Iris finished her preparations for the altar in the living room, decorating a small table in front of the fireplace with delicate floral silk cloth. On it, she rested bowls of various incense and offerings in the forms of fresh herbs and flowers and small trinkets from home; coins, gemstones, small pieces that contained all she had left of Nageki. She left a space empty on the table for Arylos as she lit a bowl of an earthy incense. With her preparations complete, she rested on her knees in front of it and clapped her hands together in a silent prayer.

It did not take long before she heard footsteps behind her. She turned and saw Arylos approaching, freshly bathed and wearing a black and gold robe, decorated with runes similar to the ones on his body yet wrapped in black chains with etched red runes of the same design.

“Where did you get that?” she asked, examining the strange attire.

“You asked for something from my home, this is one of the few things I have left,” Arylos explained while sitting down in front of the altar.

“As in that came from Mortehksun?” Iris asked while examining the fit of the robe.

“No, it was made by a member of the Soranae race when I took one as my vessel aeons ago,” Arylos explained.

Iris turned away, losing herself in her thoughts as she rubbed her hands together. “So, part of Youseiki is that we welcome the spirits of our dead home as we trade stories, like my parents. Do you have anyone you’d want to mention?”

Arylos shook his head slowly. “Death isn’t like that to my kind; we don’t have spirits or souls that go away in death.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Iris scoffed.

Arylos turned to Iris, trying to find the right words. “So, think about it this way. The ‘souls’ we have are really just the energy that took for us to be alive. In death, we return this energy. There is no soul or memories; we simply dissolve and become one with the world again to create more life.”

“So you’re telling me that all souls out there have small bits of Titans in them?” Iris asked, partially joking.

Arylos chuckled and lifted up a small coin from the table. “The metal that made this coin was once in the earth before it was mined, refined, and minted into this coin, we’re in agreement there?”

Iris nodded. “Yes, that’s where all metals come from.”

“Incorrect,” Arylos explained while flipping the coin through his fingers. “The metal that made this came from a star, a star that created this metal before burning out, sending this metal out into your universe. This metal continues to grow until eventually it forms a planet like Kaiyumi, and this metal remains until people like you mine it and make pretty coins and things with it, including weapons of war and death.”

Iris scoffed in disbelief. “Are you telling me that coin was made from a star? Like our sun?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Arylos explained while setting the coin down. “Us Titans are not so different; our lives and our deaths shaped your reality, a reality we created from our own essence.”

Iris shook her head slowly as she tried to process it before Arylos set the coin down and rested a hand on her shoulder. “This is not something you can experience,” Arylos explained softly. “The process that does this takes billions of years, often more. Kaiyumi’s modern history has only been around for three millennia. This is something only the eternal like myself can experience.”

“Not even the Templarians?” Iris asked softly.

Arylos shook his head and let go of Iris. “No, they live for ten thousand years on average. I have yet to meet one older than a hundred thousand. So they can only see stages of this process but never all of it.”

Iris nodded slowly, starting to get a sense of scale. “So, there’s no real point to any death or funeral practices for your kind since you just become something else. What you were becomes seeds for something else.”

“Exactly,” Arylos responded with a firm nod.

“But you can still remember,” Iris returned while turning to face Arylos head on. “Do you have any family or friends that you want to remember? Any parents?”

Arylos shook his head. “I was among the first of my kind; I didn’t have parents. But I did have my brothers; Adalfheim and Vulonheim. I was the youngest of three.”

“Tell me about them,” Iris told the Titan while watching him intently.

Arylos chuckled as he turned to face Iris. “We weren’t brothers like you would think; no brotherly love or anything like that. We often fought with each other over petty things. It wasn’t until more of our kind began to rise that we settled down and even then we could never agree. The three of us formed the first Covenant, which later became twenty-five in number to lead our race.”

“So you were like kings?” Iris asked.

Arylos shook his head. “No, our people had no rule. The Covenant was always meant to be a body to advise and enlighten our people, never rule them. We focused on science and philosophy, literature and culture. We dedicated ourselves to expanding and archiving the knowledge of our people.”

“You and Obo’e would have gotten along swimmingly then,” Iris laughed. “He and his family collected tomes and stories from all over the continent. His house had a bonafide hoard of books, many of them would fall apart the moment you touched them.”

Arylos laughed in response as memories came to him. “We had one of us like that. An old friend Ilujhankous. When we created your reality, he was intent on building a massive library to collect all knowledge your world had to offer. He even had spirits go out and collect knowledge for him.”

Iris had a thought come to her. “Wait, that sounds like Aillos, a spirit in our culture. His library was in the spirit realm and the only way to find it was by those who already knew where it was. To enter the library, you would have to offer something of knowledge of your world that does not exist in the library.”

“And let me guess, the library has everything so a traveller has nothing of value to provide,” Arylos cut in as a smile came to him.

“Yeah! How did you know that?” Iris cheered.

Arylos stroked his beard and laughed. “Because that ironically sounded a lot like Ilujhankous.”

Iris laughed before reaching towards the table and picking up a small bottle of wine. “Care to join me for a drink then, mister Titan?”

Arylos blushed a little before laughing. “My proper title is Zjornfernheim.”

“That’s too complicated to say so it’s ‘mister Titan’ for you,” Iris teased while popping the cork of the bottle and pouring two small glasses.

“That’s my name, whether you like it or not,” Arylos laughed.

“I thought it was your title, not your name?” Iris teased further while handing a glass to Arylos for him to take.

“It’s both,” Arylos explained while drinking. “Our Titanic names are both our names and our titles. Zjornfernheim means ‘Elder Titan of the First Flame’, roughly.”

“And now that name is too long so you’re still ‘mister Titan’,” Iris teased while taking a drink for herself, enjoying the sweet burn of the wine.

“Then you can just call me ‘Arylos’, missus Nashonaru Iris,” The Titan laughed.

Iris choked on her wine for a second, leaving her coughing to clear her throat. “I’m not married so that’s ‘miss’ to you,” she coughed out.

“Whatever you say, little girl,” Arylos laughed while taking another drink.

Iris reached for the bottle to refill the glasses but her face went red as a thought came to her. “Did the Titans believe in love? In marriage?”

Arylos thought for a moment while swirling the remaining wine in his glass. “In a way, I suppose. We do experience a form of love, but marriage is a different matter entirely.”

“What do you mean?” Iris asked while refilling her glass and waiting for Arylos.

“What you call marriage we call a union,” Arylos explained, emptying his glass and handing it back to Iris. “In a union, two or more Titans effectively become one. The two individuals act and function as a complete singular being.”

“How the heck does that work?” Iris asked while handing the refilled glass back.

“You know how you vow ‘till death do we part’?” Arylos asked while taking another drink. “For Titans, that’s quite literally. Each Titan remains separate with their individual beliefs but the unioned Titans function as one. Their differing opinions lead to them making decisions together. Two unioned Titans are two halves of a complete whole.”

“That sounds complicated,” Iris remarked with a pout.

“Relationships are complicated, what can I say?” Arylos laughed.

“Then, have you ever been married? Or ‘unioned’?” Iris asked as her face went hotter.

Arylos shook his head. “No, I’ve never had that and it never really interested me. Not to mention, who would love me enough to spend the rest of time with me?”

Iris had to look away to hide her embarrassment as her heart pounded hard. She had to control her urge to respond with all of her might, gripping her glass tight.

“On top of that, neither are you,” Arylos teased while drinking more from his glass. “Can’t really judge me when you’re in the same situation.”

Iris pouted, resisting the urge to hit the Titan. She slowly turned, wanting an answer to a question in her heart. “Have you ever loved someone then?” she asked softly.

Arylos’s laughter was cut short as he looked at the nervous girl before cracking a smile. “Of course, and I still do.”

“You…still do,” Iris whispered, clenching her fist as she felt her emotions torn between happiness and sadness. She couldn’t help but feel her stomach turn as the thoughts, the possibilities came to her.

“We all love at some point, isn’t that what it means to be alive?” Arylos asked in a soft voice.

Iris nodded slowly, getting a grip on herself. “Arylos–” she began before choking down her words, unable to find the ability to speak them. She wanted to tell him, but her throat tightened, refusing any words to leave. She gritted her teeth in anger, anger at herself for her indecisiveness. She turned away, deciding to swallow her emotions until she felt comfortable with them.

“Are these from Nageki?” Arylos asked while eyeing the items on the altar.

Iris nodded, using the distraction to get herself out of her head. “Yes, what I have left from there at least.”

“I see,” Arylos whispered while looking at the items. “I’m sorry I have nothing to offer for your altar.”

“So you have nothing from your world?” Iris asked in a soft voice.

Arylos sighed to himself softly before nodding. He reached out his arm and clenched his fist. As he did, Iris saw several dark spikes protrude from his skin, slowly taking the form of rock-like feathers. Among the black feathers, Iris saw a single crimson one, orange and yellow and beautifully contrasting the black feathers. Arylos reached for the orange feather and pulled at it, releasing it from his skin with a grunt before setting it on the empty spot on the table.

“What is that?” Iris asked softly, admiring the humming feather.

“The only thing I have left,” Arylos explained with sadness in his voice. “A feather that was given to me willingly by another. A friend.”

Iris felt sadness come to her, realising what this relic is. If Arylos is the last Titan and this is a feather from another of his race, it just might be the only other Titanic feather in existence; a one of a kind gift that he will never be able to replace. It was truly the last thing he had.

“Tell me about them,” Iris asked softly.

Arylos swallowed his emotions as he let the memories come to him. He turned his gaze back to Iris, his red eyes carrying the sadness he was feeling deep down. “Do you want to see my past life?” he asked softly.

“W-What do you mean?” Iris asked in confusion.

“Just like I showed you my world, I can let you walk through my memories,” Arylos explained while setting his glass of wine down on the altar. “It would save me the work of explaining everything to you; you can see everything and know it all.”

Iris thought about it for a while before setting her glass down as well and taking Arylos’s hand in hers, rubbing the back of his hand gently. “Only if you want to,” she whispered softly. “Only what you are comfortable with. I don’t want to press too hard.”

Arylos smiled as he reached up and held Iris’s face in his hands and brought her to him, bringing their foreheads together and all Iris could see was his hypnotic eyes.

“Look into my eyes and don’t look away,” Arylos instructed as the red irises of his eyes began to glow a dull red glow that nearly blinded Iris as her vision was filled with the red. Iris could do little but look on as the pupils of his eyes went wide and the edges burned with an orange light like flames.

Iris felt her breath taken out of her as she saw orange flames grow from his pupils and radiate out into his irises. She watched as his eyes took on the form of a burning sun, orange with flame with a black surface. It was beautiful, horrifying, nightmarish, and yet she couldn’t look away as the flames pulled at her. She felt a pull as her vision was dominated by the black sun until she saw she was falling in, her screams voiceless as she fell towards the horizon of the dark sun.

She fell, swallowed by the endless black and sent hurtling through an ocean of stars and planets at high speed, as if pulled through all of space. The world she knew was falling away as she fell further into the black as she felt the whiplash of space and time being twisted around her.

Until there was nothing left but the black.