The dark water kissing her trembling ankles was bitterly cold, with an ancient chill.
Not the passing sting of winter, nor even the frost that withers the petals upon the surface of the earth, but something infinitely more remote. Something deeper.
The cold of the space between forgotten constellations, the cold of a universe in gestation before the first breath of light touched the void. The cold of true destiny—true and inescapable destiny, she realized, as rough hands forced her down, into that dark liquid.
Elain knew there would be no escape from that womb of iron. Of death and rebirth.
A death so deep and absolute that every fragile inch of her humanity clamored in silent rebellion. Elain closed her eyes to the darkness devouring her.
The last light of her humanity flickered like a thread stretched to its breaking point.
True destiny—worse than the dark sap that, with every second, climbed higher up her feet, ravenous and relentless.
But it was not merely the abyss that waited beneath the surface. No. The Cauldron had looked upon her and, finding her so lovely, had decided to bestow a gift upon her… Something unseen turned toward her and stirred in answer.
The hidden face of creation turned toward her.
Voices without faces whispered around her, beneath her, within her, until the fragile structure of her mind began to fracture beneath the weight of them.
Magic invaded her without asking leave.
Elain felt her veins swell to the point of rupture, eternity flooding them until her mortal blood forgot what it had once been. Her ribs gave way, one by one, as the cursed sap of immortality rooted into her flesh, drinking every last trace of human warmth from her bones.
And before she could even learn to inflate her lungs within that new immortal body, before the agony of the forced rebirth could begin to cool, destiny extended its capricious claws to claim her a second time.
A violent tug tore the thick fabric of space—an invisible, voracious tether that flew through the darkness to sink deep into her newly forged rib, pulling her from within.
Another irrevocable claim. Another chain driven into her flesh against the last remnant of her will, binding her eternity to a soul she did not love, in the exact instant she had been stolen from herself.
