“Necros,” Chaos mutters, “lend us your eyes.” Each son gains a deep, black eye identical to their father’s-- Chaos the left, and Calamity the right. A newfound sense of determination grows within them. Chronum tries to send his beasts after the boys in a fit of rage, but cannot bring himself to attack them. He sees himself-- better yet, his former lover-- in their eyes. He sees the day they were born. He sees their rowdy days of youth. He sees Necros’s smile as the two would watch their sons chase one another through the streets. Chronum’s shaking hand falls back to his side.
Wendy sheathes her sword and takes Lynx’s hand. She looks exhausted, but she’s built her life around saving these beasts-- to give up now would make it all in vain. “Genus,” the two say, “lend us your hands.” When the two women untangle their fingers, a web of light connects them. The same web crawls up from the earth, wrapping itself around Chronum’s feet. His attempts to remove himself from it bear no result.
Allegra clasps her fingers around Orien’s. When this is all over, will you come home? her grip asks. All her sister ever wanted was a bright, peaceful life. She never planned on seeing the world until her work was done in Elk City-- yet, here she stands, restoring balance to the life cycle instead of filing in her vacation days at the Sentry office. She’ll never get the normal life she once dreamed of, but something better will take its place. It has to. Orien gives her hand a squeeze. Yes, her grasp says. “Lumen,” they say, “lend us your staff.” Orien’s sword drapes a blanket of blue light over her own body and her sister’s.
“This realm needs you, Chronum,” Allegra begins. “But not as a tyrant. Your sons wish to live among men and the rest of us wish to live on an earth where souls are free to go where they wish. Reincarnation does not pick and chose who is worthy. Only an individual soul can determine its own worth.”
Orien chuckles. “You sound like me,” she comments. Allegra places her hand over Orien’s, gripping the base of her sword, and raises it into the air. “Remember that tune I used to sing to you? Might be worth a shot. I don’t know how the deities intended for this to go, but I guess we’re doing something right if they haven’t stepped in.”
Chaos cranes his neck to look at Allegra. “Time for a lullaby, songbirds?”
Allegra nods, counting down from three. The room fills with a chorus of notes that swell up into the air and wrap the strings of light further up Chronum’s body. He fights it, but the look on his face is one that’s already accepted his fate. The final note sends him stumbling back through the threshold; pure darkness consumes the room for a few seconds. When the glow returns, the only life remaining is Wendy, Lynx, Chaos, Calamity, Julius, Orien, and Allegra. A deep feeling of relief emerges in those carrying extra souls.
The web of light between their fingers fades, causing Wendy to collapse to the ground. Her skin grows pale and her breath falls heavy. Orien runs over.
“Let’s get you back up to the surface,” she says. “You’ve seen a lifetime in the past three days.”
Wendy shakes her head as she shoves her teammates’ helping hands away. Her eyes are drawn to the threshold, glowing a bright, warm white. “You have to let me go.”
Lynx grabs at her wrist. “What?”
“I’m not really sure where I end and the souls begin. I’m not even sure if there is a ‘me’. But I do know that I owe these souls a new beginning. Do you remember what that journal entry said? ‘I will be found, in this life, or the next’? I don’t think that was a mistake. I have to do this.” Wendy reaches for Orien’s hand. “Thank you for being good to me.” She turns to Lynx, cupping her face in her hands. Both their faces grow wet with tears. Lynx shakes her head in denial, but already knows that a better option for Wendy’s soul is nowhere to be found. “And you take care of the twins for me, okay? This team is nothing without you.” She wraps her arms around the twins. "Don't cause too much mischief. Don't let beings the sons of gods get to your head." They chuckle. Lastly, she places a gentle palm on Allegra's shoulder. "
As her vision fades in and out, Wendy removes her sword, scabbard and all, and sets it on the floor. “You’ll see me again.”
She collapses to the floor after only a few steps, too exhausted to cross the room by herself. Lynx eyes the rest of her team frantically; Orien returns her gaze with a nod. “Go,” she says.
Lynx wipes the tears from her eyes and hoists Wendy into her arms. She listens to every breath she takes, every shift of her body, every echoing footstep. She tries to turn 20 feet into a thousand, but this moment can’t last forever. These souls deserve to be free. Wendy deserves a new beginning.
She runs her thumb over Lynx’s cheek as they approach the white glow at the end of the room. “Now I’m starting to think the ‘bone broth coffee’ thing wasn’t so bad,” she mumbles.
Lynx smiles and laughs. She pauses and lingers in front of the threshold. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do without you making fun of me all the time, Wendy…”
A dry, thin smile grows upon her face. “I’ll find a way to keep making fun of you. Hey, maybe when I come back, we all ditch the nicknames. Esther’s pretty on you.”
“Naira is prettier.” Wendy places her hand behind Lynx’s head, pushing their foreheads together. She presses a gentle, reassuring kiss to Lynx’s lips. They don’t need a deity of time present to turn this single moment into a million. Wendy exhales weakly and says, “I’ll find you. You’ll know when it’s me.”
Lynx reaches her arms through the white light, feeling the weight being lifted from her grip as Wendy passes through. The brightest flash of them all sends the group stumbling-- but not Lynx. She falls to her knees as the threshold dims again. Her teammates join her and bow their heads. This gate of light is no altar, but it’s a sacred place. It marks the end of one life and the beginning of another. Among the silence, the tears, the mourning, the relief-- there is prayer. For themselves, for the earth and those who walk among it, and for Wendy.
There is hope.
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