Corvina wasn’t sure what to expect from the Path of Ruin, but she knew that fretting about it too much wouldn’t help anyone, so she tried to push her worries from her mind and just focus on the present.

Before they left, Anne sent the horses off on their own. She was convinced that Iramus would know how to guide the others towards the elven city, where they’d be safe. She was probably right, too. Corvina was usually very comfortable around horses, but even she had to admit that Iramus came across as so intelligent that it was mildly unsettling. Horses weren’t supposed to look at you like that.

So it was a bit of a relief when the horses disappeared from sight. One less thing for Corvina to think about. All that mattered right now was Anne, and the path that lay ahead of them.

It was a small, unpaved path, like the sort of dirt groove deer would eventually wear into the underbrush if they liked taking a particular route enough. If Anne wasn’t so certain about this whole thing, Corvina would have seriously questioned whether this was a route intended for people to traverse at all. It was barely wide enough for Anne and Corvina to walk side by side, holding hands.

I suppose it makes sense that it would be a bit neglected, thought Corvina. It’s not like there would be droves of elves heading towards their deaths every single day.

As they continued onwards, the underbrush slowly began to grow thicker, and they saw more stone ruins on the side of the narrowing path. Eventually, the path grew so narrow that they had to let go of each other’s hands in order to walk one after the other, taking each step carefully so as to not trip over an unexpected vine or tree-root.

Corvina took a deep breath, trying not to think too much about the forest closing in on them. After all, even as the path grew more difficult to traverse, it was still a lovely morning. The rain had cleared and the morning sunlight was tinged green after passing through many layers of forest canopy. There was a thick smell of ancient soil in the air.

It was… peaceful.

“Do you feel that?” Anne asked. Her voice sounded dreamy somehow, like she had just woken up from a long nap, or maybe she was just dozing off. She was walking ahead of Corvina, so Corvina couldn’t see her face.

“You mean the breeze?” asked Corvina. “Yeah, it feels nice. I think it would be a bit too warm without it.”

Anne shook her head. “That’s not it,” she said. “It’s a feeling like… like the whole world is getting farther and farther away…”

Corvina felt a shiver run down her spine, and she looked around the forest again. She could almost see what Anne meant. This deep in the woods Corvina felt farther away from the city and her normal life than she’d ever been. But at the same time, there was something claustrophobic about this area of the forest, like the trees and the ruins were pressing in on her, threatening to crush her.

Corvina took another deep breath and tried to focus on the feeling of her feet pressing into the solid ground. She took a closer look at the ruins to give her something to occupy her mind.

Corvina couldn’t even tell what they had been ruins of. Parts of them looked like walls or watchtowers, and she even spotted bits of a roof here and there. But the way they were configured didn’t make any sense. They blended into and around each other in haphazard ways, like they had never been part of any real buildings at all. It was like they refused to follow any known architectural form.

“Can you see them?” asked Anne, her voice sounding far away.

“See what?” asked Corvina, glancing around nervously.

“The elves…” said Anne. “They’re everywhere.”

Anne began to describe what she saw, her tone and expression detached as if she had no feelings about any of it.

Apparently, through Anne’s eyes, they were surrounded by the ghosts of old cities all jumbled together into one. Half of a building would meld suddenly into an old town square, which would in turn meld into a fortress wall. And throughout all of it, elves were living their lives, seemingly oblivious to Anne and Corvina, but sometimes even oblivious to each other, to the point where sometimes one group of elves would walk straight through another group, phasing in and out without either group noticing.

Corvina couldn’t see any of it. She just saw the forest and the ruins.

“Some of the elves are walking with us,” Anne explained, glancing around. “I don’t think they can see us, though.”

Could Anne see these things because she was an elf, or because she was… the Goddess’s daughter?

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Corvina wasn’t sure if she was glad she couldn’t see them, or if not being able to see them somehow made the whole thing even more disturbing. Anne didn’t seem frightened by it at all.

Corvina grabbed the hem of Anne’s jacket and held onto it tightly as they continued down the path.

“I can hear them talking now!” said Anne, raising her voice more than she had been. “I can’t make any of it out because they’re all talking at once! Also I think some of them might be speaking a different language! It’s getting a little overwhelming, to be honest!”

“Do you want me to cover your ears for you?” asked Corvina.

“What?” shouted Anne.

“Do you want me to cover your—“

Anne tripped and fell and Corvina tumbled over top of her, doing a full somersault before landing flat on her back.

The path had finally opened back up, leaving them in what remained of an old stone courtyard.

The stone was a beautiful white marble, shot through with veins of polished pink quartz. The workmanship of the stone was superb, but the area had clearly been long-neglected—there were massive cracks running throughout the stone, leaving each remaining flat surface sitting at various opposing angles. It would be impossible to stand up straight, and they were surrounded by tripping hazards.

Corvina could see the ruins of an ancient castle rising about the courtyard to their right. It was a proper castle, too, with all the expected walls in all the expected places, not at all like all the jumbled confusing ruins they’d passed on the way here. The structure had just collapsed over the years, as structures tended to. The whole castle was made of the same white marble with pink-quartz streaks, too. It must have been truly beautiful when it was still standing.

But the path didn’t lead towards the castle. A deeply worn groove in the stone courtyard led further to the left, away from the castle, where Corvina could see just the tiniest sliver of a dirt path through the thickest patch of forest she’d come across yet—so thick that the path looked like a tunnel into total darkness.

Anne got back to her feet first, slowly walking towards the path with wide eyes and a blank expression.

Corvina didn’t like the look of that expression at all.

She scrambled to her feet and ran to grab Anne’s shoulders, stopping her.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to go that way?” asked Corvina.

“What?” said Anne, her voice still raised like she was trying to be heard over a crowd. “Everyone’s going this way, so I think this is the way to go! Come on!”

“No!” said Corvina. Anne was struggling to get away from her, but Corvina held on with all her might. Corvina couldn’t see the other elves, but she could see the path beyond the courtyard. She could see the darkness beyond that. It didn’t look like ordinary darkness. It looked like, beyond that point, the world just… stopped.

This is why Corvina had insisted on coming with Anne. Corvina had understood where Anne was coming from, and it was true that sometimes you had to take a gamble just to see if it would pay off. But it was also useful to have someone by your side to pull you back from the brink if things went too far. For Corvina, that someone was often her uncle. And now it was time for her to be that someone for Anne.

“Let me go!” shouted Anne, trying harder and harder to pull herself away.

“No!” shouted Corvina, tightening her grip further.

After a brief struggle, they ended up on the ground again, with Corvina on top of Anne, who was still struggling. The look in Anne’s eyes was so far gone, it was like she couldn’t even see Corvina at all anymore.

“Look at me!” said Corvina, shaking Anne’s shoulders underneath her. “Anne, look at me, please!”

But Anne didn’t seem to hear her at all anymore. She just continued to stare at the empty path, struggling to get free.

Corvina didn’t know what to do. What if there was no way to snap Anne out of this? Corvina wasn’t sure she’d be able to carry Anne all the way back, at least not if Anne was fighting her the whole way.

Corvina didn’t want to let herself become like Eva, the way Anne seemed to fear she would. She didn’t want to control Anne, she wanted them to be partners, as equals. But what was she supposed to do if Anne was determined to run towards her own death? Was she just supposed to let Anne go?

Could she really say, with certainty, that she wouldn’t do the same thing as Eva to get Anne back?

Corvina could feel herself tearing up.

“Oh dear, am I a little late?” said a cheerful voice.

Corvina sat up straight (still on top of Anne to stop her from running away) and quickly wiped the tears from her eyes, trying to look as dignified as possible.

The woman in front of her was an elf, but she didn’t look like a ghost. She had long, flowing silver hair and ice-blue eyes, the same shade as Anne’s. It was hard to tell an elf’s age, but she had a mature look about her, with age-lines just starting to form around the edges of her mouth and eyes. She was tall, too, and she wore a flowing gauzy dress that was so low cut that it showed off quite a bit of her… ample bosom.

Corvina blushed slightly, doing her best not to look too much at the woman’s chest, although that was difficult to achieve.

“Hi, darling!” said the woman. Her voice had a sing-songy quality to it. “You must be Corvina. Oooh, the two of you are just soooo cute, aren’t you? I could just eat you up! Don’t worry, though. I won’t. I only eat ambrosia, you know?”

Her laugh was high-pitched and mildly abrasive.

“It’s a good thing you sat on her,” said the woman. “I really should have been here to meet you when you got here, but I was trying to tidy up a little before you arrived. It’s been so long since I had company over! Here, let’s see if we can’t—“ the woman bent over Anne and snapped her fingers over Anne’s eyes.

Suddenly Anne’s eyes shut and her body went limp.

“There you go, that’s done the trick! You can get off of her now. The death drive won’t be calling to her quite so strongly anymore,” said the woman.

“Where… where am I?” said Anne, blinking her eyes open and shut again repeatedly.

“You’re in heaven, dear,” said the woman, speaking in an extra loud voice like she thought Anne might struggle to understand her. “Or arguably, the gate to heaven, depending on your exact metaphysical belief system. Not that it matters. Either way, you have reached the end of your quest. I—“ the woman grinned widely, “Am the Goddess Coris, or Quire, or any other number of names. But you can call me Cory.”

The Goddess winked.