Lunaya had not yet caught her breath from the golden desert of Sahr when already...
The silver-black thread vibrated.
Not like the other threads.
Not like a pulse.
Like a sob.
She felt her stomach churn.
"No... I... I'm not ready..."
The thread twisted.
Trembling.
Torn.
And in the next moment,
It grabbed her.
Not like Dravik (strength).
Not like Sahr (seduction).
Not like the Breath (truth).
No.
It tore her away.
Like someone screaming and reaching out in an endless night.
A shadow.
An altar.
A broken breath.
A name whispered in a forgotten language.
The vision was black.
Not dark.
Black.
As if the world had been drained of light on the night everything collapsed.
Cold rain fell on her.
On her hair.
On her hands.
On a carved stone at her feet.
Lunaya breathed heavily.
A scent.
A memory.
A pain.
She was kneeling in front of...
in front of...
An altar.
A runic circle traced with ink and blood.
And facing her,
...Erynd.
Not the wounded, discreet, withdrawn Erynd of today.
Not the broken young man.
No.
The Erynd of that life.
The whole Erynd.
His black hair dripped with rain.
His eyes were no longer amber or shadow.
They were silver.
Like two blades.
And in those eyes...
no anger.
No jealousy.
No desire.
Just pain so deep that it seemed to wear away the reality around them.
He had one hand over his heart, as if to keep it from bursting.
Lunaya tried to speak.
"Erynd?"
He closed his eyes.
As if his name was killing him.
"You should never have remembered me first."
His voice was low, almost broken.
Lunaya staggered.
"First?"
He finally lifted his head toward her.
Her vision blurred.
The rain stopped.
The earth cracked.
His words were like a knife:
"In all my lives...
it was your name I remembered.
Never the other way around."
She felt something forming behind her,
a huge shadow, a circle of black wings.
The ravens.
But not like the ones she knew.
The Guardians of the Ritual.
Those who watch over the forbidden.
Those who punish impossible bonds.
Erynd took a step towards her.
His hand was shaking.
"I wanted to protect you.
Not take you.
Not... bind you."
The runic circle beneath their feet lit up, pure black.
A ritual.
A forbidden ritual.
Lunaya felt her heart sink.
"What... what were we doing... Erynd?"
He shrugged with a broken laugh,
a laugh that sounded more like a sob than an answer.
"What we shouldn't have done.
What no one understood.
What I accepted for you.
So you wouldn't disappear."
He knelt before her.
Slowly.
As if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders.
Lunaya wanted to pull away,
He grabbed her hand.
Not violently.
Not like Dravik.
Not like Sahr.
He took it like a dying man clinging to one last sweetness.
"You chose me.
Before Kael.
Before Dravik.
Before Sahr. "
A breath escaped her.
No.
No, it couldn't be.
"You chose me first.
And I broke your destiny.
So that choice wouldn't kill you."
The ritual glowed brighter.
Lunaya felt excruciating pain shoot up her arm.
"Erynd... I... I don't understand..."
He pressed their foreheads together.
Just like Dravik had done.
But with infinite gentleness.
Then, in a broken voice:
"I cut your name.
So they couldn't find you.
So no one could possess you.
Not even me."
The vision exploded into fragments of shadow.
The wings of the ravens opened behind him, darkening the sky.
Lunaya screamed:
"What have you done?!"
And he replied, with a sad, trembling, heartbreaking smile:
"I loved you more than the world.
And the world did not forgive."
The ritual burst forth.
His thread broke.
The light threw her out of him like a rejection.
Back in the Sanctuary
Lunaya fell to her knees.
Suffocating.
Trembling.
Hands over her mouth.
The black-silver thread around her heart pulsed like an open wound.
The silhouette of the Breath whispered:
"He is the only one you chose.
The only one you loved too soon.
And the only one you lost too late."
Lunaya burst into tears.
The entire weave trembled.
All the threads.
All the bonds.
Dravik.
Sahr.
Kael.
And Erynd.
All vibrated.
All called to her.
All wanted her.
The Sanctuary whispered:
"It is time to come out.
Your heart will bring them together.
Or tear them apart."