Where do the children go in war?

They sink in tar

Marred faces, grimacing in despair

They beg their mother for air.

Trayx, Unknown bard.

“Tell me about yourself! Hyn told us you were her goddaughter, and that you were a very powerful mage, tall and very gifted with swords. But honestly, seeing you now, you look like quite the charming young lady.” The God of death’s wife put a piece of apple cake on Nay’s plate. They had sat down in the living room, Nay crossed the entrance of the house, a simple corridor with many paintings of apples, flowers, and a lake, but once she went into the main room of the house, things had become much messier. There was painting material next to a large window in the stone wall, a chimney that looked like it hadn’t been used in quite a while, the floor in front had piles of paper and wood on it, and in another corner were stacks of chairs, that had to be there in wait to be repaired, seeing their state and the woodwork tools next to them. The central table had been recently cleaned though, and on it was only three plates, forks, little spoons, glasses, a water jug, and a fuming teapot. In general, although messy, the room seemed clean. No dust or stains anywhere. Doria had gone to another room to get the cake after asking Nay to put the apple baskets: “Where there was space.”

Which brought us to this moment, the Legio having a fork in her right hand and a plate with apple cake in front, facing a woman with excited sparks in her eyes clearly anticipating a nice conversation.

“My name is Nay. I am eighteen years old.”

“So, you’ve been an adult for four years then?”

“Erm, three.”

Doria made a weird face. “Ah, yes. Majority is fifteen now. You look so young though, and you still made the trip here! And the spirits hate you too! The way here had to be so terrifying for you.”

Nay was trying her best to get used to the weird rhythm of this stranger speaking to her.

“I, no, it wasn’t fun. Quite dangerous as well. One of the spirits managed to control a banshee to attack us.”

“Really!? Seriously, the more time passes, the more the spirit of the general gets vicious.” Doria scrunched up her eyebrows.

“The general?” Nay asked.

“Fort…” The fifty-year old in appearance stressed the t sound at the end of the name. “…I believe was his name? He was one of the generals in charge of the Western plains region during the war of the Firantes. He made quite the bad things when he was alive. Worst of all when he executed all the women and little girls of his city when he realized that the Firantes could take the appearance of women. That was how scared he was of being betrayed. He only spared his own wife and daughter, who were Firantes. Bad luck, really. I don’t think he liked that dagger backstabbing him, or did he die because of poison at the end? I can’t say, you’d need to ask Trayx for more details, and it is honestly way too horrible a story for such a beautiful day. I don’t have many visitors, after all! So, tell me, what do young kids like you do to have fun?”

Nay didn’t answer immediately, she was trying to get her bearings, and bit down on the cake on her plate. Then she paused.

“This is…delicious.” She almost couldn’t believe it. This was without a doubt the best pastry she had ever tasted.

“Thank you thank you! It is the apples, really. I have been cultivating them for one thousand five hundred…no seven hundred years now. These ones are very sweet but also acidic…” She pointed to the apples on the cake with a more orange flesh. “…and I mixed them with another species, a little bit more bitter but…oh my, I’m so sorry, I’m rambling again, you probably don’t care about…”

“No, no please. You asked what young people did to have fun, and I don’t honestly know about others, but for me at least, cooking is my passion, so I am very interested.”

“Oh! That is a very good hobby to have! And it is quite the ageless technique, isn’t it?” Doria gave her a conspiring smile, that Nay didn’t understand the meaning of at all. She focused back on the pastry, taking another bite.

“How do you make the apples be so crunchy and soft at the same time?” Nay questioned.

“Aha! Double caramelisation! Want me to show you?”

Nay nodded. She hadn’t come here for this at all, but after all, why shouldn’t she get baking tips from the wife of the god of Death?”

Nay batted her eyelids in realization.

One thousand and seven hundred years?

Nay was focused on the heat of the oven when a door opening sounded in another part of the house. Doria rose to her feet in a hurry, she still had flour on her nose, because Nay hadn’t really found a way to tell her.

“That’s my honey, wait here I’m coming back, I may have not told him that you were here.” The wife of the God of death winked at her, and quickly ran to the entrance.

Nay took a few moments to understand what she had just been told.

He didn’t know she was there? What?

And what was she doing, exactly? She gave a quick glance at the kitchen, it was traditional made and simple. Ra’fa would have approved.

Wait, had she been drugged?

The Legio had really just spent an hour in the kitchen of Trayx? A rapid analysis confirmed that, yes, Nay had done exactly that, and she knew herself well enough to know that no drugs had been used. A brand new recipe and a delicious cake had been well enough to make her lower her guard completely. She had spoken freely with Doria for an hour, and she barely remembered what they had talked about. She hoped she hadn’t been rude.

Nay felt a new Rreico enter the kitchen. Well, the Legio had no time for regrets. She peeked at her clothing, still wearing the pink apron with little eddens pictures all over that Doria had lent her. Nay raised her eyes.

She wasn’t in the kitchen anymore. Nay stumbled back and fell on her bottom. The ground wasn’t hard. She even bounced on it a bit. It wasn’t something solid under her, but she wasn’t sinking in it.

The blue sky without a sun was over her head once again, the roof of the stone house vanished as if it had never been there. Around her, with no end in sight, was flat ground, except it wasn’t ground, it was water, so deeply blue it was almost black.

Where was she? What had just happened?

Nay looked at what had been the kitchen floor. She was sitting on water, but the liquid was acting like a strange glass panel. She couldn’t breach the surface. Underneath, the dark waters were littered with moving footprints. As if many people were walking, no, dancing, on the opposite surface of the impossible glass and water ocean blue floor.

In front of her stood a man.

His Rreico was telling annoyance. And it was a God-Touched. He wasn’t tall, his appearance quite similar to those of the Cali tribe members. His hair was white as snow, but still all there. His green eyes were slanted like Jarulavians, and he was wearing quite the nice velvet pants, but had no shoes or upper clothing to speak of. His face was young, barely looking a day over twenty. With his small frame, he could have passed for a teenager.

Doria appeared next to him, coming from nowhere.

Nay realized that she was sitting on the calm sea of Trayx, and that she was looking at the God of death and his wife. Trayx was powerful, maybe two, three times stronger than Jarl himself, but his power seemed pathetic compared to Doria’s. The Legio had no idea what to do. Trayx seemed angry, but his anger wasn’t directed at her. She didn’t know if she had to flee, intervene, or…she had lost all bearings since entering the temple of Trayx. Her panic was interrupted by Doria’s unhappy voice.

“Honey! Don’t get so annoyed, I invited her!”

“And we said that she would be waiting here.”

“For how long? The poor girl, she made this whole trip and…”

“She could have been dangerous!”

“She’s Hyn’s goddaughter!”

“Exactly!”

“I just wanted to speak with someone, and knowing you, you would not even have let me see her! She is very nice and completely harmless, she even caught me when I…ah.”

The God of death rose an eyebrow to his wife. “What have you done now? Did you fall from the ladder again?”

Doria scratched her cheek. “Ha ha ha.” Her laugh was anything but natural.

And she vanished.

Nay blinked wildly. Doria had stood there just the moment before, her impossible Rreico overpowering everything except the one of the sea below, then, the next instant, everything was gone.

Trayx sighed. He looked at the Legio still on the ground.

“I apologize for her behaviour. Did you hurt yourself?”

Nay didn’t answer. She put herself back on her feet and tried to give her entire focus to the clear danger in front of her. It was hard, as her eyes naturally fell on the footprints stepping on the infinite Rreico beneath her feet.

“I also have to thank you, apparently.” Trayx continued, undisturbed. “It seems you kept my wife company while I was busy, and you even stopped her from falling, if I understood things correctly?”

“I acted instinctively. She just slipped. Doria is nice, and a very nice cook.” Nay had no idea what she was saying.

Trayx smiled. “Yes. She was quite poor at first, but over the years, she got quite better.”

Nay looked at the man in front of her. The silence between them went for an uncomfortable amount of time.

“Are you the God of death?” The Legio finally broke the uneasy atmosphere.

Trayx’s gaze darkened. “Am I still called that? I knew I couldn’t trust that snake…No, I am not. I do supervise the sea of the dead, but that’s about it. I am anything but a God, and all I did was to prevent death, not spread it. Although my failures on that subject are great.”

Nay blinked, trying to understand what was being revealed. So, Trayx himself wasn’t a god. Nay had thought that would be the case. Doria, though…

“Doria is like me.” She let the words slip.

“Mh? What do you mean? That you are related?”

“What!?” Nay exclaimed.

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Trayx looked at her, a bit taken aback by her reaction. “Well, the eyes, it is quite obvious, isn’t it? And it’s nothing to get too surprised about either. There has to be a thousand if not more people in the empire that are related to me, Doria or both of us. You’re probably her grand, grand, grand and another twenty of those, daughter, if I had to guess.”

“Oh.” The Legio thought about it. If Trayx and his wife were that old, then yes, it wasn’t that special to be related to them. She shook her head, this wasn’t what she had meant to say.

“No, what I wanted to say was that her power and mine are similar.” She corrected.

Trayx was the one that blinked wildly now. “What? They are the same?”

Nay held her tongue. Was he really not aware?

The God of death became pensive. “Let us walk for a bit.” He announced. His Rreico showed understanding about something.

He showed his back to the Legio, and walked on the immense, calm sea.

The Rreico of the immortal man was tumultuous, but Nay couldn’t really go anywhere else, so she followed him from afar.

“No, no, come next to me.” He said.

Nay came closer to the man almost half her size. She was the one feeling little though.

The dancing footprints were uncountable, but Nay could not feel the individual Rreicos of those that were making them behind the veil of the infinite sea. She and the God of death walked for minutes now, and he hadn’t said anything yet.

Then, with no obvious reason why, he stopped.

“She shouldn’t be able to hear us here. Sit down.” He raised a hand, and two solid seats of water rose from the ground. He sat on his and Nay did the same with the one opposite of it.

“Doria?” She asked.

Trayx nodded. “I need to ask a favour of you, two actually. But I didn’t expect Hyn to send an asacrified to me. I thought I would never meet another, to be honest. I was really hoping that no one would be foolish enough to try again. Because that’s what you meant with your power and Doria, isn’t it?”

“An asacrified? I’m not familiar with the word.”

Trayx seemed annoyed at that. “Of course. After all this time…after the war, really. Wait, the war…” His face lit up, and he looked at her more attentively. “You are a Leïn, aren’t you?”

Nay tensed up.

“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. But it reassures me. I was certain that Hyn would never let another asacrified be created, but she was obviously unable to stop it during the war. I see. I see. It makes perfect sense, that’s the piece that was missing.” He sighed deeply. “Why did you come here? I hope it’s not to die. Doria hates it when children die too young.”

Why did Doria and now Trayx immediately jump to the conclusion that she wanted to die?

“No, no. I came here so that if I ever found myself close to death…”

The face of what had to be the oldest living Cali tribe member lit up once again. “Ah, of course! The conqueror’s miracle. I see. A good plan. I’ll prepare a place in the sea where you can fade without hurting any of the souls. But that’s easy, perfect. Good.”

Nay didn’t say anything.

Trayx finally rose his gaze to her. “Oh, I apologize. I didn’t mean to cut you off. In any case, you’re free to use the door to go here. Not in the orchard though, here, you understand?”

“I…I got it. So you know the miracle of the Door then.” It wasn’t that surprising that he knew about it, but the speed at which he had understood the entirety of the Imperatrix’ plan was quite astonishing.

Trayx wiped away all of that with a gesture of his hand. “Oh, everything related to the past is quite easy for me to find. I live with the dead, after all. I just need to talk to them, they don’t often try to keep secrets from me.”

Nay looked at the sea under her feet. “You talk to the dead?” Could he…

He rose a hand to stop her. “Yes, and I can guess what you’re going to say. And no, you can’t see them. You would be stuck here forever if you did, like me.”

Nay caught him staring at nothing. He didn’t seem sad, but she could feel a very, very old nostalgia in his Rreico.

“What about Doria?”

He smiled. “Quite the astute question. My wife is the exception, that is true. She died one thousand seven hundred and forty years ago now, but as you seem to have guessed, her power is well…it has broken quite a lot of laws, and destroyed many more things than that.”

“Doria is dead…?” Nay could not believe it. She hadn’t felt anything strange from the woman at all.

Trayx had a serious expression. “She forgot everything of her past. That is the cost she pays. She kept her personality and emotions, but everything that happened when she was alive has gone forever from her mind. And it is better like that. I do not like to delve back on what happened, but if you are an asacrified like her… I really do not want to talk about it. Even if I’m pretty certain she can’t hear us here. A warning shall have to do. Young girl, if you abuse your power, the Empire will become another land of salt.”

Nay didn’t answer at first. “Is the Conqueror’s door a pr…”

“No, when I said to abuse, I meant it like that. Power corrupts. Doria was quite the charming lady, just like you, but she was darkened by this horror that was imposed on her.” Trayx didn’t say anything more, clearly not wanting to continue on the subject.

While those revelations were interesting, Nay hadn’t really come for those. Actually, her mission was finished. She could come here to die and would not endanger anyone.

“It doesn’t seem like you understand the gravity of what I am telling you.” Trayx’ voice was deep.

Nay looked at him straight in the eyes. “I am a Legio.”

The God of death’s eyebrows rose. “Mh. And?”

“I was taught never to abuse my power. I was told never to kill, I was promised that I would understand the weight of a life. I am not incorruptible, but whether that be through my swords or my magic, makes no difference whatsoever. But I firmly believe that as long as I walk through the road that my father gave me, I will carry on fine.” The words had come to her naturally. Then Nay felt something under the Rreico of the sea. There were footsteps that had appeared under her own feet.

“Dad?” She asked full of hope.

Trayx shook his head. “No. You do not know this person. That she found you in the middle of the sea though…anyway, neither your father nor Jormun are here. The enchantments I created to bring lost souls here do not work on them.

“What?”

Trayx sighed. “I am no God, all of this…I made it to continue seeing Doria. Over the years, after thousand and thousand of runes...I told myself, why not invite everyone here? Prevent souls from disappearing into oblivion? No one knows what is after death, after all. What if it was just black? Nothingness. I built this place so that everyone could die happily and without too many worries. A paradise, in short.”

Nay watched the footprints under her. Why was someone she had never met there? She thought about Trayx’ words. “Dad and Jormun aren’t here?”

“No. All the Legios have rejected the sea, actually. Maybe they know better. I don’t know. No one knows. But it brings me to one thing I wanted to ask. I had very few occasions to speak with a Legio, but I am aware that you have quite an interesting ability, close to the one the Tellers have, I have been told? I suppose it is what made you able to see Doria’s real power so quickly.”

Nay smiled at him.

And Trayx looked at her in surprise. “You won’t tell me, will you?”

“No.”

The God of death began to laugh. “I see. I expected that, to be honest. I met Jormun, and he basically told me I was wrong in my endeavours, he didn’t even hesitate a second when he refused as well. That may have been the only time I felt like God existed. Mh. Very well. It wasn’t one of the favours I wanted to ask, anyway. Just, when you told me you were a Legio, I couldn’t stop myself from trying to learn more. Sorry, I did know you only taught your art to apprentices of the craft chosen only by you.”

“You don’t need to apologize.” Nay scratched the back of her head.

“Mh. So, one of the two things I wanted to ask, really, actually involves my phantom power.”

“Oh? Why me then?” What could one of the greatest Touched in history ask the Legio? His wife was as powerful as Nay, so it couldn’t be linked with her power, could it?

“I’ll explain.” He rose to his feet, but when Nay began doing the same, he gestured her to stay put.

“My power is one that lets me see places. Sometimes one place, sometimes different ones in a row. It is like scenes in a theatre, but without the actors. Those places are always locations where important things occur though. For example, the place where Doria got executed is one of them, the meadow where Rö summoned the Angels is another. After the war though, I pretty much stopped having visions. But thirty years ago, I began seeing them again. Three of them in quick succession. Which means they are linked to each other somehow. At first, I had no idea what linked them, but I spoke to the dead recently, and I know you were there, in at least two of those locations. Which is why I would like to have your opinion. What is the common factor in these three places, according to you?”

He waved his hand in the sky, and the sea of Trayx vanished.

Nay was still sitting on her seat of impossible water, but she was now also sitting in the middle of the training grounds of the Legio school in Gite. Torches were set in a circle, and the sun was setting behind the cliff of her home.

If she hadn’t been sitting, the Legio would have fallen on her knees.

“So, that’s the first. I’ll show you the second.” Trayx hadn’t noticed how this place affected Nay.

The world burst anew again, Nay was next to the little coast of a large oasis, in the middle of an infinite desert. The little house where Carle had hung himself was visible from here.

Nay was feeling sick.

“And this is the third.”

Once again, everything changed around her at the speed of lightning. She was in a gigantic temple now. Or a cathedral, although the architecture was nothing like the one in Leïn. The ceiling was much higher, the large supporting pillars at least thirty metres tall. The building was also much darker, the stones on the grey-black spectrum of colour. There was snow in large piles everywhere, the white powder was entering through one of the walls. It seemed to have burst open because of the cold. Beyond the opening, there was nothing you could see except the furious anger of the Hi Blizzard, raging its absurd wind seemingly endlessly. The stones that weren’t covered in snow were covered with a thick surface of frost. By just looking, Nay could almost feel the freezing temperature. Everywhere except on the main altar. On it was a throne of bones and wood, and behind it stood an absurd rectangle of lava. It was like a waterfall of liquid rock, except it initiated from nothing but thin air, three metres above the ground, and stopped just before touching the floor, contradicting all the laws of this world.

The scene vanished as fast as it had appeared. The Legio could finally breathe. Trayx sat back down on his seat of water. The sky was blue, the surface under their feet was once again this glass-like liquid.

“Are you okay? It was only images, you should not feel bad…” The man finally noticed the state the Legio was in.

She raised a hand, looking down. “Just…one moment…I did not expect…” She exhaled deeply. “Okay. Okay.” She looked at the God of death again. “Are you lying to me?”

“What? No?”

“You…” Nay closed her eyes. His Rreico did not feel manipulative at all. When she opened her eyes again, she was a bit calmer.

“I have never seen the third place.”

Trayx nodded. “I guessed as much. I believe that whatever it may represent, it has yet to happen. It is something that will occur in the future. But you do know about the first two, right?”

Nay did not say anything for a while. What did it mean? The Legio swore silently. How she would have liked to have Trinne with her right now. The redhead would probably have found four different theories, all as likely as the other. While Nay could only see one plausible explanation.

“A master Legio died there. Those places are where they died.” She finally announced.

“Oh…I did not expect that. Mhhh. Nothing else?”

“I…no. I don’t want to dwell on it.”

The God of death nodded. “I see. I apologize, I had no idea it would bring up painful memories.”

“You…your visions, did you ever manage to change them?”

Trayx sighed slowly. “No, unfortunately. I did make a lot of interpretation mistakes though. My power is quite similar to the Truth-Tellers in that regard.”

Nay grimaced. “I see.” A third location. A third master. Did she just see the place where she was going to die? Or maybe it was further in the future, and it was Lisana’s? Trinne’s? No, Trinne was still unable to feel the Rreico. Nay had to tell her friend about those visions. Maybe she would interpret it differently.

Silence reigned for a while in the ocean blue immensity.

“I have something else to ask of you.” In the end, it was Trayx who spoke first.

“…Go on.”

“Hyn told me about the mission she was going to give you when you’ll be back in Leïn.”

Nay raised her left eyebrow. The ex-Imperatrix had done that? Why?

“She also told me that, according to her, you would definitely refuse that mission. I ask you to accept her demand.”

Nay was going to refuse? She tensed up. “And I’m just supposed to agree? You said it yourself, you are no God. If Hyn knows I’m going to refuse, that means I have a very good reason to do so.”

“Yes, and if I read you correctly, I believe that reason is a good one as well. Actually, if you are like Doria, it is important for you to be a person that would refuse it. I’m not asking to blindly follow my request though. We do not know each other, after all. But I ask you to just accept it. You don’t need to succeed in the mission, you can stop at any point. Do what you’re being asked to do, but make the final decision for yourself.”

“And once again, why by Ja should I listen to you?”

Trayx clenched his teeth. “Because I can feel the souls. There are hundreds of them, stuck, suffering unimaginably. You met the spirits, didn’t you? Have you felt their nefariousness?”

“I…yes?”

“Someone like that is torturing the souls of hundreds of dead, that should have come here for years now, for some of them. And he does the same to the living. Your power makes you untouchable by him, he can’t hurt you.”

“…Hyn is going to ask me to assassinate him, isn’t she?”

“That is correct.”

Nay pinched the bridge of her nose. “Is he really as bad as someone like that general Fort?”

“Doria told you about him?” Trayx turned his gaze to the blue horizon. “I can’t say if he is worse. It is a monster. Once you gave up your humanity completely, can you get any worse?”

Nay sighed with annoyance. “Fine. I’ll make my own opinion on the subject.”

“Thank you.”

They stared at each other for a while.

“What now?’ She finally asked.

Trayx smiled at her. “Sorry. Yes. It is better for the living not to stay here for too long. I would recommend using the Conqueror’s Door to leave though. Despite my best efforts, the Banshees are staying close to the temple. I have very little influence about what is happening outside, as I am stuck here. You would have to wait for Fort to forget about you, if you don’t want to use the spell. Spirits, even as vindicative as him, don’t have the greatest of memories.”

“Biach.”

“If you could take Green Tree and Lynn with you when you leave, also. They are like my grandchildren. Without them, there would be no one to bring Doria new things to pass the time.”

“That is why I was swearing. I am not supposed to reveal the miracle to anyone at all.”

“Oh. Do not worry about it. I will tell them not to divulge anything. They will listen to me, I can assure you of that.”

Nay sighed again. She had gotten what she came for, but the God of death had asked quite a lot of her in exchange.

“Good. Are you sending me back up there?” She asked.

Trayx gave her a shy smile. “If you want. But I think Doria would be quite sad to know that I send you away without letting her say goodbye. Would you be so kind to keep her company for a while?”

“Your wife isn’t some pet.” Nay wasn’t in a good mood.

Trayx grimaced. “Ah, I didn’t mean it like that, but I suppose it did sound condescending on my part.”

“I’d be pleased in spending time with Doria, because I like her.” And because she was the living foreshadowing of what Nay could be like after an eternity with her power, but the Legio didn’t mention that part.

“She would be delighted. And I am grateful. I owe you, more than once.” Trayx stood back up, then bowed deeply in front of her. “If you need advice one day, or you desire to learn more about the past, you only need to use the door to come here. You will be always welcome.”

Nay scratched her cheek, feeling a bit bashful all of the sudden. “I…Yes. Sorry about my tone of voice, seeing where my dad died brought…I didn’t mean to be so…”

“You do not need to apologize. The fault lies entirely with me.”