Thea gasped. “Did you really let It out? Oh, isthatwhat got those silly boys of Osurehm’s? You weren’t supposed to do that! We put it in the Abyss for areason.”
“Well,Ididn’t let it out.”
“But that blood mage did, didn’t he?” Thea glared at Tarwethen.
“No!” Amma was quick to retort, then grimaced. “Well, maybe a little, I wasn’t there, but I’m sure Damien didn’t mean to.”
“It’s going to destroy everything,” moaned Thea.
“So?” Tarwethen flippantly gestured to the frozen forest. “We’ll just make more of everything.”
“Of course you’d say that since he’s your fault.” Her book appeared in her hands again, and she flipped through it as if it weighed nothing.
Amma blinked. “How is this your fault Wil?”
Tarwethen held his hands up, long fingers with too many knuckles spread wide. “Look, I didn’t make him, okay, I just made Valgormoth, and all she did was turn everything to ice when she was on the plane. All of the rest of the demons in her lineage were her own doing.”
“Oh, gods,” Amma muttered, “I am not telling Damien that you’re his however-many greats grandfather. He would hatethat.”
“You’re not telling that blood mage anything because you’re staying right here.”
“Actually, she’s going through the veil,” said Thea.
“Actually,” Sestoth interjected, “she’s being resurrected.”
Incensed, Tarwethen rounded on the goddess. “How?”
“Gave her essence to her when she was here last.” Sestoth shrugged. “Denonfy had an inkling I should, so I did.”
The other god nodded, lips drawn into a tight smile. It was strange he didn’t speak, but she supposed he was saving up since he only retained two point three percent of his powers.
“But I wanted to keep her!” There was such a crankiness to Tarwethen’s whine that Amma would have laughed if any of it were actually funny.
“Excuse me, can I go now? This doesn’t have to do with me.” Isldrah’s wings flapped with impatience.
“No, we need one from each,” Tarwethen snapped then he blew out a breath and seemed to compose himself. “Amma, I’ve a proposition for you. The gods will fulfill your request of once again removing E’nloc from your plane and trapping It in the Abyss.”
“I didn’t actually ask—”
“And in return, all you have to do is stay right here.”
Amma’s not-stomach sank to her not-toes. “I have to die?” she asked.
“No, here, in the Everdarque. You won’t have your body, so you won’t be able to get back to your plane, but you also won’t technically die so long as you stay on this side of the veil. That all right with you, Thea?”
The goddess was still flipping through her book, harried. “Keep her here and get rid of E’nloc up there? If everything gets destroyed, I’m going to beverybusy, so sure, that’s fine with me.”
“Wonderful, and the Autumn Court will surely follow your wishes. Isldrah, can you convince enough Summer gods to rid the realm of E’nloc one more time?”
“Sure, whatever.” The goddess tapped a foot.
“And I’m sure you’ll disagree,” Tarwethen eyed Sestoth, “so I’ll just summon another spring deity to—”
Sestoth raised a hand, and then gently placed it on Amma’s shoulder. “If the decision she makes is to stay, I would not stand in the way of honoring that.” Pink eyes found Amma’s, flecks of gold swirling inside them. “She’s mine, after all, and I would never dare not put what she wants first.”
Amma’s heartbeat, the one she was pretty sure she didn’t have anymore, was in her ears, but Sestoth’s voice echoed in her mind. What she wanted, put first. She had heard that once before.
“So,” said Tarwethen, nudging Sestoth out of the way and replacing her before Amma, “it is your choice, and your choice alone to make, sweet, kind, altruistic Ammalie. Allow the apparent resurrection occurring over your body in your home plane, selfishly return to a world on the brink of destruction and watch it crumble around you, everyone you have ever known and loved as well as every other being and creature and even every, single tree succumb to a painful and agonizing death,orchoose to save the whole of existence for the paltry price of immortality at the side of the gods.”
