Finally, I was here.

As the last of Doldimar’s soldiers slid off of my blade, I kept my eyes fixed on the doors in front of me. Behind them was my goal. Behind them, I’d find him.

Hopefully, I’d get to enjoy killing him before Reive and the others caught up.

When I banged into the next room, I found it empty save for several patches of shadows and Doldimar, lounging in one of the humans' former throne.

“Finally, you’re here. I’ve been waiting for ages, Eri.”

Doldimar’s sing-song voice filled the room, setting my teeth grinding, and as he straightened in his chair, I settled into a ready stance, diminishing my profile. Back in the day, I might have been the superior swordsman between the two of us, but who knew if that had changed in the decade since?

Seeing me shift, Doldimar leapt to his feet with clapping hands, manically giggling all the while.

“Do you like it?” he asked. “We’ve told a fine story together, you and I, but now, it’s time for the finale! Who will prevail? The hero or the villain?”

Gritting my teeth, I hiss, “This isn’t a storybook, you bastard. You took my family from me! You ended their lives.”

With a sob, I broke off, and Doldimar cocked his head as I collected myself.

“You, my best friend, destroyed my life and brought the world to ruin. How could you?”

I didn’t know why I’d asked that. Over the years, I’d learned that any remorse this man might’ve had had died along with his son, long ago.

It was with surprise then that I watched Doldimar’s manic energy fade. With a heavy sigh, he squeezed his eyes closed, glancing away, and for a moment, he looked like my friend again.

Then, he said, “You’d know why I’ve done these things if you’d read my letter. You could have prevented this.”

And acid burned away my vision of a ghost.

That. damn. letter. I still carried it on my person, tucked into my jacket’s pocket, but that was because it was part of my revenge, not because of an unspoken promise I might have made.

“I’m going to kill you,” I snapped. “You will suffer, just like them.”

Like Lirilith, watching me from the sidelines with a broken body. Like Sepiala with black energy riddling every part of her. Like every other unnamed person he’d killed.

Meeting my eyes, Doldimar said, “Good.”

And he smiled. And that was it for me.

I charged him with a roar, unthinking in my advance, and he calmly waited for me. For some reason, I didn’t find this odd until I caught a flash of movement from the corner of my eye.

That one glimpse and my quick reflexes saved me. Nearly tripping over myself, I barely dodged the sword plunging for my chest, spinning around the body that followed it. I was quick to recover, changing targets in a breath, but so was my new opponent. As our blades met, Doldimar’s cackle rose above that clash.

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“I’m sorry, Eri. I should have introduced you before now,” he said. “This is the final, major character in our tale: my ward and heir.”

How fortunate for me. I’d get to end his tyranny in one fell swoop.

Snarling, I pushed my new opponent away, hardly seeing her before I sprinted for Doldimar once more, but something in that one glimpse tickled at the back of my mind.

I cast consideration of it to the side, at least for the moment. Why waste time on that when my goal was so close?

Again, the woman appeared from nowhere, and on pushing her away this time, her hair slapped me in the face. Red and green. That was an unusual combo.

Shaking the thought off, I advanced two more steps toward Doldimar, and his heir rose from a patch of shadows on the ground in front of me.

How had she done that? What magic had allowed it?

Raising her blade, she snarled, “Leave him alone, degenerate.”

And I stumbled to a stop, blankly staring. It couldn’t be.

“Lirilith?” I breathed.

No, that couldn’t be right. The faces might match, but my wife had had blonde hair…

In a blur, Doldimar’s heir moved, and several feet of steel plunged into my chest and through my heart.

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When I saw him this time, Alouin was watching me with pity.

“Brace yourself, Eriadren,” he said. “This next one will be bad.”

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White light ushered me into my body, and surprised to find myself unbound, I stumbled to my feet, coughing. Even as I snagged a hidden knife from its sheathe, the blurry figures in front of me clarified.

One: Doldimar with a disappointed frown in place.

“Well, that didn’t work.”

Two: A ghost from the past, staring at me in horror.

Why was she looking at me like that? Why was she so familiar?

Licking her lips, Doldimar’s heir hesitantly said, “Daddy?”

And I locked up, in body and mind. Not Lirilith. This was much worse.

“Sepi?” I breathed.

My daughter.

It couldn’t be, though. I’d seen her body, hadn’t I? Hadn't I?

No, this wasn’t right. She was…

What had Doldimar made of her? What had she done?

All because I couldn’t keep her safe.

With tears in her eyes, Sepiala dropped her sword.

“Daddy!” she gasped over its clang. “You’re… no, you’re dead! He told me… I… Oh, Alouin. What-?”

Despite my horror, I found myself speaking.

“It’s ok, sweetie. We’ll fix this. You’re all right.”

Maybe she heard what I was really saying. Maybe she knew from those meager words how much I still loved her. I hoped so because in the next moment, Doldimar was at her side, cleanly separating her head from her shoulders.

As my daughter collapsed in pieces at his feet, he clicked his tongue.

“Looks like that still needs work too,” he said.

I didn’t know what happened next. Something unreasoning and powerful took over, and when I was next aware of the world, Doldimar was kneeling in front of me with one leg gone and a sword through his gut.

“Finally, we’re here,” he coughed.

Shakily reaching for me, he laid a hand where I was gripping the blade.

“Thank… you, Eri.”

Snarling, I ripped the sword free and brought it down on his head. I wasn’t sure how long I spent hacking at his body, but eventually, I grew tired, throwing the weapon aside. Fixing my gaze on the remains of that hated face, I withdrew a letter, yet unopened, from my jacket.

Everything else—Sepiala!—could wait, just for a moment. I needed this. Now.

Breaking the wax on the letter’s seal, I unfolded it.

“Let’s see what you thought would excuse all of this,” I growled before clearing my throat. “My dearest friend. If you’re reading this, please know that I never hated you. You weren’t to blame for what led to our conflict. In fact, if anyone should take responsibility for it, it’s… me.”

Scowling, I scanned the rest of the letter, and once I was finished, my legs failed me. Limply hitting the ground, I rested loose fingers on my thighs, letting parchment flutter free of them.

No.

I wanted to howl this, but the breath had been knocked out of me, and I wasn’t sure if it was in response to what I’d read or what had started rising in my core. I didn’t get long to ponder this as that rapidly escalating heat stole all thought. Pain flashed through me—

—and my ashes floated to the ground between my loved ones’ corpses.