Present (Eclipse 470 years old)
Squelch.
Eclipse gagged as she made another pass with the dagger. She wretched at the smell. She took a deep breath and reached her hand into the incision she had made in the Puca's chest and grasped its rib. A snap sounded in the quiet forest, before she reached for the sack on the ground dropping the bone in. A clack sounded as it landed in the bag against another bone.
A week later she sat perched in a birch tree. A deep rich cloak of velvet laid out on the ground in front of her. She felt it before the rest of the wood. Just a heartbeat but enough. As the noise of the woods died out, Eclipse leaned forward on her perch. She watched as the hooded figure glided through the woods stopping as it approached the cloak.
"No trap, prepared for me, Daydreamer?" The Suriel spoke its voice wrapping around her, sounding all at once one and many, old and young, and beautiful and grotesque.
The shadow that had returned to her after its most recent trip to Azriel, updating him that she was still alive, and likely on her movements swirled up and around to her eyes blurring the Suriel from her sight as she'd requested. She jumped from her perch, her wings catching in the wind slowing her descent. She landed in front of the Suriel.
"Like calls to like." She said by way of answer. A snort sounded in front of her.
"Indeed it does, Mistress of Secrets. Why have you left me this gift?"
"I need to know if it will work." The Suriel was quiet for a moment, she could feel it, the contemplation in the silence. She reveled in it, it was one she was familiar with.
"The tides are changing, Daydreamer. The false Queen's reign will be ended, but you will not be the one to end it. Learn your secrets. Visit the Bone Carver as you have planned but then you must go to the Spring Court." Eclipse's breath caught in her throat.
"Why there?"
"To protect the human. Save your plans, they will keep you alive to see everything made right."
"So he's done it then? Found a human girl to love him?" She asked.
"It will not occur as everyone expected, but yes, the human will end her reign. Your Uncle will ensure it." Eclipse's breath hitched. Her heart clenched in her chest at the mention of him. She could feel the Suriel moving away, as the sound slowly began to creep back into the forest around her. She did not speak again until he was almost gone.
"Is he okay?" She asked softly.
"He will be." The voice floated to her in the wind. The shadow slunk down from her face, nuzzling softly as it did so. She let out a sigh, a weight lifting off of her chest slightly.
"Well, we did it… And I managed to not overwhelm my mind to the point of madness, so I guess that's a win." She mumbled to the shadow before winnowing away.
As she appeared on the island, stairs leading down to the prison laid out before her, the wind bit at her face. She shivered, not just from the biting cold, but from the power radiating from the area before her. She had been here, once before, on an errand for her Uncle, but she had not been alone. Azriel had been with her.
100 years ago (400 years after The War (Eclipse 370 years old))
Eclipse stared at the daunting expanse of steps in front of her. She knew deep in her bones, without her power, that evil, true evil lurked inside those walls, and it wasn't just the beings the prison housed. It was as if the walls themselves screamed, cried out, a lilting melody mixed within it. She did not know what it meant, but it sent fear spearing through her.
"I can go by myself." Azriel told the female softly, sensing the trepidation in her in regards to the prison before them. Eclipse shook herself from the thoughts and feelings swirling in her head.
"Worried I'm gonna choke, Shadow Singer?" Eclipse asked, meeting his eyes with a mischievous smirk on her face. Azriel snorted.
"More worried you're going to choke out the Bone Carver, if he doesn't play nice." Eclipse let out a surprised laugh at his response.
"Wouldn't that be a sight." She stated, moving towards the steps leading the way down. Azriel chuckled, eyes on her back as she moved. His eyes drifted lower, drawn to the sway of her hips and the way her wings moved as she walked. He startled as her voice carried to him.
"I know the view is pretty good from back there, Az, but we're here on business, I'm sure there will be plenty of time for pleasure later." Az moved quickly after her, not allowing his mind to drift where it wanted to at her innuendo. She'd been doing that lately, flirting with him, at least he thought it was flirting, there was a tone much different than she used when joking with the others, different than she used to use with him. He stamped down the thoughts and feelings before they could rise up. This was Eclipse, he'd watched her grow from an infant, to this female, something felt inherently wrong at the new feelings that would occasionally creep in when he was around her, something that warred with a very opposing side of him that said there was nothing wrong with those feelings, not anymore.
The duo entered into the Prison, silently, Eclipse reaching for his hand as they passed through the doorway as instructed. They moved through the prison, Eclipse refusing to look anywhere other than infront of her as they moved forward. As they approached the cell door Eclipse startled at the woman sitting in the cell. Her mother, the Bone Carver was appearing as her fucking mother.
"Mistress of Secrets! Oh how I have longed to meet you!" Azriel pondered the Bone Carver's greeting, he truly did sound excited to see her, his childlike face glowing with excitement, violet eyes shining in the dark, a set of Illyrian wings protruding from his back.
Eclipse reached into the satchel at her side, tossing a long bone at the Bone Carver's feet.
"A femur from the first Illyrian killed in the blood rite by the High Lord." She told the being. Azriel didn't want to know how the female had come into possession of that. The Bone Carver grinned, a very unsettling grin for Azriel to see on the face of the child.
"How deliciously wonderful." The Bone Carver purred, reaching forward and sniffing at the bone.
"What is Amaranth's goal?" Eclipse demanded. The Bone Carver stilled glancing curiously up to the woman. Eclipse swallowed back the bile from her throat as she met the eyes of her mother.
"You do not know?"
"I have not seen her, my Uncle and Father refuse to let me near her until we know if she truly has a nefarious reason for being in Pythian."
"Ah yes. Smart. The Intuitive in the hands of the General would be…. catastrophic, maybe even enough to tempt fate into changing course. Even if you don't understand the full extent of your power, the strongest intuitive in all of Prythian's history, and not even a kernel of that power tapped. I could teach you, you know. To use that power without laying eyes on someone. To do more than just glean a feeling of what's to come without that connection. Teach you spells that would bring all of Prythian to its knees without even blinking." Azriel stilled at the words. The strongest intuitive in Prythian's history. It made sense. She was the niece of the strongest High Lord in Prythian's history. Granddaughter of the strongest Night Court High Lord before Rhys. Daughter of Helios Spell Cleaver, a name earned by his unmatched abilities he was named for.
"No thank you." Eclipse said sweetly. "Answer my question, I have answered one of yours." The Carver let out a bone chilling laugh.
"Clever, clever female."
"Answer the question." Azriel spoke, finally drawing the Bone Carver's attention. Those violet eyes met his so similar to the female beside him, yet empty of any of the light he'd come to know, to adore, in a solely platonic way of course, he reminded himself. Liar. The shadows whispered to him.
"Master of Shadows." The Bone Carver whispered and then his gaze jumped briskly to Eclipse before returning to the Illyrian male. "Master of Shadows and Mistress of Secrets. Daydreamer and Shadow Singer, what a pair." Eclipse's breath hitched, Azriel took note. It was the first time she showed any hint of unease after they entered the Prison.
"What is she planning?" Eclipse asked with significant more bite to her tone than usual.
"To bring the High Lords to their knees."
Eclipse took a deep breath as she pulled herself from the memory. She took a step. Then another, and another. Until eventually she stood before the Bone Carver's cell. The Bone Carver looked up.
"Mistress of Secrets." The Bone Carver grinned. The female reached into her bag and dumped it on the floor infront of the Carver. Hundreds of bones spilled out.
"Rib bones from all of the Hybern soldiers and those loyal to the false Queen I have killed." The Bone Carver grinned gleefully as he stared at the assortment in front of him.
"Candle in the Dark, indeed." He purred, running a dainty finger over the top bone on the pile. Eclipse smiled slightly at the name. It was something the fae of Prythian had taken to calling her in the 50 years since Amaratha had invaded. Since she had spent every moment not hunting for a way out of the hell that they faced fighting back against the loyalists and the Hybern scum that ravaged the people of the land. Killing any of them she could get her hands or magic on.
"Teach me."
And so he did.