“I know.”
“Do you, Sehn?”
“I know!”
Patrick averted his eyes. “I don’t want to give up on searching for the children,” he said. “And not because it’s the right thing to do, and not because I like them—although I do—and not even because you refuse to cooperate otherwise. It’s because you’re my friend, and I know what they mean to you. But Sehn: they’re not here. You have to realize that by now.”
“I do.”
“Then what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. But I won’t give up until I’ve found them.”
The two stood silently together a moment, each saying nothing. An awkwardness settled over their little group, which intensified when Kellar coughed, and Shina nudged him in the side. Mistress Orellia kept her head down and her hands folded behind her back. Although no one said it aloud, everyone clearly knew that this was an issue for Patrick and Sehn to settle between themselves.
Something was bothering Sehn. Several times during the interlude, his lips opened slightly then closed. Patrick seemed to catch on to this, because he waited respectfully and said nothing while Sehn worked out how to express whatever it was that troubled him. It must have been something big, because Sehn normally spoke freely and without a care for the implications of what he said. A nervous pit settled into Cah’lia stomach, but still she kept quiet.
When Sehn finally spoke, the words came out in a rush so fast that Cah’lia struggled to keep up with them.
“He spoke to me,” Sehn began. Cah’lia assumed he was referring to Archmage Duncan. “He told me he has the children and that he will kill them if I don’t cooperate. He said he needs me to continue with Patrick to the Pillar of…whatever it’s called.”
“Why?” Patrick asked. Cah’lia was amazed at the calm in his voice. “Why would he want you to reach the Item? This makes no sense. I thought the capture of the children was intended to prevent just such a thing. So why, Sehn?”
“I don’t know. I was too busy destroying him in combat to ask questions. Hmm, but I do think he said something about needing me to recite a phrase.”
“A phrase?”
Sehn nodded. “He said that when we reach the Item, all I have to do is recite a few words. And that’s all.”
“Did he say what these words were?” Mistress Orellia blurted out, causing both Shina and Kellar to glare at her.
As though pretending not to hear her, Sehn kept his eyes on Patrick, who repeated the question. “Sehn, did he say why he wanted you to recite these words? Did he say if they are magical in nature?”
“No,” Sehn answered.
“Do you recall the words?”
“No. I attacked him before he could tell me. My thirst for battle overwhelmed my curiosity! You see, the Great Sehn has no need of question-asking, for whence upon—”
“Yes, Yes, we get it already,” Patrick said. “You’re very powerful: excellent. More importantly, this offer…it doesn’t make sense.” He rubbed his chin. “I wish Princess Saerina was here. This is the sort of ‘problem’ she’d be best to sort out. This is beyond my expertise. Putting that aside, Sehn, I need to ask you again. Will you accompany me to my nation’s capital?”
“Yes. Yes, I will.”
The answer caught Cah’lia off guard. She let out a slight gasp. This was the last thing she’d expected from Sehn. She was sure he’d throw another fit, or at the very least get loud with Patrick and demand an apology. But this…this was unreal.
She tried to imagine what was going on in Sehn’s mind, and even though she thought she had some idea, she realized there were still things left she didn’t understand about him. She even waited a few seconds, expecting Sehn to explode and say something like, “Yes. Yes, I will…bring fire down upon you, mortal!” But when that didn’t happen, she knew that Sehn had meant his words.
Why
?
Why would you change your mind
?
Relief flooded Patrick’s face. He smiled, and although no tears dampened his eyes, he looked to be on the verge of it. He took a slow breath, and for a short moment, he stared up at the morning sun as though reciting a prayer to the Gods above. Then, with an exhale, he said, “Thank you.”
Sehn’s only response was to bow his head.
Just like that
?
Cah’lia wondered.
This isn’t like Sehn
.
He’s changed
.
“Thank you,” Patrick said again.
I can’t believe he’s changed this much
.
“You will never know how much this means to me.”
Truly
,
he’s like a different person
.
Sehn spat on the floor as if in disgust. “You can thank me by sacrificing half of your cattle in my honor, fool! All shall burn in my eternal fire!”
All right
,
maybe not that much
, Cah’lia amended, unable to stop a sour expression from weaseling its way onto her lips.
She inched closer to the two of them, sensing that their one-on-one talk had reached its conclusion. “When do you want to leave?” she asked.
Sehn shrugged. “I’ll leave that up to Patrick.”
All eyes turned towards the prince. Patrick looked at each of them. By now, it was a foregone conclusion that Orellia, Kellar, Shina, and of course the Champion would accompany them wherever they went: all of them seemed willing to see this through to the end. Cah’lia wondered where she’d be right now if she hadn’t decided to sneak aboard the wagon with Nero on the day Sehn had departed Elvar. She would never have met any of these people, who she was beginning to consider her dearest companions.
“Well?” Sehn asked. “When do we leave?”
“We don’t,” Patrick said.
“Don’t what?” Sehn asked.
“We don’t leave!” Patrick shouted.
And with that, things escalated quickly. Shina and Kellar were the first to voice their confusion, followed by Mistress Orellia. The Champion kept to his usual state of quiet reflection, but even he seemed genuinely surprised, judging by the narrowing of his catlike eyes.
“Patrick, what nonsense is this?” Sehn asked. “What are you talking about?”
“I can’t bring you to the capital, Sehn.”
“Why? This makes no sense. After all the groveling you’ve done at my divine feet, why do you now change your mind?”
“Because it’s too risky. What you told me changes everything. If the Hawk is willing to let you stroll right into the Pillar of Hope and walk up to the Item unimpeded, then I need to think deeply about whether or not this is the right move.”
“You think I am going to recite this ‘spell’ or whatever it is?” Sehn asked. “Do you expect me to betray you, Patrick? Is that it?”
“No, that’s not why, Sehn.”
“Then why?”
“Because I don’t know the enemy’s motives, and until I do, I won’t take any action that could potentially destroy everything we’ve worked for.”
Cah’lia thought on Patrick’s words and realized that the prince’s logic made sense. There was indeed something strange about all this. If the Item in the Pillar of Hope was as important to this “Hawk” person as everyone seemed to think it was, would they really trust that Sehn, one of the least cooperative people on the planet, would willingly betray his friends? Even with the promise of harming Nero and Rina, would they really bet everything on Sehn not rebelling against them?
“I agree with Patrick,” Cah’lia said. Sehn turned his head in her direction. “Don’t give me that look, Sehn. He’s right.”
“Then why did he beg me to go with him? This makes no sense.”
“Because I wanted to see if you would,” Patrick said.
Sehn growled. “This was some sort of loyalty test, Patrick?”
“Indeed it was. I wanted to see if, after all other options were exhausted, you would agree to come with me. And it meant a lot to me that you did.”
“Fool, I would have betrayed you anyway. Never test the Great Sehn again. Do you understand?”
“I do. It won’t happen again.”
“It better not. The last time someone tried to test me, they—”
A flicker in the corner of Cah’lia’s eyes registered for just a moment before a flash of blinding red light exploded just above them, causing the all to turn their heads in its direction.
“Sehn, watch out!” Orellia cried.
Cah’lia raised her dagger above her head, but her eyes were momentarily blinded, and she struggled to see clearly while her vision came back into focus.
“I’m disappointed in you, Prince Patrick,” croaked a voice. "You’ve once again hindered my plans.”
The smell alone was enough to indicate who was speaking. With her vision slowly returning, Cah’lia tilted her head up; with his body partially blocking the sun, Archmage Duncan floated in the sky above them, unaided by a gryphon, a power she could scarcely believe. Where had he come from? How long had he been there? Had he been watching them all this time?
Cah’lia felt her body go cold at the sight of him. Decayed skin no longer covered his body, as there was no longer any skin to begin with. The Archmage’s clothing was gone, his robe likely destroyed in the blast. His body now resembled more of a demonic entity than of a man: red-faced, with every muscle, tendon, and organ visible on his skeletal form. Somehow, this was an improvement. The only part of him that remained unchanged were his lifeless, uncaring eyes.
“Never would I have expected you to be capable of such a magical attack, Sehn,” Archmage Duncan said. “And for that, I deserve the toll you have taken on me. I will never be able to disguise myself as a human again.”
“Trust me,” Kellar said, snorting laughter, “you weren’t fooling anyone to begin with.”
Archmage Duncan, floating several dozen feet in the air above them, pointed his staff at Sehn, who stared up at him as though transfixed. An unbearable sense of impending dread struck Cah’lia, but she stood unmoving, unsure of what to do.
If only she had been faster.
The Archmage shouted something in a language Cah’lia had never heard. With a cosmic red flash, a beam of light left the tip of his staff, traveling too fast for the eyes to follow. In the time it would take Cah’lia to blink, the red streak of light had already traveled the distance from the staff to their group and then made direct impact with Sehn's chest. What happened next defied all reality.
The red light faded, Sehn grunted, and when it was all over, there was no damage visible on Sehn's body. Yet he continued to grunt, and he began to…disappear. His body became transparent, as though he were a fading mirage or a trick of the light—an illusion.
“Sehn!”
Cah’lia promised herself that, until things were over, she wouldn’t cry, but as Sehn disappeared before her very eyes, she knew she could no longer hold back. With tears rolling down her cheeks, she watched in mute horror as the one person left she still held dear to her was taken away.
No
!
Please
,
not this
.
Not after everything else
.
Helena
,
please
!
Don’t let him die like this
!
Sehn lifted his hands, staring into them as they faded in and out of existence like a dying light. Although he was in no apparent pain, Cah’lia knew that whatever the Archmage had just done had killed him. What else could it be? He was being wiped out of existence before her very eyes. Sehn seemed to realize this, too, because only a moment from vanishing completely, he looked up at the Archmage, who still hovered in the sky, and spoke what Cah’lia feared would be the last words he’d ever say.
“This is
FUCKING
bullshit! I still technically won and everyone knows it!”
Then he disappeared, leaving not even a trace of himself behind. In a matter of seconds, all the hope Cah'lia carried inside herself was gone, along with Sehn. And it had all happened in front of her. After everything they’d been through together, for it to end like this…
Sehn was gone. The elf had finally gotten himself killed. And Cah’lia had only managed to stand there and watch.
A powerful red light caused the world to become distorted; the light faded, and lines formed in the sky, dividing the world into variously shaped sections as though the heavens above were nothing more than a thin sheet of cracked glass only moments from shattering. Each second, more lines formed, running through the clouds, the mountains far in the distance, and even through the ground below until reality itself became like a broken mirror.
As the very fabric of existence seemingly ended before him, Sehn realized that if the last thing he would ever see was the face of Cah’lia, who stood in mute horror before him, then there were worse ways to die. She had never looked as beautiful as she did now. Sehn regretted taking her for granted.
What’s happening to me
?
he
wondered.
Is this the end
?
Far up above, the lines continued to form, until a blue, hexagonally shaped slice of the sky broke off, vanished, and then behind it revealed a second sky, this one dark and red, which almost seemed to have been hiding behind the missing piece all along. Patrick, Orellia, Kellar, Shina, and the Champion surrounded Sehn. Patrick had tears in his eyes, as did Shina. Kellar whipped his head left and right as though refusing to believe what he was seeing. Orellia, however, merely stood slightly back and watched with a sad expression—but not quite as sad as everyone else’s was.
Foolish mage-Woman
,
Sehn thought.
How dare she not be more upset about my death
?
How dare all of them
!
My sister should be crying so heavily that the loss of tears causes her to dehydrate and die along with me
.
And Kellar…how dare he not impale himself on his own sword out of respect
?
Sehn swallowed back his fear as another, larger piece of the sky shattered, adding another patch of red to the field of slowly darkening blue. Could any of the others see what he was seeing? Did any of them observe this bizarre change as the sky turned from blue to red in increasingly more places? He thought it unlikely. The moment Archmage Duncan had blasted him with that strange magical beam, the world had begun to break apart, which could only mean one thing: Sehn had fallen in glorious combat, and this was what it looked like to die.
At least it doesn’t hurt
.
Hah
!
I am so great that even in death I feel no pain
.
The ground chipped away around his boots. The stone beneath his right foot broke apart and disappeared, momentarily putting him off balance. He lifted up his foot and set it down a few times, confused by the change in texture. It felt as though he were standing on sand.
Slowly, Cah’lia’s face began to vanish as more and more of the world gave way to the second world that hid behind it. Sehn had never been one for mushy words of goodbye, but if this, truly, marked his end, then there was something he needed to say to her.
“Cah’lia,” he began. “I…huh?”
When he spoke, his voice made no sound, and not even shouting helped. Did this mean he would die without speaking his final words to Cah’lia? No, that was unacceptable. He wouldn’t allow it.
“Cah’lia!” he shouted, hoping that at least some kind of noise would reach her ears. Horrified, his voice once again failed to escape his throat. Then he realized that Cah’lia was trying to say something to him as well. She had mostly vanished; her eyes, hair, and most of her body had disappeared. Although he couldn’t hear her, Sehn could still just make out her lips—she was calling his name.
This isn’t fair
!
I can’t die without…without saying…
Before he could finish his thought, the last of Cah’lia faded out of existence. Now, at a rate far faster than before, the rest of the world began to chip then fall away. The ground, the mountains in the distance, the broken rubble from his superior magical attack, the rest of the city around him—all of it cracked, shattered, and broke away, a world of dark red filling the void.
Sehn didn’t bother to fight it. Rather than despair at his situation, he felt only a deep disappointment in himself. If he had truly allowed himself to fall in combat, then he did not deserve to speak to Cah’lia. After all, how could
he
, the Great Sehn, have died to some rotting corpse in a pair of mage robes? It shouldn’t have been possible, and yet here he was, in a place that was likely hell or at least something close to hell. He’d probably end up tortured for all eternity.
Sehn had once been told that a person’s torture in hell was directly related to how evil they had been during their life. And since Sehn was the most evil being that had ever lived, the Death God would probably be giving him some one-on-one attention, and perhaps even be interested in a few pointers, for which Sehn would charge him a fair amount of coin.
He sighed. There was nothing left for him to do but accept his fate and demand VIP access to the most glorious torture section, or whatever was the equivalent of that, as he had no idea how things worked here. He imagined there would be a great many doomed souls waiting for his demonic autograph. But if so, where were they?
In truth, this place was barren. As the final pieces of the blue sky fell away, Sehn found himself rather unimpressed with his surroundings. There was no fire, tortured souls, or much of anything in this place. It was just a seemingly never-ending beach of red sand under a red sky, which stretched on for as far as he could see.
“Where am I?” he said aloud—then widened his eyes as he realized he could once again hear the sound of his own voice. He loudly cleared his throat and prepared to announce his arrival. He would need to have a word with the Death God if
this
was how hell was run.
Death God
?
Pssht
,
more like death
,
umm…more like death BITCH God
,
Sehn thought, giggling to himself.
Haha
!
I’ve still got it
.
All shall tremble before my divine insults
,
which endures even in the deepest depths of hellish torment
!
Sehn took a seat on the cool, crimson-colored sand and waited for someone to attend to him. A few minutes passed, and he grew impatient. Honestly, this might have been hell, but to keep the Great Sehn waiting was rude. Did they not know he would be arriving today? Him, the Great Sehn! Oh, he would have a word with the Death God indeed. How dare he be forced to wait?
Sehn took another look at the world around him, hoping there would be something identifiable somewhere. To his disappointment, he saw nothing but sand in every direction with no markers, objects, structures, or any other unique formations to give him some sort of idea of distance or perspective. Was this really all there was to the place?
Sehn continued to wait for something to happen. A minute turned into ten, ten turned into twenty, and eventually, after what felt like the longest hour in his life, Sehn began to fear that nothing
would
happen. This was perhaps the most boring place he had ever been. The idea of spending another hour, let alone eternity in this endless desert of nothingness…it was not a welcome thought.
Sehn lay down, making himself comfortable. The past few days hadn’t given him much chance for rest. If whoever ran this place was going to keep him waiting, he might as well catch up on his sleep.
As his back hit the sand and he stretched his legs out in front of him, Sehn realized just how exhausted he really was. Within seconds, he felt himself pulled into a peaceful rest, and he entered a deep, much-needed sleep, though there were no dreams, for which he was grateful.
After an untold amount of time had passed, Sehn cracked open an eyelid, sighing exhaustedly at the sight of the same bland, empty world. He was too tired to care, though. Whatever mysteries this place held, he’d deal with them later. For now, he returned to his slumber.
More time passed. Sehn wasn’t sure if it lasted for hours or for minutes, though he assumed it had to be hours, because as he slowly returned to consciousness, he awoke feeling well rested and refreshed. He sat up and shook his head free of the red sand, wiping away a bit of it that got stuck in his eyes. His vision was blurry, but there wasn’t much to see here, anyway.
“Still here?” he asked aloud.
With a yawn, he lay back down and returned to sleep. Perhaps he wasn’t as well rested as he’d thought. This time, there were dreams. While he slept, he dreamt of his former life, of what he had lost, and what had brought him here. Eventually thoughts of Cah’lia returned him to wakefulness. When he opened his eyes, he was sure he would not fall back asleep. His heart was beating fast, and now that he had recovered from his days’ worth of exhaustion, he finally realized just how bad of a situation he was actually in.
“Just where in Gods-cursed hell is this? This is the afterlife? Can that even be? It’s boring! How dare they send the Great Sehn to this place?”
Sehn made his way up to his knees, his muscles aching, which was odd. If he correctly recalled what Kellar had told him, the curse would cause him pain after magic had been allowed to build up in his body, and the pain would worsen as more and more of it stored itself within him. He remembered how he had gone from having minor aches towards the start of the journey to unbearable, crippling pain. But the process had taken quite some time. How were his muscles already beginning to hurt? Wasn’t this too soon?
Right
,
he remembered.
Kellar told me that
,
as I near my twenty-first year of life
,
I will gain power faster and faster until it kills me
.
Oh well
,
too late
.
Sehn wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that the curse had followed him into death. On the one hand, the idea of being powerful and fighting the Death God was appealing to him; on the other hand, there didn’t seem to even
be
a Death God here. If this was hell, then hell sucked.
How long will I be here for
?
Forever
?
Gah
!
Curse it all
!
How did I end up getting myself killed
?
Where did I go so wrong
?
Then Sehn remembered, and he growled—loudly.
Very
loudly. He raised his voice, and with all his might, he yelled, “Curse you, Nero! I knew if I let you come on this journey I would end up in an endless red desert for all eternity! This is all
your
fault!”
“Shuddup!” echoed a voice in the distance, startling Sehn and making him jump up to his feet. “It’s
not
my fault!”
Sehn gasped, and for a minute, his senses heightened, and he could hear the beat of his heart in his ears. The voice had come from somewhere deep in the seemingly endless void, too far for his eyes to see, but apparently not too far for sound to travel. But what was strangest of all was that the voice belonged to Nero. Or was it actually strange, come to think of it?
Of course not
, Sehn realized.
This is hell…I’m being punished by my own subconscious mind
.
Of course I would hear Nero’s voice
.
“It
is
your fault!” Sehn yelled. Even though the voice was just his own subconscious thoughts, he wouldn’t allow it to disrespect him. “Be silent at once!”
“Nah-uh, no it’s not. And you can’t tell me what to do! You’re not even the real Sehn! You’re just my subconfinunce thoughts!”
“
Your
what
?” Sehn called back.
“Nero,” said another voice, “Rina thinks it’s pronounced—”
“Shh, Rina! I’m fighting with my subconfinunce and winning.”
Sehn flared with a rumbling, violent anger that somehow rivaled even the dark rage he felt towards Archmage Duncan, and for a good reason, too! Did his own subconscious mind just declare that it was winning? This could not go unpunished.
“What did you just say to me, you fool?” Sehn roared. “You are
my
subconscious, and if you dare speak to me this way again, I shall remove you from my head and…and kill you!”
“Nah-uh, you’re
my
subconscious, and you’re making me feel bad ‘cause I made my sister and Sehn worry.”
“No, fool!” Sehn shouted back at him. “You’re
my
subconscious making
me
feel bad for allowing my greatest disciple to get kidnapped! Now, bow before me, and I might only have to punch myself in the face one time to teach you a lesson.”
“Go ahead! I’ve already hit my—ouch!—myself twice.”
“What is this? You dare challenge the Great Sehn to a face-punching subconscious-punishment war? Prepare for subconsciously felt pain, mortal!”
Sehn made his hand into a fist and punched himself in the face. It hurt. But it was okay because it was necessary. And the fact that it hurt meant one could still feel pain in the afterlife.
“T-t-take that, coward-fool! The Great Sehn is not afraid to harm himself if it means attacking his…owe, that really fucking hurt!”