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“What do you think I’m doing?” I snarled. “I’m saving the fucking fox!”
Then I drew Nimerelle, and the killing began. The god sword bled black smoke as she scythed through the air. Where I swung her, necrotic flesh and brittle bone parted like wet paper in her wake.
The universe could end and Carrion Swift wouldn’t have run out of questions.
“Don’t you know? There isn’t much I wouldn’t sacrifice to make you happy, Osha.
“I am no child. My name is Saeris Fane, and I am your queen.”
There is nothing in this realm or the next that I won’t give to you if you desire it. All you ever need do is ask.
Suddenly, crushingly, the Hall of Tears had become beautiful.
“You forget that I’m a winter creature, Saeris,” Fisher murmured. “I don’t crave the attention of the sun. The snowcapped mountains, the forest, the frozen river… those places are my home. You are home.”
“I’ve killed more people than I can count. I lost the parts of myself that knew how to feel anything other than pain and sorrow centuries ago. But for better or worse, you have brought me back to life.”
“Come now, Osha. Where else would an acolyte kneel to worship but at the altar of his god?”
“Aren’t we just the same? Made from the same material as the sea and the dirt and the sky? Folded from the scraps of the gods and entrusted with a spark of magic that makes us real?”
Where any kind of life exists, magic proliferates, Saeris. We create all the wonders of this realm just by being present to witness them, and it’s always magic that lights the way. That is what I believe.”
Do you think I am afraid to face my demons? I’ve faced them before. I know them all by name. I’ve conquered them and bent them to my will more times than the sun has risen over Yvelia in my lifetime. I’ll face your nightmares if I have to, and I will still be the most frightening thing prowling around in the dark.”
When other people are full of the kind of fire that burns inside her, it eats them alive. It hollows them out until there’s nothing left inside them but the fire. They burn everyone around them with it, until all that remains is scorched earth. But not Saeris. Her fire keeps others warm in the cold dark. It is her strength, not her weakness. Being around her reminds you that you’re alive.”
“There’s only one way to learn how to endure pain the way I have. You have to suffer through it. Again, and again, and again. It galvanizes you. Tempers you like steel. But I wouldn’t wish the kind of pain I’ve lived through on anyone. I’ve borne it because I had to and for no other reason.
“I could watch you fall apart for me forever.”
He had existed for entire lifetimes before I’d even been born. He had won battles and defeated enemy forces that far outnumbered his own, the odds ever stacked against him. He had seen the rise and fall of monarchs, bargained for his life with monsters, fought off countless demons, and never backed down. It was here in the quiet and the dark with me that he surrendered.
When I drew on my power and set it free, I didn’t make shadows. I made knives. The blades weren’t made of metal. They were magic itself. Corporeal, shimmering magic. Like my shadows, they were black. Their edges were sharp, and when they hurtled through the air and found their targets, they pierced armor, flesh, and bone alike.
My magic encompassed all Zilvaren. For the first time in history, the shining banner in the north fell into darkness.
“I’m not gifted with the Sight, as some beings of this realm appear to be. I see avenues. Pathways. Light. I see… possibilities.” It spun around to face me. “Blood magic is a crude thing, Saeris Fane.”
“Well, fuck me,” Carrion said. “Looks like a lot’s changed here in the past few days.”
“You are the only thing that keeps my moral compass pointing north, Little Osha,”
“Don’t you concern yourself with Simon,” he said. “I know exactly where my god sword is, thank you very much.”
“Dreams are just vapor and smoke,” I said. “They mean nothing unless you’re willing to live them.
“Don’t say I never give you flowers, Osha.”
“I was reminded recently that I was a wolf,” he said, smiling softly. “And wolves do not cower in dusty libraries, afraid of their own shadows. I swear myself to you, Saeris Fane. I will carry out your bidding so long as there is breath left in me. And when I pass from this place and move on to the next, I will carry your banners there and storm the gates of heaven in your name if you wish it.”
“For once, I got to fight on the right side.”
“How can I consign myself to another endless dark when I’ve been given back the light?”
