Prologue - Sacrifice

Tear by tear, it was a quiet love song that would echo for eternity in the uneasy moment when sudden loss blooms into abiding grief.

It was the reckoning of ages, a tribute to finality.

For hope is but a new beginning, and all beginnings necessitate an end.

Timeless and eternal, Avaria, Goddess of the Elements and Sovereign of Aeria seemed to drift serenely across the boundless stream of time as her tender gaze fell upon the masses of the dead and dying below.

Only the shimmering drops of starlight sliding down her alabaster cheeks seemed to mark the passage of time.

“My lady, you must not do this,” came the breaking voice of mighty Atlas, her stalwart protector for countless millenia. For once the Immortal Paragon sounded powerless and utterly defeated, even as he pleaded one final time, all the while knowing it was for naught. “You cannot.”

Perfect rose lips gracefully arched into a breathtakingly beautiful smile, even as it danced upon the forbidding abyss where sorrow begets despair. It shook only slightly, like petals bestirred by an unkind wind, and more tears rained upon the dreadful war being waged upon her subjects.

“Can you hear them, dear Atlas? My children cry out for me, and in their despair their hearts break like waves upon the uncaring sand.”

“Mortals tread upon their allotted span of days, my lady. Theirs is a fierce, yet ephemeral light. Charming, even mesmerizing, but only in their brilliant and necessarily brief glow.”

“Then may my own candle burn all the more fiercely in this one moment of boundless love, rather than in an eternity of immortal apathy.”

“My lady! This act is an abomination. The All-Father shall never allow-”

"Father will forgive, and if not, then forsake. However, in the here and now, it is beyond him to forbid. For you see, precious Atlas, even Father is bound by a power not his own. It is there that I consumate this small betrayal."

"Please, my lady, speak no further! You are the All-Father's most beloved daughter. There must be another way!"

"There is, but such is not my path to walk. This may be the end, but it is an end of my own choosing."

"My lady!"

“Fare thee well, gentle Atlas. May you find release from your ungentle oaths, and the unkind fates which have cast your lot with mine.”

“I serve you of my own-”

“Well I know, dear Atlas, of your unswerving loyalty and your steadfast love. They will guide my final steps and rest upon my lips as they draw their final breath.”

“Please, my lady!”

“Remember me kindly, fair Atlas, and look after my children once I am no more.”

“I will not.”

“Your eyes are more honest than your words, gentle Atlas.”

“Lady Avaria!”

“At last you call my name, if only to mourn my passing when you should be celebrating its whispered promise.”

“It is a whisper I cannot hear, my lady.”

“You hear it now, as you’ve heard it all along, though you know it not. One day, when you finally hear it no more, you will come to know this.”

“My lady, without you I will hear nothing, know nothing.”

“Oh, but my dear, foolish Atlas..”

One final, tremulous smile, glittering in stars and moonlight, in fire and brilliance, a perfect poem of sweet sorrow, bitter farewell and the love that is forever left behind.

“I will always be with you.”