The New Day
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose. The Earth spins at a thousand miles an hour as we desperately try to keep from being thrown off. Like the first blush of Winter that signals the great migration. Is there any warning of their arrival, a sign, a single event that set this chain into motion? Was it a whisper in God's ear? Survive, adapt, escape. And if we could mark that single moment in time, that first hint of the prophecy of approaching danger, would we have done anything differently, could it have been stopped, or was the die long ago cast? And if we could go back, alter its course, stop it from happening, would we?" -Heroes
Zohar floated in the darkness. Above her, a glowing ring filled her vision, an eclipse of some sort. It hung maliciously over her. She felt a sharp fear. She knew it. She knew its malevolence. Its need to destroy her. It began to speak in a low gutteral voice that stung her ears. It was like High Speech... but in reverse.
A point of light appeared in the center and began to burn its way outward, causing the darkness above to scream. The darkness dissipated, leaving her surrounded in light so bright that she could see nothing other than itself.
After a moment, she realized that she and the light were not separate. She was the light. With that came a blissful revelation and an immense sense of peace.
Zohar opened her eyes. She was home, in her bedroom, Teth sitting beside her.
"Welcome back, love."
"What happened?"
"You blacked out, I scooped you up and brought you home to let you rest. You looked exhausted. Don't worry," he began to reassure her as she started to open her mouth again to raise concerns about being taken from the site, "Everything's fine. Good has won the day. Merzaq is dead. You did it, love. Your spell worked beautifully, beautiful."
She smiled and sat up. "So... is everyone alright?"
"Well, no. There were plenty of casualties. But few Mystagogues, and all of our team are safe and accounted for."
Zohar nodded and got to her feet, moving to a nearby sink to splash some water over her face. As she looked up into the mirror above the basin, she did a double take. "....Oh."
"What's wrong, love?"
"My eyes. They're... back to what they were." She looked at Teth, with the blue eyes she once had as a child, before Awakening. "I'm not sure how to feel about this. I'd always liked them being gold. I couldn't even remember what I looked like before.
He stepped over closer to her and cupped her face, meeting her gaze. "The colour might have changed, love, but you still have awfully pretty eyes"
"You always know the right thing to say, love. It marks a new phase in my life's beginning- I'm free from the shadow of the Black Sun, and free to continue life unfettered and with you."
"Black Sun? Sounds like a terrible hair metal band."
"It did make some awful noises. But then, nothing beautiful can come from something Abyssal. Especially something that was out to kill me. Apparently he and Merzaq were the same. I was meant to help destroy it, it seems. And so I have"
"Oh yes! That lot. I didn't realise that was their name. Good, then - I am exceptionally pleased. We have a long, long time together... and we're going to need it." He gave her an exceptionally naughty expression on his face for the last part.
She blushed and smiled back. "And for the first time in a long time...there is nothing that needs doing. Only things I want to do, and those things are all about exploring life with you."
She was indescribably happy, swimming with the sense of freedom in knowing that the entity responsible for all the hurt and pain in her family would never trouble them again. The Black Sun had been keeping Atropos alive, with its destruction, so too was she destroyed. Zohar marveled at how the series of events that formed her life and the lives around hers had brought them all to today. So many little things that had to line up just right for things to end up this way. For her to fulfill her secret destiny. It was one which did not bind or direct her life. She had chosen her paths. She had defied rules. She had made her life her own.
Teth had been keeping her in a fairie glade, the battle outside had only been finished for a few minutes, and the teams were meeting at the rendevous point before returning to Tien Shan to bury their dead. It seemed only fitting that she should be there.
*****
As she stepped through the portal to Tien Shan she found a three person honour guard waiting for her and everyone else at the gates. Payday clutching a rifle, Black Arrow clutching a sword and the Daughter of the Unconquered Sun raising her fist up high to meet the two weapons. Their images were insubstantial, but real as anything. They just smiled, each of them glad to be at peace. She stepped into the monastery itself to find simple beds laid out and a black cat with an awakened aura purring by the fireplace beside a man and woman with their backs to her, watching the stars out of the
large window. Reilly held Eris' hand with his left hand, and in his right he clutched a four leafed clover. Eris clutched a golden apple in her own left hand. She spun it around a few times as she began to walk towards her, one of the few to recognize the pair. Before she could reach them she then turned and smiles a mysterious smile, giving her a little wink before they faded away.
She had not lost any friends. She barely recognized some of the dead. She watched the pain and grief of those who lost those they loved. She had friends here, but felt a strange sense of disconnectedness from everyone here. It was then that she knew it was time to do a few more things, before she began her next adventure. It was time to cross her Threshold. She had come upon her answer to the final problem.