Path of the Deathless

255 (II) Extraction [II]

255 (II)Extraction [II]

***

Shiv asked.

Uva couldn't help it. She let out a low, tired laugh. She paused. Shiv also paused. He'd been in the kitchen recently. But when was the last time he ate? It was hard to remember. Did he even sample any of the bread at Monster Mystery Meat? He couldn't recall.

Adam said. The Gate Lord's shoulders sagged, and he looked at Uva attentively, waiting for someone to arrive. Roland and Rose were currently absent. They were tending to the wounded and the sick down within the castle's infirmary—including Isabella, apparently. Adam had let out a long, long breath of relief when hearing she was still alive, though the tension didn't leave him entirely. She was in the infirmary for a reason after all.

The situation within Blackedge had turned for the worse in recent days, and not even because of the eldritch.

Rather, it was due to the magical plagues that Sullain had inflicted upon the town during the days of the siege.

And as the companions reunited, hovering at the center of this liminal space forged by two minds, a pair of gods conversed with each other, looming over them. Ethereal shadows that spoke in tones of distant thunder. Shiv could only faintly hear what they were talking about, but it sounded like an argument. A clash between two raging storms, both accusing each other of not being enough, of failing the other, both frustrated, both desperate.

Hades Hymn stood a comfortable distance away from the gathered parties. The space the Headmaster gave was for privacy, but Shiv knew this was a telepathic connection. There would be no privacy here. However, he seemed indifferent to the moments happening before him, even a little bored, as if he had encountered this moment before one too many times and simply wanted to skip past it.

Shiv reached out and took Uva by her left hand. She almost pulled it back for a moment, but then relented, letting him see how much her Cryomancy had changed her. The Deathless looked upon the temporally altered rime dancing across an entire half of her body. Beneath the altered frost, a tendril of blackness emerged, peering out at the Deathless.

the Eldest declared. But their voice was a whisper, and there was a faint hint of fear. Fear not for Shiv, but something else. A fear chain extended out from under Uva's skin, but it didn't pierce Shiv directly. Instead, it slithered past him toward something unseen. Something unseen but close by.

Shiv realized.

Uva said, confused.

the Eldest almost seethed.

Shiv said, his jaw clenched tight.

To this, the Eldest simply retreated, unwilling to engage further with the creature that had delayed one metamorphosis already.

Shiv hissed.

Uva let out a sigh.

Adam countered.

Shiv grunted tiredly.

Adam snuck in casually.

Shiv hissed at his friend.

Uva lifted an eyebrow.

Shiv gaped. Adam blinked in surprise.

And just then, she looked over her shoulder. Two more presences blinked into the mindscape. The world around them shifted like the parting of mists, and there, across from them, stood Rose Van Erren and Roland Arrow.

Rose's hair was longer. Surprisingly, her complexion looked brighter as well. Her body and musculature were more filled out than before. Nothing substantial, but she was gradually developing out of being a meager Pathless.

Roland, meanwhile, had gone the opposite way. He looked worse than he ever did. He was gaunter, his cheekbones were practically cutting out through his skin, his eyes were sunken, and he resembled a corpse that had just barely been wrenched back from the threshold of oblivion.

The Town Lord flinched when he saw Shiv, and the Deathless barely held himself back from snarling at Roland. But Shiv asserted control over himself. No, right now, Adam needed to talk with his family. Adam hadn't gotten to talk with his family for far too long. And he needed it.

Sage of the Enkindled Heart:

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Philosophy 35 > 38

Adam breathed, and Shiv could hear the tears welling in the back of the Gate Lord's throat. He hid them well, but the Deathless's psychology was like a hound that could taste blood in the air. Pain, hate, anger, fear. These things left stenches. Stenches that his soul savored like a tongue.

Shiv said nothing as Adam drifted closer to his family. The Deathless would stay silent until the time arrived, until he had a proper moment toward the end for certain things to be addressed between him and his former Town Lord.

Uva said. Suddenly, Shiv realized she was holding onto him. Her ever-shattering hand curled around a few of his fingers.

His first reaction was to brush her off, to assure her that he was unbreakable, but there was a maturity that came with his recent evolutionsHe paused for a moment.

she replied, eyes widening.

He smiled. She knew him far too well. Shiv clenched his teeth as he forced the ugly truth out of himself.

Uva, for her part, didn't respond immediately. She took a few moments to consider how he was feeling and what she could say to help him.

he admitted.

A breath escaped from the Umbral.

Shiv replied.

A subtle smirk played across Uva's face, but it faded a second later.

He gave her hand a slight squeeze. Even within her mind, she felt cold—but her frost grinded against his Chronomancy as well. Change. There was no avoiding it as a Pathbearer.

Uva replied dryly.

They stared at each other for a second, and then a snort escaped both of them. He pulled her in close and hugged her tightly.

Shiv admitted after a few moments of silence.

Uva shook her head and pulled away from him. " She tilted her head.

He looked between her and Adam, even at Roland and Rose. He listened to Cripple and the Starhawk arguing in the distance. Shiv breathed in.

He looked into her strange, unnatural eyes, and he smiled.

Uva asked quietly.

Uva hummed.

The Deathless paused to consider that. She had a point.

Shiv grunted.

Her spider-like wings fluttered behind her, and she rose up to wrap her arms around his neck.

Somehow, Shiv experienced a clash between a smirk and a frown. His facial muscles managed a spasming mess of an expression in response.

Her voice got lower.

And Shiv saw something behind her eyes that made a shiver run up his spine. There had been a hunger there before, but now there was a hint that she was downright ravenous. Ravenous for more than one thing. She might have caught fire from being in the vicinity of his flame, but she took to the conflagration quite well.

And once more, a brief silence fell.

Uva asked, uncharacteristically uncertain.

Shiv leaned down and drew her in close, returning them both to silence.

It was remarkable how one flame could kindle another to new heights.