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“I gave you purpose . Do you think the realms would have remembered Variant, King of Light? You were no more than a pretty face before I gave you power, true power. Now history will remember you as the Commander of Armies, The False King, and Conqueror of The Three Realms. And you have me to thank for that.” I send a volley of spells hurling towards Variant.

He bats them out of the air easily. My anger rises as he continues to toy with me.

“Where will you go if you kill me? The realms will never accept you. Eilish will never accept you.”

“I know.”

I’m surprised by his admission. “And yet you still fight me?”

“Eilish’s blade broke me free from your spell,” he spits at me. “It’s an enchanted blade that uses necromancy to absorb souls of those it kills. The enchantment was strong enough to rid me of your wickedness,” he chuckles.

“Then it didn’t absorb your soul?”

He shakes his head. “No. It absorbed your influence over me.” He laughs then. “And your plan to force Pyre and Aima into a tantric ritual in the Cogost Mountains?”

“What of it?”

“It won’t work. Baron saw to that.”

I narrowly avoid getting my head severed as he throws the spear he’s been holding. My heart hammers in my chest, causing more blood to ooze from the wound in my back. “You lie.”

“No. Not anymore.”

“Explain.”

“I had a spy within the walls of the Mercenary Stronghold, one that told me of Baron’s plan to bond with the necromancer.

My informant saw everything. He watched as the vampire and Pyre thrust into Eilish as one.

She used her magic to create an endless cycle of magic between the three of them.

” Variant’s tone turns lecherous as though imagining them in the throes of passion.

“At the height of their pleasure, Baron sunk his fangs into Pyre to complete the circuit.”

“It means nothing…”

Variant tsks, shaking his head. “Actually, the bond changed Pyre. He now shares guardianship of The Veil with Baron through their bond. They are now equals in power and carry the same burden.” He starts to laugh again.

“So, you see, your plan with the ritual won’t work.

Baron holds no connection to Aima, so the prophecies have been rendered.

.. obsolete. You can’t tear open The Veil and use the wellspring of magic within the Echoing Spire to free Abedon and take his power for yourself.

You can’t do anything, Morrigan. You are the one who should be embarrassed. ”

I lunge towards him.

Variant is a fool and I’m disgusted by Baron’s act of defiance.

But my magic is useless and before I reach Variant, he casts a spell to hold me captive.

***

VARIANT

The Castle In The Sky

“My how the tables have turned,” I sneer mockingly.

Morrigan fights against her restraints, but I feel no sympathy.

I watch as she wiggles and kicks her legs, unable to go anywhere.

The spell tightens around her and she lets out a startled scream.

I tremble with the need for vengeance as I stalk over to her.

“Do you have any last words before I kill you?” I ask, using her own words against her.

“Killing me won’t solve your problems. It will only bring more suffering. You don’t understand what you’re risking…” Tears flow freely from her eyes.

“Tears won’t help you,” I say through clenched teeth. “Think about all the lives you took. How many of them cried before you ended them, Morrigan? How many of them begged for their lives?”

“Their deaths were sacrifices for a greater future.”

“No. Like me, they were innocent lives that you tortured until the very last drop of their souls were extracted.” I summon a dagger of pure ice. One that resembles the blade Morrigan forced me to stab in Baron’s heart on that fateful day when my betrayal against my allies had been birthed.

She stares at the glowing ice with wide eyes. I walk towards her, breaking through the barrier of the spell that holds her hostage. “I want to take back everything you took from us. I’m going to do to you what you did in the laboratory.”

Her eyes go wider. “You can’t do this.”

I snap my fingers and she falls to the floor as though her body is weighed down by lead. She can’t do anything but watch and feel as I take away her ability to speak, wanting only to hear her screams and none of her manipulative words.

The first cut is like a drug, sinking into my system until I know nothing but numb bliss. The warmth of Morrigan’s blood splashes on my face and hands. I bask in the sticky gore that spreads on these once immaculate floors and I stare into Morrigan’s eyes until she takes her last breath.

Her death is beautiful in its brutality in a way her life wasn’t.

I remove my hands from the gaping wound in her torso, leaving her open like a decaying carcass in a slaughterhouse.

Her talisman still hangs from her neck, mocking me with its tainted magic.

I tear it from her and use my power to set it aflame.

I can almost hear the screams of her victims. The talisman turns to ash in my hand and I feel as though I’m finally free.

But I don’t have long to celebrate as the doors to the throne room shatter.

I use the same flame that disintegrated the talisman to burn the shards of wood flying through the air before they reach me. Silvanus stands in the wreckage as a figure of seething rage.

“What have you done?!” his thunderous voice booms. He advances towards me, but I lift my other hand in a spell to ward him off. Though I have beaten Morrigan, my magic is no match for the ancient being that stands before me now.

“I’ve killed her!” I say, not understanding his anger. “Just as she deserved.”

“The timing is all wrong... Morrigan wasn’t supposed to die yet, you fool!”

“She got what she deserved.”

“Whether or not she deserved anything is none of my concern. What is my concern, however, are the prophecies that you just destroyed with your ignorance.” Silvanus is different than last time I saw him.

He paces the floor with bare feet that give way to powerful legs and narrow hips.

Muscle covers his back and shoulders, etching fine lines towards a rippling abdomen.

He appears before me like a Spartan soldier of the ancient world—powerful and mountainous.

He wears nothing but a pair of leather breeches.

A full beard covers the lower half of his face and those unsettling eyes seem to glow brighter than usual.

Silvanus’s hair isn’t as long as mine, but it reaches the center of his back. He looks ready for war.

“What are you talking about?”

Silvanus pulls out the enchanted mirror that once held Morrigan’s power. He drops it to the floor and it shatters without consequence. “It is gone. Dried up because of you.”

“Stop talking as if I was aware of your plans.”

He shakes his head with a scuff. “We could have fed Morrigan’s power to Eilish, to help her in the final battle against Abedon.

Now we will have to find a way to give Eilish enough strength so she can mature to her full potential.

With Morrigan alive, I knew every outcome to the prophecies at play.

.. now... now I know nothing. ” Silvanus clenches his jaw as he fights back his rage.

“Everything I have worked for up until this moment has been for nothing, Variant. The future is unknown... nothing is certain.”

“All I can say is welcome to my world, asshole.”