Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

The sky appeared to crack, sucking Tory and I away into a dark rift that swallowed us down greedily, tasting the sins on our bones.

I could see nothing. Or perhaps I was nothing. Because the abyss I was standing in seemed infinitely a part of me, and I could no longer feel my sister’s fingers around mine. I tried to feel my body, reaching for Tory too, sure she was here yet entirely not at the same time.

“All you have ever truly possessed lays here with you now,” the stars whispered, their words like raindrops falling heavily against me, striking everywhere, and away into eternity. “Skin and bone and beating heart, all hold no value here, beyond the confines of your world. You are the fire that burned long before you knew of your own existence. One soul severed, light and dark, the perfect balance. But where there is balance, there is unbalance…”

I tried to answer the voice that held no gender, or any kind of true identity at all. But my own voice was lost, fragments of it scattered around me in the boundless void. I was one with it all, and as I reached into it, I was given a sense of every living thing on earth, like their lives were sparking in this space, with a hungry, almost arrogant need to exist. There was a purpose beneath it, one I couldn’t quite grasp, and as I reached for it, the voice spoke again.

“Careful, daughter of the flames. Knowledge such as that cannot be unlearned.”

I willed my words to form, pushing them out into the nothingness and forcing them to forge. “Where’s my sister?”

“I’m here,” she spoke in answer, and the darkness gave way to the sensation of her, like her body was reforming at my side, but I still couldn’t feel her.

“Fate changer,” the stars hissed at her. “A cost to bear, a burden worn. Will regrets shatter the foundations of your blood bound choice?”

“I will never regret bringing Darius back. You stole him before his time, and I will pay whatever price I have to now,” Tory spat, her ire tainting the air.

Knowing she had somehow raised Darius from the dead left me both overjoyed, and terrified of what she’d done to achieve it. But I couldn’t ask her about it now under the weight of the stars’ stares.

“What do you want?” I asked, intention circling in the air like moths around a flame.

“We have an offering,” the stars whispered and one by one they appeared from the darkness, like delicate jewels hanging within the canvas of black. The light they emitted was imbued with power, the kind of magic that had no limits, a single drop of it able to give life or snatch it away. “Once, in a time long lost, there was a star among us who idolised the Fae. Clydinius of the Seventh House.”

I frowned, recognising that as the name of the fallen star the first Phoenix queen had spoken with, the one who had gifted her the Imperial Star.

“He watched them rise, he watched them fall, he saw their love, their wrath, heard their laughter and their mourning cries. But with each passing century, this star grew tired of it all. And a forbidden desire grew within him, a terrible desire not meant for stars.”

“What was it?” I breathed, every resounding word spoken creating a pulse in the air.

“Clydinius believed Fae were not worthy of the greatness we gifted them, for it was wasted and spoiled in the hands of your kind, every empire rising only to surely fall. So Clydinius came to the Court of Caelestina where the fates are woven thread by thread, and destiny spins upon a coin of iron. There, he spoke treasonous words, expressing the very desire which could unbalance the bedrock of the world. Clydinius wished for us all to descend from the heavens, to claim a place upon the earth and walk among the Fae as gods. In response to this declaration, Arcturus of the Sixth House cast Clydinius from the sky, where only one fate awaited him. Or so we thought. For we were fooled… Clydinius had wished for this all along, and instead of releasing his powers upon impact with the earth, Clydinius made a deal with a Fae, breaking all the laws of old and blaspheming against the teachings of the Origin.”

“The Origin?” Tory questioned.

“The Origin is the beginning and end of all things. She is the giver of life, of fate, of all reality. She is the oldest star in our universe, a creator and destroyer. She set the laws of reality itself.”

“But aren’t you all supposed to be neutral in every fate you offer?” I accused.

“They’re not neutral. They do what they want, whatever entertains them most,” Tory growled.

“We seek harmony in all things. We right the tipping of the scales, forever seeking a point of bliss. We have no need nor use for sentiment or feeling. Right or wrong. A star should never be corrupted, it should not be possible within the realms of all that is. But Clydinius was the exception.”

“Bullshit,” Tory snarled. “You’re all the same. If you were about fairness, then we wouldn’t have had to go through all of this.”

“It is not us who cursed you so,” the stars whispered, and I felt the truth of those words ringing to the centre of me, like I’d known it all along and yet I’d never been able to grasp that knowledge until now.

“Clydinius cursed us,” I said, seeing the real depths of that truth now. It went beyond these stars, disrupting any plans they might have chosen to lay in place for us. I could feel that intangible power thrumming in the air and almost sensed the binds of the curse anchoring my soul to the single star which had placed it upon our bloodline. We were prisoners to Clydinius’s vengeance, and nothing we did in this war would succeed long term unless we could find a way free of it.

“What’s the broken promise?” I asked in desperation. “If we keep it, we’ll break the curse, right? We can restore the balance.”

“Yes, daughter of the flames,” they answered. “Queens crowned, a kingdom kneeling at your feet. A choice lays in your hands now.”

“What choice?” Tory demanded.

The darkness finally shifted, rippling like ink around me before I found myself standing in a memory of the past. I recognised Elvia Vega, the first Phoenix Queen, on her knees before the star, Clydinius.

“The version of this memory you perceived within the Memoriae crystal was altered by Queen Avalon Vega generations after this night,” the stars revealed. “For she wished to ensure no Phoenix ever kept the promise made with the fallen star. She wished to pass the power of the Imperial Star down the Vega line to secure their position as royalty forevermore. This, daughter of the flames, is the shard of the memory that was destroyed…”

I was launched forward into Queen Elvia’s mind, seeing it all through her eyes once more and feeling Tory’s soul joining mine.

My palm tingled painfully where it still lay against the gleaming surface of the fallen star. The brightness made me wince, my eyes hurting and a ringing growing in my ears. I screamed as it intensified, begging to be spared, unsure if I had angered it somehow. But then a part of the star cracked off in my palm, a tremendous blast of magic cutting it clean from the star itself. The light faded and I found a rough, unhewn piece of the star lying in my palm that hummed with unimaginable power, so beautiful it left me speechless.

“Wield my heart, and you will win your war. But when it is done, you will return my heart to me, and use it for one final cast, as only a Fae can.”

“What cast?” I breathed, fear knotting in my chest as a terrible sense of foreboding washed over me.

“You will breathe life into my heart when it is returned to me. You will offer me the power to take the form of a Fae and walk among the world.”

My throat thickened at the idea of that, the thought of a star living on earth seeming wholly unnatural. But power was licking at my fingers hungrily, and while the heart of the star was clutched in my fist, I couldn’t deny the temptation of it. I could win my war, and pass this gift down to my children.

“If you do not return my heart, there will be dire consequences,” the star warned, and my body trembled with the omen of devastation that laced its words.

“How long?” I asked. “Until it must be returned?”

“A hundred years, no more. Buy you and your child the glory you crave, then have one of your bloodline offer me what I seek.”

I nodded, relief setting in at knowing I could claim this power for so long.

“I will make sure it is returned. And the promise is kept,” I vowed, and a snap of power struck me in the chest, binding me body and soul to that promise, leaving me breathless as it sank into my very blood.

“Then it is done,” the star hissed.

“Thank you,” I breathed, and those words leaving my lips set the earth quaking and the sky singing.

No, not singing. That beautiful, haunting noise that hovered on the edges of my hearing was screams, the stars above trying to defy what had been done, what this star had offered me going against all nature of its kind and mine.

Tory and I were pulled from the memory and fear echoed out around me into the abyss, the stars all glittering mournfully.

“You are in possession of Clydinius’s heart,” the stars whispered anxiously. “The Imperial Star longs to return to him, but if you keep the promise, you will bring about a plague upon the earth. There shall be no peace, only blight and death. We fear that Clydinius will seek to become the ultimate power of your world, and while he reigns below, we cannot reign above. All shall be lost. All shall fall.”

“But if we don’t return it, if we don’t keep the promise, we’ll be cursed forever?” I said in horror.

“The Vega curse will prevail,” the stars confirmed. “It shall worsen, you shall never know peace, and all those you love shall suffer at your side. We cannot intervene. The choice lays in your hands. Make the right one, daughters of the flames.”

The darkness receded and I suddenly stood eye to eye with my sister. Just she and I, suspended in a chasm of black with this burden of knowledge pressing down on us, and a blood-bound choice which would seal our fates.

“We’ve been cursed this whole time because of that fucking star,” Tory said fiercely. “I say we use the Imperial Star to kill Lionel, Lavinia and all their screwed-up followers. We’re not bringing some psycho star into the world to walk around, and cause fuck knows what havoc.”

I shook my head in refusal of that. “We can’t wield it. Look what happened to our dad. What happened to all the Phoenixes who tried to use it. It never works out well. Why don’t we destroy it instead?”

Tory raised a hand to the rough stone that was clasped in the amulet around her neck as she considered that, and I could see her temptation to wield it, to end Lionel for all he’d done. I desperately wanted that too, but not like this. Not with a piece of that cursed star which had caused our father so much torment.

“We use it first, then we destroy it,” Tory said.

“I don’t think we should ever use it,” I objected. “It could make everything so much worse. When I watched those memories play out in the crystal, the Phoenixes were all killed off. They were consumed by their own flames, turned to ash.”

“I’ll risk it,” Tory said stubbornly, and I grabbed her hand, pulling it away from the star.

“I don’t want to risk you,” I replied firmly, and her gaze softened at that, the grief she’d suffered all too clear in her eyes, and I knew she wouldn’t wish that on me.

“I suppose using this lump of rock to kill Lionel might make it seem like we couldn’t crush him without it,” she admitted, releasing her hold on the amulet. “And I really am looking forward to seeing the look on his face when I cut his head off and prove just how much more powerful than him I am.”

I snorted at that beautiful mental image, and for a moment I was just so full of relief to be reunited with my twin that I couldn’t help but smile at her.

“We could return it, break our curse and destroy Clydinius the second he materialises,” I suggested, and her eyes widened at that.

“Kill a star?” she murmured, a smirk lifting her lips at the idea, and no matter how crazy it sounded, I was all in. It was the only option that led to us breaking our curse.

“If we pull it off, we’ll be free of the curse, free of fucking Clyde and-”

“And nothing will stand in our way when we attack Lionel and his army,” Tory finished for me.

I stepped toward her, feeling our decision solidifying, and knowing this might be the stupidest, riskiest thing we ever did. But it was an answer to all of our problems.

The stars were screaming, responding to the choice we’d made as our decision resonated out to the edges of the universe. They had no choice but to give into our wishes, unable to touch this fate. It was ours, and ours alone, and this was what we’d decided.

The darkness swirled around us, rivers of colour spilling into it until we were travelling through a swathe of starlight.

We were thrown out of their embrace into the oppressive heat of a jungle I knew well, and the scent of mangoes on the air made my stomach turn at the memory of how many we’d eaten when we’d stayed here at the Palace of Flames. We were no longer shifted into our Orders, and no crowns of fire hung above us either. It was just us, two sisters, nothing more or less. And something about that seemed right for this task.

Tory pushed to her feet, taking my arm and pulling me with her, and we gazed at the dark entrance to the cave before us. Vines hung down over the rocky outcrop above it, and an ancient bronze path led up to its entrance, overgrown with lush foliage and long grass. The rising sun’s glow lit the way forward as if its light was solely aimed here and nowhere else in the world.

There was a heavy energy in the air, the kind that made every beat of my heart labour and every breath I took sit wetly in my lungs. We couldn’t be far from the Palace of Flames; I could almost feel its proximity to this place.

“At last, the Vega bloodline returns,” a voice filled my head that was feminine, then masculine, then something in between. “Have you come to fulfil the broken promise at last?”

Tory and I shared a look then she raised her chin and spoke loud and clear to it. “We have.”

An excited, expectant power buzzed along the surface of my skin, drawing us closer, begging us to come find its source. Beautiful silver runes ignited on the cavern wall, running away into the dark to guide us onward.

Tory and I shared a look, and we strode side by side into the dark, leaving our hesitations behind us for good.

“We shouldn’t shift. This is where I saw all those Phoenixes burst into flames,” I said warily, noticing an old pile of bones under a layer of dust.

“Okay,” she agreed.

“Twins,” the star purred. “One soul, two halves.”

Tory gasped, raising a hand to the Imperial Star hanging from her throat, and the glow which had been coming from it since the Heirs had all bowed to us turned into a full-on shine, golden light rippling out from it.

“It’s beating like a heart,” she said thickly.

“That’s what it is, I guess,” I said, tempted to make her take it off. I knew what Clydinius was capable of with his curse over the Vegas, and I didn’t want that thing turning on us.

“Each of you have worn my heart around your throat. I have watched, waited. I have learned much from you and your ancestors,” Clydinius said with an eagerness to his voice that was unlike anything I’d heard from other stars before. “Come closer…”

We walked ever on, following the glowing runes on the wall, and I glanced at Tory with fear brushing the edges of my soul. This could be it. We could face the star and fail; we might never walk back out of this dark cave, and the truth of that fact sank in deep.

I studied her face, seeing the differences in her, a darkness in her eyes that hadn’t been there the last time we’d stood side by side as free Fae. She’d changed in the time since the battle, and my heart ruptured as it didn’t fully recognise her anymore. Had I been so blind not to realise we’d reached a crossroads and turned down different paths?

I never would have intentionally chosen to go different ways in life, in fact, part of me just wanted to stay as kids, in a time where all we’d had was each other. But life happened, and now it seemed like we might never be those little girls again, hand in hand, facing the world together and keeping everyone out. We didn’t need to do that anymore, and if we survived this night, what were our lives even going to look like now?

My fingers brushed hers but she withdrew, shutting me out, or maybe she didn’t even realise she’d done it.

“Tor, you know I love you right?” I said, needing her to know in case a time came where it was too late to ever say it again.

She frowned at me, her eyes searching mine for something she seemed unable to find.

“Yeah, and I love you.” She kept walking, moving half a step ahead of me and the air thickened with unspoken words.

“You’re angry with me,” I stated.

“Let’s not do this right now,” she said, but I couldn’t leave it. We could be walking to our deaths.

“It has to be now,” I said, grabbing her arm but she yanked it out of my hold, wheeling towards me with a look that was all fire. “Tory.”

“Fine. You wanna know why I’m mad? Because you chose Orion over me. And I get it. It’s not like I don’t understand how much you love him, but it was always us first. And when I had no one in the world, when I was broken and lost and only still breathing at all because I knew I had to hold on for you, I had to come for you, you still chose him.”

“Lavinia was torturing him,” I said, shaking my head in anger. “How could I leave him there when he’d offered up everything for me? What kind of mate would I be?”

“A better mate than a sister, I guess.” She turned her back on me and a snarl rolled from my throat.

“You’re different. Something’s happened to you,” I said furiously, chasing her down and not letting her walk away from this.

“A whole hell of a lot has happened, Darcy. And maybe you’d know that if you’d been there. But I broke alone, and I did things I can’t ever undo to piece myself back together, to find a way into the land of the dead and drag back the man who left me wrecked in his wake.”

“I hate that you went through that, I really do. I want to know everything that happened so I can understand. But right now, I just need you to know I’m sorry I wasn’t there. Really, I am. But I had my own shit going on, Tor. And apart from anything else, I was a danger to you. I couldn’t control the Shadow Beast.”

“I know,” she gritted out, then she heaved a sigh, gazing off along the path we were taking together. “Shit’s just different now. And maybe it’s for the best.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, gripping her wrist as she quickened her pace.

She glanced down to where my hand held onto her, a frown furrowing deep into her brow.

“You and me, we’re different. We have different wants, different needs. I’m always going to love you, and you’ll always be my twin, but I’m not sure we should depend on each other like we used to. At least, I shouldn’t depend on you the way I did… We need to stand strong on our own. Especially if we’re going to rule Solaria one day. We have to be independent. We have to bring our own strengths to the throne.”

“We’re strongest together,” I said passionately and her throat bobbed.

“I don’t know if that’s true anymore. You’ve got this moral compass inside you that always sets you on the right path. But mine’s not like that. Especially not now. It’s leading me down a dark road and it’s a road I want to go down, because it’s the one I think I need to follow if we’re going to win this war. And it’s one you can’t follow me on.”

Tory kept walking and refusal burned hot inside me, melting my core, and turning it to solder.

“No,” I growled. “Don’t walk away from me, Tory. We may be different but we’re the same where it counts. We’ve always found a balance between us, light to each other’s dark and dark to each other’s light, just like the stars said. We make room for each other and show up for each other, and when peril comes knocking, we stand and take on death itself together. Don’t let the world ruin us. We may be different trees but we’re growing side by side, our branches intertwined forever. You support me and I support you. That’s how it’s always going to be. Because that’s what sisters do.”

Tory turned to me, her eyes blazing with emotion. “Even if my soul is dipped in blood and carnage?”

“I’ll always love you as you are right now, and I know you’ve been through a lot. I want to know this new you.”

“Really?” she whispered, and I saw the essence of my sister’s soul, how brittle it could be when she turned a magnifying glass on herself. She saw a broken creature with sins to her name, and all the harsh choices she’d had to make. But that wasn’t what I saw.

“Really,” I said firmly. “When I look at you, I will always see the girl who took on the whole world for me, even when we were skinny little orphans with nothing and no one to love us. We loved each other, and that kind of love is greater than all else. It’ll never die, no matter who we become. No matter who else we love now too. At our core, we’re still us.”

She moved towards me, wrapping me in her arms, a hug from her meaning so much, she had no idea. “The past won’t come again, Darcy. These fleeting, fragile seconds. They’re all gone when they’re gone.”

“So let’s spend as many of them as we can together and spend as few of them as possible being angry with each other. I know this war will change us, but please…please promise me we’ll still be together when it’s over.”

“I promise,” she said, hooking her pinky finger around mine as she released me.

We stayed like that, stealing one of those transient moments, already losing our grip on it, but trying to buy a little more time in its company, stretching the milliseconds out until we had to part. And as we walked down into the depths of the caverns, our hands found each other’s and we were just two little girls again, about to take on an enemy that was far bigger than us. But together, we would find a way to defeat it.

We followed the glittering silver runes all the way down into the belly of the cave system, passing bones, gold and treasure that gleamed under layers of dust and cobwebs.

A cavern finally widened in front of us, and we stepped into it, the power of the star even more terrible down here, so vigorous it made my skin prickle, drawing my magic to the edges of my being.

The runes decorated the walls here too, and plants flourished everywhere despite there being no way for sunlight to enter this place, vines climbing up to the ceiling and little wildflowers blooming all over them. At the centre of the cave, still entirely underground, a huge tree stood tall and proud, its roots covering the earthy floor around it.

The runes arrowed towards a round stone door on the far side of the cavern and we strode over to it, taking in the zodiac wheel that framed it. The wheel gleamed with that same silver light of the runes, thrumming expectantly like it was waiting for us to do something.

Tory and I moved as one, reaching for the centre of that door and as our fingers met with it, the Gemini star sign lit up and the door trembled before it opened.

“Come forth, daughters of the flames, twins of Gemini, wielders of the four Elements. You were born to right this wrong of old, and it is time to keep the promise of your elders.”

I gritted my teeth as we stepped beyond that door and golden light broke through the shadows, calling to me in a way that dove deep into my desires and tugged hard.

A golden rune illuminated beneath us, then another and another as we moved forward.

“Truth, fortune, honesty, virtue,” Tory murmured, clearly recognising their meaning, and I was pretty sure I heard the word death among the list too as she continued. So that was just peachy.

The golden glow brightened into a huge sphere before us and I realised we’d arrived at the star, the enormous rock somehow even bigger than it had seemed in Elvia’s memory.

A rough hole was cut into its surface, marking the place where the Imperial Star belonged.

“Return the heart,” Clydinius whispered eagerly, that golden light pulsing and flickering.

The power ringing through the air made my ears pop as we drew closer and Tory took the chain from her neck, holding the Imperial Star in her fist. She broke it out of the amulet, removing the concealment spells that had been placed on it too, then moved towards the hole, the thrill in the air skipping against my skin.

I slid my hand around Tory’s, bearing this burden with her and ensuring this act was ours as one.

“Ready?” she whispered.

“What’s that saying the Oscuras use? A morte…”

“E ritorno,” she finished, and we thrust the heart of the star into the hole, fixing it back in place.

“Creatia,” I spoke the power word Orion had found in his father’s diary, one that could be used to wield the Imperial Star. It meant creation, and surely was the only power word capable of giving a body to this entity.

Light blazed from the hole, threading between our fingers and setting my pulse racing. There was no going back now. We’d done what we’d done, the promise kept.

The moment the power latched inside the star, a force blasted into us that sent us flying onto our backs. I cast an air shield around us as Tory drew her sword, the two of us shoving upright, ready to fight.

The energy in the air was changing, the star pulsing, thrumming, the light erratic and dancing everywhere. It struck against my shield, slicing through it and Tory carved her sword through the light, but it made no difference.

“Shift and you will burn,” Clydinius warned, and I kept my Phoenix firmly locked down, raising my hands and blasting fire at it with all I had.

The flames sizzled out against its shining surface and Tory snatched my hand, her magic uniting with mine and making us twice as powerful together. She raised her palm, freezing the star as I leant her my strength, then she tried to crack it like an egg with the whip of a huge vine. Our magic did nothing, and suddenly it was all ebbing away, the well in my chest hollowing out as my magic was sucked into that all-powerful being before us.

“It is too late to fight,” Clydinius said, amusement in his tone, his voice becoming more solid, less ethereal. “The promise is fulfilled.”

Tory cursed, throwing her hand out before her and for a moment a pentagram appeared on the ground that was cast from blazing fire, but a wash of magic tore it apart before I could so much as blink.

I heard the stone door slam shut at our backs and the truth of our reality shuddered through me. Our magic was entirely tapped out and our hands parted as I drew my sword, facing down this enemy.

I ran forward with my sister at my side, slamming my blade against the star, making it shriek in rage. Tory’s sword didn’t even make it that far as we were blasted away from it again, hitting the far wall and crumpling back to the ground.

The star glowed so brightly I could see nothing at all beyond it, and the piercing, shrill noise in my head made it impossible to move.

We were forced to cover our ears and hunker close together as that horrid sound ripped through every fibre of our bodies. The pain was immobilising, like a thousand rusty knives scraping along the inside of my skin.

Flashes of the future raced through my mind, and I realised I was seeing it all through Clydinius’s eyes, his plans for the world. Razing cities to dust, claiming all the treasures of the kingdom for himself and sitting atop a mountain of bones, forged into a throne.

With an abruptness that left my head spinning, it came to an end.

I blinked as the light faded away, finding two girls standing in the cavern, the image of Tory and I, flames flickering between their fingers.

“I am Fae,” the false me spoke in reverence, my voice perfectly mimicked by the star.

“True freedom is mine,” the fake Tory finished, as if this thing was both of us now, housed in our skins.

We shoved to our feet, charging with battle cries, each of us aimed at the mirrors of ourselves, and swinging our blades in deadly arcs.

But as our swords came tearing towards their bodies, the air shimmered and the star vanished before our eyes, leaving us behind. Reality set in and I looked toward the closed stone door, the walls of the cavern and the ceiling of stone above. We were trapped here without a drop of magic, unable to summon our Orders or else meet a gruesome end. And in the wake of Clydinius’s departure, words rang out around us in the voice of the stars, a new fate knitted into existence in response to what we’d done.

When all hope hinges on a promise forged of lies,

Beware the threaded minds of blood and chaos.

Unlikely friends and broken bonds may shift the tide,

Cleave open the walls of the lost in the depths of the unholy night.

Unleash the souls tethered in the tainted dark,

Unite the rising twelve and toll the bells of fate.