Page 60 of Crowned By the Shadow
We stood frozen as the artifacts in my hands pulsed frantically, their light flickering as if in fear of this primordial darkness made flesh.
“The convergence is upon us,” the Empress declared, her voice echoing across countless realms at once. “The barriers between worlds grow thin. Soon, all will be one within the glorious void.”
I gripped the pendant tighter, feeling its power surge through me like a rising tide. “We won’t let that happen,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. “We’ll stop you, whatever it takes.”
The Empress laughed, the sound like glass shattering. “You cannot stop the inevitable, child. But by all means, try. It will make your final failure all the sweeter.”
With those words, she spread her wings even wider, vast membranes of the purest shadow that blotted out the stars themselves. Darkness rolled off her in waves, a hunger that sought to devour all light, all life, all hope.
I raised the Starforged Mirror in trembling hands, angling its ancient surface toward the Empress. Beside me, Wyn gathered shadows around her like a cloak of midnight, while Thorn’s eye blazed with golden fire. Together, we poured every ounce of our power into the artifacts, a desperate attempt to push back against this all-consuming void.
The mirror’s surface flared with silver-blue light, catching the Empress’s darkness and reflecting it back at her in a searing beam of cosmic energy. She recoiled with a hiss of pain; her form flickering as the purifying magic tore at her essence.
As though it was sentient and knew the Empress would only be pushed back for a short time, The Starforged Mirror pulsed beneath my fingers, a sudden surge of magic so potent I nearly dropped it. I tightened my grip instead, channeling more of my power into the ancient artifact. Its surface rippled like liquid silver, no longer reflecting our faces but something deeper, more primal.
“What’s happening?” Thorn asked, his voice tight with concern.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “But it’s showing me something.”
The mirror’s surface darkened, swirling with shadows that coalesced into recognizable forms. Images flickered across its depths, radiating out into the surrounding space. They weren’t memories or visions of the present, but truths hidden beneath layers of time and deception.
The mirror revealed a being of transcendent beauty, the one who had started all of this…
The Moon Goddess.
She was in her true form with silver hair that flowed like starlight and eyes like pools of radiant moonlight, while her skin seemed to glow with gentle power. She looked so alive and so strong that it was a stark contrast to the last time I’d seen her.
As I kept watching, darkness crept in from the edges, tendrils of void energy wrapping around her, seeping into her essence until those luminous eyes darkened to become the galaxy-devouring vortices I’d come to fear. Those eyes that haunted my sleeping moments, the eyes of the Void Dragon Empress.
“She was the Moon Goddess,” I breathed, the revelation stealing my voice. “Before the corruption took her.”
But it wasn’t enough. With a snarl of rage, the Empress rushed back to the edge of her prison, lashing out with tendrils of purest shadow, whips of darkness that struck the mirror, almost shattering it. I cried out as the backlash seared through me, driving me to my knees.
Thorn was at my side in an instant, his powerful arms wrapping around me protectively. “Senara! Are you alright?”
I nodded weakly, struggling to rise despite the pain lancing through every nerve. The pendant still pulsed against my chest, its light dimmer but unbroken. “I’m fine,” I managed. “But the mirror...” A large dark crack now marred the perfect surface, almost splitting it in two.
Wyn knelt beside us, running her hand over the damaged mirror. “It’s not destroyed,” she said softly. “Just... broken. Like everything else touched by her corruption.”
The Empress practically loomed over us, her terrible beauty marred by cruel amusement. “Foolish children,” she purred. “Your pitiful magics are but candles before the infinite dark. And now your lights will be snuffed out forever.”
She raised one massive, taloned hand, an executioner’s axe poised to fall. I braced myself for oblivion, my heart full of regret for all the things left unsaid, undone.
But the blow never came.
Instead, a blinding flash of golden light erupted between us and the Empress, a searing flare of sun-bright energy that forced even her to shield her eyes. When it faded, a figure stood before us, wreathed in shimmering radiance.
Chapter
Nineteen
Senara
It was Van.
But not the Van I knew, not the irreverent bard with mischief glinting in his eyes. This Van was taller, stronger, his very skin glowing with an inner fire that put even Thorn’s Sunkissed mark to shame. Even his lute had transformed. In his hands now, he held a lyre of purest gold, its strings thrumming with power that I could sense from where I kneeled.
“That’s enough, my love,” he said calmly, his voice resonating with an authority I’d never heard before. “This ends now.”
