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.”
“Star?” Leo whispered in confusion.
Before he could truly ask a question, or Jordan could answer one, Cynara called out again. “Please, Leo, what’s happening? I’m afraid.”
Just the sound of his voice hurt his heart, and he moved again to come closer so he could hold her, but after two steps, she shrank back again from his swirling light because it was too painful. He was just about to cry out in frustration and ask Jordan what he should do when the pale ghost of a man walked past him, picked her up from the ground, and embraced the girl instead.
“Shhhh…” he whispered, soothing the crying girl while he stroked her hair. At that moment, Leo’s jealousy bordered on the volcanic, and the fires around him swirled that much more fiercely, but he still didn’t step toward her. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.
“Leo has done a great and terrible thing,” Jordan told her. “He has slain a terrible evil, but in doing so, he’s broken free of the bonds of mortality.”
“What does that mean?” Cynara asked. “Is he going to die?”
“Everything dies one day,” Jordan answered, “But I don’t think that’s what's happening here. He’s liable to outlive you and me. He’s just becoming something more. ”
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“But I don’t want something more; I just want my Leo back!” Her tears hurt Leo like a physical blow, but all he could do was stand there and smolder. He knew that if he moved towards her, she would only move away again.
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He steeled himself for the bad news he was exacting. He thought sure that Jordan was going to tell her that was impossible, but that’s not what he said. Instead, the ghost of the mage answered, “I think I can make that happen, but only for a little while. Come the dawn, my powers will wane, and his… well, there will be no stopping him them.”
The pale mage then did something even more unexpected and cast a spell. It was longer and more complex than the ones he’d seen Jordan cast before, but it was a sight to behold. For a moment, Cynara was wrapped in a gossamer web of auroras and starlight as whatever Jordan did to her took hold. After that, though, there was only the faintest pale glow around the edge of her.
“Go to him,” Jordan said, “I will do what I can for the survivors.”
Neither Leo nor Cynara needed any encouragement, and they ran to each other. As he got closer and closer to her, the light that had reached out to her before became flames as she got closer, but no matter how fiercely they swirled around her, her tattered dress did not burst into flames. Instead, the magic aura that Jordan had given her held back the worst of it, and even when they embraced, she didn’t flinch or cry out in pain.
She didn’t say anything at all, and neither did he. They were too busy kissing instead. This should have been all they’d done tonight after their ceremony, but instead, the day had been ruined by blood, battle, and the deaths of so many. He couldn’t think about any of that right now, though. All he could think about was the way she felt in his arms as gratitude for the fact that she at least had survived overwhelmed him.
It was several minutes before the conversation was anything like coherent speech. For a while, all they did was hold each other and express their feelings with small pet names and tender caresses. They should have been celebrating their honeymoon, not dealing with whatever this was, but there was nothing for it though.
“What are we going to do?” she asked finally.
“I don’t know,” he answered truthfully, “But I knew that no matter what happens, I’ll never leave you. Not truly. I’ll find a way to stay by your side somehow.”
“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.