Page 70 of Dark Fae's Destiny

“She would not change form.” The Gold Eyes growls down at me now as his golden eyes flash. Seething rage whips through his man-shape and his tentacular wings of Night. “Cereus resisted me, in the body of flesh and blood she had chosen. For we choose our form when we come here into the physical Realms, did you know that? She chose a body of moonsilver and darkness to spite me… and make me lose my mind, trying to repair it.”

“The Wanderer, your own daughter Cereus, didn’t fit with your ideas of the perfect paradise,” I say scaldingly to him now, furious as I protect her. “So you brutalized her and paid the price for it. She didn’t break; she is too strong for that, but you broke your paradise with your bitterness. And now you’re trying to fix it, but you need my heart to do it. Because you tore yours from your very own chest—and even that didn’t work to fix what you had broken.”

“Cereus broke my paradise, not I!” The Gold Eyes seethes as he leans in, menacing in his wrath. “My mortal daughter had no respect for her celestial father and thumbed her nose at me, choosing the form she did when she incarnated! When I committed my heart to the land, I was certain it would repair the damage done to the city and set things right. I had made all the correct calculations; I had consorted with every thread of the Music to make sure I was right before I did it!”

“You never looked to see what happens when a mortal creature abandons its heart, though.” I shake my head as I feel the deepest truth-telling power of my nature blossom wide in my chest, singing with a million knowing harmonies. “They become empty, Staphylogenes. Just like you did… cutting yourself off from your greatest source of mortal Light. Becoming only emptiness in the Night.”

“I was right to do as I did!” It snarls at me now, bestial as it loses its man-shape to its swirling maelstrom, though something of its self persists.

“You were utterly wrong.” I face off with it now with disdain. I do not step away or give it any ground, as I feel that deepest, truth-knowing part of my nature sing all through me.

Something blazes from me then, in that vast, empty space. As a thread of the Music rises inside me de novo, without Quinn or Lucca to support it, I somehow feel them with me, all the same.

It’s as if the Music I make now reconnects us, through time and space. As if the vast threads of our love are rewoven in that moment, I feel my connections to Lucca and Quinn flash open wide, when Staphylogenes had so thoroughly sundered them.

I feel them now; Quinn’s beautiful, roaring mind, and Lucca’s furious, brave heart. I feel both their hearts, their minds, and their souls with me now as every wonderful memory I have with them rushes back, tumbling through me.

Our connections are reformed, blazing like a supernova through my heart. I feel an indomitable energy fill me now, as the Music rises so hard inside me that war-horns, battle-cannons, and choirs of angels surge all through me.

That maelstrom of creation is all around me now, as a massive aura goes whirling up from me, made of the most beautiful Light. It is Light, darkness, and all colors at once as I feel Lucca, Quinn’s, and my auras suddenly join.

Though they’re not with me, they are, as all our magics combust now—ours and all those we are joined to in our deepest hearts. That union of the Music goes rushing through me now, expanding my Light a hundredfold as I revel in it like I’ve never reveled in anything before.

Because this is the Light beyond Light, growing now inside me; this is the creation of the Ascendants themselves, as that towering new Music goes off within me and all around, shaking the crystal vaults.

Enraged at my defiance, Staphylogenes surges forward. I’m so wrapped up in the beautiful endlessness of the Light beyond Light I am creating, that I don’t even notice as he grips my throat.

Seizing me by the neck, he lifts me off my feet; but the Music is lifting me up now of its own accord, as gargantuan wings of the highest Light shoot from my back.

I am love; I am everything as the terrible darkness that is Staphylogenes picks me up. I am only endlessness, Music, and Light as I beam at him, staring at his furious golden eyes as if seeing him for the very first time.

And all the sadness that engulfs his ancient, missing heart.

“Take mine,” I whisper to him now as I reach up and touch his cheek. “Take my heart, and be satisfied with it. I give it to you now of my own free will… and love.”

Staphylogenes thrusts his fist into my chest, but I don’t even feel it. As he rips out not my mortal, beating heart, but something else, right from my very-most center, I don’t even notice.

Even as he takes it from me, it is remade, filling me up again as a towering Light beyond Light bursts from me. Like a sword made from the purest Light of all creation, the Music surges in a million impossible, endless harmonies as that energy thrusts right into Staphylogenes’ own chest.

Refilling his heart—and creating a new one inside his empty, void-like presence.

He screams as my power refills him—the power of endless life, creation, and love. He screams like he’s being torn apart now as his towering, whirling Night is remade—bursting with Light as I love him, and the power of that endless, all-forgiving love fills him up.

As he tosses me down to the crystal floor, though I am supported by my towering wings now and cannot be thrust down by him, he is heaved up by his vast wings of Night.

As they are reformed, they fill out with Light like mine now, reshaping, careening with the Light beyond Light as the power of Quinn’s, Lucca’s, and my love fills his chest.

My eyes are fully open; I am the Knight Awoken now, when I had only been sleeping before. I am fully awake to my power and my purest, endless Light as it fills Staphylogenes completely now.

As his towering maelstrom of madness winks out, that careening Light goes with it. It dumps him to the floor on his hands and knees as I slowly settle, my blazing auric wings of Light beyond Light flowing wide. They softly retreat into my spine, as Staphylogenes looks up.

Mortal now—the most beautiful man I have ever seen.

“What have you done to me?!” He gasps, as he looks up at me with incredible, bright gold eyes. His features are those of the gods, as he stares at me with such a perfect face, physique, and a beautiful golden tan to his skin.

He is beyond luminous, as waves of long golden hair spill to the floor, each more perfect than the last. His face is horrified, however, as he holds out his arms and looks at himself.

Then looks back up at me.

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