Bright glowed the colours of the sword, pulsing along the blade. Both Ivkarha and Aedmorn swam to the shore as the sword glowed, and then the statue as well. Colours spilled from the sword, cascading down and across the water, rippling through the air. From where they stood, watching, the both were washed over by the colours, sweeping through them and beyond.

Then came a blinding burst of light as the colours coruscated forth, and they felt the wash of it sweep across them, their skin sparking with the touch of it, their minds buzzing from it. They blinked to refocus their vision, and beheld that the waters of the pool had dropped away and the statue stood now half-exposed, holding the sword aloft. It still shone but no longer pulsed.

Ivkarha held up her hand, watching as motes of light danced across her skin, like tiny stars that shimmered and swayed.

“It is about time,” a voice spoke, and the pair spun about, to behold a man standing behind them. “Though in time as well.” In all appearances he was as human as them, until they beheld his eyes, for they were solid vibrant green, without iris or pupil, disconcerting to look on. And he wore clothes most unusual, for them seemed fashioned from bark and vines.

He grinned at them as he noted their confusion, and that grin, while in part welcoming also had a predatory edge to it.

“Two this time,” he continued on.

Ivkarha went for her sword, only to recall she had left it with the statue. Even still, defiance flared up in her, her body posture reflecting an easing of her frame to make ready should trouble arise. “You are?” she demanded.

He smiled and his teeth were not quite normal, being a little too sharp. “I have no names but many,” he told them. “I am the life of the wilds and the death of eternity, for here is all that was and shall be. But even I grow weary of the burden laid upon me, a burden of ages.”

“That is no real answer.”

“It is an answer, just not as you hope.”

“I heard one speak to me, saw one come from this place,” Aedmorn said, staring fiercely.

“That was I.”

“How? He was there, in the shadows, battling the creature there, and you are here.”

The green eyed man laughed. “Here all things are possible. Time does not exist as you perceive it. What has happened will happen, and what was has already been. We are beyond such matters. Just as I do not flow as you do, neither does my sword, that both of you have held. It goes where needed, when it is needed.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“What is it that you want?” Ivkarha demanded.

“Always to the point. That is what I have always liked about you Ivkarha.”

“You know me?”

“Did I not explain? We have already met just as we will meet.”

Aedmorn frowned at that. “If we have already met, then you know everything we shall say and do.”

The man grinned. “Now you are getting it. Yes, indeed, I do. To answer your question, I have been forever, and that is wearying. And my battle with the foe shall continue for an age. If I am there, I can not be here, and there needs to be one here, to mind it.”

“And you wish that it is one of us?” Ivkhrha demanded.

A laugh followed. “Yes, that is so, and to answer your next question, I can not just choose, for it has to be chosen.”

“One of us has to offer ourselves?”

There was a flash in the man’s eyes. “That is so.”

“And why would we do that?” Ivkarha asked.

A merry laugh came from the man. “Immortality, power more than that of the gods, the infinite void to explore and to shape. Is that not enough?”

Aedmorn scratched at his nose in deep thought. “And you would give all of that up?”

“Only a portion.”

Aedmorn looked to Ivkarha and could see her eyes were narrowed, brow furrowed in thought, but a grim determination there as well. “What would one have to do to accept such a gift?”

The man pointed a hand towards the statue in the pool. “Go unto it, take up the sword again,” he said. “And wait a moment for the light to come to you. When it does, accept it. That is all.” Slowly the man started to fade away from sight, growing more and more translucent with each moment. “Just as I have seen you, I will see you once more,” he said, voice fading into a whisper before he was truly gone.

“An interesting proposal,” Aedmorn stated, “But was he telling the truth?”

“Yes,” Ivkarha said simply. “There were no lies in his words.”

A wry smile touched Aedmorn. “You are considering it?”

“I am the last of my people,” Ivkarha said. “For as long as I live they do not truly die, and if the gift is as he says…”

Aedmorn nodded. “Yes, they shall live on with you.”

Ivkarha gave him a sharp look. “You too have considered it.”

“How could I not? This place feels like home. This is life in its purest, rawest form and it would be remiss of me to pass it up. Yet it can be only the one of us.”

“Why?” Ivkarha asked. “He never specified one alone.”

Aedmorn considered it. “Perhaps not specifically, but he implied it.”

Ivkarha laughed, and the hint of madness was back. “When have we ever played by the rules of others, Aedmorn? If but one of us took this up, we would never meet again. Would you have that?”

“No, not at all,” he admitted. He looked at the statue and nodded slowly. “Let us try it, see what happens. It may not work, but we can at least try.”

Ivkarha grinned at him and started to wade out into the water. They swam to where the statute stood, only half submerged now, forcing them to pull themselves up onto its shoulders. The sword was there before them, waiting.

Ivkarha looked at Aedmorn. “Ready?” she asked.

He nodded. “As I will ever be.”

“Then let us do this.”