I continued reading the Book of the Past in my head. I didn’t know if the Immortals knew I had found a way to do that, but I figured it was worth a shot anyway. To stop them from getting suspicious, I would have to participate in this conversation while simultaneously reading the book in my head.

“I couldn’t be sure,” I said, facing the two Immortals while using my clothes to hide the hand I held over the Book of the Past. “I couldn’t be sure that the Simurgh had taken the Book of Annihilation, but I suspected it. After all, I didn’t feel like the knowledge was in my head or anything.” I made sure to gasp and pant, making it look like the reason I was willing to talk instead of run of way was because I wanted to catch my breath.

“My friend, you never had the Book of Annihilation to begin with!” said Madness with a gentle smile. “Did you really think you could use the gifts we gave you, against us?”

I frowned. “The Simurgh gave me the fundamentals of magic, but I used them to create my own magic system. The Evil Eye gave me translation magic, but I used it to learn all the languages of the peoples of this world on my own. I’d say I can use the master’s tools to break his back, yes.”

“Funny idiom. I remember something like it, barely,” said Madness.

My eyes widened. “So you really are—”

“Enough of this!” cried the Simurgh with a roar. It tried to leap towards me but Madness stood in its way with a devilish smile and open arms. The Simurgh stomped on the ground with its surprisingly large feet and the ground shook. “Pest! Nuisance! Buzzing gnat! Why must you always get in my way?”

Madness pouted and held his hands to his heart. “My dearest Simurgh, why do you spurn me so? All I wish for is your affection. And yet you push me away at every opportunity. Tell me, how did I ever wrong you, my beloved?”

“What about the time you took its domains,” I chimed in, sensing an opportunity to stall while getting more information about this world.

“Stealing domains? Me?” said Madness with a raised eyebrow. “The only domain I have ever wanted from my beloved was the domain of Annihilation. The others are means to an end. I knew I could not get something as powerful as Annihilation, so I worked my way up from dancing, music and madness, all concepts I know very well from my old world!”

“So you admit you stole them from me!” said the Simurgh.

“Now, beloved, you know I would never steal from you,” said Madness. “But if some domains just happen to be drifting in the primordial void when I transcended to a new realm and I happened to understand why they were important for my objectives, doesn’t that mean it was okay for me to take control of them?”

“No,” said the Simurgh. “I stand for justice, and it is not just to steal, even if the owner is not there to lay claim to their property. If you truly loved me, as you claim to do, then you must return my domains to me and help me strike down this insubordinate elf!”

Madness lowered his head a little and looked up at the Simurgh. His lips somehow extended into an even wider and narrower grin. “And I stand for love, and love is all consuming! It is powerful, like a tsunami washing over the shore, destroying everything in its path. It is suffocating, like a forest fire, burning to ash all that comes near. My beloved, I have already told you! You can have everything that I have. My body, my soul, my entire existence, including these domains that I govern. You can have them all! All you have to do is accept my love. Give me Annihilation!” He raised his voice and shouted into the sky, “Give me Annihilation!”

“Never!” shouted the Simurgh as it flapped its wings and summoned swirling winds, forming a tornado around us. The storm clouds overhead smashed into the tornado, spiraling downwards in a gray whirlpool, lightning flashing periodically inside the walls of wind.

Madness laughed maniacally and a silver orb appeared around him. The orb was large enough to cover me and Norn too, and I saw a smaller orb taking Noel and Alek away as well. The Evil Eye, however, was caught up in the wind and his eye widened in panic as he was flung into the air. I almost chuckled but stopped myself. I couldn’t break my concentration. I could feel the domain of the Past slowly trickling into my head.

The walls of the tornado collapsed inward, smashing against the silver orb like waves beating against a cliff. The silver orb held firm, but Madness’ complexion paled. He was laughing with his characteristic abandon, but the laughter was not as loud and uncontrolled as before. It was almost as if his throat was too hoarse to continue but he was belting out laughter anyway. Did laughing make his magic stronger or was he just crazy? Probably both.

The Simurgh’s eyes appeared against the silver orb. Not one pair of eyes, but thirty of them. The Simurgh had split back up and each bird was flapping its wings wildly against the orb. A few of them pecked at it with their beaks while others sung strange notes that beat against the orb like drums. The birds’ attacks were more terrifying than the tornado, but the tornado was a consistent barrage while the birds were attacking in random ways in random places and at random intervals. Madness couldn’t afford to concentrate all of his energy in one place, he had to keep the orb up even if it drained his energy.

One bird did not do anything. It stood on the wall of the orb, leaning its leaning head forward and looking at me with its beady black eyes. It was also looking at Madness with the same gaze, and Madness was looking only at this little bird even while he fought off the pressure from the others. I remembered this bird since it was the lead bird from the first time I had met the Simurgh. With a vertical crown of feathers and a long beak, the bird was actually less remarkable than some of the others. There was even a bird with bright green, blue and purple feathers, each of which had eyes on them, and yet, it was this smaller bird that carried a certain aura around it. It was a noble aura, one that I could feel on the Simurgh in its larger form, but which was usually hidden under layers of power and beauty.

This bird had the simple nobility that came from knowledge and wisdom. Now that I had some domains, or what was probably actually only one domain—the domain of the Future—I could feel something from the Simurgh. An instinctive respect or veneration. As if the power that was now inside me recognized its origin and wanted to return to it. It was a strange feeling. It made my heart beat in my ears and my mind was awash with emotions that I hadn’t felt before and couldn’t quite name or recognize.

“You feel it now too, kid?” said Madness, quietly, his grin relaxing a little bit until it was only a soft smile.

“Is this why you were chasing that strangely defined Annihilation? The one where you are destroyed but become a part of something else. It’s the domains inside you that are pulling you that way, right?” I asked, feeling like I had finally pieced together the reason Madness was so maniacally obsessed with the Simurgh.

Madness frowned. He turned his face away from the little bird and gave me a strange look. “What? No, you imbecile. The domains aren’t telling us anything. Domains can’t talk. What? Are you hearing voices in your head or something? Sounds like somebody needs a psychiatrist, am I right?” He began laughing again. He turned to the little bird. “Can you believe this guy? He thinks the domains turned me crazy or something! Ha! If it was that easy to make me do something, you wouldn’t be in this mess, would you my beloved?”

The little bird nodded its head and gave me a pitying look.

I sighed and kept reading in my head.