In the end, Kaldalis had to help hold Ara down. As a healer, Dalgaard’s damage output was very low, and so Ara had time to start to transform again. Kaldalis had to get in close quarters with the monster from his nightmares to let Dalgaard get the final blow, which was proper. Even if it meant he was going to have a few new nightmares to come. Chiefly, of Ara swearing bloody vengeance, promising to return from beyond the grave once more, and staring him right in the eyes and snapping at him with her fangs right in his face.

When it was over, Kaldalis felt a sense of immeasurable loss. Myrin was right. Centuries of memories snuffed out in an instant.

Lost, like tears in the rain.

It filled him with a sense of profound sadness.

An eye for an eye had made the world a little bit blinder.

But Ara had started this. She had ambushed Dalgaard in the jungle, and ended that interaction in the most traumatically bloody way she could have. This was full circle. Dalgaard screaming and slamming their daggers into her until she stopped moving - and for a full ninety seconds afterwards - was the only way this could end.

“One hour,” Kaldalis said, as a blood-spattered Dalgaard knelt - breathing heavily - over Ara’s corpse. “Onirioago came back after one hour. If you want to be sure.”

“No,” Dalgaard said, shaking their head. “I’m sure now. We’ve killed enough of them by now to know they stay dead.”

“Still,” Kaldalis said gently, putting a hand on their shoulder. “There’s no shame in making sure.”

Dalgaard nodded, swallowing hard. Even though they agreed they would wait and be sure, all the tension seemed to have gone out of them. There was a sense of peace that radiated from their expression. This was what they needed. The violence paid back. Their crusade ended.

Even as Dalgaard seemed more relaxed than Kaldalis had seen them since that first night by the lake, Kaldalis didn’t feel the same sense of closure. When he closed his eyes he could still see her eight eyes and extended fangs. He could still hear her violent threats and lewd taunts. He could even still taste sunflower oil on his tongue. Just the same, he could be glad for Dalgaard to have gotten through this even if he still felt haunted.

“I am on the clock here, though,” Kaldalis said carefully. “If I don’t get back to Cotanaku, I don’t know what’s going to happen. There might be a search party already underway. If not an army on their way to kick the ass of whatever they can find.”

“It must be nice,” Dalgaard said with a weak smile. “Having people willing to do so much for you.”

“Isn’t it?” Kaldalis said, offering Dalgaard a hand.

They stared at the offered hand for a moment, nodding slowly. Standing up on their own, they took the hand, shaking it firmly.

“If there’s anything you need, come find me,” Kaldalis said.

“I will,” Dalgaard said, with uncharacteristic sincerity.

Not wanting to ruin the moment, Kaldalis gestured to Myrin and started to head out, leaving Dalgaard to plan their next move. When they reached the hallway, Balrim moved to join them, though the mercenaries there leaped to battle stances, only held at bay by a gesture from Yosini.

“What’s the verdict?” the Suyon healer asked.

“Ara is dead,” Kaldalis said. “The fight is over. From here, it’s up to Dalgaard what peace looks like, but there’s no need for more death.”

Yosini nodded, and gestured to the others. “Let them through.”

The mercenaries grumbled, but obeyed, standing aside. Kaldalis tried to lead his friends through the gap, but there was a force on the other side. The rest of Dalgaard’s camp was being held back by the mercenaries, and when they parted, they streamed past the other way, shoving Kaldalis aside in their path to get to Dalgaard’s side.

“Thank you,” Kaldalis said to Yosini as he waited for the hallway to clear. “I think we got the best possible ending out of this thanks to you.”

“What was I going to do?” Yosini asked. “Kill you? After you leaped into danger to save us all?”

Kaldalis shrugged. He felt like that was a reasonable expectation, given the company the man was keeping, but he didn’t want to say that. It didn’t sound wise to speak ill of the dead to his closest friend.

“If you’re looking for a job,” Yosini said, “look us up. Depending on what happens, we might be in the market for some frontline.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Kaldalis said, trying not to grimace. “But I think I have enough going on right now. Thanks, though.”

As soon as the way was clear, Kaldalis led his friends out of the building as fast as he could before things got any more awkward. He also managed to survive all of their followers filing past him, and didn’t want to push his luck any further.

“So what happened?” Balrim asked as they emerged from the building and into the courtyard. “Are we cool?”

“Ara is dead,” Kaldalis said, “probably once and for all. And Dalgaard’s bloodlust is sated. I’m not sure how this ends, but I trust that it’ll get worked out from here. So yeah, I think we’re cool.”

“Lost our lead, though,” Myrin added. “Ara could have given us a starting point.” She hooked a thumb at Kaldalis. “This guy wants to get his hands on the control panel of the universe and he just let the one person who could give us directions to the directions get executed.” She grimaced. “I mean, completely justifiably executed. But just because it wasn’t wrong doesn’t mean we didn’t just lose the lore we could have pried out of her.”

Kaldalis winced at that, but Balrim clapped a reassuring hand to his shoulder.

“You did the right thing,” Balrim said. “I know it was hard, but it was right.”

“It still feels bad,” Kaldalis said as they left the courtyard and started to pick their way through the ruins, heading towards Cotanaku. “Obviously, Ara didn’t have the answer herself. She was just going to be able to give us a starting point. The information we’d have gotten by following her is still out there. But now we have to find it ourselves.”

“We will,” Myrin said, “somehow.”

Kaldalis was about to protest, putting the blame on himself and lamenting how everyone else was going to suffer for his decisions, but he was abruptly interrupted. As the three of them reached the front gate to the ruins, they found themselves facing down four familiar figures.

“Kal?” Ess exclaimed, in obvious confusion.

“They’re okay,” Reno said, heaving a huge sigh of relief. “See? I told you they’d be fine. I wasn’t worried for a second.”

“What happened?” Courbois asked, stepping up towards Balrim and Myrin. “I saw one of Onirioago’s old crew drag you two off.”

The fourth figure flung herself at Kaldalis, wrapping him in a tight embrace. Despite himself, the feeling of Heluna’s overwhelming relief at finding him alright gave Kaldalis more satisfaction than Ara’s death had.

Balrim and Myrin started to explain what had happened to the others, but Kaldalis’s world shrank as Heluna held him. Everything else just seemed so unimportant when compared to the feeling of her body against his. The visions of Ara’s fangs vanished from behind his eyelids. The sound of her threats in his ears quieted. The oily flavor of Jormongumo venom on his tongue finally faded.

“I was worried,” Heluna whispered in his ear.

“I knew you would be,” Kaldalis said. “I tried to get this wrapped up as fast as I could so that you wouldn’t raise the whole town to ride to my rescue again.”

“Fuck,” she cursed, laughing, “I forgot I could fuckin’ do that. I shoulda gone and slapped the shit out of Garyung again.”

“Easy there, lovebirds,” Reno said sharply, “we’re still out here in the danger zone. Can we keep it to over-the-clothes until we’re not surrounded by cannibal sex monsters? Unless you’re looking to be the first to die.”

“Ch-ch-ch, ah-ah-ah,” Myrin added.

Kaldalis felt his cheeks heat up at that. He was still too self-conscious about the relationship to come up with a snappy comeback. Just the same, when Heluna moved away sheepishly, he hooked an arm around her, keeping her close. Partially because he didn’t want her thinking he was ashamed of her.

But mostly it was because he didn’t want the nightmarish trauma of Ara’s threats to block out all his senses again.