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    Emeryn dropped her arm and stared as Sarien’s two separate flames became one. White and black danced around each other, melding little by little until only one remained. Gray. A silvery gray.


    She watched as the swarm of monsters lunged for him, but as they touched the gray flame, they were torn into pieces. Emeryn thought she could see a thousand tiny gateways opening and shutting within the flame.


    Sarien screamed something incomprehensible at her, a word garbled by the incredible strain he was under. Daisy barked, and she understood. He’d told her to run. No, not run. Flee.


    The gray flames reached for her, and Emeryn quickly descended back to the ground, narrowly avoiding being touched by a tendril.


    The god''s hand froze in the air.


    Sarien clawed at his own face, his mouth hanging open and his eyes rolling back into his skull.


    All the while the gray fire danced, the broken pyromancer cried out in agony. Something drifted through the air and into Sarien, almost like glowing flower petals gently falling into his gray flame, adding to it.


    Emeryn fled.


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    * * *


    <div>


    Lana


    Lana had returned back into the city in search of more targets. An enormous hand of a god was not something she wished to contend with.


    The Eldians and all their allies still fought their way into the city while defending their flanks from monsters, the girl with the flashing lights leading the way, blinding monsters wherever she went. Whenever a monster got close to her, they just fell to the ground dead, their throats cut. Lana thought she saw a shadow dancing around the girl and wondered if that was part of her power as well.


    Lana moved in the army’s periphery, dispatching the priests she encountered. The transformed rhinn under the priest’s control returned to their normal forms. Some were killed by the other monsters, but the rest took up arms against those who betrayed them, joining the Lana and her allies in pushing into the city.


    Seeing a pair of glowing purple eyes through a window, she crashed through the glass into a two-story stone building. Lana conjured a dagger and was about to throw it when she realized something wasn’t right.


    The priest stood still, his face tilted up toward the ceiling. Something was leaving him, like almost transparent motes of dust blowing in the wind. Not wanting to find out what the priest was attempting, she thrust a dagger straight into his heart.


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    * * *


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    Kax


    Kax swore as he leapt down from the tree he’d crashed into. He was on the far northern side of Fyrie, near the sea. He’d lost consciousness for a moment, something he didn’t think possible anymore. Apparently, making a god bleed required some effort.


    He grinned to himself and mentally took a bow to the silent theatre of the dead inside his void.


    Kax was the Void, and the Void was Kax.


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    * * *


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    Goslin


    Goslin punched his older brother in the face and saw consciousness flutter away. He couldn’t deny the satisfaction it awarded him.


    He straightened and mounted his horse. "You are all in charge of protecting these rhinn. I trust you have no objection to this?"


    The soldiers glanced at the screaming travelers, but no one spoke a word of protest.


    "If that," he said, waving at the drifting wisps in the air, "stops flowing, escort them to safety.”


    He was about to turn away when someone cleared his throat. "If what stops flowing, sir?"


    "You don’t see it?"


    The soldier shook his head, confusion on his face.


    Goslin blinked. "Just escort them to safety when they stop screaming.”


    Goslin turned his horse and rode toward Sarien and the gray flame billowing, twisting, and dancing around him and his pillar of stone. The pillar to his left was gone and Wyndemir’s hand still lingered in the air right where it’d been.


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    * * *


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    Sarien


    "HELP ME!" Sarien bellowed into the void as hundreds of men and women trapped in there screamed in horrific agony. It was not a request. Sarien poured them into the gray flames, feeding their lives to it and adding to its strength. It horrified him, yet he found it exhilarating. The power nearly killed him when his flames became one, but he held on and clawed at the wayfaring, pulling more and more in. It was all around him, streaming in from all directions.


    With it, he made the arm of Wyndemir tremble.


    Flames rose around him like a blazing bonfire, waves of them billowing out into the horde of monsters, slaying hundreds, no thousands, and adding them to his source of power. He couldn’t breathe, but in that moment, he required no breath.


    Sarien’s eyes met Wyndemir’s, and the god of corruption and chaos blinked.


    Staring down a god, Sarien asserted his will on the gateway, slowly pulling it closed. Gray flames surrounded the god’s extended arm and sped up its length toward the gateway. Those who dared threaten Sarien’s world would find themselves part of the void inside him. He knew this and through their connection in the wayfaring, those who opposed him did as well.


    Sarien saw them. Men in white robes sitting in a half-circle around a blazing white flame. They saw him just before he took their lives and fed them to the flame.


    Wyndemir pulled his head out of the massive gate as Sarien’s gray flame continued to force it shut. Only the god''s arm remained. Even filled to the brim with this new and frightening power, Sarien could not fully close the gateway and cut the limb off, not like what he had done with the kozimuz.


    Wyndemir’s arm remained in Maydian. The god of corruption and chaos could not fully enter, but Sarien could not fully deny him either. For the moment, they’d reached a standstill. No one was left that could work the wayfaring except for Sarien. It was his domain, but it was not enough.


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    With the last of his control, he made the gray fire plunge into the god itself. A vast will filled Sarien’s consciousness, one he could not hope to match. In truth, that was not his intent. Instead, he poured the gray flame into the arm before reaching in and doing to it what he’d done to the monstrous creatures trying to reach him.


    Thousands of gateways opened and closed within Wyndemir''s arm, tearing it to shreds. Sarien screamed as the will of a god rebuffed him. It was too much, he couldn’t do it, couldn’t destroy it. Before withdrawing, Sarien focused one last shred of will to tear through tendons and nerves, doing his utmost to disable what he could not destroy.


    The pale massive hand fell limp to the ground.


    Wet tears streaked down Sarien’s cheeks, and his body trembled. The corrupted enemies and monsters were all dead, destroyed by his will and added to his strength. It hurt. All of him hurt. Gray flames stormed around him, swallowing Sarien whole. It did not harm him, but it was too much to control, too much to hold. It would not fit inside him.


    Power still streamed into him from all directions, adding to the already impossible task of keeping it in check. He crouched down, his head to the ground, and screamed.


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    * * *


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    Goslin


    Goslin couldn’t believe what he was seeing as he rode toward Sarien. Wyndemir’s arm was pulling back, and the gateway was closing. His friend had done it! He had no clue as to how, but he’d really done it!


    "Goslin!"


    He pulled the horse to a stop. "Emeryn?"


    Emeryn stood near a boulder, hiding behind it with Daisy. "Where are you going?"


    "To Sarien."


    "You can’t. He told me to run. Look at him!"


    Even seeing the young man amidst the gray flames proved difficult. It was like a roaring bonfire, only completely silent. Hundreds upon hundreds of monsters lay dead at the feet of his pillar, piling up so high that it nearly reached him. Even at this distance, Goslin heard his friend scream.


    "I can’t leave him like that. Something is wrong!"


    "Please don’t go," Emeryn said, holding his gaze steadily. Fear showed in her face. Not for Sarien, but for Goslin.


    "He wouldn’t hurt me," Goslin protested.


    "Not on purpose," Emeryn agreed. "But look at him. Does that look like a mage in control of his powers?"


    The eerily silent gray flames grew ever larger, spreading like wildfire in dry grass. Sarien was not in control, but that was why he needed someone to rely on.


    "I’m sorry, Emeryn," Goslin said, setting off again toward his friend. "Please lower Sarien back to the ground!"


    <div>


    * * *


    <div>


    Kax


    First white fire, then black. Now gray? Sarien sure had a trick or two up his sleeve. The giant head was gone, but the hole and the god’s arm remained. The limb hung dormant, the hand resting on the ground.


    A pity. Kax wanted to try his mettle against Wyndemir at least one more time. The wound he inflicted on his first pass was pitiful, to be sure, but he’d almost broken through. Now that it laid defunct, Kax lost his interest.


    Goslin was riding straight for Sarien, but he was no match for Kax’s speed, even atop his horse.


    The gray flames intrigued Kax, and he couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if he allowed some into his void. Would it kill him? Empower him? There was no way of knowing without making the attempt.


    Sarien’s screams were disconcerting, but Kax had made his decision and there was no going back on it now.


    Kax dove into the gray flames, closing the distance to Sarien in an instant. As soon as his void touched Sarien’s, his friend finally ceased his screaming. Kax felt his attention and was not surprised to see Sarien look up at him when Kax appeared on top of the pillar.


    He reached out a hand and Kax took it. "Kax," Sarien said. "You shouldn’t be here." Billowing gray flames danced around Kax’s darkness, and the darkness shied away, afraid.


    Kax gaped. "What’s happening?"


    The gray wasn’t adding to his void, it was tearing it apart. No pain accompanied the sensation, but Kax knew that he made a mistake.


    "I think I did it. For now," Sarien said, raising his head to look into Kax’s. His eyes were the color of his flame, a solid gray that shifted hues from light to dark and back again.


    "You can’t stay," Sarien continued. "I’m sending you away. Please help my friend."


    "Who?" Kax asked. "What are you talking about?"


    Sarien winced, like he was under tremendous pressure. "Ben."


    The world warped around Kax.


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    * * *


    <div>


    Goslin


    "Sarien!" Goslin shouted.


    The pillar of stone was descending painfully slow. Goslin ascended the massive pileup of corpses and stopped to stare when he reached the top. Daisy sat there, panting happily.


    "How did you get here?" Goslin asked.


    Daisy barked.


    Gray flames licked the stone pillar even as it descended.


    For a moment, Sarien’s screams abruptly stopped, and Goslin feared the worst, then it resumed only a few breaths later.


    "Sarien!" Goslin shouted, and the gray flames seemed to react to his voice, pulling back and then coming forward, almost curiously.


    As the pillar descended further, the gray flames grew near enough that they would touch him at any moment. Goslin breathed in deep and let them wash over him.


    To his surprise, nothing happened. They billowed around him, and Sarien stopped screaming again, but Goslin felt nothing. Next to him, the same seemed true for Daisy.


    The pillar carrying Sarien lowered until Goslin faced his friend. A pair of solid gray eyes looked back at him. Was that curiosity he saw in them?


    "It doesn’t harm you," Sarien said, wonder clearly audible in his voice despite his jaw clamping down hard, his entire body shaking under the incredible strain.


    "How are you doing, friend?" Goslin asked.


    Both of them, and Daisy, were enveloped in the gray flame. Goslin''s senses were muted. He saw nothing but Sarien and Daisy.


    "Not well,” Sarien replied, his eerie gray eyes twitching. "Can’t get it under control. There are so many of them in there, and the power. It’s still growing. There’s no stopping it. No keeping it all inside."


    Goslin put a hand on Sarien’s shoulder and got down on his knees in front of his friend. "Give some to me."


    Sarien tried pulling away, but Goslin held fast.


    "I can’t do that," Sarien said, horrified. "It’ll kill you."


    "It won’t," Goslin promised.


    "How do you know?"


    "I don’t."


    Daisy barked.


    "I can’t," Sarien protested, and gray flames spewed from his mouth.


    "You can’t hold it all." Goslin said. "There’s no choice. Let me help."


    Sarien relented and took Goslin’s hand. In a whimper, he said, “I’m sorry.”


    Whatever Sarien used to hold the power back from Goslin disappeared and it rushed into him. Gray fire consumed every part of Goslin, moving into his very core and threatened to obliterate him. No void reached up to consume Goslin, but he felt it try.


    More and more of it flushed through his system, reaching through his fingertips and down to his toes. Nothing was spared.


    There was no pain, only pressure. More and more poured through him as Daisy barked again and again. He started to scream, not from pain, but from the sense of being overwhelmed. Sarien joined in, repeating the same word over and over again.


    "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry."


    The gray flame tore Goslin apart, and it did not touch him. It broke everything down and rebuilt him. The sword by his hip and the shield on his back were not left unaffected. He didn’t see, but he knew. No longer black. Gray.


    Somewhere, a woman screamed. "Goslin!"


    Somewhere, a world shattered, and a million voices screamed.


    HELP!


    Just as quickly as the fire had consumed Goslin, it died away.


    Goslin collapsed to the ground, panting hard, his hands and legs twitching, and his mind spinning out of control.


    "Goslin!" Sarien shouted. "Goslin!"


    "Did we make it?" Goslin asked, unable to look up. "Was it enough?"


    Sarien laughed. "We’re alive!"


    Emeryn’s voice rang out, far louder than Sarien’s tired laughing. "Goslin!"


    Goslin managed to get a hand under him and pushed off, turning to look down the mountain of dead monsters. He found that they were gone. All he saw was the wall of a crater, jagged walls torn asunder.


    He looked up at his beautiful wife. "I’m here!"


    "I know you’re there, you stupid ox. What were you thinking? You are in so much trouble!"


    Goslin couldn’t help but smile as he struggled to sit. "You did it, Sarien. You stopped Wyndemir."


    Sarien’s laughter died away at the words. "Wyndemir is not dead. He’s still here. All I did was stall him. Even now, I can feel him prodding at the gateway.”


    “We’ll find a way," Goslin assured him, getting up to look at his friend’s face. The young man’s eyes were his own again, except the ring of color around his pupils had gone from brown to gray.


    Those gray eyes were looking at something held in the palm of his hand. A square little box that looked crafted out of glass. It glowed yellow, pulsing brightly.


    "What is that?" Goslin asked.


    At first, Sarien did not reply.


    When he spoke, it was with a quiet determination.


    "I have to find The Gatekeepers."