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to…”
“Go.”
I cut him off.
Kaelen looked stunned, a forced smile on his face. “Watch the performances. Wait for me. I’ll be right back.”
I walked to the edge of the Chasm of Lethe, the mists of oblivion swirling below. This was the end. I woul
not wait anymore. Never again. Taking a final, shuddering breath, I spoke the words into the eternal gloom
an oath to bind my own soul.
“By the Styx I swear,” I vowed, my voice echoing in the silence, “my love shall flow no more to you than thi:
river to the living.”
The next moment, I closed my eyes and jumped.
From this day forward, from the highest heavens to the deepest hells, the name Elara would be no more.
As the wind roared in my ears, I heard a desperate, heart–wrenching scream from behind me.
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He released the Acolyte, the overwhelming pressure of his power filling the air. “Where did you send Elara?!”
Before the Acolyte could speak, Kaelen’s lieutenant, Ryker, rushed over with a scroll from the Moirai.
Ryker bowed. “My lord, the Fates have confirmed it. The thread that was severed belonged to Lady Elara.”
Kaelen staggered back. “So, the one who just jumped…” his voice was hoarse.
Lightning flashed.
Ryker dropped to his knees. “My lord, please calm your anger. But Lady Elara has entered the cycle. He past… her past is washed away in the Lethe!”
Her past is erased?
Kaelen let out a strangled groan, blood spilling from his lips.
Will she forget me completely? Reincarnated, would his Elara love another man as she had once loved him?
An overwhelming despair washed over him.
“Elara, please, don’t play games with me anymore, 1-1-” He couldn’t speak, his throat choked with sobs.
I watched his agony from above, a sense of release washing over me.
Then, a soft blue light enveloped me. On the surface of the waters of Lethe below, images began to appear They were my memories, being stripped away.
At seventeen, my embroidery was clumsy, so Kaelen had woven my wedding dress from threads of moonli ght himself.
At nineteen, I became his bride, but on our wedding night, he died protecting me.
For the next forty years, he waited for me here while I cared for his mortal family.
Until my soul returned, and we were reunited.
Watching these scenes of our past happiness, I smiled peacefully. Kaelen, however, was weeping.
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So, the peerless King of Shades could cry.
Then, the waters showed the scene from that night. Him and Lyra inside, the candlelight flickering, while stood outside, wounded and watching.
Kaelen froze, his eyes wide with shock. He never imagined I would find out.
The scene shifted. Lyra, pouring me wine.
Her voice was crystal clear.
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“Blame Kaelen. He says you’re… incredibly boring.”
“Who do you think he’ll leave with tonight?”
With every word, Kaelen’s face grew darker. By the end, his eyes were bloodshot, his divine power leaking
out, uncontrollable.
The images shattered, replaced by a flurry of smaller moments. Lyra, sending me wilted jasmine flowers. He handmaidens, “coincidentally” gossiping about their trysts outside my window.
As more memories appeared, I gradually forgot, my soul growing lighter.
The images on the water went black.
“Kaelen? Kaelen?” a woman’s voice called out.
He started, a flicker of hope in his eyes. Was it all a joke?
He looked up, only to see Lyra.
His eyes turned a furious, blood–red. “It was you,” he snarled. “You drove Elara away!”
The next moment, a wave of blue energy, thick with killing intent, shot towards her.
“Kaelen, I did it because I love you!” she cried, kneeling and clutching at his robes.
“What are you, to dare provoke Elara?” he sneered. “I remember telling you, Elara is my life. You drove her away, and you think you can take her place? Do you think you’re worthy?!”
His eyes were terrifyingly cold. He kicked her, sending her flying.
Kaelen didn’t spare her another glance. He turned to Ryker and commanded, “Cast her into the deepest tor
ments of Tartarus. Her sentence is eternal.”
I regained consciousness just in time to hear his words. The deepest part of Tartarus was where souls were
unmade and remade in endless agony. And now, Kaelen was sending Lyra there?
She was terrified. “Kaelen, I was wrong, I know I was wrong, please-!” she shrieked.
He watched, his eyes cold as stone, as Ryker dragged her away. Her screams faded into the distance.
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For some reason, I never truly entered the cycle.
Instead, I followed Kaelen, watching him weaken day by day.
After I disappeared, he never smiled again. He scoured the mortal coil and the five rivers of his own domain
searching for any trace of me.
He exhausted his power but found nothing.
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He drank himself into a stupor, or, he would personally go to Tartarus to devise new tortures for Lyra.
Until his power was completely gone, and his time ran out.
That day, he locked himself in the Asphodel Pavilion.
He took out the writ of severance I had given him and opened it with trembling hands.
When he saw my handwriting, he burst into tears, sobbing like a child, murmuring apologies.
I looked at him, his hair now white, his body frail, and sighed.
If only he had known. But immortals, like mortals, are always greedy. They don’t cherish what they have unti it’s gone.
As if he heard my sigh, he propped himself up, searching for me. “Elara, is that you? My greatest wish is to see you one last time, Elara, I’m begging you…”
Tears streamed down his weathered cheeks.
A golden light shone down, and a divine chorus sounded.
I knew my time had come.
As the golden light enveloped me, Kaelen clutched the red jade earring to his heart and closed his eyes i defeat. His form dissolved into a wisp of smoke, his immortal soul scattering into the eternal ether, unmad and unremembered.
I didn’t have time to watch him go, my soul growing lighter and lighter.
It was for the best. When I opened my eyes in my next life, it would be a new, bright beginning.
-The End-
