It began with a nosebleed.
Eli was pouring tea in the morning light when the very first drop of scarlet pierced his porcelain cup. He blinked, swayed slightly, then pressed his fingers to his upper lip.
Not blood.
Not really.
It glowed.
Gold-sewn through crimson. And when he touched it, a thousand voices screamed behind his eyes.
He dropped the cup.
Amon rushed to him instantly, catching him before he hit the ground. "Eli!"
Kael was already there, his hand on Eli's shoulder, face pale. "It's happening."
"What's happening?" Amon growled.
But Eli's eyes were completely black now Not like a demon's--like a void.
He couldn't see the room.
He didn't see them.
He remembered.
Inside the Memory
It is a twilight temple. It has towering columns. Wings against marble. And there stood three beings at the center of it all.
In the middle: Eli-no-longer-human. Crowned in flame. Wreathed in smoke. Nerotic, radiant, broken.
To one side: Amon-younger, sharper, laughing in a way he hadn't for centuries.
To the other: Kael-his eyes softer, a warrior's calm, brushing against Eli as if for a moment the world might allow it.
There had been love here.
Between all three.
Not jealousy. Not competition.
But something tangled. Something unsustainable.
They had all loved each other-and the gods had punished them for it.
It was fractional balance.
Too much power concentrated in a single bond.
They had torn it apart.
Amon was cast down.
Kael was chained in sacred silence.
Eli was sealed away-all his memories scattered, his identity shattered.
And from that splinter was Born the First Sin.
Not from hate.
But from grief.
Back at the Present
Eli gasped, sucking in a sharp breath, fingers clawing at the floor as it released memory from him. The bedroom rippled-curtains shaking, cups rattling, reality unstable.
Amon snatched him, eyes wild. "What did you see?"
Eli stared up at him, dazed. "We were all in love. All three of us. Before."
Amon froze.
Kael looked away.
"No," Amon denied. "That's not possible. You… you and me—yes. But Kael?"
Kael met Eli's gaze. "They erased it from both of you. But not me."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Eli whispered.
"Because you only ever truly chose him," Kael said softly. "Even in that life."
Amon turned his back, jaw clenched. "We're not reliving that."
"We already are," Eli said, rising slowly to his feet. "The First Sin isn't some monster buried inside me. He's the part of me that couldn't choose. That couldn't save either of you. That broke in trying."
The room was heavy with silence.
Then Kael asked, "What do we do now?"
Eli exhaled. "We stop pretending this is only about love. This is about what love costs when gods are watching."
That night Eli again walked through the woods alone.
He didn't summon the First Sin.
This time it came without any drawbacks.
A version of him made of fire and feathers, walking beside him like a twin made from regret.
"You remember now."
"I do."
"And yet you still hesitate."
"I love him," Eli said. "I love both of them."
"Then must you finally do what you couldn't in any life before."
Eli glanced into the fire-shadow of himself. "And what's that?"
"Choose one. And destroy the other."