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Voordiza, back in her short, curvy body with long curling blonde hair, was paler than usual but seemed to be healing Limhiz in some way. Thelbiz communed with the ground, and Mhakiza stared into the eyes of one of her fox-serpents.

Iryana looked at the others beside her, but they only offered shrugs and confused looks. Iryana climbed off the dragon first. The snow was packed down so hard from the god-giants that she didn’t even sink down as she led the others toward the gods.

“Did you kill him? Is Noshtiz gone?” Iryana called out tentatively.

Thelbiz snorted. “Have you listened to nothing I’ve said, human? Gods can’t be killed.”

“We have hundreds of years before a chance like this will come again,” Voordiza said. “And we’ll have time to convince Noshtiz not to repeat this foolish plan.”

Iryana didn’t know how they would manage that, but if they had hundreds of years… she didn’t particularly care.

“Is he… recovering?” Pyetar asked.

“For now.” Mhakiza set her fox-serpent down to scurry away.

“Well…” Iryana looked around awkwardly. “Congratulations on winning. I’m glad we’re not all dead…”

“Little thanks to you, ignoring my summons!” Thelbiz snapped, standing up from his meditation.

Pyetar shifted forward, like he was about to put himself between her and Thelbiz at the first sign of a threat. Limhiz growled at Thelbiz from his spot against a tree, still reeling from the pain.

“Yes. Shut up, Thelbiz.” Mhakiza rolled her eyes. “It all worked out in the end.”

Thelbiz just grumbled and crossed his arms.

“Thank you for your help, we wouldn’t have gotten through Noshtiz’s shield otherwise.” Mhakiza smiled at them, then nodded at Voordiza.

“Iryana, Lidishta, for your great service to the gods, we would offer you a boon.” Voordiza announced. “What do you want?”

Iryana blinked. A boon?

She glanced at the others.

What did she want? She wanted life to go back to normal. For her grandmother to be alive again, but she knew that wasn’t within the god’s power. She wanted her people to have peace. The answer came quickly to her.

“The dakii, and any of your creatures that will hunt us… I want them gone.”

Thelbiz sighed. “It took a lot of my magic to make them. And there are only a few thousand left in Istri, many were destroyed by Noshtiz…”

“All of them,” Iryana insisted.

Thelbiz glared at her like he might argue further, but then Voordiza leveled him with a stare.

“Fine, I will destroy them.” He dropped back to the ground, hands flat on the snow. And then his whole body tensed. His back arched, his fingers curled, and a shockwave of magic went through the ground.

“Is that… it?” Iryana gasped. It was so easy for him to destroy them?

Thelbiz nodded weakly, like it had taken an immense amount of power. That confirmation… it sang through her.

“And you, Lidishta?” Mhakiza asked.

Lidishta seemed to think this over for a while, eyes drifting down to where her hand was clasped with Vaneshta’s.

“Perhaps it is selfish of me…” Lidishta chewed her lip. “But Istrin society would never accept us together, not in the open anyway. And if things go back to how they were… Marriage is between a man and a woman, but what if the gods were to marry us? Surely no one could protest.”

Vaneshta’s eyes blew wide, and she stared slack-jawed at Lidishta.

“You wish for me to marry the two of you?” Mhakiza asked, head tilted.