Kreyos, Reythia, Llyr.
Everyone.
All her friends, her brothers and sisters, her lover. All perished in a senseless war caused by sick jealousy and perverse obsession.
She was all that remained. And it was her duty to preserve the memories of what had transpired—to keep vigil over time itself until the day the Foretold One would emerge and the balance between good and evil would be restored.
Ereshkygall rose on her shaking feet, wiped away her bloody tears and set her sights on the hazy horizon.
There would be nothing but time to mourn and drown in echoes of the past.
Lifetimes of that were awaiting her.
Now she had to find a remote and secure location to hide away, to let nature take its course.
She vaguely remembered rumors about a cavernous system of tunnels deep in the belly of the Saunoque Mountains. A place where she could spend eternity unbothered until the prophecy they conjured in a fevered dream would come to fruition and the cycle would begin anew.
But before she could lay her weary bones in an eternal resting place, she had one last thing to do.
She pocketed the orphaned daggers, painted crimson and humming a sorrowful tune of loss. She could feel their despair as if it were her own.
Because it was.
They’d lost their wielders just like she had lost everything.
Now, it was her last mission to find Akaori’s human sister, Adhala, and deliver the blades for safekeeping, until one day, many moons away, they would return to their destined owners.
With a last glance behind her at the desolate landscape where destruction and decay reigned with a bloodied fist, she limped her way out of the battlefield and began her journey.
She hadn’t decided yet whether it was an honor or a curse to be the one entrusted by some preeminent deities to keep the Manichaean cycle flowing. Truth be told, the absurdity and pointlessness of it all had started to erode her belief in any higher power.
All she knew was that there was a prophecy she needed to uphold. There would be a distant time when the natural balance could be restored once and for all. That failure to do so would bring forth Imiryion’s utter obliteration.
She owed it to all those who had perished not to have let them die in vain.
And she owed it to the future ones as well.
To warn them of past mistakes and guide them to their eventual victory.
A blessing and a burden.
That’s what her foreverness had become.
Chapter 1
Aimee
“Harder,Blaise.Faster.Godeeper,” I grunt in exhaustion.
“I don’t think I can honestly go any harder than that, kitty.”
Blaise stops altogether to catch his breath, a dollop of sweat trickling down his chiseled face.
“Don’t stop,” I grit through clenched teeth. “We can’t stop Blaise; I’m not there yet.”
Blaise straightens with a huff. “Fine, one last time.”
He throws all his force into the blow, but I sidestep graciously, catching his wrist in the process and twisting it behind his back, throwing him off balance and onto his back on the mat.
