Many scholars say going from the second to the third level of any training path is like being reborn. But for Lyra, it felt like a blind person was taking her apart and putting her back together wrong.
The Solar-Lunar Circle under her feet flared to life, and the liquid starlight in the purple sky above the library started to swirl. The dark energy pillar she shot up did more than just show where she was. It built a bridge. Way up high, in the land of wind and stone, the Heavenly Eye didn't just flicker. It screamed. A beam of sunlight, cleaner and stronger than the one that wrecked the gate, slammed into the Iron-Spine Mountains.
The three miles of rock between Lyra and the top didn't melt. Instead, the stone acted like a wire. The heat ran down the mountain's roots like lightning, straight into the black part of the Circle where Lyra sat.
Don't fight it! Malachi's voice yelled from the dark bookshelves, sounding worried. If you put up a wall, it will crush you! Be like a filter, Lyra! Let the fire find the frost!
Lyra screamed without making a sound, her jaw so tight she thought her teeth would break. It hurt worse than anything she'd ever felt. It was like her blood was swapped with melted metal. The Sun-Burn, which had been a constant ache, turned into a huge wave. It crashed into her core, circling the three silver drops like a wolf ready to attack.
The silver drops, which she was so proud of and which gave her power, started to hiss. They got smaller under the sun's heat, their bright light fading to a dull gray.
I'm disappearing, she thought, her mind fading. The Sun is too strong. The Moon is too weak.
But then, the Night-Blooming Lotus stuff she swallowed kicked in. Her energy pathways, which were thin and weak, suddenly blew open. They didn't just get bigger. They turned clear, becoming like veins made of see-through glass.
In that moment of terrible pain, Lyra didn't reach for her power. She reached for the shadow of it. She thought about the Shroud of Shadows, how it didn't fight the light but just took it in.
The Sun is where it all starts, she figured out, her mind cutting through the pain. But the Moon is a mirror. And in between the start and the mirror...there's the Eclipse.
She stopped trying to save her silver drops. Instead, she forced them open. She broke her own training.
The three drops split into a million silver pieces. Malachi, watching from the dark, gasped. She's killing herself spiritually! No...wait...
The pieces didn't disappear. They started spinning around the sun's fire. Instead of being burned up, they acted like a machine that separates things. They wrapped themselves around the heat, trapping the gold power inside a silver shell.
It was being refined in the best way possible. The silver was the container. The gold was the fuel.
Inside Lyra's body, things were changing in a scary way. Her veins, which had been hidden, started to glow with two lights. A hot gold center was wrapped in a dark blue skin. This was the Eclipse-Vein Level. Every bit of her body was being rewritten to hold the strength of the two sky gods.
As the change hit its peak, the library shook. The liquid starlight above started to drain down, sucked into the Circle. Lyra wasn't just a girl anymore. She was a vacuum, a hole in space.
Outside, on top of the Iron-Spine Mountains, things were crazy.
The Emperor's army had shown up in force. Four High Priests, their orange robes flapping in the mountain winds, stood in a circle around where the sun's beam hit the ground. They were chanting, putting their own energy into the beam to make sure the heretic was destroyed.
The Eye is locked on! one of the Priests yelled over the fire. Nothing can live through this much Solar Grace! The mountain will be a hole, and the girl will be gone!
But then, the beam changed.
The white-hot pillar of light turned a gross purple color. The ground under the Priests' feet didn't blow up. It started to sink down. The heat was being sucked down, like something under the ground was drinking the sun.
What's going on? the main Priest screamed, his hands shaking. The Sun...the Sun is being pulled! The Grace is being stolen!
Far below, in the quiet dark, Lyra's eyes snapped open.
They weren't silver anymore. They were scary, with gold and dark blue circles. She stood up from the Circle, and the black floor cracked. The bandages Malachi put on her turned to ash, showing skin that looked like smooth stone, marked with glowing lines.
She reached out her hand. The Sun-Iron sword, which was lying nearby, flew into her hand.
The sword, which had been cold and dead, reacted to her new power. The sun symbols on the steel didn't just glow. They changed. They turned black, dripping with a Frozen Fire.
Malachi, Lyra said. Her voice didn't sound like ice anymore. It sounded like the quiet between stars.
The old librarian stepped out of the shadows, his blind eyes staring at her in amazement. You did it. You didn't just live through the eye. You blinded it.
I feel the mountain, Lyra said, looking up. I feel the four ants standing on my head. I feel their fire, and it feels like a cool breeze.
You're at the start of the Eclipse-Vein Level, Malachi whispered. Your base is like nothing in the records. You skipped the rules of this time.
Lyra grabbed the sword. The third drop of power didn't just come back. It became a center, a Black-Sun Core.
The library taught me enough for now, she said. She looked at the Shroud of Shadows, which Malachi fixed. I need my cloak. I need to climb a mountain, and four Priests need to see the dark.
Malachi gave her the black cloak. As she put it on, she vanished. She was right in front of him, but he couldn't feel her heart, her breath, or her soul.
Go, Lyra Van-Heal, Malachi said, bowing. The First Time ended in ice. The Second Time is burning in fire. I think it's time for a Third Time of shadows.
Lyra didn't use the steps. She didn't use the Ghost-Step.
She just looked at the three miles of rock above her and pulled.
The mountain didn't break. It folded. Space seemed to bend to her will. In a second, she was gone from the library, leaving a smell of ozone and the fading glow of the floor.
On the top, the four High Priests were staring at the ground when the purple beam disappeared.
The silence that followed was scarier than the fire. A thick fog started to roll across the top, swallowing the army's lights.
Where did the light go? a soldier yelled.
From the fog, a voice answered, a voice that sounded like the end of a story.
The light didn't go anywhere, Lyra said, appearing behind the main Priest like a shadow. It just found who controls it.
The Sun-Iron sword, now a blade of Eclipse, swung through the mist.
The time of the Empress had come back, and the sun was about to learn how to bleed.