palace of fate
Seraphyx shut the grand gate with a heavy boom. She carried Theron's limp body deep into her palace in Asreak City and laid him gently inside the Ice Room. A crystal basin filled with eternal frost held his body suspended, keeping what little life remained frozen in place.
She stood beside him, tears falling freely for the first time.
"I never let my emotions show when you were alive," she whispered, voice shaking. "And now… the only time I show them is when my child is dead."
Outside the palace gates, Kaelith was breaking apart. Red lightning cracked across the sky in violent forks. The city of Asreak trembled as chaos poured out of him, winds howled, buildings groaned, and wandering souls scattered in fear. He banged on the gate again and again with both fists, his voice raw and desperate.
"Seraphyx! Open the door! Please!"
After long, painful minutes, the gate finally creaked open. Seraphyx stood there, her eyes filled with pure hatred.
"Hasn't the damage you've done been enough?" she asked bitterly. "Do you still want to torment my son even after death?"
Kaelith could barely speak through his own pain and anger, but he forced the words out. "Please… let me see him. Something can still be done. My chest hurts so much. I can't bear losing him."
Seraphyx stared at him for a long moment, then stepped aside and led him to the Ice Room.
When Kaelith saw Theron hanging suspended in the glowing ice basin, his heart shattered. "What is going on? Why is he there like this?"
"He's dead," Seraphyx said coldly. "Do you not understand that part?"
"It's a lie," Kaelith whispered, voice breaking. "He's not dead!"
He smashed the ice with a burst of void and pulled Theron's cold body into his arms. He rubbed Theron's chest, his arms, his face, trying desperately to bring warmth back. "Wake up, Ron. Please wake up."
Kaelith looked up at Seraphyx, eyes full of pain and anger. "You are the goddess of fate. Is there nothing you can do to save your own son? All power is in your hands. You can change his fate. You can bring him back!"
Seraphyx's face hardened. "There is nothing I can do."
Kaelith's voice rose. "You never loved him! You were always cold to him, always pushing him away. That's why you're happy he's dead now, isn't it?"
Seraphyx's eyes flashed with fury. "I was only trying to protect him! The Table would have come for him if they knew what he was. I kept him at a distance to keep him safe. But you… you claim to love him the most, you claim to be his closest companion, and yet you took him straight to The Table yourself. Look where it has gotten my son. You brought him to his death. You brought him to his downfall."
Kaelith had no words left. He turned back to Theron and kept rubbing his cold skin, refusing to give up. He cut his own wrists again and again, squeezing more of his divine blood into Theron's mouth, whispering desperately, "Come back to me… please come back. I need you. I can't do this without you."
The blood had no effect. Theron's body stayed cold and still in his arms.
Kaelith broke down completely. He sat on the floor and held Theron close, rocking him gently like a child, tears streaming down his face. "You've been with a beast like me. The Table is not enough to take you from me."
He summoned one of his glass shards and stabbed it deep into his own chest. Blood flowed freely. With a trembling voice, he chanted the old Aethryss words:
"Nani'askafad, kaviakel, scan'ost El pra'dika fael Lirath'vel, morvath'kael…"
He pulled out the shard, now dripping with his glowing blood, and dropped it into Theron's mouth. He rubbed the blood across Theron's darkened scales, desperately trying to warm him up, chanting the words again and again under his breath.
Still nothing.
Kaelith flew out of the Ice Room with Theron in his arms and brought him to the Shinra Room, the hot, warm chamber filled with glowing crystals and rising steam. He laid Theron down on the warm stone floor and kept chanting, rubbing his hands over Theron's chest and scales, trying to push life back into the cold body.
"Come back, Ron… please come back," he whispered between the ancient words. "I can't lose you. Not like this."
He refused to stop. Even as his own strength faded, Kaelith kept rubbing, kept chanting, kept pouring his blood and his will into Theron, refusing to accept that he was gone.
The red lightning outside continued to strike wildly, as if the whole realm felt his pain.
Theron remained silent in his arms.