The Balinor Chronicles: The Celestial Herd
Chapter Sixty: Check and Mate
First Witch: When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Second Witch: When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.
Third Witch: That will be ere the set of sun.
--Macbeth, Act I, Scene i
Everything dies. In time, even stars burn out.
--Revenge of the Sith(book version), Matthew Stover
See Solaris.
See Solaris fight.
Fight, Solaris, fight!
See Solaris Trip.
See Solaris Die.
-/o
In the end, it was Moloth. It always was. Moloth was always the last to flee a battle, the last to leave Arioch's side, the last one standing at the end of the day. It always ended with Moloth.
Eventually, the fire grows too low for its coals. The strongest tree in the forest rots from the inside, and falls, defeated by time. The mountains are beaten down by wind and rain. Even the stars burn out.
And in this battle, only Moloth would be left.
The Battle for the Life of Solaris was a combination of the deaths of the Elementals. Like Orcinus', it was an ambush, like Aeoleus' no one intended for it to happen. Like Terrenus', the killing blow was from Moloth and in the end Moloth was injured, if only in spirit, not flesh. Like Hephaestus', it was fought in the mountains, and like Mulciber's, a single mistake lost the battle. Like all of them, it was viewed by a Unicorn whose coat was darker than even Moloth's.
As Solaris chased Raiden from the Herd, the former in a frenzy, the latter with blood pouring down his face, again, Raiden aimed for the land he knew better than any Elemental. That land beyond the Valley. Raiden had challenged Death and won, Solaris – well, that was yet to be seen. And as Raiden ran, the mountains whispered to him, told him where he was and where he ought to go. There, the gravel meant this – and the scrape of hoof on rock can only be found here, so he needed to jump the boulder in front of him. So he ran, not needing his eyes, which might betray him to slight depression in the ground, but using his heart, which lived and breathed for the mountains.
As they ran, neither noticed the Twilight and his master. Nobody noticed Twilights when they didn't want to be noticed – years of fighting the Celestials have taught them how to sneak around.
Raiden didn't need his sight to know what had happened. After all, he had already seen it in the black Pool of Dreams. Anyway the mountains themselves spoke to him, telling him what was real and what was not. The realness was that Solaris died, as his brothers had done before him. The realness was that Raiden, who wanted to help, was blocked at every advance – not by Moloth or Arioch, as was expected, but by none other than Solaris. Solaris, who judged by Raiden's coat and not his heart, sealed his own death. He didn't even need to search beyond the mountains – he had found it in the Valley.
In the end, it was Moloth who stayed. Raiden, abandoned by his kind and imprisoned by his sight, ran off into the sunset, Arioch, full of glee, flew off to boast of the Twilight's victory.
-/o
In the end, it was Moloth who mourned what had been lost.