Alchemised

by SenLinYu

“I live among idealists, but all I see are bodies. I’d like the opinion of someone who doesn’t believe that optimism somehow improves the odds.”

“The High Necromancer will do whatever it takes to win. The method doesn’t matter. He wants Paladia, ideally with the city intact, but if he can’t get it, he’ll raze it instead. You’re fighting someone whose only objection to genocide is the waste of potential resources. Even a genocide is acceptable if it leaves him with the materials for more necrothralls. And you’re trying to win by—what? Waiting for Sol’s intervention? Is there any plan that doesn’t hinge on the inherent superiority of goodness?”

“Oh yes, your rose in a graveyard,”

“Don’t die, Kaine,” she said. The line he walked frightened her. If the array was the punishment for a failure, what would the price of betrayal be?

She nodded. “I know. But that one you don’t come back from.” He gave a bitter laugh. “All right, then, but only because you asked.”

I’m told Basilius went home and ate his wife alive in their marriage bed. I believe he had children, too. All gone.”

Women were always defined by the lowliest thing they could be called.

brought you a present,”

“They’re sized for you. Titanium and nickel

“I must say, Marino, you’ve ended up being quite expensive.”

No matter how you’ve romanticised him, Kaine Ferron is not a person. He is a monster.”

In four weeks, Kaine would be dead.

They stared at the contraption, and just before the click, Luc’s arm wrapped around Helena’s shoulders, squeezing tight. Helena tried to force the corners of her mouth up as the camera flashed.

“Everyone seems so happy,” she finally said. “It makes me afraid.”

She nodded jerkily. Of course he was right. She should have just gone to the bridge. And jumped.

She moved slowly, careful not to look at him, but as she passed, his fingers hooked her arm, swinging her around. Her back was against the wall as he stared her square in the face. “What’s wrong?”

“I came because I wanted to see you.” She realised only as she said it that it was the truth. That was why she’d come.

“You always have to come back,” she said. “All right? Don’t die. Promise—”

“All right…” he said, “but only because you asked.”

Don’t trust me. Don’t trust the Eternal Flame. We’re all liars.

“I’m tired,” she said, staring at the floor. “I’m tired of this war. I’m tired of trying to save people and watching them die anyway, or saving them only to watch them die later—in a worse way. It’s the same cycle, over and over. I don’t know how to get out, and I don’t know how to keep going, either.”

That bitterness in his eyes—she finally understood it. He had been waiting for her betrayal.

She leaned closer, her hand sliding up from his chest to his shoulder to pull him forward and kiss him. It was not a slow, sweet kiss. It was not a kiss caused by alcohol or insecurity. It was born of rage, despair, and desire so hot, it threatened to burn her into oblivion. It was possibly a kiss goodbye.

She wanted him to know. It was real. For her, it had always been real.

But his eyes… She could tell— He was hers. The realisation broke her heart.

“I—” His voice failed him. “I—I would have been gentler—if I’d known.”

Obsessive and possessive. She had him. If she was smart enough to leverage it. On his knees, ready to do anything, Ilva had said.

He looked away from her then, his face twisting. “But you—you—” He shook his head. “It doesn’t really matter. You outmanoeuvred me. Or maybe I’m just too tired and grieving to keep pushing you away. You won.” He met her eyes for a moment, his expression bitter and derisive. “Well done.”

His eyes snapped open. They’d turned silver, and two splotches of colour flushed in the hollows of his cheeks. “Fuck you.” She flinched but spat back, “You already did.”

“You are a monster,”

“You sold yourself to save the person you care about.

She placed a tentative hand on his arm, half expecting him to fling her across the room, but his shoulders trembled and he dropped his head onto her shoulder. She pulled him into her arms; he gripped her close and sobbed. “I can’t—I can’t—” he kept saying over and over.

“I can’t—I can’t do this again—” he finally gasped out. “I can’t care for someone again. I can’t take it.”

“One more meeting to go, then. So this was a goodbye fuck? Final payment for services rendered?”

Everyone who touches you dies.

“Is it—actual crawling? Or was there something more constructive Ilva had in mind?” Her throat closed. “I—I’d have to ask.” “Find out. I’ll do it.”

She met his eyes, lifting her chin. “I completed my mission. I made him loyal.”

must admit, you are the most exceptional asset the Eternal Flame possesses. And I am sorry for that.”

Her hands dropped. “Kaine, I—” “Don’t—use my name. I hate the way it sounds on your tongue.”

“Kaine…when I kissed you, I—” He turned suddenly. In one moment he was across the room and in the next, he was in front of her, his expression venomous, his teeth bared. “Really, you want to discuss this now?”

“After all, I did choose you.”

but right now all I feel is a new set of manacles.”

“It’s a maze. The greys can’t see in the dark, or they get lost, and the Undying don’t like crawling in sewer water.”

Her ring burned again.

“You came…” Luc said, slumping heavily on her. “You’re my best friend,” Helena said, staring ahead. “Of course I did. Come on. We need to get you out.”

She twisted her resonance and the blade curved, severing the head completely.

He was gone. “No. No. No. Soren!”

“Anything,” she said, pressing a hand against his neck. “Whatever the price.” She pushed the energy out of her body and brought him back.

After so many years of healing, necromancy was effortless. There was nothing to hurt. She simply told Soren’s body that it could not die. He would fight as he’d always fought. He would protect them, because he knew how to do that.

It was Kaine.