Chapter 141: Thank You For Letting Me In
Everything around Yuna had gone white and muffled, the living world a distant realm now.
The air here was warm and charged in a way nothing in the world above had ever been.
She knew exactly where she was, though she had never once stood here before. Recognition settled over her like something remembered rather than learned.
"You failed us, Trivia. You failed me." Her voice came low, head bowed in grief, without ever turning to face her. "Was this what you had planned for us all along? Inevitable ruin."
"I DID NOT FAIL YOU, CHILD. NEVER DID."
A figure gathered itself out of the light — humming, spitting sparks like a struck flint.
"THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME IN."
"I didn't let you in, Hecate. You've been inside me all along." Yuna turned to face her now, her eyes mirroring the goddess's own, burning emerald. "There could have been another way to do this. Was killing off your own devoted really the plan from the start?"
Hecate stepped closer, blazing, ringing with power she was only barely holding in check. "CHILD, THERE ARE WAYS THINGS WORK THAT YOU HAVE NOT YET COME TO UNDERSTAND. REALITY. TIME. THEY FOLLOW A PATTERN NO NORN, NO FATE, CAN ALTER. THE SELECTION RITUAL IS ONE OF THOSE PATTERNS. THE ONES WHO DIE WILL BE REBORN, AND LIVE AGAIN — THIS LIFE, OR THE NEXT. YOUR GRIEF IS WHAT BLINDS YOU INTO CALLING DEATH A CURSE. IT ISN'T. IT IS THE NATURAL ORDER EVERY LIVING THING MUST PASS THROUGH." The goddess exhaled, a sigh that came out far too human. "I KNOW YOU LOVED HER. IDARA. SHE WAS SPECIAL TO YOU. BUT HER PASSING WAS WHAT FINALLY UNLOCKED MY ESSENCE IN YOU, WITHOUT NEEDING THE RITUAL COMPLETED AT ALL. A BLESSING WEARING A CURSE'S FACE. I AM GLAD YOU CAME THIS FAR." She breathed in, savoring it. "NOW WE ARE ONE. MADE WHOLE. READY TO FACE EREBUS AND HIS FORCES." A low, satisfied sound. "FINALLY. REBORN. IN THE FLESH."
She turned in place, savoring the moment like something she'd waited centuries to taste.
Yuna watched her with contempt than awe.
Was this the all-powerful Trivia, the three-faced goddess her people had given their whole lives serving?
She felt none of that reverence now. Hecate stood before her no more extraordinary than she had once felt standing before Mother Aressa, for all the power rolling off her.
Idara's face flickered across her mind. A single tear fell.
"I'm ending this madness of a Ritual, Hecate. It's over now. No other Apprentice dies for your lost cause."
The laughter cut off mid-breath. Hecate's burning heads turned toward her, all trace of delight gone. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY, CHILD? YOU CANNOT DO THAT."
"Yes, I can, Hecate." Yuna's voice stayed cold, level. "You said it yourself. We are one, made whole. I carry your power now. All of it. If you're the architect behind the Selection Ritual, then I can unmake it. That's exactly what I intend to do. Hecate's Priestess, and her first act of power, is dismantling the very rite that dragged her goddess back into flesh."
"YOU CANNOT, ASTERIA. YOU WOULDN'T. THE RITUAL..."
"Has served its purpose, Hecate." Yuna cut her off, unbothered that she'd just interrupted Trivia herself. "It's spent. Dead weight. I'm dismantling it for good. There has to be another way for you to walk this world again, one that doesn't run on sacrifice and trial by death. We'll find it later, once we've kept this world from collapsing. But for now, it's finished. We have an enemy to answer. Your Ritual doesn't matter anymore."
"INSOLENT CHILD!" Hecate's heads flared hot. The air itself seemed to catch fire around her. "HOW DARE YOU..."
"I'm sorry, Hecate. But I didn't come here to argue." Yuna was already in front of her, point-blank, her hands closing around the goddess's blazing arms. Hecate froze at the contact.
Yuna's face had gone to stone, the fear she used to carry burned clean out of it. "I'm not afraid of you. I am you now, your essence, and you are going to be quiet, and you are going to listen."
"UNHAND ME, MORTAL..."
Yuna's Anima surged, flooding the space around them white. She smiled, slow, and not entirely kind.
"Thank you for letting me in, Trivia."
AYASHA TERRITORY
Every wolf in Ayasha went still with awe the moment Zuri crossed into its borders.
They felt it before they saw him — the coiled power trailing off him like heat off stone, an aura that made warriors whimper into silence and step back without meaning to.
No one came near. Not the guard, not even his father's inner circle. His face carried none of the festivity around him.
Mother Keziah had already announced his revival to the gathered clan before he excused himself from the square, jaw tight, eyes already somewhere else.
Now he stood in the old Ayasha archive: a vault cut into the mountain where every scrap of clan history had been kept for generations.
He browsed through the shelves and
catacombs, scroll after scroll, flipping through leather-bound records with a kind of desperation.
Mother Keziah stood a few paces off, the only company he'd allowed into the vault, watching him hurl books into the air one after another.
"Where is it?" he muttered, half to himself. "There's nothing here. Nothing about the Darkmoon in this entire mountain of scrolls."
"Perhaps what you're looking for waits at our Keep instead. Or in Lord Caius's study, at the Olive Peaks." Mother Keziah's hands stayed clasped behind her back.
"Then what are we still doing here?" Zuri turned on her, close to fury. "These are records of tradition and civilization. None of it matters to me. None of it touches Khonshu's scepter."
"Zuri." She took slow steps toward him. "We only just arrived at your clan. Take a moment. See your people. They've been sick with worry for you. Even briefly, give them something. A word. Some hope."
"Will the Darkness wait while I comfort them? Will the end of everything pause because I sat through a festival?" His voice hardened. "They can wait. This isn't the time. This world is resting on me, Mother, I don't need anyone to make that easier to carry."
"Not even the High Fathers of your own kin?" she pressed. "They're likely waiting on you even now. Lord Ashman, too. Zuri..."
She never finished.
A shockwave rippled through the air, rattling the shelves, snapping brackets loose from the walls. Light pulsed through the stone and then went out.
Both of them knew that signature the instant it hit. It rattled Zuri worse than the tremor itself.
A laugh broke out of him, loud, half-delighted, his eyes flaring silver against the pale hour before dawn.
"At last. She wakes." The scroll in his hand hit the floor, forgotten. "Mother Keziah, Trivia has woken. We have to reach her. Now."
He was already at the door before she could argue.
Outside, the air itself felt charged, waiting. On the horizon, a column of light split the sky, throwing its glow for miles.
"Behold, Erebus." Zuri laughed, eyes burning brighter still. "Your end is imminent. The Darkmoon will be your very end..."
"Zuri?"
He froze at the sound of it. It rose from the path below the mountain.