Nyxi's Arc

Chapter 2 of 8

Nyxi walked out of the tear in her borrowed skin. The priestess's bare feet found cold stone. Broken pillars leaned around her like teeth. She had promised these ruins a night without stars, and the gathered faithful waited under torchlight ahead. She moved toward them, ready to be named. But the chant was wrong. They were not calling her. They were calling a mortal name, over and over, raised on a banner above the crowd. A tall stone figure stood at the altar's head, carved with flames and a blade. The face was the mortal's. The one she had marked. The one who had slipped her grasp. Nyxi stopped at the edge of the firelight. Three others were already there, watching her arrive. Umi sat on a fallen column, twisting a ribbon of cloth between two fingers. Rylo stood with his axe resting at his boot, flames licking the stone. Plymaz held an open book, writing without looking down. None of them bowed. None of them moved aside. "They built him a statue," Umi said. "It is a good likeness. Better than he deserves." Rylo did not turn his head. "He kept your fire. He uses it for them now." Plymaz closed the book with one hand. "The record will say they chose him. That will hold." Behind them, a fourth shape moved in the dark — Lyr, arms folded, sky humming low above her hair. She said nothing. She did not need to. Nyxi stepped into the circle of light. She raised the priestess's hand and called for the dark. The torches guttered. The stars above thinned. The crowd turned — and saw her — and did not kneel. They lifted the banner higher. They shouted the mortal's name into her face. A child threw a stone. It struck the priestess's shoulder and drew real blood. The dark she had pulled down folded back into nothing. The stars returned, sharp and many. Her night had failed here. The ruins belonged to him. Nyxi lowered the hand. She looked once at the carved face on the altar and understood. The hunger had been fed into the wrong vessel, and that vessel was walking the realm now, putting out fires she had lit. Umi watched her with a small, knowing smile. Rylo lifted his axe to his shoulder. Plymaz opened the book again. "Then we begin elsewhere," Nyxi said. The tear behind her widened, and she turned toward it, leaving the congregation to their living god.