Dusk of the Realm

Epilogue

There was silence.

Then: "Come now, warriors. You must prepare. She is almost upon you," Muiress declared. Tarin turned to glance at her and noticed that even she looked more than just disheartened as the last spark from the Portal was extinguished.

"Tarin, I must go. Iliss must not know of my kingdom playing any part in all of this, or she will come after us as well. I ask this not out of a desire for self-preservation, but out of a love for my people, and for Serena. I have things I must teach her, and I have a role to play in this war yet."

With this last, Queen Muiress leaned in and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. He was still so distracted by everything that had just occurred that he did not notice her hands moving around to his back until he heard the metallic sound of his cross swords sliding back into their sheaths. He had forgotten he had left them lying at his princess' feet.

"My gift to you," Muiress whispered to him in a conspiratorial tone. In a moment of bright spirits, she winked at him. Then the lake behind her made a noise that sounded an awful lot like a sigh, and she walked towards it without hesitation.

"This is not the last you will see of me, Warrior of the Moon."

Tarin looked away before the waters rose up to welcome her back into her kingdom. He could not bear the thought of losing another queen, even if he knew they were not all necessarily gone for good. Knew, not hoped, because he would not allow a sliver of doubt into his mind that Serena would indeed return, the moment it was safe for her to do so.

The shore of Lake Muiress was a whole lot quieter than it had been just minutes ago, but that only allowed for Tarin to detect the sounds of the approaching Infernal company. Striding toward the edge of the forest where he assumed they would make their appearance, he drew his swords and twirled them around experimentally. They did not look or feel any different, and yet Muiress had called them a gift. Frowning, he tightened his grip on their handles and gestured for Vice and Birches to stand on either side of him, Dallin and the other twin behind their respective fighting partners.

"It is almost noon," Vex declared, her sing-song voice cutting through the tension in the atmosphere in an almost unnatural fashion.

"It feels like dusk," Birches responded gruffly. He wiped the back of his arm across his eyes briefly, clearly trying to pass the movement off as an itch. He grabbed his bow off of his back and notched an arrow, aiming it into the shadows of the forest.

"Dusk has fallen," Tarin said matter-of-factly. He could not afford to display emotion now. He had to set an example to his remaining Wolves. He had to survive this. He had to ensure that dusk rose again.

In the wake of his statement, their view of Lymeryth was consumed by darkness. A shade came down over the trees. The spaces between the trunks were filled up with blackness. And that blackness was moving - the darkness was coming for them. He had been here before.

He lifted his swords, and as if in response, Iliss strode from the trees. If she was surprised to see him prepared to fight her rather than falling to his knees due to being tied down in a blood oath, she did not show it - in fact, she was smiling. Her eyes scanned the area briefly as the rest of the Infernals poured out of the forest, and he suspected that she was searching for the princess.

"She's dead, you traitor," he spat through his teeth, forcing his voice to crack on the word 'dead.' It was not hard to put on this act; after all, he had just lost her again, and had no idea when he would be able to see her again. The last time she had gone into the human world, he had been forced to live without her for eleven years.