Chapter 15

Nyx

The wishing God

Leaving the Path

225 Years Prior

Nyx understood parts of the Tapestry now. Her head bobbed in the water. She looked up from the muddied water that held her down and prayed her connection to Titus was enough to alert him that she was here. She closed her eyes and allowed the mud to hold her. She had stopped fighting it hours before and she did not know how much longer she would have before her brother Gore was back. She wondered if her father could see her, or any of the Paragons. Surely, they could feel her pain or Syriah could send someone to help her?

Nyx tried to enter the Shroud but she was too weak. She didn't know where Gore had found a Godblade, but he had used it to wound her. Her blood dripped from her wrists and into the muddied water, draining her of her Essence and life force. She had thought Belacrus and her father had shattered all of the blades and hidden them throughout the Ethereal and mortal realms. They were the only weapon's capable of killing a Paragon. Yet Gore had taken her, and used one against her. It was Tidebringer, a dagger the size of her forearm. She wondered absently if Maerenkin knew the blade was gone from his land?

This was never in the Tapestry, or if it had been Syriah had kept it from her. Perhaps Chaos had been collecting the blades and was coming for the Paragons now... It made sense, she believed that they all had a part in her undoing. If Gore was here it meant that Wrath would be soon.

The cavern was beneath the temples catacombs, deeper than she had ever explored within Sunshard. In some way she found herself annoyed that she had never come to find this place on her own. She considered Sunshard her city and she thought she knew everything about it. Was this it? Was it her death, and that was why her sister would not show her?

Perhaps...

She looked around her. Within the cavern was a large grotto filled with grass and peaceful butterflies. She didn't know this existed below her temple. She felt pain all over, her muscles ached in ways she hadn't experienced for decades. Her body was useless in the mud. It was binding her, and must have held some magical qualities, or she would have been able to escape it by now even injured.

She cried for a while, pitying herself. She was glad in many ways she had found Titus before her death, and saddened that she would come to lose the one chance at happiness she had. As the tears came down her cheeks she felt a deep pain seer through her throat.

A vision exploded in her eyes as she witnessed her sister being dragged from her loom.

Syriah watched Nyx, as Nyx watched her. Nyx realized the Original Mother had never given them the full message of both of their fates.

Syriah's face was painted with fear and blood. Chaos stood above her a glistening dagger in hand. Nyx thrashed in the muddied water and shouted out to her sister, "No!" Chaos could not see her, her red eyes glaring down at their sister.

"You could have changed my fate!" Chaos shouted, her red hair covering her face as she sliced open Syriah's chest with Glowglass, a clear crystal Godblade that refracted light off of it. Syriah screamed out, reaching towards Nyx. Her palm outstretched as Nyx pulled her Ethereal form from the mud trying desperately to hold her sisters hand. "You could have told me Syriah!" Chaos kicked Syriah in the stomach.

Nyx shouted as red mist formed around her tearing into Syriah's freshly opened chest wound. Syriah watched Nyx and clasped hands with her Etherial form. She felt her sisters warm hand, her energy pulsing inside of her.

"No, no Syriah, you must hold on." She told her sister. Chaos looked down at Nyx, suddenly aware of her in the Veil.

"It's a pity you can't save her Nyx." Chaos said stomping on their clasped hands. "Come find me, if you want me to let her spirit go."

Chaos's red mist absorbed Syriah, her body turning to ash and her Essence slithering into Chaos's finger tips. She felt Syriah leave her mortal body behind as her Essence entered Chaos's, blue light tendrils snapping and popping around Chaos as she took them in.

Nyx cried out, feeling not only her own pain, but Syriah's in her throat. "No!" She screamed at Chaos.

"I'm surprised you made it this far through the Veil." Chaos tissked. "I thought daddy took that from you. It must be incredibly painful for you here." She frowned sarcastically. "Go home, Gore is waiting for you." Chaos crouched down and pushed Nyx back through the Veil.

Nyx panted, holding onto a small blue string of light as she was pulled back to the elvish world. She watched as the blue light slithered up her hand like a snake, seemingly with a life of its own. It entered through her neck where she could always feel Syriah's pain and put out the throbbing sensation she had felt for millennia there. She sobbed, heaving forward. What would happen? Syriah was gone. Too much was at stake. She was captured, Syriah was absorbed by Chaos's power... She was using the God blades to capture the Paragons and absorb them for vengeance. She wondered if Chaos could harness their power? Surely not...

Nyx looked up from where she let her head dangle and watched the entry into the grotto for Gore. She screamed into the bright light of the opening above her. "Syriah!" She moaned. Without Syriah, there could be no clear ending to this war.