Arylos closed the door behind Frygga as she left and remained where he stood, as if waiting for Iris to say something, anything. He knew she had thoughts she wanted to voice. She had concerns that needed addressing. This new life he dragged her into was only making things worse. He braced himself for what she might say, afraid that she would reject him.

He wanted, needed, to apologise.

“What do we do now?” Iris asked before he could say anything.

Arylos looked over to her, as if not believing her question. “We?” he clarified.

“Well yeah, we’re both in the same boat here,” Iris explained as if she was stating the obvious.

“This is my fight that you got dragged into,” Arylos tried to explain.

“And it’s my fight too,” Iris cut him off.

Arylos had no words. Where was this determination coming from? What has been getting into her? He shook his head and moved away from the door. “No, it’s mine, and the fault is mine for getting you involved.”

“I thought we were friends,” Iris lamented.

“We are, but because of that I can’t just drag you into my fights,” Arylos explained as he walked past her, trying not to look at her. “We all have our own battles to fight, and if you come to mine, you will die. Quite honestly, being around me carries the risk of death.”

“So would being around anyone else,” Iris brushed off while taking a seat on the sofa. “What makes you different?”

“Because I am different,” Arylos said under his breath.

“I told you I want to understand you,” Iris insisted. “That includes your differences, your past, your battles.”

Arylos bowed his head as he turned to face Iris. “Then why treat me like I am a man?”

Iris sighed as she tried to find the right explanation. “What is so bad about that?”

Arylos growled as the air hummed while his clenched fists opened, showing his nails growing into talons. The shadows around him twisted, giving him a haunting atmosphere and the shadows of his invisible wings were cast against the wall behind him. He looked up and his red eyes burned bright like hot coals with slit pupils.

“Because I am a monster,” he explained in a growling voice showing his elongated fangs.

Iris looked at him, taking in the sight. Examining the creature before her, she found that he was right; he is a monster, a creature of nightmares, a being beyond her understanding. The more she saw this side of him, the more she wondered about the being on the inside; the monster inside the man. She once felt fear, and she should be afraid of him, but she was curious. She wanted to know more.

She shook her head with a scoff. “Was that little display meant to scare me?” she told him with a warm smile.

Arylos frowned, growling deep in his chest. Within a blink of an eye, he launched himself towards Iris, stopping just before his claws touched her neck and a gust of wind shifted her hair from the speed. A warning, to get her to run and scream.

Yet she remained seated where she was, looking up at him with the same soft smile. She reached out for his hand and examined the black claws, feeling the warmth of the flames under his skin.

“You’re not a monster to me, Arylos,” Iris confessed. “You are bizarre and otherworldly, but I’m not afraid of you anymore. I would never call you a monster because you’re just Arylos to me.”

“But you should be afraid,” Arylos growled. “You’ve seen what I am, what I can do. What I have done. And you’re telling me that you’re not afraid?”

Iris’s face softened while still holding his hand as she let her thoughts free. “You try to push me away like this, but deep down you don’t want to. You are afraid of yourself and that something bad will happen to me if I’m around you. You’re alone and you don’t want to lose me, but you push myself and everyone away because you think being alone is better.”

Iris gripped his hand, unwilling to let him go as she continued. “So no, I’m not afraid. But you’re the one afraid of yourself; afraid that one day something bad will happen and you'll lose me, but that just isn’t true. You’ve been here for me, so I’m staying for you.”

She looked up at him and saw that his expression changed. His face softened, his eyes lost their glow, and his scowl turned sad as he stared at her, not believing what he was hearing. His eyes told her she was right and it hurt him.

Then she saw a tear stream down his cheek. She wasn’t just right about him; she understood him.

Arylos’s appearance slowly changed back to normal and she watched his claws retract back to a normal length. He then fell to his knees, trying to contain himself as he clenched his other hand in a fist, piercing his skin with his nails.

“It looks like I was actually right; the big bad Titan has a soft spot,” Iris teased in a soft voice as she kept a hold on his hand.

“What do you want?” Arylos whispered under his breath.

“Eh?” Iris voiced.

Arylos took his hand back from Iris as he regained his composure. “You want to understand me, so what do you want?”

Iris patted the spot next to her on the sofa. “You can sit here and tell me about your people.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“That’s a long story,” Arylos voiced, still unable to look her in the eyes.

“Well give me the short version,” she explained. “Start with where you come from. You know a lot about my world but no one knows anything about your world.”

Arylos thought for a moment before nodding and returning to his feet and taking the spot next to her. “Is that all you want?” he clarified while finally looking at her.

Iris nodded. “As much as you’re comfortable telling me.”

Arylos thought for a moment, trying to work up the courage to finally open up to her. “I can show you as well, if you will let me. Let you see into my memories.”

“You can do that?” Iris asked, a little excitement getting to her.

“It will be a jarring experience so only if you really are okay with it,” he warned her. “You will be seeing a world in a way you’ve never experienced. However, I believe showing you will make more sense than me telling you.”

Iris thought for a moment but ultimately already had her mind made up. “Show me,” she told him with determination.

Arylos nodded and reached out for her face and brought her in close as Iris’s heart pounded. He then brought their foreheads together and held her fast as she stared into his deep red eyes, his black pupils like a bottomless abyss that threatened to suck her in. “Close your eyes,” he instructed, his growling voice deep and heavy in her ears.

Iris closed her eyes and she felt the world spin around her. Even with her eyes closed, she could still see Arylos. In fact, it was like she was standing behind herself, able to see her own back. The image fully formed and she could see that she was standing at one end of the sofa, looking at her and Arylos on the couch.

The perspective shook her core; it was like she was a spirit outside of her body.

She felt someone take her hand and when she looked over she saw a hooded shadow with burning red eyes. “Jarring, isn’t it?” the shadow asked in a familiar growl that echoed in Iris’s ears.

Iris nodded, trying to contain her fear and confusion. “Is this how you see our world?” she asked.

“In a way,” Arylos explained and held onto her hand firmly.

She looked back to the sofa, still trying to believe that she was outside of her body. “Am I dead or something?” she asked.

Arylos laughed as he answered. “No, you’re still in your body. I’m just giving you a look through my eyes.”

Iris swallowed her fear, taking comfort in Arylos’s grip on her hand. She blinked and the world she saw was bizarre. She looked around and saw nothing but an endless still ocean under a dark blue sky filled with clouds and stars. The air was silent save for the sound of the waters. When she looked down, she saw she was standing on the ocean like it was the floor.

She instinctively jumped back and let go of Arylos’s hand in the process, believing she was going to fall in. However, the water splashed under her feet like a puddle but did not consume her.

“This is the Sunless Sea,” Arylos explained as the shadow of himself came closer to Iris.

Iris heard of this place before. “This is the afterlife, where souls go when they die.”

“A misconception,” Arylos corrected. “Your souls come here, but only to be dispersed back to Reality to make more souls. This place is really the edge of your Reality, and the beginning of mine.”

“The edge?” Iris asked. “How can an ocean be the edge of the world?”

“You’re still thinking about this from the perspective of your own world,” Arylos answered. “You think this ocean goes down, so how can it be an edge? But that’s not how the world beyond works.”

Iris’s confusion knew no bounds as Arylos reached out his hand to her forehead and pushed her backwards. With nothing to grab onto, Iris fell into the waters and found herself consumed by them, sinking deep into the water and watching Arylos and the world beyond fade from view as she was consumed by the black waters.

She panicked, let out the air in her lungs to scream and reached out but was only sinking faster and faster. In a soundless voice, she screamed, cried, begged, but the world only faded faster from view until there was nothing around her but a black void.

She then felt the force of suffocation kick in as water filled her lungs. She continued to scream but there was nothing; no breath left to give as the endless black expanded. It was not long before she felt her body give out and a severe pain racked her, like her body was being torn to shreds. Her screams found no ears in the dark void as she felt her strength leave her.

Suddenly, she rose from the waters, her back emerging first as she climbed out, grabbing onto anything she could. It took her several moments to realise the water she was in was just like the one she fell in; holding her weight beneath her like a floor.

Iris coughed up water like she was vomiting and watched as the contents of her lungs poured back into the water. She gazed into the ocean’s surface and she felt confusion; she could still see the skyline of the Sunless Sea. In fact, she could see planets, stars, worlds all within the ocean. Lights of various colours faded in and out like lightning.

Iriz realised this was not her reflection; it was a reflection of her world.

She looked up and saw a vast countryside of golden mountains with blue grass, a sky with black clouds and an eclipsed red sun that shone bright with yellow and white light. The water around her was purple and black with the reflections of worlds lighting up the air around her. In the distance, she could see a tall city of black stone situated deep in the continent. As she looked up further to the sky, she saw a reflection of the water below her; like the sky itself was an ocean showing more stars and worlds in its own view.

She felt sick. As she looked up, her mind changed with that perspective being down and she felt like she was upside-down and falling. The constant perspective change made her sick and she couldn’t help but vomit alongside her coughing. She heard footsteps in the water come up beside her. She looked over and saw a creature she lacked words for.

Next to her stood an incredibly tall being with four black wings by its side and crowned with large wings of pure flame and a long tail tipped and flanked with metal blades. Its head was covered in a black cowl wearing a crown of blackened metal but orange slit eyes burned into her soul, its face hidden like it was made of shadows beneath the cowl. Its body was large and made partially of stone with an ocean of flames and shadows filling in the joints and gaps and wore a regal black robe with intricate orange and gold designs. Its feet were large and made of rock with large metal talons and jointed like a reptile’s while the creature’s hands sported the same layout; five clawed fingers and a thumb decorated with various rings.

She heard whispers and growls accompanied by a speech that resonated through her head and chest; words that nearly deafened her but she could not understand. Until a familiar growl accompanied the creature’s speech in her mind. “Are you alright?” the creature’s voice in her head asked.

Iris held her spinning head, trying to get her bearings. “I think so,” she responded in a weak voice.

The creature reached out with its clawed hand and its deafening speech filled her yet again. “It will be fine, it will pass.”

Iris was nervous but took the being’s hand as it helped her up to her feet. “I don’t know what happened,” she told the creature. “Where am I?”

The creature held her hand firm and walked her towards the nearby shoreline as it spoke in its deafening voice. “You are beyond the edge, in a new world of existence. This is the answer you were searching for.”

The two set foot on the soft white sand and Iris felt like this is what a cloud feels like. “Who are you? What is your name?” she asked the creature.

The creature made a growling sound that was similar to a laugh before answering. “I knew this experience would be jarring for you, but I did not think it would affect your memories.”

She realised right then who she was talking to and felt stupid for not realising who this was.

“Arylos,” she whispered softly, finally acknowledging what the Titan truly is.