Scarlet rushed back into Dante's room to grab the dagger, unwilling to let it out of her sight for any amount of time. Then, she chased after Death, who was already partway down the hall.

“Hold up, why—”

“Crossing was always the plan, once I was free.”

Catching her breath, Scarlet let it sink in. “You're going to find Deia.”

“Yes. I said my farewells to Bronwen and your mother already. You're the last one.”

“But—can gods go to the Nextworld?”

“The gods are the fabric of this World. No. The divine part of me will stay in this existence. But… my mortal half. Eva. Eva will go.”

Scarlet followed Eva up to the top of the castle. They reached a door that Scarlet knew was locked, from her previous explorations. Eva pulled a delicate silver key from her pocket, and unlocked it.

“What about Riordan’s mortal half?” Scarlet wondered aloud. She hadn’t thought much of Riordan’s vessel before. “Is his soul trapped in the dagger, too?”

Eva pushed open the door. Through it was a circular room, in the center of which there was a wrought iron staircase, spiraling high. Blue light motes adorned the bannister, the only illumination in the room. Eva began to lead them up the steps.

“When an artificer creates an artifact, they calibrate the stone to their specific purposes,” Eva said as they ascended. Scarlet shivered as they became surrounded by darkness and blue, like the staircase was suspended in a void. “Ange seems to hold a special talent for this. Only Riordan’s soul is caught in your dagger. His mortal incarnate was named Regan. He has passed into the Nextworld.” Eva’s lips pulled tight. “I hope not to find him there, though Riordan was the dominant personality of the pairing.”

It was strange to think of two souls joining together as an incarnate. Scarlet was suffocated enough as an emissary, she couldn’t imagine wanting to join with a god, to share a body with them.

“Who is the dominant one for you?” Scarlet asked.

Eva didn’t hesitate to answer. “I’m equally both. We joined so that the immortal could experience the mortal, and vice versa. As a god, I wanted to know what it was like. To be human, to fall in love, to feel pain. I got all of that, when I chose Eva. Many times over, in fact.”

They spiraled higher, and higher yet. They must be going to the very apex of the castle. Scarlet had always been curious about what was up there. She supposed she was about to find out.

Finally, they reached the top. It was a small platform, and a door, hewn from the same shiny black stone as the front doors and the throne room doors were. It was inscribed with vastly intricate runes. Scarlet wondered what they meant as Eva touched the door and the designs lit up with a soft silver glow.

They went through, and came out into another circular room, this one large and bright. Instead of the stone that formed the walls of every other room in Deianira, there was only glass, tall windows stretching high, at least twice the height of Scarlet until they converged, forming a domed ceiling above them.

Through the windows, the Crossworld was laid out before them in every direction. The swamp trees below were miniaturised. The sun would set soon, but for now, Scarlet could see across the river of souls to the gods' realms. She paced around the outside, staring out at each of them.

Cascara, scattered islands among the islands of the realms, orchards with pink blossoms in the distance.

Io, a sprawling grasslands that would eventually lead into a jungle.

Kajiem, a desert with red sand—perhaps there was an oasis, so tiny and far she almost couldn't spot it.

Meyra, mountains towering around inside passages through the realm—whether to shelter or terrify those below, Scarlet didn't know.

Riordan, the evergreen copses, plains full of flowers and snow. Thankfully, she couldn't see the towering monstrosity that was Riordan's castle from here.

Then, she found herself drawn back toward the inner part of the room. In the center a circle was carved into the otherwise smooth stone floor. Scarlet realized that it matched the flat, circular panel at the top of the glass dome above them.

The air here felt sacred. Quiet, barren, important. Familiar. Scarlet couldn’t place why. She didn’t dare step too close to the circle.

“What is this place?” she asked.

“This is the observatory,” Eva said. “The other realms, they all are connected to the World. My slice of the Crossworld, here in the center, does not, as you well know. You can’t open a portal from here to the World.”

Eva wandered over to a window, and pressed a palm to the glass as she stared out toward Kajiem’s realm. “This place is different,” she said, quieter. “You must have wondered about the differences between the realms here and the World. The gods can have some play in that. But many of these things—the odd coloring of the flora, the second moon—come from the Nextworld. Things from there, leaking into here.

“This place is connected to the Nextworld, as am I. I can make a portal here, where the connection is the strongest.”

Was that why this place felt so strange, so familiar? The Nextworld had called to her soul for so long. Suddenly, she wanted to leave, to get as far as possible from that circle.

“Why did you bring me here?” Scarlet asked. “Why am I your final goodbye?”

Eva shrugged, still looking out at the desert realm in the beyond. “I wanted to show you this, before I left. I think it’s quite beautiful. The atmosphere here holds a lot of weight, I know. But it can be a good place to gain perspective.”

It was a stunning view to the realms below. But Scarlet couldn't enjoy it with her stomach so knotted. Speaking of weight, there was a heavy one, in the form of a dagger strapped to her boot. “I don't know what to do with Riordan's soul.”

Eva turned back to her, fidgeting with the loose hair at the tip of her braid. “You want my advice?”

“Maybe. Yes.”

“Don't throw it away.”

“Really?” Scarlet said dryly. “That's all you have to say?”

“Riordan is no longer trapping me here, keeping me bound to the Crossworld. Soon, both parts of me will be somewhere that he won’t be able to reach even if he does return. I doubt I will choose another incarnate. So, I have nothing to lose or gain, whatever you do.”

“You can’t tell me you don’t have an opinion, after everything he’s done. Or that you think it’s a good idea for Ange to try to rule the World, or for his soul to be destroyed—”

“Alright, you got me,” Eva said, a sly grin on her face. It was the closest thing to playful that she’d seen from the god. “I’m not above having feelings about it. Opinions, even. For what it’s worth, I think you’ll make the right decision.

“You’ve done well enough already, keeping the dagger from Ange and Kiera. You’re right in thinking both of their ideas are horrible. Ange isn’t fit to rule the World. And, while the gods are pesky, eliminating them isn’t likely to fix anything, only throw the World into a new kind of chaos. Balance is kept by their powers flowing through the Worlds. Destroying, or even keeping them contained for too long will have chaotic effects. It might literally tear the World apart.”

Scarlet huffed out a breath of frustration. “But what are the alternatives? Let everything go back to the way it was? We can’t just let Riordan keep stomping around.”

“I can’t answer that for you.”

“Because there’s no good answer, is there?”

“I didn’t say that. Just, that I don’t know it. I’m a god, Scarlet, but I’m not infallible, nor omniscient. You know that well enough already.”

While true, it wasn’t helpful. “I read a tale about how all the gods were once one. Ange mentioned it too. Is it true?”

“It is, though it’s lost knowledge to most these days. The other gods wouldn’t be caught dead admitting it. So much strife between them, now.”

“Do you think you could ever reunite again?”

“To be one again…” Eva took a long moment to consider. “It would be hard. We may only tear apart again. The dualities we hold, as one being, it is difficult to reconcile, even for a god.”

“But not impossible.”

“You would need an artifact to reunite us.” Eva said. She bit her lip. “One that we all made, together, very long ago. Something your mother had once. An amulet.”

“Where is it now?”

“Oh, gone. Long gone. You’ll have to ask Kiera.”

“Wait,” Scarlet said. “Riordan said something about an amulet.”

“Same one, most likely. I didn’t know he was after it, but that does make sense. It’s a very powerful artifact. And a good reason to keep Kiera alive, if he wanted to find out where it was.”

“I’ll find it with or without her.”

“You'll never find it without her. Maybe not even with her.”

“I'll find a way,” Scarlet said, mustering more confidence than she felt. How had it fallen to her, to fix a broken World? She wasn’t even sure if reuniting the gods was the right way to fix it.

“I don’t know how much it means, coming from me, but I do believe in you, Scarlet,” Eva said. “You have a resilient spirit, like I’ve never seen before. And I do realize that I’ve seen it in part because I’ve put it to the test. I have to say that I’m sorry, I really am.

“I know you probably see me as no better than Riordan, and maybe that's true. I feel like I lost myself, trapped here for so long. I’ve been here for decades, did you know that? Incarnates do not age while in the Crossworld. There was no end date to this imprisonment, not until Riordan was taken care of.

“I did what I thought best—I was trying to save what I had left. With Deia gone… I feel like I've done everything wrong. I didn't want to save you, at first, to get back at Kiera—then, I became desperate to keep you safe, because I realized Kiera would never forgive me if I let something happen to you. And then Riordan, I wanted, needed, to defeat him so badly, I pushed you so hard…” Eva sighed, an exhalation that lasted a few heartbeats. “I was in pain. It's not an excuse for my actions, but, there it is.”

Scarlet thought of Dante, the pain she felt in his loss. The crushing feeling of being trapped in the Crossworld, when there was so much she wanted to do. Unable to fight back, to free herself, to rescue her mother. She imagined that pain multiplied over decades, with the added fear of falling prey to Riordan, set on her capture.

Perhaps she should cut Eva some slack. Some of what she had done truly was to protect her, though she didn’t know it at the time. Truly, she couldn’t have left the Crossworld without dying.

But even so, Eva could have told her why.

And then still, there was the dungeon. There was every needlessly brutal injury Scarlet had sustained in training, with no remorse from Eva. There were all the things Eva could have just told her, instead of trying to conceal from her.

All of those wounds, physical and emotional, they still ran deep in Scarlet’s blood.

“I can't say I forgive you,” Scarlet said. “But… I understand.”

Eva nodded. “I suppose that is the most I could hope for.”

“I have to ask…” Scarlet started, but she couldn't choke the question out. The name.

Eva finished for her, “Dante.”

Scarlet could already feel her world crumbling away. She braced herself to hear the worst. “Do you know?”

“I’ve confirmed that he isn’t in the stream of souls. Neither are the others Ange had hoped to save, for that matter. They’ve all crossed, except for Dante.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Scarlet insisted. “Where else would he be? Please, if he’s gone, just tell me. Just tell me. If it’s true, I need to hear it.”

“He isn’t gone,” Eva said. “I promise.”

Scarlet did her best to hold steady, but her whole body shook. “So where is he?”

“Someone else took his soul before he could cross. Io has him.”

“Io?” What did another god have to do with any of this? “Why would Io want Dante’s soul?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. They do not have an incarnate at this time. You could travel to their realm and ask them yourself.”

Scarlet had expected that she would find out Dante’s fate, one way or another. In a way she had, but her head spun with new questions. The last thing she wanted to do was get tangled up with more gods, but avoiding them seemed more impossible with each piece of information she learned.

Her emotions started pouring out. “I feel like it’s the end. If he’s gone, if I can’t get him back then… then I don’t know. It’s over. How am I supposed to do this, alone?”

Eva reached behind her neck, and she unhooked the clasp to the necklace she always wore—the piece of crystal Scarlet now unmistakably recognized as the magus variety. “A parting gift, for you.” She held the pendant out to Scarlet.

Scarlet accepted it, and turned the crystal over in her hands. It seemed empty, no magic flowed through it.

“It's like the swords. Designed to hold a soul. I thought to use it to trap Riordan, but it isn't large enough. A failed project, but it sparked the idea that Ange used to eventually forge the magus weapons.” Eva put her fingers to the spot between her collarbones, where the pendant used to sit. “It wasn't always calibrated to be a soulstone. It used to just be an ornament, a pretty thing. Deia made it for me. It's always held hope for me, and perhaps it will for you, also. It will fit a mortal soul. Go to Io. Bring Dante back.”

Scarlet put the necklace on, feeling it cold against her chest. Empty now, but not forever. “Thank you.”

Eva held out her hand. “One last gift, before I go.”

Scarlet placed her left hand into Eva’s outstretched one, emissary mark facing up. Eva held it tight while she traced the tattoo with her other hand’s pointer finger. It burned as the magic that bonded them was ripped out, but it was a satisfying pain, one that let Scarlet know that something was being fixed. When Eva was done, only a faded mark was left behind, almost unnoticeable. A faint scar of the past.

She looked back up to Scarlet, and released her hand. “You’re free. And it’s time for me to go. Deia has been waiting long enough.”

Scarlet stepped back from Eva and the room’s center as the god waved her arms in large, circular gestures. The circle carved into the floor began to wake, shimmering and swirling with the growing flow of magic. Scarlet watched with rapt attention until finally, a blue light burst from the circle, momentarily blinding her. When she had blinked away the overwhelming brightness, a slightly less blinding light emanated from the circle, a column of blue that stretched up to the matching circle on the ceiling, and beyond.

A portal to the Nextworld.

“You think you'll find her there?” Scarlet asked.

“Not even I know what lies beyond,” Eva said, the blue cast illuminating the determined lines drawn across her face. “I'll find her,” she said with a renewed confidence that contrasted her last statement. “I know I will, in my heart, my soul. I'll never forgive Riordan for taking away what we had in this World, because in the Next… things could be entirely different. It won't be the same, and I'm prepared for that. But, I will find her.”

Eva stepped toward the light, she held her hand out, her palm lingering against the edge—just barely outside of its radius. She looked longingly into it, the precipice, a whole new World. “Deia’s death was an end. So is Dante's. Mine is another, though for me, it is truly time. But, Scarlet, remember this: an end is not the end.

“I am Death, but what people do not see is that I am also Life. I'm not a line, something with a termination point—I am a circle. Souls leave this World, but they also enter it. So, do not be afraid. An end leads to a beginning leads to an end. It is the way of things. It is the cycle.”

With that, Eva entered the pillar of light. With another brilliant, blinding flash, she was gone from this World, leaving behind her divinity and a girl who stood on the brink between an end and a new beginning.