Chapter 1483: Shekinah’s Soul Flame

It was scarcely larger than the flame of an ordinary candle when it unfurled.

A slender tongue of gold rose into the radiance already filling the chamber, so small that the greater Soul Flames ought to have overwhelmed it. Instead, its color remained distinct among them, pure enough that every surrounding shade of gold seemed dimmer beside it.

A tremor passed through the chamber.

Near the central wicks, the tips of the lesser flames inclined towards the newborn fire, their light stretching inward across the floor. The movement spread through the nearest rows until hundreds and hundreds of Soul Flames bent in the same direction.

Fires that had burned through decades and centuries yielded alongside those of the youngest descendants, each turning towards the tiny golden flame at their centre.

But the flame went out—

The wick lay bare once more, yet the fires around it remained inclined, their slender tongues trembling towards the place where its light had vanished.

Gold still bathed the ancient stone.

The little space above Shekinah’s wick had become empty again, and beneath it, a shudder travelled through the floor.

A second flicker caught upon the tip, black this time.

It rose with the delicate motion of fire, curling into a slender tongue whose darkness remained unbroken beneath the brilliance of thousands of Soul Flames. Light gathered at its edges and bent away, leaving the black flame exquisite and terrible within the radiance surrounding it.

Shadows deepened beneath the central wicks. Along the chamber’s walls, the golden reflections grew subdued, while the small black fire burned with a lustre of its own. The ancient floor gave a low groan.

Through the bowed ranks of Soul Flames, the greater fires began to tremble, their bright outlines wavering as the darkness curled higher.

The black flame vanished as the gold had done. Shekinah’s wick stood empty, and the surrounding fires remained bent towards it. Beside it, Marcus’s restored flame began to quiver, the disturbance passed through its golden tongues until their steady shapes broke into restless ripples.

His fire shook harder.

Reflections scattered across the stone, and concealed inscriptions stirred upon the walls.

Faint runes emerged one after another, extending towards the ceiling while sacred lines glimmered beneath the central wicks. Their light traced the beginnings of an ancient formation before fading, leaving Marcus’s flame trembling amid the dimming script.

Around Shekinah’s unlit wick, a fine strand of white-gold radiance began to curve.

It circled the bare tip, drawing a translucent veil behind it, and folded inward as further strands gathered along its gleaming edge. Black threaded through the light in slender traces. Where the colours met, delicate surfaces formed and overlapped, enclosing the wick within the first folds of a small barrier.

Its colours were those of the Primordial Lotus.

White-gold followed the outer curves while black flowed within, passing beneath the translucent folds in thin, lustrous streams. Petal rested against petal until a closed blossom surrounded the unlit wick, its layered depths still clear enough for the darkness at its heart to be seen.

The barrier remained small.

Every petal that settled into place pressed the surrounding Soul Flames lower, bending their shining tips towards the wicks beneath them. Farther from the centre, the greater fires stretched inward, their radiance streaming towards the little blossom through the ranks of golden flame.

Runes surfaced upon the walls again. This time their light held, spreading from inscription to inscription and climbing towards the vaulted ceiling. Beneath the floor, luminous lines converged upon the chamber’s heart. The lotus-shaped barrier hung within that gathering splendour, its petals enclosing the same bare wick that had remained unlit since Paige and Brielle’s birth.

Marcus’s Soul Flame shuddered violently beside it. Its golden tongues rose and fell against the neighbouring petals, scattering wavering reflections through their white-gold and black folds.

Within the barrier, the wick remained motionless until a third flicker appeared upon its tip.

Gold ascended through the enclosed darkness. Black fire rose with it, winding through the golden heart before curling around its light. The two colours climbed together, their delicate tongues entwining within the translucent petals.

This time, the fire endured.

Black deepened between the coils of gold, lustrous and fathomless within their unsullied brilliance. Wherever the dark tongues reached, the surrounding light bent away; wherever gold passed through them, radiance poured through the petals anew. Each turn revealed another gleaming fold of fire, the two colours remaining distinct even as they burned together upon the same wick.

The Soul Chamber began to shake. Ancient stone trembled beneath the lowered flames, and the inscriptions spread across the walls in a mantle of sacred light. At the centre, Shekinah’s fire grew within its enclosure, filling the translucent blossom until the fine edges of its petals could scarcely be distinguished from the splendour shining through them.

A fracture opened across one petal.

White-gold radiance streamed through the fissure as it branched into the neighboring fold, and slender tongues of black fire curled along the barrier’s inner surface. The blossom trembled. Its overlapping petals drew apart, their delicate contours breaking beneath the gold and black rising at their heart.

The barrier shattered without a sound.

White-gold and black swept across the chamber, passing over the countless Soul Flames until every fire inclined beneath it. The lesser flames bent so low that their shining tips nearly touched their wicks. Around them, the greater fires of the Main Family and the powerful Immediate descendants bowed with the rest, their brilliance streaming towards the centre of the chamber.

The formations blazed to their fullest.

Runes emerged across the walls, ceiling and floor, joining in unbroken lines that flooded every carved recess with light. Through their splendour ran the dark reflections of Shekinah’s fire, and beneath the multitude of bowed flames, the ancient stone continued to tremble.

Marcus’s Soul Flame bent deepest of all.

His golden fire inclined towards the neighboring wick until its trembling tongues nearly touched the entwined flames above it.

Shekinah’s rose beyond their reach, gold and black unfurling together where the barrier had shattered, their dreadful beauty spread across the lowered fires of the Heavenchild bloodline.

When Eira had come to restore Marcus’s flame, she had found the neighboring wick as dark as it had remained since the twins were born.

The Main Family’s long anticipation, the preparations surrounding the Progenitor Plan and their hopes for the Destined Day had all existed while that wick lay unburning. Now its fire endured above the others, and the golden flame of the Male Angel Progenitor bowed beside it.

NINE hours after Paige and Brielle had been summoned before the Lord, intertwined gold and black burned upon Shekinah’s wick.

The Female Angel Progenitor had awakened.

SHEKINAH was upon Hell’s Paradise Island!