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Ash feels Sera tensing when he goes to feed and knows that more happened in Dalos than she’s letting on. He hopes she will tell him eventually. He mentions that every Primal felt her Ascension and makes her understand that they’ll deal with whatever comes. Together.

He comes clean about why he didn’t take her as his Consort initially. Part of it was to keep her unknown to Kolis, but also because he had a dream the night she was born. It was her at her lake, smiling at him. Then, he saw her dying, and him destroying everything. It terrified him so much he had his kardia removed right before he brought Sera to Iliseeum.

He laments what his choices meant for her life and insists he was a coward. She denies it, but he tells her what the vision showed him. His actions showed that he’d fallen in love. So, he tried to stop it. He tells her he fell in love anyway, and she tells him she felt more than love when he held her in the lake. Ash says there’s only one reason for that. They’re heartmates.

He talks about how when the Arae see threads of fate joining, they cannot intervene. He says their joined souls created the first-ever Queen of the Gods. They talk about the Arae pushing the boundaries of what’s allowed and what’s considered interference.

When Sera goes out onto the balcony, he follows her, and they take in the life that’s returning to the realm.

Ash and Sera share declarations of love, and he tells her that he wants them to trust each other, adding that he’ll always see her as strong no matter what. He hints that he thinks he knows what happened to her in Dalos, and they talk more about Rhain. She urges Ash not to do or say anything about what happened when her plans were first revealed. He agrees.

Sera tells Ash what Holland really said to her the day he came with Penellaphe. That love is more powerful than the Fates. They think and talk about how powerful life is.

She asks Ash to tell her again that he loves her, and he does. Repeatedly. Happily. And then they make love.

EYTHOS †

Primal of Life turned Primal of Death

Court: Dalos to The Shadowlands

Hair: Shoulder-length. Black.

Eyes: Silver.

Facial features: Bronze skin. Strong jaw. Broad cheekbones. Straight nose. Wide mouth.

Personality: Clever. Strategic. Wise. Kind. Generous. Fair. Protective.

Habits/Mannerisms/Strengths/Weaknesses: Fascinated by silver hawks. Partial to wolves—can even shift into one. Fascinated by life—especially mortals.

Other: Not able to see souls but knew their names and lives. Things that represent him = silver, winged masks like the silver hawk.

Background: Was the Primal God of Life until Kolis switched fates; then he became the Primal God of Death.

Family: Consort = Mycella †. Son = Nyktos. Twin = Kolis.

EYTHOS’S JOURNEY TO DATE:

My knowledge of Eythos only comes in the form of stories. So, that is how I shall relay Eythos’s journey…

A very long time ago, a powerful Primal befriended the dragons. He wanted to learn their stories, and being young, was rather impulsive. He knew one way to talk to them was to give them a voice by bestowing on them a godly form—allowing them to shift between the two. This Primal was Eythos, the then Primal God of Life. But the draken aren’t the only creatures the young god gave dual lives to.

Eythos had an identical twin—Kolis. One brother was fated to represent life, and the other death. Eythos was the Primal of Life, and Kolis was the Primal of Death. They ruled together for eons as they were meant to. Until…Kolis fell in love. Or, more accurately, he became obsessed.

But things began even before that. It all started long before Lasania was even a kingdom in the mortal realm. It’s unknown if the relationship between the brothers was always strained, or if there was peace between them at one time. Regardless, they were always competitive. And there was also an issue of jealousy.

The Primal God of Life was worshipped and loved by gods and mortals alike, and Eythos was a fair King, kind and generous. He was fascinated with all life, especially the mortals. Even when he became the Primal God of Death—which I’ll get to in a minute—he was awed by everything mortals could accomplish in what even gods would consider an incredibly short time. He interacted with them, as many Primals did at the time.

Kolis, on the other hand, was respected but feared and never really welcomed as a necessary step in life, a doorway to the next stage. When Kolis entered the mortal realm, those who saw him cowered and refused to look him in the eye.

On one trip, Kolis saw a beautiful young woman picking flowers for her sister’s wedding. This woman was named Sotoria. Kolis watched her, and it was love at first sight. He was utterly besotted with her and stepped out of the trees to speak with the beauty. Back then, mortals knew what the Primal God of Death looked like since paintings and sculptures captured his features, just like his brother’s, the Primal God of Life. Sotoria knew who Kolis was when he approached her and ran away in fear, plummeting to her death from the Cliffs of Sorrow.

Kolis begged Eythos to restore Sotoria’s life, an act Eythos could do and had done in the past as the Primal God of Life, but he had rules that governed when he granted life. One of those guidelines was that he would not take a soul from the Vale. Yes, Sotoria had died young and far too soon, but she had accepted her death. Her soul arrived in the Shadowlands, passed through the Pillars, and entered the Vale within minutes of her death. And Eythos would not pull a soul from the Vale. It was wrong and forbidden to both him and Kolis.

Eythos tried to remind his brother of that. When that failed, he attempted to get Kolis to understand that it wasn’t fair to grant life to one, only to refuse another of equal worth. But that was also one of Eythos’s flaws. He believed he could decide if a person was worthy or not. And maybe as the Primal God of Life, he could… But still.

Maybe it was hubris, but Eythos didn’t realize his power could be turned on him—especially not by his brother. If he hadn’t used his gift on the mortals, then perhaps Kolis wouldn’t have expected him to do it with Sotoria. But Eythos’s refusal to do as his twin asked with the woman he believed he loved started everything—hundreds of years of pain and suffering for many innocents. Eons of Eythos regretting what he chose and chose not to do.