Chapter 25 Nyte
Nyte
Astraea slept, and while my mind spun in turmoil over leaving her just as I’d embraced her in my arms again, I couldn’t shake what I’d learned about my father from Auster’s mind.
I had to discover if it was true, and worse, if he’d already succeeded in his plan.
After lulling her mind into a deep sleep, hoping she wouldn’t wake until I returned, I headed down to the bottom level of Nadir’s home, finding the mage lounging by the fire, pipe in hand.
“I’m beginning to think you don’t sleep,” I commented.
“I usually catch a few hours before dawn rises. My thoughts are too important to silence for too long.”
Something about them pricked the hairs over my body. Not in fear, but certainly with a note of caution.
“You’re looking for your brother, I presume. He’s outside with his dragon, waiting for you.”
I frowned out the window but could hardly make out a thing in the thick dark. The clouds smothered the moon tonight.
“How would he know I was coming?”
“Your father needs to be stopped before the gods truly walk our lands.”
I approached Nadir, staring as if they were a puzzle I couldn’t figure out. “Does the plant you smoke give you clairvoyance?”
Nadir chuckled, the sound turning to a cough as they set the pipe aside. Their vivid green eyes shifted up to me. “There are many gifts in this world; we couldn’t begin to comprehend them all.”
I hadn’t failed to notice how many hidden weapons Nadir harbored around their home.
Subtle utensils made of stormstone, lethal to the vampires, or obsidian, deadly to the celestials.
Various herbs disguising the cosmic plant, nebulora, also harmful to the celestials.
It made me wonder what else they could be hiding, what other materials they could have discovered or created that only served to harm one species or another.
“You do not trust me,” Nadir said, glancing at me like I was a book to read.
“I wouldn’t trust anyone with an armory disguised as a gentle home.”
Nadir smiled broadly. “Very observant.”
I kept my guard firm around them, but I couldn’t deny they’d been invaluable for shelter for all of us when we needed it most.
Just then, Drystan burst in through the front door. His eyes found me with relief.
“You know where Father is, don’t you?”
“I think so,” I said grimly.
“Then what are we waiting for—let’s go eradicate one foe while we can.”
“He’s heading to North Star.”
That straightened Drystan’s posture.
I added, “If he’s not already there, or worse, already been and achieved what he’d planned.”
Nadir said, “He means to use the Mirror of Passage to summon the Gods of Dusk and Dawn and give them mortal forms long enough for them to kill the star-maiden.”
The gravity of that fate slammed down on us all. Fury boiled in my very bones.
“We need to get there before he does,” Drystan said, already marching out.
I cast one last look at Nadir as I followed my brother out, not entirely at ease leaving Astraea under their roof. But I did trust Zath and the others to protect her fiercely while she was healing and vulnerable.
Outside, we found Nadia by Athebyne, casually stroking the giant dragon’s leg.
“You don’t get to have this fun without me,” she said, mounting by the rope hanging over the saddle.
My flat look was met with Drystan’s shrug. “Another sword hand can’t hurt.”
“She’s your responsibility,” I grumbled.
Drystan smirked, heading toward his dragon. “She’s her own responsibility.”
The island of North Star rose like a dream from the vast expanse of the ocean, its silhouette both serene and imposing against the horizon. Small yet striking, the island was crowned with jagged, mist-cloaked mountains that stretched skyward, their peaks kissed by an eternal shimmer of starlight.
To the west, near the cliffs, ancient stone markers stood in silent rows, weathered by time but unyielding, their carvings glowing faintly with the rays of the moon.
Legends whispered that these were sentinels, guarding the secrets of North Star’s ethereal presence, and that the island itself was a beacon—not just for sailors lost at sea, but for those seeking the kind of truths only the stars could reveal.
The temple holding the ancient Mirror of Passage stood proudly guarded by these stones.
The dragons flew low, preparing to land, and I wasn’t concerned about being spotted in Althenia as this island was free land, not ruled over by any of the four High Celestials and uninhabited by mortal creatures.
North Star was where Drystan had planned to take me to cross realms through the artifact called the Mirror of Passage.
It had taken a long time to discover its existence when I was searching for a way back to my birth realm.
Leaving was the only solution I had left to give Astraea a chance to rebuild her world when she returned to land, but it seemed fate wasn’t done with our story yet.
I had allowed myself to be tricked by my father instead, when he claimed to take me to the passage, only to trap me behind a veil under the castle’s library where I remained a long, torturous century before Astraea came back to land.
My father’s mind was strong and guarded against my ability to infiltrate them, but that wasn’t what had kept the knowledge of the passage from me.
He’d found a mage capable of wiping small parts of memory, and he’d erased the location of the mirror, knowing if I found it, I could leave him anytime.
It was Drystan who had finally discovered the mage our father went to all that time ago and found the location of the mirror in North Star.
Unfortunately for me, it was after I had been tricked into imprisonment, and Drystan despised me, dangling that knowledge before me when I was helpless to act.
Then Astraea came back, and I couldn’t deny a selfish part of me was glad I’d never found out where the passage was …
the moment I saw her I knew I would watch cities burn and worlds collapse to keep her this time.
As soon as we landed, a sense of magick and dread tightened my skin. We dismounted at the same time, but all of our attention fixed on the temple between the sentinel stones.
“As pretty as this place is, I have a real chilling feeling,” Nadia said, rubbing her arms.
It had nothing to do with the temperature that froze the surrounding grass and clouded their breath. The sight was breathtaking, and for a moment I was distracted by the thought of how Astraea would adore this place.
It wasn’t me who was arrogant enough to stroll nonchalantly between the ancient stones toward the temple. My body tensed watching Nadia as if she might slam into an invisible shield against outsiders, but she made it right to the doors, which we all now noticed were ajar.
“We’re not alone,” Drystan said. Still, he headed confidently toward Nadia.
It had been wishful thinking that we’d arrive before our father to intercept this dire plan, but we might not be too late to stop him from completing it.
The metallic scent of blood drifted to us immediately past the threshold. The beauty of the outside was now tainted in sin.
At the end of the dark passage, the oppressive shadows fell away, and the space opened into a spectacular hall that seemed to breathe with life.
The ceiling soared high above, an intricate mosaic of stone and light filtering down through narrow skylights, creating dapples of gold across the floor.
Towering pillars stretched upward like ancient trees, their surfaces alive with climbing greenery that wound around them in an elegant embrace.
In the center of the round space, the shard of mirror loomed impossibly large, a jagged monolith of gleaming silver that caught and fractured the light into shards of brilliance.
It stood embedded in the earth, its thinnest edge driven deep into the stone as if it had pierced the ground like a celestial blade.
Despite its violent arrival, the surface remained eerily smooth, unmarred by cracks or imperfections, as though it defied the laws of nature itself.
The sight it reflected charged so much emotion through the air, brewing a storm of potent rage and dread.
My father turned to us from staring into the ethereal mirror; his smile spread cruelly, expectant.
“Ah, both my sons reunited with me at last,” he drawled. Every note of his voice raked over my skin like knives, itching a near blinding need to slash his throat so he couldn’t utter another word.
“This plan is madness,” I said, tracking him carefully as I got closer.
He wasn’t alone. A man and woman were on their knees at his feet. They were the source of the metallic sting in the air as they bled onto the stone, each sending a thin river of crimson running through the uneven ground as if it raced to be drunk by the colossal mirror.
A small band of vampires lingered in the corners of the room, but I was confident I could shatter their minds if they moved an inch.
That was until I felt a barrier to my ability and realized this place had to be guarded against magick abilities being used within.
My fists tightened as I recalculated. It would take more physical effort to eliminate them, a little more time, but getting to unleash the growing fury in my body physically might be somewhat relieving.
“I see you broke the gods’ curse, Rainyte. It’s no matter; Dusk and Dawn will achieve a more permanent solution with you when they walk among us.”
“Does being your sons mean nothing to you?” Drystan yelled, a fraction of his broken child’s heart slipping through.
Drystan and I aren’t his only sons.
In my deep dream state … I didn’t know whether to believe that the vivid memories I had when I awoke were just dreams, or if I had, by some miracle, travelled back to my birth realm in that time I was cursed by Dusk and Dawn.
I realized with a skip in my chest that I didn’t need to walk through that mirror to have my answer when I discovered …