Light.
Blinding, searing light.
I gasped or tried to but every breath stabbed through my chest like I'd been crushed and rebuilt all at once. My lungs burned, my skin prickled, and before I knew it, I was crying. Actually crying.
What the hell? I don't cry. I don't even remember the last time I did.
But my body wasn't listening. My voice came out raw, high, and unfamiliar a sound that didn't belong to me.
Panic clawed at my mind. I tried to move, to sit up, to do something but my limbs barely twitched. My arms flailed weakly, my legs kicked against something soft. I couldn't control them. It was like I was trapped inside myself, watching someone else's body respond.
"...It's a beautiful boy."
A woman's voice. Soft. Warm. Human.
The sound hit me harder than I expected. When was the last time I'd heard something like that without venom or pain behind it?
I tried to turn toward it, but my vision was still washed in white blinding, endless. Slowly, the blur began to fade, shapes forming in the haze. A shadow leaned over me, gentle hands wrapping me in something warm a cloth. I struggled against it instinctively, flailing again, but it only tightened, cocooning me.
"W–what is this…" My thoughts were a jumble. Nothing made sense.
The light. The warmth. The sound of a woman's voice. The burning in my lungs.
Why is it so bright?Why does my chest hurt?And… why does it feel like I'm breathing for the first time?
The realization hit me like a storm I wasn't ready for. My heart pounded fast, fragile, alive.
No. No way.
"Where… am I?"
But no one could hear me.
I felt my body lift weightless, gentle and somehow, that calmed me.The panic that clawed at me moments ago faded like mist in sunlight. How strange, I thought.
Then a voice, soft and warm, drifted through the blinding light."My little Delian."
I froze.That name again. My name.
How… how does she know my name?
I tried to turn my head toward the voice, but all I could do was flail weakly in the warm cloth that bound me. My eyes still burned from the light, shapes refusing to form.
Another voice spoke, this one further away respectful, composed. "He stopped crying the moment my lady picked him up," it said.
A soft giggle followed light, tender, and so full of warmth that for a fleeting second, something deep inside me cracked open.
It felt… familiar. Too familiar.
"So you really settled on naming him Delian?" the second voice asked.
"Yes," the first voice replied the woman's voice, gentle yet strong. I could almost feel her smile. "My little Delian," she murmured again, her tone filled with pride, "My little Delian Ardent. Welcome to the world."
The words washed over me, and somehow, I stopped struggling. My heartbeat slowed. My breath evened.That warmth that feeling I'd felt it before.
Mom? I thought, trembling inside the tiny, helpless body I was trapped in. No answer. Only the rhythmic beat of her heart as she held me close.
No… wait. Ardent? That wasn't right. I'm not an Ardent. I'm a Lyren.
Then the realization struck, a cold thread slicing through the fog. If this woman wasn't my mother… if I was Delian Ardent…Then that could only mean one thing.
The memory of that place returned in flashes the dark, the voice, the figure smiling in the void.
"The Abyssal Lord?" I'd asked, nervously.
"Yes," it had answered, that same twisted grin curling across its distorted face.
"I can't call you that," I'd said, making it laugh.
"Oh? And why not?"
"Because it's a mouthful. And pretentious. No offense."
"None taken," it had said, amusement rippling through its voice. "Hmm… then what should I be called, Delian?"
"Wait, what?" I'd blinked.
"Name me," it had said simply.
I'd laughed nervously. "You're telling me no one has done that before?"
"Never."
"Then… why not name yourself instead of giving me that job?"
The smile had grown wider, impossibly so.
"All my life, I didn't think names were important," the thing said, voice rippling like a whisper through metal. "I saw the other bastards naming themselves when they came to be… and it was funny to me."
"The other bastards?" I asked, still struggling to process his words.
"Yes," it said, that same grin curling wider. "The gods."
My stomach twisted. I swallowed hard, unsure if I even had a throat anymore. "You're… older than them?"
It tilted its head, eyes glimmering like shards of something ancient and cruel. "What do you think, Delian?"
That smile sly, patient, like it already knew how the question burned inside me. I didn't answer. I didn't want to. My thoughts spiraled, imagining how long this thing had existed before everything else. Before time. Before light.
No. I didn't want to know.
I kept my mouth shut. There are answers that shouldn't be touched. This was one of them.
Instead, I took a deep breath or at least tried to, in whatever state I was in and forced out, "Are you really serious about someone little like me naming someone as grand as you?"
It chuckled, the sound low and heavy, reverberating through the void. "You think too little of yourself, Delian. Which you shouldn't."
I blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means," the entity said, stepping closer until its form began to flicker against the thin skin of reality, "yes. I am serious about you naming me."
I stared at it the thing that called itself the Abyssal Lord, that said it was older than the gods, that twisted the air around it when it breathed.
"Fine," I said finally, my voice small but steady. "Very well then. But don't regret it later on."
It laughed softly amost delighted. "I trust," it said, leaning closer, "you'll come up with something creative."
I thought about it for a while, staring at that grinning, glitching shadow. "Let's see... since you're the ruler of the abyss," I said slowly, "there's really only one thing that comes to mind."
A smirk crept across my face. "Abyrion."
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the air around us pulsed. The darkness trembled like the whole void inhaled at once.
The thing burst into laughter. It wasn't just a sound; it was an event. The laughter rippled through the space, echoing, twisting, splitting into hundreds of tones at once as his form convulsed and flickered, fighting not to collapse in on itself.
"Did... did he not like it?" I thought nervously.
"I do!" came the reply, booming through my skull. "Excellent. Wonderful."
The voice warped and multiplied as he straightened his shadowed figure. "From this day forth, I am Abyrion Ruler of the Shadows, the One Above All Light, the Abyssal Lord."
He laughed again, loud enough to shake the nothingness around us. I sighed. "Yeah," I muttered to myself, "maybe naming an ancient, all-powerful eldritch being wasn't such a good idea."
Before I could finish that thought, a whisper brushed the back of my neck. "Don't worry."
I froze. He was behind me.
I turned fast but he was gone again, appearing right in front of me instead. "And thank you," he said, his distorted smile stretching wider than before.
Before I could speak, his hand pressed flat against my chest.
"What the hell are you do—"
The words never had the chance to finish.
A searing pain ripped through me sudden, brutal, all-consuming. It wasn't just pain; it was liquid fire coursing through my veins, as if someone had poured molten metal straight into my chest. My breath caught, my vision blurred white, and I screamed a raw, ugly sound that didn't even feel human. My back arched violently as if my body was trying to tear itself apart, muscles twisting against a force too vast to fight.
It burned deeper, spreading from my heart through every nerve until it felt like my bones themselves were melting, my soul being branded from the inside out.
"With this mark," Abyrion said calmly, voice steady even as mine broke, "I declare you, Delian, my contractor."
My breath hitched.
"You will bear my blessing..." he pressed harder, "...and my curse."
Something inside me shattered. I could feel it. My chest burned so violently I swore my ribs were melting from the inside. I wanted to curse, to punch, to do something but my body gave up.
When the pain finally faded, I saw it: a faint circle glowing on my chest, inside it a small, jagged star made of pure black light. And then, just as quickly as it came, it sank beneath my skin and vanished.
"What... what did you do to me?" I gasped, clutching at my chest.
Abyrion only smiled uncaring, unreadable. "A gift."
"A gift?" I spat. "You call this a—"
"With this," he interrupted smoothly, "your memories will remain intact, even after reincarnation. I've hidden it well, even those bastards will never be able to find them."
"Reincarnation?" I blinked, dizzy. "Gift? What the hell are you talking about—"
"Don't worry, Delian," Abyrion said, lowering himself to my level. His voice was almost... gentle. "Everything will be revealed in time."
"I wish we could talk more," Abyrion said, his voice rumbling through the void like the whisper of an earthquake, "but I've held them back long enough."
The air shifted no, the space itself trembled. I felt something vast, something divine, pressing in from all directions.
"They found you, Delian."
My heart dropped. This was it. The moment he'd warned me about.
"So," I muttered, my voice shaking, "this is really happening? I'm going to… live again?"
"Yes." The word rang through the emptiness like a promise. "And you, Delian… will never put your head down again."
Abyrion's tone sharpened, his distorted grin almost glowing in the dark. "I will help you rise. So bear all that is to come and when the time comes… we will meet again."
I wanted to answer. To thank him, or curse him, or ask if any of this was real but before I could speak, my consciousness started slipping. The darkness folded in on itself, pulling me down like a tide.
His last words echoed faintly in my head... don't look down again…
Never again.
I remembered everything sitting alone in that freezing apartment, crying from hunger my torn clothes holding myself tightly as I curled in that corner. The mocking laughs. The endless begging. The hollow, miserable struggle of just trying to survive.
Not again.
Never again would I grovel. Never again would I be beneath anyone.
This time, I'd do more than survive.This time, I'd live.And anyone who dared to stand in my way I'd annihilate them.
That thought was the last thing I had before I fell completely.
The darkness shattered and I was gone.
Abyrion watched in silence as Delian disappeared into a burst of light. Alone again, he turned, his shadow stretching endlessly across the cold abyss.
And then, at his feet, he noticed it a small crack on the smooth, dark surface. From it, faint light leaked through.
He chuckled quietly, the sound echoing like distant thunder.
"I hope you can entertain me well, Delian Ardent."
---
Light swallowed me, bright and loud, but through it a chorus threaded itself into my head not Abyrion's voice now, but a dozen others, old and furious and smelling of thunder.
"Found him," one hissed, laughing like rusted bells."Where was he hiding all this time?" a woman cooed, sweet and sharp."Doesn't matter," rasped another, ancient and cruel. "We will not let you rest, human. How dare you mock us."
Their words bled into one another, sentencing and sermon all at once. "For the sin of insulting us," a deep male voice intoned, "we condemn you. You will live your second life in misery. You will learn never dare speak such filth of us again."
Of course!
The choir of gods. The ones Abyrion warned me about, the old hags and coronets of light.
Through the blaze I could barely make out their faces not really faces, more like a dozen moons with teeth. I could feel their outrage like fists slamming the air.
I laughed in my head. A small, raw sound. "These guys," I thought. "Real petty."
Some stupid flicker of courage or maybe the last honest taste of who I once was flared up. I pushed with everything I had left, voice raw and ragged and useless in the light, but the thought was loud and clear.
"FUCK YOU, OLD HAGS! HAHAHA!" I spat into the void.
For a heartbeat their laughter cut off. Then the outrage exploded: "H-how dare you, mere human! How dare you! We will never let you rest just you wait and watch!"
Their threats rolled over me like a storm. For the first time in a long time I felt something like heat under my skin that wasn't pain but a stubborn, ridiculous pride. I let the sound of my own defiance ride the light away.
When consciousness loosened its grip, the last thing I thought half-laughing, half-terrified was
You'll see.
Then I woke again, and this time everything was wrong in a new way: smaller, warmer, softer. Tiny lungs burned, but this breath was new. A woman's voice cooed and I felt cloth and warmth and an unfamiliar heart beating close to my ear. I tasted milk and tears and a memory that wasn't mine yet felt like mine.
You were right, Abyrion, I thought though I didn't know how I could speak to him now.
But I don't give a shit.
I felt something curl beneath my ribs the mark, the pain, the promise. I would grow. I would find him. We would show them. All of them.
Then sleep folded me under like a hand, and I went back into the dark with that small, ugly vow warming my chest.
"JUST YOU WAIT, GODS"