown eyes widened, her hand slipping from Callisto’s thigh, trembling as she whispered, “Can you create that?”
“I must.” Vivianna lifted her hands, the celestial glow unchaining itself, bleeding into the stone she carried.“Each of you was summoned to bring forth a stone. You will pour a sliver of your power into it, willingly. After which it will be set into the divinity stone. My creation… of good.”Her eyes shimmered silver, the exact hue of the gem in her palms. “The balance.”
A single jewel appeared before each God, spinning slowly in the charged air. Power thickened, the room amplified with it.
“One by one,” she commanded, “present yourself and your stones.”
Orion grunted, stepping forward first, the bloodstone in his hand glowing like a clot torn from flesh. “For determination,” he said. “And confidence.”
Vivianna gave him a sad smile as it vanished into hers.
Zeki raised his lapis lazuli, the blue of oceans too deep for light. “For wisdom and clarity.”
Ophielle’s ruby gleamed, blushing like her lips. “For love.” Her eyes slid to Vivianna. Then lingered on Orion. “And protection.”
Callisto lifted a turquoise stone, freckles across her cheeks catching like starlight. “Purification and truth.” She squeezed Aelia’s hand, motioning her turn.
Aelia’s sunstone flared like dawn breaking over mountains. “For happiness and light.”
The divinity stone devoured them all. Drank their essence in silent pulses before returning to its master.Vivianna lifted a final gem, amethyst and obsidian, swirling together like a velvet void.
“A hybrid,” Zeki noted.
“For balance,” she said, “and strength.”
The stone breathed once, twice, then shrunk to the size of a pearl—
A heartbeat. A living essence.
It floated, hovering before Vivianna’s chest, her stare savoring the sight like a plea answered.An energy rushed through the room as it pulsed, flaring one last time before vanishing.
My stare snapped up to where Vivianna’s lingered, our eyes connecting, through the dais, through time. As if she could see through the vision. Through my soul.
My chest seized, goosebumps prickling over my skin. She couldn’t actually see me, right?
Aelia’s voice shattered the silence, raw with concern. “What did you just create?”
Vivianna didn’t turn, didn’t spare her even a hint of attention.
