Page 52 of Fate

“You assume much.” I watch her silvery eyes lock onto Helia. I move slightly, putting myself between the creator and created. Lunos quirks an eyebrow at this. “I see. So, that is your reason for resistance. And you, child of mine, blood of my blood. Is Itho your reason?”

Helia pushes up from the stairs with strained effort, groaning as her body tenses. She steps forward, joining my side. I put out an arm to block her, though I know it matters little. Lunos could probably vaporize us all where we stand with little more than a blink.

“Yes, Itho is my reason. You gave me a mission, a mandate. She gave me hope and a desire to live. A desire to be more.” If we weren’t all about to die, I’d throw my arms around her, my heart warming with her light. Lunos continues to stare, the seconds dragging on uncomfortably. Eventually, she sighs, a quite human thing to do.

“I am sorry, but it must be this way. The cycle must end, and to do that, I must consume my conduit.” The corners of her eyes crinkle in sadness, as though this isn’t something she actually wants to do. Lunos flicks her palm up, facing me. An unseen force wraps tightly around my body, lifting me into the air. Protests erupt from Helia and the others, but Lunos dominates my senses. “I do apologize Itho. But I need the power in your blood. Lyras did not give me enough; I need it all.”

I look inward and tap into my well of power, disrupting the hold Lunos has over my body. I stagger to the ground, scrambling on my feet from the small fall. Surprise dances across the goddess’s face, quickly descending into an angry pinched brow.

“You dare to defy me?” The hum of power tingles under my skin. This is different than before. I feel, stronger; the toll of my power seeming far away. Maybe it’s the rush of the moment or something else. Regardless, I might have a shot at this.

With a yell, I sweep my hand out, ripping large chunks of the obsidian rock out of the walls and send them hurtling at Lunos. Each shatters inches from Lunos as if striking some invisible barrier. She pushes off the edge of the spring and floats mid-air in the middle of the room. Her face is a mask of anger. How dare an insect defy a god?!

“So be it. All of your lives are now forfeit.” How quickly a god can change. Silver streaks of energy ripple through the air lancing at me and the others in the room. I focus quickly, forming my intent to match whatever barrier Lunos has created. Hands splayed out before me, the deadly tendrils of power slam into my invisible wall, arcing across it. Several bounce off, carving into the walls of the dome, shaving loose pieces of rock. If we keep at it, the whole place is going to collapse! Belief. It all comes back to belief.

With increasing strain, I twist my hands, changing the barrier to reflect. The ribbons of light stopping bouncing off randomly and instead soar back toward Lunos. She screams at the sudden shift, stopping her attack. I drop my barrier, arms falling to my sides, breaths coming in gulps. The dust clears slightly, revealing a wounded Lunos, clutching her side where the reflected attack pierced her defenses.

“You foolish, petulant worm! You resist the inevitable!”

I look around the room at my friends, my family. Everyone is some combination of awestruck and terrified. Andra and Bellius ran to find cover behind fallen rocks and at some point, the remaining priests must have fled. Olena is off hiding in the doorway, waiting for her moment just like we planned, even if everything else has gone to shit. Helia, my Helia, is standing strong next to me. Confidence emanates from every muscle. Full utter belief in me. In that span of a second, Lunos readies herself for another salvo, and I realize what I have to do. I lean over on my tiptoes and plant a kiss on Helia’s cheek.

“I love you.” Before my heart can waver, I turn and launch upward at Lunos. I hear Helia screaming behind me. Ignoring the stabbing in my heart, I focus on what I need as I streak through the air. Lunos’s eyes go wide as I collide with her, bringing us both down crashing into the hot spring. With a burst of energy, I teleport us far away from the temple; far away from my family.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

LUNOS AND I shoot up into the air, bursting out of the water. I kick off her, pushing us apart. The soft sand of the lake shore cushions my landing. I did it! I actually did it!

The deep dream lake Lunos made for me lays out before me, the goddess landing on the far shore. The olives and pines enclose the lake as always, casting their supernatural silhouette. I never understand why the mixture, and I may never know. Lunos is a goddess of unknown depth, but perhaps here I can tap into a greater power. Even if I can’t, Helia will be safe; they all will be.

“You bring us here?! You truly know nothing, do you?” Lunos’s voice booms across the lake, rippling the water in its wake. The dream twists, and Lunos appears instantly on the sand in front of me. Her eyes stare down at me, a disappointed parent, a judgment passed and waiting to hand down.

“This is a dream of my making, a place of pure power for me. You have no hope of beating me here. Who do you think you are? You are the daughter of nobodies who abandoned you, raised by a man who only saw you for what you could give him. You have the sheer luck of being born my conduit. You could change your worthlessness and join me. Become one, and gain purpose.” She raises a hand, elegantly poised, palm facing the night sky. The stars, initially frozen in place, begin to twinkle. Slow at first, before rising to a crescendo of flickering light, spiraling in the sky around a full moon. With a twist of her wrist, the stars halt their dizzying display of celestial grace. “Behold my greatness!” Lunos turns and basks in the magical glow of the full moon, her true domain.

In her fixation on grandeur, I unravel the weaving of power Lunos had wrought, releasing the sand back to its original state. Time is thinner than a blade of grass. This time, instead of reaching inward for power, I reach deep into the fabric of power binding this place together. If Lunos can do it, and in my blood courses the power she craves, I can do it too.

A web of intricate threads explodes into being in my mind’s eye. It runs across everything here, a silver network of power and existence. It stretches through the impossibly deep lake, the trees and their roots, the sky; stars and all. And, something else.

Off in the distance, at the edge of the abyss, two circles of individual nodes of power; one smaller, one larger. The number of each match the upper and lower pantheons; are those the rest of the divine pantheons? Lunos shines like a supernova of light with the amount of threads weaving around her being. I raise my hands and see the same light pulsing; the same number, the same strength. What am I?

“But I need the power in your blood. Lyras did not give me enough; I need it all.” Lunos’s words echo in my mind, her revelation of need. My blood. So, she lied; power is not just belief. You need something more; you need an energy source that not everyone has. And not just that, she didn’t get enough of what she needed.

Clapping my hands together, I bring forth the all-consuming strength I discovered back in Hecalon, blue light pouring from my eyes. Drinking fully of the unlimited power in this dream space, I wrap a blanket of darkness around Lunos’s light, slamming it between her and the connecting threads to the world. Before Lunos can react, I form two threads of power, twin arrows bearing a message of need and fire them toward the circles of light at the edge of the dream. Lunos finally spins in place, a mask of horror and shock etched into every line of her face.

“What have you done?! H-how? Unless”—still shocked, her eyes widen further—“you have figured it out. What a smart little godling you are.” Venom drips from her final words as I begin to understand. “You may understand, but you are still young. You do not know how to control it all. You do not know all the rules.” Lunos rages in her bonds, cracking my focus and control. The flimsy shell around her explodes, throwing me on my back. Her fingers clasp roughly around my neck, wrapping perfectly around my mark.

“I don’t need to!” My words spit out, biting off each in a struggle to breathe. Lunos snarls and grips tighter, flooding my neck with power. My scream doesn’t struggle like my words; it finds air in the pain. Molten lava courses through me, torching the inside of my body in flames. I reach for my power to cool the fires, to push her back, my body writhing in agony. She slams me against the ground, chopping my focus into splinters.

“You do not need to? Gaze upon what you could have been!” Lunos flings me by throat, launching me into the sky. I slam into some invisible force as she appears in a blink, floating in front of me. I can’t move, let alone reach for my power; she must be cutting me off like I did to her. The lake lay far beneath us as the forest of odd trees stretch out for ages until it all falls off into an inky blackness, as though this whole area is merely a floating island in a dark void. Lunos waves her hands and the stars shift, shifting and twirling until they align in front of us.

“Power simply existed; an infinite pool of possibility and untapped potential. Before everything came to be. Before the First godlings, the First Conduits of that primordial chaos emerged, mewling like babes from the womb. Eventually, the First began to understand they could shape and mold that power like clay at a potter’s wheel. Whatever they imagined, they made.” The stars dance to the story Lunos weaves. Gods and goddesses made of light take shape and play with the balls of stardust, creating soaring mountains, surging oceans, and flourishing plant life. Then, something shifts. Smaller figures of light appear in droves, tiny dots that don’t reach the knees of the gods.

“The First were lonely and created life in their image, only without the depths of power, without the grandeur. But they struggled; oh yes, gods do struggle. They needed to be more than simple constructs; they had to imbue all life with an infinitesimally small mote of the primordial power the gods embodied.” Lunos slashes her hand down with fury, angry at the first gods or humans or perhaps both. The stars dance as I look off in the distance, hoping my messages were received. Lunos’s voice brings me back, the theater of light showing some of the tiny dots growing in size, in power.

“Conduits began to emerge from the humans that the First created, each connected more strongly to one of their creators than the others; as you are to me. And so, the Seconds formed and the dual pantheons were born.” A twinkle in the distance catches my eye above Lunos’s head, blooming hope in my heart until she begins to turn her head that direction. I have to distract her, now!

“None of this matters! Just kill me already!” Lunos spins toward me, raging at the interruption.

“You are insufferable! This is the cycle! THIS! It always goes this way. The Seconds crave the power of the Firsts, and they inevitably fight, destroying everything they ever created. A few always survive, but everything else returns to chaos, until the next emergence of the next First. And so it repeats.” Lunos rolls her shoulders back, proud and ancient. “I was the true First. I have seen every cycle from the dawn of time. I have had enough!” Lunos closes in on me, eyes swirling with emotion. “To stop the cycle again, I must consume your power. You could have become one with me willingly! But no. Now I must forcibly rip it from you. This all must end!”