Cedric lost count of his steps somewhere in the nine-hundreds. A tide of exhaustion lapped at the edges of his consciousness, eager to sweep him away at the first opportunity, but the dull pangs that wracked his body with every plodding step kept him reasonably alert. At least he'd finally stopped bleeding.

A yawning hollowness at the far limits of Cedric darkness sense, which could only be the Vault, grew incrementally wider and more prominent the further he descended. This was his precious tether to sanity: the knowledge that, despite the maddening uniformity and oppressiveness of his surroundings, he was making progress.

Cedric's mind didn't wander, brood, or churn. He'd left that part of him--the part that feared, raged, wept, and yearned--at the Citadel's summit, where the stars and moon still shone. At this final threshold, there was nothing more to do but play the only part left for him.

An indeterminate amount of time later, the roiling energy of a massive host of gemstones, more potent and expansive than he'd ever felt before, began to tug at his senses like a swarm of insistent insects. It was at least another twenty minutes before Cedric passed through the narrow archway at the bottom of the stairwell to finally arrive at the Vault itself.

What Cedric registered first was the sudden, stark change in the air: from oppressive and stale to clear, crisp, and fresh, as if he'd somehow stepped out into the open rather than a cavern deep underground. The Vault was smaller than he expected, but no less striking for it; a broad, ring-shaped channel carved into the ground, filled with many thousands of luminously-pulsing diamonds, would command attention no matter its surroundings.

A simple bridge of aged wooden slats led across the channel to the central island, where the remains of a bare, once-imposing tree stood. Dead or not, it was the largest that Cedric had ever seen. And tucked between the roots, her back against the massive, calcified trunk, sat the Heir of Light.

Queen Ayo's delicate knees, clothed in a full-length robe of shimmering silver, were drawn up to her chest. Her long, dark hair was fine as silk.

"Brother, you've come," she said, as if greeting a dearly loved one. The cold white light of the diamonds illuminated her face in eerie planes.

Cedric made no attempt to conceal his suspicion. "You've been waiting for me?"

"Of course. I couldn't, in good conscience, begin without you."

Something was terribly wrong, but amidst the haze of pain and exhaustion he couldn't discern why his instincts were flaring in animal alarm. "Why not?"

"Very soon, we'll have only each other. Best to start off on the right foot." Ayo extended a hand in invitation. "Come, sit. We have time, and much to discuss."

The bridge creaked as he crossed it, but even if it broke, the fall would barely clear half a foot. The channel was too full, and its contents too solid, to present any danger.

Ayo watched him as he gingerly took a seat on the hard, rocky ground before her. Her hooded almond eyes swirled with gray mists, and an expectant almost-smile played at her small, bowed mouth.

"I know of a place like this," Cedric said, surprising even himself as a fully-formed truth materialized unprompted. "A hill crowned with ancient stones, and inside a lush, thriving meadow."

Ayo nodded knowingly. "Nexus points: places where the Goddess' presence is especially strong. If the crowned hill is Eris' fingertip, then this…" she swept an arm around them, "… is Eris' heart. The heart of the capital, the Summerlands, and the kingdom as a whole."

So just as the little meadow had inexplicably flourished, the Summerlands were blessed in the same way, only on a vastly larger scale. But this wouldn't protect them from the consequences of Eris' slow demise; they'd simply be the last parts of the world to die.

Ayo's gaze drifted upwards. "Many centuries ago, in the time of the Ascension, our predecessors discovered this place. The ground was rich with fauna, and this tree--thereafter named the Aetheria--strong and prosperous. A miracle in the deep dark… life where there should have been none. They chose to store their greatest treasure here, and assigned themselves and their descendants the sole duty of doing so." Ayo looked back at Cedric. "As a young child, back when diamonds were still being found, I'd descend those steps every few months and pour our offerings into this channel. I watched the Aetheria wither, brother. And I didn't know why until the night of the Madness."

Cedric's breath caught. After everything, could they truly be on the same side?

"When I was confronted with the indisputable truth that humanity could not be salvaged. Don't you see? My Rava sought to draw out evil, and every man and woman across the kingdom succumbed to it. Only the youngest children escaped its influence, and they were slaughtered by their rabid elders. Humanity itself has poisoned its Creator. Your predecessor was right all along, though my enlightenment came too late to spare his life."

"N--no, that's not what…" Cedric croaked weakly.

The White Queen's gaze had turned horribly compassionate. "I agreed to strip you of your birthright, to toss you into some dark pit to be forgotten, and for that I cannot ever truly atone. But I hope this will somewhat begin to repay that debt.

"You're wrong," Cedric said as firmly as he could manage. His chest heaved with labored breaths. "You can't really think…"

"Even in the short months since your liberation, brother, have you not encountered that evil, that corruption, on numerous occasions? Your own rescue only came about because some blade-twirling savage happened to have use for you."

The full implications of what she said struck Cedric like a physical blow. She smiled a little at the shock plastered nakedly across his face. "Oh yes, I've been following your journey from the beginning, eagerly awaiting your arrival. When I learned you were free, my admitted impatience led me to sanction an unprecedented reward for you to be delivered here, alive. I'd have come for you regardless once my work was complete, restored you to health myself, but the Goddess had clearly seen fit to speed things along."

So Ayo had spied on every moment of his life since his liberation. She knew what Cedric had come here to do, and knew what he'd claim was the true cause of Eris' demise. And she'd already dismissed both without a qualm.

"You clearly didn’t see everything," Cedric finally retorted, though he knew it was hopeless. "That 'blade-twirling savage' died for me. Her husband took me in with no ulterior motive. And they weren't the only ones."

She sighed. "You're young. I'd hoped you could rise above the limitations of your years, but…"

"Don't do this. Humanity is a part of Eris, as much as the earth, the rivers, the mountains, and the forests; you'll merely wound her further!"

Ayo stood up and brushed at her skirts, then fixed him with a distinctly colder gaze. She spread her arms, and silky streams of pure light began to rise from the ocean of diamonds around them and pool into swirling coronas in her palms.

"I'll restore you when you choose to see reason," she said in a layered, resonant timbre. Her eyes blazed like miniature white suns. A distant, inhuman roar filled Cedric's ears, and the ground shook beneath him like the trembling of some unknowable primal beast.

Cedric desperately grasped for the power of the diamonds to do something, anything against this unnamed assault, but there was nothing to grasp. Somehow, Ayo had taken control of every gemstone in the Vault, leaving Cedric completely helpless. This was what his instincts had been warning him of ever since he'd stepped foot here; despite the many thousands of diamonds humming and churning around them, he had no power to call upon.

Cedric threw up an arm over his eyes, but it was too late. The light was inside him now, as if his eyelids had been scorched away. There was no darkness sense, as darkness no longer existed. All around him was a void of pure, blinding white.

The Blight had found him at last.

*

The pungent shroud was yanked roughly from Candra's head, and she blinked at a blob of blazing torchlight not three feet from her nose. Holding the torch, and wearing an expression of grim condemnation, was Gregor.

Behind him stood about twenty others, a murky, ominous mass beyond the range of the firelight. Given the distance she'd been forced to blindly stagger, the clearing she now kneeled in was a long way from the river, and free of unwanted eyes.

Candra, whose hands were lashed cruelly behind her to the point of numbness, stared up into the face of her captor. None of the words that came to mind were likely to soften her prospects.

I'm sorry I bled you against your will.

You must have been dreaming… oh no, the fresh cut on your arm is mere coincidence.

I participated in blood magic to save your daughter, honestly!

A stooped, wrinkly little man stepped up beside Gregor. "Where is the other?" A necklace of various dull crystals swung about his stringy neck: a symbol of devotion to the Heirs made of the least-prized, and therefore permissible, "gemstones."

"We couldn't find him," Gregor said.

At least there was that. Whatever dangers Adrian was currently weathering in the capital, a mob of drooling yokels wouldn't be one of them.

"Candra," the old man said in somber tones. "Have you anything to say in your defense against Gregor's claims of heresy and witchcraft? I'm a firm proponent of allowing the accused their say, no matter the seriousness of the accusation."

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She licked her lips. "Who are you? What is all this?" Though she'd lately become well-acquainted with the notion of taking that final plunge, she rankled at the idea of doing so on anyone's terms but her own. Anything, even stalling for its own sake, was preferable to meek acceptance.

"I am Master Khana, of Verelin," said the old man. "The appointed wiseman of my settlement. Gregor requested my expertise in this matter, and so I've come, along with some of my fellow townsmen to bear witness."

"Right. A trial." Candra tossed her head in a vain attempt to disperse the wisps of hair tickling her face, and even this small movement made Gregor flinch. He was truly afraid of her, poor sod.

"Gregor, listen to me. I took your blood to help Adrian rescue your daughter. He's tricked his way into the capital. That is why you haven't found him."

Gregor's dark eyes sparked. "And there you have it, Master Khana. Her confession."

"Indeed," the wiseman said in muted surprise. This was surely the fastest trial he'd ever conducted.

Candra lost her patience, which had never been generous to begin with. "I speak the truth, you mule! What other possible use could I have for your blood?"

"Candra of Borne," declared Khana, his voice raised in surprisingly strong authority. "I hereby convict you of the charges of heresy and witchcraft, the sentence for which is death."

She ground her teeth together, but said nothing more.

How humiliating.

"Stop!" came a familiar voice, and Candra's heart sank to depths she hadn't thought existed.

Grace and Finn emerged from the mass of witnesses and hurried toward the wiseman. "Please, this is a mistake." Grace's words tumbled over each other in their haste. "Candra speaks true. Gregor's daughter has been taken to the capital under false pretenses. We only wanted to return her to him!"

"We"? You little idiot…

"Accomplices!" cried a faceless witness from the mob, followed by murmurs of assent.

"Stop with that nonsense!" Candra snarled. She turned to Khana. "I've never seen these brats in my life. A practical joke, I expect. Not enough attention from their parents."

"Hang them all!" came another cry, and another wave of agreement. A few men stepped forward and roughly twisted Grace and Finn's arms behind their back. They struggled fruitlessly against the restraint.

"I told you this would happen!" Finn shouted in hysterics. He wrenched himself forward, but was swiftly yanked back. Grace gasped and writhed, helpless tears brimming in her eyes.

"That will do," Khana said grimly. He pointed to an old, sturdy tree about twenty paces away. "Come, let's be done with it."

Gregor took Candra's arm and cruelly hauled her to her feet.

"Let them go," she whispered desperately to him. "Do what you must with me, but please, they're barely more than children."

His expression was far from the certainty of three minutes ago. But Candra would never know his response, for in that moment the smell of fresh rain filled her nostrils and a pool of swirling shadow suddenly materialized in the ground beneath her feet.

Gregor snatched his hand from Candra as if he'd been burned and staggered backwards, his wild eyes fixed on the shadow pool. "What the blazes--?"

Candra, who was more intrigued than frightened, took a half-step to the side. The darkness matched her movement as if bolted to her feet. She looked up just in time to see shadow pools spawning beneath Grace and Finn before she was plunged into oblivion.

*

Adrian scrambled up from his seated position as a yawning void materialized beneath him. The children drew back in bewilderment; their wide, panicked eyes were the last thing Adrian saw.

*

Rocks and pebbles ground harshly against Cedric's fingers. He didn't remember sinking onto all fours, but here he was, pawing blindly like an animal.

Tears leaked from his clenched, useless eyes. "It's been you all along," he croaked. "The Blight, all those people… that was you."

"I needed the practice," came the mild, unrepentant response. Ayo stood close by, somewhere to his left. "I'll cleanse the Goddess in much the same way, only this new affliction will be far more… final."

Cedric gingerly levered himself upright. "How? How is this possible?" Unlike his predecessor, Ayo had no Awakening to call upon, no intrinsic connection to all aspects of Eris' being. And the Blight's continuing spread had begun months--if not years--ago. The White Queen was more formidable than he'd ever imagined.

Ayo's cool touch on his arm made him recoil. She laughed indulgently. "I'm showing you, brother. Give me your hand."

Reluctantly, he let her guide his right arm and brush his fingers across a smoother surface. The roots of the massive tree, the Aetheria.

"Remember when I referred to this place as Eris' heart? Well, just as the heart cycles our lifeforce through our flesh, to its farthest extremities, the roots of this tree…" She trailed off as if in anticipation.

And for a few more seconds, nothing happened. Then, a volcanic rush of sensations, countless magnitudes greater than Cedric's spiritual foray at the crowned hill, overwhelmed his conscious mind. He was smaller than an insect, a speck of dust, against the breadth of this onslaught. Hundreds of thousands, millions of lives across all corners of the realm, from lands of pure white and bitter cold to lands of scorching russet dunes, colors and sensations and emotions he'd never before conceived of. Thousands upon thousands making love, giving birth, fighting, laboring, playing, weeping, and breathing their last.

Cedric, or whoever he'd become, yearned with an incandescent intensity.

Where are you, Cedric?

Cedric!

Can you hear me?

What have you done, you nitwit?

Familiar voices. Too familiar.

Cedric gathered a titanic force of will and extricated himself from the tempest, just enough to recover some measure of selfhood.

Adrian? Candra? Did he dare hope--?

And then Cedric was shunted violently back into himself. Ayo had removed his hand from the tree's surface. He slumped backwards onto his elbows, panting heavily.

"The Scholars had always warned against melding our minds with divine artifacts, including our own gemstones," she said. "Seventeen years ago, my reckless, aimless grief spurned me to flout those warnings, and it took every ounce of strength to extricate myself. But oh, what an incredible discovery! A doorway to the Goddess' own heart, and through Her every life, past or present, that has ever walked her realm!"

Including mine. Cedric shook his head as he re-acclimatized to his own mind and body. The sensation itself was not so different from his experience at the crowned hill, only intensified tenfold.

"It's nearly time," Ayo said brightly. Her gossamer dress brushed lightly against him as she straightened up. "Make yourself comfortable, brother, and kindly do not disturb my work."

Her voice faded as she moved away, presumably out toward the diamond hoard.

"You talk as if… you'll survive this," Cedric said hesitantly. "As if we'll have centuries together, just the two of us. But you cannot absorb every diamond in the Vault and live."

Ayo burst into a surprised laugh, the most human she'd sounded since they'd met. "Goddess, what are you on about? As a consumer of all that power, certainly, but not as a mere conduit."

A conduit. So Ayo would channel a steady onslaught of the Axis of Light into the Aetheria, and then into every living person in the kingdom. A blaze of light bursting forth from within, scorching them all away in a unified white-hot blast. Simple, elegant, unspeakable.

He wouldn't let this happen, not while he could still move and think. It didn't matter that Ayo could swat him like a fly in an instant, nor that he was blind.

Cedric jerked himself forward, as if to burst into a sprint, and his palm landed upon another knotted root of the great tree.

But he wasn't swept up by the winds of the Goddess' inner storm this time, as someone had somehow grasped his phantom wrist and anchored him in place, and to himself.

You big baby, Adrian said, his eyes glistening, and pulled Cedric into a frantic, crushing embrace.

*

The miasma churned and howled around them, but the two of them stood--or floated--in a perfectly still void of darkness. Cedric reveled in his restored sight in this realm by greedily absorbing every inch of Adrian's face. He was achingly real: his warm huffs of breath, the faint, bitter tang of incense clinging to his dusky skin.

This isn't a trick, is it? Cedric breathed.

The gall! Adrian exclaimed. After you abducted me with your magical nonsense?

He blinked. What?

At least you didn't dump us in that. Adrian nodded at the tempest.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean--I only wanted you with me… and the tree-- Cedric shook his head as the full meaning of Adrian's words hit him. Wait, 'us'?

Look harder, Adrian said. They're probably bright red about now, with what they've just seen. They'll glow in the dark.

With a bit of concentration, Cedric did see additional figures emerge from the darkness. Candra, Grace, and Finn, the latter two indeed a bit pink about the cheeks and ears. Candra was rubbing her wrists, which were crisscrossed with angry red lines.

I brought all of you here? Goddess, I didn't mean--

Actually, Cedric, you saved our lives, Grace said with a weak smile.

Aye, we're not exactly sorry to be out of… where we were, Finn added, then shot her a peeved look. I told we shouldn't have--

Enough chatter, Candra snapped. Cedric, I assume the tree you mentioned is the Aetheria, considering the myths surrounding it. Is the White Queen with you?

Cedric nodded while the crushing weight in his chest reasserted itself. Somehow, she's barred me from every diamond in the Vault. And she's… afflicted me with the Blight.

Adrian's hand, so solid and callused, tightened around his.

Well, that's nonsense, Candra said, so briskly and definitively that Cedric's mouth dropped open. To be clear, the second part is nonsense. The first part is, unfortunately, entirely plausible given time and focus. But what have I taught you about the Heirs, Cedric? You cannot interfere with each other's minds.

I don't understand.

Whatever Ayo has done to you, it's not the Blight. It can't be. If the Blight were merely a physical affliction, you would have sensed that in Yael, or Alvir, or in any of the other afflicted you've crossed paths with, and I daresay you could have counteracted it with a few sparks of your own power. Darkness and light, diametric opposites.

Cedric swallowed. What she's done to me is physical, then? Just some… barrier drawn over my eyes?

To mimic the Blight, perhaps. So that you wouldn't assume you had the slightest chance against her.

I still don't, Cedric said. I've not a single spark of energy to-- A jubilant flash of remembrance brought him up short. Roaring crowds, a glimmering amulet lowered over his head…

Idiot, Cedric muttered to himself. He'd been so consumed by the dazzling river of diamonds, he'd completely forgotten.

He looked tenderly at the people he'd inadvertently kidnapped. I've a small chance, but it's better than nothing, he told them. Now, give me a moment and I'll see if I can free y--

No, Candra said sharply. Return to Ayo this instant. There's no time.

I can't abandon you all here! What if I--what if I can't come back for you?

This protective 'bubble' is already deteriorating. Candra pointed past Cedric's shoulder at a large, widening crack suspended in seeming midair, then gave him an unexpectedly kind look. At worst, we'll be swept apart into countless different places and lives, into every vivid human experience. As far as final fates go, not altogether awful.

Cedric, thoroughly unconvinced, opened his mouth to argue. But then Adrian cupped his face firmly in both hands, commanding all his attention. Go, he said, and then pushed him out of the tempest entirely.

Cedric returned to himself with a gasp, right before he was shoved harshly onto his back. Ayo's small foot rested on his chest.

"What were you up to in there, hmm?" she said coaxingly, though an underlying threat laced her soft-spoken voice. "Some desperate, last-minute gamble? Kindly enlighten me, brother."

"You're dead-on, actually," Cedric muttered, and reduced the yellow sapphire under his collar to dust.

He sent the one available spark of dark energy surging up to his right eye, where it quickly ate away the film of pure light drawn over its surface. He blinked, vision restored, as the depleted spark faded to nothingness.

Ayo's expression was blank with surprise and confusion, and he seized upon that precious moment of shock. He twisted to the side, unbalancing her, and swept out his leg under her other foot. She toppled backward, and her head bounced hard on the rocky ground.

As Ayo lay stunned and Cedric sat upright, he felt a foundational shift in the diamonds around them, whose ethereal white glow had dimmed by a few degrees. He was no longer fully barred from reaching out to them, and could nearly draw on their power himself. Candra had mentioned that focus was required to attune to the gemstones, and so the more that focus was disrupted…

Cedric looked at the White Queen, who was beginning to regain her senses, and grimly made his decision.

He thrust her onto her stomach, braced a knee against her back, took firm hold of her left arm, and wrenched upward with all his strength.

There was a terrible, wet crack, a high, keening scream, and the Vault was plunged into utter darkness.