LOGINEscuridade pulled back just enough to look Escuro in the eyes, her expression fierce and raw. “I am already stained, Escuro. there is no running back to the light for me.” Her hands moved to his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart beneath his robes. “So, we are in this together?” he asked, looking for reassurance. She did not answer with words. Instead, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his– not a soft kiss, but something desperate and hungry, as
Escuridade pulled back just enough to look Escuro in the eyes, her expression fierce and raw. “I am already stained, Escuro. there is no running back to the light for me.” Her hands moved to his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart beneath his robes. “So, we are in this together?” he asked, looking for reassurance. She did not answer with words. Instead, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his– not a soft kiss, but something desperate and hungry, as if she could pull the truth of his soul into hers through sheer force of will. When she finally broke away, her breathing was shallow, her purple eyes luminous in the dim light. “Together,” she said, the word firm and final. “Until the end comes for us, or for it. Whichever happens first.”Escuridade rested her forehead against Escuro’s, her hands sliding up to cup his face. The shadows in the room had settled, no longer swirling in agitation but resting qui
Escuridade took a single step forward, her purple eyes never leaving his. The amaryllises at her feet pulsed with the same deep, rhythmic crimson, as if acknowledging him. “What did you find down there?” she pressed, her tone demanding. “And do not give me another riddle.” “It does not matter,” Escuro said simply. “I have what I need to defeat the Santo Order.” His red eyes landed on her, drinking in every detail. “You should join me,” he said suddenly. The offer hung in the air between them, as heavy and sudden as a lightning strike. She stared at him, her mouth slightly open, her mind racing to catch up with the sheer audacity of his words. “Join you,” she repeated, the words tasting like ash. “You mean join your little crusade against the Santo Order. You mean paint a target on my back once again.” Escuridade laughed, a short, bitter sound that had no humour in it. She paced a
“You made a deal with a being that is seeking its own extinction,” Escuridade said into the fabric of his robes, her voice muffled. “And you think that is a stable foundation for a war?” she pulled back just enough to look up at him, her expression weary. “I was surprised too,” Escuro admitted. “Then it said it wanted to join them… I think it mean its family.” Her hands which had been resting against his chest, went still. She stared at him, her purple eyes wide and searching, as if trying to decipher a language she had never heard. “Join them,” she repeated, the words tasting strange in her mouth. “Its family.” She pulled away from his completely, stepping back until she hit the wall.The chill of the stone seeped through Escuridade’s robes. Her mind raced, truing to connect the dots– the vision of the woman and child, the burning, the red amaryllises and now this ancient entity wantin
Suddenly the image changed and the two figures were engulfed in tall flames that surged upward around the figures without completely engulfing them, forming a jagged wall of orange and gold. Smaller tongues of fire creep across the ground in front of the bodies, weaving between the amaryllis stems and licking at the edges of the white sheets. And then we were plunged into darkness. Escuridade stared at Escuro’s outstretched hand, her fingers twitching. “It spoke to you,” she repeated, her voice flat, stripped of its earlier anger. “What did it say?” she did not reach for his hand. Instead, she leaned forward, her purple eyes locked onto his, searching for the subtle shifts in his expression that might betray a hidden truth. “Escuro, if something like that is loose in the world– something that can show visions, something that can reach out to a man’s mind– then we are not just fighting a war. We are being hunter.&
Slowly, Escuridade’s fingers uncurled from her trembling hands. Her shoulders dropped, and she leaned into him, her forehead resting against his arm. “I am not… I am not fine,” she muttered, her voice muffled and stripped of its usual edge. She sounded so small. Exhausted. She closed her eyes, letting the silence of the cleared space wash over her. The adrenaline was receding, leaving behind a bone-deep ache that made her limps feel like lead. For the first time in years, she was not looking over her shoulder. She was just being held. “Do not get used to it,” she muttered. “I will not,” Escuro whispered and gentle stroked her hair. “Look,” he said, looking at the Amaryllis. Escuridade’s gaze drifted toward the ground, and her breath caught. The Amaryllis we no longer just vibrant; they were pulsing. A deep, rhythmic crimson seeped from their petals, staining the dark soil around them like fresh w
The word hit Escuridade like a physical strike. Vengeance. It was not just a concept anymore; it was a fuel. The memory of the fire, the small of burning wood and something more precious, the way the smoke had filled her lungs as she watched her life turn to ask– it all surged forward, coalescing into a single, sharp point of will. Her purple eyes snapped open, and they were no longer wide with fear. They were hard, focused, and burning with a cold, incandescent light. “You are right,” she spat, her voice steadying even as the black energy lashed at her skin. “I am done being small.” She pushed back against the dome, not with the desperation of a victim, but with the calculated force of someone striking a blow. Escuridade reached deeper into her own magic, pulling at the threads of her survival instinct and weaving them into something sharper, something meant to cut. The dome shivered. A hairline fracture, no wider than a needle&rsq
The moment Amelia turned her back; something shifted in Luz’s posture. His gauntleted fingers tightened around the reins, the black leather groaning in protest. The crimson glow in his eyes intensified for a fraction of a second– a visible tremor running through his as if an unseen current had ju
“Found a way?” his voice rose sharply, echoing in the black tent. “There was no way! You think I wanted to abandon you? To watch you grown up without me while I became this… this monster?” he gestured wildly at his corrupted form, at the dark marks creeping up his neck and the crimson sigils puls
“What in the bloody hell are you doing here?” Luz’s voice emerged rougher than intended, betraying both anger and something deeper he couldn’t quite name. His grip tightened on the hilt until his knuckles turned white against the black veins crawling up his fingers. “Luz?” Amelia asked softly, he
The Corrompido army settled into a makeshift encampment along a mountainside, their tents scattering amongst the gravestones of an old graveyard. Luz dismounted near a cluster of officers’ tents, his shadow-dark horse whickering softly as it was led away by a Corrompido soldier. He moved with pra







