Until our questions are answered.

Those were the terms we agreed to the night before, and today, some three leagues below the plot we shook hands upon, we found our answer. We noticed it as soon as we’d broken soil—deafening silence, the steady drip of ether from our fingertips; the mine was alive, and now we saw it with our own eyes.

For at least another moment I watched the ghostly afterimage, fading until I had only its memory to cower to. Then, the unearthly sound deadened behind as it was resorbed by the labyrinth of ducts, seamlessly rejoining the soft whistle of a thousand flutes. Had I been alone to bear witness, I might have tried to forget what I saw—convince myself that I had somehow imagined it—only, I wasn’t alone, and even my wildest dreams fell short of the horrors I’d witnessed.

Despite the magnitude of the encounter, it was a silent march thereon. What more had to be said? I knew without question she felt the same as I—not shaken but shattered. It was no longer fear in my stomach, but a quiet and shared epiphany that whatever ends we sought were none other than our own. A grim realization it might have been, but it was easier to accept when there were no other choices.

It was apparent when we finally neared the end of it all. The tunnel, uniform so far, began to pinch such that I could feel the rugged wall on either end if I'd only lifted my arms, and our light became obsolete as a new one emanated from within. Then, the walls fell away. It opened before us a grand basin, a cavernous dome with countless crystal outcrops sprawled along its dripping ceiling. The gems gave off a natural, or rather unnatural blue phosphorescence, perhaps relishing in the ether they'd greedily snatched from us.

We’d scaled the pit to get there, and who could have guessed a paradise awaited? The soft light bouncing from damp, rock-ribbed walls—the shimmering stalactites along the roof—even a shallow flow of water running through the buried gulch; were it another day, and were I a luckier man, I would've been mesmerized by it all.

"This is it," I croaked. "We're dead. A mile buried."

"We aren't dead."

"Then what are we? Because it looks enough like purgatory to me." We hadn't prepared a strategy ahead of time; Samara's confidence in the outcome made us think it unnecessary, and even with more time, I wouldn't have known where to start. "At some point, that thing is going to come slinking back here. What are we supposed to do then?"

"We kill it," she said simply—dry in fact, like the outcome was already decided.

Every time. Every damn time I thought we were on the same page, I turned to find that we read different volumes. Had she completely lost it, or did she ever have it to begin with? I'd had enough trying to understand her; my whole body tensed, and my fists balled. "What's wrong with you? Are you blind?! Did you not see the infernal beast that I did? You can barely cast a damn spell, how the hell do you hope to topple that thing!?"

"Of course, I saw it, but what does it change? We knew something lay in wait here, do you suppose we just turn tail now that we found it? We'd never scrape by again if it came back 'round."

"Then where's your fear? How can you be so damn brave?"

She turned to me, a quivering lip and a crinkled brow despite her hollow tone. "There’s a difference between brave and fearless," she said quietly. "I'm scared too—terrified. But I'm not about to die, and neither are you."

I shook our locked glances. "But how do you know that?"

"Because I’m not ready, and you’re not about to leave me alone in this wretched hole." An unseemly smile grew from the cracks of her stone visage. "I know it’s mad, but I just have a good feeling. The same feeling I got about you when we met."

“And how did that work out for either of us?”

“You tell me. Had you come to Ethelburrow a moment later, I would have been here alone, but here we are. We may have spent more time fighting each other than we have as a team, but I think the connection is there, and if we work together, I think we have a shot." I followed her skyward gaze as she took my hand in hers. "The battle is ours to win."

Strength resonated from her rhetoric and through her grip. I didn't know whether they were backed with conviction or blind hope, but they filled me with motivation nevertheless. Weeks ago, I was left to rot in a cell, and against all odds, I escaped and found her. I thought I'd die there, but I'd been given a chance when I thought there were none left. Perhaps the scales were tilted.

The tremors that soon rattled the earth set a frantic meter for our final dance, boulders dropping in unison from the ceiling as the glass chandeliers clattered and clanged; our ballroom was split in two, but it did little to fracture our resolve. Though the creature that took the floor was the largest I’d ever faced, hand in hand, we were ready for our waltz.

Through the roof of the cavern, the leviathan burst like water, spilling into the basin and filling it with its squirming mass. Just as its head would make contact, it effortlessly burrowed, leaving a scaled and wriggling pillar to connect the two floors of the chamber. With the edge of my blade, I followed its path until it pointed at my own two feet, the quaking intensifying beneath them. A few paces away, the wyrm rose from shattered rock, but rather than come up true, it was angled back. When I stumbled, it was Cordella’s sharp reflexes that kept me standing; her firm hand grappled my flailing arm before I fell too far.

"Watch your footing."

Center of the room, the beast coiled, drawing the length of its body from the soil and into a wide spiral. It skated carefree along the stone surface, a splash of sparks across the smooth rut it left, and then a spray as it ground to a halt. At first, I thought it meant to attack us, but now I was unsure if it even knew we were there. Either it paid no mind to the fools that entered its den, or we were too meager to register as a threat. Wishful thinking in any case.

“Are we positive it can see us?”

Taking it as a challenge, she cupped her hand and wound her shoulder. “Only way to be sure it to make ourselves seen.” Cordella hurled her arm, launching the flare into the infinite night—a little puff of fire that burst against the side of the creature. It struck with a bang, a lasting ember in its side, and a horrible cry reverberated through the cavern as the creature accepted our invitation. If we had an escape before, we hadn’t any longer.

“We’ll have to work quickly," came the rushed words of my companion. "I think I can still use my magic, but it won’t leave much breathing room. One or two spells maximum. If you can find me an opening..."

"Say no more," I told her. For once, I fully understood her intentions.

It circled back to face us, stone scales screeching against one another as the wyrm interlaced and reared its blunted head to nearly the height of the cave. The glimmer of the crystals did no favors; the beast was as horrendous with the light as it was without. Drenched in the black pitch, it shone back, but more like metal than scale—armor forged in hellfire.

The coil wound and wound, and with a resounding crack, the spring launched with more force than either of us could anticipate. In the split second we had to react, we threw ourselves in opposite directions. My hair whipped behind me as the monster flew past, and no later I heard Cordella’s yelp.

“Are you alright?” I threw my voice over top of the hurtling beast, nearly deafened by the roar of the engine.

“I—I think so. Just a graze.”

When I recovered, I was thankful to find my legs still largely attached. We were divided by the beast but otherwise unscathed. I’d use my short time to think. That infernal thing was fast—overwhelmingly so. If we were to stand a chance against it, we would have to take the wind out of its sails. I ran my eyes along the staggering length of it, spewing dirt and gravel from each side, but also water from the thin layer over the floor.

"Head for the far wall!" I called over and took off, running back down the creature’s side with the hope that it was incapable of turning so sharply. It was a mad dash to the only place I knew that might provide an opening. If Cordella was right, and she had it left in her, it had to be used sparingly—channeled into one decisive strike. It was more the makings of a plan than a foolproof one, and it would leave us wide open if we failed, but it was worth the attempt.

I arrived with my partner a step behind, and the leviathan rounding back at full speed. "Can you make it work?"

She followed my sight-line down to the measly dribble. It was a shallow pool we stood in, even at its deepest only a few inches up our boots, but it covered a lot of ground.

She realized quickly what I had planned and twisted her lips. "It doesn’t look like I have much say in it. Just...keep it off of me, will you?"

“Of course.”

Easier said than done. A multi-ton sack of scales raced to meet us, and I had no more than a toothpick with which to redirect it. Dammit, Kaiser. When are you going to stop agreeing to this shit?

With less time than I'd have liked, I threw out my hands and squinted my eyes. I didn't know to where the mana escaped, but I knew it was still there, and I had dire need of it. I needed light—more of it than last time. I still wasn't sure the damn thing had eyes, but if it did, it was the only way to change its course. I forced out the air from my lungs and conjured an image of the brightest light I could imagine. When the brave little orb appeared in the air, and the monster behind it, I didn't stop or panic. I squeezed. I pushed the muscle until it swelled to breaking, until—

The low, steady grumble of the machine twisted into a shriek as the light vanished in a great flash, enough to make it veer before taking us in its abyssal maw, but not enough to save it. A million fine droplets filled the air as its spinning gears made contact.

"Now, Cordella! Make it count!"

The sorceress already knelt, fingers dipped into the pool as a sharp focus drilled into her countenance. Even having been witness to it several times before, I was unprepared for the ever-explosive nature of her magic, barely yanking my foot from the water before it could run me through. From the pitiful puddle erupted grand icy spicules, sheer needles angled into the cracks of its armor, and a thick shell from what had splashed across its body. I stumbled back. It had happened in an instant.

Skewered and locked into place, a momentary silence befell the once thundering cavern, and I was left marveling at her handiwork. Even weakened, she was capable of so much more than I thought possible. What seemed before like a one-in-a-million shot now appeared a coward’s bet. How could I have been so wrong?

"I can't hold it for long, Kaiser!" Her hands hovered over the newly formed mass. "You need to finish it."

“Wh-What?”

“End it!” She screamed.

With that, reality made its swift re-acquaintance. While Cordella held her steady, I darted to the front of the monster in search of a weakness. My first instinct led me to its head, and the next told me to cower. There were still no eyes that I could see, but its mouth was frozen agape, that is if it could even close it to begin with. Inside was a pitch-black cavity filled with dripping daggers—gears gnashing at the rock in mineral headed to its mile-long belly. Unless I wanted to lose a limb, I wasn’t getting any closer.

Short of options and shorter of time, I leaped onto its side, digging my feet between the scales and climbing to the top. I winced each time I dragged my thighs along the razors, but I didn’t let it stop me. The cold coffin already whined and cracked. One shot: that was all I had the time for.

Atop the titan, I wedged my blade into its stony skin, though not before mourning its edge for the second time that day. Then, with a surge of strength, I forced it as deep as it would go. Just as I’d hoped, it sunk straight to the hilt, letting a glint of warm light peer out from the wound. There was something soft underneath its chains. It must have felt it too, for its next wail shattered my hearing, and, an instant later, its cold prison followed. Its thrashing wrenched both the weapon from my hands and the ground from my feet, tossing me to the ground like a flea from a dog.

I tried to stand again but found the searing pain overwhelming. My legs were flayed, pruned, and painted an ugly red, and my hands were coated in a thick black discharge from its fresh wound. Thankfully, my ally was already to my aid, helping me to stand as the beast momentarily escaped us.

“Fuck, Kaiser, are you okay? Your legs!”

I was slow to rise. Our stunt had taken a heavy toll for little payout, and while we had time now to recover, it wasn't long before it'd return our fury ten-fold, and when it did, we were in no condition to avoid it. "I'm sorry. I just couldn't move fast enough to find a way to stop it. I could barely wound it before it threw me off like nothing."

"Quit apologizing and get up. You have to find me another opening."

"Another? But—you don't have the energy for another! If you keep pushing it—"

"Enough! I already told you can’t forbid me. Now, find me a weak point."

I stubbornly agreed and looked again at the faceless marauder, hoping to see what I couldn't before, but I only found the same hopeless feeling. Whatever twisted deity designed the creature had done so without deficiency—not a single dent. It was too strong to hope to trap, its armor was too thick to pierce, and if I wasn't already useless, my blade still rode its back. It was unstoppable. A rolling phalanx with a hundred moving parts—a machine.

In my anxiety, I clasped my thumb between my forefingers, but something made them slip. In my hand wasn’t the red that I expected to see, but an array of colors swirling in the slippery mix. What the hell was this stuff, and why did it ooze from every pore of that thing? Its scales, its wound, and even its mouth bubbled with tar. If I didn’t know better...

Then it hit me. A machine. Something had to keep it running smoothly, and in the absence of ether, something else burned in its belly. This wasn’t blood or sludge; it was oil. That’s why a meager fireball caused such a reaction, and it’s how we’d burn through its scales.

"We need more fire. The oil on its back should light, but we need a big enough spark to keep it from dying out. Is that something you can handle?"

"A spark?" She asked, a glint in her eyes. Static ran between her curled fingers before cloaking her hands like gloves. "I think I’ll manage."

I could feel it in the air, hear the snap and pop of energy welling in her hands as she waited for her chance to strike. The grub carried on with reckless abandon, and surely enough it flew foolishly into the spider’s carefully laid trap. Coursing threads of current branched through the air as she opened her palm, the arcing weave wrapping around the beast and igniting localized flames across its glassy carapace.

Through the push and pull of strings, the puppeteer kept its plaything at bay, but it didn’t have the effect I anticipated. The blue cloak was only skin deep, and the fuel burned quickly. After a short time, the embers were nothing but—too fragile to coalesce, and too small to cause damage of their own. Worse, though she didn't admit it, her strength waned. The strands grew thin, and it wouldn't be long before they slipped from her weakened grasp. She was spent.

Again then. We needed another shot—a last grasp—but as my eyes ran laps around the scene, and I met desperation as I’d never known it, my face flushed. Saliva ran across my tongue as my insides turned. I already knew in my gut what my heart denied: it was effort wasted, and it was my fault. Cordella held her end of the bargain, but when it came time, I couldn’t hold mine. I looked for second chances, but I’d squandered our last one.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

For the first time since our fateful meeting, Cordella showed signs of her growing fatigue. Her rigid shoulders began to droop, and she wheezed faintly as the last drops of her lifeblood flowed like a river through her fingers.“I—I think that’s all of it,” she whimpered. “I can’t keep it going much longer.”

My voice wasn’t much stronger. "You’ve done plenty. More than enough. Just release it and we’ll regroup, alright? If I can get its attention, I might be able to expose its flank..."

“It’s not going to work.”

“Then, all we’d have to do is—is find a way to...”

"Kaiser," she said to me, with a voice I didn't immediately recognize as hers. It was the first I'd heard it tremble like that, and though she didn't break her view of the monster, I could see the shimmer of emotion bubbling from the facade: fear and pleading, the same as I had. "I can't do it. When this is finished, I'll have nothing left. Promise me that you'll make the most of it."

She asked for the impossible "How?! I want to, but what can I do that you can't? There's no chance I'll break through. I've already tried!"

"That's not what I'm saying. I want you to get out of here."

"I—I could never—" My throat swelled, and the words got caught. To see her like this, when she'd fought so hard to instill confidence in me, was all it took to untie the twine that kept my fears neatly bundled. I had my uncertainties since we embarked, but never were they so acute as when I watched her surrender. With a thumb, I wiped my welling eyes. "You expect me to just leave you?"

"I'm not asking you, Kaiser. I dragged you down here, and I'll be damned if I'm the reason you die in this pit. Now, get out."

I took a step back, still staring like a frightened fawn.

“I said get out of here!” she snapped. “Run, and don't look back!"

Against every instinct to stay and help—to fight or die trying—I did the unthinkable. I turned. My feet flew like wagon wheels, and my mind faster yet, both given another spin at each pop and jolt behind me. As I closed in, so stirred the vial mix of guilt and relief; a few more strides and I’d never lay eyes on this place again—the beast, or the woman that died fighting it. But before I could cross that boundary, the electric whir fading from my peripheral, something caught in the spokes. At the silence behind me, my legs brought me to a sliding halt, and I turned just in time to watch her last bolt deaden against the side of the monster—just in time to watch her crumble to a whip of its tail.

From this distance, she fell silently while I bellowed her name. Just as she’d been undone, so too were the effects of her final spell. My trance was broken, and I was over her in an instant, jostling her at the shoulders. “Cordella,” I choked, pressing my weight into the palms I laid on her chest, again and again without the flit of an eyelid. For the time being, the leviathan had returned to the cavern's outskirts, leaving me on my knees with my hands under her limp body, hurriedly scooping up the broken pieces. Her stomach and half of her left side were exposed as the silk was ripped away from it, and a deep gash ran as much of her torso as I could see bleed through the rest of the cloth. When I pulled my hands out from under her, I fixated on the blood. On my hands and in the crooks of my fingers.

Who knew? Who knew that after every left turn, I was one closer to coming full circle. Finally, it all caught up with me. The same journey that began with another’s blood, would now end with Cordella’s spilled across my lap. How we had come so far for so little? How many wrong choices had led me here? To think, that I had so efficiently squandered my second chance at this life, but it wasn't just mine now. No, that I'd already understood was fleeting, but hers...Whatever sadness or pity I felt for myself was felt a hundred-fold for her. She didn't deserve any of this. I was a million miles below, just where I deserved to be, but I was on the wrong side of the gate.

As I took my last respite, I bowed my head to her chest in an offer to any god merciful enough to hear my plea, if any still listened. None replied, none whispered in my ear, but I heard something else there: a thump. The unmistakable sound made me jump to attention. I moved my hands to where my head had been, feeling the faint rise and fall of her breast.

The strike must have only knocked the wind out of her. She hadn't left me yet, but she hadn't many steps to go; she lived, but what did it matter if I couldn't drag her out of here? I'd try then, I decided, watching the spring-steel serpent slinking back. I couldn't just offer up my light if it meant watching hers go out. I owed her that.

When I stood again, the ground felt firmer under my feet. Confidence was a start, but I needed more than that. If my multiple analyses were correct, it had exactly one weakness, and I still had to find a way to channel enough fire to set the whole thing alight. The makings of a plan, the skin and the bone, but without the meat in between. Calm down and think Kaiser. If our ether left us, then where could it have gone? My narrowed eyes crawled along the wall, brisk black spiders darting up and up until, even this far underground, they found luminescence. I think I’m losing my touch.

It was a brash idea, more like one of hers than mine, but what did I have but my life to lose from trying? One way or another, its scales would bloody me to bits, and my partner never turned her nose at the odds, no matter how minuscule.

A shrill screech shattered our joyous silence—the sound of thunder to a calm day, rain soon to follow. It fell at breakneck speed, and swiftly, regrettably, I put space between myself and my fallen friend as I prepared to evade. I’d need muscle to make them fall, and mine weren’t up to the task. I approached the sheer, rock surface to ask a favor, and then, with its cold withdrawn hand glancing off of mine, walked side by side until the storm was upon me. It followed a curved path back to mine, it was no mindless creature after all. It wasn’t aiming for me, exactly, but to where the wall led me, clever had I not stopped dead in my tracks.

Its iron shovel struck a foot from pay-dirt, pulverizing and vanishing into the rib of the cavern, but not without disastrous effect. The fissure spawned by the impact ran ground to ceiling, shaking the foundation and eliciting a steady volley of stone shrapnel, as well as a certain turquoise shard. With a few careful steps to avoid the accompanying hale, the cool blue crystal lay safely at my feet, and soon after, in my palms.

A light pulse, like a heartbeat in my clenched fingers, only much faster. Vibration, not against but through my hands, abuzz with pure pilfered power. This was what she felt, the strength that pushed her forward, and I had in my care a small fraction of it. I still don’t know that it would work—if, when it came down to it, that I could commandeer the source of her confidence as she did, but I felt it welling in me regardless. It had to work.

Now aware of my ruse, the torrent surged through the aqueduct until pouring from another spout, this time headed straight at me. Again, I was ready, loading onto my legs like an arrow on a string, launching before the black swill could engulf me. Beneath the leg of my pants I found the outline of my spare dagger, and leading with my right hand, I locked it between the scales, holding tight as it lifted me from my feet and drug me along. My thoughts trailed behind my body, several short breaths spent reeling in the line before I cast my focus to the next target. I gave the knife a tug, then, using it as a footstool, leaped to the top.

Slicked with blood and oil, the last set of blades to keep me down dug sharply into the clefts under my knuckles, though no more than canines into my tightened lips. I pushed through the pain and pulled myself up by the sharp plates, now shakily standing where my weapon had been embedded, and so too would I be if I wasn’t hasty. The leviathan made to no attempt to shake me or stir. Instead, it carved an unwavering path, content to bury me as it bore back into the earth.

I flattened my bloody knees against its scythes, holding the pommel in one hand unencumbered, and one with the crystal shard. The two in connection, all I had to do was move the energy from one place to the other and let my imagination do the rest. I squeezed with all of my strength, both my hands and the last breath my lungs might ever breathe. “Lord, give me her strength,” I prayed before I let rip the white flames from the black iron.

At first, I felt nothing—nothing indicating any form of success—beyond the usual pull, the inexplicable tug from an invisible vein, but as my ether interwove with the thin threads uncoiling from the crystal, it became a yank. I could feel every bit of power surge into the lightning rod under my paralyzed fingers, burning red, but not because of the blaze that had started beneath the monster’s scales. The oil had succeeded as a catalyst, but it proved too effective, too ravenous for the soon-starved stone to satisfy, and soon nothing could stop the angrily spinning spool.

A guttural wail burst from my throat as agonizing pain took hold, my insides clawing to escape. The greater well had already run dry, and my own parched pool offered only drops. It wasn’t just me; the leviathan whipped in a frenzy as inferno consumed it from the inside out. The gears under the saddle started to gnash and groan, and a stream of liquid fire gushed from its mouth and bones.

The burning eventually numbed against my legs, replaced or perhaps overwhelmed by a splitting hollow feeling. I held strong until I couldn’t any longer, and then well past, until involuntarily the blade released from its wound and spiraled to the ground with my withered body to soften its landing.

The beast continued thrashing as the whole flaming mass slammed into rock, branches of arboreal cracks crumbling the wall and ceiling in great heaps. From Chenglei as far as Abdera, they must have felt the earth give way under their feet, their floor opening to abyss while my sky shattered. The dangling stalactites soon shook free of their restraints, spearing the ground with heavenly—or hellish—wrath. I was lucky to escape judgment, but they rained down upon the profane wyrm, piercing straight through its scales and pinning it to the ground it once bent to its will. After fierce writhing, it finally ceased its pathetic attempts and released one last staggering roar before coiling like a snake dried by the sun.

It was done. Dead. The devil was vanquished, slain by his own devices, but I was gracious victor; I didn’t stay to gloat. I staggered off and knelt at Cordella’s limp form, devoid of consciousness, but also of any further harm. Timidly, I lay my hand on her breast, afraid that what once was would no longer be. It was still beating.

“Thank God,” I sighed, concerned with little else now that the threat was eradicated. Hell, even before that. "We did it," I told her softly, raking an arm across hers. "It's done."

As expected, she wasn't easily roused. Fighting as hard as she had, even after these cursed caves had sucked everything out of her, she'd need a lot of rest before she could do much of anything. I wasn't much better off; it seemed that blood poured from every pore of my body, but at least I couldn't feel much anymore, not so long as I sat there. I took the time to stop and catch my breath, tearing off the shredded scraps of my gambeson to tie around my partner's shoulder. Making the most of our reprieve, I was too absorbed with her revival to relish in the serene stillness that had befallen the surroundings. The moaning, the pressure we'd felt moments after entering, and above all the crypt's relentless keeper finally drowned in the same murky dark. Most of the crystal starlight had dimmed since crashing down, and the leviathan, after smoldering like a candle, was almost burnt to the wick. The last embers rose from the stinking pile, and its ash and scales were scattered to a quiet wind.

It was everything I hoped for, the calm conclusion to a brisk ballad, and all the same, it was one I never thought I’d see. Maybe with our positions swapped, I could imagine it. Certainly, I’d defied the ends that the greater powers sought for me, so I wasn’t shocked to hear find my respite interrupted: the marching hoof-beat, a thousand howls piercing the hush. I already knew when I’d won that I was never supposed to, and the world right itself regardless of the outcome. He’d been denied my head, the pale rider, but still, he came hunting.

Ancient and vile words rose to mind as I rose from my haunches, faced with the sharp and debilitating return of feeling in my arms and legs. Exerting more energy than was left in my reserves, I slung my partner over my shoulder and, in a broken run, headed to the exit. I was well short of the threshold when they intercepted me, countless of the pale anomalies racing under the dying light. They ran like men born to four unholy legs, white hand over pale foot, but not to me— past. Whereas I assumed they had come to tear us apart, limb from limb at the wyrm's behest, they had instead come to witness for themselves the monster's cry of defeat. They brushed past me, and though curious what became of them, I locked my head vanward.

Leaving the cave’s natural luminescence, the shroud greeted me like an old friend. Why did he have to taunt me so? We'd surmounted every hill and every wall, but another of greater stature always assumed its place. I stumbled through, one of Dusk's drunkards, limbs yelling unspeakable things as I forced them into submission. It wasn't long until they betrayed me, casting back my whip and sending with it more of the white-hot pain they'd suffered through. The passing of adrenaline was the death of my ambition. I'd never make it. An endless expanse of tunnel sprawled between us and the outside; I could never retrace our steps without the aid of a spell, nor would my legs carry me that far. It was my fault for thinking I could kill the creature and walk away—that the next problem would solve itself after the death of the first. I had already helped me surmount impossible odds, but just as that last swill of ether had, so too did my luck eventually run dry. My plight had run its course.

The ground, like my legs, eventually turned to sand under my increasingly slowed stride. I sunk to my knees, holding her up so that my elbows took the brunt of the force. For what came to find me there, she lay in my arms as an offering. Maybe one of us could still see mercy.

Pity for me, I didn't immediately lose consciousness. Instead, I lay there, awaiting the end that I had so desperately tried to outrun. I ran no longer. I had already done all that I could—gave all that I had. Now I could sleep peacefully. It was nice and dark in my final resting place, just like I liked it, and the wind had died to a murmur now that the tunnel was cured of wretched plague. I closed my eyes, imagining what might come after, hoping for what shouldn't and fearing what would, and while I pictured, I swore his cloak hung just overhead. I couldn't see it, but I heard the billowing cloth and the last set of clicking hooves, and I knew he'd at last come to ease the pain. Death had found us buried deep in our crypt, his job completed long in anticipation of his arrival.