It was dark.

Quiet.

No guards threatened them as they escaped to the docks. Emalia hobbled on weak legs, barely conscious, almost collapsing twice while making toward a rowboat tied up near the few warships. Daecinus and Demetria had separated from them to get something from his old ship nearby, and so for the moment, she and Sovina were alone. But being alone—even with Sovina—just made Emalia feel more afraid. With all the dangers waiting for them, searching for them… Even the Column was gone. Perhaps it was her enemy, now, should the priest renew his strength as he said. I've lost everything here. Every hope of saving Vasia has passed—it's doomed to repeat its old horrible crimes against Daecinus's people now. Against everyone. She wanted to collapse in tears and shouts of frustration and anguish, but forced herself to keep going.

Was everything she attempted doomed to failure?

"Em," Sovina said as she set her in the seat of the small boat, "how do you feel?"

"Horrid," was all she could muster.

Sovina sat close, swaying gently with the sea's waves, the rowboat knocking against the dock post every few seconds. Her arm wrapped around Emalia's shoulders, pulling her in closer. Their heads came together, leaning on each other. "I was struck only once by his Spell. Twice would be far worse. Yet you live. You will recover."

"Hopefully."

"You will. I know it."

"We shouldn't have survived. We should be dead."

"Maybe." Sovina gripped her even tighter. "But we aren't. No matter how many times we are threatened, endangered—we will be okay."

Emalia's voice shook as she asked, "And how can you be certain? Rotalaan, Drasivaska, here in Nova… I've done nothing but fail, Sovina. I awoke Daecinus, put him on this path of vengeance to kill countless people, awoke the Spirits that possessed me… When have I been anything more than an undeniable harm to the world?"

"You are not a failure nor some harm, do you hear me?" she asked, voice stern and sharp as her blade. "Do not say such a thing."

"But how can you deny it? Look at what I've done… You would not be fleeing as an outlaw of Vasia if it weren't for me!"

"I would not be anything if it weren't for you!" Her sudden bark of anger struck Emalia like a slap, and she rocked back, stunned, staring at Sovina's begrieved, hurt, and desperate expression. She cupped Emalia's face and held it, staring into her eyes. "Being with you is the single best thing to ever happen to me. There's not much to love in this world, but with you, I see so much more. It's beautiful, Em."

Her breath escaped her, and she slumped against Sovina, watery eyes squeezed closed, face pressed into her neck. "How can you say that? I'm not..."

"For someone so damn smart, you really are dense sometimes." She huffed a chuckle, then kissed the top of Emalia's head. "Don't you feel the same way for me? And the gods know I have my share of faults. More than most."

"Of course I do. Of course. I love you."

"So then you understand."

Emalia sniffed and twisted as if to wriggle in closer to Sovina, to feel nothing but her embrace. It was warm, comforting. And with how terrible the day was, it was perhaps the only way she could see herself getting through it all. That was the truest of blessings. For all the things she had to thank the gods for, Sovina was first and foremost among them. After some time, she asked, "I still don't understand: How did you escape the Crown of the Column? When I entered, I went unconscious… Possessed, evidently. But you escaped on your own and fought. You saved me. How?"

Sovina let out a long sigh of tired recollection, her strong arms wrapping her up ever-tighter. "I felt them coming. Trying to pry their way in. It wasn't easy… And, well, in all honesty, I thought of you. I thought about coming back to you, saving you. Focusing on that, no Soul could harm me. Mushy, I know. But it worked. I don't know how. I just felt… immune to them, supernaturally so, like a Sorcerer."

Emalia felt her chest tighten and heart thump even harder as if to escape. To keep herself from breaking out in tears again, she tried a confident smile and said in a wavering voice, "You are such a romantic."

"For you, I am."

The tears came anyway.

After some time, when Emalia had collected herself once more and, despite her condition, was smiling there in her guardian's arms, Sovina asked, "Maybe we just go."

"What?"

"Take the boat and leave. There are other vessels for the two of them, so we wouldn't be dooming them by any means."

Emalia sat up. "And do what? Go where?"

Sovina shrugged. "Anywhere. But far from all this. You can read and write and know more than just about anyone—you'll find work in any city. And, well, I could take on some trade, I think. But we wouldn't have to be a part of it anymore. We could just—"

"Run away?"

"I was going to say start over."

"We can't leave them, Sovina." Emalia bit her lip and looked at the city. Dark, entombed in shadow without the ambient light and sound of a city truly alive, it looked dead. "We can't give up on it all."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

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"Yeah." Once more, Sovina shrugged. "If you want to see this through, then we will."

"I just don't think we have another option. We can still help people. We can still make it right."

"You don't need to justify it to me. I trust you." Sovina squeezed Emalia against her in a hug. "We'll see it through."

Emalia smiled. "Thank you for trusting me."

"I always will."

…

We ventured into the hold of the ship Feia and I had used to reach Nova. It was nearing dawn. Hints of feeble sunlight tinged the sky a watery grey, providing some meager illumination for our descent.

I was a shambling, half-aware creature, reduced to mechanical movements based on impulses and thoughts only partially grasped. A regular man would be dead. Only my Sorcerous biology preserved me and enabled me to keep going even in my current state. As if I fed off the limited Souls in the air like how a plant consumes the sun. I wondered if I was more Soulborne than human.

"I don't know if we can carry this," Demetria said, voice still a wheeze, as she stooped to allow me to grasp one side of the chest filled with Drazivaskan wealth.

"We must. We will need it to secure passage and more."

"I understand. But you've lost a lot of blood."

I responded by taking the handle and sucking in a deep breath. Demetria took the other side, and together, we lifted. It nearly slipped from my grasp, I was so weak. My legs shook and back bent, but I managed a step toward the shadowy stairs. Then another. I took the first step slowly, trying to grab at the wall with my missing hand for balance before realizing my mistake. I wheezed a laugh and tried another step, but slipped and fell to my knees with a crash.

"Daecinus?" Demetria called out, holding the chest braced against the bottom stair.

I waved back to her feebly. "Just… Need a moment." My heart was racing, head was swimming. Hand sweaty and pathetically weak.

I sneered at my own frailty. The sneer turned sour. I gulped at the incoming tide.

Feia was gone. She was gone, and I failed her.

My shoulders shook with the effort of holding it in. I tried to stand and pick the chest back up. The handle slipped right out of my fingers, and I toppled to the side, collapsing against the wall.

"Damn you!" I shouted, teeth snapping together, grinding in hatred and fury. I stared at my hand, my stump. Bloody and grotesque. "Damn your weakness, you coward! Fight!" With a growl, I hobbled back to the chest, gripped it again, and strained upwards, taking another step. My bones ached, my vision clouded with fuzzy darkness threatening the edges, and my stomach turned upside down in the beginning of a retch. Another step. I hauled my leg higher. Pushed down. Wrenched the chest up. Another. Again, ignoring the pain from my missing arm, up my neck, thrusting into my eyes. Another! We hauled the chest more than halfway up when the deck above thumped with the fall of heavy feet.

I set the chest down as quietly as I could, already pounding heart racing even faster. I dared not look back at Demetria, dared not even consider defeat here. I stared up and ahead at the small square of twilight sky, preparing to summon up any energy left to cast a Spell of death from my Sorcerer's Eye necklace. I was lost in the fear of imminent danger to the one I loved most. The fear of helplessness.

And then the sky was consumed, a figure before it.

A large, hulking, pale figure. Protis. I exhaled in relief so deep I about passed out.

My prime creation was weaponless and bore no helmet. Its armor was beaten, dented, and punctured so thoroughly it was barely functional. Its arm was about as ruined as mine, though its pale flesh was far more ravaged by blades, bearing countless bloodless wounds. I stared up at Protis, mouth ajar, feeling… anguish. Sorrow, perhaps. My Soulborne looked down upon us with an expression tinged with pain and exhaustion, though underlying it, as clear as I felt it myself, was that of relief.

"Protis," I ventured in Pethyan, squinting up at it. "You've changed."

"I failed." It returned my stare with one of its own. "Oskar left with her. Tried to save them. Bring her to you. Too weak. The others… All gone."

I swallowed and licked my cracked lips. "Does she live, Protis?"

Its black eyes were empty. "No. Her Soul is gone. Oskar takes her body beyond the city."

I looked away. A hand touched my shoulder. Demetria frowned up at me, her expression one of sadness and empathy. "I'm so sorry. I know she was important to you."

"She was the only one left in this world," I said, trembling, teeth clattering, tears falling down my face, "to understand what it is like to have it all stolen away. You. Maecia. Pethya. Everyone gone. She gave everything to see me succeed here. Just for me to…" I looked away from Demetria, ashamed, infuriated, lost. "I wanted to break them for what they did to us. I wreaked havoc after you… But it wasn't enough. I should have gone further. I should have… I should have been more."

"Daecinus, I'm so sorry," she said, voice cracking. "I wish I were here for you."

"I've become a monster, Demetria. I'm everything you feared I'd be. And for what?"

"No." I looked up at her, expecting shame in her eyes, judgment, sorrow at what I'd become. But I did not see anything of the sort. Empathy, sorrow—yes. But also determination. Certainty of the most unshakable kind. "I never feared you becoming anything, Daecinus." She looked past me. "Protis, is it?"

"Yes," my creation replied after a moment.

"You are Daecinus's? Loyal and true?"

This time, the response came immediately. "Yes."

"If you have the strength, help us with this chest to the small boat with the others."

"Emalia and Sovina?" it asked, almost hopeful.

"Yes."

Protis came down and scooped up the chest with its functioning arm, bracing it against its damaged chestpiece. It looked at me, and in its empty eyes, I saw more than an animal, more than a pawn for my bidding. I saw something sentient. Something very much alive.

I nodded to it. "You did not fail me, Protis."

Its jaw tightened. But then it nodded back and strode from the hold as if it were not harmed whatsoever. I watched it go, amazed. And not just at its physical fortitude.

"I've always expected much from you, it is true," Demetria said, and I returned my attention to her as she stepped up to stand beside me. "But I never wished for you to constrain yourself to my wishes alone. There's a poet in you, a statesman, someone of the people—I see it. But when they killed me, I know it felt as if those possibilities were taken from you, and for that, I am sorry. But before me is not a monster. You are a man bearing the terrible burden of horrid grief. And I cannot imagine what that must be like for you. But Daecinus, my one true love, my other Soul, you are not alone. Not anymore." She put her hand on mine, and we looked at each other closely, as we so often did, peering through the guises put up for the world, the guises we construct for ourselves. I felt her mind touch mine, and her understanding soothed me like a balm to burnt flesh. "They took the world from me. And I wake to find it stolen away once again. We are the promontory upon which the sea beats, desperate in its attempts to break us. But we will not bend. And we will not break. We will go to Merkenia. We will find Maecia. Find our people. You shall recover and rebuild your army. I will do what I failed to do before and assemble what alliances may be necessary for us to return here and see this threat extinguished forever. I am with you."

I went to question her certainty, to ensure that all she said was true, but I held my tongue. Time had warped the memory of my love. She was not a burden of guilt, nor a mere martyr of my mind. She was unshakeable, formidable, and more than anything, she and I were always stronger together than apart. "Do you think we can do it?" I asked. "Truly?"

She wiped the drying tears from my eyes and offered a soft smile. It was one of empathy, but also of grim, unshakeable faith. "We must. And so we shall."

I met her stare, and my chest swelled. All hesitance, all fear, all impotent anger fled me in one final rush, replaced by something else entirely. I was no longer fighting for my people alone, isolated, weakened. One against many. Now, suddenly, finally, the burden eased upon my shoulders, its grinding teeth of fearful anticipation pried away. And in its place, I felt the potent strength and empowering certainty of… inevitability.

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