Life is pulled from the world itself. I walk and the last strings and strands of membrane peel off Lellia and me. Her tiny chest quivers as if she is attempting to take her first breaths in centuries.
The siren do not stop me as I progress through the remnants of their battlefield. They stare at me with tear-streaked eyes and hollow expressions of resignation. There’s some rage and anger, but even those that hold contempt for me don’t rise to try and stop me. It’s too late for their resistance. For better or worse, my approach won out. My plan was victorious.
“Human,” a soft voice says, only to me. It’s as light as air. As bright and wondrous as moonlight.
“My lady?” I speak to her as I would to a siren, with my mind alone. I wonder if this was how early siren first learned to speak in that way. To sing with their souls rather than their tongues. Their primordial mother taught them.
“Thank you,” Lellia whispers.
“You have nothing to thank me for.”
“You will look after them, won’t you?” she asks.
“I will.” I smile faintly. “It would be my honor.”
“Do not let them forget my songs,” Lellia begs.
“I will not. I swear it.”
The only one who follows us through the tunnels is Ilryth. He is at my side—just behind—as I carry Lellia to the ocean. However, from what I can tell, Lellia’s words were meant for me alone. Or, perhaps, even if he could hear them…he wouldn’t understand. I imparted enough of her song to him in the Abyss to stabilize his mind. But it would not be enough to give him comprehension.
I could yet teach him, though.
The carvings on the roots of the tunnel no longer bleed. The wood itself is beginning to turn as ashen as the spears usually left to bleach in the sunlight. The Lifetree is dying without its heart. But Lellia continues to grow stronger by the second. She is beginning to twitch, body slowly rousing to catch up with her mind.
We emerge on the other side of the tunnel to waves of tentacles writhing in the ocean, gripping against the roots. A massive face, as strange as Lellia’s but one I no longer find monstrous, is halfway above the water. As the clouds above slowly part with a swirl, beams of sunlight strike the abyssal god. Seawater steams off him, as if he might burn from being exposed to the surface for too long. Krokan stares with emerald eyes that shine brighter the moment they rest on his bride.
“I have her,” I say, with mind and mouth.
“So you do,” he rumbles. Once more, it sounds like a song. But lighter, so far above the water. Or perhaps it’s lighter with relief, because he sees his wife at long last. At the end of this long struggle they have endured on behalf of the world they helped make.
“Take her.” I walk up to my knees in the water, laying Lellia in the surf before Krokan. She floats, as if she is nothing more than sea foam. His tentacles surround her, drawing her under. Absorbing her into the core of his being. She will be safe, now.Forevermore.
“You have kept your bargain, mortal, so I will keep mine; I will no longer block the Veil. I will no longer plague the world. I will return with my lady love and it will allow souls to flow once more to the Beyond, henceforth and forevermore. There is no further reason for me to blight your seas,” Krokan says. I expect that to be all, but he continues, “You have done us a great favor. Before we depart this realm, we shall bestow upon you a boon. Tell us, what do you desire?”
A godly boon. I could wish for anything. The might of two old gods is at my fingertips.
I look back to Ilryth.A life with him. A life to explore freely the world and my heart. I could make a similar wish to what I once asked Ilryth for all those years ago.
A chill wind batters me. The seasons of Midscape are returning to this sacred island—to all of the Eversea. The temperate climate the sirens have thrived in will be gone without the Lifetree to sustain it. Perhaps it is just the beginning of a new age of winter—of death, that could threaten to consume all of Midscape.
“She has already given me my boon,” I say softly. Even though I’m speaking to Krokan, I allow Ilryth to hear. There’s something in my words and on my face that prompts him to step forward. He crosses to me, gathering my hands.
“What’s happening?” Ilryth asks.
“I made a promise to Lady Lellia as I freed her,” I say. “I’m going to keep my promise. Her magic is still here, still in the tree. She poured so much of herself into it that it’s there. But it needs an anchor to keep it in place, otherwise it’ll fade from the world completely.” Like it already is. Even as seconds tick by, there’s less and less of her.
“No.” Ilryth realizes what I’m saying. He shakes his head.
I catch his cheek, cupping it gently. “It’s all right. I’m not afraid.”
“You’ve spent so much of your life living it for others. Sacrificing, for others. Hunting for freedom.” Ilryth’s eyes redden on my behalf. “I can’t let you do it again.”
“But this is my choice, just like it was hers. I don’t make it because I feel like I’m forced to. I’m not doing it to be worthy of love, because I already am. I’m doing it because I want to.” I continue to offer him a slight smile, leaning in to kiss his lips gently. “And you, you need to go on and live. Reclaim your duchy. Look after the Eversea and make all the heirs that I will guard after.”
“I don’t want any of it. A life without you is a song without rhythm and notes. It is nothing. Less than nothing.”
“Ilryth—”
