The world had become a black place. Evan felt himself adrift amongst that very darkness. Visions of Tahlia, his mother, and Claire seemed to swirl around him. He tried to look away, but no matter where he looked, all he could see was the crimson that soaked Tahlia's dress as she rested, skewered, on that man's sword.

The dripping of her blood echoed in his mind, reverberating around until it became a deafening beat in his ears. Visions of his mother came next, burning, screaming as Estailia was razed to ash by the Empire. He could almost smell the acrid smoke, the sickening searing of flesh. The sizzling of it filled his ears as The Empire marched around. They all looked the same as they threw torches and lanterns on her—black faces and glowing red eyes. A suitable description of the demons that they were. Evan's blood coursed with fire. He wanted to see them all burn the way he knew they were burning his mother and the other people of the Arcadian Alliance.

Claire came next, and his heart ached at the vision of her sobbing. He reached to her, grasping at the darkness instead. Despair welled inside him. All she'd wanted was to keep him from this fate, this abyss that now surrounded him. He cursed himself for seeing that now. She never wanted him to give up on his dreams, but the trivialities of his bond with his sister kept him blind. Every time she tried to tell him, he got defensive and angry, lashing out at her as though she wanted to keep his dream for herself.

That had never been less true as she was the one who convinced mother to let him join. She made sure to give him all her notes, answered his questions any time she was home from a mission, and cheered at his graduation louder than any other.

And he pushed her away when she suggested his talents were better served elsewhere.

She was right; however, he would never match her skill behind the helm. Claire was a prodigy with piloting. Evan was decent with a sword, and could shoot with some precision, but his true talent was academics. He probably would've shined had he enlisted with Stratwing instead of the Flightwing.

It mattered not now. Evan grasped his head as it began to throb. Was this the next torment The Abyss was to give him? There was dry grit stuck to his lips. He licked them and pressed his eyes closed as the taste of minerals filled his mouth. He spat and coughed as a flurry of dust pestered his face.

He blinked the dust from his eyes and caught a glimpse of blue through the haze. He grasped at his head again. The front left side throbbed with vengeance. He clawed his way to his feet as he tried to flush clear his vision, wiping his eyes with the leather of his gloves when a sharp pain pierced all sides of his wrists.

He screamed in agony as he fumbled loose the clasps that held his gauntlets on his hands. He pushed them off as relief flooded over him and made clear again the pain in his head. However, he paid little attention to it this time. His hands shook as he looked at the jewels that grew embedded in his wrists. They were a silvery blue, with one orange just like Tahlia's.

Evan wiped his eyes again and looked around. A gust of wind blew a curl of dust from the edge of the patch of land he'd awoken on, and all around was blue sky with brushstroke clouds painted far from where he sat. He was on the edge of an Isle, but how? The last thing he remembered was being struck in the head and being thrown over the edge of the ship before darkness consumed him.

"You're in the center of the Everblue." A woman's voice came from behind.

A prickle shot up and down Evan's spine. He whirled around, reaching for his sword, but grasped at nothing.

"Calm yourself child," she said. "You are safe."

Evan's mouth fell open as he looked at who stood before him. The air became heavy, but light at the same time. He thought his eyes would burn from his sockets yet felt no pain at all. The woman before him seemed to glow from her pale skin. Violet eyes gazed down upon him and filled his soul with a peace he never knew existed. Crimson hair flowed like blood over her shoulders, and she wore a white veiled dress that seemed transparent, yet he could not see her body beneath. Instead, it was like staring into a womb of life.

"Who—" Evan coughed. The words were dry in his throat. "Who are you," he spat.

"I am Fey, The Goddess of Life."

Evan blinked. "Are you—"

"The goddess Tahlia talked about? Yes."

Evan crawled to his hands and knees before her feet, pressing his face low to the dirt. "Please, save her! She was injured and cast over our ship! I—"

"Tahlia's dead, Evan..."

Evan looked up. Tears swelled in his eyes. Fey's cheeks grew red, and she placed the back of her hand over her mouth as she sniffled. A tear forced its way down her cheek before she pointed to the right of Evan.

He turned his head, dreading the fact he knew he would see when he looked to where Fey had pointed. There, in the dirt, lying face down, was the lifeless remains of Tahlia. Her wings lay strewn about her instead of folded, her hair was disheveled and stained brown with the dust. A pool of dark red gathered just beyond her side. Bits of dirt floated on its surface, and her skin was stained with dark mud from both blood and earth.

"No!" Evan cried. He clawed over to her, turning her corpse into his lap.

Tears stained her face and smeared the dirt along their paths. Her eyes were still open. There was a void in them where the flicker of life had once been. A rivulet of blood had trickled from her mouth and mixed with the dirt to create a putrid stain upon her cheek.

Evan wrapped her in his arms, sobbing into her neck as he rocked her back and forth.

"I'm so sorry, Tahlia!" he screamed repeatedly. "I failed you. I failed to protect you..."

A warm hand fell on his shoulder. It did little to comfort the pieces of his heart that now leaked from his eyes onto Tahlia's face.

"Hers was a noble sacrifice," Fey said. Her voice was lilting, like that of the sweetest songs.

"Noble?" Evan whispered as he calmed himself. He rose from Tahlia's neck and drew his fingers along her face to close her eyes so that she may rest. "Noble..." Evan's eyes grew wide and he looked to his wrists.

A final silver-blue jewel grew in his left. Strands of Tahlia's hair fell away as it completed its form.

'You haven't failed me, Evan," Tahlia's voice filled his mind.

Evan furrowed his brow. He took care as he placed Tahlia's body back on the ground. Other voices began to fill his mind as well. Evan clasped his hands over his ears as they grew louder, but they did little to quell the noise inside him.

He began to thrash about. "Stop this! What's happening?"

Fey placed a hand on his head, and the voices ceased. "Those are the souls you're now charged to care for. Those of noble sacrifice who will aid you if you should call upon them, Evan."

Evan spun around and looked at Fey. Fey placed both hands on his shoulders as the stood together. It was hard for Evan to look at her, yet he felt compelled to look nowhere else.

"Clear your mind, Evan. You let the world toy with you too much. You must become focused. Once you do that, you can filter those who'd otherwise fill your mind."

Evan closed his eyes, and tried to think of nothing, but memories of Tahlia and Claire kept flooding in, and with them—the voices. He grimaced, and pushed harder, trying to force the memories away, but the harder he tried, the more they intruded.

"It's impossible! I can't!"

Fey placed her hand on his head again. His mind quieted, and his grimace faded with the sound.

'Just think of me, Evan,' Tahlia's voice floated back into his mind.

"No, it hurts too much..." Evan tightened his eyelids.

"That's actually a good strategy while you learn to control your thoughts. If you focus solely on Tahlia, Evan, you'll hear only her," Fey said, lifting her hand from his head.

Evan clasped his hands back over his ears and squeezed them to his head. The voices filled his mind once again. His heart tore. He tried to think of only the happy memories. The first night the spent together, flying side by side, their first kiss, the following night, but every memory his mind turned to brought another stab of agony through his heart.

'The night of our first kiss is my favorite, if I had to choose one,' Tahlia said.

"Mine too..." A tingle ran up the inside of his nose, and the cold patter of tears rained into the palms of his hands as he looked at his wrists again. He sniffled and wipes his eyes clear. "This must mean I have to carry on and save the world for you."

Tahlia's voice didn't respond, but he felt a remorse that wasn't his own fill his chest.

"I'm afraid there is no other who could take the mantle," Fey said.

"Will it even matter?"

"Will what matter?

"How long will the world survive if I succeed?" Evan stared at the jewels in his wrists. All of the ones filled with souls had given their lives for something they believed in, and for what? For a few more years of borrowed time? So The Empire could finish laying waste to the Alliance? He wasn't going to throw his life away so callously only to have the world perish a few moments later. He had to know there was an end to all this, and that it was possible for his sacrifice, Tahlia's sacrifice, and those who came before him to not be without meaning. "I want to know, because it seems like I'll be the last one who can accomplish this since the falceit are no more."

"At first, we thought it would only be a few who needed to make the sacrifice." Fey looked to her feet.

Evan looked up, curious why a goddess would look so embarrassed.

"Because of how the world was destroyed, we knew it would come to the intentions of those who gave their life, and if those intentions were good, then surely the world would become whole again. What we failed to guess was that darkness is a part of someone, and both were concentrated indiscriminately."

Evan scratched his head. "I guess darkness strengthens the divide of the world?"

"Correct. And destroys it faster than the light can heal it."

"What if someone pure of heart gave their life?"

Fey's lips curled. "Well, the world would sew itself back together, I imagine."

"You don't know? Aren't you supposed to be a goddess?" Evan's brow furrowed.

"The forces that tore my world apart are far more powerful than gods or goddesses."

Evan's eyes widened. He never guessed an entity could exist that was more powerful than the divine. "What do you mean?" For the moment, his mind forgot the pain and sadness that flowed forth from his heart. His imagination was rekindled, and he salivated at knowing the secrets of this world.

"They're called Great Dragons. Beings far more powerful than the gods. In fact, you could say they are the gods of the gods."

Evan scrubbed his hand over up his forehead into his hair, filling his palm with its mess. He struggled to wrap his around the idea that these immortal, all powerful beings that created everything were created by something else.

Fey ignored him as she looked beyond even the sky. Her eyes grew dim as she continued, "There was once three of them. Each responsible for a law of reality. They created and destroyed life, and they created us, giving each a dominion over one aspect of creation or destruction in hopes that we could create something better than they." She shook her head as she snapped back to meet Evan's eager stare. "One grew displeased with life and set in motion what became known as The Eternal War to end not only ours, but all of existence across the stars. Both the gods and mortals banded together to stop this dragon, with the help of the other two, and we did, but not before I was wounded."

"These Great Dragons, are they similar to the salamanders of the Cloud Isles?"

"They are; although, those are considered to be lesser dragons."

"I see," Evan said as his mind raced to understand more. But he stopped his curiosity. None of it seemed to be relevant to the death of Tahlia. The sadness rushed back into his mind, and he looked away from Fey, his eyes tingling with tears once more. "But what does any of this have to do with what's happening?"

"Everything, Evan." Fey lifted Evan's chin with her delicate fingers.

They were warm on his skin. Her touch sent jolts of energy through his nerves and pushed the sorrow back like fire did to fog.

"I was pregnant with my son when we fought. I didn't know it then. An essence of the Black Dragon broke away and attached itself to my unborn child. It didn't manifest within him until he was about of your years, however. Kyme, his father, tried to help him fight against it—taught him many things—but when he grew older, the darkness of the dragon grew stronger."

Evan saw tears begin to well behind Fey's eyes.

"He is the one who shattered this world, and he is the one who tries to destroy it now."

Evan remained silent. His mouth hung open. That was who he faced before he was thrown overboard. That man—the one who killed Tahlia—was a god. He looked at Fey. Her cheekbones were the same as his, and they both had a chin that angled like the tip of a sword. It also explained those waves The Empire could send forth.

A god. The Alliance was doomed from the start knowing The Empire was led by a god bent on destroying everything. But then why did he tell Evan he would make the world anew for his people? Was it a façade?

"Let me see if I understand this. I am the only one who can keep this world alive now? If I succeed, the world will stay alive for an unknown amount of time, but it's ultimately doomed, right?"

"Unless you can purify yourself of all darkness, yes."

"How would I do that?"

Fey shrugged her shoulders. "It depends on what darkness you harbor, and how deeply it's seated in your heart. Only you can determine how to banish it from yourself, Evan."

Evan groaned and curled his lip. He knew the darkness that shifted in him—his disdain for his father, but now there was also the loss of Tahlia. Coming to terms with either seemed impossible.

"I'm sorry, Evan, but The Fate—"

Evan's brow furrowed. Did Fey just misspeak? "Goddess, don't you mean fate?"

Fey closed her eyes and shook her head. "No, Evan. The Fate. It seems to have chosen you for an impossible task, for it is impossible for a mortal to banish darkness entirely from their hearts."

Evan chuckled as he looked to his wrists. The jewels glittered in the sunlight. "You're right about the impossible task, but it's not impossible for one of us to banish darkness from our hearts. Claire seems to have done it. She only wants to keep me safe..."

This time, Fey's brow is the one that furrowed. "Then what task do you believe is the impossible one?"

"I find it hard to believe you don't know, goddess. It's quite simple, actually because if I don't do it, regardless of how much light is in my heart, the world will still be destroyed." Evan looked up and sharpened his eyes on Fey's. "I have to kill a god."