Velkan's Celestial Council Hall thrummed with energy, the air heavy with unspoken tension, thick with the knowledge that war was looming just beyond the horizon. The Luminaries were gathering, preparing for a battle that had been centuries in the making, a battle that had been written in the stars long before any of them had drawn breath.
This was no longer just about Jase and Celeste.
This was about history. About love that defied the laws of nature. About an ancient war that had never truly ended.
The moment Celeste spotted Amy and Lucas entering the hall, relief flooded her chest like a breath of fresh air after drowning in uncertainty for too long.
"Amy! Lucas!" Her voice wavered slightly as she rushed toward them, her fingers curling into the fabric of Amy's sleeve as if grounding herself.
Amy's piercing silver eyes softened as she pulled Celeste into a warm, familiar hug. "You've been busy," she teased, tilting her head as she eyed the faint, golden glow still lingering around Celeste's skin.
Lucas crossed his arms, smirking. "We turn our backs for a second, and suddenly you're a legend?"
Celeste flushed.
"It's... a lot."
Lucas chuckled, but beneath the humor, his gaze was serious. "Jokes aside, we came as soon as we heard. If the Abyssals are coming, we will fight together."
Jase, standing just behind Celeste, nodded approvingly. "Good. We'll need you both."
Amy studied Celeste carefully. "How are you holding up?"
Celeste hesitated, her mind still whirling with everything she had learned, everything she had awakened. But then Jase's hand found hers. His grip on her hand was warm and sure, holding her in place.
She squeezed his fingers lightly, exhaling as she met Amy's gaze. "I'm ready."
Amy and Lucas exchanged a knowing look.
Lucas smirked. "Guess we'll see about that in training."
As more Luminaries gathered, whispers rippled through the hall, voices murmuring in quiet awe.
Jase's parents, Adrian and Seraphine, stood near the front, his mother regal and composed, her eyes unreadable as she observed her son carefully. His father, ever the silent, calculating figure, had spoken very little since Jase's return, his expression betraying no emotions.
Then, the room hushed as Elder Callis, one of the eldest Luminaries, a keeper of ancient knowledge, stepped forward.
Her golden gaze landed directly on Celeste.
"The Eclipse Child stands among us," she murmured.
A ripple of energy coursed through the gathered Luminaries. Some stared in reverence. Others in curiosity. A few in barely masked fear.
Celeste felt the weight of their attention press against her, but before she could shift uncomfortably, Jase's hand tightened around hers. A silent promise: he was here. He wasn't letting go.
"She is more than a title," Jase spoke, his voice firm. "She is one of us."
Adrian, who had been silent all this time, finally stepped forward.
"And yet, she is what the Abyssals seek," he said, his expression unreadable. "Do you truly believe we can win this war without great cost?"
Jase's jaw clenched. "There will be no war if we end this before it begins."
His father exhaled slowly, then turned to Elder Callis.
"Tell them," he said. "Tell them why she exists. Why Luminaries and Mortalis have been forbidden to love."
A heavy silence fell upon the hall.
Elder Callis exhaled deeply, as if the weight of history itself was pressing against her lungs.
Then, she spoke.
"Long ago, before the war, Luminaries and Mortalis lived as one."
Elder Callis's voice carried through the grand hall, commanding silence. The flickering celestial engravings on the temple walls pulsed softly, as if they, too, whispered echoes of the past.
"There were no divisions. No fear. The Luminaries guided the world, and the Mortalis thrived under their wisdom and protection. But then… everything changed."
Celeste felt the tension in the room tighten like a noose around her throat. "What happened?"
Elder Callis's golden eyes darkened.
"A Luminary fell in love with a Mortalis."
A ripple of gasps spread through the room. Even now, the idea was enough to unsettle those who listened.
"It was the first of its kind, a love that defied the heavens." Elder Callis continued, her voice steady yet tinged with something deeper. "They were soulmates, fated beyond time itself."
Her gaze swept across the hall. "But the world was not ready."
Celeste clenched her fists as the elder spoke.
"When their love was discovered, the Luminaries banished the prince, severing him from his own kind. Stripped of his power, he was cast out, a warning to any who dared to break the sacred laws."
"She carried his child. And that child… was never meant to exist."
A heavy silence swallowed the room, thick and suffocating.
The first Eclipse Child.
Celeste felt it before the words were spoken, a truth lodged in her bones, something she had always felt but had never understood.
"The Luminaries saw the child as an abomination, an impurity in the balance of the world. But the Abyssals…" Elder Callis's voice hardened, her gaze shifting into something unreadable, something sharp. "…they saw something else."
Celeste swallowed hard, her throat dry. "What?"
The elder finally turned to face her fully, her golden eyes locking onto Celeste with an intensity that sent a shiver through her bones.
"They saw power."
The murals shifted again, glowing symbols flickering and reshaping themselves, forming a war-torn battlefield stretching beneath an ominous sky.
And at its center—
A lone figure.
A child, bathed in a glow unlike any other, caught between light and shadow, a force that neither side fully understood but both desired.
"That child was the first mixed blood."
Celeste's breath hitched, her heart hammering against her ribs as she stared at the mural, unable to look away.
"At first, the Luminaries sought to destroy what they believed was unnatural," Elder Callis continued, her voice quiet, filled with something almost reverent. "But as the child grew, something changed. The power within him flourished, untamed and unlike anything the world had seen before."
Elder Callis's golden gaze darkened.
"Then… he was corrupted and influenced."
Celeste's heart pounded, her entire body going still, her fingers curling into fists at her sides as the murals trembled. The once glowing figure of the Eclipse Child darkened, light bleeding away as shadows slithered into them, warping their form into something distorted, monstrous, unrecognizable.
"The Abyssals saw the strength of the Eclipse Child. And they took them."
The air in the temple grew cold, the weight of the past pressing heavily onto Celeste's chest, making it hard to breathe.
"The child was twisted," Elder Callis said, her voice almost distant, lost in the history she was unveiling. "Consumed by the Abyssals' hunger for power. And with that power, the first great war began."
Celeste's breath came fast and uneven, her fingers digging into the fabric of her sleeves, desperate for something to anchor herself to.
"It took the sacrifice of countless Luminaries to stop them. Our kind fought to protect not only themselves, but the Mortalis as well. And in the end, it cost us dearly. Many fell, entire cities burned, just to bring down a single Eclipse Child."
The murals shifted one last time, the battlefield stretching out before them in haunting detail with bodies of Luminaries and Mortalis alike scattered beneath a sky choked with darkness. The remnants of war etched into the very foundation of their history.
Jase's jaw tightened, his golden eyes flashing with something sharp, something unforgiving. "And the Abyssals?"
Elder Callis exhaled sharply, a slow, steady breath that barely masked the rage laced beneath it. "They never forgot."
Her expression was solemn, unyielding, as she met Celeste's gaze.
"They had witnessed the strength of an Eclipse Child firsthand."
A beat of silence.
Then, soft but certain—
"And from that day forward, they sought another."
The murals shifted again, showing the Abyssals in the shadows, searching, hunting.
"For centuries, they pursued half-bloods, believing that any child of both Luminary and Mortalis blood could be the key to their evolution. They sought to create another Eclipse Child."
Her gaze locked onto Celeste, sending a shiver down her spine.
"But they were wrong."
Celeste frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Not all half-bloods are Eclipse Children." Elder Callis's voice softened, though the weight of her words was no less heavy. "A true Eclipse Child is not just a product of mixed blood."
She took a step closer, her golden eyes gleaming with something unreadable.
"They are chosen. Destined. Only one is born in each era."
Celeste's stomach twisted. "Then… how do you know I'm the Eclipse Child?"
Elder Callis's gaze never wavered.
"Because, child…" The elder gestured toward the murals once more, and the glowing engravings shifted, reshaping into something new. "You bear the mark of fate itself."
Celeste's breath caught as the luminous patterns formed an image of a lone figure standing at the heart of war, bathed in both golden radiance and creeping shadow. Around them, the stars swirled in a pattern unlike any other, aligning in a celestial dance.
It was a story written in light. A prophecy.
"The heavens do not make mistakes. There is always one Eclipse Child, and only one, born in each era." Elder Callis's voice was firm, but there was something almost reverent in the way she spoke.
Adrian's expression remained grim. "And the last one was over a thousand years ago."
Celeste's heart pounded. "But that doesn't answer my question. How do you know it's me?"
The elder's lips curved into something between a smile and a knowing frown. "You've always known, haven't you?"
Celeste's breath hitched.
She thought of all the moments in her life when she felt different, when she sensed something inside her that didn't belong. The strange energy that flickered beneath her skin, the way the world sometimes seemed to bend around her when she was desperate, when she was afraid.
"There have been signs," Elder Callis continued, stepping closer. "Signs you may not have noticed, but they have always been there."
She reached out, her fingertips hovering just above Celeste's arm. A faint warmth spread across Celeste's skin, and for a moment, the world around her dimmed. The golden glow of the temple pulsed as if responding to her presence, and suddenly—
A burst of light flared between them, sharp and blinding. Celeste gasped, stumbling back as heat surged through her veins, not pain but power. It was something that had always been inside her, now awakened and impossible to ignore.
Elder Callis watched her with unwavering eyes, unsurprised, nodding as if this was something she had expected all along. "Your blood sings with it," she murmured, voice steady, carrying a weight of knowing that sent another ripple of unease through Celeste's already overwhelmed mind. "The energy of Luminary and Mortalis both. But more than that…" Her voice softened, her golden gaze filled with certainty, with an unshakable truth. "The world has already begun shifting around you. That is how we know."
Celeste's breath came fast, her pulse hammering in her ears as she struggled to process all of it. The fire inside her still burned, still danced beneath her skin, as if something in her had already decided to accept this truth before her mind could fully catch up.
Adrian exhaled sharply, his gaze shifting to Jase, who stood unmoving, fists clenched, golden eyes dark, his body rigid with tension.
"The Abyssals knew it," Adrian muttered, voice edged with something cold. "That's why they want her so badly."
Jase's golden eyes darkened, his body tense, magic humming beneath his skin. Celeste felt a shiver run through her, not from fear but from the realization that she wasn't just different, she was hunted.
"Then what am I supposed to do?" she whispered, her voice low but clear in the silence. "If I'm the Eclipse Child, what does that mean for me?"
Elder Callis studied her for a long moment, her ancient eyes holding something Celeste wasn't sure she wanted to see. Then, finally, she spoke.
"It means, child… you must decide which side of fate you will stand on."
Celeste's pulse steadied, her breathing even. The fire beneath her skin settled, the weight in her chest turning solid. She had spent too long questioning, doubting, and running.
She wouldn't run anymore.
"Then I will fight."
Her voice was steady and strong, leaving no room for hesitation. The council members exchanged glances, then one by one began to nod, silent pledges taking shape.
Jase turned to the Luminaries, his stance unwavering, his voice ringing clear through the chamber. "We stand together."
A shift passed through the room, like a silent storm rolling in, like something undeniable had just begun.
Amy and Lucas stepped forward without hesitation, standing beside Celeste.
Jase's hand tightened in hers.
Celeste's hands trembled, not from fear but from the weight of knowing who she was. She had always felt something hidden inside her, power, endurance, and the sense she didn't belong in the world she was born into.
Now, she knew why. She was never meant to fit. She was meant to change it.