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“You will find out soon enough.”
“Where are they?”
Phaedra shook her head. “That I cannot say.”
“As in, you don’t know? Orwon’tsay?”
Phaedra’s expression turned fierce.
“As I in acannotsay. One, I am not omniscient. Two, as a guardian of fate, I am vowed by my blood and magic to not reveal it,” she said, heaving a great sigh to calm herself, “All that Icando is help guide those whose fate crosses my own by leading them toward the path of the greatest good. That isall.”
What was before a gentle breeze rose into an urgent gust of wind, and theSeraphi Ousia,entirely undisturbed by it, continued drifting closer to us until some of themtouchedus. All at once, I was transported to…
A distant place engulfed in darkness but filled with driftingSeraphi Ousia.
What I initially thought was a brilliant light - perhaps a distant star - radiating behind me, I realized was the light radiatingfromme, and Mariena, who floated beside me, was engulfed in what I could only describe as divine fire. Her form was terrifying in its beauty. Even if I felt like it was the only form of her’s I’d ever known. One composed of divine fire and an immense gravity that I could only describe as a love overwhelming in its power.
Despite these new forms, a sense of peace and rightness came over me as if in realization of, ‘Oh, this is what we are’…Beings of divine love and wrath and fire…
However, I also recognized that these forms were merely part of a greater whole. And if Mareina’s expression was anything to go by, it was clear that she recognized it too.
The world began to shift in front of us, catapulting us through space, though we experienced no physical sense of acceleration or velocity. Soon, we were travelling through countless realms ranging from those consumed by violence and suffering to those filled with peace and indescribable beauty.
Eventually, we arrived in a place where a female with four enormous wings led thousands of soldiers to battle. Flames consumed them as a dragon, larger than any creature I’d ever seen, swooped in from above.
A powerful voice filled my mind as we watched the scene unfold.
"Mi lanthonéti, lei mortatum eiaeternitate ma skhimata dothate. Letare coi me, Vitum Guardatore. Guarda lei oi buscora thanatou.”
“Born between realms, she is eternity given form. Her home is with me, The Guardian of Life. Guard her or find your death.”
Something felt intensely threatening about those words, but time and place shifted once more before I could give it more thought. Mareina and I arrived in a place I could only assume was Zurie’s palace. I found myself staring down at two crowns. One gold, the other silver. Both glowing with the power they radiated.
There was a sharp tug on my naval and, as if being sucked backwards by a vacuum, I landedheavilyback into my physical body. Mareina and I found ourselves standing, again, face-to-face with Phaedra in the open-air shrine.
I glanced down at Mareina to see the lower half of her face slackened with shock while her brow remained tight with disbelief.
“Do you understand now?” She asked, her face tense with gravitas.
A deep laugh bubbled up within me.
“Understand?I’ve never had so many questions in my entire fucking life.”
Phaedra’s brow pinched scornfully at my cursing in such a holy place in the company of so many divine beings,Seraphi Ousia.
“You and Mareina are here for a greater purpose beyond Atratus. Beyond you being King,” she growled fervently, eyes dipping to Mareina, “And you being Queen… I have no control nor certainty over what you were shown. If theSeraphi Ousiadidn’t reveal everything to you, I’m afraid it’s not meant for you to know yet.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdly immense weight that rested on both our shoulders. “Right, so… unleash Death and just hope for the best… Seems a little risky.”
Phaedra’s brow leapt as though I’d just made another absurd observation. “You both agreed to this before you came to this realm. You might not remember it because of the veil between realms that obscures all that came before and beyond your arrival, but the fact that you bothchosethis,choseone another, remains the same.”
My brows pinched so hard it made my head throb, and judging by Mareina’s expression, she felt similarly.
I’d read numerous religious texts that spoke ofdivine contractsandsoul agreements,but… I suddenly didn’t have the energy to ask questions. Not that Phaedra would answer any of our questions anyway. Truly, this female must know my mother. If she didn’t have snakes for hair, I’d be forced to assume they were sisters, considering they both hoarded all the most illuminating knowledge for themselves and left the rest of us in darkness.
However, there was one certainty… And it had a familiar anxiety twisted my gut.
War.
