The Eclipse gate stood like a wound carved into reality, black, swirling with ghost-light, its runes pulsing like a dying star's heartbeat. Nova's blood still tingled in her veins, echoing the heat of the mark it left on her palm.
Rhyd didn't look at her as he spoke. "Open the Eclipse gate." he said, his voice low and steady.
Nova's heart thundered as she summoned all the courage she had, "Why would I help you unleash something the Celestials sealed?"
At that, Rhyd finally looked at her. Nova saw his eyes fully unveiled, one gold, one black, like a sun swallowed by shadow. "Because it wasn't a monster they sealed," he said softly, "It was half of you."
The word knocked the breath from her lungs.
Her voice cracked, "What do you mean? What... are you talking about?"
"I need that door opened since according to the prophecy, your other half... was the lock on mine." He was now at an arm's length. "My bloodline was cursed. The Celestials sealed our strength behind the gate centuries ago twisting it, binding it. Your soul was the key they buried it with."
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm human!" Nova's breath caught.
"You're the last celestial," Rhyd scoffed, "You get to be whole, I get to be free. You should thank me."
Nova hesitated. The way he said it, like he already knew what she'll choose made her skin crawl.
Rhyd's hand outstretched. A blade rested between them. Nova stepped back as she wasn't in support of cutting her palm. She was human for all she knew and healing will take time.
As if he read her mind, "Your other half will heal you in no time," he said. "Your blood wakes the lock. Mine breaks it."
Nova saw him hold the blade strongly before he pushed it towards her and made a cut on her palm.
"Ouch!" she glared at him.
"Press your palm on top." he commanded ignoring her glare.
Rhyd's blood was black as ink. It dripped beside hers as they pressed, the runes glowed white-hot. When Rhyd's blood dripped on it, besides hers, the symbols shattered like glass.
The door groaned open with the sound of grinding bones.
A vortex of wind and light surged. The air warped. Space bled.
Inside wasn't a monster.
It was a throne.
And sitting atop it, wrapped in chains of starlight, was a figure with Nova's face.
She looked like Nova, but her eyes, Not the warm brown but Glacial blue. Glowing.
Suddenly, it stepped down as if it was air, like a sylph,.
She was shaped like Nova. Built like her. Same face, same frame. But presence... wrong. Nova was soft edges but this girl, crackled with purpose. Her long hair drifted as though underwater and her eyes, pierced through the veil of shadow like twin blade. She had this powerful aura around her.
She smiled. But there was no warmth in it.
"Ah!" she breathed, stretching her body as she stepped out of the gate, "Finally I'm out!"
Nova staggered. "W-who... What are you?" She looked at Rhyd seemingly looking for an explanation but he was too busy looking inside the opened gate.
The girl tilted her head.
"I'm you," she said, stepping forward. "The part they buried. The fury they locked away."
Nova tried to step back, it was too late.
The girl raised her hand. A blue flame sparked to life in her palm, sharp, singing, ancient.
Then she touched Nova's chest with two fingers.
The world tore.
Nova's scream was swallowed as the blue light surged into her like lightning striking water. Her limbs convulsed. Her veins lit up, glowing through her skin like rivers of fire as some words became visible like a tattoo on a small section of her arm. Her spine arched, her fingers clawing the air as if trying to pull away from her own bones.
The figure melted into her-light, shadow and soul knitting into muscle and mind with searing violence.
Images flashed behind Nova's eyes: battles, screams, falling stars. broken seals, thrones made of bones, a name carved in blood. She could feel their memories tangling together and becoming one as if it was her.
And a voice inside her. Laughing.
She was happy. She felt free.
The light snapped off.
Nova fell to her knees, panting, her hair clinging to her drenched skin.
Then she lifted her head.
Her eyes gleamed: Blazing blue.
And her smile... wasn't her shy one anymore.
She stood, smoother now, taller somehow, like confidence had straightened her spine.
"Well," she said, brushing off her skirt. "That was cramped. This is so much better."
She turned to Rhyd, who hadn't moved. But his gaze was still cold but somehow reverent.
"Thank you, gentleman of dusk," she purred. "My pretty little storm. You've done well. A pleasure doing ancestral business with you."
Rhyd's jaw ticked as he watched her with sharp calculation, "Just remember the deal," he said. "What was sealed for me..."
"-will awaken," she finished sweetly. "Of course. The blood curse breaks now. The eclipse gate broke the celestial tether. You'll get your birthright back, You'll feel it in your bones after midnight."
She spun, the hem of Nova's robes twirling like wind and began skipping toward the hall's exit, humming an eerie melody.
She turned, twirling like a child in a meadow, arms outstretched. "Do you know how long I've waited to feel wind again? To walk. To breaths. To burn?"
A flicker of blue light spiraled up her arm.
Then without warning, she stumbled.
The light flickered.
She turned halfway toward the exit, "Damn it!!!" She collapsed like her strings had been cut.