Page 440 of Of Empires and Dust

“Gone.” Garramon didn’t even try to stop the smile from spreading across his face. “He is gone, and you will never find him. Not in time. Not before the Blood Moon sets. I found Pirnil, found his notes.” Garramon savoured the flash of fear on Fane’s face. “You will never have Rist.”

“What have you done, Garramon?” The rage came with terrible swiftness, the likes of which Garramon had not seen in centuries, the entire tower trembling as the Spark pulsed outwards from Fane. “What have you done, you damn fool?”

“What I should have done a long time ago.” Garramon opened himself to the Spark, pulling as hard he could, drawing threads of each element into himself. “I could not go with him. Not after what I’ve done. Not after what I’ve taken from him, the pain I’ve caused, the darkness I spread while pretending to myself I was still a good man. I could not go with him, but neither will I let you have him. Not again, not like you took Malyn. You knew Solman Tuk was behind it all. I know you knew, I always did, deep down. From the day I met you, all I’ve ever done is lie to myself.”

Garramon pulled so much of the Spark into himself that his veins felt as though they had caught fire and his soul burned. This was the only way. “I willnotlet you have him.”

“You damn fool,” Fane repeated, the anger in his voice fading to a low melancholy lament. The last thing Garramon had expected to see was tears in Fane’s eyes.

A pulse of Essence burst outwards from Fane, wrapping around Garramon and completely severing him from the Spark.

“Why did you come here?” Fane asked, shaking his head. “You had to know as well as I do that you cannot leave this chamber alive.”

“I had to look you in the eyes.” Garramon didn’t strain against the bonds of Essence that held him. He had known his fate before he had entered. “I am ready to die, Fane. No soul should see the number of summers we have seen. I am done. I want to go to my son now.”

The bonds of Essence dragged Garramon to his knees, and he stared up at Fane.

“You were the only soul in this world I have ever truly called a brother. You were never just a tool to be used. Never. You were all I’ve ever had, all I’ve ever loved.” Fane lowered himself to one knee before Garramon. “You ask me what I’ve sacrificed?” The smile that flitted over Fane’s lips was broken and sorrowful. “Everything. I burned a good world to the ground. Every single soul weighs upon me. I have no peace in my heart, not a moment of solace in the waking world or the world of dreams. The screams of the dying are my lullaby, the cries of the damned my morning song. I see the flames of Ilnaen every time the sun sets. When I walked into that mountain all those years ago, do you want to know what I saw? A world on fire. A world that was nothing but pain and agony and endless suffering. Ten thousand futures, a hundred thousand, a thousand thousand. And in each of them, this world was ash. Only on this path could it be saved. What have I sacrificed, Garramon? Trust. Love. Solace. Hope. I will not know peace from now until the day I die, and I have not known it for four hundred years. I am haunted by the cost of myfailure. I will sacrifice my soul and all the joy the living world brings… and now I must sacrifice the only man who truly knows me. The last tether to who I am. The last shred of what makes me human.”

Fane shook his head, letting out a long sigh. “You will not see Malyn, my brother. You will not see anything. I sought Rist because he was the only other soul I had found that was capable of becoming Efialtír’s vessel. I cannot take his place. If I do, this world burns. And so you take everything from me. And I make one more sacrifice.”

“What do you mean?”

“You still can’t see it, can you? I have searched for centuries to find another, to find a soul powerful enough to harbour Efialtír. By the time I understood what was needed, it was too late. The Arcarians were too few, and most had died in the fighting. The souls of the Draleid are not fit. Whatever magic Varyn has burned into them sees to that.” Fane leaned forwards, placed his hands on Garramon’s shoulders, then pressed their foreheads together. “The only one left, Garramon, the only one strong enough, has always been you. Rist was the last strand of hope I’d been clinging to. I am so sorry, old friend. I tried everything. You were a sacrifice I did not want to make. That is why I kept so much from you.”

Garramon simply smiled. No joy or happiness lingered in that smile. It was not a smile born of any belief that he was a good man or that he deserved any form of absolution. It was a smile that existed only because he had been given a second chance to make the right choice, and he had done so. “You can have me, Fane. But you will not have him. I will not let you.”

Fane stared into Garramon’s eyes, searching for something, something Garramon thought the man found as he gave the softest of sighs. “You are the man I wish I had the chance to be.”

A white light flickered in the air behind Fane, spreading until a window to another place appeared, and a woman stepped through.

“I wish you were standing at my side in what is to come,” Fane whispered, resting his hand on Garramon’s cheek. “It is time, my friend.”

The bonds of Essence that held Garramon in place slithered over his body, pried open his mouth, and pushed into his eyes, ears, and nose until all he saw was black and all he heard was the sound of his own heart beating.

Chapter 101

Everything You Seek

27thDay of the Blood Moon

Tahír un Ilyienë, Aravell – Winter, Year 3081 After Doom

A strange senseof peace seemed to hold the Tahír un Ilyienë in its grasp. It was more than a physical thing. Ella couldfeelthe change in the air from the city beyond. That tree, with its glowing purple leaves, was an anchor between worlds, its heartbeat resounding within Ella’s soul. She’d been sitting there, perched on the stone terraces with Faenir at her feet, since the sun had first risen.

Sennik and Balmyras sat a few rows back, while Luteir and Aneera lurked about somewhere.

Ella drew a sharp breath, staring down at the elves and Rakina who stood on the central platform at the tree’s base. Hundreds came each day, thousands possibly. All to be closer to the ones they loved – the ones they’d lost.

A hand rested on Ella’s shoulder, firm yet gentle.

“I thought I’d find you here,” Tanner said, stepping down from the higher terrace to sit beside Ella. She had smelled him as soon as he’d entered the garden, the wolf within her pricking at his scent.

Ella gave him a half-smile, then turned back to staring at the Ilyienë tree.

“You’ve come here every day since returning. Sat in this same spot.”

“Are you following me?”

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