The world burned white.
Sunrei's bones vibrated with the force of the memory no, memories flooding back. They came in fragments, sharp as broken glass:
A city of silver towers crumbling to dust.
Cael's screams as the brand took hold.
Lithriel's hands, slick with black fluid, pressing the first mark into his wrist.
His own voice, raw with grief: We'll forget this. All of us.
The light faded.
Silence.
Then
A gasp.
Sunrei's knees hit the bone platform as his vision cleared. Kaelis knelt beside him, her fingers still tangled with his. Cael stood over them, his missing brand scar pulsing violet.
And Lithriel
Lithriel screamed.
The sound wasn't human. It was the shriek of breaking glass, the howl of a dying star. Her perfect silver robes blackened at the edges, her skin cracking like porcelain.
No!She clawed at her face. You weren't supposed to* remember!
The shattered moon above them groaned.
A chunk the size of a ship broke free, hurtling into the abyss below.
Cael grabbed Sunrei's shoulder. We need to go. Now.
Sunrei didn't move. His brand burned, but not with pain with power.
He looked at Lithriel.
You're not real, he said.
Her head snapped up.
Sunrei stepped forward. You're just a memory. A bad dream the Eclipse couldn't let go.
Lithriel's lips peeled back from her teeth. I am your maker!
Sunrei reached out
And pushed.
His hand passed through her like mist.
Lithriel's form wavered. For a heartbeat, Sunrei saw something else beneath the silver robes something vast and hollow and hungry.
Then she was gone.
The platform trembled.
More chunks of the moon broke free.
Kaelis cursed. Sunrei
He turned.
The Eclipse stood at the archway, their hollow eyes fixed on him.
Ryvan stepped forward, his sword raised.
Prince, he crooned. You're home.
Cael yanked Sunrei back as Ryvan's blade came down.
Steel met bone as the platform shattered beneath them. Sunrei grabbed Kaelis's wrist as the world tilted, the three of them sliding toward the abyss.
Kaelis's free hand caught a jagged spur of bone. I can't hold us all!
Cael's missing brand scar flared. Then don't.
He let go.
Sunrei's shout was lost in the roar of collapsing stone as Cael fell
and landed on a lower platform, his body rolling to absorb the impact.
The Eclipse followed, leaping after him like a pack of wolves.
Sunrei hauled himself and Kaelis onto a stable section of platform. Below, Cael fought like a man possessed, his fists and feet moving with precision Sunrei didn't remember him having.
But there were too many.
Ryvan circled, waiting.
Sunrei's brand burned. We need to get down there.
Kaelis's grip tightened on his wrist. How?
A shadow passed overhead.
Sunrei looked up
And saw the answer.
The chains holding the shattered moon weren't chains at all.
They were bridges.
The chains were made of the same black glass as the lake, their surfaces smooth and cold beneath Sunrei's palms. He and Kaelis crossed them like ropes, the abyss yawning below.
Halfway across, the chain moved.
Sunrei barely kept his grip as the entire structure shuddered, another massive chunk of moon breaking free. The impact sent shockwaves through the chains, nearly shaking Kaelis loose.
Sunrei grabbed her arm. Don't look down!
Kaelis's laugh was breathless. Where else would I shit!
Ryvan stood on the chain behind them.
He moved like liquid, his form flickering between human and something else. The Eclipse followed, crawling along the chains like insects.
Sunrei and Kaelis ran.
The chain ended at another platform this one smaller, with a single archway at its center. Cael fought there, his body a blur of motion as he held off three Eclipse at once.
He glanced up as they landed. Took you long enough!
Ryvan stepped onto the platform.
Enough games.
His sword lashed out
Cael caught the blade bare-handed.
Black fluid dripped between his fingers as he squeezed, the steel shattering like glass.
Ryvan blinked.
Cael grinned. Miss me?
Then he punched Ryvan in the throat.
The Eclipse hesitated.
Sunrei didn't.
He moved like a man possessed, his brand guiding his strikes. Every Eclipse he touched burned, their hollow eyes widening in something like fear before they dissolved into shadow.
Kaelis fought beside him, her knives flashing. They're weaker here!
Cael drove his elbow into Ryvan's temple. Less real!
Ryvan staggered
And changed.
His form stretched, his skin splitting to reveal the hollow darkness beneath. His voice came in layers, none of them human:
You cannot win. The Eclipse is endless.
Sunrei's brand pulsed in time with the crumbling moon above them.
Then we'll end you first.
He grabbed Ryvan's arm
And pulled.
The world ripped.
Sunrei's vision shattered into fragments:
Ryvan as a young man, kneeling before Lithriel.
The brand searing into his wrist.
His scream as the Eclipse took root.
His voice, begging: Make it stop!
Sunrei gasped back to the present.
Ryvan's hollow eyes met his.
For a heartbeat, Sunrei saw the man beneath the hunter who'd lost everything to the Eclipse.
Then Cael's fist connected with Ryvan's jaw.
The Eclipse leader's head snapped back
And his body dissolved, collapsing into a pool of black fluid that seeped into the platform.
The remaining Eclipse froze.
Then, as one, they screamed.
The sound wasn't sound.
It was the moon breaking.
The platform shook as cracks raced across its surface, the chains holding the shattered moon groaning under the strain.
Cael grabbed Sunrei and Kaelis. Through the arch!
They ran as the world collapsed behind them.
Sunrei glanced back once
Just in time to see the moon shatter.
The chains snapped.
The fragments fell.
And something stirred in the darkness between them.
The archway swallowed them whole.
Sunrei's last thought before the darkness took him was of Lithriel's smile.
And the thing he'd seen beneath it.