The better stories, always

End with love winning over wars

The end of It stands witness,

After horrors and famines,

Hyn gave her hand,

Rö as her groom

Our two true heroes, both

Lived in joy.

Unknown bard, untitled.

It was hard to quantify how many were staring at Nay and Trinne.

Immediately, the Legio felt her friend start to panic.

She turned around to face her, as the crystalline door burst into millions of pieces.

“Hani. Don’t be afraid. No one will hurt you.”

“Did you seriously just do this?” The Duchess had a hand on her rapier and was ready to unsheathe it. Only Nay’s presence and apparent calm were stopping her.

“Hani. I understand what Trayx saw. Why it was important.”

“Couldn’t we have talked about this…”

“Little Firante. Come to get eaten.” A childish voice echoed in the Cathedral. It was impossible to pinpoint which of the monsters had spoken due to the echo inside the place of cult.

Nay ignored it entirely.

“Hani. What Trayx saw, were the moments when the way of the Legio was demonstrated. Not its end. That, that will never happen. It can’t. We are here because I am to show you the Rreico. Show him the Rreico.”

The Legio turned towards the God-Touched on his throne. It was a shriveled old man, only wearing a shredded robe. His hair was a mix of grey and black, but probably white under the heavy mass of dust and gunk, it was so long it was touching the ground. His beard was barely shorter than that, in the same state of mouldiness. That he was alive, after having stayed here for a century, was nothing short of a miracle, but, after all, this was the Touched able to create the Conqueror’s door.

Despite his heart still beating, his Rreico was pitiful. Nay grimaced just by sensing it. This man was broken. Fully broken.

No one could have blamed him; he had stayed here for a hundred years. Alone. Guardian of the angels, forcing them to only attack the Firantes he hated so.

And protecting the only Firante he loved.

Nay looked one last time at her friend, and gave her a wink. “Are you watching me?”

Trinne did not answer, but her Rreico was enough.

So the Legio walked towards the throne of bones and wood, towards the man who had orchestrated the massacre of her clan almost thirteen years prior.

He was the only one in the gigantic derelict room that wasn’t looking at her.

To tell the truth, the God-Touched was sleeping.

Which left Nay time to admire his power.

Oh, he wasn’t the most powerful mage in history, that title was still Nay’s or Doria’s.

But his magic was three, maybe four times more massive than Jarl the Bohemian’s.

If his phantom miracle had been to control flames like the Emperor, or earth like Archbishop Defin, this ghost of an old man could have fought the Carradin army and the Empire army simultaneously, and won. But he built Doors, a utilitarian miracle, peaceful, opening pathways to diplomacy, commerce, and discovery.

And inside his Rreico of madness, Nay could still see what had made Rö the Conqueror a man that had inspired the story of Ja Himself.

Then an angel stood between her and him.

“Little Firante.”

“You don’t even have a name, don’t you? You were my nightmare for most of my life, and you don’t even have a name.”

“I will eat you, little Firante. And we shall finally be free. I will eat the flaming one that you brought here first.”

The creature may have been speaking with “I”’s, but Nay knew that it were all the creatures speaking to her. The magnificent blue eyes in front of her were those of an animal, more similar to a Byrn than a real monster. The voice was the one belonging to the whole species, and it had no place in this world.

Nay unsheathed Lake and Bubble. Then she stepped towards the beast.

She felt Trinne’s Rreico grow more and more terrified, so Nay gave her a little wave with the back of her hand.

“What are you doing you idiot!?”

She got shouted at in response.

The Legio hadn’t lost her smile.

For the first time in their life, the angel hesitated in front of prey.

“You cannot vanquish us. There is no trap you could have set. We will eat you.”

The Legio focused, one brief second. The mural inside herself showed her pictures of a smiling woman, tall, well-built, with dark hair just like her own. She was noisy and friendly, the complete opposite of how she looked.

Where did this image come from? Right now, in her state, she could have followed the rhythm of life to its source to learn everything about it. But Nay did not desire knowledge that way, and she lacked the time to explore everything anyway.

So, she only followed her heart. Only used the way of the Legio to teach her what she lacked, what a life only dedicated to training and fighting with blades would have taught her. Then she went even further. It was cheating, in a way, but Redrick would have approved, nonetheless. And so she found her art.

Instead of walking, her strides became dance steps, one moment short, another, little jumps. At first, the angel did nothing. But as soon as it saw the Legio get into the reach of its arachnid-like claws, it did not hesitate. Both of its arms flew straight toward its prey. Sixteen impossibly sharp blades plummeted at the young woman with cloudy eyes, who continued her improbable dance.

But the scene was not telling the story of the master Legio’s end. Trinne herself didn’t even flinch. She wasn’t afraid for her friend, she was confused about what was happening.

She was the only one using more than her eyes to see, after all.

When both of the eight claws pierced the ground, two meters behind the Legio, the vibrations made the entire Cathedral tremble. In comparison, the sound of the angel falling on the ground was like a whisper.

“KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.” The beast screamed in a mix of stupor and anger.

Its right leg had been separated from its body, boiling blood exiting from the stump in massive bursts. Nay stopped dancing, and hurriedly walked away to avoid the chaotic gesticulations, still very deadly, of the creature. It wasn’t able to stand anymore.

“Don’t worry. You’ll go back home soon, and you’ll be better. Well. Maybe.” Nay told it. The angels were not listening. Three had descended from the shadow of the pillars next to the tall walls, stalking her.

The Legio put her weapons back in their sheathes. And stared.

Only Trinne understood why the monsters stopped dead in their tracks.

There had been a promise in Nay’s rhythm of life that only the disbelief of Man could ignore. The angels were too animalistic to do the same.

Finally, the master Legio reached the first step of the altar in the forgotten Cathedral of the Unbroken Ones.

She paused there, observing the hero of another era, still sleeping in the chair made of the bones gathered by the creatures he had summoned in our world.

“RÖ!” Nay shouted.

The man snored.

“RÖ! I came to present to you the last Firante!” Nay shouted.

The man seemed to react at that last word.

Slowly, he woke up. His white eyes showed his blindness, his emaciated face the conditions he had endured, that would have killed the greatest of men, still lesser than him.

“Who? Lebe, heal my eyes.”

His psalm had not been a chant. It was an order.

Still, magic listened. Instantly, his eyes became golden in colour, two splendid ambers made his pupils clear again. And his crazed stare fell on the Legio.

He was old. Alive through a miracle. He had most likely not spoken to another human being in a century, but still, the man exuded charisma equal to Hyn herself.

“Hello, Rö. I am Nay.” The young woman with cloudy eyes introduced herself.

“N…Nay?” The man crouched almost in a ball on his throne, stood a bit straighter. “Nay. The weapon. You are Nay?”

“Correct. I came to ask you to send the angels back to where they belong.”

“Huh. Ha. Hahahahahaha!” The one who brought victory against the Firantes started in mad laughter.

Nay waited for him to finish.

“…ahaha. Haaa.” Rö was then overtaken by a heavy cough. “The Weapon. Here. In front of me. The last of the Firantes.”

“No.” Nay answered. The man was not listening to her.

“Finally! Finally!”

The voice of an angel echoed in the Cathedral. “She is ours! Our pact!”

The madman raised his eyes towards the creature that had spoken.

And even if Nay had foreseen what would happen, she trembled.

“You’re still here? Pact? Oh, I lied.” The Conqueror announced with no thought or foreword.

Immediately, horrifying scratching noises filled the place of cult, and Trinne screamed as the monsters rushed straight at the God-Touched.

Who waved his hand in the room.

Twelve volcanic doors of lava and ember popped out of nothingness, beneath all of the furious creatures.

The next moment, the doors exploded in a burst of incendiary sparks, covering Nay and Trinne with ethereal flames. The two women were blinded for a short instant, but weren’t hurt in any way.

And the angels were gone.

The most legendary of creatures, gone.

Only Trinne, Nay and the Conqueror remained inside the Cathedral.

The Legio swallowed hard. The Rreico had told her what would happen until this point, but no power could say what was to come now, as it all depended on the decision of a man that had lost his mind.

“Nay. The weapon.” Rö said. “Came to me. Good. You wouldn’t explode here. I’ll send you to Tykk. I never liked the Tykkians. Yes.”

Nay sighed. The mural inside of her was getting too heavy. Too many temptations, too many things she wanted to learn, see, close enough to touch.

She released her Rreico. “No. If you want to kill me, you’ll have to do it here. You are not strong enough to send me anywhere else.”

“Tykk. Go to Tykk!” The Conqueror claimed. Then he blinked. “Wait, you’re still here? Ah. I’m mad. Mad. Go away.”

“Rô! I know you could still kill me, but why should you?”

“Why? Why!?” The Conqueror rose on his feet, and suddenly, it wasn’t a shriveled old man facing the Legio, but an ancient warlord, a giant that had won. The hero who had saved the world.

“You killed my parents! You will destroy the world! You are my greatest failure! You are the last of the Firantes and I swore…”

“I AM NOT A FIRANTE! I’m barely a Leïn. Rö. I am a Legio.”

“A. No. Nooo. That is impossible. But…” The hero crashed on his throne again. Lost, troubled. Then he looked at her.

Really looked at her.

“…Lebe.”

This time, Nay was taken by surprise. “What?”

“I see. Ah. A Legio. Yes.”

Nay couldn’t follow his train of thought, everything was confusion in him, too sad, abandoned, and left to rot.

She sighed. The Rreico of all was exhausting her. There were so many things. And she didn’t want to become like Jormun, who knew too much. Who had lost something essential in his quest of understanding everything.

“I am not the last Firante, Rö. I am not even the last Leïn. But I did come to bring her to you.”

“The…the last Leïn? Yes…she needs to be killed.”

Nay sighed again. She turned toward her friend. “Trinne? Can you come next to me?”

“Erm. I’m not a Leïn?” The Duchess answered with a shaky voice.

“Of course not.” Nay retorted with a bit of annoyance. “We’re not staying here, he’s a bit too unstable for my taste. We’ll switch places with the one who can help.”

Trinne took the hand Nay was extending to her, and stood by her side.

“She’s not a Firante. Is she? Last?” Rö asked.

“No. This is my friend Trinne. The Duchess of Gite. The city that you almost destroyed in your madness by sending an angel there.” The Legio answered coldly.

“I. Yes. I did this, didn’t I?”

Nay closed her eyes. The mural in her was on the verge of crumbling. Well, she was making it crumble voluntarily, setting it free again.

And she started singing:

“In the penumbra of the unknown,

I abandon,

To reach what I never could,

I escape what should.”

Rö did not try to stop her. It was only when the crystalline door appeared that he said something: “This is my magic. You can use my magic.”

Nay focused. She wanted this door to stand for at least a few minutes, and even with the last remnants of the Rreico of all, it was a challenge.

The other side of the door showed the inside of a tent. A single silhouette stood in the middle of it.

Someone who was staring at the two young women with a strange expression.

After a handful of seconds, the outline came towards the Door.

And Hyn appeared inside the Cathedral.

“Good day to you Trinne. Hello, my goddaughter. I suppose this is the end I deserve.” She was as beautiful as always. Her diaphanous robe was of a blinding white, and barely hid her undergarment, clearly some sort of night dress. Those were the only things she was wearing, her bare feet and lack of accessories only reaffirming her natural beauty.

Nay gave her a smile. “Godmother. I didn’t create this door to kill you.”

“Wha…” The Imperatrix began.

But the madman on his throne interrupted her. His Rreico was already losing some of its dementia, replaced by an emotion entirely different, but still similar in the way it could bring a man to do exactly the same things.

“Hyn.”

Nay and Trinne had already witnessed choc on the Imperatrix’ face. They had already seen the Imperatrix lose her footing, shout and act in fear and despair.

But that expression on her face was new.

Hope and fear, fear to hope.

The Imperatrix turned around towards the icy steps of the frozen cathedral.

He couldn’t be anything like what he was in her memories, but despite this, it was without any pause or doubt that she responded in a low whisper: “Rö.”

“…You are the last Leïn.” He announced.

Hyn looked towards Nay for a short instant. Then again towards the only man she had ever truly loved.

“Most probable. The last one alive that used Firante enchantments? Even more so.”

“…You’re even more beautiful than I remember.”

It was like someone had punched the Imperatrix in the face.

“Are…are you going to kill me, Rö? I am the last, and you promised.”

“I don’t know. I lied. I don’t know. You betrayed me.”

“True.”

“I hate you.”

“And you almost destroyed everything we managed to build together. I hate you too.”

Trinne smacked her hands together, and all the stares fell on her. Nay had finally lost the remainder of the Rrieoc of all, but she only needed her friend’s rhythm of life to know that her red-haired friend had recovered her wits and her boldness. “Right, so, as promised, Nay brought you the last Leïn. I believe you have many things to discuss, so, maybe decide if you’re going to kill yourselves after you have that conversation? Nay and I are going back home, she has a long apology to give me after getting me involved in this story of yours with no warning. And she’s also going to crash soon as it is the second door she created in a day.”

“I’m f…”

“You better shut up.”

Nay closed her mouth.

“So, Hyn. Conqueror-sir. Pleasure meeting you in a less angelic fashion later. Around a fire. Where it is warm.”

And she pulled Nay towards the Door.

But when she put her hand on the handle, nothing happened.

“…I cannot let the weapon leave.” Rö announced, his hand aimed at the crystal door.

Nay turned to face him.

“Rö, she…” Hyn began.

But the hero of another time had already changed quite a lot, as if seeing the most beautiful woman in the Empire of Ja had resurrected his clouded mind. His Rreico was clear now, his thought precise.

“You know what she is, Hyn. She is dangerous. Too powerful. Her potential corruption is only too evident. No one can control her, no one except me can even use a spell against her, and even in my case I technically can’t. I need to create the spell inside my own body, after all. Still, that means I am the only one that can make the difficult decision to…”

“I want to become a cook.” Nay said.

Her announcement surprised everyone, except Trinne.

“What?” Rö demanded.

“I do not dream of becoming powerful, or a duchess, not even a goddess venerated by all. This power is not mine and I don’t want it. I did hesitate with becoming a swordswoman, but although I like dueling a lot, I hate fighting for real. My real passion in life is cooking. That is what saved me first. I like seeing people happy eating things I prepared. I thought to use your miracle to travel, meet new cultures and try the cuisine from around the world. Then open an inn, with those little papers you need to sign.”

“What is this…”

“I know it won’t be in the near future. But I’ll have a long life. And if Trinne stays with me, she’ll have a long life too. So I’m not in a hurry. I’ll help her in Gite for a few years, then we’ll hit the road together. Or we’ll do both at the same time, your miracle really makes us flexible.”

Trinne squeezed her hand. This was a decision they had taken together a long time ago, after all.

Hyn stared at her in disbelief.

And Rö in incomprehension.

“I…I don’t see what your dream has to do with…”

“Rö.” In the master Legio’s voice, appeared a new emotion. A cold, seething anger.

Nay continued.

“If you want to kill me because I am too dangerous, maybe you should wait to see who I am before deciding? Am I corruptible? Of course, so what? You are corruptible too. Are you going to hang yourself? Teleport to the angels and let yourself get eaten? If you’re so scared of me, why not use all the other options at your disposal before jumping straight at the murdering one? Put me under surveillance, for example. I’ll even give you my authorization. But here, right now. I’ve had enough. Let us leave or I’ll show you why the Legios are known for being the best mage killers that ever lived.”

But the Conqueror did not change his mind. And the tension rose.

Tension that was broken with three simple words.

“Let her go.” The Imperatrix commanded.

The Conqueror hiccupped. “Hynny?”

“She is right. You have time before making that decision. Time to talk to me, time for me to tell you what happened when you were gone.”

“And why should I trust you?”

“I don’t know. The only thing I know is that you haven’t killed me yet.”

“I told you. I can’t force myself to do it.”

The heroes of the War of the Firantes stared at each other for a long moment.

“Let them go.” The former sovereign of the Empire of Ja repeated.

Then there was a short pause.

Until finally Rö nodded.

He lowered his hand.

And Trinne and Nay, still touching the door, disappeared.

Reappearing inside the very large tent belonging to the Imperatrix.

“Ah. Heat! Yeeees!” Trinne shouted.

Nay let out a very, very long sigh of relief.

“Nay?” Trinne asked.

“Yes?”

“I suppose you did not think about the implications of our presence in the Imperatrix’ tent after she vanished to a cathedral lost in the Unbroken Ones for an unknown amount of time?”

The Legio put a hand over her face and felt regret over letting the Rreico of all dissipate so fast.

“Biach.” She swore.