Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
Eythos had an identical twin—Kolis. One brother was fated to represent life, and the other death. Eythos was the Primal of Life, and Kolis was the Primal of Death. They ruled together for eons as they were meant to. Until…Kolis fell in love. Or, more accurately, he became obsessed.
But things began even before that. It all started long before Lasania was even a kingdom in the mortal realm. It’s unknown if the relationship between the brothers was always strained, or if there was peace between them at one time. Regardless, they were always competitive. And there was also an issue of jealousy.
The Primal God of Life was worshipped and loved by gods and mortals alike, and Eythos was a fair King, kind and generous. He was fascinated with all life, especially the mortals. Even when he became the Primal God of Death—which I’ll get to in a minute—he was awed by everything mortals could accomplish in what even gods would consider an incredibly short time. He interacted with them, as many Primals did at the time.
Kolis, on the other hand, was respected but feared and never really welcomed as a necessary step in life, a doorway to the next stage. When Kolis entered the mortal realm, those who saw him cowered and refused to look him in the eye.
On one trip, Kolis saw a beautiful young woman picking flowers for her sister’s wedding. This woman was named Sotoria. Kolis watched her, and it was love at first sight. He was utterly besotted with her and stepped out of the trees to speak with the beauty. Back then, mortals knew what the Primal God of Death looked like since paintings and sculptures captured his features, just like his brother’s, the Primal God of Life. Sotoria knew who Kolis was when he approached her and ran away in fear, plummeting to her death from the Cliffs of Sorrow.
Kolis begged Eythos to restore Sotoria’s life, an act Eythos could do and had done in the past as the Primal God of Life, but he had rules that governed when he granted life. One of those guidelines was that he would not take a soul from the Vale. Yes, Sotoria had died young and far too soon, but she had accepted her death. Her soul arrived in the Shadowlands, passed through the Pillars, and entered the Vale within minutes of her death. And Eythos would not pull a soul from the Vale. It was wrong and forbidden to both him and Kolis.
Eythos tried to remind his brother of that. When that failed, he attempted to get Kolis to understand that it wasn’t fair to grant life to one, only to refuse another of equal worth. But that was also one of Eythos’s flaws. He believed he could decide if a person was worthy or not. And maybe as the Primal God of Life, he could… But still.
Maybe it was hubris, but Eythos didn’t realize his power could be turned on him—especially not by his brother. If he hadn’t used his gift on the mortals, then perhaps Kolis wouldn’t have expected him to do it with Sotoria. But Eythos’s refusal to do as his twin asked with the woman he believed he loved started everything—hundreds of years of pain and suffering for many innocents. Eons of Eythos regretting what he chose and chose not to do.
Nothing happened at first, and Eythos believed Kolis had accepted his decision to maintain the balance. Eythos even met his Consort, Mycella, during that time, and life was normal. Good, in fact. But, in reality, a clock was counting down.
Kolis spent the next several decades attempting to bring Sotoria back to life, though he couldn’t visit her in the Vale, at least not without risking the destruction of her soul. After years of searching, he realized there was only one way to accomplish what he desired. Only a Primal with the power over life could restore Sotoria’s. So, he found a way to become that.
He was successful in trading places and destinies with his twin, though nobody but the brothers know exactly how he accomplished it. We only know it required the Star diamond and some powerful magic. Regardless of how it happened, the act was catastrophic. It killed hundreds of gods who served both and weakened many Primals—even killing a few and forcing the next gods in line to rise from godhood to Primal power. Many draken were also killed, and the mortal realm experienced earthquakes and tsunamis as Kolis’s actions offset the balance. Many places were leveled, and pieces of land just broke off, some forming islands while others simply sank.
Eythos knew immediately why his brother had done it. He’d warned Kolis not to bring her back, stating she was at peace in the next stage of her life, and that it had been too long. He warned that if he were able to do what he planned, Sotoria would not return as she was. It would be an unnatural act and would upset the very unsteady balance of life and death.