I buried Aintza in a small valley far from everything, under the shade of the Grand Teton. The two lovers would have loved the irony.
I made memorials for everyone we lost. I split them apart, each in a place I found beautiful. It does not matter that our ash cannot be recovered because upon each stone, I placed a precious belonging. Then I encased it in glass so they would not decay. Rituals are for the living so we do not forget.
For John, I picked one of his favorite books. It is a compilation of Finnish poetry. This copy is damaged and filled with earmarks from being carried on several expeditions.
“You know, most of us do not spend so much resources on the dead. We dislike being reminded of the inevitable,” Jarek rumbles by my side.
“The inevitable is not so bad. We will rejoin in something greater. My only regret is that the mortals will travel to a different destination. I… will miss them.”
“You do not intend to perish any time soon, do you? The world is in disarray.”
“I know. I have no intention of doing so. I am only aware that our time is limited. Human mind was never designed to accommodate the burden of immortality. Whatever changed us cannot make up for that. We could hold centuries. Millennia. Perhaps more. At some point though…”
“Will you stop being so melancholic? By the Eye, lady. You’re only, what, one fifty?”
“Oh, fine, you uncouth rogue. I suppose I should get back to work.”
***
The weave of fate bristled under a long shadow. It made Hejju nervous. She always favored the calm and certainty that came with future sight. Layering her skills with that of her sister guardians meant that all angles were covered against threats seen and unseen. So far it had worked even when the tyrant’s grip had restricted their view of the distant possibilities. This interference was more insidious. It hovered over them like a cloud far out of sight. She tightened her grip on her spear.
In front of her, sand rushed against the ochre walls of the desert. It was almost time.
One moment, there was nothing but the familiar view she had seen for countless hours, holding guard in front of her Progenitor’s haven. The next, there was a forest. The entire mountain was a forest, a deep, labyrinthine hill of twisted roots and white flowers. She shivered. She had seen the spawn at work near Warsaw, an existence that surpassed even Progenitors but this? This was different. Only one kind of existence could manipulate reality to such an extent. This world had a goddess… a… a sovereign.
The word snaked itself into her mind until it took hold and she could no longer dislodge it. Her fingers latched on the shaft of her weapon as if it provided a lifeline. The shadow deepened. Hejju was blind. She was not deaf though. From the forest, the stomp of heavy hoofs emerged, heralding the coming of a nightmare of imposing size under a heavy armor of black metal… or so she thought. Her vision shifted and she saw the nightmare as what it was, a large creature made of parts that didn’t quite touch, alien and disturbing.
She blinked. It was just a massive charger with a woman on top. Nothing more. It had to be nothing more.
Hejju stepped ahead of her sisters.
“Welcome, Lady Nirari. Thank you for answering the call. My sire wishes to speak to you immediately.”
She kept her tone polite and respectful. Her mistress was mighty if she could call and summon such a being. Truly, future sight provided one with the key to their own future as well as that of others. Fate could not be denied.
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The thought bolstered Hejju’s flagging confidence. The sovereign merely smiled and waved, indicating she should lead the way, The smile itself didn’t reach her mouth. It felt distant and wan.
She was overthinking this. Hejju’s future sight might be blocked now, but she would have felt her death coming. Of that, she was certain.
Hejju led the newborn monster through the bowels of the Amaretta fortress, deep into its core. People did not come to watch her this time. Her presence bathed the hall in a leaden coat of sheer pressure. It was all Hejju could do not to flinch, not to step away anymore that she already had. It felt like standing next to a forge of cold stars.
Amaretta’s retreat no longer felt like the solemn haven it once was. Another sister bent over the sarcophagus holding the form of the slumbering Progenitor. Her eyes flickered.
“You are here,” Amaretta said with a borrowed voice. “Good. You have shown more wisdom than your predecessor. His grip was broken and now I see, but the futures are still strangled by another bottleneck. In the future, I see— “
“Ash and thin air, I know.”
The puppet frowned. Seers disliked being interrupted.
“Since you know, I would like to remind you that this is your fault to begin with. The destruction you unleashed upon the Last City made the humans scared and eager in equal measure. Even now, they are building more of their bombs and with at least four great axis of power forming, it is only a matter of time before someone snaps. Revealing our presence to the mortals also made them paranoid. Your doing, once again.”
“I will spare you a lecture on the inevitability of technological development.”
“You would do well to remember which one of us knows more, girl.”
“Because I do not care much about your opinion of me. Now, I suppose you have lights to shine and orders to give?”
Hejju wanted to express her outrage from the cavalier and, frankly rude manners the monster had shown towards Amaretta. Unfortunately, she was too scared. To her shock, Amaretta was scared as well. The Progenitor’s emotions bled through the puppet’s expressions. Her sire lacked practice. Practice, and control. It pained her. It was like watching a parent growing old.
“There is but one path to salvation now. You must unite the world… against us. You must strike terror into their heart until the very idea of using the last fire seems so abhorrent they will only use it as a last resort. It will cost us dearly. We will lose many of our people and so will the mage… and yet it is the only way. The only way for earth to survive. I will guide you and thus, you will live. We will return to the shadows where we were always meant to belong to. The natural order will prevail.”
The sovereign smiled.
“No.”
“You foolish—”
Hejju could not move. The puppet could not move. Roots covered the sanctum’s entrance. They covered her as well, thin and covered in thorns. They held her back. She struggled and didn’t even make them budge.
The sovereign grabbed Amaretta by the throat, plunging her hand through several layers of wards as if they did not exist. A keening sound escaped the puppet’s throat. Hejju tried to scream but her jaw was locked.
The sovereign bit Amaretta and drained her dry. It took only three seconds for Hejju’s entire world to collapse in ashes.
No.
No, that was impossible.
She had to be dreaming.
It was a nightmare.
Hejju had guarded her sire for centuries. She had walked these walls until she knew every flaw in the stone beneath her feet. It could not end like that. It just could not. There had to be some sort of trick. No one would kill a seer! No one would sacrifice such a precious asset! This made NO DAMN SENSE!
“Furious, are you? So quick to cross from denial to anger.”
The sovereign was here, looking down with purple, slitted eyes. Hejju felt her anger resist that pressure like a sharpened stone splitting a torrent of water, resisting simply by sheer solidity, at least for a while.
“I know I am not supposed to hurt any of you, else someone could have predicted their own death, and yet it is done now. I wonder, what if I kill you for DEFYING ME?”
The complex shook. The cornerstone of Hejju’s anger was washed away by a tide of glacial power. More roots grew, and forms emerged from the void. Twisted creatures of stone and exotic metal. She knew the first one. She recognized it from shared visions with his black armor and demon eyes, with his sardonic smile. It was Nirari, the first, or at least a specter of him. There were more. Each one of them felt so powerful that she doubted she could even slow them down and the sovereign just called them to her service… just like that.
The sovereign winced. She waved down. The statue retreated into the shadowy corners between realities.
“Please do not provoke me. I find it difficult to… hold back.”
Her voice inflated and Hejju knew everyone in the complex had to hear it.
“It was a mistake to believe a sphere sovereign could surrender themselves. It was foolish to count on a Devourer to sacrifice themselves for their lesser. If the world must first fall to be reborn, then it will be so. I will not shield the mortals from their folly, and I will not allow anyone to sacrifice me for a cause I do not believe in.
“Amaretta is dead. You felt it. I killed her.
“From now on, you are free to pursue your own goals. Hate me if you want. Curse me if you must. But do not get in my way. I shall build an ark that will survive the coming deluge and I will not let deny us of our salvation. And remember, if you consider vengeance, as my good friend Nashoba used to say…”
She smirked.
“I can see the future.”