Chapter 46 Mirror of Rage II
Void looked at Nyx. "If I stay, I will be hard on you. Push you. Train you. Make sure you never make the mistakes that killed my daughter."
"I understand," Nyx said. "I want that. I need that. Someone who knows what happens if I fail."
"Then I stay. Not as Void. As Arianna. My middle name. The one my daughter had too." She looked at our Arianna. "If that is acceptable to you, grandmother."
"More than acceptable. Welcome home, child." Arianna smiled. "Now we have two Time Walkers. Two Shadowborn queens. And one very powerful little girl to protect. The realm does not stand a chance."
We returned to the palace. Exhausted. Shaken. Alive.
That night, Sera found me alone.
"Are you angry?" she asked.
"At what?"
"At me offering to die. Choosing Nyx over us."
I pulled her close. "No. Because I would have made the same choice. Our daughter comes first. Always."
"Even over each other?"
"Even then." I kissed her. Hard. Desperate. "But I am glad it did not come to that. I am not ready to lose you. I will never be ready."
"Good. Because I am not going anywhere." She touched my face. "That other version of me. Void. Arianna. Whatever she calls herself. She is what I could become if I lost you. If I lost Nyx. That terrifies me."
"It should. But you will never become her. Because I am not dying. Nyx is not dying. We survive. Together. Like always."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
We made love that night. Fierce. Desperate. Proving we were alive. That we survived another impossible day. That the bond held despite everything trying to break it.
After, as she slept in my arms, I stared at the ceiling and wondered.
How many more versions of us existed in other timelines? How many had fallen? How many were coming?
And could we survive them all?
I did not know. But I would die trying.
Because she was mine. Nyx was ours. And nothing—not timelines, not alternate versions, not fate itself—would take them from me.
Nothing.
SERA
Morning came with problems.
Arianna the Younger—as we called her to distinguish from grandmother—was settling in. Barely. She looked at everything with haunted eyes. Saw ghosts where we saw home.
"She needs time," Nyx said. We watched Arianna from the balcony. She was training alone. Pushing herself. "She lost everything. Time does not heal that. It just makes it bearable."
"When did you become wise?" I asked.
"When I started seeing timelines. When I understood that every moment matters. That every person is fighting battles we cannot see." Nyx looked at me. "Thank you for offering to die for me yesterday."
"I would do it again. Without hesitation."
"I know. That is what makes it hurt." She leaned against me. "Promise me something?"
"Anything."
"If I ever become what Arianna fears. If I ever lose control and threaten timelines. Promise you will stop me. Kill me if you have to." Her voice was small. Scared. "I do not want to be the monster that destroys worlds."
"You will never be that monster."
"Promise me anyway. Please."
I looked at my daughter. Seven years old. Four months old. Ancient and young. Powerful and fragile. The future and the past colliding in one impossible child.
"I promise," I lied. Because I would never kill her. Would die first. Would burn every timeline before I hurt her.
But she needed to hear the promise. Needed to believe someone would stop her if darkness came.
So I lied. And prayed I would never have to face that choice for real.
"Good." Nyx hugged me. "I love you, mother. More than time itself."
"I love you too, my little miracle."
Lyra appeared. Urgent. "Your Majesty. We have a problem. A big one."
"What now?"
"The eastern kingdoms. They heard about the alternate timeline visitor. About Arianna the Younger. About what she said—that Nyx destroys seventeen timelines in six years." Lyra's face was grim. "They are calling for Nyx to be sealed. Like The First. Like grandmother Arianna was. Locked away until she is mature enough to control her power."
"Absolutely not."
"They are threatening war if we refuse. All nine kingdoms. United front." Lyra handed me a letter. "They give us one week to comply. Then they march."
I read the letter. Read the demands. The threats. The promise of destruction if we refused.
"Let them march," I said. Voice cold. "Let them come. They will learn what happens when they threaten my family."
"Your Majesty, we cannot win against nine kingdoms. Even with our power. Even with Nyx."
"Then we do not win. We annihilate. Show them why threatening a Time Walker is suicide." I looked at Nyx. "How much can you do? If we go to war. If we hold nothing back."
"I could age their armies to dust. Stop their time. Trap them in loops." Nyx's voice was small. "But that would make me the monster they fear. Prove them right."
"Or it would show them that sealing you is impossible. That you are stronger than all of them combined. That threatening you is pointless." I touched her face. "What do you want to do?"
"I want them to leave us alone. To stop judging me for things I have not done. For futures that might not happen." Her eyes flashed. "I want peace. But if they force war, I will end it. Permanently."
"That is my girl."
Kael appeared. "You are not actually considering this."
"They want to seal our daughter. Lock her away. Make her a prisoner for crimes she has not committed." I looked at him. "Tell me you would accept that."
"No. But I also would not start a war that kills millions."
"Then what do you suggest?"
"Diplomacy. Negotiation. Showing them she is controlled. Trained. Not a threat."
"We already did that. They do not care. They fear her. Fear always leads to violence eventually." I walked to the window. "We have one week. In one week, we either submit or we fight. I vote fight."
"I vote we find a third option," Kael said. "One that does not require sealing our daughter or destroying nine kingdoms."
"What third option?"
"I do not know yet. But we have one week to figure it out."
He left. Frustrated. Scared. Trying to be reasonable in an unreasonable situation.
I understood. But I also knew.
Sometimes there was no third option. Sometimes you fought or you fell.
And I was done falling.
Arianna the Younger found me that night. "You are planning war."
"Only if they force it."
"They will force it. I have seen timelines. In ninety-three percent of them, war comes. Nyx fights. Thousands die. And she proves them right. Becomes the monster they feared." Arianna's voice was hollow. "In the other seven percent, you seal her. She grows up imprisoned. Isolated. Broken. And when she finally escapes, she is worse than any war would have made her."
"Then what do we do?"
"I do not know. Both paths lead to tragedy. Both destroy her in different ways." Arianna looked at me. "That is why I am here. To help you find a path I did not. To save this Nyx from the fate that killed mine."
"Can you?"
"I do not know. But I will try. Because I cannot watch another child die. Cannot watch another you break from grief. I will not survive it."
"Then help me. Show me the timelines. Show me which choices lead where. Help me save my daughter."
"Time does not work that way. Seeing the future changes it. Makes it less certain. The moment I show you timelines, they shift. Alter. Become unreliable."
"Then show me anyway. Let me see the possibilities. Let me choose."
Arianna hesitated. Then nodded. Took my hand.
The world disappeared.
I saw futures. Dozens. Hundreds. In some we won the war. In others we lost. In some Nyx became a hero. In others she became what they feared.
But in every single one, someone I loved died. Every path led to loss.
"You see now?" Arianna said. "There is no good choice. Just less terrible ones."
"Then I choose the one where Nyx survives. Where she has a future. Even if I do not."
"That is what I chose too. It did not end well."
"Then I will do better. Choose smarter. Fight harder." I came back to reality. Gasping. "Show me the path where Nyx lives. Where she is happy. I do not care what it costs me."
"That path requires sacrifice. More than you know."
"Show me anyway."
She did. And what I saw broke my heart.
But I would do it. For Nyx. For her future.
I would do anything. And time, as always, was cruel.