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Side A – Nia

From within the Resonance of their last heartbeat there was only one place for Nia, Kayelle and Yasgrid to go.

Onto their next one.

There was only one tiny problem with that. With Endings power suffusing them, they were far too large to return to the mortal lives they’d known.

Okay, there were two tiny little problems.

First, they were brimming with too much power to pretend to be mortals any long and second there were rather a large number of gods surrounding them with the clear intent to the fools who’d tread upon their domain.

Two problems?

No.

Make it three.

“You have something which does not belong to you,” Elshira said, every word radiating delight.

“We could share it with you.” Kayelle was not making an offer. Her words could not have been more threatening, since what she would share with Elshira would be the end of the dead woman’s existence.

“I don’t believe I am in a sharing mood,” Elshira said. “Nor are they.”

Behind her the Stoneling gods, freed from the volcano prisons, or perhaps convinced to leave them, loomed larger than the cosmos.

“And you think they’re welcome here?” Nia asked, hearing again the cruel laughter which had taunted her at the Calling.

“This is their domain,” Elshira said. “You trespass here at peril to your very souls.”

“You really think so?” Yasgrid asked, mirthful glee filling her eyes.

“I am quite certain,” Elshira said. “Or did you think you were traveling anywhere but where my designs lead you?”

“You believe your schemes ensnared even the gods?” Kayelle asked.

Around them, the caldera of a volcano was glowing to life out of the starry void of the Resonance, its appearance the precursor to the full manifestation of the Stoneling gods.

That struck Nia as odd until she remembered that trapping themselves within a volcano had been the gods idea. Their prisons were ones of their own making originally, to shield them from their creations wrath.

So why were they free?

Nia’s blood, though far away in body caught between the passing of time’s ticks, ran cold.

Why were the gods here? Because of Endings.

The Elven gods had given Endings very specific restrictions on what its was and was not allowed to do. It was a tool meant to deal with Troubles and nothing else. In shattering the blade though and freeing the soul which had been bound at its center, they had destroyed those limitations as well. The power she, Kayelle, and Yasgrid held was raw and unconstrained divine will and it was capable of Ending a lot more than Troubles.

“I have ensnared no one,” Elshira said. “Everything that was done for all of us to arrive at this moment was done by the free will of those involved.”

“And yet this is not the moment you were playing for,” Yasgrid said, tracing a shape in the space around them which pulled Elshira from the shadows and into clear view. “This is far more than you’d hoped for. You stand now at the end of your imaginings, set to become…what?”

“I shall be the Hierophant of World Reborn,” Elshira said, plucking a star from the Resonance’s sky as the volcano’s caldera become fully manifested around them.

Side B – Yasgrid

The gods had forgotten. They were immensely powerful. Far greater than the divine power which coursed through Yasgrid. But they had forgotten.

And Yasgrid was delighted with that.

Before she could explain to them the error they’d made however, she had Elshira to deal with.

“We both know that’s not true,” she said, genuine kindness in her voice. “A hierophant is still a servant to those they speak for, and you were born to serve no one.”

“Have you not spoke again and again about how we can be who we choose to be?” Elshira asked. “Can I not choose to become someone who’s ambitions are fulfilled by standing atop a perfected world?”

“You could,” Yasgrid said. “But you won’t.” She wasn’t quite able to keep the mirth inside her from curling the corners her lips, which Elshira noticed immediately.

Elshira scowled. “And you believe you know me so well?”

“You are standing here, are you not?” Yasgrid asked. “Has it not occurred to you to wonder how fortune has turned so keenly in your favor despite none of your plans running to the ends you intended?”

“Of course she hasn’t,” Kayelle said. “She underestimated you from the beginning, and she still believes she has you ensnared.”

The heat in the volcano began to grow unbearable. Though no one present had lungs or a need to breath in a moment without time, poisonous gas rose from the caldera’s floor seeking to choke all present.

“You cannot withstand the force of those who have you engulfed,” Elshira said. “It was a clever play, to take the power of endings to the border of dreams, but it was no great feat to predict that clever turn.”

“Perhaps not,” Yasgrid said. “Tell me though, how did ally yourself with the Stoneling gods so quickly? That must indeed have required a clever trick or two?”

“I have no need of trickery,” Elshira said. “When our realms became conjoined, they sensed my power and I sensed theirs. In breaking Endings, you arrived at the conclusion I knew you must, and in attempting to claim its power as your own at last, you left open the door for this world to be swept clean and forged anew, as I have always wanted, as they has always wanted.”

“You’re aware that no one else wants that, right?” Nia said.

“Against their will, the desire of others stands as nothing,” Elshira said.

“Did they tell you that?” Kayelle asked.

“If you cannot see that on your own, then you are blind, Last and Least Bearer,” Elshira said.

Around the walls of the caldera, enormous cracks shattered the rocks, colossal fingers tearing to walls down as the Stoneling gods become manifest at last.

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