Rain of Shadows and Endings (The Legacy)

by Melissa K. Roehrich

In all things there must be balance. Beginnings and endings. Light and dark. Fire and shadows. The sky, the sea, the realms. The worlds are no different. Beings emerged from the Chaos to create such a thing. Among those to emerge were six Firsts: Falein, goddess of wisdom and cleverness; Celeste, goddess of the sky and moon; Anala, goddess of day, fire, and the sun; Serafina, goddess of the stars and dreams; Achaz, god of beginnings; and Arius, god of endings. Achaz and Arius emerged first. They became the most powerful of the gods, working together to maintain the balance. Beginning created. Ending judged. The First gods created the Lesser gods. They went to various parts of the stars, setting up their own kingdoms among the realms and maintaining balance, and from them, worlds grew and prospered. Some grew faster than others. Some were favored more than others. Some were lost, and some were forgotten. New beings were created and scattered among the realms. Other beings were created and kept close. But as more and more came into existence, tension bloomed among the gods. Power balances began to shift, and the gods began to create beings with mortals— demigods, whose descendants became their Legacy. Fear took root that one of those bloodlines would become more powerful than the rest, so an accord was struck. There would be no more demigods created, and the Legacy across the realms were to be brought to one world. A realm created solely for them to grow and prosper and thri...

The Arius Kingdom was incredibly private, and they rarely ventured out of their borders. When they did, nothing good ever happened. The Arius Kingdom was the definition of cruel and wicked, which fit, she supposed, since they were descendants of Arius, the god of death and endings. The Kingdom’s ruling family embodied all of that and more with their power to command shadows and darkness along with other mysterious gifts that were not well known. Few outsiders were ever allowed into the Kingdom, and while it was known there was an heir of age there to Select a Source, he hadn’t been visiting the various Fae estates the last several years to evaluate his options like the other heirs had.

The Selection was held every five years. All the Fae who had come of age since the last Selection were brought to the Acropolis. The Fae would have their gifts awakened during the Emerging Ceremony, then they would be put through various tasks and trainings while being observed by the Kingdoms. Eventually, they would be assigned to whichever Kingdom they were to serve in. If an heir was of age to Select a Source, it was done during a Selection Year. Once the heirs all chose their Sources, there would be a brief break of a few weeks to allow the heirs and their new Sources to get acclimated. Then they would rejoin the rest of the Fae back at the Acropolis. With only six kingdoms, that did not happen often with the extended lifespan of the Legacy. To have all six kingdoms with heirs of Selection age at one time? A historic night, indeed.

They were taught that being Selected was an honor. It was ingrained in them from birth that being Selected was the greatest role in society a Fae could ever hope to achieve, and that to be the Source of a ruling Lord or Lady was as good as nobility. Only those who were already tapped to be a Source truly believed that, and Tessa was pretty sure that was out of necessity to come to terms with their fate. Once they were fully bonded, they would believe it though. Their Masters’ desires would become their desires.

The Legacy could fill their deep power wells naturally over time, but to fully refill them from a completely drained state would take weeks, if not months, to do so. They had the powers of gods in their veins after all. That took a while to recoup, and in the meantime, they’d be left vulnerable. But when they drew power from a Fae, it refilled their power wells instantly.

Which is why no other descendants of the gods were allowed a personal Source like the ruling families. It was a rite performed by a Priestess who bonded the Source and Master with four Marks that connected them as one. When all the Marks had been given, they could sense each oth...

Unlike the Legacy, Fae gifts didn’t emerge naturally. They had to be awakened by the Legacy, which would happen a few weeks from now for all the Fae in this room. Tessa had always dreamed of the fire element, but the Anala Kingdom didn’t allow any other Kingdom to have fire Fae. They were all born and raised in Idalia, the Anala Kingdom capital. Instead, all of her aptitude tests were predicting air as the most likely element for her.

The mortals of the realm had guns, but they did nothing against a Legacy or a Fae. Both races healed quickly, and unless those bullets were made of shirastone or nightstone—which were incredibly expensive and heavily regulated—they wouldn’t do anything. Even then, they would have to hit the head or heart.

“I choose Tessalyn Ausra to be my bonded Source,” Theon announced, his voice skittering over her bones.

“I am Theon St. Orcas, Heir to the Arius Kingdom. You are Tessalyn Ausra. I have Selected you to be my Source. You obey me above all others. My desires are your desires. You are mine.”

Be what they want you to be now, so you can be who you were meant to be later.

“Tessalyn Ausra, I have claimed you as my Source, to be bonded to me irrevocably. With this Mark, may the bond become physical, that we can always sense each other’s presence and crave each other’s closeness. My power claims you as its own.”

Tessa thought their meeting in that corridor was random. It was anything but. He’d had his choices narrowed down to five, and he’d sought them all out in the hours before the Selection Ceremony. She had been the last one he’d tracked down. He’d never expected her to be hiding in an alcove out in the corridor. Then again, maybe he should have based on the number of times she sneaked off the Fae Estate in the Celeste Kingdom.

The Estates were essentially boarding schools for the Fae until they came of age for Selection at twenty-three years. It was just that few of them actually left the sections of the kingdoms where the Fae lived, and those who did were always tracked. Wards alerted the governing Legacy when they came and went.

But when Theon’s gaze had landed on her, when he’d found her leaning against another male and he’d felt the prickle of irritation at seeing another’s hands on her, he’d known it was over.

“I look like a gutter rat, Theon,” she replied, noting her limp and messy hair and tired eyes. “No, beautiful,” he said, shaking his head. “You look like salvation and temptation all rolled into one.”

The Falein Kingdom was the scholars and healers, hiring out their services to the other kingdoms. The Anala Kingdom was the agriculture experts, helping the other kingdoms cultivate their own food sources, for a fee, of course. The Celeste Kingdom was the peacekeepers among them all and was in charge of planning and carrying out the Selection every five years with all the kingdoms paying them handsomely for taking on the task. The Serafina Kingdom was the artists and architects, selling beauty and entertainment and designing the kingdoms’ towns and cities. The Achaz Kingdom was the law. Each kingdom had their own forces and defenses, but the Achaz Kingdom upheld the established laws and accords of all the kingdoms, created new ones, and cast judgment on those who broke them. The Legacy themselves could live in whichever kingdom they wanted, provided it was approved by the ruling Lord or Lady of their bloodline’s kingdom. But Arius Kingdom? There were the mines in the Ozul Mountains, but what exactly they mined, Tessa didn’t know. In fact, the only other thing she could really remember being said repeatedly in whispered words about the Arius Kingdom was that it was a kingdom you never wished to cross.

“You know if the bond were fully in place, she would be fighting her way to your side right now. The bond would require it of her.” Theon knew this. It was a side of the Source bond the Fae were kept in the dark about. One of the many things the Fae were kept in the dark about really. The final Mark would allow Theon to draw power from her, but it would also force her to defend him at all costs, even if that cost was her life. Because of the Kingdom Accords, there was rarely fighting amongst the kingdoms. The Sources rarely intervened, but they reacted to any and all threats.

She wouldn’t survive this. It would break her. And she didn’t burn when she broke. She shattered, and the world shattered with her.

“Know that sometimes we must break to be forged into who we were meant to be,” she said, streaks of violet flickering in her eyes like lightning cutting through the flecks of gold. Then she bent and pressed her lips to Tessa’s brow. “You will break, Tessalyn. Make sure you get back up and take what is yours.”

“This probably isn’t my place, but I’m going to say it anyway: It’s okay not to be okay, Tessa.”

“I want everything you have to give, and then I want more. I want every piece of you— every secret, every tempest raging in those stormy eyes. I want all your fear and all your pain, all your smiles and all your laughter. I want all your mornings and all your nights, all your days and months and years.”

“Luka can shift into a dragon, baby doll.”

“You will learn soon enough that being the most cunning and wicked is the only way to survive in a realm of villains, little storm.”

ear. “In all things there must be balance. Beginnings and endings. Light and dark. Fire and shadows. The sky, the sea, the realms.”

“In all things there must be balance. Beginnings and Endings. Light and Dark. Fire and Shadows. The sky, the sea, the realms. But when the scales tip, And Chaos rains, Who will fight? And who will fall? For Dark must bow, And Light must rule, But Chaos does not choose. Control the uncontrollable, Or to fury they both lose. Life must give, And Death must take, But Fate requires more. Destiny beckons, And sacrifice demands. Who will be left standing, When Chaos comes to reign?”

voice. “It’s something you can’t learn until you’re forced to walk through it, but you’d know that strength grows in the moments you think you can’t go on, but you do anyway. Strength is fighting back. Strength is doing whatever it takes to claim what is yours, even if others try to convince you it is not yours to take.”

Tessa.

If you are weak enough to fall, you are strong enough to rise back up. Weakness and strength come from the same place, and both are necessary. Both provide purpose, and both can lead to destruction or salvation. You just need to embrace a little chaos,”

“Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but mortal and Legacy cocks are exactly the same. The blood of a god does not make your dick more special.”

“No one can steal your thunder if you are the storm,” he replied, stretching a hand toward her. “Be the fucking storm, Tessa.”

“Shadows are cunning, don’t you think? The light doesn’t realize the shadows are circling until there’s nowhere for them to go. It’s either join the shadows, or drown in the darkness.”

She’d get back up. She’d be the fucking storm. Because the thing about light? When strong enough, it could obliterate darkness.