“And when you're gone, who remembers your name?
Who keeps your flame?
Who tells your story?”
-”Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,” Hamilton
A scarlet adversary of heat and light, like a flower blooming with petals of fire, hovered inches off the ground, frozen in the fraction of a second before the force of it would disintegrate the mountains below. In the next moment, the fire would have propelled outward, powered by the energy inherent in the pure chaos that fueled its core. It would vaporize the Azure Seas, then the deep old growth of the Thundering Woods, then the distant cities of the Cornelian Empire. The residents there wouldn't even know their lives had ended as the intense impact caused the planet’s core to implode. Its shockwave would surge outward, past the three moons, and slam into the sun, then continue on. There was enough chaos in the bomb’s core that it would most certainly destroy the solar system, the galaxy, the universe.
In that frozen moment before all of reality was obliterated, two figures stood on a rocky ledge, staring at the blossoming fire. Between them and the explosion stood a domed barrier, translucent but with a faint silver glow. The ancient wizards of the ivory tower had created the barrier through a complicated ritual, as a last ditch effort to stave off the end, by using the power of law to contain the destructive properties of chaos. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to oppose the blast entirely. It could only pause it, freezing it in an instant in time, but even that could not last for long.
“I can counter it,” the taller figure said. His long golden hair hung in a loose braid down his back and his ears, gently pointed, hinted at an elvish or other more exotic ancestry. He did not take his eyes - burnished gold - off the explosion even as the smaller figure turned towards him.
Unlike the man, his companion was petite, with short white hair and intense blue eyes. From her head grew a pair of ivory horns which curled like a ram’s. She stared up at her companion - her husband, the father of her children, the keeper of her heart - and frowned. In his long robes, her beloved looked like a simple monk, but she knew that was far from the truth. Kalrotoss did indeed have the power to counter the chaos bomb, but it would not come without cost.
“It will take everything you have,” Adriel replied. You will die, she did not say. She couldn’t say.
They had lived long, fulfilling lives. He was the Lord of Dragons, the God of Protection. She was Sparrow, an immortal agent of the Cosmic Owl. They had lived. Loved. Raised a family. Watched their descendents thrive. Eventually, they had left their world, choosing to travel the cosmos together. By this point, they had ascended beyond the level of most gods, becoming two of the most powerful beings in any universe.
But it would end, today, if they chose to save this world. Kalrotoss would pour all that he was into the chaos nova and hope that it was enough.
Adriel turned away, and looked at the barrier. Her husband had the authority of law, but he wasn’t law incarnate - this wall of pure order would surely bar his path. Only she, a woman of freedom and choice, wielding the whip of the goddess Ysemon - a being who thrived on magical chaos - had a chance of countering the barrier. And it would take all the power that Adriel had, the entirety of what she was, to accomplish it.
They would both die.
This would be the end of their story.
It was a good story. Neither had any regrets. They met eyes one last time, but nothing more needed to be said.
Adriel turned to the barrier and placed one hand against it, her other hand grasping Ysemon’s whip with white knuckles. The barrier crackled red where it touched her skin and Adriel winced, but didn’t pull away. Instead, she called up her power, the Cosmic Owl’s power, Ysemon’s power, and channeled it all through herself, through her fingers, into the wall. The pure order in the force field tried to repel her energies, but she only pushed more into it. She began to glow and Kalrotoss had to force himself not to turn away. Even when the glow became almost as bright as the explosion beyond, he watched. Then the glow faded and Adriel was gone. In her place was a hole in the barrier, several meters across. Not even Adriel could destroy the dome entirely, and the hole was already beginning to repair itself. He would have to act fast.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Kalrotoss stepped through, into the space at the peak of the mountain where the explosion was beginning to expand again, the strength of the barrier to contain the calamity weakening with the rupture that Adriel had created. He took several steps forward, purposeful, determined. Then he straightened his shoulders, and roared.
In a blink, a golden dragon the size of a king’s fortress stood where the man had been. The dragon spread his wings and they brushed the opposite sides of the barrier dome, a mile across. Then he swung his wings down and wrapped them around the explosion. He released all of his authority and his whole essence to contain the blast.
The mountains exploded.
Generations later, the Dragon's Embrace would be regarded as the world’s greatest natural phenomenon. Where once had stood the planet’s tallest mountain, there was now the world’s deepest lake, a crater miles across and leagues deep, nestled within the Cascade Mountain Range. Shortly after the creation of the lake, a small village cropped up on the shores, calling itself Sparrow’s Rest. The village elder, an old kitsune woman with bright red fur and several tails, was credited with naming both the village and the lake, and she would swear that the names had come to her in a dream. If she knew what they meant, she never told, but shortly before she died, the old woman had a monument commissioned and placed at the shore of the lake, just on the outskirts of the village. Carved in marbled stone, it depicted a woman, wielding a whip, standing beside a majestic dragon. Both stared with determination out towards the center of the lake, where the Sparrow and the Dragon had once given their lives to save the world.
***
Adriel awoke with a gasp, jerking up and then doubling over with a groan, her entire body wracked in pain. For a moment she felt like her heart might give out, it was pounding so hard. Then a pair of strong arms were around her, holding her tightly. “Easy there. I’ve got you.”
Kal. Squeezing her eyes shut, Adriel took comfort in that one word, that name, while she forced herself to breathe, urging her heart to slow. Eventually, the pain subsided, but a certain amount of discomfort remained. Everything was… different. Adriel opened her eyes and looked down at her hands. They were her hands, alright, but they looked, felt… smaller. In fact, her entire body felt… less… as if she was once more a teenage version of herself. Her clothes, when Adriel took stock, were a simple tunic and trousers, and all of her magical gear was gone with one exception. A simple golden wedding band still sat snuggly on her left ring finger.
Turning, Adriel took a moment to study the man behind her. Her husband. He, too, was different. Smaller. Not less, but maybe… simpler. His pointed ears hinted at an elven ancestry, though Adriel knew full-well that it came from his draconic blood. His eyes were the same burnished gold but they didn’t glow with divine power. His clothes, like Adriel’s, were simple garb, and the only additional item he still wore was his wedding ring, a band that matched hers, on his left hand.
“What… happened?” Adriel whispered. She remembered the mountain, the barrier. It was as clear as if it had just happened. We should be dead… shouldn’t we?
Kal frowned and glanced around, then sighed. “It would seem the fates aren’t quite finished with us.”
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Huli stood on the beach, staring out over the water of the great crater lake. The afternoon sun beat down and glinted off the glassy surface. Behind her loomed the carving of the woman and the dragon, as if they, too, stared out over the water, ready to rise up in defense of the people if they were ever again needed. “You couldn’t let them go.” Huli murmured, her soft voice barely rising over the lapping waves. Not that there was anyone close enough to hear.
I tried. A whisper on the wind, which only Huli could hear. But the story must continue.
“There are others.”
Yes. And we will find them. Are you ready?
Huli was silent for a long time, then she nodded. “We will find them. The story continues.”
The story continues. Come.
The old kitsune woman stepped out into the lake. Further up the shore, a shout rose up and people rushed to the edge of the village. Men, women, and a few children gathered to watch their matron as she dropped below the surface and vanished beneath the waves, never to be heard from again.