Chapter 55
Tethys knew she’d left her physical body somewhere behind, because her toes were numb to the grains of sand between them.
The blazing midday sun reflected off the rolling sea-swells like a blanket weaved from glittering diamonds.
At least she’d stayed in the southern realm.
Navigating back to her body wouldn’t be too difficult.
She scanned the beach, its shoreline ebbing and flowing with the rising tide.
The water, however, slithered and writhed in unnatural directions.
Like breath from something ancient come to life.
A veil shimmered over the curving sand dunes to her left.
She recognized this place, but the memory was fleeting and refused to be pinned down. Although her earthly body called for her, begging her to fill its empty voids once more, she ignored its pleas. It was warm here. Quiet. Her muted thoughts weren’t a constant attack on her mind.
A rounded mound, embedded in sand, shimmered in the distance. Tethys started down the beach, her footsteps leaving no prints as she walked.
The mound, she realized, was a temple—sunken so far into the earth its entrance only stood at shoulder height.
Just as the Centaurian Cliffs, a current of ancient energy hummed through the salt-crusted air as she approached the white marble doorway.
Two massive golden handles gleamed in the intense midday light.
They, just like this temple, were so familiar, but her memories were jostled and distant.
Was she wrong for coming here? For disturbing whatever lay locked away, sealed from time itself?
Tethys shuddered as she placed a wary hand on the handle’s base.
A shimmer rippled over her skin, as if its ward knew she was an imposter.
Glittering waves crashed along the shoreline, roaring like a warning in Tethys’s ears.
Now or never, she thought, giving the door a tug. The ancient hinges squealed with protest as darkness seeped into light. The temple’s shadowy vestibule was damp and cold and ancient. Sand and salt crusted its walls, diffusing every noise, even the smallest groan of decaying wood.
Tethys picked up a long-since forgotten torch.
It lit in her hand. Her touch alone ignited a spark.
The embers flickered then blazed to life, banishing the surrounding shadows with amber firelight.
She continued into the temple cautiously.
They’d been fools to descend so blindly into the cave system below Centaurus.
Regardless of what realm or time or universe she’d found herself in, Tethys wouldn’t make that mistake again.
The echo of rushing water reverberated through the tunnels.
Somewhere below, the ocean must have found its way in.
She sucked in a breath, thinking of Araes lying unconscious in that dark cavern, and continued forward.
Whatever awaited her in the shadows, she’d face, because she knew, down to the marrow of her bones, that he wouldn’t hesitate.
The lieutenant plowed through flames for her.
Sank into darkness for her. Broke nearly every damned bone in his body for her.
She’d do this for him.
Each footstep sent the shadows slithering with warm amber hues as the hallway opened into a massive, cavernous ballroom.
Sconces, forged from the same gold as the temple’s entrance, traveled up the walls in vertical lines, reaching a high, curved ceiling adorned with hanging crystals and charms. No, not hanging—floating.
Nothing tethered the ornate objects from above; they simply hovered there in open space.
Tethys’s breath snagged as she took in the vastness of the room.
She’d been so lost in thought, so focused on reaching its ending, she hadn’t noticed the subtle shift in the hallway as she descended into the earth.
Centuries ago, she supposed this place would’ve stood at least ten stories high.
But time and decay were cruel, relentless beasts, sinking the temple’s memory into the coastline.
Her torch met the sconce to her left, burning away the dust and cobwebs, and it roared to life.
Heat from its flames crawled up the line, igniting each ornate, gilded sconce in its path.
With a whoosh of blazing light, the darkness melted away.
Patterns of black and white tiles traversed the floor, connecting with one another at the room’s center.
At the far end of the ballroom sat a simple throne carved from a single block of marble.
Her bare feet padded across the cracked sand coated tiles as she made for the dais. She approached the throne, her blood pumping through her body a million miles a second. Shadows writhed and wriggled down the walls, like spirits come to life.
“Why have you summoned me, little goddess?” A rasping female voice bounced from wall to wall, thin as the oceanic breeze, yet thicker than smoke all at once.
Tethys froze mid step, her heartbeat skipping like a stone across water. Her eyes darted from shadow to shadow, desperately trying to find the body attached to those words. The voice was familiar, but like her memories of this place, its owner hid just out of reach.
“Where are you? Show yourself,” she demanded, curling her fists at her sides.
The voice laughed. Its sound washed over her like morning dew—seeping into her skin until it flowed through every vein.
“I am nowhere, but also everywhere. I am in the ground but also in the sky. Tell me, my love, why have you called on me?” it asked. Shivers, like a mother’s embrace, ran down the back of her neck.
“Please, show yourself. Who are you?!” she repeated, whirling around to face the invisible hand trailing down her shoulder.
Footsteps echoed to her left, then to her right. Then behind her, but also in front of her. The click of heels on tile pounded in her chest, like an army surrounding her at all sides.
“Do you seek my gate? Do you seek my fate? Do you seek the truth and all of its lies?” The voice spoke in riddles that sent Tethys’s heart crawling up her throat. She searched for the voice’s holder in her deepest memories stored, and yet the face was nothing but a white blur.
“Show me who you are and I’ll tell you anything you wish to know,” she replied, scanning the spirited shadows dancing across the walls.
“I am no enemy, yet also no ally. I simply am. But you knew that already,Goddess. I am no stranger to your memory.” The voice rippled through the chamber once more.
Tethys stilled.
“You’re right, I do know who you are,” Tethys whispered. Somewhere buried beneath flesh, bone, and blood, a memory unlocked.
She’d recognized this place, this voice, and suddenly she understood. Why Obscuros, even before her Arrival, always refused to meet her curious eyes. Why her connection with Altair always felt too faint, too distant. Why Polaris acted strange, shrouding her research in mystery.
Why her realm never found peace.
“Speak your truths, dear child.” The whisper wrapped itself around her, casting out the chill coursing through her veins.
“I recognize your voice…because I heard you. The day of my birth. The day you held me in your arms. Eos,” Tethys breathed. “My mother.”
The throne glowed with a faint golden light as the room hummed—like Eos’s spirit siphoned her magic from their very walls. The crystals overhead shivered and a seated figure swirled to life atop the white marble.
It took form slowly, revealing wild curls and a slender female body. Eos’s golden hair, the same striking shade as Tethys’s, flowed around her frame and fell just below her waist. The primordial’s eyes glowed like a pair of twin topaz gems in the sconce light.
Tethys dropped to her knees and crossed a fist over her chest, just as the Venians did. Just as Araes did. Eos tapped an elegant foot and cocked her head in curious amusement.
“There’s no need for such honor, love,” the primordial said, bracing her head in her open palm. “You’ve grown into a most powerful woman.”
Energy coursed through Tethys’s entire body, as if the floodgates collapsed and sheer primordial aether poured through her.
She couldn’t possibly remember the day of her birth, but every misaligned piece of her history snapped into place and she knew more than anything that her mother—her true mother, sat before her.
“How is it possible? You made your sacrifice centuries before my birth. I…” Tethys trailed off, unanswered questions churning and roiling through her.
“Unlike your siblings, dearest, you were not born of the physical world. While they were born surrounded by brick and ocean and air, you were born here. Soil and water constructed their bones whereas starlight and sunbeams built yours.” Eos rose to her feet, and with silent footsteps, closed the distance between them.
Her eyes glittered with a warmth Tethys hadn’t ever known before, as she tucked a stray curl behind the goddess’s ear.
“The day we imprisoned Vorthal, Astraeus and I knew the only way to seal the gate was for us to hold it closed on this side. Although our physical forms perished, we live on here. In the Rift. Sealing the gate from this side…changed Astraeus and me, it remade us from the Rift—that essence transferred to you. Why do you think your magic never manifested? Your channel to it is sealed, locked behind the gate between realms.”
“How is this possible? How am I here…in the Rift? The gate is sealed,” Tethys asked.
“We are simply projections. Being made from the Rift, although you cannot physically cross its veil, the essence within you seeks to return. It finds its way back through dreams,” Eos replied.
“There are few beings like us that can dream walk, but all are made from the Rift. Or at least, have been touched by it—like Phosphora. A piece of her mind still lingers here. That’s how she knew of your birth. ”