The Shadow Princess (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 6)

The stranger extended his hands, palms out—a universal sign to show lack of harmful intent. “Relax, Commandant Dunne. I’ve come to help.”

It did not reassure Bastien that this man knew his name and rank, nor that he offered help. He kept poised in defense. “Come from where? And to help with what?”

“I come directly from the gods,” he replied smoothly, and that startled Bastien so much his sword tip dropped an inch. “Namely Onyx, although Veda sends greetings as well.”

A slight wave of dizziness passed over Bastien. In all his life, the gods had never given him a sign, and his faith was never very strong, which kept him wary. This man could be an enemy, using the gods in vain. If that were the case, Bastien prayed they struck him dead for his temerity.

“My name is Maddox.” The man looked around at the statues and nodded toward the one of Rune. With a flick of his hand, the stone cracked and fell into pieces before disintegrating to dust that disappeared on a soft breeze. His gaze came back to Bastien. “Rune is no longer the god of Life which also meant he governed death. Zora is now your new deity.”

Bastien’s jaw dropped, for with another wave of his hand, the man created a new statue out of thin air. This one wasn’t of stone but rather shining gold, and the god was beautiful to behold with long, flowing hair and jeweled eyes that sparkled with prisms of blue, green, and gold.

Maddox stared at his creation for a moment, a pleased smile curving his mouth before he turned back to Bastien.

“How did it come to be that Rune is no longer a god and there is a new one in his place?” Bastien puzzled, his curiosity now genuinely piqued, although he was more skeptical than not.

This could be nothing more than fancy magic to gain his trust.

With a sigh, Maddox glanced at the statue of Zora before bringing his forest-green eyes back to Bastien. “It’s a long story, but I basically helped prevent a world-ending apocalypse originating in the First Dimension.”

The First Dimension—sometimes referred to as the Earth realm—was the primary plane of existence on this planet. Through the use of magic, other dimensions had been created and were referred to as AltVeritas. The First Dimension (or Earth realm) was merely the original, but over millennia, hundreds of other AltVeritas had been created.

The braggadocio in the man’s tone should have made Bastien doubt him, but weirdly, it only made it seem more real. And it was a shocking reminder that Vyronas only existed if the First Dimension existed.

World ending meant if the First Dimension was destroyed, every other AltVeritas would die as well. Vyronas had been created from magic originating in the First Dimension when a meteor struck in the middle of Egypt’s Western Desert. It was so inundated with magic that just a tiny stone chipped from its mass, in the hands of the right people, could create new worlds from nothing but the imagination.

Vyronas was just such an example. It was an entirely separate entity from First Dimension—existing on its own plane and layered upon countless others created from the stone’s magic. While Vyronas existed independently and exclusive of the Earth realm, its heartbeat came from the stone magic that created it. Vyronas’s life force was still linked to the Earth realm’s primary dimension, and if it ended, so did all dimensions.

“What happened?” Bastien asked, his warrior instincts wanting to learn all about how such an event might occur—and be thwarted.

“Kymaris tried to break through the veil into the First Dimension—”

Bastien scoffed. “Kymaris, queen of the Underworld?”

“That’s the one,” Maddox replied, snapping his fingers, then pointing at Bastien. “Her nefarious plan was to tear open the veil so that all her Dark Fae, daemons, and other nasty creatures she created in that cesspool called Hell could pour out and wreak havoc in the First Dimension.”

How in the gods’ names had original inhabitants of the First Dimension managed to repel such an invasion when they were not particularly magical as a whole, nor even aware of such evil below? Oh, they had their faiths and religions, but they had no clue.

Not really.

All their myths and legends remained just that, with faith in the fantastical bred out by generations of logic, reason, and modernization. No one needed magic as inventions sprang forth from brilliant minds, and magical practice unfortunately died out.

“The veil surrounding the Underworld is impenetrable,” Bastien said.

“But is it really?” Maddox replied, a smirk on his face.

Bastien didn’t really know. Kymaris was an original fallen angel, stripped of her wings after trying to lead a rebellion against God and cast into the Underworld. She and her brethren became known as Dark Fae but were thought to be powerless to break through the veil separating her world from the First Dimension.