The blue fire of the Sunless Reach had become a comfort to Innominatus over the last thirteen years, but today, the flames felt cold.
Standing at the edge of the obsidian plateau, Innominatus looked up at the man who was his entire world. At thirteen, the boy had grown tall, his frame lean but packed with a terrifying, hidden density. His white hair fell like silk over his shoulders, contrasting with the dark, simple tunic he wore.
"I don't want to go, Old Man," Innominatus said softly. His voice, usually steady, wavered. To the world, he might have been a monster in the making, but here, he was just a son looking at his father.
Khaos placed a heavy, clawed hand on the boy's head. His golden eyes, usually sharp and mocking, were filled with a profound, aching softness.
"The Reach is a cradle, little eclipse," Khaos rumbled. "But you were not meant to sleep forever. If you stay, the heavens will eventually collapse this cavern just to kill you. You must go where they cannot predict your path."
Khaos reached into his shadow-robe and pulled out a small, unassuming silk pouch embroidered with silver thread. "Take this. It is a Spatial Void-Sack. It holds more than a thousand warehouses, yet weighs nothing."
He leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a serious whisper. "Inside, I have packed the treasures we gathered. The spirit-fruits, the marrow-elixirs... and something else."
Khaos pulled out two items. First, a jet-black robe that seemed to drink the light around it. It was supple as silk but harder than dragon-bone. "I crafted this from my own shed scales and silk-shadows. It will grow as you grow."
Then, he handed over a wrapped bundle. Inside lay a sword. Its hilt was carved from a single fang, and the blade was a jagged, dark metal stained with a crimson hue that never faded. "I forged this with my own blood and heart-iron. It has no name. You must give it one when it has tasted enough of your enemies."
Innominatus hugged the older man tightly, burying his face in Khaos's chest. "I'll come back... I'll get a lot stronger! Strong enough to pull you out of here!"
Khaos let out a shaky breath, hugging the boy back with a strength that would have crushed a mountain. "Don't look back, Innominatus. Be kind to the weak, for they are like the grass. But to those who bring evil..." Khaos's eyes flashed with a murderous gold. "...be the eclipse that swallows their sun."
With a sudden, violent shove of Force, Khaos tore a rift in space. "Go!"
"No, wait...!-" Before Innominatus could protest, a surge of golden energy swept him into the rift. The last thing he saw was Khaos standing amidst the blue flames, looking lonelier than he had in ten thousand years.
THUMP.
Innominatus hit soft, cold powder. He gasped, his lungs burning. For the first time in his life, the air didn't taste like ash and ozone. It was crisp, thin, and smelled of... pine?
He stood up, shaking. He was on a snowy ridge overlooking a vast, white valley. Above him, the sky wasn't a ceiling of rock, but an infinite expanse of dark indigo peppered with diamonds.
"Is this... the sky?" he wondered, his heart hammering against his ribs. "It's so big. How does it stay up there?"
He looked at his hands, feeling the "hunger" of his Eternal Eclipse Physique humming beneath his skin. In the Sunless Reach, he was just a boy. Here, he felt like a wolf in a pen of sheep. The Force in the air was so thin, so fragile. He felt that if he breathed too deeply, he might accidentally drain the life from the very trees around him.
"What attacked us in the Reach? Who... no, what even am I?" he thought, a sudden chill of loneliness hitting him harder than the wind. "Khaos... I'll make sure to visit you sometime, Old Man."
He donned the black scale-robe, feeling the familiar warmth of Khaos's essence wrapping around him. It gave him the courage to move. He began to walk, his movements fluid and silent, heading toward a cluster of distant, flickering lights nestled in the valley. A city.
As he reached the outskirts of the treeline, a rustle in the bushes made him freeze. His hand instinctively flew to the fang-hilt of his nameless sword.
"Whoa, whoa! Easy there, frosty!"
A girl scrambled out of the brush. She looked to be about his age, dressed in tattered leathers. But what stopped Innominatus dead in his tracks were the twitching, fur-covered ears atop her head and the long, striped tail flicking nervously behind her.
She stared at his white hair and his deep purple eyes, her nose twitching.
"You smell... weird," she said, tilting her head. "Like old lightning and burnt sugar. You lost, human? Or did you just fall out of the moon?"
Innominatus stared at her ears, his face a mask of pure, innocent confusion. "Are you... a very small monster?" he asked earnestly.
The girl's jaw dropped. "A monster?! I'm a Felis-kin, you idiot! Have you been living under a rock your whole life?"
Innominatus paused, thinking of the miles of obsidian above the Sunless Reach.
"Yes," he said simply.
"Actually, I have."