The shadows

Zaelia was watching from her throne. She was carefully paying attention to every gesture from Zarkhaïm. Her hatred was growing, Archanium was discussing with his brothers, and he came back after a long time. He watched Zaelia with a gloomy expression. His voice pierced the silence, like a last stabbing into her heart. 

"They want me to leave this realm."

Zaelia stood up in fury, she yelled, keeping the golden body in her arms all this time.

"No way! Are they mad?!"

Archanium placed his hands on her shoulders, he was serious, and he tried to be as calm as possible.

"Zaelia, if I don't leave, they will kill us. Believe in me, I have a plan."

She stopped herself, her heart was beating in a rage so violent that it was barely supportable. She wanted to kill everyone and burn everything, but if there was something she would always do, it was to obey him and believe in him. He was her everything, and this was until the end of times. She calmed, her love for him was greater than her rage for Zarkhaïm. Archanium embraced her tenderly, he dropped a kiss on her forehead. A single tear rolled down his cheek while he repeated, almost to convince himself.

"I have a plan. It will work."

She closed her eyes as he left. She couldn't stand to see him flying away, leaving her alone. Zaelia didn't understand why things could not be the same as before. As she sat back on the throne, the city was empty, and she felt for the first time the weight of her golden body, the consequence of the golden eyes he gave her. She watched the world around her, and what she has done. She screamed her hatred to the world, but in all the desert there was nobody to hear her anymore. 

Only Archanium heard her screaming, and it broke his heart to leave his Queen behind. He whispered in the wind, hoping for his words to reach her damaged heart.

"I will find a way to you, I swear. No matter how long it takes."

He left her alone in the Golden City on Earth and went to meet Zarkhaïm and Tridjan. They gathered their powers over two days to create a new world. It was a little planet made of shadows. It was solid, it had rivers and a lake that were made of Tridjan's waters, the surface of the land and the mountains were made of Zarkhaïm's shadows, and its sky was made of Archanium's light. 

Zuline and her people helped them to make it. The shadow world was born. They named it the Ombrae. A world in the eternal night. For the exiled and the banished, for those who don't want to be found. Zuline, after pushing her limits for so long, found the power to make portals to travel between the shadows, and she helped Archanium to transport the Golden City in the sky to the other world. 

The Jessadiens followed, they became the habitants of this new land. It was a world just for them to live peacefully, far from the humans who wanted to hunt them. Living like in the old ways, like at the beginning of the world, far from the sun in the land of shadows. 

Archanium turned himself one last time before leaving. His heart was full of rage as he took the portal. One day, Zarkhaïm would break the deal and this day Archanium would rule over the world with the full support of his shadow brother. Archanium was sure about himself. All they had to do was to wait, and when this day would come he would find her. He would make her a Queen again, forever together. 

In this new world, Zarkhaïm found his place in the darkness with his people, while Archanium lived in the sun. Tridjan disappeared into the seas of the light world, and only his legend survived.

Zarkhaïm was helped by Zuline, he created a castle in the Ombrae. It was a wonderful castle, it had a large and flourishing garden. Together they gathered the energy of the universe to make a galaxy into the ceiling of the ballroom. Zarkhaïm found a bit of peace sitting in the middle of the room to watch the sky. He always has been passionate about stars and the universe, but each time he was closing his eyes he was watching the golden little body falling on the floor. He closed himself increasingly and became the dark King of the Ombrae. The master of shadows, only Zuline could enter his castle to bring him books that she was stealing from the light world. 

Zarkhaïm was too much a sensible creature to stay alone in the dark, and she knew it. She could see him sinking into melancholy and nostalgia, and nothing she could do seemed to help, so she set about looking after the castle like the most precious thing in the world. Zarkhaïm didn't even seem to see her anymore, he just sat there alone in front of the galaxy they'd created. Contemplating the void, refusing even to close his eyes again.

Slowly populations came in Ombrae and the land saw a few different types of creatures coming. The Jessadians took the role of spiritual guides, thanks to their abilities to make portals they were going into the different light worlds to help the lost souls to join the prosperous land of the Ombrae. To know peace. 

Archanium was watching the world growing, his gods were fuming to be trapped in this golden cell. As his rage grew, a new power awakened within him. Something greater than he could ever have imagined.

He felt the wind blowing, a wind carrying scents of people, objects, and prey. He isolated himself in his quarters, trying to tame this new force.