Theron’s grip on my hand tightened, his hellfire warmth flowing through our soul bond. “Thank you all for three years of kindness before the end.” I bowed my head toward the ruins. “I was never the curse you thought I was, and I’m grateful you gave me shelter when I needed it most.”
The power swirled stronger around us, responding to my words. Ancient pain and fresh peace mingled in the air, creating something new from something broken.
I reached into my satchel and withdrew the single black feather I’d carried here. Enyo’s last remains, the gift Phonos had entrusted me with after the disaster at the spire.
I’d spent many nights thinking of this feather, of the questions I’d have liked to ask Enyo, but would never get the chance to ask. I didn’t dare to address the remaining Keres, not after everything, but coming here… I’d finally known what I needed to do.
“Enyo,” I whispered. “You and your daughters killed everyone in this village. You tore apart everything I knew, and you saved mylife. Then you welcomed me into your family when I felt I had nowhere else to go.”
The feather trembled in my grip as emotion tightened my throat.
“I don’t understand all the choices you made, but I understand love when I see it.” I held the feather against my heart, feeling its softness against my palm. “I know you loved your children very much.”
A moment of silence stretched between past and present. I closed my eyes, thinking of those strange days I’d spent at the Spire, remembering the way her hand had felt in my hair. I didn’t yearn for a future where I could have belonged to her family, but I did wish things had been different.
“I think you’d be happy to know that they’re fine now. Phonos, Alecto, and Megaera. A little sad, I think. They miss you. But they’re proud of who they are. Who you were. So… thank you. Thank you for showing me that mothers will sacrifice anything for their children, even their own existence.”
“It’s time,” Loxias announced. “The Moirae are ready to guide you.”
Skaros positioned himself at the eastern edge of the massacre site, and Aion moved to the western boundary. Loxias took the northern point. He didn’t usually take harvesting jobs, but he was as prepared as the rest of them to assist me.
Usually, they’d have had death spheres and would have carried them to Asphodelia, to be used for the city’s benefit. Not today.Today, they all knelt in the grass and pressed their hands against the ground.
The death energy in Agrion had been harvested once before by Theron’s team, and it had been one full year since the massacre. But this kind of event left traces, and deep within the earth, Thanatos’s power still lingered.
Skaros plunged his tail into the ground, and just like that, it started. Slowly, energy spiraled out of the ground, wispy and thin, reminding me of the mist on Lake Acheron.
Zoe moved closer, her tongue flicking out as she sensed the forces gathering. She settled near where I’d once lain bleeding, watching with unblinking focus.
Theron remained next to me, in the center of the formation. He took a deep breath, and his hellfire blazed out of him, brighter and more potent than ever before. This was where we’d first met, where he’d found me dying. His power resonated with every drop of blood that had been spilled here.
As the silver-blue light condensed around me, Clotho’s voice echoed in my mind.Begin.
I felt her hands guiding mine, her ancient knowledge flowing through our connection. A part of me still couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe the Moirae had chosen me of all people to teach such a sacred craft. But they had, and their trust humbled me.
I reached for the power Theron offered, letting it flow through my fingers. The power wanted to create, to build, to transformdeath into life. I followed its pull toward the exact spot where I’d lain bleeding, Enyo’s feather clutched in my other hand.
Here. Where endings become beginnings.
The energy responded to my will, taking shape under my hands. Enyo’s black feather dissolved into silver threads that wound upward through the soil. They grew and brightened, transforming into something new.
A small asphodel pushed through the earth where my blood had fallen. Its stem emerged pale and perfect, followed by delicate petals that glowed with inner light. The flower of Asphodelia, blooming in the soil of Agrion, carrying the essence of sacrifice within its ethereal beauty.
“You did it.” Theron released the last of the channeled energy, wonder threading through his voice. “You created lasting life.”
Zoe approached the flower slowly and curled around it in loose coils. Her pupils contracted to vertical slits as she studied the glowing bloom. “Life and death,” she hissed.
It was the first time I’d heard her speak. I’d known she would, eventually, like every other basilisk in Asphodelia. But somehow, it still came as a surprise.
She curled against my leg, studying me with those eerie, glowing eyes. “Like you. Like us.”
I nodded, my heart aching with countless, overwhelming emotions. Crouching beside the flower, beside Zoe, I remembered who I’d been only a year before.
I’d been so convinced that my broken body made me less than whole. I’d never imagined I might be precious to someone, might be chosen for my scars rather than despite them.
“She was wrong about so much.” The words came quietly, weighted with a year of understanding. “The woman who died here.”
“You couldn’t see past your shame.” Theron lowered himself beside me, his massive form gentle in the filtered light. “You thought being barren made you worthless.”
