Chapter 70 Child of Light and Darkness

Chapter 70 Child of Light and Darkness

"Eris..." 

"You're my sister. Your problems are my problems." He met my eyes. "I know you didn't ask for help. But you're getting it anyway."

My throat tightened. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. Thank me when the portal is closed and the loans are forgiven." He pushed off the railing. "Now. There's one more thing. The Seer wants to see you."

"The Seer?"

"She's been asking for you since you arrived. She says she has something to show you." Eris's expression was carefully neutral. "I don't know what it is. But the Seer doesn't request audiences lightly."

A chill ran down my spine. The Seer of Hel was an ancient being, older than the Morrigan bloodline, older than the palace, older perhaps than Hel itself.  She was here before Hel was even formed. She spoke in riddles and saw truths that others could not. Her visions were never wrong.

But they were not always kind. My father dreaded her visions, with good reasons too. 

\-———————-

The Seer's chamber was at the very bottom of the palace, in a cavern so deep the violet sky was a distant memory.

I walked alone through the winding corridors, my shadows the only light. The air grew colder as I descended. The walls changed from carved obsidian to rough, natural stone. The silence pressed against my ears like a physical weight.

The Seer was waiting.

She sat cross-legged on a stone dais, her form wrapped in layers of shadow-silk. Her face was ancient, lined and weathered, her skin like old parchment. Her eyes were completely white, filmed over with the milky blindness of one who saw not the physical world but the world beyond.

"Princess Nyx." Her voice was like wind through dead leaves. "Daughter of Andromeda. Child of the Abyss. I have been waiting for you."

"Eris said you wanted to see me."

"I did. I do. Sit." She gestured to a cushion on the floor. "There is much to show you. And very little time."

I sat. The stone was cold beneath me.

"You have been to the surface world," the Seer said. "You have married the Golden king. You have fought the Umbral Host and faced the schemes of the serpent princess."

"Yes."

"And now you are at a crossroads. You do not know whether to stay or to go. Whether to fight or to flee. Whether the golden king is worth the pain."

"Yes."

The Seer leaned forward. Her white eyes fixed on mine, and I felt something cold brush against my consciousness, a presence, ancient and unfathomable, reaching into my mind.

"Then let me show you what I have seen."

The vision hit me like a blade.

I was standing in the throne room of Aurelia Prime. But it was different, darker, colder, the golden walls tarnished and crumbling. The windows were shattered. The throne was empty. And Cardan... 

Cardan was on his knees.

He was wounded. Bleeding from a dozen cuts. His silver eyes were wild, desperate, fixed on something I couldn't see. His hands were bound behind his back with chains of shadow-steel.

"Nyx," he whispered. "Nyx, please... 

A figure stepped out of the darkness. It was an older woman, who strongly resembled Elowyn, her golden hair streaked with silver. She wore a crown of black iron on her head. Her eyes burned with cold triumph.

She raised her hand, and a blade of shadow formed in her palm. "And now, High King, your power is mine."

The blade descended.

I screamed... 

And the vision shifted.

Now I was in a different place. A nursery. The walls were painted with sunbursts and moons, and a cradle stood in the corner, draped in white silk. A child was crying, a thin, reedy wail that made my heart clench.

I moved toward the cradle. Reached for the child.

And then I saw what lay within.

Not a baby. A creature. Twisted and wrong, its body a writhing mass of shadow and flesh. Its eyes were silver, Cardan's eyes. Its mouth opened in a silent scream.

"The heir," the Seer's voice echoed. "The child of light and darkness."

The creature reached for me. I stumbled back... 

And the vision shifted again.

A battlefield. The northern mountains. The Umbral Host poured from a crack in the earth, a river of shadow and teeth. Soldiers fled before them. The sky was black with ash.

And I was there. Standing alone. My shadows rose around me like a storm, but they were not enough. They would never be enough.

"You cannot fight this alone," the Seer's voice said. "You need the light. You need the king. You need the bond that was forged in darkness and sealed in fire."

"I don't understand..." 

"You will. When the time comes. You will."

The vision shattered.

\-—————————-

I woke on the stone floor of the Seer's chamber, gasping for breath. My shadows were wild around me, lashing at the walls. My heart pounded so hard I thought it might burst.

The Seer sat motionless on her dais, her white eyes fixed on nothing.

"What was that?" I demanded. "What did you show me?"

"What will be. What might be. What can still be prevented."

"That's not an answer."

"It is the only answer I have."

I pushed myself to my feet. My legs were shaking. "The child, the creature in the cradle, was that Freya's baby? Is that what's going to happen?"

"The future is not fixed. It shifts like shadows. What you saw is one possibility. One path among many."

"How do I prevent it?"

"By making the right choice. By choosing to stay with the High King." The Seer tilted her head. "You are at a crossroads, Princess Nyx. The path you take will determine the fate of two realms. Choose wisely."

\-—————————

I didn't sleep that night.

The vision replayed in my mind over and over. I didn't understand any of it. Cardan on his knees. That woman's blade. The creature in the cradle. The Umbral Host pouring from the earth. And me, standing alone, shadows rising, not enough.

You need the light. You need the king. You need the bond.

I thought of Cardan's silver eyes. His laugh. The way he had held me in the northern ruins. The way he had whispered my name like a prayer.

I thought of his flaws. His fears. The way he had let Elowyn poison him against me. The way he had kept Freya in the palace. The way he had asked me to stay even when staying meant pain.

He was not perfect. Neither was I.

But maybe that was the point. Maybe love wasn't about finding someone perfect. Maybe it was about finding someone worth fighting for.

\---

The next morning, I went to Eris.

"I'm going back," I said. "To Aurelia."

My brother looked up from his breakfast. "When?"

"Today. Now. As soon as possible."

He studied me for a long moment. Then he nodded. "The Seer showed you something."

"Yes."

"Something bad."

"Something that might happen. Something I need to prevent."

"Then I'll help you." He rose. "The portal in the throne room, now that I'm king, I can access its full power. I can send you directly to Aurelia. No dragon flight. No waiting."