The light began to fade from her view. “Wait!” she said, but it didn’t listen.
She had been given a gift. She slowly came back to the world in front of her.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
She opened her eyes and looked at Argan. He was her love. She wouldn’t fail him. The desire to finish this grew within her belly and her heart. She could see the threads with her eyes open now. They were coming from within her own heart. She didn’t need the stone to connect to some outside magic. She only needed to connect to the magic of her own humanness. It was a yearning with purpose. She had a desire to connect with the greater part of herself that could only be expressed through giving her love away to another. And she knew it was that love that would be the catalyst to finish this.
Standing by the well, Skylar felt the love of a good man, the love of her family, the love of a child, the love of her self. She knew this love determined the destiny of the whole human race—that it could change the outcome of the globe in the lab. She connected her own destiny with the divine fire burning in the well, and connected her heart with that indescribable love. It filled every molecule of her being.
The light within the well called to her, and she answered.
Diana took in a deep breath and looked at all the treasures in her throne room. They all represented a part of the world she was entrusted to protect. The Petelia tablet, the scales of Maat, and the citrine wall, collecting the memories of humanity. Her reign as the Dark Madonna was over, but for good cause. Humanity was waking up and would soon lay down its old ways and embrace what it was meant to become.
She touched the scale; it was only slightly off-balance. One feather lay on the left pan, almost weightless. She placed her finger on the right one to make the pans even, for just a moment.
“So, what do you think?” she asked Magus. She didn’t need to see him to know he was there. “She’s breathtaking, no?”
Magus stared at the citrine wall. Its light sparkled like sunshine breaking through white clouds, its beams bounced around the room. It remained intact despite the hard rumbling of the earth beneath it.
The wall behind him cracked, sending a rift up to the ceiling. The one wood beam above their heads cracked in the rafters and fell. Magus moved one step to the right to avoid it, never taking his eyes off the citrine wall. He said nothing to Diana as he approached the yellow rock.
He stood before it as if it was the altar of the most holy place on earth. His eyes were entranced by its energy; he stood as if frozen, completely silent.
Diana stepped forward and retrieved a memory from the wall. She displayed it for him to relive. As he stood motionless, scenes of the First Age rolled out before him. His betrayal of Vivienne, the child that had always felt his rejection, the power he’d gained, his perpetual dissatisfaction with what he had. It all spilled out on display.
To Diana’s surprise, instead of using his dark powers to try to harness the crystal, Magus used his failing physical strength to attempt to destroy it. He began slashing the wall with his orichalcum blade. He wanted the world to feel the hurt he could no longer carry.
“Cyril,” Vivienne’s voice sounded quietly in the hall. Magus refused to stop. Small chunks of the rock began to fall, igniting the floor underneath the wall.
“Cyril,” Vivienne said again, louder this time.
He looked behind him. She wasn’t in the room.
“What are you doing?” Her voice echoed in the room. “Was your intention to destroy Diana’s house today?”
He dropped his blade and covered his ears.
“Cyril,” she continued. “We’ve spent eternity inflicting wounds on each other, and look where we are: thirteen thousand years have gone by and we are in the same place doing the same thing.”
He bent in half, as if in pain from the sound. “I forgive you, Cyril.”
Magus let out a blood-curdling cry and heaved himself onto the citrine mainframe, resuming his destruction of the great wall. He had gone completely mad, and was ignoring the devastation happening around him. The rumbling grew louder; everything was shaking. Large pieces of the wall were now collapsing. The end of the Underworld was upon them.
“One last act,” Diana said, picking up a lit torch that was burning on the floor. She blew an incantation into its flame.
Gold of the masculine sun
Silver of the feminine moon
Once severed, now together in flame and stone,
Bound in blood and bone
Whole within, whole without
Released from chain and curse
Ending in magic of the Crone’s purse
Trinity in one
Blessed in fire, air, and water, so it be done
She touched the two rivers with the torch—first the gold, masculine Mnemosyne, and then the silver, feminine Lethe. They both ignited, fire on water. The flame traveled down the length of the room. More embers fell from the ceiling into both rivers, fueling the flame. She held her breath as the two rivers of fire intertwined.
The smoke began to build as the flames spread up the walls and reached the citrine wall. Instead of the explosion of rock Diana expected, the wall of light extinguished, like a thousand candles blown out at once. The room went dark but for the flames around them.
Magus woke from his manic thrashing and let out a cry of anguish. His body completely morphed into the frail, old version of himself he projected in the physical world. Elderly Magus arrived just in time to witness the crumbling of his precious wall. It detached in one piece from the stone behind it and crashed to the floor, crushing him completely.
Diana turned her back on the rubble and was able to sit on her throne just before the fire consumed her.
The rivers snaked out of the throne room and into the courtyard. They traveled like heat-seeking missiles, armed with intention. As the walls of the Underworld fell into dust, the undulating fires sought Sophia’s temple.
Skylar and Argan stood at the well, side by side. Skylar refused to allow fear to enter her heart. She had no idea what would happen, but she’d come this far, and Sophia was there. And so was Argan.
He took Skylar’s hand in his and they held the stone together. The strength of the well braced them from behind. A line of sweat started on Skylar’s brow and she tried to ignore it. A moment later, Argan released his hand and wiped it on his pants.
“Sorry,” he said. “Did the heat crank up in here?”
They both looked behind the well and saw the braid of two glowing fires, one gold, one silver, pulsing toward them. The stones of the well grew hot on their backs.
“We can’t leave now,” Skylar said. “We’ve come too far.”
“Agreed,” he said.
They joined hands again and watched the fires climb the wall of the stout well. When they reached the top, they cascaded down, merging with the flame below.
The heat was barely tolerable but they stayed still, holding hands. Argan turned to her and lowered his forehead to hers. He looked deeply into her eyes and managed a smile. “You are so beautiful, Skylar, and I’ve loved you for eternity.” He kissed her softly on the lips. “If it all ends here, I’m thankful for what we’ve had.”
The light that poured out of the stone engulfed the two of them in a torus field of energy so bright that the fire paled in comparison. She gasped as all of the breath left her body and her chest propelled her forward, making her collide with Argan. Her body wanted to continue forward, but his own force stopped her and they merged as one. The lines of where each individual ended blurred into the light.