Lyra POVThe city pulsed like a living thing.Not with war drums or warning horns, not with screams or smoke. But with something gentler. Steadier. Like a heartbeat finding its rhythm again after the chaos had passed.She walked its cobbled streets alone, the sky soft and bruised with dusk, her cloak drawn close against the cool wind.She didn’t want to be recognized.Tonight, she wasn’t the Queen. Not the warrior. Not the widow.She was just a woman - a ghost, maybe - drifting through the bones of a city that had outlived too much death.The streets were cracked and uneven where the stone had split from the last quake. Ivy had begun to creep over the ruins. Not the kind born of darkness and shadow like before - but living ivy. Green. Hopeful. Unafraid.It clung to burned-out walls, softening them. Claiming them.And everywhere she looked, life had begun again.A child ran past her, barefoot and shrieking with laughter, trailing a cloth banner behind her like it was a cape. Another pu
Lyra POV - Dawn The sky held no warmth when morning came.It broke over the horizon like a blade - pale and cold, slicing through the hush that had settled over the city. No birds sang. No bells rang. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.Lyra stood alone in the highest tower, watching the first light seep into the edges of the world. The city still slept below, curled into itself like a creature trying to heal. She could see the rooftops where ivy climbed, the market square where sweetbread had been shared, the fountains where pups had splashed. All the places that had made her heart ache the night before.Her eyes were dry now. Her chest hollowed and quiet, the way it always felt after grief had burned itself down to embers.The shirt she’d held all night was gone. Folded. Left behind. Like a prayer she couldn’t take with her.She wasn’t bringing Kane into this. This was hers to carry. This was her moment to end what First Queen couldn't. Gave up what gods turn her into.The rit
Nyxar POVThe earth still quaked when the light began to fade. Not with the blinding fury of battle, nor with the blood-red chaos of war - but with something quieter. Heavier. Like the echo of a heartbeat after it stops.A sacred breath held too long… finally exhaled.Nyxar stood at the heart of the chamber beneath the castle - boots braced against fractured stone, the runes beneath his feet flickering like dying stars. The seal pulsed in front of him, threads of gold and shadow unraveling into the dark like veins torn open.Ekreth stood beside him, tall and monstrous in his truest form - wrought of shadow and old bone, his wings hunched tight against the low ceiling, scraping stone as they twitched.The air thrummed with old power. The kind that didn’t belong to the world above.Nyxar didn’t flinch.And before them in one moment the gate was gone. No fire. No rupture. No tearing in the fabric of the world. Just… closed. Like it had never been there at all.Nyxar’s chest was a war dru
Lyra POV The silence that followed didn’t feel like peace. It felt like the world had forgotten how to breathe.Stone dust hung in the air like smoke, fine and pale, drifting slowly down in spirals from the vaulted ceiling above. Runes that had once blazed with ancient light were now dark and broken, their power spent. Cracks split the floor like veins across a dead heart.And at the center of it all, Lyra sat on her knees in the ruins of the seal - her hands tangled in Nyxar’s coat, her breath coming in ragged, uneven pulls.He was warm. That was the only thing she could hold onto.He was warm.His chest rose and fell beneath her fingers, slow but steady. His body, usually tense with power, now felt strangely soft in her arms - boneless, weighty. And his face…His face looked peaceful.Not serene. Not untouched. There were shadows under his eyes, ash on his skin, and gold still faintly glowing at the corners of his mouth. But there was no pain now. No fight left in him.Just… peace
Lyra POV The door clicked softly shut behind Ekreth, leaving her alone with Nyxar and the sound of her own heartbeat.For a long time, she didn't move.She sat there, hands folded on her lap, staring at the slow, steady rise and fall of his chest beneath the blanket. Each breath was a fragile miracle. A proof that he still lived - that he hadn't slipped away entirely into whatever place gods went when they died."You stayed", Thalia murmured inside her, voice warm and thick with emotion."I had to."Lyra answered numbly."No, Lyra. You chose to."Lyra's chest ached at the words.She hadn't thought about it. Not really. When Nyxar’s light began to break apart, when the world had turned inside out - she had moved without hesitation. Without calculation. As if something inside her had already decided long before she knew it herself.But that didn't mean she understood it. Or that she wanted to.A heavy silence filled her mind."He matters to you", Thalia said softly, without accusation.
Lyra POV Ekreth was gone again. For a long moment, she simply sat there, the weight of the world pressing down on her shoulders. Duty waited outside that door. An entire kingdom will look to her now - broken, battered, but victorious. They had won the war. The Harbinger was gone. The seal was locked and nothing should get through to this world.And Kane… Kane was gone too.The thought carved another raw wound through her heart. She pressed a trembling hand against her chest, as if she could hold the pieces of herself together a little longer. She was Queen. There was no one else. She can't hide here.The heavy cloak of authority settled around her shoulders. She did not look at Nyxar. She couldn’t. Not yet.A soft knock stirred the heavy silence.Lyra blinked slowly, pulling herself out of the half-daze she'd sunk into. Her fingers still curled around Nyxar’s, reluctant to let go. She didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to face whatever waited beyond this quiet, broken moment.Th
Nyxar’s POVThere was no pain at first.No sound. No color. Only the hollow thrum of memory drifting through a void where even time dared not exist. Here, in this formless silence, everything Nyxar had been - god, warrior, monster - unraveled.His name echoed once, a ghost of thunder across a dark sea. Then it dissolved. Nyxar. Once a name that cracked mountains and bled stars. Now, meaningless.The world beyond had vanished. Only the impression of a face lingered, etched into the dying light of his thoughts. Lyra. Her warmth, her tears, the feel of her hand in his - real in a way nothing else had been in centuries. He’d given everything to protect her. To save her.He thought it had been the end. But something remained. A flicker. An ember buried beneath the ash.He reached for it - not with hands, but with the fragile echo of thought. There was no body here. No form. Just awareness stretched thin like dying flame. The divine part of him - once radiant and vengeful - was crumbling.
Nyxar POV The corridor felt quieter than it had ever been. As if the walls themselves held their breath, watching the once-immortal god relearn the rhythm of mortality. Nyxar leaned slightly against Lyra as they moved - her arm steady beneath his, her touch warm and sure.He paused beside one of the archways, exhaling slow. The torchlight flickered over his face, casting golden highlights into the dark growth of stubble along his jaw.“I need to see it,” he murmured. “The old sanctuary. The ruins.”Lyra turned her face toward him, brows lifting. “Now?”Nyxar’s gaze was distant, tethered to memory and something deeper - pulling at him like the moon pulled at tides. But then hiis stomach growled. Loud and unmistakable.He blinked. She blinked. And then she laughed.Not the soft, guarded sound he’d grown used to, but a real laugh - light and almost surprised, like she hadn't expected it from herself.He glanced down at his own stomach and muttered, “Apparently, being mortal comes with i
Nyxar POVThe wind whispered through the crumbling bones of the temple, stirring dust and leaves like forgotten prayers. Shadows clung to the corners of the broken sanctuary, quiet and still, as if holding their breath.Nyxar sat on the edge of the old altar, elbows resting on his knees, eyes cast toward the open ceiling where a single shaft of sunlight pierced through the cracked stone above. Lyra was nearby - silent, present. She didn’t fill the space with questions or noise. She simply was. Her stillness steadied him more than she likely realized.He drew a breath, deep and grounding. The scent of old stone, ash, and moss filled his lungs.This place had once been sacred. Once, his kind had come here to speak to the Moon. To pray. To transform. The divine had moved in these walls.Now it was dust and ruin.Like him.He tilted his head back, eyes slipping closed. The mark along his forearm - once the seal of his divinity - was dull now. No longer a flare of power. No longer a curse
Lyra didn’t speak.She stepped quietly to the side and settled onto a patch of moss, legs folded beneath her, spine straight as a sentinel. The moonlight slid in through the broken rafters above, painting her hair in silver. Her presence was steady - not pressing, not retreating. Just there. She could Nyxar stayed kneeling, fingers grazing the fractured stone where once an altar had stood tall and gleaming with divine light. His hand traced the worn runes, fingers slipping over grooves long eroded by wind and time.“This is where I fell,” he said after a while, voice low. “Not in battle. Not before a blade. Here. In the temple.”Lyra looked toward him, but said nothing. She didn’t need to.“I was given a choice.” His gaze fixed on the stones. “To let them die… or to fall. Become immortal. To give up the throne. My power. My life. My mortality. Everything.”His jaw tightened. “I didn’t hesitate. Not for one breath. I gave it all for them. For the ones who cried out in my name.”“And
Nyxar POV The corridor felt quieter than it had ever been. As if the walls themselves held their breath, watching the once-immortal god relearn the rhythm of mortality. Nyxar leaned slightly against Lyra as they moved - her arm steady beneath his, her touch warm and sure.He paused beside one of the archways, exhaling slow. The torchlight flickered over his face, casting golden highlights into the dark growth of stubble along his jaw.“I need to see it,” he murmured. “The old sanctuary. The ruins.”Lyra turned her face toward him, brows lifting. “Now?”Nyxar’s gaze was distant, tethered to memory and something deeper - pulling at him like the moon pulled at tides. But then hiis stomach growled. Loud and unmistakable.He blinked. She blinked. And then she laughed.Not the soft, guarded sound he’d grown used to, but a real laugh - light and almost surprised, like she hadn't expected it from herself.He glanced down at his own stomach and muttered, “Apparently, being mortal comes with i
Nyxar’s POVThere was no pain at first.No sound. No color. Only the hollow thrum of memory drifting through a void where even time dared not exist. Here, in this formless silence, everything Nyxar had been - god, warrior, monster - unraveled.His name echoed once, a ghost of thunder across a dark sea. Then it dissolved. Nyxar. Once a name that cracked mountains and bled stars. Now, meaningless.The world beyond had vanished. Only the impression of a face lingered, etched into the dying light of his thoughts. Lyra. Her warmth, her tears, the feel of her hand in his - real in a way nothing else had been in centuries. He’d given everything to protect her. To save her.He thought it had been the end. But something remained. A flicker. An ember buried beneath the ash.He reached for it - not with hands, but with the fragile echo of thought. There was no body here. No form. Just awareness stretched thin like dying flame. The divine part of him - once radiant and vengeful - was crumbling.
Lyra POV Ekreth was gone again. For a long moment, she simply sat there, the weight of the world pressing down on her shoulders. Duty waited outside that door. An entire kingdom will look to her now - broken, battered, but victorious. They had won the war. The Harbinger was gone. The seal was locked and nothing should get through to this world.And Kane… Kane was gone too.The thought carved another raw wound through her heart. She pressed a trembling hand against her chest, as if she could hold the pieces of herself together a little longer. She was Queen. There was no one else. She can't hide here.The heavy cloak of authority settled around her shoulders. She did not look at Nyxar. She couldn’t. Not yet.A soft knock stirred the heavy silence.Lyra blinked slowly, pulling herself out of the half-daze she'd sunk into. Her fingers still curled around Nyxar’s, reluctant to let go. She didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to face whatever waited beyond this quiet, broken moment.Th
Lyra POV The door clicked softly shut behind Ekreth, leaving her alone with Nyxar and the sound of her own heartbeat.For a long time, she didn't move.She sat there, hands folded on her lap, staring at the slow, steady rise and fall of his chest beneath the blanket. Each breath was a fragile miracle. A proof that he still lived - that he hadn't slipped away entirely into whatever place gods went when they died."You stayed", Thalia murmured inside her, voice warm and thick with emotion."I had to."Lyra answered numbly."No, Lyra. You chose to."Lyra's chest ached at the words.She hadn't thought about it. Not really. When Nyxar’s light began to break apart, when the world had turned inside out - she had moved without hesitation. Without calculation. As if something inside her had already decided long before she knew it herself.But that didn't mean she understood it. Or that she wanted to.A heavy silence filled her mind."He matters to you", Thalia said softly, without accusation.
Lyra POV The silence that followed didn’t feel like peace. It felt like the world had forgotten how to breathe.Stone dust hung in the air like smoke, fine and pale, drifting slowly down in spirals from the vaulted ceiling above. Runes that had once blazed with ancient light were now dark and broken, their power spent. Cracks split the floor like veins across a dead heart.And at the center of it all, Lyra sat on her knees in the ruins of the seal - her hands tangled in Nyxar’s coat, her breath coming in ragged, uneven pulls.He was warm. That was the only thing she could hold onto.He was warm.His chest rose and fell beneath her fingers, slow but steady. His body, usually tense with power, now felt strangely soft in her arms - boneless, weighty. And his face…His face looked peaceful.Not serene. Not untouched. There were shadows under his eyes, ash on his skin, and gold still faintly glowing at the corners of his mouth. But there was no pain now. No fight left in him.Just… peace
Nyxar POVThe earth still quaked when the light began to fade. Not with the blinding fury of battle, nor with the blood-red chaos of war - but with something quieter. Heavier. Like the echo of a heartbeat after it stops.A sacred breath held too long… finally exhaled.Nyxar stood at the heart of the chamber beneath the castle - boots braced against fractured stone, the runes beneath his feet flickering like dying stars. The seal pulsed in front of him, threads of gold and shadow unraveling into the dark like veins torn open.Ekreth stood beside him, tall and monstrous in his truest form - wrought of shadow and old bone, his wings hunched tight against the low ceiling, scraping stone as they twitched.The air thrummed with old power. The kind that didn’t belong to the world above.Nyxar didn’t flinch.And before them in one moment the gate was gone. No fire. No rupture. No tearing in the fabric of the world. Just… closed. Like it had never been there at all.Nyxar’s chest was a war dru
Lyra POV - Dawn The sky held no warmth when morning came.It broke over the horizon like a blade - pale and cold, slicing through the hush that had settled over the city. No birds sang. No bells rang. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.Lyra stood alone in the highest tower, watching the first light seep into the edges of the world. The city still slept below, curled into itself like a creature trying to heal. She could see the rooftops where ivy climbed, the market square where sweetbread had been shared, the fountains where pups had splashed. All the places that had made her heart ache the night before.Her eyes were dry now. Her chest hollowed and quiet, the way it always felt after grief had burned itself down to embers.The shirt she’d held all night was gone. Folded. Left behind. Like a prayer she couldn’t take with her.She wasn’t bringing Kane into this. This was hers to carry. This was her moment to end what First Queen couldn't. Gave up what gods turn her into.The rit