A Light in the Flame

“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.”

“All you’ve proven is what I’ve told you before. That one decent and kind bone I have in me belongs to you.”

“The powerful, beautiful poppies that also remind me of hope. Those poppies are the hope of life. The power of those embers. Proof that life cannot be defeated, not even in death.”

“He would burn through the Shadowlands to obtain his graeca.”

“Fate doesn’t usurp that, no matter how much the Arae probably wish they did in some situations. Fate just sees all the possible outcomes of free will.”

“For fuck’s sake, Sera. There is such a thing as being too bold. Too brave.”

“There would be no stopping such a being. There could be no balance. Therefore, the Fates ensured long ago that such power must be split and that an absence of either ember would cause a collapse of all the realms. It wouldn’t be like the Rot—a slow death. It would be sudden and absolute for all. Kolis cannot Ascend another Primal to take the place of a fallen. By killing Nyktos, he’d doom himself. He understands that much, at least.”

“I just…I want you to know that I want this. I mean, when I told you before that I wanted to be your Consort, that still holds true. I want this, Ash.”

“I don’t know why death smells like that, but lilacs are special. They represent renewal, and both life and death are that—a renewal. If you ever see lilacs like this near water in the mortal realm, you can be assured that you’re near a gateway to Iliseeum—to Dalos, in particular.”

“Daddy Nyktos is not happy.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“They don’t need to say anything for me to know! Look, the last thing I need to do is make them more unhappy with me. And I don’t want to. They already have every reason to dislike me. They’re loyal to you, and I’m just the Consort you never wanted—who planned to kill you. If they had their way, I wouldn’t be here.” I stepped around him and continued down the hall, the exhaustion from earlier returning. “It is what it is.”

“From the moment I learned that I no longer had to answer to a duty I never had a choice in accepting, I became my own person. Someone who gets to make their own choices. I will not be ordered about and told what I can and cannot do as if I have no power or control over my life, no matter what risks I may be taking. I am done living like that.”

“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.”

“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.

“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.”