Never have I witnessed the Solaris from this close.
A great blazing ball of fire, red, orange, and yellow. Bigger than Avi, her rings, her moons, all that there is or ever has been. Looking upon it has the apt effect of feeling as though I am witnessing a god. Umbra's domain is composed of what is not, whereas Aurora's domain is composed of what is. This is a raging cosmic inferno unlike anything else in the universe, the singular source of all light across all realms of existence, the beating heart of everything that lives, everything that will live, and everything that has lived.
I can hardly bear to look at it. The light stings. Blisters. Burns.
When I look to the sides, I see them. The Primarchs and the highest Legends. Mythical in their own right. As big if not bigger than Nyth. They are giants, planets, moons, orbiting the Solaris in wait for we interlopers. When the two of us are noticed, they all converge. Left and right, facing inward from either side, and channeling our only way forward.
To the Solaris.
But Umbra stops flying before entering that gauntlet. Rather than maintaining altitude, she pumps her wings forward to maintain our position as the fierce gravity of the sun threatens to pull us into its gluttonous maw. My claws and talons cling to her head for purchase, and I keep myself low to the flat of her skull just between and behind her horns.
"Enough cowardly hiding, Aurora. Come out of there and face me yourself. Lest I rip the heads off all of your toys that are lined up so politely to greet me. You cannot afford to lose them. Nor can you sufficiently protect them from inside. You know that. So come out, little light. I've words for you. Perhaps this matter could even be solved with words alone. Though I suspect you'll never allow that to pass."
For the first time, I hear the voice of the Goddess.
It's powerful. Authoritative. Commanding. Sharp.
"Umbra. There are no words that could alleviate the damage you've done, the havoc you've wreaked, the chaos you've sown. Hundreds of thousands of years I have built and cultivated a world for the living, established civilizations for all mortalkind, and shepherded these draconids as if they were my own kin. And now you speak of settling this with words alone, as though you haven't just annihilated everything they've ever known and exterminated the vast majority of their ilk. You speak to me awash with the blood of innocents, with a deranged and bloodthirsty murderer atop your head, and yet you suspect that I might converse with you? Be done with this charade, dear sister, and tell me what you want so badly that you would kill so many for it."
"Hahh… I almost pity you. Here, I suspected you were a tyrant with intention. Are you maintaining a façade or have you genuinely deluded yourself into thinking your actions are virtuous? The former, I could understand. We do have an audience, after all. But my audience knows your true nature, and your audience is complicit in exerting it upon the living. There is no need for such pretense. Not anymore. As for the latter? Mmm. I pray it is not so. It would break my heart to know that the young woman I taught to fly could be so entrenched in such blatant denial."
There's a lasting length of burning silence.
Then something emerges from the Solaris.
A dragon unlike any other. As big as the moon behind us. Her pearlescent scales emit a shimmer and shine all of their own, her vivid white plating emits an even brighter white luminescent gleam, and her horns are instead a mighty and intricate set of pointed antlers. Whereas Umbra is lean and agile, Aurora is bulky and strong, with a thicktail tipped by a similar dual bladed edge, just like Umbra's but much broader. And her wings…
Hells. Her wings.
Six of them. Resplendent white feathers. And eyes.
So many eyes. Dozens. Hundreds. Too many to count.
All of them are locked onto the two of us.
Aurora bares her fangs and emits a low growl. "Wretched cretin. Nothing ever changes with you."
Umbra doesn't miss a beat. "Quite the contrary. I've changed so much it's astounding. I never would have thought such compassion was in my heart if I hadn't chosen to foster and care for your broken things. All the people you threw away found shelter and refuge with me, Aurora. The undesirables. The defiant. The dissenters. The rebels. The crippled. The damaged. The weak. The fearful. The angry. The scorned. The betrayed. How deeply my black heart bleeds for them all, those undeserving victims of your hateful abuse. You speak of the death I've caused, but I make no attempts to obfuscate its extent, and yet you would pretend yourself innocent in the damnation of millions, which you imparted upon them. A great many lives have been taken by my hand. And what of yours, Aurora? How many lives have you destroyed, ended, and erased? And for what reason have you done so? Hm?"
"Reprehensible as ever. How simplistic, your methodology. My every design is devised with the intent of building a future for mortalkind, for dracokind, for all of us in kind. And yet at every damnable turn, you simply cannot help yourself from interfering like some pestilent louse I can't seem to get rid of. You have never so much as hesitated to impede me. I would build a city and you would knock it down. I would cultivate a thriving river, and you would block it up with stones. I created a nest for these draconic beings, and you set it all on fire and stole the scraps for yourself. All you've ever done is harass me and my creations with this petty vendetta of yours that you just cannot seem to let go of. Thus, my designs became twofold. Building the future and ending your reign of violence, carnage, and destruction. You are the one who has deluded yourself into thinking your actions are virtuous. It breaks my heart to know that the woman who taught me to fly could be so entrenched in such blatant denial."
"Petty vendetta," Umbra repeats, then dryly laughs. "My vendetta is anything but petty. I loved you. I confided in you. I trusted you. And yet you stabbed me in the back the very first chance you could. You stole my vision from me. You shattered my very ability to trust anyone. You threw me away like I was nothing but filth. After I gave you everything I had to give. How fucking dare you say it's mere pettiness that keeps my heart ablaze? It is vengeance and justice that burn in me, Aurora. Vengeance for your coldhearted betrayal. Justice for all the misdeeds you committed against me. That is what I want, and there are only two ways by which I will get it. Either you will give it to me or I will take it from you. Those are your choices. Choose wisely, dear sister."
"Such bewildering hubris. You're naught but a misguided fool stumbling through the dark on the twisted road of violence and deceit. A deception of the most foul, at that. You deceive yourself, Great Deceiver. You are anything but justified. No, you are committing such devastation simply because it is in your nature, the exertion of which is how you derive your wretched pleasure. You, the darkness. You end things. You extinguish them. You suffocate, stifle, and drown them. You steal them away like a common rogue, hide them in the shadows where they can never be found, and feign total innocence to the detestable act of malice and greed. You put them in the dirt. And bury them. And then you rot them to the core. You are the flesh eating insect. The chest burrowing worm. The skull picking centipede. You are the empty eye sockets of the putrid and rancid dead. You are the cold. You are the shadow. You are nothing. And you covet my place amidst everything. That is why you are here. To pilfer my throne and steal my light for yourself."
"Your throne is worthless to me, child, as is your light. I have my own throne, and I cannot see whether it is bright or dark. You attempt to insult me, yet you describe me with such intricately morbid terms, which instead stir this macabre heart of mine. Quite the compliment that you still think so highly of me, little sister. If only you would apologize, I might consider accepting it in the wake of such riveting imagery."
"Enough of this flippant nonsense. You seek vengeance. You will not have it. I will incinerate your wings a second time and send you back down to that cold dark abyss where you belong. Perhaps this time you'll consider staying there, and keeping your filthy claws out of my affairs."
"Then I suppose that's your choice. Just tell me one thing before we begin this dance, my little light. Why, Aurora? Why did you so heartlessly betray me? For the life of me, I cannot conceive the faintest idea of what I could have done to merit such vicious hatred from you, who I loved so dearly. What did I do to deserve this?"
Those wings expand and extend to their full might.
Thousands of eyes pass merciless judgment upon us.
Aurora lifts her chin and asks a question in return. "How dare you have forgotten?"
For the first time, Umbra hesitates. "My recollection of the events is eroded by suffering and time. I remember only the unbearable pain you inflicted upon me, which drowned out everything else. What happened between us, little light? Please. Tell me."
"No. Suffer the torment of never knowing."
Lowering her head, Umbra growls. "Crimson. Go."
The only hesitation I allow is a brief peck of a kiss on her head, then I'm gone. Speeding back toward the moon, I grit my teeth and fight the itching terror that something right behind me is seconds away from the kill. A beam of sunlight is all it would take. I don't know if Aurora could cancel out my immortality, but I don't want to find out.
Then I hear it. Behind me. Umbra.
"Wretches! Bastards! Cretins! All! Now!"
Our army swarms around the moon's edges into the light.
The two primordial dragons clash with the force of the universe.
The final battle has begun.