Chapter Text
“I’m here, your Highness.”
“Lamed.” Resh had his back to her. He was backlit by the light of the massive crystal. He turned his head a little, revealing only the edge of his jaw under his heavy helm. “You have your tablet?”
“Of course. Always.”
Resh turned back to the crystal. “The others don’t realize how bad it’s gotten. I am feeding it everything I can spare yet it bleeds faster than ever. It is no longer a matter of if, but when. When the Light fails, the darkness will pour in and every realm will fall.”
Lamed caught up with her transcript, focusing on recording every word the king said. She knew to let him speak; now was not her time to give advice.
“I will not let that happen,” Resh continued. “I decide the fate of this kingdom and I will not let it fester and die with such a pathetic whimper. It will fall, that much is unavoidable. Yet I see young life returning to this kingdom, little lights reigniting embers of its old glory.”
Resh lifted his hand to the crystal. “I will not let my kingdom be consumed by something that will allow no return. These realms will fall but at my hand alone. This is my gift to them… though they may never understand.”
Lamed stopped writing.
“I will pour the rest of my Flame into the crystal. It will shatter. The fragments will rain down and the darkness will spread. I will end this cycle and—as the divine Megabird did before us—plant the seeds to start the next.
“Let it be so. Let this kingdom fall so it may rise again."
Lamed’s tablet clattered to the ground. Resh didn’t bother stopping her as she ran from the room. Lamed fumbled with the communication prism before activating it and sending an emergency signal.
Across the realms, the Elders were startled by their prisms shrieking a tone. Tsadi was the first to respond, his prism depleting its energy to teleport him to the gathering room. He expected Lamed to be there, but the room was empty.
One by one the other Elders arrived. It took no less than fifteen seconds for them to respond to the summons. Their prisms died in their hands, the embers spent. Teth’s prism broke apart.
Daleth spoke up first. “Who sent the summons?”
“Where’s Lamed?” Mekh asked.
“What could be wrong?” Tsadi muttered.
Suddenly Lamed slammed the door open, her eyes wide and shoulders heaving. “Resh is going to break the crystal!”
Sah immediately sprinted out of the room. “That holy fool!”
Meanwhile, Resh hovered weightlessly, suspended by the crystal’s light. An invisible magic wall encircled him to keep out any who might try to interfere. He put his hands up to the crystal and summoned a piece of its core while speaking in a light and reverent voice.
“Megabird whose embers ignited our Flames, hear me. This realm is at its end. The cycle which you have sparked will start anew. Use my Flame as a beckoning light to usher new life into this kingdom. And when their time comes, guide them back home to the stars.” He heard his Elders barge in and discover the shield. “Let me follow your divine example; let my time end so that theirs may begin.”
Resh lifted the piece of crystal core to his mouth.
Tsadi pleaded with him. “Resh! This isn’t the way!”
“You’ll damn us all, you starry-eyed fool!” Sah screamed.
Resh paused. He inclined his head toward the line of Elders. “I know I chose you well. You will be good shepherds for whatever life comes next, my friends.”
The Elders cried out together. “Resh!!”
Resh swallowed the core piece. His Flame began to go supernova and his skin immediately bloomed with glowing cracks. He put his hands on the crystal.
A thunderous bang rattled the room as the crystal cracked through the middle. Resh’s body dissolved into motes of light.
The elders rushed forward as soon as the shield broke. They weren’t particularly adept at magic but tried their best, hands and tools raised and Flames shining bright in vain efforts to hold the crystal together.
The crack deepened and fragments broke away. The crystal’s light darkened as sickly red bled into its vibrant blue. The broken fragments shivered in the air, leeching power from the Elders nearby. The crystal itself began spewing light into the sky.
Ayin faltered. “I can’t… hold on…. It’s taking more than I can give!”
“What did he do to it?” Sah asked forcefully.
Tsadi’s tactical mind saw a losing battle. “We should leave! If Resh couldn’t hold it together, we won’t be able to!”
“No!” cried Teth. “We can fix it! We have to!”
“The cracks are only getting deeper,” said Tsadi. “What will happen when it breaks apart and we’re caught in its blast?”
“This isn’t your battlefield, Tsadi!” Daleth spat. “Raise your shield if you’re so concerned.”
Lamed’s voice rose. “All of you, enough!”
“Watch out!” Mekh cried.
The elders were there. Witnesses to the Shattering. They were cast down to their realms and cut off from each other.
So many Flames returned to the Megabird that day. Eden broke to its core. The glorious castle was thrust into the sky. A storm and blinding beacon became permanent fixtures on our horizon. Dark creatures appeared where they had previously never been seen. Rain became poisonous. Dark plants choked out all life around it.
The king was dead. The elders were separated and wounded. The kingdom was in turmoil.
As we heard it, the Dawn elder fell first. Daleth was closest to the crystal and fragments had destroyed his mask. When he returned to the Megabird, his realm began to dissolve. Lush plains became rolling dunes. Despite it, people and lights shone in the sands. That steadfast Passage guide kept leading her pupils to their self-discovery. The craftsman kept making candles. The chipper boatsman kept waving at the dwindling number of travelers. Soon only a single island remained inhabited. An Isle of Dawn. Eventually, it too was lost in sand.
One of the Sunset twins succumbed next. The other grieved with wailings heard across the realm. Mere days later, both Sah and Mekh were gone. Their temples and monuments were overtaken by snow and covered in ice. The people who remained diverted their attention to games, eventually competing each other to death throughout their so-called Valley of Triumph.
Teth hadn’t been seen since the Shattering, and was finally found drowned in a flooded river. Her people couldn’t risk recovering her body without being washed away themselves. They did their best to hold out hope as the years passed, but the endless, poisoned rain soaked through flesh and dampened Flames until, shivering and fatigued, they would collapse and be extinguished. The quiet extinction earned the realm a new moniker: Hidden Forest.
Some said that Tsadi wept for Teth. Tsadi’s realm, though hit the hardest by the darkness, stood firm for some time. Dusk became a constant battlefield, sand whipped into rolling storms that blotted out the sun. Creatures of darkness devoured animals and people alike, uncaring of where the light came from. Dusk became the Wasteland right under its people’s feet. Tsadi did all he could, and his people were only ever grateful.
By the time Tsadi fell, Ayin was already gone. Day was, for many, a final respite. The inhabitants did their work collecting butterflies, making jars, and sending boats out to the clouds. Shards would fall but were ignored. Sometimes one could forget what had happened. Sometimes one could ignore how Ayin slept for longer and longer periods until he didn’t wake at all. Sometimes one would call the realm by a new name before falling asleep. The Daylight Prairie was the last known realm to fall.
No one truly knew what happened to Lamed and her realm of Night. The great library was sealed off with all its scholars and a handful of refugees inside. It became an impassable Vault. For all the knowledge it contained, no one heard anything from the king’s old advisor and scribe. Lamed was the one who reliably provided answers, yet she was silent and her Vault offered no help.
Of all the changes wrought on the kingdom’s people, it was the children who changed the most. Eden’s fall affected them in ways we couldn’t understand. They developed a new symbiosis with light that we could only dream of. They craved sources of light. Fires, torches, massive stacks of candles, anything that gave light attracted them.
Unfortunately, this attraction to light drew them to Eden’s Storm.
Day after day, children would pour through Eden’s gates and throw themselves into the darkness to reach the eye of the Storm. Their husks became as numerous as stars and neither their guardians nor their peers were able to stop them.
Eventually the realms fell silent. Shining children appeared, always gazing at Eden. The storm raged and the broken crystal erupted with the forgotten king’s Flame.
Then one day, many years later, when the realms were all but forgotten and their lost lights were all but embers, a little star fell to the outskirts of the kingdom.