Eclipse Veins

Chapter 4: The Blood Between Stars

The ruins of Mirath were ablaze.

The red lightning clashed with the silver fire, tearing through stone and sky; every stroke shredded the air itself, leaving behind ripples of blinding light.

Riven's breath came ragged. His skin shone faintly under the smoke veins alive with power that wasn't entirely his. Every movement felt heavier, faster, too strong for his human body.

Serath's voice cut through the chaos.

“You think you’re the first to bear his light?”

Riven swung, the force shaking the ground. “I’m the last who will!”

Their swords met again crimson steel against silver flame and for an instant, the clash illuminated something in Serath's eyes.

Recognition

Lyra, encasing herself within a barrier of moonlight, froze mid-chant. “Riven! Don’t!”

Too late.

Serath twisted his blade, and Riven was disarmed with inhuman speed. His hand shot forward, clasping onto Riven's chest right above his heart. Time froze.

A searing pain tore through Riven's body as his vision flared white. The voice inside him roared to life, shaking the ruins.

Finally, it whispered. The vessel and the spark combined once more.

Serath stumbled back clutching his own chest. Silver veins crawled across his arm. He looked up, horrified. “No… that’s impossible.”

"You both carry him!" Lyra's scream cut through the air.

Riven’s knees buckled. “What—what are you saying?”

Lyra's barrier shattered as she ran to them, her eyes burning bright. "You're not enemies, Riven. You're fragments. Two halves of the same god."

Serath's expression twisted. "Lies."

“No,” Lyra whispered, voice shaking. “When the God of Dusk fell, his soul split light and shadow. The Empire found the shadow first and built you, Serath, from his rage.” She turned to Riven. “And the Vein found you his light to balance it.”

Riven's heartbeat thundered. "You mean.

Lyra fixed her gaze on his. "You are both him."

There was an instant of silence, and then Serath laughed over the ruins.

“Then it’s destiny,” he said. “If I kill him, I become whole again.”

He lunged the blade raised, crimson aura blazing.

Riven barely lifted his sword in time. When their blades collided, a shockwave erupted a pulse of divine energy that tore through the ruins like a scream.

Lyra was hurled backward, slamming against a column. Her vision blurred. She struggled to rise and then the sight before her froze her blood.

Merging together, the silvers and the crimsons of light. Not clashing, merging.

Reality trembled, the air bending as Riven and Serath's bodies started to blur at their edges, flickering in and out of existence. There were two voices now, overlaid, identical yet opposite.

We are one…

We are not…

Lyra crawled forward, tears streaking her cheeks. "Riven, fight it! If he consumes you, there'll be no coming back!"

Riven’s eyes flared open one glowing silver, the other red. His voice came layered with another’s.

“I don’t know if I can.”

Serath grinned through the chaos. "Then let me help you remember what you were."

Their light exploded the ruins collapsing around them.

When the dust finally settled, Lyra stood alone in the resulting silence. The men were gone.

The only thing remaining was a scorch mark seared into the stone half silver, half red, pulsating very faintly like a heartbeat.

Lyra knelt down, whispering in a forgotten language, her tears shining under the moon.

“He’s not gone… He’s becoming.”

Above her, the scarred moon cracked a thin fracture of light spreading across its surface.

The second eclipse had started.

The ruins of Mirath smoldered beneath a fractured moon.

Dust fell like snow through the air, glowing faintly in the light of the twin eclipses forming overhead.

Lyra stood amidst the wreckage, her silver barrier in tatters, her magic draining fast.

“Riven!” she screamed.

The echo of his name bounced off the crumbling walls, but it wasn't him that answered.

It was a low, guttural growl that seemed to shake the very earth itself.

From the middle of the ruins, a shape started to take form: blinding silver and red light twisting together, neither yielding. The air warped around it, pulling in wind and ash, distorting time itself.

Then, as suddenly as it began, the storm ceased.

Riven stumbled forward, his body steaming with residual energy, eyes burning with a fusion of crimson and silver. His sword once steel now pulsed like something alive.

“Riven,” Lyra whispered, stepping closer. “Can you hear me?”

He looked at her but the gaze that met hers wasn't wholly human.

“I… remember,” he said, his voice layered with something ancient.

Lyra's heart froze. "Remember what?"

He turned toward her, and for the span of a heartbeat, she saw another one standing in his place-the god Elarion himself, wearing Riven's face, his expression a mix of sorrow and fury.

"The betrayal," the voice murmured. "The fire. Her light turning against me."

Lyra's lips parted in horror. "No… not you too…"

Before she could move, Serath appeared from behind the collapsing archway, his body bleeding light. His crimson armor cracked but still gleamed like liquid blood.

“So the god wakes,” he said with a smirk, dragging his blade through the dust. “Then let’s see which part of him remains loyal the wrath or the mercy.”

Riven’s hand shook. “Serath… stop.

But Serath's laughter echoed across the ruins: "Stop? No, Riven finish it. You and I were never meant to exist separately. You feel it, don't you? The pull?"

He thrust his blade forward.

Riven caught it but instead of clashing, their blades merged. Metal turned to molten, reshaping into one double edged weapon, half silver, half crimson, glowing like the heart of a dying star.

Lyra screamed as both men were flung backward by the force. The ground cracked, revealing streams of molten light beneath the earth the veins of the old world itself, the energy that once birthed gods.

“The Vein…” Lyra gasped. “It’s awakening!”

Serath rose slowly, a grin spreading across his face. "Then let it burn everything. If this world can't contain us, we'll make a new one."

He jammed his hand into the glowing fissure and the light roared upward, shooting into the sky, splitting the heavens in two.

Riven's body convulsed. Memories not his ripped through his mind. The fall of the gods. Lyra's divine tears. Elarion's scream as chains of light bound him.

He saw her Lyra, the Goddess of Dawn sealing Elarion's heart away in mortal form. His mortal form.

He fell on his knees, gasping, "You… you sealed me."

Lyra froze, tears in her eyes. “I did it to save you! The others wanted nothing but to erase you utterly I hid your heart in a human life!”

Riven's eyes blazed with divine fire. "You call this saving?"

Before she could answer, Serath’s laughter tore through the air again. “Perfect. Hate her. That’s what he wanted the god’s wrath reborn!”

He lunged but this time Riven didn't block.

He vanished.

One heartbeat later, Serath was sent flying into a wall of light so bright it blinded the sky. Riven appeared above him, descending like a comet, divine wings unfolding behind his back one black as night, the other silver as dawn.

“No,” Lyra whispered, falling to her knees. “It’s happening again.”

Riven's voice rumbled with a power older than time.

“If I was born of his heart… then I'll finish what he began.”

The world darkened. Clouds twisted in a spiral as lightning rained upward.

Serath raised his sword defiantly. "Then come, god of dusk. Let's see which of us deserves the throne."

They collided midair and the world shattered.

A blinding wave of energy burst outward, freezing time itself. Trees turned to glass. The sea stopped moving. Every sound ceased. And in that frozen silence, one voice whispered across the realm: "The eclipse has chosen its heir." When the world resumed, Riven and Serath were nowhere to be found. Only Lyra remained-alone, standing before the glowing fissure of the Vein. The ground beneath her pulsed with their energy, alive and furious. She pressed a trembling hand against the mark glowing on her wrist. “Riven… wherever you are… don’t forget who you are. Above her, the cracked moon aligned with the sun, forming a perfect ring of burning light. The Second Eclipse had begun.