Lady Ariana stood. She was not tall, but when she rose, the air in the garden shifted. The wind flared. The boy cooed softly in her arms.
"He is my son," she said. "Of the blood of Aren and Argon. He will sit the chair of Ortenia one day, and protect the realm his forefathers built. He will not be given."
"And when that day comes, he will be alone," The priest sighed, and in that breath was the sound of chains falling. "Because you broke your oath. You made a promise, and no man—or woman—may break a vow sworn before a god."
That was when Lady Ariana laughed.
It was not a laugh fit for court. It was wild and weary and touched with madness. Even Gabriel, though he could not yet speak, recognized the sound for what it was: a warning. He knew this man meant to take him, and that his mother would not allow it.
Ariana's voice cut through the garden like the edge of a falling sword.
"You speak of gods, but what god bargains for the flesh of babes?" Ariana's voice cracked like a whip. "That is the stuff of demons."
"Blasphemer!" he howled. "You mock the herald of Arivan! Do you not remember? Without His grace, your son would be dust in the earth, a stillborn disappointment. And now you deny Him? Arivan is the seedgiver. The architect of futures. The child is his vessel."
He spoke too boldly. Too freely.
"You presume too much," Said Lady Ariana, "to speak so boldly in these halls." "It seems to me like you don't know your place, priest." He forgot he stood before the Lady of Ortenia, Jewel of the West, wife to Sued Ozar Aren—and he, the priest, was nothing but a shadow of old words.
The priest choked.
One moment, he stood calmly. Next, he clawed at his throat, lifted by unseen hands, his feet kicking above the marble floor, robes flailing like wings of a dying bird.
A purple light began to glow at his chest, and with a burst, it shattered whatever spell had seized him.
He landed hard and gasped for air. Face twisted in fury. The priest's skin shimmered with unnatural hues, his fingers twitching in odd angles.
Gabriel trembled. The world had become sharp and strange.
Ariana stepped forward. "You dare insult my House with demon's breath?" Ariana's eyes were twin storms. "You come cloaked in godhood but stink of sulfur. Begone you and your filth from the void."
With a flick of her wrist, the priest became weightless again—then a thunderbolt of force launched him across the gardens. He crashed through flowers, across the pond, and against the castle wall. He hit the castle wall with a boom that silenced the birds. The maids screamed. The guards surged forward. Blades unsheathed.
"You tried to prey upon our desperation," she hissed. "But you shall not have him."
Knights appeared from thin air, circling the child. While the priest rose from the rubble. But now… he changed.
Bones lengthened. Flesh peeled. Something within him twisted outward. The man who had entered was no more. What remained was horned and scaled and grinning with a thousand small teeth. Eyes glowed. His breath reeked of ancient crypts and lies told before time began.
"The pact is sealed!" it roared in a voice that dripped like oil. "He is ours!"
Knights moved to form a wall between Lady Ariana and the beast, but even steel could not mask the creeping dread that settled like frost.
"No," said Lady Ariana.
"Wench! What have you done?" The creature cried.
She stepped forward, unshaken.
"He is shielded by the light of Arion, star-born and ever-burning. Herald of the Endless Sky. You and your master shall never have him."
"You called on Him?" The priest-beast shrieked in anger. "You fool. You cursed your line for generations."
The abomination reeled. And then the skies answered.
Clouds bled into one another. Light fled. The sun itself seemed to turn its face. From above, something vast and formless took shape. It had no eyes, no name, no limit. Men who looked upon it dropped dead before they could scream.
Gabriel stared at the thing above the world. He prayed, though he knew no prayers. He shivered, though he was wrapped in warmth. And just when fear threatened to break him—
His father appeared.
No sigils announced him. No drums heralded his step.
Lord Sued walked into the storm with swordless hands and tired eyes. He looked not at the sky, nor at the demon-thing. He looked only at his wife and the child she carried.
Then he turned, pointed at the beast, and spoke.
"I, Sued Ozar Aren," he said, "cast you and your false god into the eternal darkness."
And all was still.
The clouds retreated.
The beast screamed—and vanished.
Where once there had been power, only silence remained.
And a shattered wall, broken roses, and a baby who would one day be called many things.
But for now, he was just Gabriel or maybe Arion.