Page 56

~Ariana~

“All light is shaped by will. Yours must be absolute.”

I took Cassius’ words in as I continued with my shadow weaving.

Unfortunately, I’d had to shut everything else out, even my connection to my men and everything else on this mortal plane in order to focus fully on it.

Thankfully, although I’d been worried about doing that, I’d reached out to Kai and he’d reassured me that he and Nyx had everything under control, and that they were monitoring Vorzyr as well. So I could at least rest easy there.

I blinked back to the immediate moment, those thoughts filtering in, making my weaving shake a little.

Focus fully.

“Weaves are visual, spatial patterns made of thin threads of Celestial light,” Cassius spoke, his voice drawing me back to the moment, to our latest training session.

“We are focusing here on you learning how to control thread intention irrespective of interference from the Celestial Plane, which is what I believe you were experiencing before when you couldn’t consciously draw said threads or even remember to later interpret them. ”

“I’ve got it,” I said, as I continued to smoothy and freely draw my threads of light through the dark night sky of Meforian Forest all around us. “Tell me more about Celestial lore.”

“The most sacred Celestial laws were never forged in magic—but in will. Oaths were once upheld through unwavering intent, not enforced by spells or wards."

Hmm, that was actually really interesting.

He went on, “Celestial oaths began before the codification of magic. They were forged between beings of immense will—what the Plane once viewed as a divine trait.”

“What did that mean in practice?”

“If a being willed an oath into truth, it became binding. But over time, the Celestial Plane began distrusting free will and added magical enforcement to oaths.”

“But if will had once possessed such power, does that mean it could be that way again?”

“In theory? Perhaps. In practice? That is a highly complicated and multifaceted matter.” He smiled.

“Although, your existence and what I have come to understand of you during our time together would lend weight to it being possible in a way it hasn’t been for centuries.

” He gestured at my shadow weaving. “You are doing that, in some respect, on a small scale here, forcing your will through against the restrictions they were employing.”

“Something they can’t employ now that I have access to my full power?”

“Not only that. You are becoming stronger in yourself also. You are coming into who you were meant to be, no longer hiding or running from it.”

As I mulled over his words while continuing on with my shadow weaving, he told me more, “The Celestial Plane once acknowledged Four Types of Celestial beings—Visionaries, Guardians, Healers, and Anchors. But over time, they erased those distinctions.”

“Let me guess… out of control issues?”

“Essentially. Visionaries and Healers couldn't be controlled. Visionaries acted as prophets, seers—but often questioned doctrine. Healers drew power from empathy and instinct, not discipline or structure.” He sighed heavily. “In truth, they’ve long mistaken structure for righteousness.”

“Yeah, I’m definitely getting that message.” Loud and fucking clear.

But the important part was that he was getting it.

So much so that we were using this session both as training and as investigation into the potential Celestial threat that could be walking on the mortal plane.

The first, non-invasive way was using my shadow weaving to try to ascertain more information, or even a confirmation of such a threat.

It was the safest way without us provoking whatever the hell it was, without us tipping our hand that we were onto it—or, worse, working against the will of the Celestial Plane by seeking it out in a bid to obviously remove it.

As I continued shadow weaving, a warmth rushed through me, and it became more than drawing aimlessly in the air, more than a means to ease into it.

I felt it access something else—something more.

And then the weaves altered, becoming determined and driven by urgency.

Cassius drew closer as my weaving sped up, my hands sweeping in arcs rapidly, silver light swirling, creating a specific sigil before us.

It began as a tight silver spiral, but as it extended outward, it fractured and unraveled chaotically, breaking into fragmented arcs. Some sections appeared shattered or incomplete, seeming to mark some sort of destabilization being sensed and coming through in the form of this symbol I’d drawn.

A curse escaped Cassius and I saw him looking distressed.

“You recognize it.”

“It’s a Sundering Spiral. A symbol of disrupted fate and impending catastrophe and also the coming of something unnatural.”

“The threat… the manufactured Celestial energy you read from the magical signature of the coercion magic that was extracted from Caius.”

Cassius took a couple of staggering steps back. “ Unnatural… disrupted fate… no, it can’t be. It… it was eradicated from life and death both, from existence itself.”

I disintegrated the symbol, cleared my shadow weaving, and walked to Cassius. “What’s happening? What did you just realize?”

“It shouldn’t be possible… that’s why I didn’t bring it up… but they… they lied. It must still exist. And it’s coming… it’s coming for us all.”

A chill rolled down my spine, both at his unsettling words, and the fact that somebody as formidable and connected to the Celestial Plane actually looking terrified.

“What is? What’s coming?” I pushed.

“I’m not absolutely certain, but if—”

His words ended on a grunt, and then he was doubling over.

I was right there with him in the next second, a sharp pain shooting through my gut that had me slapping my hand to a nearby tree to steady myself.

“A… destabilization… to the… balance,” Cassius rasped. “A… colossal one.”

Thunder rumbled above and I looked to see the clouds drawing together unnaturally.

In the next second, flash lightning ripped through the sky and it opened, torrential rain belting down on the ground and soaking us to the bone in seconds.

That awful sensation abated enough for Cassius and I to step forward and call our power instinctively, our palms at the ready.

And then at the opposite end of the clearing, black shimmering light erupted, cutting through the fabric of reality itself.

I jolted as a hand punched its way through.

Black lightning erupted from the severance, and then an entire being broke through, stepping onto the grass, the magical slice closing behind them.

The being stood like a storm forged in flesh, his skin pulsing with golden fissures from within like molten cracks. They formed jagged patterns across every inch of his sculpted frame. Each line throbbed with power.

His eyes were a glowing black, sharp and predatory, burning with an unnatural intensity.

He was wearing only an animal skin that hung like a towel low on his hips, his bare feet sinking into the now sodden ground.

I shuddered at the sheer power radiating off him, the dark and unsettling energy emanating forth with it.

I’d never felt anything like it.

The strange being’s gaze flicked to Cassius and he sniffed the air.

His eyes narrowed with barely checked ferocity. “You’re one of them.”

“Who are you?” I called over.

A rumble escaped him. “A paradox.” His attention shifted to me, his gaze softening noticeably, albeit his body still primed in a ready-for-anything state. “You may call me Ketheron.” His lip curled, his features twisting in the process. “ Kindred.”

He took a step toward me.

A mere step was all he managed before Cassius fired his white power.

Ketheron snarled like a beast and dodged out of its path with the ease and speed of an Ancient vampire.

How the—

A blast of gold power surged and slammed into Cassius, sending him hurtling through the forest, slamming into and downing tree after tree in the process.

Oh my God.

That was all the reaction I got, all I was allowed to process, before Ketheron ran at me, growling and roaring like an animal, the forest floor reverberating beneath his feet, his gold magic surging toward me.

I raised my palms and called my magic forth defensively.

But then the wave hit, tearing right fucking through it.

Through True Celestial power!

How?

How was this happening?

His power hit me in the gut and I smashed into a tree with such force that it nearly ripped from its roots.

He was there in the next second, wrapping his hand around my throat, and jolting my whole body like I was nothing but a rag doll.

As I choked, I stared up hazily at those glowing black eyes.

“ Kindred,” he rumbled once again, the urgency taking him over causing his grip around my throat to tighten so much that I couldn’t draw in a breath.

The last thing I saw was a flash of familiar silver light before everything slipped away.

To be continued in MANTLE