A spark in the dark, Part 6

A yawning maw invited her in. She raised one foot, then the other. She drifted towards the brilliant petals of an obscure blossom. A point of Light in the dark stared at her, dazzling her.

Her skin wrinkles under the soft caress of the Deep. They tasted her, cuddled her, and welcomed her within. The Light emanating from her armor was absorbed by the bottomless gullet. The little remaining heat dispersed, captured by the starving petals. Something ancient and malevolent inspected her, tested her, and judged her.

A veil of nothingness fell over the world. The Ghost, last reminder of the Firmament, projected a faint Light on the undulating expanse. He was no longer moving.

"Zara?" a small voice whispered, broken by the interference.

The Guardian knelt and gently picked up her companion. His pupil was only a dot. He collapsed under the weight of the angular shadow. Those who had no Shape were not welcome here, in the final court of existence.

"Where are we? What happened?"

"The Darkness wants to show us something. An answer."

"I don't feel very well..."

"Neither do I, Little Light. But they won't let us go if we don't listen to them."

The Warlock shivered. It was not because of the cold, but because of this new power flowing in her veins. Could she wield the Darkness to fight it?

“The truth has already presented itself to you. Now you must accept it. Or fail in the game of life.”

The voice was Zara's. Its echo projected ripples into the dark ground, reflected on impossible shapes. Then another echo responded. Sobs.

"Willow!" The Guardian recognized her friend's voice and rushed into the pitch black, assailed by waves of fading light.

The umbral skein blocked her, screamed in her direction. Zara reached out her hand, and the gnarled points covered with rime. The silent resonance of the Stasis chant disentangled the bonds and spread the shimmering walls. The abyss drifted away, growing beyond her steps.

Koryl's pale, oppressed glow pierced the dark veil and revealed two Guardians.

One, with a torn cape and dying Light, was on her knees. Her tears glistened and evaporated down her cheeks. Clouds of mist came from her cracked lips.

The other, a tormented and broken machine, was lying on the rippling surface, the fragments of a Ghost scattered among the shards of his armor.

"Jayden..."

The Arcanist fell beside the Titan, breathless. She appealed to the Light, breathed Solar energy into the cold body. There was no movement. The Stasis had frozen the Exo down to its constituent atoms. A thick ball blocking her throat, she implored Koryl with her gaze, without response.

"What happened?" she whispered.

"Koryl called us," Willow mourned. "We went looking for you, and we found this... thing."

The Hunter curled up and trembled. "I'm so cold..."

The affliction turned into panic. Zara suddenly grabbed her friend by the shoulders: "You must assimilate it! Seize this power, it's the only way to survive!"

Willow looked up and contemplated the Warlock's armor, covered with a dark and frigid mantle. She suddenly pulled away and pointed her weapon at Zara.

"Stay away from me! What have you done?"

"I had no choice! The Light is not powerful enough to protect us here."

"You followed their lies. Look at you: your cold devours everything it touches! You... You're allying yourself with those who killed Jayden! To those responsible for the Collapse!"

"I am not a follower of their logic. The Darkness has shown me that we need to become stronger, but it is up to us to control this power. It is the only way to save the City. Trust me, Willow, please..."

Zara reached out her hand as a sign of peace. The Hunter's gaze alternated between her and Jayden's lifeless body. A grin of rage deformed her face, and the Solar Light ignited her hand cannon.

"The Darkness is not trying to save us. It is trapping us, and you jumped in feet first!"

Her finger pressed lightly on the trigger. A staff of Stasis appeared in the Warlock's hand.

"Don't do this. I'm begging you."

"I am doing it for you. For Jayden. You leave me no choice."

The Guardian shot, and her golden fire illuminated the dark world like a last twilight ray.

Zara leaned over Willow's frozen body. The shell of Lysis had broken on contact with the Stasis crystal. The Light had vanished.

Regret and incomprehension were tearing her apart.

“Three nations are governed by three queens. The first writes a book of laws and her reign is just. The second builds a tower for her people to admire the stars. The third raises a great army and conquers everything.”

"Shut up. You bring only death."

Pain fills every corner of her being. Her tears left long streaks of rime on her face.

“You are a corpse. You walk among mortals, and your existence is nothing but killing. If the Light did not give you a false promise of life, you would not exist. No one would cry for you. You would not mourn your kind. All I do is cut away the cysts that suffer and scream because of the gardener's madness and restore the truth to a blighted universe.”

"No one should have the right of life or death over anyone."

“So why did this sickly sparkle of a dying god bring you back into this cruel existence?”

Zara turned to Koryl. The Ghost was leaning over the two inert Guardians. Was he listening to her speak? Perhaps he hated her now. It would not surprise her: she already hated herself for what she had done.

"Koryl gave me a second chance to fight for what was worth it." Her gaze turned away from the little light. "Even though I did nothing but betray his trust."

“Is it? The Light offered a few more centuries to this system. Years of war, cowering in fear of a too powerful enemy. So many humans and Guardians perished, and many more continue to suffer. Yet you know the outcome will be the same. Winter always ends up settling in. The Light always ends up abandoning you. The law of the game is immutable.”

"Not this time. Guardians make their own fate."

The maw spread, and the oppressive darkness dissipated. The Light of Koryl regained its glow.

“So, you challenge us. Very well, then. You will navigate between Light and Darkness, restore the balance. You will show the cosmos that ‘it was worth it.’”

“However...”

The jaws closed. The sharp teeth grasped a small point of Light, lost in the shadows.

"Koryl!"

The Warlock rushed to the rescue of her friend. An intense cold seized her muscles, her blood. The quanta that animated her ceased to move. The Ghost struggled in vain against the voracious tethers that lacerated his shell. Its core cracked, letting the Light flow out.

"Zara!" he called in his agony.

"I am here!" cried the Guardian as she fought against thermal death. "Hold on!"

Koryl's eye blinked, and time seemed to stop.

"I love you."

The Ghost succumbed, releasing a wave of Light that was quickly swallowed by the Deep. Zara screamed in pain at the bottomless enormity. She was alone. She would die alone, surrounded by Darkness.

“You will be the sole master of your destiny. No longer will you be the instrument of the gardener, nor the winnower. Then we will discover the true winner of the flower game.”