The Fallen God's Redemption

Chapter 6: The Dark Voice

The road opened out before me, meandering across hills covered in mist and so hiding the horizon. The sounds of life and thanks lessening with every stride as the village vanished behind me. The air was dense with an unnatural silence broken only by the gentle scrape of my boots on the trail and the odd rustle of leaves.

Lyra's voice stayed in my head, her plea pulsing through me like a pulse, awakening long dormant feelings. She was almost here. Her grabbing for me, calling me back to her, felt right in my bones. But her voice had seemed different somehow. urgently. And loaded with an odd caution note.

I rounded a bend and felt a startling, keen presence-a wary glance piercing me from the shadows. I slowed down, keen senses on demand. The air got colder, flavored with a darkness that seemed distinct from the usual shadows-a darkness that pulsed and breathed.

Are you looking for her? The voice was low, gentle, flowing out from the fog like a whisper on the breeze.

I turned, my hand falling naturally on the hilt of my sword. "Who's there?,"

From the shadows came a man covered in a coat so black it appeared to absorb all around it. Though his face was veiled, his posture suggested a terrible calm that suggested a power well beyond earthly knowledge.

"I know who you search for," he said, his voice cool and even conversational. Lyra: The mortal who won over a god to lead him to renounce all he knew.

The remarks gave me a shock, a mixture of mistrust and rage. "What would you know of her?" I insisted, my hold on my blade tightening. And why would that be relevant to you?

The man laughed, a gentle, almost contemptuous sound. "It matters to me since Kaelan's fate is linked to yours. More precisely than you could possibly know.

With every word he said, I felt a flutter of something chilly and unpleasant, a sense of doom that deepened. You familiarize with my name? Still, I never had seen you before.

He bent his head, as though he understood my mistrust. "You might call me Thalos. I am an observer of the divine and mortal both, a watcher. I saw your fall and your ascent, Kaelan. And right now I am here to warn you.

"Warn me," asked I said again, my voice dubious. Of what?

Thalos moved as smoothly as water, his presence shockingly peaceful, and he stepped closer. "Kaelan, there are forces operating here that you cannot start to grasp. Your love of Lyra could not be as pure as you think.

The remarks seemed to me like a bodily blow. "What are you saying??" My voice came out more forcefully than I had planned, slanted with an uncontrollably desperate edge.

He stopped, his eyes penetrating even though the darkness covered his face. Lyra is not an ordinary mortal nor your link with her based on luck. She is connected to an old prophecy that describes the demise of gods and the emergence of powers we cannot even influence.

A cold passed through me, his words weighing me like a thunder cloud building over my soul. What prophecy?

"One that tells of a god who would fall in love with a mortal," he said, his voice weighed with a gravity that made my blood run cold. "A god ready to give his throne, power, for the sake of that love. And through that love, a power would be released-a power able of transforming worlds, of pulling down the very fabric of life.

My mind whirling, I stared at him trying to understand the weight of his comments. "You are then telling me my love for Lyra was... predetermined?"

He corrected gently, "not predetermined but influenced." Guided, maybe, by powers outside your comprehension. Kaelan, your actual affection for her was great. But the situation, the causes, the forces drawing you together-those were anything from natural.

My fist tightened around the hilt of my blade, and a flash of wrath surged inside me. "You are thus implying that I was a pawn in some cosmic game? That my love of her was only a tool?

Thalos bent his head, his eyes fixed, unflinching. "Kaelan, everyone of us is a pawn in the games of gods. The threads of fate, of forces ancient than time itself, bind even those in charge.

Fighting to keep myself steady, I inhaled deeply. And Lyra? For her, what does this prophesy mean?

His visage darkened, a trace of grief darting over it. "Her path entwine with yours, Kaelan. You will remain connected to this prophecy, a destiny that will lead you both onto a road of destruction or atonement, as long as you follow her and as long as your heart longues for hers.

His comments hung in the air, weighty and uncompromising, and I experienced a wave of powerlessness not felt since my fall. Was it all simply part of some great design? The love I had battled so hard to preserve, the love that had drove me to defy the gods themselves? One piece in a puzzle I couldn see?

Still, a flutter of resolve flared in my chest while doubt tore at me. Whichever the prophesy, whatever fate was meant for Lyra, I would not abandon her. Having promised, I would see it through regardless of the expenses.

My voice calm, "If you're here to terrify me, Thalos," I continued, "you're wasting your time. Whether or not prophesy exists, I will find her and guard her.

Thalos looked at me with a calm earnestness, his face incomprehensible. Excellent. Kaelan, be advised, though; there are forces out there ready to stop at nothing to keep you from her. forces incomprehensible to you now.

He retreated, the shadows cloaching about him like a shroud. "And when the time comes, you will have to make decisions that will decide the fate of gods and people both. Choose deliberately, Kaelan.

He was gone, his form fading into the darkness, leaving me alone on the road before I could react.

I stood there, as if a leaden shroud were weighing down on me. Questions, uncertainties, worries whirled through my head. I could almost bear to entertain the idea that my love for Lyra, the same thing had pushed me to forsake, was part of some great scheme.

But my will stiffened as I turned back to the road. There is no cosmic power or prophecy to keep me from her. If that meant fighting through whatever challenges lied ahead or defying gods and fate both, I would fight through either one.

The shadows seemed to change as I progressed, separating to show a fresh road into the center of a woodland dark and silent, a place that felt old, alive with the whisper of past power.

I inhaled deeply and started the first step; the forest closed in all around me, the road meandering into a darkness that appeared to have secrets of its own.