Part III The Fate & The Ruin
THEIR STORY BEGAN WITH A dream and ended in a nightmare.
In this world they loved best, where magic evolved with every phase of the moon and the eclipse unveiled yet more wonders to behold, they would not be known as the Tides of Fate and the Shadow of Ruin for some time yet.
They were just two lonely deities at first, idealistic artists seeking connection through creation.
They were each other’s muse, and their shared love of magic and desire for innovation inspired many, until they had a great following of devoted disciples eager to mold the world in their image.
There was none more faithful than the keen-eyed girl who followed them around like the little sister neither of them ever had.
Two beauty marks on her cheek looked like a sun and moon in eclipse, denoting her love for both deities, her understanding of all magics, her curiosity about all things godly.
She was the first to see the cracks in the foundation of their relationship, the jealousy that set in like rot.
The rupture that eventually occurred between them split the girl down the middle, her loyalties divided, yet neither deity seemed to want her by their side anymore.
The Tides called for the expulsion of Tidecallers from the world, though they told the girl this separation would be for the best. The Shadow marched on the godsworld without her, claiming he’d cut her out of his plan to keep her safe.
All she heard from them was dismissal, and it broke her heart.
It was in this final hour that the girl was visited by a vision of what would ensue: the splintering of the Tides, the imprisonment of the Shadow, the shutting of doors between worlds with the blood of her own peers.
There was no time to stop any of it, no way to warn anyone. The girl only had time to save herself.
She was alone now with the secret of a magic that the higher gods believed they had eradicated. A Tidecaller without Tides left to call on, nor Shadow to answer to. But they would one day return, this much she knew.
Fate and ruin, she had come to understand, were symbiotic. Intrinsically tied. Neither could ever truly be rid of the other, and this, she feared, would lead to their mutual demise.