The world had shifted Inside Shanane.
Since the pact was spoken, since the chamber's stone floor swallowed her voice and Atheramond vanished like breath in frost, she had not truly returned. Her body still moved, her lips still whispered replies when asked, but her spirit seemed caught in some unseen snare,a place between here and elsewhere.
She stared for hours out the window of the cottage, eyes glazed, as if watching shadows speak secrets on the distant horizon. She no longer ate unless coaxed. She no longer spoke unless needed. Sleep came, but it was shallow, haunted, clinging to the edges of a deeper abyss.
Eoghan watched her from across the room, his chest hollow with helplessness.
She sat by the hearth now, legs curled beneath her, hair unbrushed and tangled. A chill clung to her even near the fire. Her hand rested over her heart as though trying to keep something from escaping.
He knelt beside her slowly, letting the silence settle before his voice broke it.
__Eoghan: "Shanane…" he whispered.
Her eyes flicked toward him, slow and fogged, as if from miles away.
__Eoghan: "I'm still here." he said gently. "But you're not."
She blinked once.
__Eogha': "I won't let it end this way. Not with you lost inside yourself."
He said, reaching out, brushing a lock of hair from her cheek.
Her lips parted faintly, but she didn't speak.
__Eoghan: "I love you."
He confessed, his voice trembling now.
__Eoghan: "I have from the start. I didn't want to name it because it scared me. Loving you meant risking everything. But now… there's nothing left to protect except the truth. And it's you. It's always been you."
Something flickered in her gaze.
__Shanane: "I'm scared." she whispered.
__Eoghan: "So am I."
__Shanane: "I can feel him. Even now. Inside me. Watching. Waiting."
Her voice broke like glass underfoot.
__Eoghan: "He doesn't own you. Not yet."
She looked at him. Her eyes filled, but not just with sorrow. With the fragile, trembling ache of hope.
__Shanane: "I don't know if I'll make it. Even if we find a way… I don't know who I'll be on the other side."
He reached for her hand, threading his fingers through hers.
__Eoghan: "Then let's find out together."
She trembled as she looked at their joined hands, like seeing something sacred. And in that moment, something broke open inside her, a wall, a weight, a silence. Her breath caught in her throat as the first tears fell.
She reached for him, and he came to her like tide to shore.
There were no grand declarations beyond that. No desperation. Just a slow, reverent unfolding.
Their lips met in silence, their hands gentle, their movements cautious, like unwrapping an ancient spell. He held her as if she might shatter, but she didn't. She melted into him, and for the first time in days, she felt real again. Present. Alive.
Their bodies found rhythm not in desire, but in something older. Something deeper. It wasn't passion that guided them but love born of shared agony and impossible choices. As if in this sacred act, they could bind their fractured souls together before the storm came.
Time vanished. Only their breath remained.
She clung to him not in fear, but in knowing that this might be the only moment untouched by Atheramond's shadow. A pause in the nightmare. A place where her name wasn't cursed or marked, but cherished. Safe.
And when it ended, she lay against him, head on his chest, heart calmer than it had been in weeks. He held her as if she were the only thing anchoring him to the world. And perhaps she was.
__Shanane: "I don't want to lose this." she whispered. "Even if we die. I want this to stay."
__Eoghan: "You won't lose it. We'll etch it into whatever comes next."
They stayed like that, wrapped in blankets and silence, while the fire burned low. Outside, the wind moaned through the trees like spirits drawn toward the rising veil. A crimson glow bled along the edges of the distant sky. The moon was nearing.
They had one final chance. And now, they had something worth saving not only from Atheramond… But for themselves.
________________________________________
∆ ☆ ATHERAMOND ☆ ∆
________________________________________
Morning came without color.
The world outside seemed drained of life, the trees motionless, the air too still.
Shanane woke in Eoghan's arms, her cheek resting against his chest. For a time, neither of them moved. It wasn't the rest of peace. They were both too aware now of what still loomed but it was the first night she'd felt tethered to the world again.
Then, just past dawn, someone knocked on the door.
Eoghan was up in an instant, sliding into his tunic, muscles tense like drawn wire. Shanane sat upright, fingers clutching the edge of the blanket. The knock came again, three times, measured.
Eoghan opened the door. There, as if carved from the mountains he hailed from, stood the same silent man who had once led the huntsman down a treacherous path weeks ago, only to vanish without a word. But he was not alone this time.
Beside him stood a woman cloaked in red. Her presence was like fire encased in flesh, her eyes sharp as obsidian and just as ancient.
Shanane stood. She said nothing as they entered, her gaze locked on the woman in red. Something unspoken passed between them. Recognition, perhaps. Or fate
She said nothing at first, only looked at Shanane.
And bowed her head.
The gesture, humble and slow, sent chills through Shanane's spine. This was no charlatan. This was someone who had touched things far older and darker than books or ruins.
__The man: "I told you I would come. Now the time is near."
The man finally said to Eoghan, his voice low like stone grinding under snow.
The woman finally spoke. Her voice was smoke wrapped in velvet.
__The Woman: "You are the key. You bear the mark, and more, his hunger has already brushed your soul. But we have one chance to sever it. One."
She drew a dagger from beneath her cloak.
It was unlike anything they had ever seen. Its blade was not metal but a dark, rippling substance that shifted in the light, obsidian soaked in ash, etched with runes that seemed to twist and pulse when stared at too long. The hilt was bone, bound in leather that stank faintly of sulfur.
__The Woman: "This was forged beneath three eclipses by witches who defied the circle of death and dared speak with the First Ones. It has tasted demons blood before… and it will again."
Eoghan narrowed his eyes.
__Eoghan: "You mean to kill Atheramond with that?"
The woman turned toward Shanane.
__The Woman: "No. She will."
__Shanane: "Me?" Her throat's tighten
__The Woman: "You were chosen by him. Bound by the pact. Only you can unbind it in full. During the ritual, when he is drawn into the world again, we will weaken him, bind his essence in place, just for moments. But they will be fleeting. Even weakened, he will be able to destroy everything around him."
The man beside her stepped forward, unfurling a scroll of dark vellum. The ink gleamed blood red.
__The man: "The spell is forbidden. It calls upon old laws, ones that few still dare speak. But it can disrupt his form long enough for the dagger to pierce the veil between body and essence."
The woman handed Shanane the blade.
__The Woman: "You must strike him in the heart and speak this incantation exactly. No hesitation. No fear."
Shanane stared at the weapon. It pulsed in her palm, cold and eager.
__Shanane: "And if I fail?" she asked quietly.
The woman's eyes were hard.
__The woman: "Then he will devour us all. Not only in body. He will tear your soul apart, strand you across every plane, feeding on your essence until even death will refuse you."
She turned away, as if already mourning the outcome.
__The Woman: "There are demons and then there are lords of the abyss. Atheramond is among the oldest. Born of the same primal breath that forged the void. Even his name is forbidden among certain circles. He is not merely powerful. He is enduring. Feared."
The man nodded and added:
__The man: "Even among his kind, he walks alone. The others know better than to speak against him. He is the blade in the dark, the whisper that follows every blood pact. He has never been bested."
A long silence followed. Shanane tightened her grip on the dagger. Her voice was steady when she spoke.
__Shanane: "Then I will be the first."
Eoghan moved beside her, pride and worry etched into every line of his face.
__Eoghan: "We'll be there. Whatever happens, I'm with you."
The woman's gaze softened, barely.
__The Woman: "Do not let your love weaken your resolve. When the moment comes… you will be alone before him."
__Shanane: "I already am."
The moon began to rise, bloated, red, ancient. And somewhere beyond the world of flesh, Atheramond stirred.