The sky above Aethel wept alongside its people. A soft continuous drizzle fell mirroring the tears that streamed down countless faces. The grand plaza usually bustling with vibrant life was now a sea of solemn figures draped in muted colors.
At its center upon a bier adorned with the white lilies of purity and the golden sunburst of Aethel lay the still form of Thea Ysabel Sun, the Great Warrior. 
Her face even in death held a serene strength, a quiet testament to the boundless courage that had defined her.
Althea stood by the bier a figure of profound sorrow. Though her physical wounds had miraculously healed the pain in her heart was a raw gaping chasm. She felt the eyes of thousands upon her their grief a heavy shared burden. Her new terrifying power hummed beneath her skin a constant unsettling reminder of the sacrifice that had both saved and shattered her.
A warm hand gently squeezed her shoulder. Alric, his face etched with a grief as deep as her own stood beside her. 
"She would be proud, Althea," 
he murmured his voice gruff with emotion.
"Proud of you and proud of what we achieved together." Althea could only manage a choked sound in response to her gaze fixed on Thea's face.
Zaria, her eyes red-rimmed stepped forward and embraced Althea while holding her tightly. 
"Oh Althea.." she whispered with her voice trembling.
"Thea was the brightest star. Her light will never truly fade." She pulled back, her soft hands cupping Althea's face.
"We are here for you always.
Just as she would have been."
Then, Orion approached, his usual reserved demeanor replaced by an open, profound sadness. He laid a hand on Thea's cold one for a moment before turning to Althea.
"She lived with honor, Althea. And she died for us all. Her memory will be a beacon for generations to come." 
He nodded slowly his respect and sorrow evident in every line of his face.
"You carry her legacy now, in more ways than one." His gaze held a hint of knowing acknowledging the secret power that now resided within Althea a power suspected.
One by one, the people of Aethel began to approach. Farmers in roughspun tunics, merchants in their finest clothes, weathered soldiers, and young children clutching wilting wildflowers they all came. Each offered their condolences, their voices a soft murmur of shared grief.
"We owe her everything, Your Highness," an old woman said, her voice raspy, bowing deeply to Althea.
"She saved my grandchildren. 
She saved us all."
A young man, barely older than a boy, his eyes brimming with tears, spoke next.
"The Great Warrior protected us.
She was truly Aethel's shield." 
He saluted Thea's bier, then dipped his head respectfully to Althea.
A mother, clutching her child, approached.
"She was a legend, even before this. Now, she is eternal." Although overwhelmed, forced herself to acknowledge each person offering a slight nod.
"Thank you." The sheer weight of their collective sorrow, coupled with her own, was almost unbearable. 
Yet, in their words, in their tearful eyes, she saw not just grief, but a profound gratitude, a testament to the life her sister had lived. Thea was gone, but her spirit, her legacy, lived on in the hearts of every person she had touched, every life she had saved. And now, Althea knew, it lived on in her, both a blessing and a terrifying burden.
The drizzle continued, washing over Aethel, cleansing the land, but not the raw wound in Althea's soul. As the final mourners drifted away, she remained by Thea's side, Alric, Zaria, and Orion a silent, comforting presence behind her. 
The world swam back into focus, not with the dull ache of fading life, but with a vibrant, startling clarity. Althea gasped, a shudder running through her as the last vestiges of the mixed blood settled within her. Her wounds, moments ago gaping abysses, were now smooth, unblemished skin. Her lungs drew in air, deep and full, a sensation so foreign after the suffocating grasp of death. She pushed herself up, feeling an unprecedented surge of power thrumming beneath her skin, a terrifying fusion of light and shadow.
Before her stood Solara, the Goddess of Light, her form shimmering with an ethereal glow. Her eyes, luminous and ancient, held a depth that seemed to encompass all creation. The surrounding figures Alric, Zaria, Orion, Queen Lyra, and the stunned faces of the kingdom  remained frozen in awe and disbelief. They watched, silent witnesses to a miracle.
Althea, still reeling from the resurrection, found her voice, though it trembled.
"What... what have you done to me?"
Solara's gaze was unwavering, piercing.
"I have given you what was ordained. What your bloodline has always carried the potential for." Solara's voice is like  a melodic echo resonated not just in Althea's ears but deep within her very soul.
"My bloodline?"
Althea’s brow furrowed.
"What do you mean? The prophecy spoke of a hero… of Thea." 
Her voice caught on her sister's name, 
a fresh wave of grief momentarily overshadowing her confusion.
"The prophecy was never about a single hero, child," Solara corrected softly.
"It was about a lineage. A confluence of power, destined to balance the scales of this world. For too long, the balance has favored the shadows." Althea stared. 
"You need to become the next warrior and fox the loophole." Solara said meaningful.
"But... Thea was the Great Warrior.
She managed to fulfil the fate but she interfered with some of it, that did not mean to change.." Solara added.
"Thea was a vessel of unparalleled courage and light," Solara interrupted, her voice gentle yet firm. 
"She fulfilled her destiny, clearing the path, making the ultimate sacrifice. But the true heart of the prophecy, the ultimate convergence… that falls to you, Althea." A chill ran down Althea's spine. "Me? But I'm just… I'm just her sister. I fought for her, with her. I'm not the chosen one.
"You are chosen to be the next,
You are chosen to be the one 
who fixes it." 
She stared at my eyes for a couple of minutes and then smiled at me.
"Fix what?" Althea asked but
the goddess didn't replied.
"Chosen?" Solara's eyes seemed to twinkle. 
"There is no 'choosing' in destiny, only unfolding. Your bloodline, Althea, carries a unique resonance. A capacity to absorb and harmonize opposing forces."
Althea looked down at her hands which still pulsed with a faint unearthly light.
"The blood… Thea's and… and Ysabel's?"
"Precisely," Solara confirmed.
"The essence of pure light and pure shadow. Your shared lineage allowed Thea to wield her immense power against Ysabel, for they were of the same corrupted tree, though Thea resisted its poisonous fruit. But you," Solara stepped closer, her voice dropping.
"you possess the rare gift to integrate it. To bridge the divide."
"Ysabel," Althea whispered
a new horror dawning on her.
"She was… our mother.
She carried our blood."
"Indeed." Solara confirmed her expression unreadable. 
"And long before her corruption, there was another. The first of your line, who sought to harness both forces for good, but failed, and from whom Ysabel inherited the seed of her darkness. 
This blood, now within you the generations of the very first mistake and the final redemption."
Althea stumbled back, her eyes wide.
"So… I carry the Darkness Queen within me? And Thea's light?" The realization was sickening. She was a living vessel of the very conflict that had torn their world apart.
"Not carry," Solara corrected with her voice resonating with ancient power.
"You are them. Their strengths, their weaknesses, their very essence, now bound within you. The prophecy foretold the one who would either complete the cycle of destruction or usher in an era of true balance. The one who could literally become the world's equilibrium."
"But if this was my destiny," Althea choked out.
"Why did Thea have to die?
Why couldn't she have…?"
Solara's eyes softened with 
a sadness in their depths.
"Thea's death was not a failure of prophecy, Althea. It was its ultimate fulfillment. Her light, pure and untainted by the shadow of Ysabel's lineage, served as the catalyst. It drew out the darkness, forced its hand, and then, in her sacrifice, purified the very essence of it. Her blood, mingled with Ysabel's, transformed the destructive power into something you could absorb, something you could master. 
Without Thea's final, selfless act, this integration would have been impossible. You would have been consumed."
Althea’s breath hitched. Thea hadn’t just died for her, she had died to become part of her, to empower her. Her beloved sister's sacrifice was not merely an ending, but a new, terrifying beginning for Althea.
"So… I am meant to fix the past?" 
Althea asked with her voice barely a whisper and a strange mix of dread and dawning understanding.
"You are the living embodiment of it," Solara stated, her voice swelling with a divine authority. 
"You contain the potential for immense good, and equally immense destruction. The world's fate now hinges on the choices you make, on whether you embrace the harmony or succumb to the warring factions within."
"How can I?" Althea cried
her voice rising in desperation. 
"How can I balance light and shadow when one is my sister, and the other is the monster who took everything from me?" She said.
"Because the greatest strength lies not in rejecting what you are, but in understanding it," Solara said, her voice now a profound echo in Althea's mind.
"Ysabel's darkness was a perversion, a force allowed to grow unchecked. But true shadow is not evil; it is merely absence of light, a necessary counterpart to creation. Just as the deepest roots ground the tallest trees, and the darkest night reveals the brightest stars."
"I don't want her in me!" Althea raged clenching her fists tears streaming down her face.
"I want Thea back! Not… this!"
"And Thea would want you to live, to thrive, to fulfill the promise of your blood," Solara responded with her gaze holding Althea's firmly. 
"Her light is not lost; it shines brighter than ever within you, guiding the shadow, keeping it from consuming. 
This is not about becoming Althea. It is about transcending her. It is about understanding the source of her power so that you can control it, rather than be controlled by it."
"What do I do now?" Althea whispered, the immense weight of her new reality pressing down on her.
"You learn," Solara replied, her ethereal hand briefly resting on Althea's forehead, sending a jolt of ancient wisdom through her.
"You learn to master the forces that now course through your veins. You will find that true power is not in absolute light or absolute darkness, but in the harmony between them. You are the dawn, the twilight, and the deepest night sky, all at once. The future of Aethel rests on whether you can guide these disparate forces into a single, unified purpose."
The Goddess of Light's form began to shimmer, her light intensified, blinding those who watched. She rose higher, her voice echoing one last time. 
"Remember, Althea that the greatest light can only truly be appreciated against the deepest shadow. Go forth, and bring forth the true balance."
With a final, brilliant flash, Solara vanished, leaving behind only the lingering scent of ozone and starlight. Althea stood alone, bathed in the silent, shocked stares of her friends and kingdom. She was alive, miraculously healed, and imbued with an unimaginable power. But the weight of her new destiny, the terrifying knowledge of the light and shadow that now intertwined within her very being, had just begun to settle. She was no longer just Althea, Thea's sister. She was something more, something utterly unique, and terrifyingly powerful  the living embodiment of an ancient prophecy, forged in the ultimate sacrifice and the deepest despair. The world would never be the same.
"Are you well, Althea?" Alric asked
his voice low and concerned. 
"That display… 
what the Goddess did…
it was beyond anything I've ever witnessed."
Althea didn't immediately answer.
She stared at her hands, flexing her fingers, feeling the strange, new energy thrumming beneath her skin. It was a sensation of raw power, undeniable and terrifying.
"Well?" she finally rasped
her voice tight. 
"I don't know what that means anymore, Alric. I'm… I'm alive. 
But I don't feel like myself."
She turned to him
her eyes wide and haunted.
  
Alric listened intently
his expression grim.
"The Goddess spoke of balance.
Of integration."
"Integration feels like being torn apart!" Althea cried, her voice rising in anguish. 
"How can I reconcile my beloved sister with the monster who destroyed our lives? Every time I feel that surge of power, I'm afraid. Afraid that it’s Ysabel’s will, not my own. Afraid that I’ll lose myself, become her." Her voice broke, a raw sob escaping her. 
"I don't want her darkness. I don't want her corruption. I just want Thea back."
Alric placed a firm, steady hand on her shoulder. "Althea, listen to me. What you're feeling is valid. It's terrifying.
He squeezed her shoulder. "The greatest warriors aren't just those who swing a sword, Althea. They are those who conquer the battles within. The prophecy was fulfilled, yes, but it was also a warning. A test. And you, Althea, are the one chosen to pass it."
Althea looked at him, truly looked at him, seeing the unwavering faith in his eyes. The weight on her shoulders didn't disappear, but it felt a fraction lighter. The struggle within her remained, a fierce, internal war, but now, perhaps, she had an ally in the fight.
"Thank you, Alric," she murmured, her voice still hoarse, but with a faint tremor of renewed resolve. 
"I… I just don't know where to begin."
"You begin by honoring 
Thea's sacrifice. And you begin by choosing every single moment
who Althea truly is." Alric added.