The Silent Rift had no directions.
Just the taste of absence and my coat floating like it forgot gravity was a thing.
Nyxaris hovered behind me: tall, black, white eyes.
Emotionless.
Protective.
Probably judging.
Joshua's warmth cut through the void like someone shouting in a library. Too loud. Too alive. My jaw tightened.
A memory surfaced.
I didn't ask it to.
A blood-red moon. A woman of dying light. A man asleep like he'd given up on waking.
She touched him. Reality cracked. That's it. No names.
Just vibes and trauma.
I was born after.
White hair. Pale eyes. Crescent mark.
Mother's arms, shaking.
Father already gone.
Nyxaris appeared from the dark like: "yeah, this is my life now."
---
Nine years old: I learned hunger and crime are best friends.
Ten to fourteen: Endless Tower.
Floor 3: echo wolves.
Me: "no."
Wolves: suddenly extinct.
Floor 14: guilt giant.
Me: "stand still."
It didn't. Mistake.
Floor endless: I learned stairs are a bigger enemy than gods.
Nyxaris held the pieces I pretended I didn't drop.
---
Fifteen.
Astral titan tried to introduce itself by destroying a planet.
Titan: roar
Nyro: step forward
Nyxaris: taller shadow
Outcome:
Astral titan — fall
Nyro — crush
Umbral Core — swallow
Planet — gone
My appetite — still fine
Moonfreeze held space like it owed me rent.
Tidebind stitched orbit like sewing buttons.
Everyone lived. Except the planet. That's on me.
---
Times Square. Rift storms.
Neon screaming. People screaming.
Everything screaming except me.
Astrid fought like she was speedrunning therapy.
She blocked. I cut.
No words. Just noise.
Boss: shadow heart
Nyro: quiet violence
Nyxaris: ten afterimages like a glitch in reality
Victory: silence
Astrid dropped to a knee, bleeding and alive.
"You need to take a break," she said.
I stared.
Honesty felt dangerous.
"Breaks are… a myth," I answered.
She blinked. "No, that's— that's not— that's not a thing."
I nodded like a scholar.
"A break is when the universe stops. The universe hasn't stopped. So neither do I."
She stared like I kicked her brain.
"…Do you sleep?"
"I close my eyes sometimes and the darkness looks back. So, technically."
"…That's not sleep, Nyro."
Nyxaris leaned over her shoulder slowly.
She screamed.
I took that as agreement.
---
Sixteen.
Five false gods tried to break me.
False God of Shame: "Face your failures."
Me: "No."
Door opens.
False God of Fear: "Scream."
Me: "I don't do that."
It screamed instead.
False God of Time: "Bow."
Time: freezes itself in confusion.
Nyro: leaves.
Nyxaris won a staring contest against a cosmic serpent.
It cried.
---
Seventeen.
Artemis found me.
Strong presence. Zero maternal energy.
More like: "you breathe wrong; fix it."
Training in Silvergrove. Pleiades watching. Judging.
I tried running on tree branches.
Fell three times.
Nyxaris caught me twice.
The ground caught me once.
The ground was less gentle.
---
Olympus
Gods sitting on chairs worth more than some universes.
They wanted a test.
Four Celestial Phantoms:
Phantom A: comet slash
Nyro: Moonfreeze
A stops. Explodes.
Hera drops her wine.
Phantom B: tidal spear
Voidstep.
B splits.
Poseidon quietly picks a new favorite child.
Phantom C: star beam
Gravity Flow. Lunarcage.
C implodes.
Athena adjusts glasses that don't exist.
Phantom D: runs
Nyxaris: Pulse Divide
D ceases to be a concept.
The arena cracked.
Silence.
Zeus stared like he wanted to smite me but wasn't sure I'd stay dead.
"Moonborne," he said. "Miracle and calamity."
I shrugged. "Depends on the weather."
Artemis sighed the sigh of a woman who regrets picking up strays.
"Just give him the quest," she muttered.
I think she meant to whisper.
---
Return
The Rift spit me out.
Gravity welcomed me with a punch.
Stone. Palace. Guards.
"Who are you, stranger?"
I stood, dust falling off my coat like it was trying to be dramatic for me.
"I'm Nyro."
A pause.
Joshua's warmth still echoing behind the Rift.
"…Do you need medical attention?" the guard asked.
I blinked. "Emotionally or physically?"
He dropped his spear.
Fair.
I walked past.
"I'm the Moonborne," I added.
Not a title.
Just something like a fact.
Or a problem.
Nyxaris followed.
Joshua's light lingered.
The world waited.
I kept walking.
Breaks are a myth.