Xheavend couldn't understand what he meant.
Dangerous.
The word remained between them long after Goro stopped speaking.
She sat on the edge of the chair, staring at him.
Goro stood across the library.
He hadn't moved.
Neither had she.
Behind him, violet fire floated inside suspended glass vessels.
Thousands of journals surrounded them.
Lives.
Names.
People nobody else remembered.
Her handwriting filled shelf after shelf.
And he thought she was dangerous?
Xheavend laughed.
It sounded wrong.
Goro's expression changed.
Barely.
But she saw it.
"What?"
"You are becoming dangerous."
"You already said that."
"Apparently repetition has become necessary."
"To myself."
"Yes."
"Not Yzer."
Goro's eyes narrowed.
"No."
Something inside her cracked.
"That's stupid."
"An eloquent rebuttal."
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
Xheavend stood.
Too quickly.
The room tilted.
She grabbed the table.
Goro noticed.
Of course he noticed.
He noticed everything.
His gaze dropped toward her hand.
"Sit."
"No."
"That wasn't a suggestion."
"I'm not Q."
"An observation I remain grateful for daily."
Normally—
that would have made her laugh.
It didn't.
Goro noticed that too.
Xheavend hated him for noticing.
"I remember people."
Goro went still.
"What?"
"People nobody else remembers."
She gestured around them.
"Tza'ren."
Her finger moved toward another shelf.
"The Nhalae."
Another.
"The Mournborn."
Another.
"The one without a name."
Her throat tightened.
"I remember them."
"I know."
"I write them down."
"I know."
"I make sure somebody knows they existed."
"I know."
Her voice rose.
"So how am I dangerous?"
Goro's expression didn't change.
"You have misunderstood me."
"No."
"Spectacularly."
"I save people!"
"I did not say otherwise."
"I felt things that weren't destruction!"
Silence.
Xheavend froze.
Goro's eyes sharpened.
Damn it.
"What things?"
"Nothing."
"That was remarkably quick."
"Nothing."
"You have now said nothing twice."
"Because it's nothing."
"Then you should have no difficulty explaining it."
Xheavend glared at him.
Goro waited.
She said nothing.
Beginning belonged to her.
That secret stayed hers.
Goro eventually inclined his head.
"Very well."
Xheavend blinked.
That was it?
He wasn't going to demand?
Interrogate?
Force?
Goro looked at her trembling hands instead.
"You are shaking."
"I'm angry."
"No."
"Stop telling me what I am."
His eyes returned to hers.
There.
Something changed.
Not anger.
Understanding.
Which somehow made it worse.
"You haven't slept."
"I'm awake right now."
"That was not an answer."
"I'm fine."
"That was not an answer either."
"I said I'm fine!"
The violet flames shuddered.
Every one of them.
Goro looked upward.
Xheavend didn't.
"I know what you're doing."
"Do you?"
"You think I'm losing my mind."
"I think your mind has been forced to function without adequate rest while something uses your blood as a doorway into it."
Her stomach tightened.
"You think I'm dangerous."
"I think you are twelve."
That stopped her.
Goro's voice remained level.
"And I think twelve-year-olds are not improved by prolonged torture."
Xheavend stared at him.
No pity.
That was what made Goro easier than most people.
He rarely gave her pity.
He gave facts.
Sometimes terrible ones.
Sometimes ridiculous ones.
But facts.
"You need sleep."
"I can't."
"I know."
"You don't."
"No."
Goro tilted his head.
"I merely possess several thousand years of accumulated ignorance concerning your particular problem."
Despite herself—
Xheavend almost smiled.
Almost.
Then—
Wisper growled.
Both of them looked down.
He had been sleeping near the shelves.
Now he was standing.
Rigid.
Hackles raised.
Teeth exposed.
But he wasn't looking at Goro.
He was looking—
beside Xheavend.
At empty air.
Her blood went cold.
No.
Goro's eyes followed Wisper's stare.
Xheavend didn't turn.
She didn't need to.
"Hello, pet."
Yzer.
Wisper lunged.
Straight through him.
The projection rippled.
Wisper hit the floor, spun and snarled again.
Yzer looked down at him.
Disgust twisted his beautiful face.
"What an unpleasant little creature."
"Go away."
Goro's attention snapped toward Xheavend.
Yzer smiled.
"Talking to me in front of people now?"
"Go away."
Wisper moved between them again.
Yzer's smile vanished.
Not because Wisper could hurt him.
Because Wisper had chosen where to stand.
Beside her.
No command.
No contract.
No ownership.
He simply chose Xheavend.
Yzer hated that.
Xheavend knew it immediately.
His gaze moved toward the animal.
"I could make you kill it."
Her stomach dropped.
"Don't."
"There."
Yzer smiled again.
"That's better."
Goro stepped closer.
"Xheavend."
She backed away.
"Don't."
"I haven't touched you."
"Don't."
"I am approximately three metres away."
"Stop!"
Footsteps thundered outside.
Lster.
Wten.
Fyr.
Hrashtari.
No.
No, no—
not them.
The door opened.
Lster entered first.
"What happened?"
He saw her.
Saw Goro.
Saw Wisper snarling at nothing.
And immediately stopped.
Xheavend watched his expression change.
He knew.
Not Yzer.
Not what she was seeing.
But he knew her.
He'd fought her.
Trained with her.
Argued with her.
Been punched by her.
Punched her back.
He knew something was wrong.
"Xheavend?"
Yzer looked at him.
Then Wten.
Fyr.
Hrashtari.
A smile slowly returned.
"Oh."
Xheavend's stomach turned.
"Look at them."
"Don't."
"You've become very domestic."
"Shut up."
"You steal bread now."
Lster frowned.
"What?"
Yzer walked around Xheavend.
Nobody else saw him.
"Throw cushions."
"Stop."
"Play games."
Her breathing shortened.
"Laugh."
"Stop."
"Pretend you're one of them."
"STOP!"
The room shook.
Hrashtari flinched.
Wten reached instinctively for Lster.
Fyr moved toward Xheavend.
And Yzer whispered—
"You aren't."
Something broke.
Xheavend attacked.
Goro moved before anyone else understood what happened.
Her fist missed his jaw by less than an inch.
"Out."
Lster stepped forward.
"Goro—"
"Out."
"But—"
Goro caught Xheavend's second strike.
The floor cracked beneath his feet.
He looked at Lster.
"Unless you've recently developed the ability to survive being accidentally bisected, leave."
That did it.
Hrashtari grabbed Lster.
Wten caught Fyr.
"Xheavend!"
Lster fought her grip.
Xheavend heard him.
Barely.
Goro redirected her wrist.
"Eyes."
She kicked.
He blocked.
"Mine."
Another strike.
"Not his."
Yzer laughed.
"Mine."
Xheavend screamed.
Her body changed.
Bones shifted.
Muscle redistributed.
Her shoulders broadened.
Her center of gravity changed.
Male.
And Yzer—
stared directly at her.
Then looked past her.
Confused.
His eyes narrowed.
"What did you do?"
Xheavend froze.
He couldn't see it.
End.
End was hiding it.
Yzer saw something had changed.
But not what.
Not the body.
Not the face.
Not the secret Goro had kept from him.
Yzer still didn't know.
"Interesting," he murmured.
Goro didn't react to Yzer's voice.
He couldn't hear him.
But he saw Xheavend's hesitation.
"Stay with me."
She swung.
Harder now.
Goro caught the blow.
"Same mind."
"STOP."
He shoved her backward.
"Different body."
Xheavend shifted before her feet landed.
Female.
Lighter.
She twisted in the air.
Her heel came toward his throat.
Goro barely moved aside.
"Same power."
Male.
Her longer reach turned what should have missed into a strike that clipped his jaw.
"Different geometry."
"STOP SAYING THAT!"
She came again.
Female.
Fast.
Low.
A sweep.
Goro jumped it.
Male—
before the follow-up.
Her elbow gained reach halfway through the movement.
Goro blocked.
And paused.
Only a fraction.
But Xheavend saw it.
So did he.
Something had changed.
She wasn't choosing.
Not consciously.
Her body was.
Female for speed.
Male for reach.
Female for redirection.
Male for leverage.
The transformations weren't random.
Her Ascendant body was selecting answers.
Goro's expression became utterly still.
That was worse than surprise.
"You aren't changing bodies."
"That's exactly what I'm doing!"
"No."
He ducked beneath another strike.
"You're changing answers."
Xheavend hated that.
Because he was right.
Her body had begun answering questions before she asked them.
How do I reach him?
Male.
How do I evade this?
Female.
How do I break his hold?
Male.
How do I slip beneath his arm?
Female.
It was brilliant.
Efficient.
Terrifying.
Another thing her body could do without asking her.
"No."
She stumbled.
Goro stopped attacking.
"Xheavend."
"No."
Yzer appeared behind him.
Smiling.
"See?"
"No."
"Even your own body knows what you are."
"Shut up."
"A weapon."
"No."
"A beautiful one."
"No!"
"A hungry one."
And suddenly—
she was.
Hunger hit her so violently her knees nearly folded.
Not normal hunger.
Not missed-breakfast hunger.
Not the ravenous appetite she'd developed while male.
This was absence.
A hole where nourishment should exist.
Her stomach cramped.
Her bones hurt.
Her teeth ached.
Every cell screamed.
Empty.
She smelled blood.
Goro's.
A thin line along his jaw where she'd struck him.
Her eyes locked onto it.
Goro noticed.
"Xheavend."
She moved.
He caught her.
She twisted.
Male.
Broke the hold.
Female.
Slipped beneath his arm.
And bit him.
Hard.
Goro jerked.
Her teeth tore through flesh.
Blood flooded her mouth.
Warm.
Ancient.
Powerful.
And—
good.
Xheavend stopped.
That was the worst part.
Not the blood.
Not the flesh between her teeth.
Not Goro's hand locked around her shoulder.
It tasted good.
Her body wanted more.
For one terrible heartbeat, Goro wasn't Goro.
He was sustenance.
Power.
Food.
Then—
Goro.
Her teacher.
The idiot who taught her poisons.
The monster who let her insult him.
The creature who had given her a bedroom and pretended that hadn't meant anything.
The person whose impossible serpent-house had somehow become home.
Goro.
Xheavend recoiled.
Flesh remained between her teeth.
She spat it onto the floor.
"No."
Goro looked at his arm.
Then her.
"No."
She wiped frantically at her mouth.
"No, no, no—"
Yzer applauded.
Slowly.
"There."
Xheavend went still.
"That's the part you keep blaming on me."
"Shut up."
"I didn't move your jaw."
"Shut up."
"I didn't make you swallow."
"I SAID SHUT UP!"
"You liked it."
Xheavend vomited.
Goro waited.
She coughed.
Shook.
Spat blood.
Then vomited again.
Goro inspected his arm.
"Finished?"
Xheavend stared at him.
"What?"
"I would prefer to know before attempting conversation."
She looked horrified.
Goro sighed.
"Because if you're finished eating me, I would like my arm back."
Her face crumpled.
"Why are you joking?"
"Because you're doing enough panicking for both of us."
"I'm a monster."
"No."
"I ate you!"
"Partially."
"Goro!"
"Precision matters."
She stared at him.
He crouched.
Not close enough to trap her.
Just closer.
"Listen carefully."
Xheavend shook her head.
"I don't want—"
"I have known monsters."
His voice changed.
Lower.
Ancient.
Something that reminded her Goro had existed long before this house.
Long before her.
Long before most civilizations she had studied.
"I have killed them. Served beside them. Bargained with them. Been mistaken for one often enough that I eventually stopped correcting people."
His eyes held hers.
"They rarely recoil from what they have done."
Xheavend couldn't breathe.
Goro looked at the blood on her mouth.
"You did."
Yzer's smile disappeared.
Then Xheavend's bandages slipped.
Goro saw underneath.
And stopped speaking.
Some wounds were old.
Some fresh.
Some reopened.
Some so deep the flesh had separated nearly to bone.
Bruises covered her ribs.
Purple.
Black.
Several curved strangely around her torso.
One looked almost like an eye.
Goro's face emptied.
That frightened her.
He touched none of them.
He simply looked.
Then his gaze moved toward a wound behind her shoulder.
A place her own hands could barely reach.
Another beneath her shoulder blade.
Another along the center of her back.
His eyes narrowed.
"You didn't do these."
Xheavend stepped backward.
"Move."
"Who did?"
"Move."
"Those angles are impossible."
"GORO, MOVE!"
Yzer smiled behind him.
"Run."
So she did.
"XHEAVEND!"
Lster.
She heard him behind her.
She ran faster.
Through the living-gold corridor.
Down the staircase.
Past the serpent entrance.
Into the violet-lit street.
Wisper followed.
So did footsteps.
No.
She looked back.
Lster.
Wten.
Fyr.
"STOP!"
They didn't.
Hrashtari shouted behind them.
"Lster!"
"Xheavend!"
"Don't come after me!"
"You don't get to disappear again!"
Her chest broke.
She remembered him sitting with her.
Remembered their apology.
Remembered what he'd admitted.
I know what it's like when people don't come back.
She wanted to stop.
Wanted to go back.
Wanted to tell him she wasn't leaving him.
But Yzer was still beside her.
And if Lster followed—
Yzer got Lster.
Wten.
Fyr.
Hrashtari.
Wisper.
Goro.
Everyone.
So Xheavend ran harder.
She didn't know where.
That didn't matter.
Away.
Away from everyone who had started feeling dangerously close to family.
Away from the blood she'd tasted.
Away from the horrible second when she'd wanted another bite.
Yzer walked beside her.
Of course he did.
He never needed to run.
He simply remained there, lavender hands folded behind his back, strolling while she fled as though they were taking an evening walk together.
"You're crying."
"Go away."
"You enjoyed it."
"Shut up."
"His blood."
"Shut up."
"His flesh."
"SHUT UP!"
Yzer smiled.
Xheavend ran harder.
The road narrowed.
Black stone rose around her.
The lights of Yrtana disappeared behind her.
Even the strange vegetation became sparse.
Then—
she stopped.
Something blocked the road.
One figure.
Then ten.
A hundred.
More.
Xheavend slowly lifted her head.
Six hundred soldiers stood before her.
But they weren't people.
Not anymore.
They possessed humanoid bodies.
Two arms.
Two legs.
Heads.
Hands.
Feet.
Armor wrapped around their torsos.
Chains hung from several belts.
Others carried hooked staffs.
Some carried whips.
But their faces—
There weren't any.
Smooth flesh covered the places where mouths, noses and ordinary eyes should have been.
Their faces were completely blank.
Their bodies weren't.
Eyes covered them.
Hundreds.
Tiny eyes between knuckles.
Large ones embedded in shoulders.
Clusters blinking along throats.
Eyes opening between ribs.
Eyes beneath armor.
Eyes along palms.
Eyes growing down thighs.
Eyes blinking from fingertips.
Some stared at Xheavend.
Others rolled independently.
Others—
looked toward Yzer.
Xheavend stopped breathing.
Yzer smiled.
"There you are."
The six hundred beings knelt.
Every eye closed simultaneously.
Then opened.
"WARD LOCATED."
Xheavend backed away.
"No."
"RETRIEVAL AUTHORIZED."
"No."
Chains rattled.
Yzer stepped beside her.
"They've come to take you home."
"This isn't my home."
His smile thinned.
"Eventually you'll stop saying that."
The soldiers rose.
Xheavend turned.
More stood behind her.
The road had closed.
Her hand reached for her weapon.
"Don't."
The commander carried no sword.
Only chains.
"WARD WILL BE RETURNED ALIVE."
Xheavend swallowed.
"And if I don't come?"
The eyes across its body narrowed.
Then—
although it had no mouth—
Xheavend heard laughter.
Not from one.
From hundreds.
Excited.
The commander lifted the chains.
"THEN RETRIEVAL BECOMES ENJOYABLE."
They came together.
Xheavend moved.
Female.
Fast.
She ducked beneath the first chain.
Drove her elbow into one creature's ribs.
An eye burst beneath the impact.
The creature shuddered.
Not in pain.
Pleasure.
It laughed.
Xheavend recoiled.
That hesitation cost her.
A chain wrapped around her ankle.
She hit the ground.
Another wrapped around her wrist.
She rolled.
Kicked.
Twisted.
Her body tried to answer.
Reach.
Leverage.
Strength.
Male.
Bones began shifting—
Then stopped.
Pain detonated through her entire body.
Xheavend screamed.
The chains tightened.
Symbols embedded along the links ignited.
Her transformation collapsed halfway through and violently reversed.
She returned completely female.
"What—"
Another chain wrapped around her waist.
Then her throat.
The creatures pulled.
Xheavend hit the ground.
Yzer crouched several feet away.
Fascinated.
He still hadn't seen.
Still didn't understand what her body had attempted.
End had kept that from him.
But Xheavend understood something immediately.
She couldn't change.
Whatever the chains were doing—
she was trapped in one body.
Her female body.
Her secret remained hers.
But one of the weapons Goro had spent twenty days teaching her to use—
was gone.
A soldier kicked her stomach.
Air exploded from her lungs.
Another kicked her ribs.
Then another.
Xheavend curled inward.
The eyes covering their bodies widened.
Watching.
Enjoying.
"Stop."
A boot struck her spine.
"Stop!"
Another kicked her face.
Her head snapped sideways.
Blood filled her mouth.
The creatures laughed.
Yzer watched.
The first lash landed across her back.
Xheavend screamed.
She hadn't seen the whip.
Only heard it.
CRACK.
Fire opened across her skin.
The creature holding it tilted its blank head.
Eyes along its arm widened.
CRACK.
Her body jerked.
CRACK.
"STOP!"
The chains pulled her arms apart.
She couldn't curl up.
Couldn't protect herself.
Couldn't run.
Couldn't switch.
Couldn't reach them.
Another creature crouched.
Its blank face hovered near hers.
An eye opened in the center of its palm.
It touched her cheek.
Xheavend bit at it.
The creature jerked away.
Then laughed.
Its fingers plunged into her hair.
"No."
It pulled.
"Don't."
Harder.
"STOP!"
A clump tore free.
Not strands.
A piece from the scalp.
Xheavend screamed.
Blood ran through what remained of her hair.
The creature stared at the bloody clump in its hand.
Then tucked it into its armor.
Like a trophy.
Something inside Xheavend went very quiet.
Yzer watched.
She looked at him.
"Make them stop."
The words escaped before she could catch them.
Yzer's expression softened.
"There she is."
Xheavend immediately regretted speaking.
He approached.
"They'll stop when you ask properly."
Her breathing shook.
"No."
"You know the word."
"No."
"Say it."
Another lash.
Xheavend screamed.
"Say it."
"No!"
Another.
"Please."
She stared at him.
Yzer smiled.
"Ask your Warden to take you home."
One of the creatures smelled her blood.
Xheavend saw the change.
Eyes across its chest widened.
Its entire body trembled.
Then it knelt beside her.
A long split opened across its otherwise blank face.
Not a mouth.
Something pretending to be one.
It pressed against the wound on her shoulder.
Xheavend froze.
Then—
it drank.
"No!"
She thrashed.
The chains tightened.
The creature swallowed.
More eyes opened across its neck.
It made a sound of pleasure.
"GET OFF ME!"
Another grabbed her leg.
Another held her shoulder.
The first continued drinking.
Yzer watched.
"Stop them!"
"Ask."
"PLEASE!"
"Not me."
Xheavend sobbed.
Another creature touched blood running from her scalp.
Raised its fingers.
Tasted it.
Then shuddered.
The others noticed.
The atmosphere changed.
They wanted it.
Not merely because Yzer ordered them to retrieve her.
They liked hurting her.
They liked hearing her scream.
They liked watching her struggle.
And now—
they liked her blood.
Enough.
End.
Xheavend gasped.
Enough.
I can't.
I know.
Another lash.
Xheavend screamed.
Then—
nothing.
The pain vanished.
Xheavend blinked.
The whip struck again.
She saw it.
Saw her flesh split.
Saw blood scatter across stone.
But the pain arrived muffled.
Distant.
As though happening to somebody several rooms away.
End?
Give it to me.
Xheavend's eyes widened.
What?
The pain.
Another kick.
Barely anything.
End's voice trembled.
Give it to me.
You'll feel it.
Yes.
No.
Xheavend.
The creatures pulled harder.
Let me carry something.
Her lip trembled.
End had hidden things.
Protected secrets.
Driven Yzer back.
But this—
this was different.
End wasn't asking to control her.
Wasn't asking to take her body.
Wasn't asking to kill for her.
End was asking for her pain.
So Xheavend let go.
And End screamed.
Not aloud.
Inside her.
A sound so enormous Xheavend nearly took the pain back immediately.
Stop.
No.
You're hurting.
I know.
Give it back.
No.
Another lash landed.
End absorbed it.
Another kick.
End took that too.
You have carried enough.
Xheavend started crying.
Not from the whip anymore.
From that.
Then her left arm fell off.
There was no dramatic strike.
No blade.
No soldier cutting through it.
A creature simply jerked the chain around her wrist.
And something inside her shoulder—
gave up.
Xheavend heard a wet tearing sound.
The chain flew backward.
Something struck the ground.
She looked.
Her arm lay several feet away.
Still wrapped in chain.
For several seconds—
Xheavend didn't understand.
She looked at her shoulder.
Then her arm.
Then her shoulder again.
The soldiers stopped.
Even they seemed surprised.
Yzer did too.
And Goro's words returned.
Those angles are impossible.
The wounds beneath her bandages.
The bruises.
The damage nobody had seen.
The nights Yzer had spent manipulating the blood inside her.
Rupturing things.
Hurting things.
Breaking things.
Again.
Again.
Again.
She had hidden it.
Wrapped it.
Smiled.
Trained.
Argued.
Ate dinner.
Recorded dead people.
Played games.
Learned another body.
Waited for Q.
Pretended she could keep going.
Nobody had known how damaged she already was.
Maybe Xheavend hadn't known either.
The soldier hadn't torn off a healthy arm.
It had pulled apart something Yzer had already spent two years destroying.
End went silent.
Then—
Oh.
One word.
Horrified.
Xheavend stared at the arm.
Yzer stared too.
And for once—
he didn't smile.
Xheavend looked at him.
"You did that."
Yzer's eyes returned to hers.
"You did that to me."
"Pet—"
"Don't."
Her voice changed.
Yzer stopped.
Not because it was loud.
Because there was nothing left inside it.
No begging.
No fear.
No bargaining.
Just certainty.
"You've been breaking me."
The creatures recovered from their surprise.
One grabbed her severed arm.
Another laughed.
Another tried to drink from the wound.
Something inside Xheavend opened.
Hunger.
Not hers.
Not completely.
Famine.
The creature touching her suddenly withered.
Its hundreds of eyes collapsed inward.
It fell.
The others stopped.
Xheavend stared.
Something else stirred.
War.
The soldiers turned vicious.
They shoved one another aside to reach her.
Chains collided.
Whips cracked.
Several attacked their own ranks simply because something inside them suddenly needed conflict.
Something else awakened.
Conquest.
Xheavend looked at the chain around her remaining wrist.
"Open."
The creature holding it—
obeyed.
Its hand moved against its own will.
The chain dropped.
Then—
Death.
Every eye around Xheavend blinked.
Once.
She stood.
One arm.
Blood pouring down her side.
Hair ripped from her scalp.
Back shredded.
Face swollen.
Barely able to breathe.
Unable to change forms.
Hollowed out by exhaustion.
Twelve years old.
And six hundred monsters suddenly backed away.
Yzer whispered—
"Magnificent."
Xheavend looked at him.
"No."
The word barely carried.
"I am not doing this for you."
The curse struck while she was awake.
Reality shattered.
Six hundred faceless bodies covered in eyes.
A burning civilization.
Blood.
A starving child.
Chains.
A mother dying.
A whip.
A planet collapsing.
Her arm lying in the road.
Someone begging.
Someone murdering.
Someone being murdered.
A creature drinking her blood.
Yzer smiling.
Goro bleeding.
Q leaving.
Tavran.
Her mother.
Her father.
Her brothers.
Home.
Not this home.
The other one.
The one she was increasingly afraid had forgotten her.
Then—
black cloaks.
Four.
Waiting.
Xheavend knew them.
Her soul did.
Conquest.
War.
Famine.
Death.
And End—
everywhere between them.
Xheavend fell to her knees.
"I'm tired."
We know.
"I can't."
You can.
"I don't want to."
That changed everything.
The four remained still.
Xheavend sobbed.
"I don't want to kill them."
Death approached.
Why?
"Because they have lives."
She thought of her journals.
Names.
Births.
Mothers.
Fathers.
Children.
Favorite foods.
Fears.
Love.
Beginnings.
Ends.
"They must have names."
Perhaps.
"I don't know them."
No.
"If I kill them, nobody will."
Death remained silent.
Xheavend looked at the four.
"Are you going to make me?"
No.
"End?"
Silence.
Then—
Never.
Xheavend shook.
"What if I can't do it?"
Then we remain here.
"And they'll take me."
Yes.
"Yzer gets me."
Yes.
"They'll hurt me again."
Yes.
No lies.
No pretending.
No one telling her everything would somehow become fine.
Just a choice.
Hers.
Xheavend slowly stood.
"What happens if I let all of you out?"
War answered.
They die.
All six hundred.
Xheavend closed her eyes.
Then she remembered the creature drinking her blood.
The whip.
Her hair in its hand.
Her severed arm being lifted like a prize.
Their laughter.
Their enjoyment.
And the chains.
They weren't stopping.
They weren't rescuing her.
They would drag her back.
Yzer would have her.
And eventually—
Q would come.
Goro would come.
Lster would come.
Everyone who cared about her would keep coming.
Yzer wouldn't only own a prisoner.
He'd have bait.
Xheavend opened her eyes.
"No."
The four waited.
"Nobody else fights for me."
End stirred.
Xheavend—
"No."
She looked at the darkness surrounding them.
"You can give me the power."
Silence.
"But I decide what happens with it."
The four remained still.
Then—
one by one—
they bowed.
Not to a master.
Not to a queen.
Not to something they owned.
To their successor.
Xheavend looked at End.
"Don't take over."
I won't.
"Even if I can't handle it."
A pause.
Even then.
Xheavend swallowed.
"Stay."
End moved beside her.
Always.
Reality returned.
Six hundred bodies covered in eyes surrounded her.
Chains.
Whips.
Laughter.
One creature still held her severed arm.
Yzer stood beyond them.
Watching.
Waiting.
Xheavend pushed herself upright.
Her remaining hand trembled.
The creatures advanced.
Conquest stirred.
War answered.
Famine hungered.
Death waited.
Xheavend looked at six hundred lives whose names she would never know.
Tears slipped down her face.
"I'm sorry."
Then she made her choice.