The Lion & the Deathless Dark

Ten years earlier, in a world recently overrun by vampires, 17-year-old Kyrene was pregnant and gravely ill. Losing blood and desperate to save her baby, she sought help at a cottage. The occupant was the Vindica Ultis, a hero chosen by the goddess Shiket. Fearing the girl’s bleeding would attract monsters, the Vindica Ultis refused aid or shelter. Enraged by this cruelty, Kyrene attacked the woman. During the fight, she seized the hero’s divine sword, Zefiah, and its power surged through her. She killed the Vindica Ultis, and the goddess Shiket appeared.

Shiket was furious, but the sentient sword spoke in Kyrene’s favor. Shiket agreed that Kyrene could wield the sword and serve her. However, she explicitly told Kyrene that she was not the chosen Vindica Ultis and warned that the divine blade would one day kill her. The goddess departed without saving Kyrene’s child, leaving Kyrene as her new, unwilling champion. The narrator reveals that this act altered the course of fate.

After revealing the truth to a devastated Septimus, Nyaxia taunts him. The goddess discloses that she preemptively killed his brother for a similar foreseen treachery and now regrets not killing him in his cradle.