It took Two an hour to reach his destination. He could’ve jumped, could’ve used any combination of magic to scale the mountain faster, but he didn’t want to risk damaging the vase.

That, and he found it nostalgic to climb up the slope with only his legs and feet. Scaling this mountain had been the first major accomplishment in he and his brother’s quest for immortality. It had been an arduous journey back then, filled with near falls and clashes with wild beasts. By the end, their muscles had ached and their lungs had burned, but the sight of the setting sun, the red rays cloaking the land that looked so small beneath them, had been worth it all.

Two smiled to himself as he reached the summit. He set the vase down. The journey was easy now, barely requiring more effort than a simple stroll. He inhaled, breathing in the crisp air. Perhaps it was because his lungs were stronger now, but it didn’t feel the same as it did back then. He wished he’d savored it more. He hadn’t realized something as simple as breathing would never be the same.

Shaking his head, Two glanced around the flat mountaintop, searching for a good location. In the end, he selected a small patch of grass that glowed under the setting sun, and after waiting for the current breeze to settle, he carefully overturned the vase.

A pile of fine ash landed atop the grasses in a small mound. It looked like grey dirt, Two thought. He threw the empty vase over the mountain edge. It was funny how easily the body was reduced to something so small and insignificant. It didn’t matter who the person had been, what power and heights they’d achieved. In the end, they all burned and rotted the same.

Two turned around to face the horizon. It should be time, he thought.

A rustle sounded behind him, and the immortal turned.

Appearing from the wind itself, a woman drifted down and landed lightly atop the mountain peak. Plain features and cold eyes stood out against dark clothes that looked harsh against the sky. Though her appearance itself was rather unremarkable, there wasn’t an immortal alive who didn’t know who she was.

They called her One, the oldest and most powerful of the immortals. Before more had offered to help her, she alone had been the killer of immortals for many millennia. The ender of eternity. For Two, however, she had a different name.

He bowed lowly as she landed. “Teacher,” he greeted.

One’s expression didn’t change. She simply watched him with those cold eyes, silently taking in his appearance, the surroundings, and lingering only a little longer on the pile of ashes at his feet.

She spoke a name, a name that Two hadn’t heard since he’d killed his brother. It felt both right and terribly wrong to hear it. At what point, he wondered, had that name stopped feeling like his own?

“I see you’ve made your decision.” One’s voice was every bit as icy as her gaze, impossibly hollow and weighty at the same time.

Two straightened and nodded. “I have.”

“You’re certain?”

“I am.”

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By then, the sun had begun to sink below the horizon, the sky a gradient fading from indigo to blazing scarlet. Perhaps it was his own bias speaking, but Two had always believed the sunset of this realm was the most beautiful one of all that he’d seen.

“I assume you have a method in mind.”

Two smiled at that. Powerful as she was, One could use any combination of abilities to strip away someone’s immortality. He’d once aspired to reach that level of power himself.

He nodded, stepping a little closer so that his feet were just barely brushing against the ashes.

“I would prefer fire, if you’re alright with it. I know the smell can be quite bothersome.”

One huffed, the first real change in expression she’d made so far. Lifting her left hand, her palm burst into flames. They were pure white and condensed into a perfect sphere, and Two could feel the heat from where he stood. There was no smoke, and he was glad for it. He inhaled the wind.

One stepped forward, drawing her arm back, while Two waited.

“Teacher?”

She paused, and the other immortal continued.

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re far from the first student I’ve killed.” Her voice was flat.

“I know. That’s not what I meant.”

That seemed to catch One’s attention. She raised an eyebrow, the motion so subtle that most wouldn’t have noticed it, but Two did. He couldn’t help but smile, and he met her gaze.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough.”

For a brief second, the other immortal stilled. And then, clenching her fingers into a fist, she huffed.

“Fool.”

And then she lunged forward.

Death, in the end, was a quick thing. There was a flash of light, then a burning heat that overrode Two’s senses, but he felt no pain. One’s deaths were always quick, as easy and natural as a missed breath. A long line of sensations instantly snuffed out.

In that brief moment before the fire reached his soul, the world seemed sharper and clearer than ever before. Two could feel the wind on his skin, the warmth of the sunlight against his back. He saw the mound of grey ashes scatter into the sky, felt his own body silently tip off the edge of the mountain.

For a moment, on the border between floating and falling, he felt weightless. With the last vestiges of his consciousness, Two took in the wide sky above him and One watching silently on the mountain top. Standing where he and his brother had declared their dreams to the world so long ago. He closed his eyes.

He’d always wondered what it felt like to die permanently. Now, he understood that it was the same as waking from a long dream.

As the flame burned away the last traces of his immortality, it engulfed the rest of his body in that blazing white light, not stopping until he, too, became nothing more than ashes scattered in the wind.

In the end, Two died silently. His only witness was his killer, who lingered on the mountaintop long after the ashes had vanished into the red sky. She exhaled.

With a final lingering glance at the horizon, One turned away and dissipated into the breeze.

—

Every immortal who took on students did so for different reasons. Some did so out of boredom, others for companionship. The oldest often hoped their apprentices might grow stronger than them, strong enough to kill their teachers when the time came. It was an endless cycle of beginnings and endings.

She had lived longer than memory allowed, long enough to see countless worlds born and torn apart. She knew the sting of cold and the scorch of fire. She had buried so many faces that her hands were covered in gloves of earth.

She had traveled to the furthest reaches of the universe, where time itself collapsed and there was nothing left but hollow isolation. She’d met and taught and killed countless souls. She had mourned until mourning lost all meaning.

No one understood waiting more than One did, and indeed, she would wait as long as it took.

Until then, she would continue to watch over the other immortals. She would live on and give them the ends they desired, waiting for the day she found her own.