After the End: Serenity

Was that what the spell was supposed to do?

That made some sense; more importantly, it alerted him to a type of magic his shield wasn’t set up to defend against by default. As for why it fell apart, well, that was a bit more difficult to determine. It was almost like it simply didn’t work on him at all and didn’t know what to do when it didn’t work. A Conceptual failure could cause that; there was a reason Serenity said “anything could die.” If he didn’t understand that, he’d only be able to affect things that his more limited Concept applied to with Death magic. It was a common limitation.

A laugh from behind Serenity told him that Blaze had figured it out faster than Serenity had. “That would be because he doesn’t have blood. As for why your spell didn’t affect me … well, it did, but attacking a healer with a bleeding spell is remarkably useless.”

The Memory of Blood gaped at Blaze’s calm commentary, almost like it was the strange part of the fight, then made a hurling gesture with his right hand. This time, Serenity’s shield caught and killed the spell; Serenity had to direct it for it to do that, but it wasn’t hard.

Serenity grinned wolfishly. “I can do this all night if you want, but wouldn’t it be better to talk? That’s why we came here, after all; it seemed like it was the only way to get you to talk to us. We can fight if you’d really prefer.”

“No.” Eternus threw another spell at Serenity, then quickly dodged around him to throw a knife at Blaze.

Blaze might not have a shield, but that didn’t mean he was defenseless; he parried the dagger with a hand that looked like it was on fire and sent it pinging into the hallway behind him.

Serenity knew that surprising someone in their own home wasn’t the best way to get them to talk, but at the same time he wasn’t all that certain he actually wanted to talk. He was willing to, but that was all. “One last chance,” he warned Eternus. “I won’t let you attack my wife again.”

Eternus gave a laugh that was almost as much of a sob as anything else, then turned and darted to the back of the room. Serenity followed immediately on his heels, unwilling to allow his enemy to escape.

Eternus skidded to a halt when he got to the other side of the room. He grabbed at the wall just in time for Serenity to plow into him; Serenity hadn’t slowed. He’d let the wall do that for him.

Eternus made surprisingly good padding as the pair of them slid through the small doorway Eternus had opened. Serenity hadn’t really noticed it, but while Eternus wasn’t exactly fat, he also wasn’t at all bony.

The first good news was that this definitely wasn’t an escape tunnel. Instead, it seemed to be a miniature armory and safe for valuables; Serenity could see at least half a dozen weapons and more unidentified enchanted items than he could count at a glance. It was a bit of an odd area, because while the storage area was tall enough to stand in, the entranceway definitely wasn’t; it was only two and a half or maybe three feet high. If Eternus hadn’t crouched to open the doorway or Serenity hadn’t shifted down to tackle him, one or both of them would have slammed into the wall instead of the floor.

No, he took that back. There were exactly 34 non-weapon enchanted items immediately visible, though Aide noted that there were likely to be a few that were hidden by other items. Fine, then; there were more enchanted items than almost anyone else could count at a glance.

Serenity grinned at his own snark as he looked down to see the second piece of good news. Eternus seemed a little shaken by the collision. His shield hadn’t stopped Serenity from running into him and it hadn’t stopped him from smashing into the floor. It might have stopped him from breaking anything, Serenity couldn’t be certain, but it definitely hadn’t stopped Eternus from being shaken by the impact.

The choice to not protect against low-grade physical impacts was a reasonable one when you wore armor; it was a tradeoff Serenity routinely made. Serenity had the feeling that Eternus wasn’t really prepared to be that close to the front lines, however, so he simply wasn’t ready to deal with the consequences of the choice.

There was a third piece of good news: he’d half pinned Eternus as they slid through the doorway. Serenity lifted himself and threw himself over the man to pin him with his weight, then moved to immobilize him. If Eternus was like most spellcasters, he’d have to move to actually cast spells; this might be the best chance Serenity had of a positive resolution. So far, Eternus had gestured for every spell, even if it was only to throw his hand forward as he cast.

Serenity wasn’t confident he’d get one. He wasn’t even confident he wanted one. No, this Eternus wasn’t the one who sent him on his course to destroy everything, but in many ways that didn’t matter. Serenity still remembered everything he’d gone through to end up there and much of it could be laid at the feet of Eternus. He was even on the right sort of route to end up being that person, which Serenity didn’t think he could accept.

At the same time, he wasn’t willing to stand over Eternus to make certain he redeemed himself. Serenity more than half expected the solution to be death. Death solved a lot of problems. Killing enemies created others, but sometimes that was acceptable.

Eternus struggled more than a little, but after only a little over a minute, he relaxed, seemingly convinced that Serenity wasn’t going to let him go easily. Serenity couldn’t afford to relax; if he did, Eternus might still be able to free himself. “What do you want?”

“To talk,” Serenity ground out. “I want you to stop attacking Rissa.”

“Fine,” Eternus answered immediately. “Done. No more attacks against R’sa.”

Did he even know who he was attacking? He certainly didn’t have her name right.

Blaze ducked down so that he could see Eternus under the low doorway. “No more attacks on Serenity or his people. No attempts to get around it.”

“Yes, yes!” Eternus agreed frantically. Serenity more than half wished he’d brought Rissa; he didn’t have any way to know if Eternus would actually keep an agreement. He doubted it; this wasn’t exactly the best way to get a solid agreement. The plan was clearly flawed, but Serenity wasn’t certain how he could have done better. Eternus wouldn’t meet with him; he wouldn’t even accept a petition to talk. What was Serenity supposed to do? The only other alternative they’d come up with was a challenge, and Serenity wouldn’t exactly be able to keep the other man alive after he took his Sovereignty. It wouldn’t be safe.

“Hmpf. Hold him still, Serenity.” Blaze leaned over Eternus and gripped the back of his head.

When Blaze collapsed and Eternus seemed to shiver in place, Serenity guessed what Blaze had done. It was something he’d never seen the other man do willingly: he’d leaned into his diehar nature and possessed Eternus. It was somewhat worrying, especially given how fast it was. Serenity wouldn’t have guessed that possessing someone of a significantly higher Tier would be that easy.

Serenity wasn’t entirely certain which body to hold on to, but he decided to continue sitting on Eternus. If he remembered correctly, both Blaze and Ekari were in Ekari’s body when it happened accidentally, so this was probably the same. All he had to do was wait until Blaze was done. He hoped it wouldn’t take long; he didn’t have days available to wait here.

When Eternus opened his eyes after a couple of minus, Serenity tensed and made sure the other man couldn’t move.

“You can let me up, Serenity. Please … please pick up my body.” The man wearing Eternus’s body, the man who had to be Blaze, waited for Serenity to let him go, then stood. He gave a look around the secret area. “Grab everything that’s in here. We won’t be returning and neither will Eternus. There’s no need to leave any of this.”

Serenity cleaned the room out other than Blaze’s nearly still form and sent it all through his Rift. He then glanced between Blaze’s still breathing but comatose and Eternus’s body, where Blaze’s mind rested. “Should I carry you in my arms or put you in my Rift as well?”

Blaze looked down at the body that had housed him for most of his life. “It’s the mind that has problems with the Origin, isn’t it?”

Serenity nodded. “As far as I know, yes.”

Blaze nodded slowly. “Into your Rift, then. Perhaps you’ll make me an even better young phoenix; that’s what your Rift does, after all.”

Serenity was more than a little uncomfortable with the idea, but then the simple fact that he was staring at Blaze’s body was enough to make him uncomfortable. There was no reason to assume that letting him rest in the Origin when his mind wasn’t present would be an issue, and Blaze was right. He’d never retrieved anything from his Rift that wasn’t better suited to what it was intended for than when he sent it away, and Blaze wanted to become a phoenix. Placing his body in the Rift for a bit should only help.

It didn’t really make Serenity feel any better about treating his friend as an object.

To distract himself, Serenity looked up at the version of Blaze that inhabited Eternus’s form. “Eternus won’t return here?”

Blaze shook his head. “As soon as we can, I’m going to move back to my own body and then you’re going to kill him. He is never going to leave Rissa alone. He’s convinced she’s the reason everything went wrong. No, he knows that her failure to die is what set his predetermined path askew. He’s correct, too, or as correct as someone can be who can’t see you. He doesn’t understand why her life is so important, but he’s absolutely convinced that he has to set things back on the original path for his plans to work out and he’s not willing to make new plans.”

Serenity shook his head. He couldn’t quite understand that. “Even if Rissa died now, I wouldn’t take the same path. I’m not the same person.”

Blaze nodded. “There’s something strange about his utter fixation on that future; it’s like he knows it will happen even though he can see it won’t. I don’t know if I can fix that or not, but I know I’m not going to try. He’s not worth it.”

Serenity shook his head slowly. His immediate thought was that perhaps Eternus was affected by the return through Time that Serenity went through as the Final Reaper; perhaps the Voice’s effort wasn’t perfect for him since he was still technically alive in another universe?

If so, there might be a threat from that Eternus at some point in the far distant future. That was something Serenity could worry about then; he had all the time in the world to figure it out. He also felt no guilt for any side effects returning through time might have had on Eternus; quite frankly, Eternus deserved worse than this.