THE LAST GOODBYE
1003 Words
And for the first time in Saelian history...
The Tri-Realm witnessed a being from beyond reality.
No one could make out its true form.
The colossal silhouette stood beyond the Rift like a shadow cast upon the universe itself. It had no face they could recognize, no shape their minds could fully comprehend. Every time someone tried to focus on it, their vision blurred, as though reality refused to let mortal eyes behold what lay beyond.
Then...
It moved.
The heavens trembled.
A single step sent a shockwave across the Three Realms.
Floating islands shattered.
Crystal rivers burst into showers of light.
The sky screamed.
"Run!"
Realm Guardians shouted as panic erupted across Aerion.
Families scattered in every direction. Parents carried frightened children through collapsing streets while bells echoed desperately from every kingdom.
Kael's heart pounded.
He turned.
"Mother!"
Through the crowds, he saw her.
His mother, Lyra, was running toward him, her silver robes stained with ash. His father followed close behind, pushing through terrified citizens.
"Kael!" she cried.
"Stay where you are!"
He didn't listen.
He ran.
Every step brought him closer.
"Mother!"
Another violent tremor ripped through the kingdom.
The ground split apart with a deafening roar.
A massive chasm tore across the city, separating Kael from his parents.
He leapt.
His fingertips brushed his mother's hand...
...before the earth collapsed between them.
"No!"
Lyra fell to her knees at the edge of the chasm.
"Kael!"
His father held her back before she could jump.
"We can't reach him!"
Kael struggled to climb across the broken crystal.
"I'm coming!"
But before he could move—
A pillar of radiant silver-violet light descended from the heavens.
It surrounded him completely.
The air vibrated.
His feet slowly lifted from the ground.
Kael looked around in terror.
"Mother!"
"I can't move!"
His mother reached toward him, tears streaming down her face.
"Kael!"
"Don't let go!"
"I won't!"
But the light continued pulling him upward.
Far below...
On what remained of the Bridge of Unity...
Nyris and Vorek searched desperately through the chaos.
"KAEL!"
Vorek shouted.
His voice echoed across the dying world.
Nyris looked toward the sky.
"There!"
She pointed.
The two friends watched helplessly as Kael was carried higher into the heavens.
Then...
A warmth spread across the backs of their hands.
Nyris stopped.
"What...?"
She slowly raised her right hand.
The Nexus sigil glowed with a brilliant sapphire blue.
Across the bridge, Vorek looked down at his own hand.
His Nexus sigil shone with a deep violet light.
High above them...
Kael stared at the back of his own hand.
His Nexus sigil blazed with both colours.
Blue...
and violet...
intertwined into one radiant light.
The three marks pulsed together.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Though they could no longer reach one another...
The Nexus still knew they were alive.
Kael looked toward his friends.
Nyris looked back.
Vorek raised his glowing hand.
For one final moment...
The three heirs of the Tri-Realm stood connected.
Then the darkness answered.
A wave of shadow poured from the Rift.
It swept across Nyxara first.
"Nyris!"
Vorek reached for her.
The darkness swallowed her before his hand could reach hers.
She vanished without a sound.
"No!"
Vorek charged forward.
Before he had taken three steps...
Another surge erupted beneath him.
The world around him fractured into streams of violet light.
His body was engulfed.
"Kael!"
His voice faded into the storm.
Then...
He, too, disappeared.
Kael screamed.
"Nyris!"
"Vorek!"
The Nexus sigil on the back of his hand pulsed violently.
The blue and violet light burned brighter than ever before.
Then...
The glow began to weaken and flicker.
Blue.
Purple.
Blue.
Purple.
Each pulse slower than the last.
Until...
Silence.
The light faded completely.
The Nexus sigil became still.
Not destroyed.
Not broken.
Only separated by worlds.
Kael reached for his hand, confused.
"What... happened?"
He would not know the answer for many years.
The light carried him higher.
Below him...
Aerion crumbled into countless fragments.
Vorath disappeared beneath fire and ash.
Nyxara dissolved into the endless darkness.
The Three Realms...
were no more.
The last thing Kael saw was his mother.
His mother gasped.
"The Ancient Gate..."
His father nodded.
"The Rift isn't taking him..."
"It's sending him away."
Away.
Away from Saelis.
Away from everyone he had ever loved.
Kael fought against the light with everything he had.
"I won't leave you!"
His mother smiled through her tears.
It was the same smile she had given him every morning since he was a child.
She placed her hand over her heart.
The oldest Saelian farewell.
"Va'shen... my son."
His father did the same.
"Live long enough..."
"...to remember us."
The light engulfed Kael completely.
His final sight of Saelis was his parents standing together as the darkness consumed the kingdom behind them.
Then...
Everything disappeared.
Silence.
No wind.
No light.
No sound.
Kael drifted through endless darkness.
Fragments of worlds flashed around him.
Unknown stars.
Endless oceans.
Strange skies.
Time no longer existed.
He couldn't tell whether seconds or centuries had passed.
Then...
A small circle of light appeared in the distance.
It grew larger.
Brighter.
Warmer.
The darkness released him.
Kael fell.
Faster.
Faster.
The cold air burned against his skin as he crashed through unfamiliar clouds.
Above him...
The portal sealed itself with a final flash of violet light.
He plummeted toward a world he had never seen.
A world of blue skies.
Green forests.
And a single silver moon.
He struck the earth with a heavy thud.
Kael's body shimmered as his true Saelian form quietly gave way to that of an ordinary human, as Earth's reality was unable to sustain what he truly was.
On the back of his right hand, the diamond mark still glowed faintly.
Blue.
Purple.
Blue.
Purple.
Each pulse weaker than the last.
Rain began to fall.
Kael layed motionless beneath the trees, unconscious, his torn robes soaked with mud, his hands still faintly glowing before the light finally faded, kael layed there completely vulnerable.
- Writer
