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September 5 - September 15, 2025
This is the tale of how a fallen one ascends. Long ago, I told you a tale of a chosen girl who fell to the darkness. Now I will tell you the tale of a boy who was born within it.
And he cared about none of it, because he was losing the love of his life.
This is the tale of how a fallen one ascends. He does it in countless cascading decisions, over years, over centuries. He does it with the desperation of a starving soul willing to sacrifice anything, everything, for a single chance at redemption. But in the end, he loses her every time.
“From what I hear, he’s better than alive. He holds the power of a god.”
Mische Iliae would be remembered by the bones of time itself, and I knew it because I would write her story there with my blood if I had to.
As if the gods had seen some beauty in mortality but failed to realize that the imperfection of it was what made it remarkable.
“Billions of threads,” she murmured, “and not a single one where you say no.”
“Luce!”
I was Alarus’s heir. I held his power in my veins. No one, not even a guardian, could stop me from using it. “I’m sorry, guardian,” I said. “I swear to you, it will be worth it.”
Before he rips apart the veil to get to you, Vincent had said.
Welcome home, the breeze whispered again, and I was certain that it wasn’t talking about Morthryn, it was talking about her.
“Hello, Warden,”
“Hello, Dawndrinker.”
“Mische Iliae, Dawndrinker or Shadowborn, living or dead, I will never let you go.”
Asar ugh!!!
My mouth found hers immediately, like a compass seeking north. She threw herself against me, and my arms fell around her, and for a blissful moment, I was complete in a way I had been seeking for my entire life.
said, “Get your hands off my wife.”
Damn masks and eyes and hearts and divine missions. This is what a true goddess looks like.
‘Even if it is your fault, I will love you anyway.’ ”
“For whatever of your mistakes, Mische Iliae,” he said, quietly, firmly, “for whatever of your faults, for whatever unintended pains you may bring this world, I will love you anyway.”
Asar you swoony man
“And I will never stop telling you that you were incredible, because you were, and you are, and don’t you dare ever be ashamed of it,” he went on. “Now stop arguing with me and drink, so I can keep watching you bring the world to its knees.”
“No matter what’s ahead, never sacrifice the messy parts of your mortality, Asar. I like those the best.”
“Then take them,” I murmured. “They’re for you.”
“I don’t regret it,” I said. “I would do it a thousand times over. A thousand times, if it means that I get to hear you berate me for it here rather than imagine those words over your corpse. You are the sacrifice I will not make, Mische. You. Don’t ask me to apologize for that.”
“For fuck’s sake, Mish. That entire apartment reeked of sex.”
“And the man follows you around staring at you like you’re a goddess. And when he came to us, when we all thought we were losing you . . .” His face darkened. “I know that look. Like his entire world was ending. No wonder the man is about to go rip apart the fabric of the universe for you.”
“He makes me want a happy ending.”
I loved her, I loved her, I loved her.
He promised me. He promised me. He promised me.
💔
“The real gift,” she said, “is that he gives us the means to save ourselves, Mische.”
We can be imperfect together.
“You will make mistakes,” I murmured. “And I will love you anyway.”
“It always belonged to you,”
“I love you, Asar Voldari, Warden of Morthryn, king of the underworld, heir of Alarus. I love you, and in this life or the next, worlds mortal or divine, I will never let you go.”
“I told you that strength is measured by the sacrifices we refused to make,” she said softly. “You were mine.”
