Tenebroum

Chapter 213: Total Eclipse

Chapter 213: Total Eclipse

Leo only had a few seconds to struggle with his rising panic before he heard the familiar voice. “There’s no going back after this, I’m afraid.” Even before Leo whirled around, he knew who it was.

“Jordan,” he called out, but when he turned around, the familiar mage was not who he saw.

Some of the details were right, of course. The luminescent spirit had Jordan’s features and his sad eyes. These were clear and sharp, though, not milky and bespeckled as he remembered the man. He was taller and translucent now, though, and pale white, like the ghost of who he might have been.

These minor differences were enough to put Leo on edge. He’d lost his silvered blade with the defeat of that horrid monster, but even so, he still pulled his dagger and raised it defensively, noting briefly how his golden light contrasted with the pale light of the imposter.

Jordan ignored the slowly reddening blade and stepped around it to embrace Leo. It wasn’t a swift movement, and he could have stopped it, but despite his doubts, he couldn’t bring himself to stab the almost familiar man. Not after everything that had happened.

Instead, he dropped his blade and hugged him back, noting the way that his weapon continued to glow orange instead of extinguishing itself as he expected it would, and instead lit the small amount of grass remaining near him on fire.

No, everything that was happening, he corrected himself. It was still happening. It was all still happening. Power was still welling up inside of him, and he could still feel the souls of his brothers and sisters swirling within him, but he didn’t know how to make it stop.

That scared him, but not as much as Cynara’s reaction. She couldn’t even approach within a dozen feet of him because of the light and the heat of his golden aura.

“What’s happening?” he asked Jordan.

“You have reached a criticality, and you are ascending,” the man answered casually.

“Criticality? Ascending?” Jordan asked, confused. “That’s not what I want. We won. I just want this to be over now and...”

“In the end, none of us get what we want,” Jordan answered in a slightly sadder tone. “There’s no stepping outside of fate, not when we have to save the world.”

“Isn’t that what I just did?” Leo asked, releasing the mage and taking a step back to look him in the eye.

“It is,” he agreed. “But only the first step. Malzekeen is dead, but many shards of his evil escaped. I’m sure you saw the rats.”

“I did,” Leo agreed, not sure how much damage a few rats could do.

“Think of them as seeds, then, seeds of evil,” Jordan answered, “Without the sun in the sky, they will find fertile ground, and in a month or a year, or even a decade, that monster will be reborn to do this all again.”

“Then I’ll defeat him a second time,” Leo proclaimed. “I’ll do this all again. I’ll—”

“Will you?” Jordan asked. “Your light is bolstered by the sacrifice of everyone you ever loved, and when that burns away, your soul will go with it. There are only two choices now, and I do not think you were meant to be a star. You burn too brightly for that.”

“That’s all I want,” she answered, melting into his chest, “But if Jordan is right, and this is truly our last night together, well, then, I don’t want to waste that either.”

Jordan smiled at that, and then, after a little searching, they found that the partially completed cabin he’d been building with Toman and the rest of the men hadn’t been completely leveled, so they retreated there for a little privacy. It didn’t have a bed or a roof, but it had 4 walls and a blanket, which was more decent than anything that either of them was wearing.

Part of him worried that the maelstrom of light he still exuded would burn away the cabin, but Cynara was the eye of the storm, and where she stood, things did not burn. So, while the upper timbers became a little scorched once he bore her gently to the floor, the two of them had a taste of peace for however long it lasted.

Leo’s flesh had regenerated over and over again, but his clothes hadn’t been quite so lucky. His tunic and pants were in tatters, but Cynara’s dress wasn’t doing much better. It was stained with blood and dirt. Additionally, she’d slit it all the way up the side so she could move in it easier during the fight. He respected that, but he was also glad. It made it that much easier to take off of her.

For any other couple, the next few hours would have been lost to darkness. But for Leo and his lover, they were lost in the light. They both radiated passion as much and incomprehensible magic and if anything, he thought that Cynara’s pale skin was that much more beautiful with her pale aura.

Hours later, when they finally emerged from their love nest, Leo felt forever changed by the experience. He wished that this night could have lasted forever, and he would have given up almost anything for that. Eventually they had to leave their cabin, though, because the walls had started to burn, and Cynara had started complaining about his heat.

Even that hadn’t been enough to entirely spoil the moment, and though he mourned the loss when she started putting her clothes back on, it only doubled his determination to find a way to solve this. Once they got past their suddenly sheepish grins and awkward moments, they found another change in the world.

When Jordan had told Leo that he would do what he could for the survivors, he’d thought that the man meant that he would heal them or bandage their wounds. Instead, he found that the village of Wayward was entirely remade. Where once only shattered log cabins and ruined daub and wattle cottages, now there was a tiny town made of pure white stone. There were only half a dozen of the tiny palaces, but given how few people were likely to have survived, that was all they really needed. Still, it was so strange that he gazed at the sight with a feeling of wonder.

“It’s like he made the moonlight solid, somehow,” Cynara murmured, walking over to the closest one and running her hand along the smooth marble surface.

“It does, doesn’t it,” he said as a few more pieces started to fall into place in his mind. What he’d first thought of as ghostly when he looked at the mage now looked a bit more like moonlight now that she mentioned it.

Did he make some kind of deal with Lunaris? He wondered.

Leo recalled Brother Faerbar telling them that the Moon Goddess had something to do with mages, but it had been too long, and he could no longer remember the specifics. He didn’t have too much time to think about it, though. Almost as soon as the two of them emerged, casting a wide swath of light through the darkened village, Jordan started walking toward the two of them again.

“I’m afraid you won’t be able to stay much longer,” the pale mage said, “I trust you have made your goodbyes?”

“Goodbyes?” Leo asked, “still in denial, but I don’t—”

“Even with my magic, she can no longer touch you,” Jordan interrupted, shaking his head. “In an hour, you’d burn this whole place down and her with it... In two, you’ll likely be ashes yourself. We must go while we still can.”

“Go where?” Leo asked.

“To your chariot,” the mage answered with a smile.