Thalena

Thalena Xenith is the archon of Space and Time and ruler of Chronasis, one of the five archons governing Thalassai. She wields temporal and aether magic and opposes divine rule. More than five centuries old, she retains a youthful appearance.

Cassian and Eira were directed to seek her help after escaping Xalmyrra. Her exceptional power and authority made her known beyond Thalassai, including to Tazarin in Thalcoris.

Thalena Xenith is the archon of Space and Time in Chronasis, Thalassai. One of the nation's five archons, she seeks to reach the God Realm and free people from divine rule.

Appearance

Thalena has silver hair and violet eyes flecked with silver. She favors navy and silver robes, often with celestial patterns or translucent fabric, and takes pride in her appearance. She is more than five centuries old, but temporal magic keeps her body youthful.

Personality

Thalena is ambitious, calculating and willing to keep secrets from those closest to her. She seeks knowledge of gates, worlds and gods, and resists any power that would dictate how her people must live. Her plans extend well beyond an ordinary lifetime.

Her authority coexists with loneliness and a fear of abandonment. She has outlived lovers and withdrawn from ordinary company, yet enjoys teasing, physical affection, music and embarrassing her companions in public. With students and adopted children, she can be both a demanding teacher and a comforting parent. Cassian helped her enjoy company beyond official duties, while Nethira challenged her jealousy and encouraged her to join ordinary social life.

Magic

Thalena wields temporal and aether magic. Temporal control slows aging, enables blinks and shields, and can hasten another person's growth. Combined with aether propulsion, it lets her cross enormous distances at exceptional speed. Her gravity fields restrain opponents and crush objects; her fine control also supports magnetic and engineering work.

She senses essence precisely at close range and teaches others to recognize and control it. Kaelion's temporal training and Cassian's sensing lessons draw on these skills. Her precision can be disrupted by extreme heat and frost, and her body still needs stabilization when her essence rises dangerously.

She works with Cyrena and the other researchers on communication devices and the gates, designing equipment as well as directing their work.

History

Archon and family

Thalena governed Chronasis from Stella Aeterna and directed its chronarcs and research institutions. The five archons retained equal authority in principle, but her exceptional power and long view gave her great practical influence. Her opposition to divine domination made Thalassai a refuge for people who rejected the gods. Research into the gates offered the prospect of reaching beyond the isolated nation and, eventually, the God Realm.

She adopted the orphan Zephyra, who grew into an archon. Zephyra's affection and criticism helped draw her mother away from work and reminded her of ordinary life beyond her plans.

Jin came to Thalassai to train, and his friendship with Thalena became a love affair. She let him win their duel and cared for him afterward, then used temporal magic to hasten the pregnancy that produced Thalia. Jin spent years with the family, caring for their daughter while Thalena governed, before his travels drew him away again.

Cassian and the gates

The arrival of Cassian, Kaelion and Arinella gave Thalena new companions and new possibilities for opening the gates. Their initial confrontation ended in discussion. She welcomed them into Chronasis, promised Kaelion help finding Eira and offered him temporal training. She trained Cassian's sensing and essence control, challenged him and Kaelion in a combined duel, and explained how they could improve.

Her relationship with Cassian became intimate, despite his existing love for Arinella. Thalena sometimes urged him to cherish Arinella, but also arranged circumstances to keep him near her. Their conversations exposed her loneliness and his own need for care. Cassian's trust affected her beyond the value of his power.

She designed communication devices for Cyrena's researchers and pursued gate experiments at the Nexus Research Center. Cassian's power offered a way to open gates that the researchers had struggled to use. Thalena caught and cared for him when an experiment depleted him.

Her wider plans aimed to draw gods into a world where they could be confronted. Before the archons, she cited Cassian's killing of the moon goddess as proof that the gods had no right to rule, and declared that he would make them answer to Thalassai. She prepared her forces to face the darkness and the gods. These ambitions unsettled Cassian, while her companions insisted that their purpose was to free people from divine control.

Pyrathalor and her companions

Thalena and Cassian captured Pyrathalor during an attack. Her black hole held the god while Cyrena supplied a prepared divine barrier and the others helped contain his power. Fire and frost disrupted her precise magic, and the fight left her wounded and exhausted.

When the god's glaive gravely wounded Cassian, Thalena held him in stasis and supplied her remaining essence until Astryx removed it and Arinella healed him. She remained close during his recovery, apologized for using Arinella and Cassian, and comforted Arinella afterward. She taught Arinella sensing and asked her to recruit healers who could help protect him.

Her dealings with Jin mixed genuine care with withheld information. She continued preparing for the struggle beyond Thalassai and invited Tazarin to join its efforts.

She permitted Kaelion to leave rather than hold him against his will, recognizing that detention would destroy Cassian's trust. Her farewell was affectionate and motherly. With Cassian, Nethira encouraged her to accept a more ordinary social life. Thalena sang and used aether magic to guide their public dance, then comforted him when he cried. Her feelings for him had become more than a means of securing his help.

Relationships

• Cassian: Her lover, pupil and partner in gate research. She initially sought his help for her plans, but became deeply attached and risked her own life and power to keep him alive. He gives her comfort and companionship beyond her public duties.
• Jin and Thalia: Jin was her lover and companion for years. He helped care for their daughter while Thalena governed, and their family affection persisted after his travels resumed.
• Kaelion: Her pupil and friend, whom she treats with affection as well as discipline. She supports his search for Eira and ultimately permits him to leave rather than force him to remain.
• Arinella: They both care for Cassian and worked together to save him after Pyrathalor's attack. Thalena apologized for manipulating her and comforted her afterward.
• Zephyra and the chronarcs: Zephyra is her adopted daughter and challenges her withdrawal into work. Nethira helps her recognize jealousy and enjoy companionship; Astryx is her student and a researcher she trusts, while Lunorax serves her as a chronarc.

Thalena Xenith is the former archon of Space and Time in Chronasis, Thalassai, and the Arcanis who ended the War of Scars in Xalmyrra. Cassian holds her former office, while she continues her research and involvement in Thalassai's affairs.

Appearance and personality

Thalena has silver and blond hair and violet eyes flecked with silver. She favors navy and silver robes, often with celestial patterns or translucent fabric. Temporal magic keeps her body youthful despite her age.

She is ambitious, calculating and willing to keep secrets from those closest to her. She seeks knowledge of gates, worlds and gods, and resists any power that would dictate how her people must live. Her authority coexists with loneliness and a fear of abandonment. She enjoys teasing, physical affection, music and embarrassing her companions in public. With students and adopted children, she can be both a demanding teacher and a comforting parent. Cassian helped her enjoy company beyond official duties, while Nethira challenged her jealousy and encouraged her to join ordinary social life.

Magic

Thalena wields temporal, aether, divine and cosmic magic. She learned divine and cosmic magic during the journey in which she became Arcanis. Temporal control slows aging, enables blinks and shields, and can hasten another person's growth. Combined with aether propulsion, it lets her cross enormous distances at exceptional speed. Her gravity fields restrain opponents, crush objects and suspend armies; her fine control also supports magnetic and engineering work.

After the battle with Jorhan, temporal stasis, cosmic essence gathering and divine healing repaired her body inside a cocoon. It drew so much essence that approaching her could drain visitors.

Her silver sword is enormously heavy, and she uses aether magic to carry it. Scientific knowledge gained on Earth complements her magic and her work with Cyrena and the other researchers.

History

Archon and family

As archon of Chronasis, Thalena developed its government and research institutions and brought an end to Thalassai's internal wars. The five archons retained equal authority in principle, but her exceptional power and long view gave her great practical influence. She adopted the orphan Zephyra and took in Aelius, a difficult child whom she trained. Lunorax became a trusted companion and chronarc.

Her opposition to divine domination made Thalassai a refuge for people who rejected the gods. Research into the gates offered the prospect of reaching beyond the isolated nation and, eventually, the God Realm.

Jin came to Thalassai to train, and his friendship with Thalena became a love affair. She let him win their duel and cared for him afterward, then used temporal magic to hasten the pregnancy that produced Thalia. Jin spent years with the family before his travels drew him away again.

The arrival of Cassian, Kaelion and Arinella gave Thalena new companions and new possibilities for opening the gates. She trained Cassian's sensing and Kaelion's temporal magic, treating Kaelion with affection as well as discipline. Her relationship with Cassian became intimate, despite his existing love for Arinella. Thalena sometimes urged him to cherish Arinella, but also arranged circumstances to keep him near her.

She designed communication devices for Cyrena's researchers and pursued gate experiments at the Nexus Research Center. Her wider plans aimed to draw gods into a world where they could be confronted. She and Cassian captured Pyrathalor during an attack. When the god's glaive gravely wounded Cassian, Thalena held him in stasis and supplied her remaining essence until Astryx removed it and Arinella healed him. She apologized to Arinella and comforted her afterward.

Her dealings with Jin mixed genuine care with withheld information.

The defense of Chronasis

A tethered gate experiment sent Deylin into the Void. A meteor severed the rope, and Thalena's gravity magic could not reach far enough to recover him. She returned with Cassian and continued preparing for war.

As the alliance against Thalassai gathered, she organized defenses and secured Silas's help by promising to defeat the darkness. Cyrena and Deylin made a core from Pyrathalor's essence, which Thalena entrusted to Aelius. She arranged protection for Thalia and asked Jin to care for their daughter if she fell. Privately, she froze Jin and bargained with Tianlei: he would take her enemies' side if she won and ensure Ozaith descended near the battle's end. Jin was not told of this agreement.

During the invasion, Thalena fought Kazimir, Kyrana and Vianna. She killed the two diarchs with a black hole before Isaac destroyed the construct. Tianlei attacked as arranged, and Ozaith descended. Hrzai and Cassian destroyed him. Thalena used the remaining power in Pyrathalor's core to stop the asteroid that threatened Chronasis, exhausting herself. After sending Jin to safety and saying farewell to Cassian, she vanished. Cassian became archon, but her apparent death was an escape into the Void to stabilize her overload.

Earth and Arcanis

Following a messenger's instructions, Thalena found Deylin on Earth in 1901. She taught him to slow aging, sent him toward Irrathis and destroyed the pyramid gate. She stayed on Earth, studied its science and created the timerift that brought David into Xalmyrra. In 1997 she revived him as an infant by supplying temporal essence to his heart, then guided and taught him under different guises through his life.

Rather than return with David, she chose a passage into Xalmyrra's past to break the cycles. Hrzai taught her divine magic, while Glin and the frogs helped her learn cosmic magic. She taught Glin temporal magic in return. Riding the astragon and using gravity to pin the opposing armies, she ended the War of Scars and became known as Arcanis. In the final Xalmyrran cycle, she prompted Kaldramir to begin the war required by the course, then stopped it again. Its destruction left her grieving and seeking comfort from Hrzai and the frogs.

She wrote the first copies of Eleven Stories of Old, lived in isolation and formed a close friendship with Lunorax. Hrzai and Orin helped her through her loneliness. In the preceding cycle, she arranged for Dorian and Rowenna to raise Cassian, then instructed Hrzai to have Deylin carry him into the next one.

She forged the silver sword alongside Hrzai's golden weapon and joined the struggle against Jorhan. Her blows left him mortally wounded, but Eshmir removed him before she could finish him. Glin carried the collapsed Arcanis away, and she repaired herself inside a cocoon in Zeydrith. Her identity as Thalena was revealed to her companions.

For Thalena, the journey had taken roughly four centuries; only days had passed for those she returned to in Chronasis. She reunited with her family and left Cassian in office. Her books had multiple contributors, including Jin; the eleventh story was not her work. She suspected Horol'Khai's involvement without proving who had written every missing or altered passage. She planned trains to connect nations without requiring travel through the Void.

Relationships

• Cassian: Her lover and successor as archon. He gives her comfort and companionship. She initially sought his help for her plans, but became deeply attached and risked her own life and power to keep him alive.
• Jin and Thalia: Jin was her lover and companion for years. He helped care for their daughter while Thalena governed, and their family affection persisted after they grew apart.
• Kaelion and Arinella: Kaelion is her pupil and friend. Arinella and Thalena both care for Cassian and worked together to save him after Pyrathalor's attack. Thalena apologized for manipulating her and comforted her afterward.
• Aelius and Zephyra: Her adopted children, whom she trained and continued to treat affectionately after they became leaders.
• Lunorax, Glin, Hrzai and the chronarcs: Lunorax was a trusted friend through her isolation and rule. Glin learned from and traveled with her, while Hrzai taught her and cared for her during the Arcanis journey. Her ties to Nethira, Astryx, Hadrian and the others combine teaching, friendship and service to Chronasis.

Thalena Xenith is the former archon of Space and Time in Chronasis, Thalassai. Born Helena Hyperion, the daughter of Ozaith and Aurelia, she also became the legendary Arcanis of Xalmyrra. Cassian holds her former office, while she continues her research and involvement in Thalassai's affairs.

Appearance

Thalena has silver and blond hair and violet eyes flecked with silver. She favors navy and silver robes, often with celestial patterns or translucent fabric, and takes pride in her appearance. Temporal magic keeps her body youthful despite her age.

She carries the silver sword she forged as Arcanis. Its enormous weight requires aether magic to carry comfortably.

Personality

Thalena is ambitious, calculating and willing to keep secrets from those closest to her. She seeks knowledge of gates, worlds and gods, and resists any power that would dictate how her people must live. Her plans extend well beyond an ordinary lifetime.

Her authority coexists with loneliness and a fear of abandonment. She enjoys teasing, physical affection, music and embarrassing her companions in public. With students and adopted children, she can be both a demanding teacher and a comforting parent. Cassian helped her enjoy company beyond official duties, while Nethira challenged her jealousy and encouraged her to join ordinary social life.

She values her family but has manipulated those she loves. She restrained Cassian and took away memories she had just allowed him to form to preserve the Order's hidden history. Her affection and secrecy can put her companions in conflict with her plans.

Magic

Thalena wields temporal, aether, divine, cosmic and origin magic. She learned divine and cosmic magic during the journey in which she became Arcanis. Temporal control slows aging, enables blinks and shields, and can hasten another person's growth. Combined with aether propulsion, it lets her cross enormous distances at exceptional speed. Her gravity fields restrain opponents, crush objects and suspend armies; her fine control also supports magnetic and engineering work.

After the battle with Jorhan, temporal stasis, cosmic essence gathering and divine healing repaired her body inside a cocoon. It drew so much essence that approaching her could drain visitors.

The power she calls the abyss reversed events around her and repeatedly prevented the deaths of Zero and Thalion during the Order's battles. She later learned to control it, including reversing an encounter to erase another person's new memories while keeping her own. The power could overwhelm her.

She works with Cyrena, Jareth and other researchers on communication devices, gates, engines and trains. Scientific knowledge gained on Earth complements her magic.

History

Helena's childhood

Thalena was born in Ishtanûr as Helena Hyperion. Her mother, Aurelia of Myrravel, carried dangerous copied magic and was approaching the limit of what her body could contain. She offered Ozaith a child bearing that power in exchange for aid to Myrravel. He accepted on the condition that the child remain his. Viviana named the infant Helena; Ozaith chose the surname Hyperion. Aurelia lost her copied magic as it passed into her daughter.

Aurelia returned to her homeland, leaving Helena in Ulzathir under the arrangement. Nadun watched over her, while her siblings Tazil and Mithara bullied her. She developed temporal magic at seven. The teacher appointed to her, Alistair Toss, deliberately taught her faulty spells and subjected her to repeated injury followed by healing. Ozaith permitted harsher training, and Helena came to feel that her parents had rejected her.

Sariel befriended her and intervened when Alistair tried to carry her away. They escaped to Haverloch, where Sariel corrected her temporal spells and helped her recover enough confidence to surpass his teaching. She helped on a farm near Axanaxa and wanted him to become her father, but he insisted on remaining her friend. Her wish to return for Aurelia and take revenge on Ozaith persisted.

At seventeen she passed the Symmetry Trials and entered the Axial Concord. There she met Jareth, then known as Jarin, and learned that he was an atraxi suffering from an illness. Her temporal magic temporarily relieved it. They made a bargain: she would help him escape Jorhan, and he would remain at her side. Arcanis first became a private name between them, long before her public use of it in Xalmyrra.

The Order of Thalion Zenith

Thalion Zenith recruited Helena to the Order of Thalion Zenith after she agreed that she would obey an order to kill innocents. She swore to serve the Order and conceal its history. Sylvia tested her temporal magic, Isandriel healed her, and Thalion and Ignatius offered protection and care after her childhood abuse.

Zero taught her aether magic and treated her with affection. Helena sought approval by joining the Order's attack on Morindel: her timerift combined with Zero's black hole, devastating the city and killing civilians. Jeremiah's kindness later unsettled her view of the guardians she had been taught to hate.

During the battle with Jazarel, Helena was overwhelmed and released the abyss. Events reversed repeatedly when Zero or Thalion died. The others fought through different outcomes without Helena understanding what she was doing. Mia finally froze Helena and sacrificed herself to secure the escape; the final outcome left Helena alive and the reversals ended. Helena blamed herself and feared being discarded, but Zero and Thalion reassured her and continued her training.

Her relationship with Thalion became romantic. He cared for her after her childhood abuse. She remained involved in the campaign against Malverand, while the Order required its members and their deeds to disappear from history.

Archon and family

As archon of Chronasis, Thalena developed its government and research institutions and brought an end to Thalassai's internal wars. The five archons retained equal authority in principle, but her exceptional power and long view gave her great practical influence. She adopted the orphan Zephyra and took in Aelius, a difficult child whom she trained. Lunorax became a trusted companion and chronarc.

Her opposition to divine domination made Thalassai a refuge for people who rejected the gods. Research into the gates offered the prospect of reaching beyond the isolated nation and, eventually, the God Realm.

Jin came to Thalassai to train, and his friendship with Thalena became a love affair. She let him win their duel and cared for him afterward, then used temporal magic to hasten the pregnancy that produced Thalia. Jin spent years with the family before his travels drew him away again.

The arrival of Cassian, Kaelion and Arinella gave Thalena new companions and new possibilities for opening the gates. She trained Cassian's sensing and Kaelion's temporal magic, showing the latter how spells were formed through her own essence. She treated Kaelion with affection as well as discipline. Her relationship with Cassian became intimate, despite his existing love for Arinella. Thalena sometimes urged him to cherish Arinella, but also arranged circumstances to keep him near her.

She designed communication devices for Cyrena's researchers and pursued gate experiments at the Nexus Research Center. Her wider plans aimed to draw gods into a world where they could be confronted. She and Cassian captured Pyrathalor during an attack. When the god's glaive gravely wounded Cassian, Thalena held him in stasis and supplied her remaining essence until Astryx removed it and Arinella healed him. She apologized to Arinella and comforted her afterward.

Her dealings with Jin mixed genuine care with withheld information. She also arranged, through Hrzai, for Isaac to protect Vianna in return for help ending the darkness.

The defense of Chronasis

A tethered gate experiment sent Deylin into the Void. A meteor severed the rope, and Thalena's gravity magic could not reach far enough to recover him. She returned with Cassian and continued preparing for war.

As the alliance against Thalassai gathered, she organized defenses and secured Silas's help by promising to defeat the darkness. Cyrena and Deylin made a core from Pyrathalor's essence, which Thalena entrusted to Aelius. She arranged protection for Thalia and asked Jin to care for their daughter if she fell. Privately, she froze Jin and bargained with Tianlei: he would take her enemies' side if she won and ensure Ozaith descended near the battle's end. Jin was not told of this agreement.

During the invasion, Thalena fought Kazimir, Kyrana and Vianna. She killed the two diarchs with a black hole before Isaac destroyed the construct. Tianlei attacked as arranged, and Ozaith descended. Hrzai and Cassian destroyed him. Thalena used the remaining power in Pyrathalor's core to stop the asteroid that threatened Chronasis, exhausting herself. After sending Jin to safety and saying farewell to Cassian, she vanished. Cassian became archon, but her apparent death was an escape into the Void to stabilize her overload.

Earth and Arcanis

Following a messenger's instructions, Thalena found Deylin on Earth in 1901. She taught him to slow aging, sent him toward Irrathis and destroyed the pyramid gate. She stayed on Earth, studied its science and created the timerift that brought David into Xalmyrra. In 1997 she revived him as an infant by supplying temporal essence to his heart, then guided and taught him under different guises through his life.

Rather than return with David, she chose a passage into Xalmyrra's past to break the cycles. Hrzai taught her divine magic, while Glin and the frogs helped her learn cosmic magic. She taught Glin temporal magic in return. Riding the astragon and using gravity to pin the opposing armies, she ended the War of Scars and became known as Arcanis. In the final Xalmyrran cycle, she prompted Kaldramir to begin the war required by the course, then stopped it again. Its destruction left her grieving and seeking comfort from Hrzai and the frogs.

She wrote the first copies of Eleven Stories of Old, lived in isolation and formed a close friendship with Lunorax. Hrzai and Orin helped her through her loneliness. In the preceding cycle, she arranged for Dorian and Rowenna to raise Cassian, then instructed Hrzai to have Deylin carry him into the next one. Her interventions connected her own earlier life with the people who would eventually receive her in Chronasis.

She forged the silver sword alongside Hrzai's golden weapon and joined the struggle against Jorhan. Her blows left him mortally wounded, but Eshmir removed him before she could finish him. Glin carried the collapsed Arcanis away, and she repaired herself inside a cocoon in Zeydrith. Her identity as Thalena was revealed to her companions.

For Thalena, the journey had taken roughly four centuries; only days had passed for those she returned to in Chronasis. She reunited with her family and left Cassian in office. Her books had multiple contributors, including Jin; the eleventh story was not her work. She suspected Horol'Khai's involvement without proving who had written every missing or altered passage. The original male Arcanis of Malverand was a different person from the identity she assumed.

Research and concealed history

Thalena helped develop trains with Cyrena, Jareth and Thalvian, planning connections across nations and overseeing prototypes. When timerifts disrupted a feast in Chronasis, her black hole saved some of those present but could not stop the entire attack. She helped heal the wounded and sent Deylin and Jareth to investigate. Horol'Khai and Varnhallow became central to the search.

Cassian uncovered her hidden Legacy of Thalion Zenith. She revealed her childhood identity, parents, age of about 3,600 years and love for Thalion. She restrained him with aether magic while testing whether he would accept her past, then used the abyss to reverse the encounter. Cassian lost what he had learned; she retained her memories and her promise to conceal the Order's history.

Relationships

• Cassian: Her lover and successor as archon. He gives her comfort and companionship, though she has manipulated him and erased revelations about her past. She has also risked her own life and power to keep him alive.
• Jin and Thalia: Jin was her lover and companion for years. He helped care for their daughter while Thalena governed, and their family affection persisted after they grew apart.
• Thalion Zenith: Her love and teacher in the Order's past. She preserved his name and obeyed his demand for secrecy. Her attachment developed from dependence after abuse.
• Zero, Sariel and Jareth: Zero taught her aether magic and comforted her after the repeated battle. Sariel rescued her from Alistair and became the friend she had wanted as a father. Jareth's bargain with her began in the Axial Concord and grew into lasting loyalty and scientific collaboration.
• Kaelion and Arinella: Kaelion is her pupil and friend. Arinella and Thalena both care for Cassian, and worked together to save him after Pyrathalor's attack. Thalena apologized for manipulating her and comforted her afterward.
• Aelius and Zephyra: Her adopted children, whom she trained and continued to treat affectionately after they became leaders.
• Lunorax, Glin and the chronarcs: Lunorax was a trusted friend through her isolation and rule. Glin learned from and traveled with her. Her ties to Nethira, Astryx, Hadrian and the others combine teaching, friendship and service to Chronasis.

Thalena Xenith is the former archon of Space and Time in Chronasis, Thalassai. Born Helena Hyperion, the daughter of Ozaith and Aurelia, she also became the legendary Arcanis of Xalmyrra. Cassian holds her former office, while she continues her research and involvement in Thalassai's affairs.

Appearance

Thalena has silver and blond hair and violet eyes flecked with silver. She favors navy and silver robes, often with celestial patterns or translucent fabric, and takes pride in her appearance. Temporal magic keeps her body youthful despite her age.

She carries the silver sword she forged as Arcanis. Its enormous weight requires aether magic to carry comfortably.

Personality

Thalena is ambitious, calculating and willing to keep secrets from those closest to her. She seeks knowledge of gates, worlds and gods, and resists any power that would dictate how her people must live. Her plans extend well beyond an ordinary lifetime.

Her authority coexists with loneliness and a fear of abandonment. She enjoys teasing, physical affection, music and embarrassing her companions in public. With students and adopted children, she can be both a demanding teacher and a comforting parent. Cassian helped her enjoy company beyond official duties, while Nethira challenged her jealousy and encouraged her to join ordinary social life.

Her desire to protect people has also led her to manipulate them and sacrifice others. She helped preserve the world's cycles, engineered deadly wars in her earlier life and concealed the costs of her plans. Affection did not prevent her from restraining Cassian or taking away memories she had just allowed him to form.

Magic

Thalena wields temporal, aether, divine and cosmic magic. She learned divine and cosmic magic during the journey in which she became Arcanis. Temporal control slows aging, enables blinks and shields, and can hasten another person's growth. Combined with aether propulsion, it lets her cross enormous distances at exceptional speed. Her gravity fields restrain opponents, crush objects and suspend armies; her fine control also supports magnetic and engineering work.

After the battle with Jorhan, temporal stasis, cosmic essence gathering and divine healing repaired her body inside a cocoon. It drew so much essence that approaching her could drain visitors.

She once possessed the origin power she called the abyss. It reversed events around her and repeatedly prevented the deaths of Zero and Thalion during the Order's battles. She later learned to control it, including reversing an encounter to erase another person's new memories while keeping her own. The power could overwhelm her. It disappeared during her escape from the Void.

Thalion gave her a prototype star shard that absorbed excess essence and helped stabilize the abyss. The shard contained no god, though belief in her supplied it with power. It was kept hidden from most of her companions.

She works with Cyrena, Jareth and other researchers on communication devices, gates, engines and trains. Scientific knowledge gained on Earth complements her magic.

History

Helena's childhood

Thalena was born in Ishtanûr as Helena Hyperion. Her mother, Aurelia of Myrravel, carried dangerous copied magic and was approaching the limit of what her body could contain. She offered Ozaith a child bearing that power in exchange for aid to Myrravel. He accepted on the condition that the child remain his. Viviana named the infant Helena; Ozaith chose the surname Hyperion. Aurelia lost her copied magic as it passed into her daughter.

Aurelia returned to her homeland, leaving Helena in Ulzathir under the arrangement. Nadun watched over her, while her siblings Tazil and Mithara bullied her. She developed temporal magic at seven. The teacher appointed to her, Alistair Toss, deliberately taught her faulty spells and subjected her to repeated injury followed by healing. Ozaith permitted harsher training, and Helena came to feel that her parents had rejected her.

Sariel befriended her and intervened when Alistair tried to carry her away. They escaped to Haverloch, where Sariel corrected her temporal spells and helped her recover enough confidence to surpass his teaching. She helped on a farm near Axanaxa and wanted him to become her father, but he insisted on remaining her friend. Her wish to return for Aurelia and take revenge on Ozaith persisted.

At seventeen she passed the Symmetry Trials and entered the Axial Concord. There she met Jareth, then known as Jarin, and learned that he was an atraxi suffering from an illness. Her temporal magic temporarily relieved it. They made a bargain: she would help him escape Jorhan, and he would remain at her side. Arcanis first became a private name between them, long before her public use of it in Xalmyrra.

The Order of Thalion Zenith

Thalion Zenith recruited Helena to the Order of Thalion Zenith after she agreed that she would obey an order to kill innocents. She swore to serve the Order and conceal its history. Sylvia tested her temporal magic, Isandriel healed her, and Thalion and Ignatius offered protection and care after her childhood abuse.

Zero taught her aether magic and became her adoptive father. Helena sought approval by joining the Order's attack on Morindel: her timerift combined with Zero's black hole, devastating the city and killing civilians. Jeremiah's kindness later unsettled her view of the guardians she had been taught to hate.

During the battle with Jazarel, Helena was overwhelmed and released the abyss. Events reversed repeatedly when Zero or Thalion died. The others fought through different outcomes without Helena understanding what she was doing. Mia finally froze Helena and sacrificed herself to secure the escape; the final outcome left Helena alive and the reversals ended. Helena blamed herself and feared being discarded, but Zero and Thalion reassured her and continued her training.

Her relationship with Thalion became romantic. He recognized how strongly she depended on him, while Benedict and Sylvia discussed using that attachment to direct her. Helena learned politics as well as magic and struggled with jealousy when she believed Thalion and Sylvia intended to have a child. Benedict helped her understand the abyss and the repeated battle, though her own memories remained incomplete.

When Raphael killed Benedict and Sylvia in another encounter and threatened to take Helena away, she deliberately began a timerift that would sever her own body. The abyss reversed the event, allowing her to warn her companions and escape. Thalion later gave her the star shard during an illness brought on by training. It absorbed her essence and stabilized her. She remained involved in the campaign against Malverand, while the Order required its members and their deeds to disappear from history.

Wanderer, governor and archon

Helena's long life after the Order included a mission in Ishtanûr with Frederick and Kira. She remained with them as they grew old and each chose to end their lives by overloading. She then left for Thalassai, having refined her means of slowing age. Zero had left with Thalion in search of a way back to their own time.

She lived in Pyrenis despite restrictions on female military participation, eventually becoming an officer. Her strength had dangerous consequences: she accidentally broke Aevandros's neck during an encounter. She later loved Flavian, and they had a son, Ignatius. Flavian died after overloading to rescue a villager; their son died while Helena was away. She subsequently supported herself through sex work before reuniting with Isaac.

Isaac helped stabilize her aether magic. They traveled and fought together for centuries, and she became associated with the stories of the Wanderer. Her later love for Pyrrhus ended when he betrayed her with Kairessa. Helena killed officials, tortured Pyrrhus, beheaded Kairessa and destroyed a history book. She then deliberately fomented wars and flooded a town, killing millions and drawing essence from the dead. She recruited survivors into an army, won her campaign and withdrew before being elected governor in Terranova.

She eventually took the name Thalena Xenith in memory of Thalion. As archon of Chronasis, she developed its government and research institutions and brought an end to Thalassai's internal wars. The five archons retained equal authority in principle, but her exceptional power and long view gave her great practical influence. She adopted the orphan Zephyra and took in Aelius, a difficult child whom she trained and entrusted to Hadrian for military instruction. Lunorax became a trusted companion and chronarc.

She also learned to control the abyss and hid its existence. Her opposition to divine domination made Thalassai a refuge for people who rejected the gods. Research into the gates offered the prospect of reaching beyond the isolated nation and, eventually, the God Realm.

Jin, Cassian and the god trap

Jin came to Thalassai to train, and his friendship with Thalena became a love affair. She let him win their duel and cared for him afterward, then used temporal magic to hasten the pregnancy that produced Thalia. She secretly fused Tianlei's essence into the child without Jin or the god knowing. Jin spent years with the family before his travels drew him away again.

The arrival of Cassian, Kaelion and Arinella gave Thalena new companions and new possibilities for opening the gates. She trained Cassian's sensing and Kaelion's temporal magic, showing the latter how spells were formed through her own essence. She treated Kaelion with affection as well as discipline. Her relationship with Cassian became intimate, despite his existing love for Arinella. Thalena sometimes urged him to cherish Arinella, but also arranged circumstances to keep him near her.

She designed communication devices for Cyrena's researchers and pursued gate experiments at the Nexus Research Center. Her wider plans aimed to draw gods into a world where they could be confronted. She and Cassian captured Pyrathalor during an attack. When the god's glaive gravely wounded Cassian, Thalena held him in stasis and supplied her remaining essence until Astryx removed it and Arinella healed him. She apologized to Arinella and comforted her afterward.

Her dealings with Jin mixed genuine care with withheld information. She also arranged, through Hrzai, for Isaac to protect Vianna in return for help ending the darkness.

The defense of Chronasis

A tethered gate experiment sent Deylin into the Void. A meteor severed the rope, and Thalena's gravity magic could not reach far enough to recover him. She returned with Cassian and continued preparing for war.

As the alliance against Thalassai gathered, she organized defenses and secured Silas's help by promising to defeat the darkness. Cyrena and Deylin made a core from Pyrathalor's essence, which Thalena entrusted to Aelius. She arranged protection for Thalia and asked Jin to care for their daughter if she fell. Privately, she froze Jin and bargained with Tianlei: he would take her enemies' side if she won and ensure Ozaith descended near the battle's end. Jin was not told of this agreement.

During the invasion, Thalena fought Kazimir, Kyrana and Vianna. She killed the two diarchs with a black hole before Isaac destroyed the construct. Tianlei attacked as arranged, and Ozaith descended. Hrzai and Cassian destroyed him. Thalena used the remaining power in Pyrathalor's core to stop the asteroid that threatened Chronasis, exhausting herself. After sending Jin to safety and saying farewell to Cassian, she vanished. Cassian became archon, but her apparent death was an escape into the Void to stabilize her overload.

Earth and Arcanis

Following a messenger's instructions, Thalena found Deylin on Earth in 1901. She taught him to slow aging, sent him toward Irrathis and destroyed the pyramid gate. She stayed on Earth, studied its science and created the timerift that brought David into Xalmyrra. In 1997 she revived him as an infant by supplying temporal essence to his heart, then guided and taught him under different guises through his life.

Rather than return with David, she chose a passage into Xalmyrra's past to break the cycles. Hrzai taught her divine magic, while Glin and the frogs helped her learn cosmic magic. She taught Glin temporal magic in return. Riding the astragon and using gravity to pin the opposing armies, she ended the War of Scars and became known as Arcanis. In the final Xalmyrran cycle, she prompted Kaldramir to begin the war required by the course, then stopped it again. Its destruction left her grieving and seeking comfort from Hrzai and the frogs.

She wrote the first copies of Eleven Stories of Old, lived in isolation and formed a close friendship with Lunorax. Hrzai and Orin helped her through her loneliness. In the preceding cycle, she arranged for Dorian and Rowenna to raise Cassian, then instructed Hrzai to have Deylin carry him into the next one. Her interventions connected her own earlier life with the people who would eventually receive her in Chronasis.

She forged the silver sword alongside Hrzai's golden weapon and joined the struggle against Jorhan. Her blows left him mortally wounded, but Eshmir removed him before she could finish him. Glin carried the collapsed Arcanis away, and she repaired herself inside a cocoon in Zeydrith. Her identity as Thalena was revealed to her companions.

For Thalena, the journey had taken roughly four centuries; only days had passed for those she returned to in Chronasis. She reunited with her family and left Cassian in office. Her books had multiple contributors, including Jin; the eleventh story was not her work. She suspected Horol'Khai's involvement without proving who had written every missing or altered passage. The original male Arcanis of Malverand was a different person from the identity she assumed.

Research, concealed history and the guardians

Thalena helped develop trains with Cyrena, Jareth and Thalvian, planning connections across nations and overseeing prototypes. When timerifts disrupted a feast in Chronasis, her black hole saved some of those present but could not stop the entire attack. She helped heal the wounded and sent Deylin and Jareth to investigate. Horol'Khai and Varnhallow became central to the search.

Cassian uncovered her hidden Legacy of Thalion Zenith. She revealed her childhood identity, parents, age of about 3,600 years and love for Thalion. She restrained him with aether magic while testing whether he would accept her past, then used the abyss to reverse the encounter. Cassian lost what he had learned; she retained her memories and her promise to conceal the Order's history.

She later shared a version of the Legacy with Eira and resumed more open travel and diplomacy. At Axanaxa she retook the Symmetry Trials and was welcomed into the Axial Concord. She negotiated transport and trade with Haverloch, visited Morozkaya and promoted participation in the Celestial Games. Her scientific knowledge and agricultural experience in Terranova informed these efforts.

Garrik and Thalena recognized shared experiences from the Wanderer's past. She agreed to attack Eremion and traveled with Glin to aid her companions against the guardians.

The Void and her return

After defeating and questioning Eremion, she saw red lines emerge from his palm and destroy him. She collected his heart but said she had not killed him. In Rimvold she healed and rescued wounded allies. Eliona's projectile corrupted her magic, prompting her to escape into the Void with Deylin and purge the foreign particles.

Thalena, Deylin, Silas, Sigurd and Lunorax became trapped in the Void. In the Malverand Intergalactic Empire, she met Amos and traded temporal knowledge and atraxi gate schematics for help bringing the group home. Her work with the empire's core sent instructions and messages into the cycles. Maintaining the world that had produced her required her to preserve terrible events rather than simply remove them. A system command to destroy the core remained unfulfilled.

She was shot during a meeting with Isandro. Afterward, the five awakened in the Void as their unstable forms began to recover, and her abyss was gone. Hadrian and Astryx pulled them through the Chronasis gate. Thalena returned to Cassian at the Nexus Research Center.

Relationships

• Cassian: Her lover and successor as archon. He gives her comfort and companionship, though she has manipulated him and erased revelations about her past. She has also risked her own life and power to keep him alive.
• Jin and Thalia: Jin was her lover and companion for years. She secretly fused Tianlei's essence into their daughter without either Jin or the god knowing. Family affection persists alongside her withheld plans.
• Thalion Zenith: Her first love, teacher and closest friend in the Order's past. She preserved his name and obeyed his demand for secrecy. Her attachment developed from dependence after abuse, and he recognized the troubling power that gave him over her.
• Zero: Her adoptive father and aether teacher in the past. In the present she had taught Zayren the black hole spell that he later passed to her as Zero.
• Sariel and Jareth: Sariel rescued her from Alistair and became the friend she had wanted as a father. Jareth's bargain with her began in the Axial Concord and grew into lasting loyalty and scientific collaboration.
• Kaelion and Eira: Kaelion is her pupil and friend; Eira shares her interest in gates and hidden histories. Her affection for them accompanies attempts to direct their choices and secure their help.
• Aelius and Zephyra: Her adopted children, whom she trained and continued to treat affectionately after they became leaders. Aelius was also the Ignatius who cared for Helena in the Order's past.
• Arinella: They care for Cassian and can work closely together, but their relationship is not a love affair. Thalena apologized to her after Cassian's near death and sometimes put his needs ahead of her jealousy.
• Lunorax, Glin and the chronarcs: Lunorax was a trusted friend through her isolation and rule. Glin learned from and traveled with her. Her ties to Nethira, Astryx, Hadrian and the others combine teaching, friendship and service to Chronasis.
• Isaac: A companion through centuries of travel and warfare, later bound to her plans through bargains.

Thalena Xenith is a mage whose life spans millennia and the former archon of Space and Time in Chronasis, Thalassai. Born Helena Hyperion, the daughter of Ozaith and Aurelia, she also became the legendary Arcanis of Xalmyrra. She is Cassian's lover and the mother of Thalia and Leonora. Cassian holds her former office, while she continues her research and involvement in Thalassai's affairs.

Appearance

Thalena has silver and blond hair and violet eyes flecked with silver. She favors navy and silver robes, often with celestial patterns or translucent fabric, and takes pride in her appearance. Temporal magic kept her body youthful despite her age. After her return from the Void, her father rebuilt her body.

She carries the silver sword she forged as Arcanis and Cassian's golden sword. The silver blade is extraordinarily heavy; she uses aether magic to carry it comfortably.

Personality

Thalena is ambitious, calculating and willing to keep secrets from those closest to her. She seeks knowledge of gates, worlds and gods, and resists any power that would dictate how her people must live. Her plans extend well beyond an ordinary lifetime.

Her authority coexists with loneliness and a fear of abandonment. She enjoys teasing, physical affection, music and embarrassing her companions in public. With students and adopted children, she can be both a demanding teacher and a comforting parent. Cassian helped her enjoy company beyond official duties, while Nethira challenged her jealousy and encouraged her to join ordinary social life.

Her desire to protect people has also led her to manipulate them and sacrifice others. She helped preserve the world's cycles, engineered deadly wars in her earlier life and concealed the costs of her plans. She restrained Cassian and took away memories she had just allowed him to form.

Magic

Thalena wields temporal, aether, divine and cosmic magic. She learned divine and cosmic magic during the journey in which she became Arcanis. Temporal control slows aging, enables blinks and shields, and can hasten another person's growth. Combined with aether propulsion, it lets her cross enormous distances at exceptional speed. Her gravity fields can restrain people, crush opponents or suspend armies. She also manipulates objects and magnetic forces with great precision.

Her healing and defensive magic supported her own recovery and the survival of wounded companions. Repairing her body after the battle with Jorhan combined temporal stasis, cosmic essence gathering and divine healing. It drew so much essence that people approaching her cocoon risked being drained. Divine magic and a Malverand heart could not reverse Aurion's fatal decline.

She once possessed the origin power she called the abyss. In her youth it reversed events around her, repeatedly preventing the deaths of Zero and Thalion. She later learned to control it and could remove another person's newly acquired memories by reversing the encounter. The power was dangerous, could overwhelm her and was not simply an ordinary temporal spell. It disappeared during her escape from the Void and remained absent after her bodily restoration.

Thalion gave her a prototype star shard that absorbed her excess essence and helped stabilize the abyss. It contained no god; belief in her could supply it with power. Her father later restored the shard, though this did not restore the lost abyss. She studies the shard's instructions and responses without having established whether hidden commands have influenced her choices.

She works closely with researchers on communication devices, gates, engines and trains. Scientific knowledge gained on Earth and through Jareth complements her magic.

History

Helena's childhood

Thalena was born in Ishtanûr as Helena Hyperion. Ozaith used essence he had absorbed from divine Helena, his daughter in an earlier world, to create her within Aurelia. Her mother, Aurelia of Myrravel, carried dangerous copied magic and was approaching the limit of what her body could contain. She offered Ozaith a child bearing that power in exchange for aid to Myrravel. He accepted on the condition that the child remain his. Viviana named the infant Helena; Ozaith chose the surname Hyperion. Aurelia lost her copied magic as it passed into her daughter.

Aurelia returned to her homeland, leaving Helena in Ulzathir under the arrangement. Nadun watched over her, while her siblings Tazil and Mithara bullied her. She developed temporal magic at seven. The teacher appointed to her, Alistair Toss, deliberately taught her faulty spells and subjected her to repeated injury followed by healing. Ozaith permitted harsher training, and Helena came to feel that her parents had rejected her.

Sariel befriended her and intervened when Alistair tried to carry her away. They escaped to Haverloch, where Sariel corrected her temporal spells and helped her recover enough confidence to surpass his teaching. She helped on a farm near Axanaxa and wanted him to become her father, but he insisted on remaining her friend. Her wish to return for Aurelia and take revenge on Ozaith persisted.

At seventeen she passed the Symmetry Trials and entered the Axial Concord. There she met Jareth, then known as Jarin, and learned that he was an atraxi suffering from an illness. Her temporal magic temporarily relieved it. They made a bargain: she would help him escape Jorhan, and he would remain at her side. Arcanis first became a private name between them, long before her public use of it in Xalmyrra.

The Order of Thalion Zenith

Thalion Zenith recruited Helena to the Order of Thalion Zenith after she agreed that she would obey an order to kill innocents. She swore to serve the Order and conceal its history. Sylvia tested her temporal magic, Isandriel healed her, and Thalion and Ignatius offered protection and care after her childhood abuse.

Zero taught her aether magic and became her adoptive father. Helena sought approval by joining the Order's attack on Morindel: her timerift combined with Zero's black hole, devastating the city and killing civilians. Jeremiah's kindness later unsettled her view of the guardians she had been taught to hate.

During the battle with Jazarel, Helena was overwhelmed and released the abyss. Events reversed repeatedly when Zero or Thalion died. The others fought through different outcomes without Helena understanding what she was doing. Mia finally froze Helena and sacrificed herself to secure the escape; the final outcome left Helena alive and the reversals ended. Helena blamed herself and feared being discarded, but Zero and Thalion reassured her and continued her training.

Her relationship with Thalion became romantic. He recognized how strongly she depended on him, while Benedict and Sylvia discussed using that attachment to direct her. Helena learned politics as well as magic and struggled with jealousy when she believed Thalion and Sylvia intended to have a child. Benedict helped her understand the abyss and the repeated battle, though her own memories remained incomplete.

When Raphael killed Benedict and Sylvia in another encounter and threatened to take Helena away, she deliberately began a timerift that would sever her own body. The abyss reversed the event, allowing her to warn her companions and escape. Thalion later gave her the star shard during an illness brought on by training. It absorbed her essence and stabilized her. She remained involved in the campaign against Malverand, while the Order required its members and their deeds to disappear from history.

Wanderer, governor and archon

Helena's long life after the Order included a mission in Ishtanûr with Frederick and Kira. She remained with them as they grew old and each chose to end their lives by overloading. She then left for Thalassai, having refined her means of slowing age. Zero had left with Thalion in search of a way back to their own time.

She lived in Pyrenis despite restrictions on female military participation, eventually becoming an officer. Her strength had dangerous consequences: she accidentally broke Aevandros's neck during an encounter. She later loved Flavian, and they had a son, Ignatius. Flavian died after overloading to rescue a villager; their son died while Helena was away. She subsequently supported herself through sex work before reuniting with Isaac.

Isaac helped stabilize her aether magic. They traveled and fought together for centuries, and she became associated with the stories of the Wanderer. Her later love for Pyrrhus ended when he betrayed her with Kairessa. Helena killed officials, tortured Pyrrhus, beheaded Kairessa and destroyed a history book. She then deliberately fomented wars and flooded a town, killing millions and drawing essence from the dead. She recruited survivors into an army, won her campaign and withdrew before being elected governor in Terranova.

She eventually took the name Thalena Xenith in memory of Thalion. As archon of Chronasis, she developed its government and research institutions and brought an end to Thalassai's internal wars. The five archons retained equal authority in principle, but her exceptional power and long view gave her great practical influence. She adopted the orphan Zephyra and took in Aelius, a difficult child whom she trained and entrusted to Hadrian for military instruction. Lunorax became a trusted companion and chronarc.

She also learned to control the abyss and hid its existence. Her opposition to divine domination made Thalassai a refuge for people who rejected the gods. Research into the gates offered the prospect of reaching beyond the isolated nation and, eventually, the God Realm.

Jin, Cassian and the god trap

Jin came to Thalassai to train, and his friendship with Thalena became a love affair. She let him win their duel and cared for him afterward, then used temporal magic to hasten the pregnancy that produced Thalia. She secretly fused Tianlei's essence into the child without Jin or the god knowing. Jin spent years with the family before his travels drew him away again.

The arrival of Cassian, Kaelion and Arinella gave Thalena new companions and new possibilities for opening the gates. She trained Cassian's sensing and Kaelion's temporal magic, showing the latter how spells were formed through her own essence. She treated Kaelion with affection as well as discipline. Her relationship with Cassian became intimate, despite his existing love for Arinella. Thalena sometimes urged him to cherish Arinella, but also arranged circumstances to keep him near her.

She designed communication devices for Cyrena's researchers and pursued gate experiments at the Nexus Research Center. Her wider plans aimed to draw gods into a world where they could be confronted. She and Cassian captured Pyrathalor during an attack. When the god's glaive gravely wounded Cassian, Thalena held him in stasis and supplied her remaining essence until Astryx removed it and Arinella healed him. She apologized to Arinella and comforted her afterward.

Her dealings with Jin mixed genuine care with withheld information. She also arranged, through Hrzai, for Isaac to protect Vianna in return for help ending the darkness.

The defense of Chronasis

A tethered gate experiment sent Deylin into the Void. A meteor severed the rope, and Thalena's gravity magic could not reach far enough to recover him. She returned with Cassian and continued preparing for war.

As the alliance against Thalassai gathered, she organized defenses and secured Silas's help by promising to defeat the darkness. Cyrena and Deylin made a core from Pyrathalor's essence, which Thalena entrusted to Aelius. She arranged protection for Thalia and asked Jin to care for their daughter if she fell. Privately, she froze Jin and bargained with Tianlei: he would take her enemies' side if she won and ensure Ozaith (Reborn) descended near the battle's end. Jin was not told of this agreement.

During the invasion, Thalena fought Kazimir, Kyrana and Vianna. She killed the two diarchs with a black hole before Isaac destroyed the construct. Tianlei attacked as arranged, and Ozaith (Reborn) descended. Hrzai and Cassian destroyed him. Thalena used the remaining power in Pyrathalor's core to stop the asteroid that threatened Chronasis, exhausting herself. After sending Jin to safety and saying farewell to Cassian, she vanished. Cassian became archon, but her apparent death was an escape into the Void to stabilize her overload.

Earth and Arcanis

Following a messenger's instructions, Thalena found Deylin on Earth in 1901. She taught him to slow aging, sent him toward Irrathis and destroyed the pyramid gate. She stayed on Earth, studied its science and created the timerift that brought David into Xalmyrra. In 1997 she revived him as an infant by supplying temporal essence to his heart, then guided and taught him under different guises through his life.

Rather than return with David, she chose a passage into Xalmyrra's past to break the cycles. Hrzai taught her divine magic, while Glin and the frogs helped her learn cosmic magic. She taught Glin temporal magic in return. Riding the astragon and using gravity to pin the opposing armies, she ended the War of Scars and became known as Arcanis. In the final Xalmyrran cycle, she prompted Kaldramir to begin the war required by the course, then stopped it again. Its destruction left her grieving and seeking comfort from Hrzai and the frogs.

She wrote the first copies of Eleven Stories of Old, lived in isolation and formed a close friendship with Lunorax. Hrzai and Orin helped her through her loneliness. In the preceding cycle, she arranged for Dorian and Rowenna to raise Cassian, then instructed Hrzai to have Deylin carry him into the next one. Her interventions connected her own earlier life with the people who would eventually receive her in Chronasis.

She forged the silver sword alongside Hrzai's golden weapon and joined the struggle against Jorhan. Her blows left him mortally wounded, but Eshmir removed him before she could finish him. Glin carried the collapsed Arcanis away, and she repaired herself inside a cocoon in Zeydrith. Her identity as Thalena was revealed to her companions.

For Thalena, the journey had taken roughly four centuries; only days had passed for those she returned to in Chronasis. She reunited with her family and left Cassian in office. Her books had multiple contributors, including Jin; the eleventh story was not her work. She suspected Horol'Khai's involvement without proving who had written every missing or altered passage. The original male Arcanis of Malverand was a different person from the identity she assumed.

Research, concealed history and the guardians

Thalena helped develop trains with Cyrena, Jareth and Thalvian, planning connections across nations and overseeing prototypes. When timerifts disrupted a feast in Chronasis, her black hole saved some of those present but could not stop the entire attack. She helped heal the wounded and sent Deylin and Jareth to investigate. Horol'Khai and Varnhallow became central to the search.

Cassian uncovered her hidden Legacy of Thalion Zenith. She revealed her childhood identity, parents, age of about 3,600 years and love for Thalion. She restrained him with aether magic while testing whether he would accept her past, then used the abyss to reverse the encounter. Cassian lost what he had learned; she retained her memories and her promise to conceal the Order's history.

She later shared a version of the Legacy with Eira and resumed more open travel and diplomacy. At Axanaxa she retook the Symmetry Trials and was welcomed into the Axial Concord. She negotiated transport and trade with Haverloch, visited Morozkaya and promoted participation in the Celestial Games. Her scientific knowledge and agricultural experience in Terranova informed these efforts.

Garrik and Thalena recognized shared experiences from the Wanderer's past. She agreed to attack Eremion, traveled with Glin and assisted companions against the guardians. After defeating and questioning Eremion, she saw red lines emerge from his palm and destroy him. She collected his heart but said she had not killed him. Later she healed and rescued allies in Rimvold; Eliona's projectile corrupted her magic, prompting her to escape into the Void with Deylin and purge the foreign particles.

The Void and her copy

Thalena, Deylin, Silas, Sigurd and Lunorax became trapped in the Void. Her black holes could not restore a passage home, and the abyss eventually failed her. When Silas and Zal'therak breached another world, Thalena widened the opening with aether magic and sent a copy of her essence through it. The copy initially believed itself to be the original.

In the Malverand Intergalactic Empire, the copy met Amos and exchanged temporal data for help rescuing the five originals. She supplied knowledge of atraxi gates and worked through the core's systems. Her instructions and recorded messages reached companions across the cycles; preserving the world that had produced her meant allowing its terrible history to happen. A system command to destroy the core was not fulfilled.

Rafe shot the copy, but the original Thalena remained alive. The five awakened as their unstable forms began to recover. Hadrian and Astryx pulled them through the Chronasis gate, and Thalena returned to Cassian at the Nexus Research Center. Her abyss was gone.

The restoration depended on Amos bringing their essence capsules home, Ozaith rebuilding their bodies, Xarion supplying essence and Nethira healing them. Amos installed the copy's memories into Thalena, allowing its separate experiences to return gradually. Memories associated with divine Helena, a different woman, also troubled her, but their origin and relation to her own experiences remained uncertain.

Family, hearts and the council

Thalena reunited with Jin, Thalia, Zayren and the others and thanked Amos and Jareth. Ozaith returned to her as her father, now acknowledging his failures and promising to remain beside her. She recognized Alistair in his Astryx disguise when he forced another confrontation with the gods. Her attempt with Hadrian to seize him failed, and she ordered a search.

She investigated the recovered Malverand hearts and the possibility of reviving Isandriel. Eliona and Azarion could not restore him. She also offered Sigurd the possibility of longevity or quiet retirement, without making either choice for him.

To spare Eira the loneliness of outliving Kaelion, Thalena joined her, Xoh'Tenol and Ozaith in inserting Eremion's heart into him without warning him. Cassian was not told. When they found the solar core inside Kaelion, Thalena froze him while Jin performed the surgery and Nethira guided it. Thalena pulled the core out, and the Malverand heart closed the wound. They then examined Xoh'Tenol, whose own solar core occupied the place of a heart. Removing it would have killed her, so Nethira healed the wound and they left it in place. Thalena later apologized to Kaelion for the forced heart implantation. He forgave her while saying she should have spoken to him first.

She wished to have another child. With Cassian's knowledge, she conceived Leonora with Xarion; Cassian chose the name and would raise her. Thalena hastened the pregnancy with temporal magic and gave birth in Chronasis. Her grief for lost companions remained alongside her delight in the new family.

During visits to the empire she studied its technology and Isandro's history, finding her own copy's experiences unsettlingly real. Her restored star shard contained complex instructions, but she did not establish that Eamon or anyone else had controlled it. She began writing Beneath the Veil, drawing together memories and accounts whose origins she could not fully explain.

At the Valrindor Council, Thalena supported Xarion's leadership, brought train schematics and volunteered for the force against the darkness. The council selected Ithyreon as its first mission. On the journey home she intercepted Eira and Kaelion before they explored the obelisk and brought them back to Chronasis. Ozaith took the name Hyperion with her acceptance, provided people remained free to choose whether to believe in him.

Thalena renamed her book Shores of Eternity and shared its last portion with Eira and Kaelion. After Jin brought Loria to Chronasis, Hyperion challenged whether Thalena would ascend beyond humanity. She refused, choosing to remain human and continue writing.

The account in Shores of Eternity

Her book presents a different course in which she attempted that ascent. The journey left her partly formed in the Void, and Silas restored her physical presence. Her absence coincided with the disaster in Ithyreon. Later catastrophes included the solar flare and the detonation of Gabriel's crystals; she comforted Cassian, organized rescues and gave the Maraveth core to Oktlix as the empire failed.

After Leonora died in a plague, she accepted Cassian's wish to unmake himself. More than a century later, Lothar helped her recover Kaelion's heart and Xoh'Tenol's body. She restored Xoh'Tenol, studied with her for centuries and learned to open doors between worlds. She eventually moved Valrindor into the Void and investigated the Spiral Mandate. Her immense later power could fulfill the past rather than change it. The account's relation to divine Helena's memories, her own experience and the core's commands remains unresolved.

Relationships

• Cassian: Her lover and successor as archon. He brings comfort and ordinary companionship into her long life, though she has manipulated him and erased revelations about her past. They raise Leonora together despite Xarion being her biological father.
• Jin and Thalia: Jin was her lover and companion for years; they remain connected through their daughter. Thalena secretly fused Tianlei's essence into Thalia as well. Her reunion with Jin and Thalia is central to her recovery.
• Thalion Zenith: Her first love, teacher and closest friend in the Order's past. She preserved his name and obeyed his demand for secrecy. Her attachment developed from dependence after abuse, and he recognized the troubling power that gave him over her. Xarion is also Leonora's father.
• Kaelion and Eira: Kaelion became her pupil and friend, while Eira shares her interest in hidden histories and gates. Thalena cares for both while directing their lives, including the heart implantation and her interception of them before the obelisk expedition.
• Zero: Her adoptive father and aether teacher in the Order's past. In the present, she had taught Zayren the black hole spell that he later passed to her as Zero. Their reunion joins family affection with that shared history.
• Silas and Jareth: Silas, as Sariel, rescued her from Alistair and became the friend she had wanted as a father. Jareth's bargain with her began in the Axial Concord; their lasting loyalty joins science, escape from Jorhan and the recovery of her body.
• Ozaith and Aurelia: Her parents. Their bargain left her in Ulzathir, and their failures shaped her childhood anger. Ozaith later restored her body and star shard and sought a renewed relationship as Hyperion.
• Aelius and Zephyra: Her adopted children. She cared for them as orphans, taught them and continued to treat them affectionately after they became leaders. Her deceased biological son Ignatius was named after the companion who became Aelius.
• Arinella: They care for Cassian and can work closely together, but their relationship is not a love affair. Thalena apologized to her after Cassian's near death and sometimes put his needs ahead of her jealousy.
• Lunorax, Glin and the chronarcs: Lunorax was a trusted friend through her long isolation and rule. Glin learned from and traveled with her. Her ties to Nethira, Astryx, Hadrian and the other chronarcs combine personal affection, teaching and service to Chronasis.
• Isaac: A companion through centuries of travel and warfare, later bound to her plans through bargains.