The image shifted. Nyla stood in Zelda’s orchard, cane in hand, on a balcony suspended in the clouds, at the mountain’s peak. The trees were bare, their branches stretched toward the void like weary hands.
I felt Arawn’s presence at my side slip away, as though he couldn’t bear to face what came next. The Arawn of the memory stormed in, his steps quick toward Nyla.
“What are you doing? The kitchen is on fire. The guards are searching for the culprit!”
Nyla turned, her arm blackened by dark magic creeping up to her neck. “I couldn’t cook the sucremort for the elixir. My heart isn’t in it anymore. I… I can’t.”
“Even if I have to rip your arm off, you will finish it!” Arawn roared.
The elixir to end his life. But if even Nyla hadn’t been able to make it, what hope was left for me? An explosion thundered in the distance. Nyla rested her hand against the nearest tree, her legs trembling.
“They say confectioners are reborn as orchards… if their heart is pure enough,” she said, meeting Arawn’s eyes. “Zelda’s corruption hasn’t yet touched mine… It isn’t fully blackened.”
“Where is the elixir, Nyla!” Arawn pressed.
She gave a faint smile. “We all have monsters inside us. But it’s up to us to choose whether we control them or let them control us. You can control yours. Don’t be afraid of what you are.”
She placed a hand on her chest, her shoulders sagging and her back bowed. My heart clenched to see her like this, when she had been the very image of strength itself.
“Now do what you promised, Sorcerer.”
“You’re a coward!” Arawn shouted, his fist tight.
“You’re just jealous.”
Arawn pulled off his glove, stepping toward her with heavy strides. “Any last words?”
Nyla lifted her eyes to him and smiled. “Look at the stars for me, will you? Someone has to keep looking at them.”
He nodded.The stars on his bedroom ceiling were the promise he had made to her.
She closed her eyes. “I was wrong about so many things. But I am sure of one thing: it always takes a monster to do what no one else dares. Sometimes it’s in the shadows that the light is born.”
And Arawn plunged his hand into her chest.
A sickening sound. A brutal tearing. Nyla’s skin split beneath his fingers in the icy air. He pulled out her heart, glowing with golden light, but already veined with dark streaks.
“Nyla!” I screamed, my throat tearing with the cry.
She fell in slow motion, her body hitting the ground. Her smile lingered only as a ghost of satisfaction, as if she welcomed this end. Horror twisted my stomach. Nyla had always said that, after her death, she would become an orchard to watch over those she loved. It was the end she wanted, but Arawn had robbed me of ever seeing her again. He had robbed me of demanding the truth.
He pressed the still beating heart into the soil without a word. The earth drank the organ as an offering. Not a single emotion cracked his mask of ice. Then he bowed.
“Your soul is saved.”
He turned, his coat snapping in the air. A storm of mist surged through the palace like a black wave, ravenous and relentless. The guards didn’t even have time to scream before they were cut down. He spared no one. Not a soul. Zelda’s castle crumbled under his wrath, pillars collapsing, stained glass shattering into a thousand shards. Mist slithered through every crack, creeping, venomous, suffocating the weak.
And him… he gave himself over. His bones cracked. His wings tore free. His fangs sharpened. His claws lengthened. His horns grew. He split the skies, a creature born of curses and vengeance.
At the highest tower of the castle, Zelda awaited. Slouched in her chair, cigar between her fingers, her bored expression clashing with the chaos collapsing around her.
“All this for that?” she scoffed. “I expected such foolishness from that confectioner. But you, Arawn? You were like a son to me.”
He lunged at her. Zelda vanished in a puff of ashes and reappeared across the room, snapping her fingers to unleash a rain of daggers. They buried into his flesh. Arawn ripped them out without flinching and swept the room with a wave of mist.
“You’ve already used too much magic,” Zelda taunted. “You’ll die at this rate. Let’s talk it over.”
Arawn slipped into the shadows and emerged behind her, in human form, his fingers clamping around her throat. “It’s over, Zelda. You’re weaker than me in close combat.”
