Fate is a burden the chosen ones must carry

Arthem pushed the horse, and his own body, to their limits. They rode day and night, only stopping when he felt the horse would collapse. Within a couple of days, he had reached the edge of the world.

Looking out into the ocean, majestic cliffs several hundreds of metres in height abruptly separated land from water. Hidden within the tallest one laid the Solarist headquarters, the city of Xuriya.

Built onto the cliffside, it overlooked the horizon and the adjacent fields. It was only visible from the ocean, but there were no other settlements around anymore to do that. Over time, the city had expanded inwards, into the cliff itself in a maze of manmade tunnels and caves.

Arthem had grown up in another Solarist city, the much smaller Mura, further to the north. However, once he had distinguished himself as a powerful asset, he had been stationed in Xuriya, so he was familiar with the city.

The Sun was on its apex when he arrived. He had been watching it closely for any changes, but so far, there was only an unsettling feeling that nagged him at the back of his head. But he couldn’t tell if something was already happening, or if it was his own paranoia. Arthem had no idea how much time the Moon needed to start the Eclipse, after all.

He waltzed into his superior officer’s bureau, ignoring the guards trying to stop him. Inside the room, the general was in a private meeting with a councilwoman. What a happy coincidence, he thought as he smiled.

“Arthem!”, yelled general Palsk. “What is the meaning of this?”

“The Moon Priest is dead”, he announced.

Silence fell. “Are you sure?”, asked the councilwoman, eyeing him up and down with interest.

“Yes, madam”, he confirmed. “I saw it with my own eyes.”

“Honestly, when you shared your little plan, I was not too sure, but I thought, the worst that could happen is you would die, so I approved it”, said the general nonchalantly. “Really, you have surpassed all my expectations. I can’t believe you managed to kill the Moon Priest!”

Arthem shook his head. “I am honoured, sir, but I must correct you. I did not kill her. The Moon did.”

“The Moon? How is that possible?”, inquired the councilwoman once more.

“She summoned Him, madam”, he responded. “He drained her of her power and declared he would bring forth an Eclipse. I tried to stop him, but I was no match for a God”, he clutched his fist, remembering the one-sided fight.

The mood in the room shifted notably. “Thank you, soldier”, said the councilwoman. “I will summon the Matriarch, and the Council, to see what our next steps will be”, she turned around and directed this last part to the general, as if Arthem had suddenly disappeared.

“Madam, if I may”, he interjected. “I believe we do not have much time. I would like to request to join you, and also, to be granted permission to read the prophecy myself. I may be able to infer something from the God’s words.”

The councilwoman smiled back at him with an enigmatic smile. “You have done good, soldier”, she said, gravely. “But do not forget your place.”

And with that threat, she stood up and left, leaving Arthem to deal with his anger.

The general sighed as soon as she was out of the room. “Please, Arthem. You are one of my best fighters, and you may still rise higher. But that won’t happen if you pull any other stunts like that.”

Arthem smiled back a him, trying his best to look remorseful. “I apologize, my general. It won’t happen again.”

The general nodded back at him. “I know. You are dismissed. Go rest, you have earned it”, he waved Arthem away, who saluted his superior and left.

They would never know it, but this had been their last chance.

That evening, Arthem made a big spectacle of himself. He pretended to get drunk and celebrate his victory, of which no one else knew. They still hadn’t deemed it important enough to share with everyone, apparently. He played along, pretending it was all because of a girl.

In a way, it was.

He went back to his room, a literal hole in the mountain that he had had to fight for with his achievements. Charged with additional bottles, he locked himself in.

He knew that the Council would meet tonight, the news he had reported were much too grave to wait. Security would be very tight around them, and hopefully, less so everywhere else.

The Council would then spend hours deliberating, interpreting his words, told through the mouth of someone who despised him. Pretending to try and find a solution, while trying to get ahead of the others. By the time they would reach an agreement, the world would already be over.

In the dead of night, Arthem slipped out of his room with the intent of finding answers on his own. He had never seen the prophecy, but he knew where it lay.

A cavern down by the shore, hidden among the rocks of the cliff. It was, of course, heavily guarded, but today, they should hopefully be shorthanded. The members of the Council were way too paranoid, so every time they all met in one place, they called for way too many guards.

Using the dark as his cover, Arthem climbed down the cliff. He felt slightly annoyed that the only reason he was able to see what he was doing was because of the light of the Moon.

There was a staircase that went down to the beach, of course. But he had no excuse to take it, and he would undoubtedly be stopped. So, instead, he took the dangerous way around.

Using his anger as fuel, he kept going, one rock at a time, slowly but surely making his way down. At several points he thought he would slip and fall, but he was always able to catch himself. Eventually, his feet were on solid ground. He had never liked sand as much as he did right that instant.

Staying as close to the cliffside as he was able to, shrouded in its shadows, he reached the entrance of the cave. It would have looked like just another cavity to anyone not knowing what to look for. He walked inside, silently, until he reached a turn. From his side, he could discern the soft light of a lumiranite lamp.

Using a pocket mirror, he peeked around the corner. A round, ornate door, carved from the purest white marble, stood out among the rocky walls of the cave. And in front of it, one lone guard stood, just as Arthem had hoped.

A middle-aged man he didn’t recognize, armed with a long lumiranite spear. He was sitting down on a rock near the door, looking into the distance with visible boredom. Next to him, a fox Spirit with white fur was laying down, bored as well.

Arthem took a pebble and threw it towards the opposite side of the cave, startling them both.

“Who goes there?”, asked the guard, standing up and adopting a defensive posture. His voice echoed through the silence in the cave, interrupted only by the sound of the ocean.

He looked down to his Spirit, who had sat up, and was probably telling him something. The guard nodded, and the Spirit approached the spot where he had thrown his pebble with caution. It sniffed the ground and looked around, but of course, there was nothing to be found. The guard then decided to join him, getting closer and closer to Arthem’s hiding position.

He first saw the tip of the spear, quickly followed by its wielder. Before he could say, or do anything, Arthem had already cut his throat open.

The guard dropped his spear and tried desperately to bring his blood back inside his body. His Spirit yelped, and threw itself at Arthem, surrounded by icy spikes. Arthem dodged swiftly, kicking the Spirit into a wall with all his strength.

In the meantime, the guard, ever so loyal, had been trying to reach the door. There was a rope that disappeared upwards into the ceiling, Arthem realized, next to his guarding spot. An alarm, most probably.

With a frustrated sigh, Arthem shook his head. This man was going to die no matter what, and still, this was what he was thinking about?

In the blink of an eye, the guard caught on fire. He dropped to his knees, unable to even scream in pain because of his previous injury. Soon after, neither him nor his Spirit could be heard.

Arthem walked past him without even a glance, only hearing the beating of his own heart. Finally, he was here. He pushed the door open with both hands. It was unlocked.

Oh, such hubris.

The walls inside were covered in the same white marble the door was made of, only much less well maintained. The people who could get inside of this room were not the kind to do the mopping, after all.

Just in case, he dragged the charred corpse of the guard inside with him, and closed the door. If anyone came by for some reason, they would first think he had left his post before anything else, hopefully.

Using the charged lumiranite spear as a portable light, Arthem proceeded through the white corridor. Eventually, he reached a spacious room with round walls. In the middle of the room, a pool of ocean water moved along with the waves.

The ceiling opened up into the night through the cliff, closed off by a grid. Arthem didn’t know about this secondary entrance, but even though one would have to drop several dozen metres, there was probably another guard up there. He made a mental note to walk as close to the walls as possible, just in case.

He looked around for any books, parchments, anything that a prophecy would be written on, until eventually, he realized it was just behind him. On the walls. He walked back to the beginning of the room, and examined the ancient murals carved into it and filled with gold and silver.

Night and day, the Sun and the Moon. The Sun Goddess and the Moon God, yearning for each other from afar. Below them, civilization thrives.

A person, made of silver, looking up at the Moon, singing. Right next to them, the figures of several animals. A lion. A floating jellyfish. A rabbit. A majestic bird.

The same scene as before, only this time, the scenery around them was covered in darkness.

An Eclipse on the sky, the figures of the God and the Goddess embracing each other as the world around them burned.

The silver figure, singing as the world ended around them. Shooting stars surrounded them in all directions.

And lastly, the first mural once again, on the opposite side of the entrance to the room he was in.

Arthem was trying to make sense of it all when he heard a voice resonate inside his head.

“And who might you be, I wonder?”, asked the female voice of an unknown Spirit.

Still holding onto the spear he had stolen, he turned around warily. Standing near the middle of the room, at the opposite edge of the pond, was a huge bird, its feathers the colour of a sunset.

“A fire phoenix”, he muttered. He wondered how he could not have seen such an imposing being when surveying the room, but then he remembered how Ceres could change size at will.

“That would be me. I asked about you, boy”, once again the Great Spirit inquired, looking at him with suspicious eyes.

“Just another Solarist, oh mighty Spirit, who has earned the privilege of witnessing the prophecy with his own eyes”, he improvised and bowed his head down.

“On your own? At night?”, she continued.

“There was no time to worry about formalities”, he tried. “The Moon Priest has fallen, and the Eclipse will arrive anytime. I was not even given the honour of learning your name in advance, my lady”, he was not sure if the Spirit would appreciate be called like that, but he didn’t have any better honorifics in mind at that time.

“Really? That is, indeed, a perilous development for you”, the Spirit laughed with her physical body, cawing in delight. “You may address me as Myrena, boy.”

Arthem bowed respectfully, hiding the disgust visible on his face every time she called him “boy”. “If I may, Great Spirit Myrena of the Sun”, he started, guessing. The Spirit looked at him expectantly, so he continued. “I am also tasked with bringing words of advice and wisdom from you to the Council. Please tell me, what should be our next steps? Will you, perhaps, join us in overcoming the threat posed by the Moon?”

He wasn’t sure if the Spirit would call his bluff, but if by any miracle he could extract a hint from her, it would be extremely useful.

“And why, exactly, would I do that?”, she wondered, cocking her head atop her long neck.

Arthem looked at her, dumbfounded. “What… Do you mean? Are you not a Great Spirit of the Sun?”

“I am, yes”, she affirmed.

“In that case, should you not help us prevent the Eclipse, the end of the world?”, Arthem struggled to keep his composure. “Did your Mistress, the Sun Goddess, not give us the prophecy and the sacred mission to save the world from the evil machinations of the Moon God?”

“Did she?”, the Spirit responded, looking into Arthem’s eyes with an enigmatic gaze.

“If not, what is this?”, he asked, pointing to the murals around him. “Why are you here, if not for that?”

“To form a Pact with a worthy Soul and offer Her a new Priest, of course”, stated the Spirit, as if it was obvious.

“Then, form a Pact with me!”, desperate, Arthem clutched his shirt near his heart. “I will be Her most devout Priest, I will give Her my all, if only you help me stop the Eclipse!”

Myrena snorted in response. “As I said, boy. Why would I do that? It is my Lady’s deepest desire to be reunited with Her beloved, after all.”

The phoenix turned her gaze towards the mural depicting the Eclipse. “Additionally, boy, I did state I would form a Pact with a worthy Soul. I do not know what you have done to yourself, nor am I interested in knowing, but even your untainted Soul could not have contained my might”, she looked back at him with visible disgust.

Her words pierced Arthem like an arrow, straight into his heart.

“Even so!”, he refused to give up. He had to do something. He was the hero who would save the world. “The world will end. All humans will die. Surely, that is not what your Goddess wants?”

The Spirit sighed. “Fool. Once again, my Lady does not care about you. She wishes to see her lover once more. That is all. Now, leave.”

Without any additional words, the Spirit shrunk and flew onto an ornate perch, where she landed and closed her eyes.

Arthem fell on his knees, accompanied by the sound of the spear that had still been in his hands. He looked around him incredulously at the murals surrounding him, spinning, getting closer and closer, until he was being squeezed by them, unable to breathe any longer.

What did the latter part of the prophecy mean? The shooting stars, the repetition of the first mural. Why had they kept it a secret?

What did that retched bird mean when she denied it had been the Sun Goddess that had shared the prophecy with them? Their holy mission, the reason the Solarists existed in the first place. She had tasked them with protecting the world, and given them the information they needed to do so.

Why would such a Goddess not care if they lived or died?

Nothing made sense. But he did not have time to ponder anymore. He heard muffled steps, coming from the other side of the marble door. Voices yelling, pounding on the door. He could not make out what they were saying.

How had they noticed, he wondered, looking up at the sky through the opening in the cliff. Lights other than the stars moved around above him, heads occasionally peeking through. Of course. He had gotten so worked up because of that damned Spirit, after all. He should have known better.

He probably still had some time, he thought. They would have to send for someone who could enter this room and who would be able to apprehend him. There were not many who fit that description.

It would be so easy to give up. What could he do, anyway? He had not gotten any meaningful answers. If Myrena hadn’t lied to him, the Sun was also his enemy. How was he supposed to fight against two Gods on his own?

Before despair overwhelmed, he felt another familiar emotion. Anger. How dare they, Gods or not, think they can decide on the fate of the world?

New voices appeared on the other side of the door. He was running out of time.

He did not know what he was going to do, yet, but he knew that he could not do anything if he was dead. He dropped everything he was wearing and holding, except his underwear, undershirt, and a lumiranite dagger that he bit on the handle of. He inhaled, and with a big splash, he jumped into the pool.

Arthem was fully aware it was possible his gamble would not pay off. Maybe the pool wasn’t connected to the ocean. Maybe it was too narrow for him to go through. Or maybe it extended for longer than he could hold his breath. Trying not to think about everything that could go wrong, he swam, illuminating the narrow passage with the dagger.

Eventually, the passage opened up into the ocean, and he swam upwards with desperation. He took in the cool night air with a big gasp, and let his body float for a second, admiring the stars above him.

Angry voices reached him from the cliff and the shore, illuminated by lumiranite weapons and torches. Soon, they would figure out how he had fled, and they would search the ocean. He hid the dagger away in its sheath and swam away.

It might not be the Gods, but surely, someone, or something, was watching over him. He would succeed. He was fated to succeed.