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“I see you clear as day,” the little human said. “And you’re nothing. The…absenceof matter. The void of void. You are to be the Undoing.”
The Undoing.
We all knew what it was, and Marun was right. It wasn’t possible.
“Now that is ominous,” Rena laughed, delighted. “We have to do this more often. Maybe you can read the stars, next?”
Rune wasn’t done.
“I see something else, Ry, right there by your side. That’s…everything. The All Goddess is right there next to the Undoing.”
“Please,” said the human singer. “We all know theVoidand theAll have disappeared back when the universe was created, eaten by their children, Chaos and Life and Death. The primal gods. It’s, like, one of our first lessons back home. Have you eaten too many mushrooms, Rune?”
My brother and I exchanged a glance. Maybe that was what the humans of Silver taught their kids. We learned that the Undoing and the All were in the heart of the Hollow, bound, restrained, forever sealed.
And that Ilvaris itself had been built to contain them.
They birthed the universe once. Then they tried to destroy it. And if they were freed, what could ever stop them?
“Oh, I understand,” Marun said, her expression finally clearing of concern. “I see you form a primal bond, like All and Nothing did in their days. That’s likely why it got all muddled in my mind.”
She played it off, faking smiles. But soon, she found an excuse to leave, and ran all the way to the high queen’s side, leaving me very little doubt.
If I ever found a woman I’d want to bond with one day? I should run.
None of us ever saw Marun again after this. Whether the old queen killed her or simply hid her away, I don’t know. One thing was clear: she never was supposed to share those visions with any of us. And how I wish she hadn’t.
Her words nearly destroyed my brother, annihilated anything good in Rena, and have haunted me to this day.
For a thousand years, I haven’t truly had cause to fear her prophecy. Why would I, when I never saw a woman I’d want to keep for an entire day, let alone the rest of my life. Still, I kept an eye on the divine gates. I aided my brother in his task to keep the gods away from the power they seek. And over the years, it became clear that the prison was unraveling, the gates growing weaker in the absence of the high queen supposed to strengthen them every century.
And now Darina’s here, her blood the key to opening the heart of the Hollow, and she calls to me like moth to a flame.
We’re walking a predestined path that could destroy us all.
I turn to Caenan and say something that’s completely true. “Because Darina could raze Ilvaris if she claims the power buried in there.”
Not to mention the rest of the universe.
PART THREE
MISTAKES
In the beginning, there was nothing and everything; two strengths, two powers in the great universe. They either got bored or simply worked out that fucking was fun. And then they birthed their children, who each created this or that notion, dreaming up the world.
They were given so many names. Some cultures claimed only Him, and in others, only She was responsible for the universe. But they balanced each other and kept building wonders.
No one knows why they started to fight, but the only thing clear during their battle was that they'd take the world down with them. So their children killed them, and buried their essence. Not only behind bars—energies such as the one of the primal forces couldn't have been restrained by something as flimsy. They built an entire world meant for nothing but keeping the elder gods very dead.
A world that grew beautiful, and cruel, and dangerous, impregnated by the strongest of magic: the power of creation. And destruction.
And so, at its very core, Ilvaris was always divided in two. The All, the Nothing. The seelie, the unseelie.
For eons, there was not even a whisper that could have made anyone believe the primal powers would ever rise again. But then, they started to come at the heart of the world. Strange visitors with too much power, who scared the elder fae into forming an alliance no one would have agreed to in any other circumstances.
They were too weak alone, so they had to put their strength together.
"I refuse to empower the unseelie crowns," saidMedb.
