Inheritance

Everything happened at once.

The darkness swallowed Darian's arm, dragging it back within the dragon's folds.

"What the, wait – when did – " A stunned Mirage felt at the front of his coat.

Victor blinked. Zenith tensed.

Theo lunged.

Drawing out every last ounce of strength, he reached trembling fingers for the shard. Just like in his dreams, when he chased after that blue star. Everything else fell aside. All that mattered was reaching his goal.

But he wasn't the only one after it. Mirage kicked into action too, lunging from behind. Then Victor swerved toward the crystal, and with a rush of air Zenith jumped too. Dimly he heard Sam screaming his name, but she was too far away.

He had to – he had to -

Every muscle burned, strained to its limit. The crystal grew steadily larger in his vision, but not fast enough. Behind it, Mirage's white hand crept closer. Theo clenched his teeth, threw all his strength into his aching arm muscles, but he already knew he couldn't get there in time.

No, no, no! Just one last push, just a little more –

Suddenly Levia throbbed in his bones, resounding like a boulder striking a mountain. It stopped him in his tracks. No – but he couldn't move, not through the sheer power flooding him.

It wasn't his own dawn light. It spread in every direction, vast as the night sky, twinkling with stars. Soon it swallowed everything – all sight, all sound. The Liminal vanished. There was just this endless Levia, and he was slowly descending through it.

No, wait. Up ahead, a spark of blue light.

The star. Trembling in excitement, Theo reached for it. This time, his muscles didn't burn.

Because he wasn't moving his body. Instead, he extended his own power toward the blue star, drifting in waves of soft pink light. They fluttered like gauzy curtains, almost invisible against the darkness, but their warmth burned bright in the core of his being.

At last, his dawn light brushed the blue star. The moment they touched, light exploded everywhere – not pink or blue, but a pure, brilliant white.

Tears stung Theo's eyes; he flung his arms up. But as the light died down, he became aware of a strange new presence in the night sky.

Someone...was in front of him? A woman, awash in pale light. It glowed a softer, subtler pink than his own Levia, but it felt so familiar his heart ached.

The light shrouded the woman, obscuring her outline. Theo could barely make out the six wings sprouting from her back.

So he more sensed than saw it when she lifted her head and looked right at him. Her voice bloomed somewhere deep in his core, the same place where his Levia dwelled.

"This is your inheritance, Theo."

The night sky rushed away and the Liminal's colors swirled around him again. His mouth opened in a silent scream, a desperate plea for the woman to return.

As he flailed, he noticed his right hand was clenched in a tight fist. When he unfurled it, a shard of crystal rested atop his sweaty palm.

And it was glowing.

This wasn't the same as when Oliver channeled his Levia through the crystal – rather than overwhelm it, his Levia augmented it. He could still see the blue at the edges, fading into soft lavender, then pulsing pink right in the center. Like his power had become a star in its sky.

As he lifted the crystal, the pink glow danced across the Liminal, giving its colors the soft cast of dawn. Faces stared back at him, eyes wide with shock, but he only had attention to spare on one of them.

Victor's lips moved soundlessly. The dragon reared behind him, but it seemed small and pathetic beneath the crystal's glow.

Theo wondered if Victor was finally seeing him for the first time. Or maybe he was seeing someone else, the woman with six wings.

A familiar sensation tugged at his back. His wings flapped, all six working in concert, and as he rose higher feathers rained like dawn-tinted snow.

His power still pulsed inside the crystal, but he had the dim sense it wouldn't last long. Maybe only enough for one spell.

His gaze drifted downward and his eyes locked with Zenith's, their blue so brilliant it took his breath away.

'This is home,' he thought in awe. 'This blue sky.' Even more than the deep night of the crystal, or the dawn glow he had inherited from his mother.

This was where he belonged – next to Zenith.

The crystal's power pulsed through their bond, flooding their two souls. They couldn't contain it – so it spilled outward, spreading beneath them in a breathtakingly intricate diagram. As his eyes darted across it, Theo thought he saw fluttering wings, crystalline structures, crossed swords. But he couldn't focus on anything for long; the shapes seemed to shift and swirl before his eyes.

Well, it didn't matter. Even if he didn't know this spell, he knew it. It too was part of his inheritance.

Slowly, Zenith rose until he was level with Theo. Wings spread from his shoulders too – a single pair formed from white light. In their stark glow, Zenith's eyes shone brighter than ever, his hair like liquid platinum, the planes of his face sharp as blades. He had never been more beautiful.

But his smile outshone any light. He lowered his head in a solemn nod, and Theo nodded too.

That was all either of them needed. Zenith snapped his sword up, holding it vertically before his face. The perfect picture of a knight at attention. Then light flooded the blade – not his stark white, not Theo's dawn glow, but something in between. Like his mother's Levia, or the first rays of the rising sun.

Zenith swung the sword out in a graceful circle, and awe flooded Theo when dozens of blades swept after it, all fashioned from that same pale light. More and more appeared, spiraling around Zenith until they filled every empty space in the Liminal.

Surrounded by the cage of swords, Zenith seemed oddly small and insignificant. Even so, Theo couldn't take his eyes off him.

Zenith snapped his sword down, pointing it forward. In unison, the light-swords swung in the same direction.

Beneath their combined glow, Victor was just a silhouette. Purple light sputtered beneath him, the dragon spread its wings, but he might as well have been trying to hold back a flood with a pebble.

Together, Theo and Zenith launched the swords.

Several dozen struck Victor at once. He hurtled backward, shedding scraps of black armor. More tore through the dragon, scattering it into inky wisps and sending Darian tumbling free.

Zenith wasn't done. He flapped his wings and vanished in a flash of light, only to reappear in front of Victor. In a blinding streak, he charged with his sword extended and a torrent of light-blades in his wake.

Victor soared an arc across the Liminal. This time Zenith appeared behind him, sword and light-blades flashing. The sword spun out of Victor's hand, useless as a toy.

Zenith rocketed back and forth, attacking Victor alongside the light-blades. Others raced across the Liminal, several striking Mirage. Theo's friends ducked and screamed, but the blades seemed to be avoiding them.

Yet Theo had the sinking feeling that he'd already lost control. Gone was any trace of order or beauty; the light had become a wildly raging storm, intent on nothing except attacking and destroying its enemies.

'Stop it, stop it.' But when Theo tried to reach for his Levia, or the crystal's, he couldn't feel anything. The diagram flickered beneath him before shattering into hundreds of glittering shards.

The crystal burned like a live coal, throbbing like it was about to explode. Though he tried to let go, his fingers wouldn't budge an inch. Then – then flap his wings, get out of here. No use. He was trying to move muscles he no longer had.

"Theo!" A voice shouting his name. An armored hand burst from the storm of light, reaching for him.

As if in a dream, Theo watched himself lift his free hand. Every movement was painfully slow, like he was pushing through tar. As his fingers stretched, so small and weak, Zenith's longer fingers desperately strained to close the distance.

Finally, their fingers brushed. Relief rushed through their bond.

A sound like shattering glass echoed through the Liminal. Something lanced at Theo's chest, like he'd been struck by one of the blades – except he hadn't. They were all gone. Only the Liminal surrounded him now, its colors churning and swirling.

Until they tore open, gaping like a knife wound. As it spread wider, it revealed an achingly blue sky and a brilliantly shining sun.

Theo's Levia surged. His own Levia, not the crystal's, not his mother's. He'd felt this before, hadn't he? In his dreams. Nostalgia, triumph. A sense of accomplishment, as if he was finally coming home….

But it vanished under a tide of icy panic. And he was falling through emptiness, with only the ghost of Zenith's touch on his fingertips.