Hubris

I returned to Priscilla's side just as the third and final dilation ended.

The bad news was I was now completely out of time dilations. If I was using the Mocles Saber, that could have meant trouble since I had to wait two hours before I was able to use it again. The good news was that Kairos's dilations only required five full minutes of rest to fully recharge. There were still a few minutes until the first one would be ready again, but if I was not mistaken, Kairos would let me know by a sharp ping it would emit, a really handy feature since I usually didn't have time to keep track of individual dilations in the middle of combat.

Priscilla, however, was not too thrilled. When she saw that Apollo was still alive, she glared at me accusatively.

"You had one job!" she said dangerously.

"We can't kill him!" I said, pointing to Morpheus.

"He's wearing flip flops!"

"Priscilla, that's the assassin that poisoned you in the outside world."

Her expression suddenly grew dark, as if remembering her scuffle with Morpheus back on the Rosen Bridge. I haven't had time to ask about the details of the fight, but I did remember that there was blood on the tip of her wing. She had injured him in the outside world. He wasn't invincible. But that had nothing to do with how powerful he was in the nightmare. Here, he was likely beyond our ability to fight at the moment.

"All the more reason to kill them both now," she said. "Hosts can be killed outside the city, but once they're inside, they're practically immortal. This is our chance."

"I want Apollo dead as much as you," I said, pointing to my forehead. "But let's leave good enough alone, yeah? We'll figure out something once we're safe in the city."

"You're not listening! We won't be safe in the city so long as that monster is alive!"

"Look at us, Priscilla! We're in no condition to fight, not against a multi-winged Seraph."

Priscilla looked at Morpheus disdainfully.

"How many wings?"

"More than three," I replied.

I couldn't tell her I knew that only because I knew Iris had two wings and she claimed that Morpheus was stronger than her.

Priscilla grit her teeth as if he was going to attack the two Hosts anyway, but she shook her head miserably.

"Everyone's a freaking Seraph in the dream," she said. "As if they knew what it cost to become one."

Apollo was clearly relieved to see Morpheus, Morpheus, not to so much. Apollo flashed him a toothy grin, revealing that most of his pearly whites had been knocked out.

“Apollo,” Morpheus said as he placed a heavy hand on the battered Host's shoulder. “Don’t you know better than to fight a Seraph alone?”

“I had my Seraph-Slaying weapon,” he replied, spitting out a couple of molars. “I’m fine.”

“Clearly. And pray, tell me, where is your dragon knight armor?

Apollo held his hands out toward the scraps of molten metal surrounding his feet.

“Don't worry, Diana has a blueprint of it,” he said. “This damn witch fried it with her freak lightning bolts. Nearly killed me too while she was at it.”

"Excuse me?"

A pair of sharp, whip-like cracks filled the air as a pair of Seraph feathers whistled past the side of my head. They exploded harmlessly off a transparent barrier surrounding Apollo and Morpheus. Apollo flinched a second after the projectiles had made contact. Then he realized that he was safe behind the barrier.

He sneered at Priscilla.

“Looks like you're out of magic!” he shouted.

“Come and fight me, you coward!” she swore.

Priscilla fired a second volley of feathers, about six this time. I took a step away from her, not wanting to get caught in the cross-fire.

Yet the deadly projectiles were unable to get past Morpheus’s barrier. Based on where the sparks of light appeared after the feathers collided with the barrier, I could tell she was aiming for Apollo’s heart.

"Why isn't it working?" she growled, her strands of her wing quivering dangerously as she prepared more feathers to fire at her foe.

“She’s going to kill me, Morph!” Apollo yelped.

Apollo cowered behind the Warden like a frightened child, but Morpheus wasn't having any of it.

“Get off of me!” he growled.

He shook the Host off onto the ground.

Apollo landed flat on his back and lost his grip on the flaming zweihander he had slain me with. Its fire vanished immediately. Darkness swallowed both of our foes.

"Apollo, you idiot."

There was a burst of light as the barrier surrounding Morpheus filled with brilliant light. Apollo whimpered as he scrambled back up to his feet, his face now covered with ashes.

Morpheus glanced at Apollo and shook his head in deep disappointment.

“Lady Brightchild," he said. "I will punish Apollo for attacking another Host’s servant without warrant. But this fight is over.”

"Says who?” Priscilla.demanded.

One look at her face told me she was not going to back down.

“I am Morpheus, Warden of the Dream,” he said, bowing his head. “Marchioness Hilda has tasked me with keeping order in the city as well as when Hosts step out of line.”

“Good,” she said marching toward Apollo. “Then you won’t mind me exacting vengeance on the man who killed my servant.”

Morpheus began to clean the side of his moonstone blade on the hem of his khaki shorts.

"I will only say this once," he said. "Apollo will not die today."

Morpheus was running out of patience.

I stepped in front of Priscilla just as she raised her hand to fire another arrow. She looked surprised, but only for a moment. Unbridled anger soon flared in her cold brown eyes.

“Get out of my way.”

“We can’t kill him.”

“We can’t let him live! You don’t understand, Titus!"

"Understand what?"

Priscilla’s voice dropped to a low whisper. Her eyes were locked onto Apollo. All she could see now was his death.

"Apollo killed you," she said. "And I would sooner die than let your killer get away with your murder."

I was dumbstruck. I did not think she cared about me to the point that my death would spur her to vengeance. But before I could respond, Priscilla suddenly shoved her way past me. She lowered her wing and prepared to fire lightning magic instead.

Morpheus had turned to leave with Apollo. A dark portal stood a few feet away from them, ready to whisk them away to safety.

“Who said you could leave?”

But as she raised her hand to call down lightning from the heavens, Apollo raised his hands and summoned a golden bow. He casually took aim at me and drew back a red arrow of light.

My first time dilation was still down, so I mustered what magic I could to create a barrier around me. Priscilla, seeing the arrow as well, threw her wing in front of me to block the arrow as well.

But at the last moment, Apollo changed targets and fired Priscilla.

Priscilla moved her wing in time to block the arrow. I, too, managed to shift the strong point of the barrier in front of her. But despite our combined efforts, the arrow easily pierced both the wing and the barrier and exited cleanly through the left side of her back.

It all happened so quickly, I didn’t quite believe what I saw.

“Got her!” Apollo shouted in triumph, his voice hoarse and hollow.

Morpheus turned to see that Apollo had shot Priscilla, but he merely grunted before turning his back on us.

Priscilla’s wound ought to have begun repairing itself immediately since a Seraph’s magic lost no time in repairing fatal wounds. But as she collapsed wordlessly onto the ground, there were no signs of the wound closing.

I rushed over to her side and checked her wrist for a pulse.

Her heart had fallen silent.

As I lowered her wrist, I noticed that both of her arms were blackened like charcoal from manaburn. I hadn't noticed it before because of how little light there was outside the Gates of Tartarus. Burns like those only appeared when a mage overdrafted near the fatal twenty-five percent threshold.

There was not a single ounce of magic left in her body.

Cheon-sa's Manual-Item No. 3

A Seraph-slaying weapon is only dangerous if a Seraph is low on magic.

This is when they need you the most.

“Priscilla!” I cried.

The air around me grew dark as the light faded from her wing. Her feathers fell to the ground like silk strands tossed from a window. Several of the strands brushed against my face before resting on my shoulders like turtle doves in mourning. Ashes surrounded me once again, now stained with the blood of a Seraph, the friend I had sworn to guard with my life.

History was repeating itself.

“Priscilla, you can’t die here!"

All that replied was a sharp ping from Kairos

My first time dilation was ready.