Chapter Thirty-Two –
Sunset of the World
If one were to stand high upon the outer wall of Avalennon at the hour of nightfall, one would immediately be transfixed by the splendid and peerless beauty that filled the sky with a glorious myriad of widely varying colours. However, the spellbinding sunset brought to mind only one thing, in the eyes of all who dwelt within the White Realm—
War.
Never before, only in the most recent days, had the sun died in the horizon with such a stark, glaring end. Its red crescent, edged by the darkened tops of the trees, was of the exact hue as blood; this was a portent of the days to come.
Orandor Raven-Helm stood alone upon the wall, looking out over the realm that he had, for so many countless years, served as ruler over. His piercing, thoughtful gray eyes scanned diligently – in repetition of a watch that he had kept many times before – over the landscape that surrounded him: the forest, the grounds of the faery stronghold, and Avalennon's shining white walls themselves.
There was so much good here: so much perfection and noble beauty, standing forth proud and strong in the waning light…how could it be that just over the shimmering magical barrier between the worlds, an evil beyond comprehension waited, lurking like some voracious predator? He had long been unable to believe in the reality of such evil, in the days of his youth, but now – now, as he stood upon the wall and gazed out over his beloved kingdom, he knew that the darkness would soon sweep over the land again.
And the forces of good would be forced to combat it.
He heard a soft step on the marble terrace behind him and halfway turned, holding out his hand as his wife came to stand beside him. Together, then, they looked out over the land, and were silent. Finally, Orandor spoke.
"The sky runs with blood again."
Vahlada nodded, her cornflower blue eyes distant and, if one were to look closely, filled with a quiet, gentle sadness.
"Indeed, it does," she agreed. "But it comforts my heart to know that the one who will one day end the suffering and death that the darkness has caused in our world, and that of the mortals, is also looking out at the same sky."
Elowyn.
Both Orandor and Vahlada had refrained from speaking much of their impulsive and adventurous, headstrong and beautiful young daughter, in recent days, for the thoughts that remembrances of her brought to their minds were almost too painful to bear. How many times had Vahlada silently wept herself to sleep in his arms, because of the aching void in her heart that the absence of her youngest child had caused? And how many times had Orandor himself had to steel his mind, and heart, against the waves of doubt, uncertainty, and dread that the thought of Elowyn, somewhere out in the wilds with only her dark companion to guide her?
The prophecy made this impossible to avoid, but the agony of separation was not something that they had been well prepared for. One moment, Elowyn had been their carefree, venturesome daughter; the next, they had seen her wrested away from them, before their very eyes, and transformed into someone that they could neither speak to nor touch. Cruel was the prophecy that had named her the one to bear the fate of the world upon her shoulders, with only the Dark One to accompany her!
Vahlada's head stirred against his shoulder, as they stood together on the wall in silence, arms draped about one another, and he felt a slight swell in the current of her emotions. Her expression had become a tad bit resentful now.
"Although – and tell me if this makes me a shameless selfish woman and mother – I am not quite sure if I like the thought of my uncorrupted and innocent, unknowing child out in the wilds of the world with only a former Dark Lord as her companion."
Orandor found that he had to smile at this, as he drew her closer to him, to his side, feeling very much the way that he had when they had first affected this position together – some hundreds of thousands of years before, directly after the first major war that the White Realm had had with its age-old enemy, the world of evil. In all truth, they looked exactly the same now as they had back then, although he knew – and doubted not that she did as well – that their inner selves had undergone many a change.
"What – you fear that Elowyn will be made the queen of some dread desert realm, and permit herself to be seated beside a wicked and unscrupulous ruler?"
Vahlada's eyes shot sharp daggers of displeasure at him, which only caused him to chuckle more: a release of mirth that made him realize just how long it had been since he had allowed himself to really laugh, and also that, dark and hopeless as the world may seem, there was always hope.
"My love, my brave warrior-princess, I think that you forget yourself. Elowyn is hardly an innocent, and, dare-I-say, naïve child. She knows her own way about the world. No matter what it flaunts in her face, I do not think that she will allow it to alter her decisions, and actions, to even the slightest degree. You know that we never could."
The faery queen's expression had to shift from irritated to accepting then, for she knew that this was true. She shook her head from side to side, slowly, as she replied, "No – you are right, we couldn't. But I fear for her, Orandor: I fear for her, and what her destiny may bring her. I fear for them both."
"It is our place, as parents," he acceded, knowingly. "From infancy even to eternity itself, we will always bear the concern of our children's welfare in our hearts; it was deemed as right in the eyes of the blessed Three. However, we must remember – always – that this is their destiny, and we cannot stand in its way."
"Time intimates at the trials set before them," Vahlada murmured, her gaze going back to the distant horizon: the light of the dying, red sun reflected in her eyes. "And I cannot guess how they will return to us. There will be much to change."
Orandor nodded, fully aware of this himself.
"There will be much to forgive, and to learn," he replied. "But I am confident that they will show us the way through…for if he can learn to surmount the darkness that was himself, and she can teach herself – and him – to forgive his past sins...then surely we can. It must be so."
Only time can tell.
And then the pair on the wall fell silent again, standing close to one another as the gigantic crimson orb of the sun fell beneath the horizon, and the lands of magic and enchantment were cast into a blanket of darkness, of night. Their thoughts left the White Realm itself, to concentrate on their youngest child: the daughter whom they knew was now somewhere out in the wide world, her Dark Lord at her side…
* * *
Elowyn reached out, groping within the pit-black darkness that surrounded her, feeling blind and alone. They had traveled back through the Black City to the gate, where Jaedin had once again employed the key to open it for them, and then they had stepped inside of it together.
This time, however, after the picture of the Dark Realm's chief city had faded as the earth groaned and rocked beneath their feet, everything had gone dark around them, and now Elowyn could neither see nor sense Jaedin's presence near her. Refusing to let herself become frightened, she reached out again, desperately.
"Jaedin, where are you?"
Then his hands were taking hers, and he was slowly and gently pulling her towards him; she sensed that she was now passing through a barrier of some sort, feeling its power ripple over her, touching the core of her soul, where her awareness of all things magical was held.
Suddenly, at the blink of an eye, the blackness was gone, and she found that they were standing at the very fringes of an exotic oasis in the middle of the Sytherrian desert. It was still sunset around them, and a warm, playful breeze came out of the flower-scented trees behind them, to whirl about their two figures.
Elowyn turned from her companion to look at it.
"Where are we?" she now asked.
Jaedin also moved so that he was facing towards the oasis; she vaguely sensed that he had shaken his head, his attention focused on what he saw before himself.
"I do not know," he told her, his voice soft.
She noticed, as she hadn't ever before, that his tone became incredibly quiet and melodious when he was not speaking in his normal, meant-to-be-heard manner; when he spoke like this, he seemed almost reticent and withdrawn, as if he was afraid to offend his own shadow.
Again, he shook his head, at a loss for an exact explanation of their current whereabouts.
"The Dark Gates behave in much of the same manner as the walls of your White Realm, Princess," he told her, and she likewise noticed that he had reverted to referring to her by her royal title, rather than her given name, again.
This slightly troubled her.
Had he begun to rethink their accepted bond?
But he gave her no more time to think on this, for he continued: "When we entered the gate, we stepped inside of the Dark Realm – now that we have come out of it, we are in a totally different place. I can only tell you that I am certain we are still in Sytherria…but where we are…"
He trailed off.
"I do not know. I have never seen this place before…I did not even know that it existed."
She felt a chilling sense of unease then, and grasped his arm slightly, saying, "We should leave, then – Jaedin, there is something odd here."
"Indeed, there is," he agreed, with a note of interest – more like curiosity – in his tone that put her own sense of inquisitiveness on high alert. "For I cannot get any sense of dark power about this strange, borderline random oasis that we've somehow stumbled upon, here within my very own realm, and yet I cannot also sense that there is any good power here either."
And she felt a sense of this herself, finishing for the both of them, "But there is power here – it is thick in the air."
Jaedin turned to her, one dark, perfectly angled eyebrow sharply curving over his eye, and she saw the engaging gleam in the silvery spheres beneath it.
"Shall we step inside then, and go in search of whatever entities created this surprising and most unexpected place?"
Well, her adventuresome side had gotten the better of her, as it almost always did; she nodded, momentary apprehensions and misgivings brushed aside, and took his hand. Then, together they stepped off of the sand and walked into the fringes of the oasis.
Anyone would have found it difficult to describe all they saw next.
It was a place that many souls would have seen as a paradise upon the mortal earth, filled with gorgeous specimens of nature. Huge, brightly coloured flowers they saw all around them, with vines and ferns and gently curving palm trees serving as their shimmering green backdrop. Waterfalls of sparkling white foam, plunging down into serene pools of crystal blue and aquamarine and turquoise they saw as well, seeming like jewels amidst the fair twilight.
The landscape they traversed was varying: sometimes it would go on and on as a flat and heavily forested expanse, and then up the ground would abruptly climb, into rolling hills of soft, waving grasses. The air was so heavily perfumed with the fragrance of flowers, earth, water, and air that Elowyn felt she might have cut it with the blade of one of her twin knives, if she had wanted to.
They continued to walk, still not having seen a single form of life other than the beautifully plumaged water-birds that strode in proud, halting dignity through the crystalline pools, or their loud-voiced cousins who flew in a blur of colour and sound into the air, to fly over the pair's heads into the sky, or the occasional jewel-toned insect or scurrying monkey.
Then, as the trees began to slope downwards – alerting them of a hill ahead – gleaming white stones began to show against the sunset.
All at once, Jaedin and Elowyn found themselves looking down upon a fabulous white structure, lined by pillars and statues that were immaculately white: untouched by age or the elements. In the middle of a huge plain it rested, set at the zenith of the oasis so that anyone who stood within it could look out over both the oasis itself and the deserts that surrounded it.
Speechlessness took hold of them for a moment, and then Elowyn ventured, "Perhaps we may find someone who may tell us of where we are within it," referring, of course, to the palace that gleamed before them. She hid, of course, her sudden memories of the stories she had heard about travelers who stumbled upon such fantastic places, and then met with dire fate afterwards. However, as she was never to be swayed by fearfulness or unfounded and widely circulated rumors, she more desired to do even as she had herself suggested.
Jaedin nodded, and she felt that he was still trying to get a sense of the powers that were held within their surroundings. He then seemed slightly disappointed, as if he had failed to do so, and – as they began to make their way down the slope together – she took note of the subtle bow in his powerful shoulders. This reminded her of the slight darkness that had flickered through his liquid mercury eyes even as they ran to make their escape from the Black City, bearing with them the rescued binding spell.
Something wore at him, slowly and painfully drawing the very strength from his frame, and it made the trouble in Elowyn's heart intensify. There was something wrong with him – something so deep and dark that he had seen fit to keep it hidden from her, concealing it within the depths of his soul.
What was she seeing happen to him before her very eyes?
There was a pathway that led up to the huge white building, starting from where they now stood at the bottom of the hill. A breeze suddenly frisked out of nowhere and stirred the carpet of scarlet petals – fallen from one of the magnificent blooming trees nearby – that had scattered over the white stone, almost seeming to breathe a single word on the air to them as it came—
Come.
In the face of their current situation, they could only do just that – walk forward, going up to the palace-like building before them, and enter into it, in search of someone who could tell them of what exact region of Sytherria they had now found themselves in. They would have to pass through the place, no matter what they did: its sprawling outer courts and grounds, seemingly also bereft of any life whatsoever, stretched out far in every direction.
Entering it was unavoidable.
A long, wide flight of many stairs was now before them, the winged statues that stood on either side of the doors that led inside of the place seeming to look down on them, and assess them. Elowyn stared back up at them, unafraid but slightly wondering. She felt as if she and her companion were being watched.
Jaedin was already moving to knock three times, loudly and firmly, on the smooth white doors. She came to stand beside him as they waited for an answer.
None came.
But then the breeze whirled around them again, stirring her hair and their cloaks…and both doors opened inwards, gliding aside to reveal a pillar-lined chamber: it had no ceiling, and so the red-gold and lavender twilight sky glimmered above the polished white floor. The two travelers froze at the door, unsure of how to react.
Again, the breeze seemed to whisper to them, Come.
And once again, they obeyed.
They saw nothing, saw no one, heard no sound but that of the breeze that was now flowing freely around them, zipping in and out of the huge room, weaving around the numerous white marble pillars. Elowyn and Jaedin glanced at one another.
This place, whatever it was, was totally uninhabited.
* * *
On further exploration of the grounds, they made several interesting discoveries – all of which seemed to point to a previous indwelling of intelligent beings there. The gardens and lawns that surrounded the white palace were in perfect condition, complete with artfully shaped red rose bushes and more statues, fountains and much more.
Inside of the place they found nothing but many empty rooms, several of which – like the first chamber they had entered – had no ceiling. It was all very unusual, and nothing like either of them had ever seen before.
In silence, Elowyn brushed aside the petals and leaves that had somehow scattered on top of an altar-like piece of white marble that she had found in one of the rooms, looking at the engraving beneath them with wondering eyes. Someone had taken great care to etch a string of words around a depiction of a swirling symbol that reminded her greatly of the vines that hung over her head, having climbed in through the window, and in the center of that emblem was the clear shape of a bleeding heart.
She looked over her shoulder, spotting Jaedin as he lurked by the doorway.
"I fear we've only given ourselves more questions to seek the answers of," she told him, and moved to turn around fully. "If only there was…"
And then a flash of light caught her eye, from somewhere in the distance outside of the columns that formed the scant walls of the room.
Moving as if in a dream, she crossed the room, gazing towards it. Again, the light flashed at her – the last rays of the sun had glanced upon, perhaps, some large reflective object.
Whatever it was, she felt a queer sense in her heart that they ought to go look at it.
Down from the curving dais that the chamber had been built upon she leapt, lightly connecting with the ground again. Even as she began to walk down the white path that led down towards the atrium-like circle of columns that the continual flashes of light came from within, she sensed her dark companion's presence at her back, and knew that he would follow her. He always had, no matter where she took them.
Perhaps now they would finally have their answers…
They passed between the pillars, and came to an abrupt stop. All around them were slabs of glimmering golden sandstone, standing out against the white marble columns that were behind them, and upon those tablets were hundreds of hieroglyphics. Between the symbols were ornately detailed pictures of what appeared to some sort of court life – royalty, holding a gracious and serene rule over adoring subjects.
Or rather…
Elowyn suddenly laughed, as she put up a hand and ran her fingers over the slightly indented cartouche that she was now facing.
"It's not a palace at all!" she told Jaedin, with obvious delight in her tone. Her eyes were sparkling as she turned towards him.
"It's a temple! You see," and she directed his attention to the pictograms that she had been looking at, "There are the deities that the people here," she motioned to the fawning masses that were bowing down before the two faceless figures enthroned before them, "Are worshipping. It's a temple – that is why we couldn't get any sense of good or evil power here. It was neither."
Jaedin stepped forward, placing his hand on the hieroglyph that she had been touching mere seconds before, seeming lost in thought.
"But who is it for? Whom were they worshipping, and why is no one here any longer? Gods and goddesses cannot die."
Elowyn looked back at the pair of figures on the thrones.
One was masculine, garbed in the fashion of the ancient rulers, and the other was female, with long, flowing hair and beautiful robes – but neither of the two had faces. She shook her head, stepping away, back into the center of the room.
"I do not know," she murmured. "All of the temples I knew…they all gave clear evidence of what deity they were meant for. Each would have a picture of the Seven Powers within them somewhere, with the particular Power that the temple had been built for centered among them…"
Then, as if lightning had cracked down out of the sky and a thunderous voice had told them, Turn around and behold!, both Jaedin and Elowyn whirled to face what was behind them. There, on the wall, was a picture of the Seven Powers of the World – or the Fates, as they were also known.
And in the center of them…was a blank space.
Elowyn's mind was whirling, and she heard her own voice speaking, although she could hardly recognize it—"But that isn't possible – there are only Seven Fates…there are only Seven; there can be no more. It isn't possible."
But, as all heroes and heroines had – and would – eventually learn in the course of their all-determining life struggles, nothing was impossible.
* * *
All at once, the room was bathed in light, becoming so bright that she initially closed her eyes against it; when she opened them, she could only see the barest outlines of everything around herself. Still, that suddenly awful and yet compelling picture stood out before her, looming in her vision so that she could see nothing else, and then she heard a voice.
It was a voice that she knew well, one that she had both feared and loved: an entity that was forever engraved upon her immortal mind, soul, and heart. Yet she now felt as if she hardly recognized it – it was as if someone else, someone who was so much higher and more sublime than her, that she suddenly desired to shrink back and melt into the floor, becoming invisible to his eyes.
"Long has it been since we last stood here, Fair Goddess."
Another voice replied to it, and she felt herself start violently – for that voice was hers! But it sounded so much different: prouder and bolder, and with an agelessness that both awed and terrified her. It was her own voice, and the other was that of Jaedin…
And yet they were not!
"Long have been the years in which we have endured our exile from our eternal selves," the other voice, the one that was hers, and yet not, answered. "We fully merited our downfall, for our pride became the stumbling block that was between us, and against the world."
"It caused us to turn against one another…"
"…To betray the trust that the world had given to us, the privilege that we had been appointed to as rulers over the Fates that sway the destinies of all things…"
"…And now, even as the evil of the world comes forth again to snatch it into its jaws, we have at last been given another chance: an opportunity to undo all that we have done, to take back what we had thrown away."
She – or it felt as if it were she, for her movements were her own, although she felt that the voice was not; it was as if she had been placed in the speaker's body, not in her own – opened her eyes fully and looked across the blinding white space before her.
There stood a tall, proud and erect figure, arrayed all in white. His features were familiar to her, as if she had known him in another life…but how could that be? She was whom she had always been, but she had been separated from him for countless lifetimes…no, what was she thinking…she was knew who she was, who he was…no, she was wrong, the world was turned upside-down…what was happening?
The gray eyes of her companion looked across at her, and she saw the ancient pride, the indomitable and vast power that was within them; and, as she continued to look, she glimpsed the flickering incandescent white flame of passion, the desire, familiarity, and love that her heart recognized, and thrilled at—
"Now we have this last chance to return everything to the way it was before: the way that it was intended to be," he said. "We can make things right again."
"We must…" she heard herself say.
He left his place across the white void from her, slowly coming nearer and nearer to her, and then she felt that his arms had come around her, touching her with a tenderness and ardency that she had known from all of eternity before. She gazed up into the luminous rain-cloud gray eyes that now gazed down upon her with such passion, such love, and then she was murmuring…
"I can only hope that I may win the forgiveness of all, including you, my love…"
"As I must also pray the same of you, Fairest One," he replied, as her arms went about his neck, and the dazzling whiteness around them intensified, until she could not help but close her eyes, and savor the feel of him against her.
"Oh, goddess mine, I have longed for you with all my soul these long and wearing years since we were forced apart by our pride and foolishness; we deserved our punishment, but I cannot help but writhe against the pain that it has caused in my heart…"
"But we have found each other," she whispered, "We have found each other, though we had been thrust apart and reborn into frames that were our own, but we did not remember; there is hope now, we may yet return…"
* * *
The blinding whiteness disappeared; the sunset-lit atrium was all that now remained, the hieroglyphics that lined its walls dark in the shadows.
Elowyn's eyes flew open, as did Jaedin's, and they stared at one another, rendered utterly immobile. Thoughts flew through her head, the same thoughts that were raging within his. Then, stark, terrifying reality dawned on them, in all its cruelty.
With a strangled cry, she pushed him away from her, as he hastily released her, and then they fell to opposite sides of the chamber, still unable to take their eyes off of one another. Breathing hard, they were silent for a moment. Then, Jaedin raised a hand, reaching out towards her, and whispered, "Elowyn—"
Her mind snapped; she would not listen, she refused to, he could not make her! Shrieking incoherently, she clapped both hands over her ears and wheeled, nearly crashing into one of the marble pillars, and then fled from him – and from that horrible place, and everything within it – like a bat from the mouth of the underworld.
"NO!" she screamed. "I will not accept this – this is not real, and I will not let it have a part in my life! Let everything else be as it will, but not this! I won't let it be real!"
But, although the faery princess could run from the truth, she could not escape it. Denying what had been put into place before time itself had even begun – brought into being by the sovereign hands of the Three who had created everything – would not cause it to disappear. Truth remained, and would wait.
It had been waiting now, for almost a million years.
* * *