CHAPTER FOURTEEN: A Forgiveness Born in Fire
1070 Words
Damien’s POV — The Hollow’s Edge
Arius.
The name alone triggered a series of recollections that Damien had buried beneath the weight of duty and flame.
His previous mentor.
His betrayer.
The man who once stood between the Hollow and catastrophe was swallowed by the darkness he swore to shield others from. And suddenly he stood before them, resurrected as light rather than shade.
The quiet between the four of them cracked. Uncertainty, rather than antagonism, is significantly more deadly.
"Arius," Damien whispered quietly, his hand never leaving the hilt at his side.
"You should be dead."
"Perhaps I was," Arius murmured, taking a slow, graceful step forward. "Maybe I still am. But this Hollow is composed of more than just time. It recalls everything. Even me."
Lena's magic flashed slightly at her fingertips.
Lyra shifted protectively in front of the child she'd rescued. The girl had not spoken since Arius appeared.
She simply regarded him with huge, knowing eyes, as if she recognised something the others didn't.
"You taught me to fight for balance," Damien explained. "And then you tried to take it by force."
"I did." Arius lowered his head, shadows darting beneath his golden eyelids. " And I failed". Because I attempted to separate the Hollow from mankind. "I forgot that wounds do not heal by cauterising the soul."
Lyra scoffed. "You forgot much more than that. "Like when you almost drowned an entire city in the Hollow's wrath."
Arius did not refute it. Instead, he focused on Lena. "You've accomplished what I never could. You went into the Hollow not with a sword, but with empathy. You sang to the Hunger and survived".
"That means more than you realise."
Damien's hands tightened. "Why are you really here?"
"To guide you through what comes next," Arius explained.
"The Hollow isn't finished. Yes, you have soothed it. You have diverted its hunger. But you have not nourished it. And it continues to starve beneath the surface.
Lena frowned. "Fed it?" "The Hollow consumes more than pain," he told me. "It absorbs the truth. And there is one more fact you must face."
A long hush ensued.
"What truth?" Damien asked.
Arius focused his sight on Lena. "Your lineage." The ground under her feet pulsed. Light broke through the earth.
"What do you mean?" she enquired.
"Your mother was not merely a Hollow-touched healer," Arius stated to you. "She was the first protector. The first to carry the Flame after the First Warden disappeared. "The Hollow was always your inheritance."
Lena shakes her head. "That is not feasible. My mother died earlier—"
"She didn't die, Lena." Arius delved into his cloak and took out a pendant. A crescent moon surrounded by a piece of obsidian—the identical amulet Lena had seen around her mother's neck as a youngster.
"The Hollow absorbed her to keep it sealed. "She still lives within it."
The revelation hit harder than any sword. Lena fell to her knees, the magic crackling from her skin, unstable.
"She sacrificed everything," Damien said quietly. "So you could live."
Arius stepped back. "Now you may bring her back. But only if you complete what she started.
Lyra narrowed her eyes. "Which is?"
"To be the next Guardian. Not a Warden. Not a ruler. A balance. One who follows the path of Hollow and Flame. Who listens. Who doesn't dominate. "Who does not hide?"
Lena stood slowly. "And if I refuse?"
He took a step towards her and grabbed her hands. "There is always another way. Allow me to carry this with you. We made it this far together."
"You already carry the Flame," she explained.
"Now I carry the balance." Arius lifted his hands. The Hollow answered, not violently, but with a gentle breeze and a pulse of golden light. "I can guide you through the rite," stated the priest. "But only you can decide."
Lena stared to Lyra, who nodded in mute agreement. At the child, who was clinging to her side and muttering something only she could understand.
Then she looked at Damien, who appeared to be watching her fade right before his eyes.
She turned to face Arius. "I'm ready."
The Hollow pulsated again. Everything turned white.
Then—
A large room. Circular. Suspended between dimensions. It was neither hollow nor earthy. Time stopped here. Memory operated in reverse. Statues of former Guardians bordered the perimeter.
Some people are weeping. Some are smiling. Some are crowned with flames. One of them is Lena's mother. Whole. Alive. Watching.
Arius bowed to the statue. "Let the rite begin."
He placed the obsidian pendant in Lena's hand. It was a cold burn. Her veins gleamed white. Her feet rose from the earth. Damien reached for her, but a barrier of golden wind stopped him.
Her voice resonated throughout the chamber. "I'm not the first. I won't be the last. "I devote myself to the memory, the path, and the Flame."
The room shook.
The Hollow roared.
Her body ignited—not with fire, but with starlight. Her eyes expanded. She saw everything. Each echo. Everyone dies. Every rebirth. And she understood. Her voice returned to her lips.
"But I'm also Lena. And I chose to stay."
Arius let out a gasp.
"That's—" "Impossible?" she whispered. She pushed the light downwards. She kept it grounded. Shaped it. She made it her own. The chamber exploded in colour. Lena rose up when the light cleared.
Still Lena. Changed, but not lost.
"I am Guardian," she announced.
"And myself." Arius dropped to his knees. The Hollow grew quieter.
Damien ran up to her. Swept her into his arms. "I thought I'd lost you," he murmured.
"You never will," she said. The stars shone brightly from a distance. Deep within the Hollow, something smiled.
But a whisper sounded.
Faint.
Almost missed.
A voice echoed from behind the statues. "You may have tamed the Hollow..."
A man stepped out, enveloped in shadows that the light could not penetrate. "...but you forgot the roots."
Damien turned and immediately shielded Lena.
Lyra summoned fire again.
The Hollow trembled.
The figure's eyes blazed red.
Familiar.
Ancient.
Arius rose with a pale face. "No—not him.
"Not again." Lena narrowed her gaze.
"Who is that?"
"The First Guardian," Arius muttered. "The one who refused the balance. "The one who wished to consume the Hollow and rule the world."
And he'd returned.
- Writer
