Walking through the echoing and empty halls of the Tower, Corvus suspected he may have lost his mind. The spirits of the dead tormented him as always but that wasn’t why, he knew why they were here and fully accepted they had the right to blame him. Though there was an unusually large number that lingered still to torment him.

No what made him suspect he was mad was he could feel the power of the cloud growing and an intelligence growing with it but that wasn’t possible, his spell was broken and it had no life. But every death within the cloud be they beasts, spirits, or other things drawn to the smell of carrion led to the cloud growing ever so slightly and feeling ever so slightly more purposeful. Which was not a small concern as it’s purpose was death to every living thing but him.

When his creation had exploded he’d expected the cloud of death energy to dissipate after a very short while, lingering for this long was unheard of. By everything he’d ever learned of Realm magic it was categorically impossible but so was creating true life from the lifeless and he’d done that.

Maybe it wasn’t too much of a stretch that the deeply Life affected Death lingered and grew. One thing he was very certain of, it was not under his control in any way.

It wasn’t a problem yet because it grew extremely slowly on the tiny amounts of life it drained maybe in a few thousand turnings it would break out of the land’s boundary. Corvus found himself unable to care, he’d be dead long before then and one of the Fae Chanar pricks could deal with it.

Hopefully they wouldn’t be stupid enough to march an army into a cloud of death to deal with a single Fae. If they were? Well, they deserved whatever they got.

Reaching the workroom he went in. To keep himself busy he’d read up on all Valard’s notes about his last project and continued on with it. It was fascinating just how close to a biological person these Iaernide bodies were but all consciousness was in the core and that was not something anyone had studied.

It was very exciting, three days ago he’d got the body to twitch when stimulated.

He’d just picked up his scriber when he heard a voice he recognised from outside the Tower shouting loudly, “Corvus! There’s a few things you need to know. Come out and talk to me!”

What in the name of the Unmentioned? Toixnae?

Shrugging he walked up stairs, he’d rebuilt the wards and was sure they’d hold against any of the High Fae Chanar so he was safe enough. If she tried to get through, the second layer in the newly rebuilt wards would be a real problem for her. He’d put a shield breaker in. Not a common ward that one, both very costly to run and people could just put their shield up again. Right now though anyone unshielded that wasn’t him or a High Fae Chanar would die very quickly. They’d still die but it would be much slower.

Walking outside and leaning on one of the pillars flanking the door he said, “Toixnae, hello.”

She shook her head and said, “This outcome isn’t too surprising, you’ve always been a disrespectful prick.”

“Why are you here? If it’s just to insult me, you’ve done it. Now go tell the rest of you Fae Chanar bastards that I’m alive and in possession of the Tower. The wards are rebuilt, better than they ever were and if anyone comes through them they’ll die, horribly.”

“That is exactly why I’m here, ‘you Fae Chanar bastards’. You don’t know do you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You should be saying ‘us Fae Chanar bastards’ because you are a Fae Chanar and after Ireen’s report of your strength, a High Fae Chanar at that.”

“What? Oh yeah, Valard mentioned something about that, right before I took his head off. I feel no different so I assumed it was more of his lies.”

Toixnae looked puzzled, then her face clearing she said, “Oh! You haven’t seen yourself have you? Stay right there.”

A sheet of thick ice formed beside her and angled itself to show Corvus his own face.

“WHAT!?” The face that looked back at him was undeniably a Fae Chanar face, the planes of his face were now as sharp edged as his new cheekbones and his hair was pure white. He sighed and said, “Oh, I do look like one of you. But I’m not. Any of you who come here I’ll try to kill, I’m only leaving you alive to carry my warning.”

‘Until you actively try and succeed in killing one of our brethren you will be left in peace, it was decided at the convocation to leave you alone because this land is ruined and no one has time to repair the damage you’ve caused. Emili says that it may not be, in which case you’ll be here for a very long time, all alone. The Fae Chanar don’t dare come into that cloud and the High Fae Chanar won’t risk losing what they already have, you are already fairly terrifying to the weaker ones.”

“Why did you come then?”

“Because for all your prickliness I respect you Corvus, you are strong, you fight well and you don’t mince your words like so many of us. I liked Valard for many of the same reasons.”

“Valard was a monster who delighted in causing pain.”

“No more a monster than the one who slew a dozen of his brethren and more than four thousand Fae as he ascended.”

“So why am I being left in peace then? I’ve already killed Fae Chanar and the Fae deaths are my burden to carry.”

Toixnae shrugged and said, “Not uncommon for emergent High Fae Chanar to kill more than a few Fae Chanar. There hasn’t been a new High Fae Chanar in more than ninety-five thousand turnings but the last one to rise, which was Ireen, killed eighteen Fae Chanar when he did. Barring a violent death you will live a very long time and you’ve already withstood the strongest of us magically. I personally know how you fight and there are maybe a dozen who could threaten you of all our brethren in a sword fight. So really what do the mayfly lives of those four thousand Fae matter when you will easily see thirty, forty, fifty more generations of them be born, live, and die. I used to care for the Fae myself slightly over two hundred and thirty-one thousand turnings ago before I rose and even after I still tried but you’re just getting to know them when they die. I may hate many of our brethren but at least I can know them properly to hate them.”

“You’re that old?”

“Among the oldest of our kind yes, there’s only three older.”

“I will never think of the Fae as you do. Their lives are just as important as yours.”

She shrugged and said, “We’ll see in ten or fifteen thousand turnings if you say the same, maybe ten or fifteen thousand turnings alone if Emili can’t decipher exactly what you’ve done. To be truthful Fordromonouses would be the better choice to unravel your magic, but you killed him.”

“Well if that is what you came to say, you’ve said it. Now leave.”

“That wasn’t the only reason I came all the way out here and it’s a very long trip without a teleporter. I was hoping we could spar, you are still one of the top fighters among us.”

He looked at her incredulously, “Really?”

“Yes really, you have eternity ahead of you but I’ve already lived one. I know something you will learn, a good fight is the hardest thing to find and when you find someone capable you ignore other considerations completely.”

“You’re mad.”

“No, I’m quite sane. I’ve seen the seas rise and seen them fall, I’ve seen ice cover the land and retreat, not once but twice. There are mountains younger than I am and I’m telling you a good fight is still the hardest thing to come by.”

“Go away, I won’t fight you. Take a few steps closer and I’ll kill you though.”

“I’ll see you again, maybe by then you’ll be more ready to talk and fight. Oh by the way, the Witch? She’s in the Dwaris tunnels under the mountain, it’s only a matter of time until the wards are broken and our brethren kill her and all the Dwaris.”

Corvus bolted upright and his sword rasped out of it’s scabbard, taking the five steps he needed it crashed into Toixnae’s quickly raised ice lance as she parried it. Grinning, her other lance stabbed toward his gut. Taking the blow and turning only slightly it skated off his armour, shrieking as it raked across the metal.

He jumped back and his shield ignited as Toixnae covered herself in thick clear ice and wavering ghostly blue flames.

Firing off a bolt of lightning, her shield appeared blocking the magic.

He charged forward, she tried to evade and parry but as she moved out of the way of his blade he kicked her forcing her to stumble, only slightly but enough.

Screaming with golden light his sword hammered into her shield and golden fractures spider webbed across it just before it flickered and faded from view.

Punching his fist toward her a line of dull grey Death Realm energy squealed as it pushed into her.

Her eyes widened and a handspan thick pane of ice reinforced with the green of Life blocked the beam of Death after it had only barely touched her.

A crack and Corvus disappeared, reappearing directly behind her.

His sword thrust at her back and she couldn’t do anything, off balance and with all her defences facing forward.

It pierced her ice, only barely but enough.

A colossal crack sounded as lightning discharged directly into her body, she spasmed and groaned deep in her chest.

Corvus pulled his sword back and started the blow that would take her head.

A blast of high pressure steam threw him backwards, away from her and into the wall of his Tower. His shield held easily.

Standing up he started forward but stopped abruptly when he heard deep joyous belly laughs coming from Toixnae. He looked at her frowning and said, “What? Are you stupid?”

Getting herself under control slowly and still chuckling she said, “Now that was the fighting I wanted to see. I’m upgrading you, top five fighters among us easily. You were sandbagging when we sparred before weren’t you?”

“Hardly, I just wasn’t trying to kill you before.”

“You should have been. That was the most fun I’ve had in hundreds of turnings none of the other decent fighters will fight me any more.”

“Well I’ll kill you now then.”

Shaking her head she said, “No you won’t, you’re good but you’re not that good. If you step outside those wards again you’ll be healing for a long time. I wouldn’t want to do it but if you’re dumb enough to step out it’s a lesson you need because I’m one of the top two and we don’t actually know who’s the best between us. Get better and we’ll fight again, count on it.”

With a thunderous grunting shout she took off running and was out of sight before Corvus could move.