Vinitari—I'm happy this could surpass your expectations. And, of course, that you can understand the plot easily enough. I've definitely paid attention to how I've been improving throughout the story and I'm really glad you noticed that too. Thank you for following, favorite-ing, and reviewing, and I hope you'll read and enjoy the second story too. :D

Chapter 51 – Epilogue

-{0}-

In the Aether, the sun was setting.

Vivian felt it as soon as she left the dark place. No—not 'left'. As soon as her binds were weakened, as soon as she was sure she could feel the weight of the sky's infinite expanse beyond the bloodred ceiling, she burst forth with all her strength, breaking through the roof and through the many layers of earth, erupting into open air.

Escaping from the dark room was a long time ago.

And the dark room was the Gold Dungeon—the Sun Spirit's resting place.

Vivan had flown away from her argument with her father, all that time ago on an island edge, after she'd read the prophecy. After she'd recited it to him. She'd flown into a column of fire, she'd flown into a trap.

Ever since the Sun Spirit vanished from the Aether, the sun itself had been mourning. Weakening. Falling, ever so slightly, from the zenith where it had sat since the beginning of time.

The Valkyrie Queen had ignored it. She'd tended to her soldiers. Avoided her father.

Till the truth became unbearable. Till Notch's silence became unbearable.

So she flew. She flew on silver wings, dodging beneath floating hunks of earth, arms pressed against her body, eyes half closed in the blazing wind across her face. She flew to Notch.

And something made her stop. Something small and dark made her wings flare out to catch the air, billowing silver feathers parachuting her to a hard, skidding landing on a rounded island, ringed in old skyroots. Her metallic boots kicked up a spray of earth, small pieces of dirt and stone leaping towards a certain end over the island edge. Where a young, mortal man stood next to a black moa—watching the faraway sun.

Vivian froze.

Mortals can't see her. Mortals can't know she truly exists.

The man turned his head. He had wide, innocent eyes, dark hair that couldn't hold a constant shape against the wind. A twiggy frame. Black woolen shirt, brown leather pants with a red streak—the messenger trademark.

He saw her. Her saw her lance, her clothes, her face, her wings. And he smiled.

"Don't suppose you could tell me what's going on up there?"

Vivian could only give him a look something like a glower. A nervous, untrusting glower. "You…," she whispered.

"It's okay," he reassured her. "It's fine. I'm Gage. And you're…a Valkyrie. Right?"

She began to stalk towards him, wings stiff and half-extended. The closer she got, the shorter he seemed. He was half her height.

"Yes," she murmured. "And you're…dreaming."

Gage grinned. "No way. Not this time. I know the gods exist. Trust me, they tried to tell me the same thing."

He turned back towards the sky, grin melting from his face. His forced happy-go-lucky tone started to crumble. "Not this time. I know that's real. The sun's…moving."

He reached out a hand to ruffle the neck feathers of the black moa at his side. The bird was watching Vivian warily.

The Valkyrie Queen considered the fact that she was dreaming.

"The sun's never stopped moving," she blurted, dropping her arms to her sides, staring up, counting the miniscule degrees between where the ball of white fire stood now and where it used to be. The space was about the width of her hand. "It's the Aether that follows the sun."

"Oh, yeah?" Gage said quietly, like he'd never heard that before. Maybe he hadn't. She wasn't sure what the mortals knew. "Then the Aether must be dying, somehow."

Her breath caught in her throat, just a little. She stared down at the top of his head, narrowing her eyes against the crazed thought she'd had, listening to him say those words.

What if he's one of the eight?

Though they usually were…nothing said prophecy subjects had to be earthbound people.

"You're smart," she said, shaking her head, shaking away the thought. It wasn't him. It couldn't be him. "Maybe it is dying."

"Do you know why?"

"Not at all."

And she spread her wings—about to fly. He heard them unravel behind him, sheets of metallic feathers built to catch the sky and hold her there.

"Wait," he said, staring up at her. "What's your name?"

"Vivian," she replied, no hesitation at all. Her wings stretched as far as they'd go, tips brushing the grass. "You should go. Leave the Aether."

"Why's that, Vivian?"

A single beat. That was all it took to get her airborne, and she floated above the man, the lonely man named Gage. "Because anywhere else is better. Safer. Goodbye, Gage. Don't—"

"Yeah, yeah." He waved her off. The smile was back, but it was ghostly, uncertain. "Don't tell anyone I saw you."

-{0}-

"Notch."

He was Notch, now. Not 'Father'.

An agreement of thousands of years ago led to this—the changing of titles. Somehow calling him Notch made him less so her father, less so her family. Calling her Queen would make her less so his daughter.

In times of strife, in times of war and misery, they were different towards each other.

Notch stood on the small, quartz island at the center of the raincloud lake at the heart of his palace, surrounded by the glass eddies and helixes of colored glass. They were supposed to gleam in every color with the sun's light, streaming through the small hole in the palace ceiling.

They had been rendered dull and lifeless as…as the Aether began to die.

Notch turned his head—he had been staring in the opposite direction, towards the back wall of his palace. The lack of a wall—the whole back side had fallen away so a block of clear blue sky would shine through with a muted glow.

But it seemed dimmer now. Dimmer as the Void bled into the gap between the Aether and the sun.

"Queen," Notch whispered.

And it had begun. The time of strife and war and misery.

"What's happened? I know it's been…going on for some time now, but why is it speeding up now, Notch? What's gone wrong?"

"So much," Notch rasped. "Too much. The world's gone wrong, Queen. Can't you feel it?"

And she could. Even before the Aether began to die, she could feel it; the shift in power, the tipping of the scale, the clock winding down. Somewhere, in the place where logic is abandoned and no scientific law can bind the particles that wander, Vivian knew she felt it too. The world as Creation began to slow. As Destruction lay in wait, biding its time.

Anyone could feel it.

For in the Aether, the sun was setting.

-{0}-

Which concludes Part One.

Before anything else, I'll say that if any of the descriptions in this chapter confuse you, it's because they're based off some of the rewritten chapters. Namely, chapter 5(Feel Afraid) and chapter 13(Betrayal).

I don't think we need an AN chapter. I'll just say right here that I am SO thankful for everyone who followed, reviewed, or did anything like that regarding this story. AND for my silent readers, because I know there are a lot of you. And I'm grateful for every view. All nine thousand of 'em.

Shout-out to RenThePyro for being the first to review and follow. And I swear Yorrick shows up a lot in the second part.

Also thanking everyone who gave me an OC, even the ones I didn't use. You'll all have the chance to send in more original characters in part two and three, just gonna say.

And I'd hate to throw any more names around because I'd be leaving people out for sure. So just know that all of you are awesome.

Sometime in the month of January, the prologue of Phoenix Rising will come out, so if you haven't already I recommend you put me on Author Alert if you don't want to miss it.

So I'll be with you all again soon.

And once more, thank you. :D

-Angel