The circle under his feet pulsed like a living heart, and the golden light enveloped him in an almost unbearable heat. The ancestral symbol burned, each trace drawn with the cruel precision of fate.
When he opened his eyes, the scene before him seemed like a dream — or perhaps a nightmare.
At his right, Yvaine. The goddess of prophecies, wrapped in a dress sewn with the sky. Her eyes seemed to know everything — even what he didn't know about himself. But there was no judgment there. Only recognition.
At his left, Aries.
The dusty armor, the sword on his back, the green eyes stuck in him like blades. Cale felt something clenching his chest — not from fear, but from the strange certainty that the bond between them, now visible, was real.
"You can only be joking" Aries' grave voice cut the silence, laden with unbelief. "Were you all this time?"
Cale, still dazed, looked at the two figures standing next to him, motionless. Blinking a few times, Cale opened a half smile.
"Surprise?"
Aries ran his hand over his face, like someone trying to wake up from a nightmare.
"This can only be some kind of mistake."
"I also thought it, but the seal disagrees" Cale looked at his own feet, then to Yvaine. "Unless this is just a very elaborate collective delirium."
The air around Cale seemed heavy, as if time had been frozen. Murmurs and sighs of astonishment arose from the crowd, growing until they became a cacophony of confused voices.
"That's impossible!" cried a voice from above.
Cale looked at the silver throne where Krynt, one of the higher gods, stood up like a storm about to fall. His aura burned like sacred fire.
"Explain yourself, Gaspar! How a pathetic demigod like this could invoke two subordinates? Among them... my daughter?!"
The ground trembled with Krynt's footsteps as he walked down the platform. He advanced as if to cross the arena with his own wrath.
"Not only you had twin child, how now one of them invokes two subordinates in the bond Theiodesmos?" a goddess said from above her throne, staring at Gaspar with suspicion. " This is an affront to the laws of the cosmos."
Gaspar raised his eyes slowly, his expression serene but firm. He took a step forward, placing himself in front of the bright rune where his son and the two Theiodesmos were.
"This here is not about any trick, only the will of the Universe, just as the seal showed."
Krynt growled, his eyes narrowing dangerously in arrogance. His divine presence spread through the ceremonial temple, making the weakest choked in suffocation.
"Don't you dare to preach me metaphor, lesser god. That's blasphemy."
Yvaine took a step forward, her gaze gently resting on the huge figure of Krynt.
"The Theiodesmos bond is made. Questioning this now is useless."
"Silence, Yvaine", Krynt ordered to stared her coldly. "You are a goddess, not a servant of a..."
"And yet I was summoned to serve him. The seal does not lie, and I already knew it" She stared at him firmly.
The other gods were whispering to each other. The most smiling of the superiors, she tilted her head as if amusing herself with the situation.
"Well, it seems that young Yvaine received some interesting prophecy. But I don't remember any report from her."
"I made the report to Melli", Yvaine commented calmly, and then turning to Cale who watched everything palely. "You are my master, and nothing will change that."
Krynt didn't wait any longer. He jumped into the arena, going straight to the circle on the ground with his hand outstretched.
"I will break this abomination with my own hands!"
"No!", Gaspar stood in again, his divine aura enveloping his body like a war armor. "If you take one more step, I will consider it an affront against me."
Krynt has stopped.
And then... the seal on the floor changed color.
When the golden light turned purple, Cale felt his stomach tumble. Something inside him recognized that dark tone — and backed away. The lines shone like scars reopening, cracks spreading through the arena like glass about to shatter.
The air was heavy. The earth trembled under Cale's feet.
The dark light that once shone like burnt coal has become liquid, trickling through the cracks of the seal.
"The circle...", whispered one of the goddesses sitting on her throne, eyes shining with a mixture of hatred and satisfaction "is rejecting him."
Then that thing went up.
"No!" Gaspar tried to intervene, but an invisible force prevented him from approaching.
A black swirl rose around Cale, trapping him in the center of a spiral of shadows. Chains emerged from the ground like metallic snakes, entwining their wrists, ankles, chest. He could barely breathe before being forced to kneel.
The whole temple froze.
The figure that emerged from the shadows seemed to be made of nothing. A cloaked mantle, a sickle shining like dead moon. No face — only hollow eyes, black, drooping in silence.
"The Herald of Judgment..." whispered Quilyassa, one of the higher goddesses, rising from her throne as if she had seen a ghost.
The surprise was not only her, practically all there were in that state facing the hooded figure without believing that, in fact, it happened.
"If the Herald came... Does this mean that someone in the temple broke the divine rules?"
The gods and demigods looked despisingly at each other trying to find the culprit for invoking that creepy creature. Mistrust spread quickly like a disease, fear served as a hood for those who had guilt in their hearts. However, the mysterious figure of the Herald remained standing in front of the rune of the invocation.
"A being touched by the curse of the gods... is not considered worthy" said suddenly, the Herald.
The words froze the temple.
"Who?" asked Ruen, without rising from the throne. "Say the name of the unworthy being."
The crowd held their breath when they realized that the Herald had not moved. The skeletal figure moved his hand, and chains wind through the air forcing the guilty to kneel before his presence.
The heat of light under his feet had turned into a cold and cruel flame. The invocation rune trembled, and dark cracks began to spread on the surface like a spider's web. A malignant and oppressive energy leaked from the cracks, emitting sounds that more seemed cries of lost souls.
A wave of panic began to rise through Cale's spine. He felt the looks on him — looks of fear, contempt and even repulsion. Murmurs turned into cries of horror.
"He's corrupted!" someone shouted.
"The Herald came to punish the twin!!" another exclaimed in a trembling voice.
Cale simply... did not move. His body trembled in a ridiculous weakness. The presence of all had left him pale and astonished, as if the unbelief of reality blinded him. It could only be a dream. That could not be real.
Why would he be punished, if he never did anything?
"Shut up!" Yelled Alinys, but before she moved, dozens of skeletal creatures wielding swords appeared, creating a barrier that prevented the gods from approaching the three young men who were inside the invocation rune.
"This is ridiculous!!" Gaspar shouted trying to pass the skeletal creatures." "It's my son! What crime could a young man have committed?!
Looking at the scenery around him, as if everything happened slowly, Cale realized that chaos was spreading. The army of skeletal creatures drove absolutely everyone away from the center of the temple, leaving only Cale and the two subordinates.
Their Theiodesmos, also caught by the chains, seemed confused. Aries raised his face furiously to the Herald, his voice sounding like a growl. His fingers plunged into those chains trying to break them, but even if they broke before their strength, they would reappear again involving him further.
"Expose the crime, Herald!! This boy is pathetic and weak to the point of trembling before the gods!"
Cale looked at him surprised, his pride slightly wounded, but turned to the frightening creature, and lowered his head unable to look at him for long.
It was terrifying.
"SAY it!!!"
The silence was overwhelming.
His presence sucked all hope from the environment, and the temperature plummeted. The being raised his head slowly, skeletal and long fingers moved in the air, and something appeared around Cale's skin as old words tattooed all over his being.
The cry of horror of the other gods and demigods expressed unbelief.
"What...", Alinys widened his eyes.
"Who dares to curse him!!", Gaspar wielded his sword furiously. Even if he made the skeletal creatures disappear, they resurfaced as smoke still preventing him from approaching the rune "This is blasphemy!"
"The boy is cursed" Krynt said coldly. "A blessing from the universe? It's clear you've made use of some trick to deceive us, Gaspar."
"Don't you dare..."
"Make the verdict" Ruen ordered, keeping calm on her throne while watching the dramatic spectacle. "Condemn those who are a threat to our peace."
Cale looked upon the higher gods with horror. His body trembled cowardly.
What was going on?
Curse? The word hovered in Cale's mind, but it didn't make sense. He was just... he. He had done nothing. Nothing that deserved it.
Cale looked desperately at his family, who were fighting the skeletal creatures desperately. Aries was still trying to free himself and come to him desperately. Yvaine, stood staring at the Herald.
"Cale Arkalis, you are unworthy to tread the path of demigods. Your fate is exile in the depths of chaos."
"Stop! He doesn't deserve it!" cried Alinys, being hit back when she tried to advance the barrier. "Dad, do something!"
Gaspar was upset trying to get rid of the creatures. The chaos was already showing its signs when the Herald raised his scythe, and the currents began to pull him down towards a black abyss that opened under his feet. A cold wind was blowing, bringing with it the smell of rot and death.
"Cale!" Gaspar shouted, reaching out his hand desperately.
He tried to reach it, but the currents dragged with uncontrollable force.
"Dad!" Cale's voice broke into an absolute scream of panic "Save me!"
But it was too late.
With a final snap, the chains tightened, and Cale was pulled into the void. Aries and Yvaine were dragged along with them, their faces determined in the midst of chaos, which left Krynt desperate when he realized.
Using all the strength he had, Aries managed to break some chains just enough to run up to Cale and wrap him in his arms protecting him before they were swallowed and disappeared.
The abyss closed with a bang, leaving only the desolate silence of the arena.
Alinys fell to his knees, hiccups tearing at her chest. Gaspar closed his eyes, his face dark and marked by impotence.
The Herald fell into mist, his last words echoing like a cold whisper:
"The balance will be restored."
The figure of the Herald has dissipated. The silence and horror of having witnessed, for the first time in millennia, the trial of a demigod who broke divine laws. Gaspar stood up and raised his eyes furiously to the higher gods. The clear eyes shining in a promise.
"Await for Ereghast' judgment, for daring to do this with my child."