Chapter 36: Chapter Thirty-Six: Warning and Disobedience.
The new world around Calithar dissolved into a flurry of silver dust as the spell from his crystal ball completed. His body felt weightless for a moment, suspended between time and space. Then, with a sudden pull, he was transported across realms—through light, darkness, and the quiet hum of creation itself.
When the silver mist cleared, Calithar found himself standing at the gates of the Moon’s Dominion, the innermost sanctuary of Seraphine, the moon goddess.
The air shimmered faintly around him, filled with starlight and drifting petals that glowed like shards of glass. The entire place looked like it had been carved out of moonlight. Rivers of shimmering, strange liquid light ran through several thin channels, and the sky above was endless twilight, neither night nor day, but something in between.
In the distance stood a grand temple glowing with luminescence. Calithar’s wings unfurled behind him as the whirling wind finally settled.
The sight of them was beautiful yet haunting coupled with his broken halo.
In front of him was a great, long bridge that spanned over the silvery water below.
He didn’t bother to greet the celestial guards that guarded the bridge crossing the grand river but just entered through the gates and crossed the river. They knelt as he passed, recognizing his divine essence, but he didn’t spare them a glance. His steps increased by every second and his mind was already set.
He was angry. So angry that he could feel the hurt it brought through his damaged wings. Angry that history was about to repeat itself despite having suffered greatly for it.
He crossed the bridge and stormed through the gates into Seraphine’s great hall.
The chamber stretched endlessly, far beyond the normal eyes. The ceiling dome was like a mirror to the heavens and the stars moved slowly across its surface. At the center stood the Throne of Eternity, a seat carved from pure white porcelain and inlaid with thousands of radiant gems.
And upon it sat Seraphine, the goddess with her eyes closed.
When Calithar entered, she opened her eyes fully.
"You return here without summons," she said softly. "What do you seek, Calithar?."
Calithar stood straight and looked right at her. He had once been called a god before his name, had once been referred to as righteous...had once had a divine name.
"Where is she?" he demanded, his voice cutting through the endless silence that echoed in the hall. "You see all, don’t you, Seraphine? You watch the mortal world all day long and I know you sent her to me. Then tell me—where is she? Why have you suddenly taken her away?!."
The goddess regarded him quietly. Her gaze was sharp yet not unkind. "Your anger burns brighter than your reason," she said. "Even for one who once sat among us, you forget respect far too easily."
"I don’t have time for courtesies," Calithar snapped. "Tell me where Elena is."
Seraphine’s expression didn’t change. She lifted her hand, and a faint light filled the space around them. The walls of the hall glittered, revealing glimpses of the mortal world.
"Elena..." she murmured, as if tasting the name on her tongue. "The mortal girl who carries the essence of balance. You chase what should never have belonged to you, Calithar."
He clenched his fists in anger and agitation. "She belongs to me," he said, his voice trembling from fury. "You know that!" he growled. "You know how long i waited for-"
Seraphine cut him off gently. "Yes," she said, her eyes lowering to him. "I know everything. That is why I must tell you the truth you refuse to face and guide you when you seem to make the same mistake again."
She rose slowly from her throne, and the air rippled with divine pressure. Her light dimmed slightly, turning into a soft, sorrowful glow.
"Elena’s soul was never meant to belong to you ... nor to any in particular," Seraphine said. "She is a pure being—one of the rarest forms in creation. Her existence stands between divine and mortal. She is a bridge, Calithar. A convergence point between gods and men. Her presence brings balance to both realms. And that is why.To touch that balance is to shake all worlds."
Calithar’s jaw tightened. "You’re saying she’s not human?"
"She is both," Seraphine replied. "And neither."
Silence followed and the faint hum of the hall filled the space between them.
Calithar took a step forward, his voice low and rough. "Then tell me why she was sent to my world. Why did I meet her? Why did the fates cross our paths if it wasn’t meant to be?"
Seraphine sighed softly. "No one can question the will of the gods, Calithar. You know that..." she said, staring right at him with her pure, white eyes.
Calithar’s eyes flared. "Don’t speak to me in riddles!"
For a moment, the goddess looked at him not as a deity, but as a mother to a lost child. "You were once light, Calithar," she said. "A being of order everyone reverenced. But your heart wandered where it should not. You fell, not because of disobedience... but because of love."
Seraphine stepped closer, the glow around her fading until her voice was the only thing that filled the vast chamber.
"The gods do not love mortals," she said quietly. "Not because we are incapable, but because human love corrupts the divine. You broke the barrier once. You fell from grace to walk among men, to feel, to desire, to hold what was forbidden because you desired it. And for that, you were cast out of the heavens."
Calithar looked away, his eyes growing dark. He didn’t deny it. He couldn’t. He could remember it all too well.
Seraphine continued. "Now you want to repeat your sin again. You would tear through the realms to find her. But every step you take toward her brings imbalance. The threads of fate unravel when a god meddles with the human heart."
"So I’m supposed to sit and watch while she’s taken from me?"
Seraphine’s voice softened. "You were never meant to have her."
That sentence hit him like a blow. His fingers curled at his sides.
His wings twitched again and his feathers scattered faint embers as his aura grew unstable. The cracked halo above his head flickered softly like it would burst any moment.
He took another step closer to her throne. "You think I care about what’s meant or not?" he hissed. "You think I haven’t suffered enough for your laws? Why did it have to be her face? Why did it have to be her who was sent to me?! To mock me?! Answer!"
Seraphine’s gaze remained calm. "You speak of reasons, but it is you who refuses to see it. You do not understand what she is nor what you will destroy by touching her fate again."
He laughed bitterly. "Then show me," he said. "Show me this fate you speak of."
The goddess stared at him for a long time. Then, slowly, she lifted her hand.
From her palm, light spilled. The orbs that floated around her merged into one, forming a large sphere of glowing moonlight that hovered in the air. It shimmered, and within its depths, shapes began to form.
It was a vision sphere. It was the clairvoyant mirror- a mirror of divine sight.
The image cleared, and Calithar watched with renewed attention.
He saw Elena asleep with her hair spread across a velvet pillow. She looked pale and fragile, but peaceful. And beside her, sitting quietly in the shadows, was Damien.
The silverblue-haired god’s gaze was fixed on her as he studied her intently. She looked so...weak
Calithar’s heartbeat thudded in his ears. His wings shuddered violently and more feathers trembled out of them.
Seraphine’s voice echoed softly. "There. The mortal you call a beast shelters her now. Her body rests in his world and her spirit is bound to the threads of his curse. You see, Calithar, she is already a part of what you despise."
The goddess’s tone was calm, but Calithar barely heard it. His entire body burned.
"So he can have her but I can’t? Is that the ’will of the gods?’ he said with a sarcastic laugh.
The image of Damien brushing a stray lock of Elena’s hair away from her face pushed something dark inside him to the surface. His eyes glowed faint gold, and his aura exploded outward.
The once calm hall trembled. Cracks spread through the pure floor as waves of divine energy flowed massively from him.
"Enough!" he roared. His voice echoed like thunder, shaking the stars swimming above the hall. His wings burst into flame of white and gold turning to it to anything but divine and pure.
Seraphine’s expression didn’t change. She watched the fire in his eyes as if she felt his sorrow.
"This," she said quietly, "is what the gods fear."
Calithar’s chest heaved. "You expect me to stay still knowing he’s holding her? That she’s trapped there with that cursed bloodline?! He’s a corrupted vampire who wants her blood! If the gods needed her to balance out time and space, then why the hell is she with a bloodsucker?!" he thundered out in rage.
"I expect you to remember who you are," Seraphine said. "You are not man. You are not meant to live in their world or be trapped to a particular part in the first place. Each time you descend, your divine essence weakens. The gods’ punishment will fall again, Calithar. You know this."
He looked away still fuming.
"I don’t care," he muttered.
Seraphine tilted her head slightly. "Even if it means losing yourself again?"
But he said nothing.
The flames along his wings began to dim, leaving only faint streaks of smoke curling in the air.
"I’ve already lost myself," he said finally. His voice was softer now, but it carried a pain that could break whoever saw him. "The day she disappeared from my world, I lost everything that made sense. The skies can keep their throne. The gods can keep their laws. I don’t care what they take from me anymore but not her." he said with a tone of finality.
Seraphine watched him quietly without saying anything.
After a moment, she said, "If you step into the mortal realm again, your punishment will return. You will suffer the pain of taking human form. Every bone, every fragment of your divine body will break. You will bleed, and your wings will burn causing you more pain. You will cease to become light and It will take hundreds of years for the excruciating pain to fade away. Why do you want to risk it all for a girl?." she asked as her tone began to rise.
"I know," he said.
The goddess sighed. "Then you choose your own fall again."
He turned away from her throne. She was right. If he defied his punishment again, he would lose his mind and become a senseless beast, chained to the darkness forever.
"If I can’t go to her," he said, his tone hardening, "then I’ll bring her to me."
"Calithar—"
But he was already walking.
The ground beneath his feet shimmered softly, reacting to his divine energy and the temple’s walls flared with light as he moved. By the time he reached the end of the hall, the moon itself had begun to wane in the sky.
Seraphine raised her hand. "If you do this, I cannot tell what will be the end for you!" she called out.
Calithar paused at the massive silver doors.
Without turning around, he said quietly, "There was no return for me the moment I touched her hand." Then the doors burst open.
Blinding light poured through, and his wings spread wide, gleaming golden for a heartbeat before darkening to its damaged white again. He looked back once and his cracked halo shone faintly with the amount of power he was gathering. And then, with a single powerful thrust of his wings, Calithar launched himself back to earth.
The moonlight wrapped around him, swallowing his form as he broke through the clouds.
Far below, the earth shimmered. His chest ached from the goddess’warning, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t. Not after years and years of torture.
Every beat of his wings brought him closer to snatching her away.
If the gods forbade his love, then he would defy them again. If the heavens closed their gates, he would tear them open.
He didn’t know what awaited him below but it didn’t matter.
He would find Elena and he would bring her back.
Even if it meant burning the world to ash.