Serenity was still pouring Death-attuned mana and potential into the ritual when Death Himself appeared and watched. Serenity couldn’t exactly tell when He appeared; in fact, Serenity wasn’t even certain which of his bodies was being watched. It could have been any or all of them.

Death was there and he approved. Serenity simply knew that even though the figure didn’t say anything and didn’t have any visible features. He wouldn’t have been there if he didn’t approve, but there was more than that; there was also the feeling of rest and of laying down his worries that seemed to come from the Death around him.

That was an aspect of Death that Serenity didn’t think about much, but it was very true. Death was stillness and stasis, an end that simply was, and it was also a relief and a release. You could fight Death, certainly, but Death did not fight back. It did not need to. It could wait; it was not even patience because patience did not matter. Time did not matter to Death.

“Death begets death,” the figure stated. “A choice that suits you well, yet you do not wish to reflect it.” From someone else, it might have sounded chiding or possibly tempting. From Death, it was no more and no less than a statement of truth. It wasn’t quite a question, but it was close to one.

“I want to be more than Death. I want to be myself, not some ideal.” Serenity wasn’t sure why he justified himself, but he almost felt like he was letting Death down.

“I know.” There was a hint of amusement in Death’s voice. “I even understand. I remember; I think, I feel. You are far more than Death was, and you make me more. I wish you well, but I also warn you: your choice to reach beyond Me means that I cannot aid you here in any way other than my presence.”

Serenity fed Death attuned mana into the ritual even as he wondered exactly what Death meant by that. He needed to find out more about Incarnates; there was clearly more to one than an Aspect. “What do you mean? Is it something to do with me having Death as an Incarnate?”

Death chuckled. “Yes.”

That wasn’t an answer. Well, it was, but it didn’t explain anything. “Can you tell me more?”

“No. I do not know more. I am, I do not know. Ask Knowledge, perhaps. She is not currently Incarnate, so that may be difficult.”

That didn’t sound all that likely, but there were many other ways to gain knowledge. Serenity added “check and see if there’s anything on Incarnates at the Great Library of Asihanya” to his list; he was planning to head that way when he left Lyka anyway. Honoria needed help, and she wasn’t one to ask over something minor.

One of the lines in the ritual cracked. It wasn’t significant yet; a few percent of the spell might be lost, but not enough to matter as long as the cracking didn’t get worse. It was enough to make Serenity completely reevaluate how much mana he was pushing through the ritual. It was higher than the amount he was personally producing from his mana and Eat Death, even with the Potential from his Rift added in.

Serenity checked the obvious source and found that the additional Death mana was indeed coming from Death Himself. That had to be what He meant by “other than his presence”; he was helping simply by being there. The mana from Death Himself was purer in its Death attunement than Serenity could manage; it wasn’t a large difference, but it meant there was no underlying signature of whose mana it was, simply Death. It attached to and boosted Serenity’s Death-attuned mana as if it held his signature, even though it didn’t.

The additional mana also answered the question of where Death was: He was with all four of Serenity’s bodies, present enough to supply Death-attuned mana. It was coming into the ritual evenly, exactly as it needed to.

The mana flowed into the ritual quickly and backed up nearly as quickly. A minute before the end of the eclipse’s totality, the Death-attuned mana reached Serenity on the return circuit. He hadn’t expected it to push that far, but he wasn’t upset; with Death’s help and his Rift, he’d put in far more mana than he’d expected to. It was fine; it wouldn’t reach Lykandeon until after the end of totality, when Lykandeon had to swap to absorbing mana instead of providing it.

The largest remaining variable was how good Lykandeon was at sensing mana and mana attunements. He wasn’t supposed to be particularly good, but he was a ritualist and people often picked up odd skills. Serenity reached out to Ita to warn her to be ready. :Ita, it’s almost time. I’d like you to break the Tower a bit earlier than planned; as soon as you see light, go ahead and trigger the break.:

:I’m ready,: Ita replied. :I thought you didn’t want it that early?:

The Tower of Broken Swords was a good distance from the Water Gardens, far enough that the eclipse was a few minutes earlier to start and stop. Serenity had originally expected to ask Ita to break it rather than having her time it by the eclipse, but he’d also expected the mana flow to be more normal. With the levels he’d reached, he expected Lykandeon to spot something different when the mana gushed into him earlier than usual even if he couldn’t tell there was something different about the mana itself.

:I can use the ritual to hold him in place for a short time after totality ends here.: Serenity reminded Ita. The ritual trapped both Serenity and Lykandeon to their respective pools, though Serenity knew he could get around it with a little work so he couldn’t count on it holding Lykandeon for all that long; that was why he wanted Ita to start a bit before Lykandeon triggered the next phase of the ritual. Ita’s ritual would take roughly twenty minutes. :As long as you can remove the book before Lykandeon gets out, the shock should let me solidify the connection; even if I can’t, he’ll still be weaker.:

:No.: Ita projected her thoughts louder. :I’m already holding the ritual. I should be able to remove the pedestal and book from the tower in less than a minute. Probably a lot less.:

Dammit Ita. That wasn’t the plan; she wasn’t supposed to start the ritual until Serenity told her to; he’d expected it to take a while for Lykandeon to realize anything was wrong. The conditional ritual timing was a risk, but one that Serenity thought was manageable. He’d planned to tell her to go ahead as soon as he knew Lykandeon was absorbing the power of Death, just in case.

Her overeager change to the plan was extremely helpful right now, but Serenity knew the cost of holding a ritual in place; it grew with time and would also weaken the ritual. There ought to be plenty of power, but if Ita was already holding it, she might well hurt herself. :How long have you been holding it?:

:Not long. Aeon still will not talk so I could only guess when the eclipse’s end would be. You said it should take less than half the time of the eclipse, so I had Rissa tell me when that much time had passed. She is earlier than here but not as much earlier as I am compared to you.:

Serenity hoped that truly meant “not long”; Ita didn’t sound strained, so that was a good sign. Rissa might well have guessed something as well; she was good with Time. If he’d already been accepting Death’s help by the time she gave Ita the go-ahead, it wasn’t even much of a prophecy. Futures based on things that had already happened were the clearest for Rissa. Holding the spell for five minutes or so ought to be sustainable without too much trouble.

Even if it was helpful, time magic was still bullshit magic.

He’d have to remember to thank Rissa when he saw her again.

:Okay. Wait until I tell you to go then go for it. It shouldn’t be long.: Serenity checked his clock; if he’d gotten the eclipse path and timing correct, Ita’s should be starting to show light in a bit over a minute; Serenity’s would be three minutes and thirty-two seconds later. He was far more confident in the delta time than his estimate of the eclipse’s duration, since he’d asked Ita to tell him when it became dark for her.

:I can see a little light when I look up,: Ita reported. :I think it’s ending.:

:Good. Just another few minutes, then.: He’d been almost a minute off in his duration estimate; that was closer than he’d thought he probably was. It wasn’t like he had a complete multi-body analysis available, after all; he’d mostly depended on the records of the Eternal Church.

Three minutes and forty-six seconds later, it was clear that Lykandeon had been waiting and watching the sky. A final push of Death-attuned mana woven with Lykandeon’s odd green-and-gold mana came through the input lines that Serenity needed to separate, followed almost immediately by a suction on the output lines. That was the signal Serenity had been waiting on; with as full of Death mana as the ritual was, the first mana would reach Lykandeon in only a few seconds, before Ita could free the book and break the Tower. :Go for it Ita!:

Ita’s response wasn’t in words; instead, it was close to a sigh of relief. Serenity was going to remind her of this when he got back with her; sure, she was probably fine, but there was a reason he hadn’t asked her to hold the ritual ready in the first place.

All Serenity could do for now was continue adding Death mana and separate the surprisingly small amount of mana heading towards him; before Ita even reported success, all he was finding was Lykandeon’s signature with no Death attunement at all. For the normal ritual, Lykandeon had to keep pushing mana in to keep the cycle going. That requirement wasn’t lifted when Serenity hijacked the ritual, but it had to specifically be Serenity’s mana, so Serenity kept feeding in Death mana as well.

Serenity knew Ita had succeeded even before she said anything because the “push” of Lykandeon’s mana slowed massively even though the “pull” on the death mana didn’t. The ritual was in control now, not Lykandeon.

Another line of the ritual popped, followed by a third. Serenity kept awareness of the entire ritual and knew that nothing vital had gone yet; the ritual was still functioning. It took more than a little damage to stop a ritual once it was truly running; its Intent was set and it effectively created its own spellform. The physical damage would have to be extreme to stop it now. It would require repair before it could be used again, but that didn’t bother Serenity at all.

More important was the fact that the secondary cycle had started; with the release of Lykandeon’s mana to the control of the ritual, the secondary storage Serenity had created was also flushing out; the change was the reason two small, poorly made lines cracked. The unaltered green-and-gold mana was parallel to Serenity’s Death mana once again, and he had a choice. It was a choice he’d already made, but technically it was still a choice.

He could allow the mana to run back to Lykandeon and potentially strengthen him. It probably wouldn’t help him resist the effects of Death mana when he was expecting Life, but it was still Lykandeon’s mana and holy mana could act strangely. Doing that would also weaken the ritual because it would be returning the mana unchanged to its source. Two inputs and one output wasn’t the ideal setup for Serenity’s modified version of Lykandeon’s ritual.

The ideal setup was two inputs and two outputs, each input cycling as itself to the other output. That was Serenity’s plan from the beginning, because it supported the spell structure rather than destroying it. Death begets death also implies life begets life or mana begets mana, after all.

Serenity pulled the mana into his own mana pool as it ran past him.