Page 194 of Eternal Ruin

Desta. One who brings joy.

“Let us not waste any more time. We must discuss Mot Zebeyas today.”

It was the Last Sage’s favorite word: “time.”

From the first day June met him as a child, he’d told her she was running out of it. The destruction of the world was coming, the artifacts must be kept hidden, and June must hurry and kill the person she loved most before her twenty-first birthday.

June did her best to ignore time. Even for their birthdays, June had long decided to celebrate early, steal back whatever she could from time.

Fisting her hands, June plopped down before the stone slab, staring at the book filled with pages of her own handwriting. With shaking fingers and cloudy vision, June lifted the pen and wrote a new entry.

Lessons from the Last Sage

On Mot Zebeyas

She waited, staring at the page long enough for it go blurry.

The Last Sage spoke, and her hand moved into a familiar rhythm, documenting his words.The longer a potential Sage spends time with a Mot Zebeya, the stronger their bond becomes. The Zebeya grows the need to protect and lay their life down and in turn, the Sage is protected to carry out their duty. Just as Varos the Night Lion has a blood bond with his vampires, and can compel them, a Sage shares a light bond with his Mot Zebeya army and can order them. This bond can only be solidified when one names the other. The exchange of names is a powerful vow. The Mot Zebeyas who are blessed with such faith reside in the Semain Mountains.

June’s mouth formed a line as she sensed where this was going. “I’m not going.”

She had heard about those cursed mountains all her life and had hated the House Adane pins because of it. Every time the silver eclipsed mountains twinkled on her sleeve, June’s throat closed up. The abyss waited between those mountains. Waited to swallow her into a universe she could never return from.

Swollen, dark clouds moved. The gentle wind morphing into an icy gust. The pages of June’s book struggled helplessly. She braced forward, ready for the Last Sage’s anger.

“You should have gone to the mountains years ago!”

The sky cracked with thunder, making her flinch.

“No.”June tucked her whipping braids behind her ear. “I won’t do it!”

The entire plain quaked, near collapsing in two. June clung to the stone table for dear life, teeth chattering. But she would not give in. She hadn’t for almost fifteen years, and she wouldn’t now.

Because before June went to those mountains, there was one thing she had to do.

With every ounce of strength in her shaking body, June hurled up to the lightning-struck sky. “I’m not killing my sister!”

The Last Sage’s displeasure echoed down through the bond, violent and bone shaking.

Her bottom lip trembled but she clamped down with her teeth.

“Why did you even choose me at all?” June whispered at first, then grew loud and angry. “You should have picked Kidan!”

The lightning and violent wind dropped at once. An ocean morphing into a still lake. June tensed. Sometimes the Last Sage ignored her, claiming she wasn’t ready. But what point was there in secrets now?

Their twenty-first birthday would arrive soon, and with it, a horrifying choice.

Every generation, a pair of siblings from the acti houses was chosen to fulfill the will and sacrifice set by the First Sage, Yonas the Sun Bird. June and Kidan, siblings of Adane House, were the current vessels of that will.

It was in June’s very first lesson, and the knowledge that haunted her every waking moment since.

The Last Sage’s voice returned with the sun, washing over her. His face was obscured from the great height of the pillar, but sometimes, when the sun didn’t blind her, June could make out a faint outline of a straight nose and dark eyes.

“A Sage must dislike violence and abolish darkness,” the Last Sage said. “You, June, carry a pure heart. Kidan Adane has proved herself not worthy.”

June curled her knees to her chest. She yanked out a fistful of grass, letting the breeze carry it forth.

“You want me to kill her.”