In the beginning, the Veil spoke only one word: Breath.And from that breath came light.From light, fire.From fire, gods.There were seven firstborn.Flame, Judgment, Storm, Silence, Mercy, Hunger… and Hope.
Aurelith was mercy made flesh gentle in her justice, radiant in devotion.Vaelith was judgment made fire righteous, fierce, born to carve truth from shadow.They danced through eternity beside mortals,until mortals began to pray to Aurelith alone.And Vaelith looked at her lightand saw only what he no longer held.So, the sky cracked.And one god chose worship.The other chose war.
Thus began the Season of Ash.The heavens held their breath.Not in sorrow.But in still,horrified anticipation.Where once constellations danced in chorus, now the stars watched in silence.Judgment was coming not from the Conclave…but from him. At the edge of the Skyward Promontory where only the firstborn gods had ever stood Aurelith waited.Her robes shimmered with silver flame.Her hair flickered like prayer.
She was mercy, divine and unbending.
Born from the Veil itself, she had walked beside mortals since their first song.Her love for them wasn't rebellion it was duty.And one day, she knew, when their worship ended…so would she.But today would not be that day.Not if she could help it.The air changed.Footsteps.Vaelith.He emerged from light like a wound unhealed.He had once been justice incarnate fierce, proud, loyal.Now?He was flame without direction.Rage wrapped in memory "You came," she said, voice steady."You summoned me," he replied, already bitter.She turned to face him not as an enemy, but as someone who still hoped to be heard."I saw the Veil again," she said. "It whispered your name.""Then it lies," he snapped."No," she said softly. "It warned me.Lightning flickered in her hand
not to strike, but to hold herself steady.
"You think I chose Earth over you," she continued."But I didn't choose. I was called." "You left me for mortals," he snarled.
"You gave them everything. And I?"
"You wanted all of me," she said. "Even what was never yours to claim."His eyes flared.
He lunged.And the sky ignited.They fought.
Divine against divine.Storm against flame.
Duty against grief.Their battle shattered a temple of stars.It carved names into stone and unmade entire hours.Aurelith fought with grace and restraint her power flowing through the memory of every prayer she had answered.Vaelith fought like a god already mourning the crime he hadn't yet
committed.And when her hand tremblednot from weakness, but from mercy he struck.
The Spear of Memory tore through her chest.She glowed. She screamed only once
not in pain, but in realization:"You're not trying to kill me…" "You want to reset me."
"I want you before Earth broke you," he said.
"Before you forgot who we were."I never forgot," she whispered. "You did."And then he released all of it his judgment, his fury, his heartbreak and erased her name. Her body crumpled, her soul unraveled,and her light split across the Veil.But even as her name burned away, even as Vaelith stood above her with trembling hands something deeper stirred. The Veil pulsed.A breath was taken somewhere between the worlds.And far below, in a timeline not yet born,a child stirred in her mother's dream.So it was, that a goddess fell Not from pride. Not from failure. But from the hand that once worshipped her most.Her name was silenced. Her love erased.Her story buried in broken stars.But the Veil? The Veil remembered. And one day soon,it would speak again.