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Prologue
Before Time
The Eternal Equinox suffered from a crippling loneliness that eventually drove her to desperation.
She had spent ages looking over the barren and lifeless world, pondering her purpose.
Why was she here? She couldn't have been meant to only exist in between the planes of existence. Surely, there had to be more out there for her.
Eventually, she fell victim to that suffocating feeling of isolation and began to destroy herself. The Equinox was desperate for purpose, for meaning, and so she cleaved a part of her soul off, pushing it through the veil into the physical plane.
It was a part of herself that she feared, the cold and unforgiving darkness that lived within her. But what became of that part was surprising. That piece of her became a man. She whispered through the veil that he should be called Himureal.
Himureal was cold, unforgiving, and dark, just like the fragment of herself from which he grew. But the longer he spent on the physical plane, the more the Equinox believed he could be more than just cold. She gifted him the powers of Winter, the frosty time period the physical plane fell into that she loved. Itwas white and fresh, cold and unyielding, just like Himureal.
She watched the man she'd come to consider her child practicing his powers. She listened to him speak to himself, aching to respond just once to him.
Her body longed to hold him.
She watched Himureal struggle with being alone, just as the Eternal Equinox had. Eventually, she came to the conclusion that leaving him there alone would be an unimaginable cruelty.
And so the Equinox splintered another piece of herself and passed it through the veil. The piece of her grew into a woman, and the Equinox whispered the name Amaryn.
Amaryn was the part of her that felt like growth. It was a part that the Equinox was hesitant to let go of, the ability to change and revive and control. But she did, and Amaryn grew into all of those things. But despite being all of those wonderful things, Amaryn developed a cruel streak. Hoping to counteract that, the Equinox gave her the powers of Spring, the bright, fresh, and gentle season on the physical plane that brought forth growth and rebirth.
Eventually, the Equinox, half of herself divided away, realized that she was doing Amaryn and Himureal a disservice. They deserved more. She wanted to gift her children with another companion, someone else, to live this journey with them.
With great effort, she severed another piece of herself and gifted it to the world, a man she deemed Solarius. This piece of her was the part that wanted to protect, shelter, and guide her children. Solarius was every bit of those things, but the longerhe spent around Himureal and Amaryn, the more his temper flared. The Eternal Equinox feared that temper, so she embued the powers of Summer within him, the warm and vibrant season that could calm a chill and illuminate the darkest of nights.
The Equinox loved to watch her children, but she had begun to feel empty. Almost every piece of herself was gone, sacrificed for her progeny. She was starting to think that it was no longer necessary for her to take up her mantel of supervising the realm. Why would she need to, when three of her four pieces were there, able to be present on that plane, taking care of the world she watched over for so long?
With a bittersweet mixture of sadness and pride, the Eternal Equinox pulled the final piece from her soul and released it into the world. That piece she held onto was a closure, a sign of letting go. It was a part of her that found beauty in the broken, hope in the forgotten, and prosperity in death.
She whispered the name Avidor and watched him grow.
He was everything she hoped he would be, but there was the worrying greed that he had begun to express. With the hope of guiding him away from that rapacity, she blessed him with the magic of Autumn, the beautiful time when the world gave up, changed, and prepared itself for cleansing and growth.
With those pieces of her soul out in the world, able to sustain it exactly as it needed to be, the Eternal Equinox felt her body begin to fade.
She had lived an incredibly long time, longer than even she could begin to fathom. What is the point of continuing onwhen every bit of her that was worthy had been given away to her children?
But she was not bitter nor broken at the state of things.
No, she had never felt as at peace as when she looked at her children.
They may have been four parts of a whole, but they had grown individually into exactly what the world needed. What she thought she could never be for it.
Before her body faded and left that place between planes, she whispered one last thing through the veil for her children to hear.
"If ever you may need me, simply join together, and I will find you again."
Chapter 1
Viola
Ihave made a lot of stupid decisions in my life, but none as calculated as this one.
I knew. I knew that going to speak with Himureal alone was a bad idea and was not going to end well for me, and yet I still did it.
