A Light in the Flame

“Either way, I will not play the I-don’t-want-you-but-no-one-else-can-have-you game. With you or anyone.”

“Only the Primal of Life can wield the kind of eather that can kill a nymph. It’s the same kind of power that can kill another Primal.”

“But what I can tell you is something you already know. What you’ve spent your life preparing to become? What I trained you for? It wasn’t a waste. You are his weakness.”

“Fuck. You will be the death of me.”

“Primal wards that make them very difficult to break. The bones will even hold a Primal once weakened. The only thing they have no effect on is a being of two worlds.”

“Seraphena will be a Consort more than worthy of the swords and shields each of you will wield to guard her. One the Shadowlands will be honored to have.”

“It’s clear that you should be the true Primal of Life,” I explained. “Not because it was your destiny, but because you’re good.”

“I cannot wait to hear your rationale on this. I’m sure it involves something along the lines of: I do what I want because I can and fuck the consequences.”

“You have no idea what Nyktos has had to give up. What he’s been through. What he’s sacrificed for you, and then for you—”

“Why do you think I told you to go to him when he needed to feed? I knew you needed to help him. Not wanted. Not because you felt like you had to. But because you needed to.”

“I care more because I cannot love, and I believe caring for others is far more important than loving just one.”

“Seraphena has taken no oath, sworn no loyalties, nor does she yet wear the crown of the Consort. She has not been here long, but she was still willing to risk her life to protect all of you—all of those within the Shadowlands and beyond. Believing that she was the cause of the recent attacks, she planned to turn herself over to Kolis. Though she is not the cause. Her bravery is unmatched, even among all of you.”

“From the moment a Primal is born or is Ascended, the new nature of the Primal essence starts to change us. And the older we grow, and the more powerful that essence becomes, the harder it is to remember what the source of those emotions was and to be anything other than the very mortal flesh that contains power. And that essence—the Primal essence that allows us to influence mortals to flourish or decay, love or hate, create life and cause death—is never just good or bad. It’s only absolute. Unpredictable. Raw.”

“Either way, you’re not weak, Sera. Not physically, but more importantly, not mentally. You are one of the strongest people I’ve ever met, mortal or not. With or without the embers.”

“A Primal had to be behind this. No other could command a draken to attack. The question is which one? Who would know or suspect enough about you to be willing to anger both Nyktos and Kolis by allowing you to die?”

“I’m his weakness. What I’ve been preparing for my whole life? It was for him. Not you. I can still try. Just help me get there, or…or let me go. Either one. I will fulfill my real destiny.”

“It’s the piece of the soul—the spark—that all living creatures are born and die with. It allows them to love another not of their blood irrevocably, selflessly.” Penellaphe swallowed. “It must have been terribly painful to have that torn from you. To truly be unable to love.”

“Prophecies can often be confusing, even to those who receive them. And, sometimes, only bits and pieces of a prophecy are known by one—the beginning or the end—while the middle is known to another and vice versa. But some visions have come to pass, both in Iliseeum and in the mortal realm. It’s hard to see this since the destruction of the Gods of Divination and the passing of the last of the oracles.