Chapter 73: The Scream Beneath The Red Moon

[Somewhere in Kael’s Dream—Beneath the Red Moon]

Kael opened his eyes with a sharp breath, his vision blurred as though he had just been dragged out of a deep and suffocating sleep after the womb formation.

For several moments, he could do nothing but stare upward at the unfamiliar sky above him. There were no stars scattered across the heavens, no silver clouds drifting through the night, and no pale moonlight illuminating the world he knew.

Instead, an enormous crimson moon dominated the sky, hanging so low and vast that it seemed close enough to touch. Its surface was marked by dark shadows, and its blood-red light poured over the land like the glow of an ancient celestial omen.

Kael frowned as he tried to move, only to groan when a dull ache suddenly travelled through his body. Slowly, he pushed himself upright and looked around.

His breath caught as he realized he was sitting in sand.

Not the golden desert sands of Qashmar, but something far darker. Black sand stretched endlessly in every direction, absorbing the red moonlight until the entire desert looked like an ocean of obsidian.

There were no trees, no ruins, no distant mountains, and not even a single torch burning upon the horizon. The land was completely barren, as though the gods themselves had abandoned it long ago.

Kael looked down at himself and realized he was barefoot and wearing a single untied robe, revealing his naked body.

His brows furrowed as he slowly rose to his feet, allowing the cold sand to slip between his legs, but before he could stand properly.

Then—

THROBBBB!

A sudden pain struck his lower abdomen.

"Ughhh..."

Kael immediately pressed his hand against the place where the pain had erupted and bent forward slightly. His breathing became uneven as another dull throb followed, at his abdomen.

"It still hurts..."

He remained there for a moment, as he remembered the pain during the womb formation.

"If this is the pain during the womb formation, I wonder what will happen when I bear his child...ughh..."

He groaned in pain and looked around the strange desert again as his voice sounded strangely small against the endless landscape.

"But where am I? I was in my chamber...so how did I end up here?"

There was no answer, only silence.

Kael began walking as his bare feet sank slightly into the black sand with every step as he tied his robe. He glanced repeatedly toward the horizon, searching for anything that might tell him where he was, but there was nothing.

The farther he walked, the more the desert seemed to stretch before him, and something about this place disturbed him; he couldn’t explain it.

There was no visible threat, no creature waiting in the darkness, no enemy standing before him with a weapon, yet every instinct he possessed told him that he should not be here.

The silence was wrong.

It wasn’t the peaceful silence of an empty desert. It was the silence of something holding its breath. Kael slowed as he looked over his shoulder, but nothing. He turned forward again.

Then—

FWWOOOOSSSHHHH!

A violent gust of wind suddenly swept across the desert.

Kael spun around; the black sand rose from the ground and whipped through the air around him, stinging his skin. He raised his arm to shield his face as his hair was thrown across his eyes.

For one brief moment, he thought he saw something standing behind him, a figure, tall and motionless watching him.

Kael lowered his arm, and the wind stopped. The sand fell and there was nothing there.

His heartbeat quickened.

"Who’s there?"

His voice disappeared into the darkness, but no answer came.

Kael stared at the place where he thought he had seen the figure. His hand instinctively moved toward his abdomen, holding his pain.

Then something strange happened; his heart began to beat harder, not because of fear but because of recognition.

Kael didn’t understand it.

He had never been to this place, yet every step he took forward produced an ache inside his chest that grew stronger and stronger. It felt as though something was drawing him deeper into the desert, something that his mind could not recognize but his soul somehow remembered.

He walked slowly through the black sand, and the feeling intensified. Why did he feel as though he were approaching something he had spent an entire lifetime searching for?

His hand moved unconsciously to his chest; the ache inside him was becoming unbearable now. It felt like grief. A grief so old that it had somehow survived the passage of centuries and found its way into his heart.

Kael stopped, then he heard it; at first, it was so faint that he thought it was merely the wind.

A sound, a broken breath as he turned his head. A faint sob echoed somewhere beyond the dunes.

Kael’s expression changed. "Is someone there?"

Nothing, and yet he took a cautious step toward the sound, the black sand shifted beneath his feet and for several seconds, there was nothing.

And then—

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The scream ripped through the desert.

Kael’s entire body went rigid as his heart seemed to stop before suddenly pounding against his ribs with such force that it hurt.

The scream had been filled with agony. It wasn’t simply the cry of someone frightened.

It was the scream of someone who had suffered something unbearable, someone who had lost something precious and was being forced to watch it disappear.

Kael instinctively stepped backward as his voice caught, "What...what was that?"

The echo of the scream travelled across the desert and slowly faded beneath the enormous red moon.

Kael remained standing where he was, unable to move.

His breathing had become shallow, and his heart was beating so violently that he could hear it inside his ears.

There was something about that scream that disturbed him more deeply than fear ever could. It had sounded familiar in a way that made his entire body react before his mind could understand why.

His abdomen throbbed again, and yet the scream had begun pulling at him with such intensity that standing still felt almost impossible.

So Kael walked; his bare feet sank into the cold black sand as he moved farther into the desert. The crimson moonlight stretched his shadow across the ground, making it appear unnaturally long behind him.

The landscape never changed, the same black dunes, the same crimson sky, and the same suffocating silence.

Then, just as Kael began to wonder whether he was walking in circles, he heard something.

"Beloved..."

Kael stopped as his eyes widened.

The voice came again.

"Please... wake up."

His blood ran cold; he knew that voice, there was no mistaking it.

"L...Lytharion?"

Kael whispered the name as his heart lurched. Kael didn’t think; he ran.

The black sand scattered beneath his feet as he rushed toward the voice. His abdomen protested with every movement, but he ignored the pain. The strange uneasiness inside him had transformed into something far worse now, an overwhelming need to reach whoever was speaking.

"Lytharion!"

He called out, and the red moon seemed to follow him across the heavens, bathing the desert in its unnatural light.

Then he saw something ahead; at first, it appeared to be nothing more than a dark shape against the sand but as Kael approached, the shape became clearer.

He slowed as his breath caught and his eyes widened as he saw his own husband was kneeling in the black sand, his long dark hair dishevelled and falling around his face. His robes were torn and stained with blood, and his usually composed features were completely broken by grief under the red moonlight.

But it was not Lytharion’s appearance that horrified Kael.

It was what he was holding; a woman lay motionless in his arms.

Her body was limp against his chest, her long hair spilling across his arm and into the black sand. Blood stained her clothing, and one of Lytharion’s hands was pressed desperately against her back as though he could somehow force life back into her body simply by holding her tightly enough.

Lytharion’s shoulders shook as he was crying. Kael had never seen him cry; the deity whom gods feared and mortals worshipped sat beneath the red moon with tears running freely down his face.

"Please...please, wake up, beloved." He pulled the woman closer against his chest as his fingers trembled as they moved through her hair. "Do not punish me with this. Please...I am begging you."

Kael stood frozen; something inside his chest twisted violently. He didn’t understand what he was seeing and didn’t understand why seeing Lytharion in such agony hurt him more than the scream itself.

"L...Lytharion?"

The broken god suddenly stopped as his sob died in his throat.

Slowly, he lifted his head; his face was wet with tears. His hair hung messily around his shoulders, and his golden eyes were red-rimmed from crying, but when those eyes found Kael everything changed.

Lytharion stared at him as though he were looking at a dead man who had suddenly returned from the grave.

His lips parted; for several seconds, he couldn’t speak, then he whispered,

"Beloved..."

Kael’s heart hammered as he took one step forward.

"Lytharion, what—"

His words stopped; the woman in Lytharion’s arms shifted slightly in the red moonlight. Kael stared at her; something about her was terribly familiar.

The shape of her face, the dark hair, and the delicate curve of her hand. Kael’s stomach twisted; he couldn’t see her face clearly, yet something inside him screamed that he knew her.

Lytharion continued staring at Kael, then, with a trembling breath, he whispered, "You’re alive."

Lytharion slowly rose; he was still holding the woman in his arms as his tears continued falling.

"You’re alive...you came back."

Kael stepped toward him. "Lytharion, what are you talking about?"

The Shadow King looked at him with such desperate relief that Kael felt something inside his chest ache, and then Kael felt something touch his hand, but then a hand had wrapped itself around his fingers.

Kael slowly turned; his blood ran cold. Lytharion was standing behind him.

Another Lytharion.

The same black hair, the same golden eyes, and the same ancient face, but this Lytharion looked different.

And his eyes were filled with terror. Kael stared at him.

"Lytharion...?"

The second Lytharion didn’t answer; he suddenly seized Kael’s hand and pulled him backward and wrapped both arms around him and held him tightly against his chest.

"Wake up."

Kael froze, the voice came directly beside his ear.

"Wake up, beloved."

"Lytharion—"

"Wake up!"

The desperation in his voice made Kael’s blood run cold. Kael struggled against his hold, and the Shadow King’s arms tightened around him.

"Wake up before it finds you."

The Lytharion behind him pressed his face against Kael’s hair as his voice had become little more than a terrified whisper.

"Wake up before it devours you."