Miles' POV

~50 Years Ago

Not a week after I told The Darkness about my vision, had she ended her relationship with The Radiance. If the two of them together were supposed to cause such suffering in nearly every timeline, she saw no recourse other than making sure they were never together again. It was a decision that hurt the both of them immeasurably, but The Darkness had made it for the sake of the humans she loved so much.

The Radiance… was less okay with this course of action. She tried day in and day out to win her wife back. She tried everything she could think of to eradicate the lines of fate that would lead the two of them to ruin. It was clear that she was unraveling. After all, how is a Goddess of Love supposed to function without love? She lost her partner, her best friend, her entire identity, and her understanding of what she was supposed to do in this world… then, she lost something else.

Around a year after the prophecy that had torn them asunder, an entire year of Eleonora never so much as looking me in the eyes, she invited me to a mountain overlooking a big city.

I arrive on time for our meeting, and Eleonora is already here, looking over at the city and smiling softly. “Thank you for coming, Miles. Today is an incredibly special day, and I wouldn’t want you to miss this.”

“Elly, I am so–”

The tall woman in gleaming armor turns to me with a gentle smile on her lips. “There’s no need to apologize, friend. You did what you believed was right. I could never fault you for trying to prevent such suffering.” The expression she wears, it is meant to comfort me, but there is something unnatural behind her gaze… something, awful.

Even so, I feel that I owe her a great debt, and want to see whatever she wishes to show me. “So… what is so special about today, Elly?” She flinches at her nickname and chuckles wryly.

“Miles… you are as old as I am, one of the old guard who has been around since the beginning, yes?” I nod and she continues. “Then, you remember what happened to Maxamillion?”

The former God of War, nearly driven to madness by the ceaseless bloodshed unleashed by mankind. Not even he could keep up with the carnage, and in the absence of a will to propagate conflict… he changed. His old domain became unoccupied and he shifted into a paragon of peace. He was still Maxamillion… but he was reborn. Though he described the sensation as–

“You are falling… aren’t you?” I ask, brow furrowed with concern. “Elly, we can figure something out, we can–”

She waves away my panic and laughs in her regular sing-song tone. “There’s no stopping it, I can feel it growing. A need, a desire to just let go and be free of the burden I can no longer bear. Before, my domain was like air, breathing. Now I’m constantly drowning in a sea I no longer understand.”

“I am so sorry.”

Her expression darkens. “I already said, there’s no reason to apologize. In fact, I’m here to give you a gift. The same freedom you’ve given me.” The confusion must be evident on my face as she shrugs and grins with twisted knowledge. “You ruined my life, because you believed that my love and I being together would beget calamity… well, for a moment, I want you to see the world as I see it.”

Eleonora snaps her fingers and I see beautiful red lines start arcing across the sky in every direction. At first, my entire sight is consumed by a tangle of connections, across boundless distance and stretching in every which direction. Soon, I began to filter out most of the noise, able to focus on individuals or just areas to examine. “It is… beautiful.”

“I used to think so too… look.” Eleonora gestures at the red line extending from her own chest. “Guess who this leads to?” The Goddess caresses her line fondly. “The woman who won’t even speak to me anymore… We are connected by love, eternal… yet she denies us both the sweet escape.”

Eleonora walks up to me and slings an arm around my shoulder. Gently, yet forcefully, she guides me to the cliff. “Look at that city… look at all of the love your precious humans will enjoy.” She whistles dreamily into my ear. “I used to relish bringing people together, seeing the many lines I crafted over the years in the hopes that everyone would get to be as happy and complete as I was. Now these are all just a mocking reminder of life’s greatest lie.” She holds her hand in front of us, the pad of her thumb resting on her middle finger, ready to snap. “Would you like to count us down, or should I?”

My blood runs cold as I try to look at her once more before her other hand wrenches my head back to look at the city. “Countdown to what?”

The woman next to me sighs. “You’re right… such a joyous occasion doesn’t require such a grandiose gesture like a countdown.”

The Radiance snaps her fingers and every single line immediately bursts into flames. I use the vision I’ve been granted and see that the effect is not just limited to the city, but to every single line visible around us, including her own. The fire grows in intensity as many of the lines vanish, blowing away like ash in the breeze. Eleonora lets go of me and falls to her knees cackling loudly, an absolute torrent of tears running down her face as she witnesses what she has done. Her laughter never stalls, from the very beginning of the fire, until only a few lines remain, grey like spent charcoal but somehow holding firm. “What… What have you done?” The question is rhetorical… her actions are clear as day… she severed every connection. Every line. Every love. In an instant.

She looks at me coldly. “You take so much pride in your influence, in your power. You dared to take from me the thing that was most precious, all the while patting yourself on the back like you were some grand savior… Well, guess what? The calamity is here now… and you caused it.” A wicked grin flashes across her face as she snaps her fingers again. New red strands, different from before, begin winding across the horizon and connecting new people. “Welcome to the new world, Miles.”

“What are those?”

“Oh, I’m glad you asked,” she says, still sporting her wicked grin. “The new red lines, the new force that will draw people towards one another… is my new domain. These lines represent passion with no substance, a spark destined to fizzle, hearts that are toxic to one another, and groupings that will bring only pain. I will unite these people, twist their relationships enough to keep them happy for a time… and when every fading remnant of my old world has been destroyed, I will let go, and allow all of the miserable partners I’ve united to tear one another apart. Everyone alive will learn to hate the idea of love. Everyone yet to be born, will only ever know it as a concept to be reviled and feared. People will accept solitude and the fact that no true love exists in this world… and all will understand what I have learned to embrace. I am Eleonora, The Radiance, Goddess of Heartbreak… and this will be a world without love.”

***

Selene’s POV

~Present Day

“Holy fucking shit,” I say, barely processing what I’ve just heard.

“Blasphemy aside, I understand your reaction.” Miles, leans against their blackboard, looking at me with incredulity. “So you can understand why I feel the need to try and fix the world I have broken, yes?”

I nod slightly before shaking my head violently. “What? No! That’s not your fault! This all keeps coming down to that raving psychopath Eleonora! Fucking, everything bad leads back to her. She’s the bad guy here, not you.”

The God sighs and shakes their head. “Were it that simple… you do remember, I mentioned doing reconnaissance as well?” Thinking back to earlier, I nod. “Well, there’s another, much more sinister force at work here. One that I don’t quite understand and who seems able to operate outside the scope of my vision. Luckily, or perhaps I should say, conveniently, he has recently attached himself to your friend, Melanie.”

Dread creeps up on me slowly. “Who are you talking about?”


***


Miles' POV


~50 Years Ago


Once the spectacle is over, and she has properly taken in my confused and pained expression. Eleonora leaves me alone to stare at the desecrated world she has created. I feel… empty. Somehow, I have tried my best to keep the world on the right path and ended up breaking a friend and stomping out love. I have got to be the worst, piss-poor excuse for a God ever.

Laughter snaps me out of my trance as I hear someone walking up behind me. “Oh, that could not have gone better.” Forcing myself to look at the newcomer, I see someone I do not at all recognize. He is an older gentleman with greying hair. He is wearing shorts and an oversized collared shirt with a floral print. “Honestly, Miles, I can’t thank you enough for helping a brother out.”

“Helping?” I ask, confused. “I do not… I do not know who you are.” It is the truth. I can see every event and every action taken by humans and Gods alike from this moment all the way to the creation of the universe… but I cannot find him. “How did I help you?”

The man smiles from ear to ear and pats my shoulder. “That vision I gave you… the incredibly convincing one, with the happy couple stomping on humanity as a tyrannical force… I knew that you’d tell them about it!” He chuckles as he spins around with the gravitas of a much younger individual. “I knew that Lianna wouldn’t be able to stomach potentially hurting others, I knew Eleonora would lose her mind in solitude… and I knew that she would fall.”

There is something strange about the man… wrong… something that makes me, an immortal, fear him. “Who are you?”

The man rolls his eyes. “Come on now, if I just give you the answer, it’s no fun! Besides, I don’t want to ruin the ending, I know you’re very big on guessing the future.” The man sits on the grass of the hill and seems to take a breath, enjoying a gentle breeze. “I’m a good sport though, so I’ll give you a hint. I’m just a bit younger than you, and I’ve always been around, in the corners and cracks that people try to ignore… try to get rid of… but I will never cease to be. Huh, that sounded a lot more riddle-y than I meant to… point is, I’m tired of playing life as a spectator sport, and I’m ready to make my own moves. The name is Dorian,” The man offers me his hand to shake. “Pleasure to meet you.”


***


Selene’s POV


~Present Day


“We need to tell Mel!” I pull out my phone, but Gabe snatches it from my hand. “What are you doing!?”

“Stop it!” Miles yells at me. “Think clearly about this. Dorian does not typically associate with humans, yet recently has had contact with both of your friends… he has even taken a keen interest in your Melanie. If he needs her, she is as protected from him as possible. I would worry more about the rest of the world at this point, as sacrificing literally the rest of humanity doesn’t seem to be out of the question for him. If we tip off your friend and she ignores him, that may be the greater danger for her. At least for now.”

“I don’t like this,” I complain, still not convinced of this course of action.

“Neither do I,” chimes a familiar voice from the doorway. Professor Garcia is standing, arms folded over her chest as she stares down the three of us in the room. “At first I thought I walked into some Dungeons and Dragons bullshit, but if this has something to do with my daughter, I need you all to explain this to me. Now.”

Shit… everything keeps getting more and more complicated. Getting another uninvolved party tangled up in this mess is the absolute last thing we need.

As I’m thinking this, my vision blurs and I wretch. I catch myself on a nearby desk before I fall all the way to the ground as my chest burns unnaturally, like a fire igniting from within. “Fuck!” I yell, as I clutch the center of my sternum and writhe in agony. From within me, a red line erupts and blazes a trail beyond my sight. The pain fades, and I’m left with even more questions to further muddy the goddamn waters of today. Chief among them being, “What the fuck is this!?”