THE PROPHECY AWAKENS
1157 Words
At first, Kael thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.
The darkness beyond the Rift rippled like an endless ocean, twisting and folding over itself as though it were alive. It swallowed every ray of light that dared to touch it, leaving nothing behind but an endless void.
Then...
It moved again.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Not towards them...
But within the darkness itself.
Every muscle in Kael's body tensed.
Beside him, Vorek instinctively stepped forward, placing himself between his friends and the impossible sight above.
His hand gripped the hilt of his sword so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
"...Tell me you both see that."
Kael couldn't answer.
His throat had gone dry.
Nyris never took her eyes off the Rift.
She watched in complete silence, her breathing growing heavier with every passing second.
The wind suddenly returned.
Not as the gentle breeze that usually carried the sweet fragrance of Aerion's crystal blossoms...
But as a freezing gust that swept across the Bridge of Unity with unnatural force.
The banners hanging from the bridge snapped violently.
Crystal lanterns shattered.
Children cried.
Parents gathered their families, looking desperately toward the royal city for answers that never came.
The heavens groaned.
Another fracture exploded across the sky.
It spread like shattered glass, branching in every direction until the beautiful violet heavens were covered in glowing scars.
Then...
The first moon dimmed.
Its brilliant silver light flickered once...
Twice...
Before fading into a cold grey.
Gasps echoed across the bridge.
"The Moon of Aerion..."
"No..."
"It can't be..."
Moments later...
The second moon began to fade.
This time, panic erupted.
Thousands of Saelians flooded the streets below.
Guards shouted orders.
Temple bells rang from every kingdom.
The peaceful harmony that had united the Three Realms for centuries vanished in an instant.
Nyris felt something warm against her chest.
Her eyes widened.
Slowly, she reached beneath her cloak.
Her fingers wrapped around the crystal pendant her grandmother had given her on her twelfth Naming Day.
It had always glowed with a soft silver light.
Now...
It burned violet.
Brighter than she had ever seen.
"Nyris?"
Kael stepped closer.
She didn't respond.
She stared at the crystal as though she were looking at a ghost.
"My grandmother..."
Her voice trembled.
"...she told me this would happen."
Vorek looked at her.
"What are you talking about?"
Nyris swallowed hard.
"When I was little, she used to tell me stories that no one else believed. My parents laughed. The scholars called them legends."
She looked back toward the broken heavens.
"But she never called them legends."
Kael frowned.
"What did she say?"
Nyris closed her eyes.
For a moment...
She wasn't standing on the Bridge of Unity anymore.
She was seven years old again.
Curled beside her grandmother in the candlelit halls of Nyxara's oldest library.
The old woman's voice echoed through her memory.
"Listen carefully, little star..."
"There will come a day when the heavens bleed violet..."
"When the Three Moons begin to lose their light..."
"When silence falls upon the wind..."
"That is the day the First Prophecy awakens."
Nyris's eyes flew open.
A tear escaped down her cheek.
"No..."
Kael gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Nyris..."
She looked at him.
For the first time since they had become friends...
Kael saw fear.
Real fear.
"She wasn't telling me bedtime stories..."
Nyris whispered.
"She was trying to prepare me."
Before another word could be spoken—
BOOOOOOM!
The heavens exploded.
A shockwave tore through the Bridge of Unity.
The crystal beneath their feet cracked violently.
People screamed as sections of the bridge collapsed into the endless clouds below.
Far across Aerion...
One of the floating cities broke free from its foundations.
It drifted slowly...
Then fell.
Thousands watched in horror as an entire district disappeared beneath the clouds.
Vorek stared in disbelief.
"This..."
His voice barely escaped his lips.
"...this is the end."
Above them...
The darkness moved again.
Only this time...
It was moving toward the Rift.
Not hurried.
Not violent.
Patient.
Like a predator that knew its prey had nowhere left to run.
The violet fracture widened another few feet, its edges splintering like broken crystal. Waves of energy rippled through the heavens, painting every cloud in shades of purple and black.
Kael couldn't breathe.
It wasn't fear alone.
It felt as though something beyond the Rift was looking directly at him.
Not the crowd.
Not the kingdoms.
Him.
He took an uneasy step backward.
"...Do you feel that?"
Vorek turned to him, confusion written across his face.
"Feel what?"
"It's like..."
Kael pressed a hand against his chest.
"...something's calling me."
Before anyone could answer, a piercing horn echoed across the Three Realms.
Then another.
And another.
The sound rolled through Aerion's floating valleys, thundered across Vorath's mountain ranges, and echoed through Nyxara's crystal forests.
The Realm Horns.
They had not been sounded in nearly two thousand years.
Every Saelian knew what they meant.
Gather. Protect. Prepare.
Panic spread faster than wildfire.
Realm Guardians poured into the streets, their gleaming armor catching flashes of violet lightning. Some directed civilians toward the central sanctuaries, while others formed defensive lines facing the heavens.
But none of them knew what they were defending against.
Children cried.
Parents called out the names of loved ones lost in the chaos.
The once-peaceful skies of Aerion filled with hundreds of winged mounts carrying messengers between the realms.
Even they struggled against the violent winds pouring from the Rift.
Nyris gripped the crystal pendant tighter.
It had become unbearably hot.
She hissed in pain but refused to let go.
Her grandmother's words echoed again.
"When the heavens bleed..."
"Do not seek answers in the sky..."
"Seek them within the blood of the last child."
Nyris froze.
"...The last child?"
Her eyes slowly turned toward Kael.
He was still staring into the Rift.
Unmoving.
Almost hypnotized.
"...Kael?"
He didn't answer.
His pupils had begun to change.
Tiny threads of violet spread through the blue of his irises like cracks across glass.
For a heartbeat...
His reflection disappeared.
Instead, Nyris saw something else.
Not Kael.
Not entirely.
A silhouette.
Tall.
Ancient.
Its eyes glowed with the same impossible violet light pouring from the Rift.
She blinked.
The vision vanished.
Kael stumbled backwards, gasping as if he had just awakened from a dream.
"What..."
He looked around in confusion.
"...what just happened?"
Nyris said nothing.
A chill ran down her spine.
Whatever her grandmother had tried to warn her about...
It wasn't just the end of the Three Realms.
It had something to do with Kael.
Above them, the darkness shifted once more.
Then...
A single colossal eye opened within the Rift.
Not fully.
Just enough for a beam of violet light to spill across the heavens.
Every Realm Guardian stopped.
Every citizen fell silent.
Even the wind seemed afraid.
And for the first time in Saelian history...
The Tri-Realm witnessed a being from beyond reality.
- Writer
