The ground fractures before I speak.
Because the heavens already heard my silence.
And they know what I'm about to become.
The creature no, the god that once loved me still kneels.
Not out of submission.
Out of reverence.
"Say the word," it whispers.
"And I'll remind the cosmos who it dared to forget."
But before I can choose,
They arrive.
The Old Gods.
Golden, cruel, and terrified.
They descend like falling stars, wrapped in law and light, each one forged from order itself.
I smell sanctimony before they even speak.
"Lyraxis," thunders the First.
"You have broken the Pact. The Veil is not yours to tear."
"The being beside you is forbidden," hisses the Second.
"Sealed for crimes against creation."
"Step away," commands the Third.
"And we may still let you remain untouched."
Untouched?
They dare.
I laugh slow and low.
The kind of sound that makes truths unravel.
"You didn't mind when I burned kingdoms for your peace."
"Didn't speak when I sacrificed myself to seal the Void."
"But now that I want to feel, to choose, to live you come for me?"
"You were silent when I suffered."
"But now I'm powerful and you're loud as thunder."
The air screams.
Because the creature beside me rises.
And he speaks my name.
Not Lyraxis.
Not Lyrielle.
But the original one.
The name written in primordial flame before time remembered its own beginning.
"E̶͈͋l̴̘̍ǫ̴̬̽r̸̜͗ā̷͕n̵̝͌t̷̩̐h̸͙̾."
The sky splits.
The Old Gods stagger.
And I?
I remember everything.
My first life.
My first throne.
My first rebellion.
I wasn't just a myth.
I was the one even gods feared to name.
And now?
Now I'm awake.