Lynnea, who bloomed into a strong woman with a loving heart a little more each day.
Jeb, a man of earthy practicality who was still fumbling a bit as he tried to be a stepfather to grown children.
Yoshani, who had loved her in ways and for reasons she hadn’t known until recently.
Nadia, who had a mother’s courage and a Landscaper’s understanding of what it sometimes cost to take care of the world.
Lee. Brother and friend—and partner in the care of Ephemera. She wished they could have had one more squabble over something that would make him smile in the years to come.
Sebastian. Even more than her mother and brother, she was going to miss Sebastian because he had been the one closest to her heart.
And Michael. He was just emerging from the tight cocoon of who he had been, was just making the transition into who he would become.
For a moment, she let the memory of his arms around her take on physical weight. Comfort. And love. They could have had both, could have offered so much to the world—and each other.
Glorianna shook her head. Let them go.
She took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.
Ephemera, hear me.
“I cast out the Light from this land that is bound to me. I cast out the Light from my heart. I deny all things that come from the Light. I repel all feelings that come from the Light. They have no place in this landscape. They have no place in this heart. I cast out the Light.”
“Something’s happening,” Lee said as he stared at the outside walls of the school. “The resonance is changing, but…”
Michael watched Lee. Drifted a little closer. Yoshani and Jeb probably wouldn’t act fast enough. Sebastian and Teaser would.
“Guardians and Guides,” Lee gasped. “The landscape is getting darker. It’s getting darker.”
The Warrior of Light must drink from the Dark Cup, Michael thought, feeling his heart ache as he drifted a little closer to Lee.
“I cast out the Light from this land that is bound to me. I cast out the Light from my heart.”
Ephemera, obey me!
“I can feel her resonance,” Lee said, turning back toward his island. “I think I can still get in, still get her out.”
No, you can’t, Michael thought.
He threw himself on Lee, ramming into Sebastian as he and Lee hit the ground. They rolled, scrabbled, kicked. He’d gotten his arms around Lee and was holding on since he didn’t want this to turn into a vicious brawl, and there was no question that it would turn vicious if Lee managed to shake him off.
Teaser jumped into it and got his legs knocked out from under him, half landing on both of them as they continued to roll and getting elbowed in the head with enough force to take him out of the fight.
Michael kicked out at someone and heard an angry female squeal in response. He’d pay for that kick. He surely would. He couldn’t keep this up much longer. The surprise of the attack had worked in his favor, but all Sebastian needed to do was grab hold long enough to use that wizard magic and the fight would end.
More than the fight would end.
Wild child! he called. Now. Now!
“I cast out the Light from this land that is bound to me. I cast out the Light from my heart.”
Ephemera, obey me! Do this for me and for everyone I love! Now. Now!
Something happening. Strange resonances in the currents. What was she doing to Its landscapes?
The ground thickened until It couldn’t flow through It in Its natural form. So It changed into the middle-aged gentleman and began to run toward the part of the school that now pulsed with potential, possibility, change.
Lee got one arm free, flailed a moment, then reached back and grabbed Michael’s hair, yanking hard enough to tear scalp. Sebastian grabbed at both of them but lost his balance when the ground suddenly crested like a wave beneath his feet. Michael rolled, bringing Lee partway under him, pressing Lee’s left forearm to the ground at the same moment a rib of stone pushed up from the earth—and Sebastian fell on top of them.
Bone snapped. Lee cried out.
“I cast out the Light!” Glorianna shouted. “I cast out the Light! I cast out the Light!”
A tearing inside her. A pain beyond anything she could have imagined. Dark and Light. Two halves of a whole. One could not exist without the other.
But it could. And it did.
She roared through the landscape that had once been the Landscapers’ School, changing it. Twisting it until the place reflected the resonance that was her. Until it reflected nothing but her sublime cruelty and held nothing but the Dark.
“It’s gone!” Lynnea shouted. “The school is gone!”
Michael shuddered. He’d heard the music. Beautifully twisted. Vibrantly terrible. A glorious song of malevolence.
Travel lightly, Glorianna Belladonna.
He had kept his promises to her, had fulfilled his duties to the world. Because of that, the woman he loved no longer existed.
It was Jeb who pulled him to his feet and looked ready to beat him half to death. And it was Nadia who stepped between them and just stared at him, silently asking for an explanation he didn’t want to give.
“She cast out the Light,” he said, speaking to Nadia, although he knew the rest of them were listening. “In the story, in order to save the world and everything she loves, the Warrior casts out the Light and embraces the Dark.”
“What does she become?” Nadia asked.
He didn’t want to tell her. Vowed, in that moment, that he never would tell her the story, that he would hide the book and keep it hidden until the day came when the story was, once again, nothing more than a story.
“What does she become?” Nadia asked again.
“She becomes a monster,” he said, his voice dulled by sorrow. “She becomes the thing that Evil fears.”
There was a time, in the days of old, when Evil walked in the world.
When Evil ruled the world.
One by one, It destroyed the Light in people’s hearts, making them slaves to the Dark.
The people who eluded It cried out in fearful desperation. “A champion,” they cried. “We need a champion to save the Light.”
Now, there was one among them who saw what could be done. Might be done. Must be done. So she commanded the people to build a huge maze, a labyrinth, a tangle of paths and hiding places. And then, when they had done all she had commanded them to do, they built a wall around the place—a wall so high and jagged that nothing could climb it and escape.
When all the preparations were done and everything was ready, the woman slipped into the maze and challenged Evil. “I am the warrior who defends the Light, and I will free the people enslaved in the Dark.”
Evil, hearing the challenge, followed the woman into the maze, followed her through the secrets of the labyrinth, searched for her along the tangled paths and in the hiding places. And while Evil followed the Warrior of Light, the people sealed the entrance so that nothing could escape.
When the last stone was in place and the wall was unbroken, the woman faced her enemy and said, “Because I love, I stand here. Because I love, I will stay here. I cast out the Light and bind you to me. I cast out the Light and become your dwelling place. I cast out the Light that lives within me and will walk in this Dark place forever!”
The woman’s heart ripped in two. The Light burst out of the maze and flowed through the world, freeing the people who had been enslaved in the Dark.