Eclipse Veins

Chapter 5: The God in the Mirror

Darkness.

Not the kind that blinds, the kind that listens.

Riven floated in a great, endless void, where the light moved like liquid and sound echoed like memory. His body felt weightless, suspended in a place untouched by time.

Stars exhaled around him when he tried to breathe; the void answered when he tried to speak.

You finally return.

The voice was everywhere, in the air, the stars, even his own heartbeat. Deep, ancient, familiar.

Riven turned slowly. "Who are you?"

A figure stepped out of the darkness: tall, cloaked in twilight, eyes glowing like dying suns. His face looked almost human, save that his skin was covered in faint cracks, out of which light seeped, like molten gold.

You know who I am, said the being. You've heard me whisper in every heartbeat; you've felt my anger in every breath.

Riven’s pulse quickened. “The God of Dusk.”

The figure smiled faintly. “Dusk… They named me that after they betrayed me. But before that, I was simply Elarion.”

Riven frowned. “You destroyed the heavens. You killed the other gods.”

The look in Elarion's eyes turned remote. "I did not kill them, I freed them. They were prisoners of eternity forced to keep the balance in a world that no longer deserved it.

He stepped closer. “And now, you hold what remains of me.”

Riven stepped backward. "You're inside me. Feeding on me."

“No,” Elarion said softly. “I am you. The fragment that remembers what you are capable of.”

The stars around them pulsed images forming in the darkness: cities burning, mortals kneeling, Lyra's tearful eyes beneath a fractured moon.

Riven shook his head. "Stop it."

"She lied to you," Elarion said quietly. "She was the key to my fall. The moon goddess my love, my executioner-she bound my power to her light and cursed me to be reborn as a mortal's shadow."

Riven's breath caught. "You mean Lyra…?"

“Yes.” Elarion's voice hardened. “She killed me once. She'll try again.”

Riven's fists clenched. "Then why save me?"

The gaze of Elarion softened. "Because you are my last chance to rise or my only chance to be forgiven."

The void trembled. Stars bent inward to form a circle of light beneath them, a mirror made of liquid silver.

Elarion gestured toward it. "This is the Vein between realms. Step through it, and you can reclaim what was taken power enough to end the eclipse, or burn the world anew."

Riven hesitated. “And if I refuse?”

Elarion's voice turned cold. "Then the Empire will find you again. And Serath will finish what they began merging us into one obedient god."

Confusion and rage swirled in Riven’s head. “I don’t trust you. I don’t trust her.”

Elarion's smile was a faint, knowing thing. "Then trust yourself. You were born from my light, but your choices are your own."

He reached out, putting a hand on Riven's chest. "When you wake, you'll remember what she tried to make you forget."

The void started to fracture, reality collapsing around them.

“What happens now?” Riven shouted.

Elarion's eyes shone brighter. "The eclipse starts once more.

A thunderclap split the air.

Riven gasped awake, lying amidst the ruin of Mirath. The sky above was no more blue, torn open by streaks of red and silver. The moon hung low and cracked, bleeding its light across the land.

Standing beside him was Lyra.

Her hands were covered in glowing blood.

“Riven…” she whispered, her voice shaking. “You weren't supposed to wake yet.”

He looked at her and saw it: the faint silver mark burning at her throat, the same symbol that had branded him.

“Lyra,” he said slowly. “What did you do?”

Tears shone in her eyes. “I had to bind you. The temple's energy it was consuming you. I-“

But her words faltered as the ground began to shake violently; from the fissures below, crimson light burst forth-forming a pattern of symbols, similar to what was in the mirror realm.

A deep, echoing laugh filled the air. Serath’s voice but not his body.

You opened the Vein for both of us, goddess.

Lyra's face went pale. "No."

Riven turned toward the fissure and his reflection stared back. Not Serath. Not Elarion. Himself but older, colder, eyes glowing silver and red in perfect balance.

"Welcome home," the reflection said. "Now we finish what they started."

Before Lyra could stop him, the reflection reached out of the fissure and pulled Riven in.

The world dissolved in silver fire.

Riven felt himself falling, but not down in. Through stars, through memory, through a thousand lives that weren't his. Every face he'd ever seen flashed before him, burning into fragments of light.

He hit the ground soundlessly. The air shimmered like water. He stood on a plain as flat as a mirror reflecting the heavens a place without horizon, without end.

He turned slowly. Behind him, the sky bled with two moons: one gold, one silver. They pulsed to a rhythm, like twin heartbeats.

Welcome to the Vein, a voice whispered not Elarion’s this time, but softer, familiar.

Riven spun around.

Standing there was Lyra.

But not the Lyra he knew; her hair flowed like living moonlight, her eyes ancient and distant; a crown of silver petals glowed above her head.

“Lyra?” he whispered.

She smiled faintly. "Not exactly."

Her reflection rippled in the mirrored ground, and when she spoke again her voice echoed in both directions, layered by another tone: older, colder.

“I am what she used to be, the goddess before the fall.”

Riven's breath caught. "Then you're… the real Lyra."

The goddess inclined her head. "The mortal you know carries my fragments, my soul scattered across time when Elarion was destroyed. She was never supposed to remember what she was.

Riven stared at her. "Then why bring me here?"

“To remind you who you are.”

Before he could answer, the world around them shifted dark, then gold, then dark again. Suddenly, he was standing in another place altogether: a great temple, columns of light stretching toward an endless sky.

Two figures, with their hands interlocked, faces together, stood at the center: Elarion and Lyra.

"Before the gods fell," the goddess whispered beside him, "we were one flame dusk and moonlight. Balance itself."

Riven watched the memory unfold before her.

Elarion brushed a strand of light from Lyra's face. "They won't understand," he said softly.

“They don’t have to,” she replied. “As long as you don’t forget me.”

Then the sky above them tore apart. A thousand divine voices shrieked as chains of gold descended, binding Elarion’s form. Lyra’s eyes welled up with tears as she raised her hands and called into being a prison of light to surround him.

“Forgive me,” she whispered, “I cannot let you destroy them.”

The memory froze.

The goddess at Riven's side turned away. "That was my sin. My love became my weapon.

Riven's voice shook. "And mine…?"

She slowly turned to him, her eyes glowing brighter. "You were born from what was left of him, from his light, from his pain, from his humanity. You are not his vessel, Riven, you are his heart reborn."

He staggered backward. “That can’t be true.”

The goddess stepped closer. “You were never meant to destroy the world; you were meant to choose whether it is worth saving.”

The temple shook the mirror world around them collapsing. A crimson crack spread across the sky from the darkness above, and Serath's voice boomed across the Vein.

You think I'll let him have his choice?

The goddess’s eyes widened. “He’s breaking through”

A burst of red light tore the temple asunder, and from the rift came Serath, his form half-shattered, veins glowing like molten fire.

“Riven Kael,” he snarled, “there’s no heart left to save.”

He plunged his hand into the ground and the mirrored world splintered like glass.

The goddess reached for Riven, her voice cracking. “Wake up! He’ll devour both your souls if you stay!

Riven grabbed her hand silver and gold light flaring between them and in that moment, he saw her true face: the mortal Lyra, unconscious amidst the rubble, whispering his name.

Then it all fell apart.

TV Stations

Riven gasped as his eyes snapped open.

He was back in the mortal world the ruins of Mirath, in chaos, the sky split between silver and red.

Lyra lay beside him, her breathing shallow. Her hands were glowing with the same mark as his the twin crescent that was burning brighter now, binding them together.

Riven's voice was hoarse. "What… what did you do?"

Lyra's eyes fluttered open, and for a moment, both the goddess and the mortal looked out from behind them. “I tied us,” she whispered. “So if the god inside you awakens… he’ll have to go through me first.” Riven froze, her heart pounding. Then, from a distance, a low, resonant hum began to rise the sound of the second eclipse forming above the world. Elarion's voice was a faint echo within Riven's mind, calm and cold. You think you have bound me, little goddess, but you have only bound yourself to my end. The moon split in two.