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    FORTY-EIGHT


    <h2 style="text-transform: uppercase">SARIEN</h2>


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    Sarien came to, half-submerged in Kax’s inky blackness. Without noticing, it’d pulled him under all the way up to his stomach. Wyndemir’s knee was already under, and most of the leg was as well.


    “What’s happening?” Sarien yelled.


    “It’s Kax. He’s like a fountain. He isn’t stopping,” Goslin said, trying, and failing, to reach over the ever-expanding darkness to get to Sarien.


    There was a presence in the darkness. Sarien felt it like a predator swirling in the black depths under his feet.


    “I have to focus,” Sarien said, ignoring his surroundings. The gray flame within him was almost depleted. The power he used against Wyndemir had done nothing. He needed more power, much more. But that was not all. He needed a plan where he had none.


    “Focus? We need to get you out of this mess,” Goslin said.


    Daisy struggled to get free, but to no avail. The Prime of Chaos was pulling on his leg, trying to get out of the black goop, only to sink further.


    Sarien stared into the darkness. “No, I think this is part of it.”


    “Part of it?”


    “Yes. I don’t know how, but I do know we’ll need you,” Sarien said, reaching a hand out to Goslin.


    He took it without hesitation. “I’ll make sure you return from this, Sarien.”


    Sarien wasn’t so sure. As darkness enveloped him, he relaxed. If not for their physical connection, they would have lost themselves in the impenetrable nothingness.


    Sarien sensed the mysterious presence as well as Kax. Their friend was not himself, but a small part of him remained. Relief rose in Sarien’s chest.


    If Sarien wanted to, he could have blinked out of the darkness, but he did not. This was what he needed to do. Down there, in the void, was where this would all end.


    Heradion had told him what to do next.


    Questing outward through the wayfaring, the ones connected to it lit up like lights in the sky. His mother’s brightness winked out just as he drifted out of the white realm and into Maydian. It took everything he had not to turn back around for her.


    The Prime of Chaos blazed bright enough to nearly burn away the darkness, but even Wyndemir could not hold it at bay. Instead, he struggled. As Sarien’s mind raced into Maydian, he felt the rhinn god pull himself out of the darkness, one massive hand reaching for the gateway back to Maydian.


    The presence in the void finally revealed itself then. It rose out of the darkness. The light from it shone as bright as the Prime of Chaos. Dark hands broke the surface and grabbed hold of Wyndemir, pulling the Prime of Chaos down into the back depths with Daisy still in his fist.


    The wayfaring trembled as this new entity began to feed on one of the forces of the universe. Wyndemir struggled but did not make a sound.


    “Prime,” Sarien mumbled. “Prime of what?”


    “What are you saying?” Goslin asked, but Sarien couldn’t answer. His consciousness was too far away, his nerves frayed from what he was seeing.


    Kax’s voice echoed in Sarien’s mind, hollow and empty. “Rejoice. We welcome a new Prime into existence. Bow down to the Prime of Endings.”


    One of the Halvgudar in Maydian fled and Sarien spun, reaching for it. Power filled his chest and the gray flame answered his call. The Halvgud tried to pull away but Sarien did not allow it. He didn’t know what he would do with the influx of power, but he knew needed it for what was to come next.


    Sarien called for the Halvgud. It followed. As did others. He saw only gray and the swelling and falling tide of the wayfaring as it bent to his will. He closed Maydian off, trapping all those within. No one could leave. He needed them all.


    He passed over the rhinn travelers. They were too depleted to be of use to him. They had already done their part. But no one else would be excluded from his reach.


    With his eyes closed, Sarien siphoned power from the Wayfarer students. They crumpled under his touch.


    The new infusion of power bolstered him, and he reached further, to the enemy Wayfarers. Strands of gray drifted through the gateway and into the white realm before submerging into the void.


    Sarien sensed the Council’s desperation and that of the surviving priests. They attempted to close the gateway they’d spent so long trying to pry open.


    He took their power. Sarien’s entire being began to tremble. His gray flame brightened into white.


    He then reached out to Slayers, balancing out his own power.


    The Halvgudar were next, the ones who had not attempted to flee. Some gave their power willingly, seeing what would transpire if they did not. These beings were terrified of the emergence of a new Prime and what that might mean to the very fabric of reality. Sarien gratefully drew power from them.


    Others were not so willing to part with their power. They raged against being closed off from the wayfaring. Hundreds of them, even thousands. Heradion’s foresight meant Sarien could harness and use all the power of the worlds. He just hoped it would be enough.


    Gray wisps of power streamed in through the gateway. The Prime of Chaos was fully submerged, pulled into the realm of the Prime of Endings.


    Sarien held more power than ever before. He shone blindingly in the wayfaring. He groaned from the strain.


    Goslin’s hand squeezed down on Sarien’s. “I cannot see what is happening to you, but you are capable of moving mountains, dear friend. Let me help. Let me lighten your burden.”


    Last time, when Sarien lost control while holding a fraction of what he currently wielded, Goslin’s presence made all the difference. Sarien clutched Goslin and power channeled through their clasped hands. Goslin grunted. That was all. A grunt.


    “Thank you,” Sarien whispered. His friend squeezed Sarien’s hand a little harder.


    Daisy’s light was still present, if faint. Sarien reached out with the gray flame and found her still enveloped in Chaos’ closed fist. As a representation of Chaos, Daisy fluctuated between her myriad of forms. From dog, to fleshy blob, to herself, the kozimuz, and even a plush chair. When he reached for her, Sarien’s half-sister gratefully accepted his link.


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    Kax floated in the nothingness, no longer spewing darkness. With the void and the new Prime no longer inside him, he was no more than an empty shell. An endless empty shell. When Sarien reached for him, he felt a flicker of Kax’s consciousness reach back.


    They were together then.


    The Living Darkness, Absolute Order, The Unyielding Resistance of Man, and the vessel.


    The moment had come.


    Sarien reached for the boundless forms of the two Primes, for Wyndemir and for the Emptiness consuming Chaos itself. The two ceased their struggle as Sarien approached. Both turned their attention to him, reacting to this new threat as if on instinct.


    He saw them then for what they truly were. Forces of the universe. Not men, not women. No intelligence or personality lurked within the enormous shells they wore.


    Sarien rejected the expectations, rejected their physical forms. These were forces, power, and nothing more. Nothing less either. Chaos and Emptiness drifted in the void toward him. Then, they attacked.


    Sarien braced himself. He was the most powerful living being in existence, but the Primes were borne from the universe. Sarien wielded order, but he was not Order herself.


    “They’re coming,” Sarien said.


    Goslin positioned himself in front of Sarien without releasing his hand.


    Sarien allowed himself a moment to marvel at his friend’s courage and steadfastness before releasing his tight hold on his gray flame. It flowed freely between them, linking all four together.


    Endings and Chaos struck Goslin, who brimmed with Sarien’s power. If the two forces had worked together as one, there would be no question on the outcome. But they did not. The two warred against each other as much as they did against Goslin and Sarien, the representatives of Order.


    Power flared inside Sarien as he continued to pull from the Halvgudar. He filled quickly and needed to expend it. Lashing out with his gray flames, he surrounded all with Order. More of the gray flame poured into the void as he tethered Chaos to Daisy and Emptiness to Kax.


    Chaos needed Order and Order needed Chaos. The same proved true for Emptiness.


    Even as Sarien drained the wayfaring itself, and all who dwelled within, it was not enough. The Halvgudar were all empty, their power spent. The wayfaring strained under the pressure. Those left behind on Nexus had no more to give. The monsters on Maydian provided little, but even that was gone. The mages of Maydian, and even its regular populous, provided a little more. The Council was no more, their allied Wayfarers sucked dry.


    Still, it was not enough. Nothing was happening.


    Why wasn’t it working?


    Then Sarien remembered Qieza’s words. Their adversary’s plan. The Prime of Chaos was supposed to enter Maydian for the High Priest of Wyndemir to assume his new role as one of the forces of the universe. That was it. For this to work, they needed a catalyst.


    With very little power to spare, Sarien opened a gateway to Eldsprak. Doing so used up the last of his strength and, thankfully, they all spilled through the gateway.


    The realm quaked violently as Sarien and the others smashed into the ground. He stood on unsteady legs as the world tore itself apart.


    Had he failed? Had he doomed them all?


    Another fierce quake knocked Sarien to his knees. Daisy offered him a hand. “Come. We must hurry.”


    Goslin lay to Sarien’s left, groaning with his eyes closed.


    “He’ll be fine,” Kax said, grinning, as he, too, offered his hand.


    Sarien took Daisy’s hand in one and Kax’s hand in the other. The gateway to Maydian was closed, and the darkness gone, as were Heradion, Tomford, and Sarien’s parents. Infinite brightness as far as the eye could see, and only the three of them to occupy it.


    “Did it work?” Sarien asked.


    Kax scratched the back of his head, his grin mischievous. “It did.”


    “But you’re both, well, you.”


    “For a little while longer, half-brother. Our new nature as Primes will catch up to us eventually.”


    “I’m sorry to do this to you both. I didn’t know what else to do.”


    “Don’t be sorry,” Daisy said. “It was inevitable.”


    “No alternatives,” Kax said, taking Sarien’s hand again, squeezing. “Just tell my sister I didn’t die in some stupid way. She’ll think I did, mark my words. And tell Goslin,” Kax paused, thinking. “Well, just give him my thanks.”


    “Can’t you tell them yourself?”


    Daisy pursed her lips and gave a slight shake of her head. “We can’t go back.”


    “Right, of course. I’ll tell them.”


    “Thank you, brother,” Daisy said, wrapping her arms around him. “I’ll tell Order you said hi.”


    Sarien looked inward, ready to use his gray flame to transport him home. It wasn’t there. Not an ounce of power. “It’s gone.”


    “This?” Kax asked, pulling out Sarien’s gray spear from inside his own chest.


    Sarien accepted it. “No, I mean my power. I can’t feel it.”


    Daisy’s smile was gentle as she spoke. “You used a lot, Sarien. More than anyone has the right to withstand, even with the help of Goslin. Makes sense you’re burned out. It will return in time.”


    “Don’t lie to the man,” Kax said.


    Daisy spun to face Kax. “It wasn’t a lie!”


    “You don’t know that it will return.”


    “And you don’t know that it won’t!”


    Sarien smiled at their bickering. “Will I see you again?”


    Kax grinned. “Perhaps.”


    “Of course, you will!” Daisy shouted, shaking her finger in Kax’s face. “But now we have to leave. Us being here, in this temporary realm, means Maydian and all the other worlds won’t heal. This is goodbye, for now.”


    “Don’t be afraid of a little mayhem from time to time, Sarien.” Kax said, chuckling. Then he was gone.


    Daisy reached out. “Take my hand.”


    “This is it?”


    “This is it.”


    Sarien took it and was blinded by a bright light. He blinked, his vision clearing, and saw that he was back in Eldsprak, standing over Goslin. There was no sign of Daisy, but in the distance, he heard a dog barking.


    Goslin groaned as he sat up. “Where are we?”


    “I don’t know,” Sarien said, offering him a hand and pulling him to his feet. “Somewhere in Eldsprak.” Sarien looked around, then said in surprise, “I think we’re just north of the Karm estate.”


    Heradion and Tomford approached them.


    “Where did you come from?” Goslin asked.


    Tomford took in their surroundings and scratched at his nose, his brows furrowing. “I haven’t a clue. I think we were thrown out of that white place.” He looked at Heradion, but the old man apparently didn’t feel the need to add anything helpful.


    “Did Kax make it?” Goslin asked.


    “Both yes and no,” Sarien said. “I’ll explain later.”


    Goslin nodded, tears forming in his eyes. “Can you take us to Fyrie, Sarien?”


    “My flame is gone,” Sarien said, his gaze falling on Heradion. “Can you take us?”


    “Me? I’m no Wayfarer. Anyway, no one can travel through the wayfaring right now.”


    “What about the rhinn? The other Wayfarers?”


    “The Halvgudar have left Maydian behind,” Heradion said. He caught a look from Goslin and added, “All of them. Eld and Taera too. Fyrie is safe. Rhinn and Wayfarers alike were sucked dry by a certain someone. They’re all just as useless as you, boy.”


    Sarien narrowed his eyes. “Who are you, really?”


    “Just a tired old man.”


    “I don’t think anyone truly believes that,” Sarien said.


    “I’m the chosen one, then.”


    Sarien widened his eyes. “Really?”


    “No, you little shit!”


    “Oh.”


    Heradion put his arm around Sarien’s shoulders and turned them to face in the direction of Fyrie. “I’m sorry about your parents, lad.”


    “I’m sorry, Sarien,” Goslin said.


    Tomford stepped up to Sarien. “What they did with their powers… combining them…there was no healing that. I’m so sorry.”


    “Thank you,” Sarien said. He felt numb to the knowledge that his parents were gone. He knew it would come crashing down at some point, but not now. Not yet. From the looks on their faces, they wanted more from him, but he had nothing more to give.


    There was nothing left in him, no energy. No power.


    He sagged, leaning on his gray spear. “What am I supposed to do now?”


    “Do?” Goslin asked. “We won! You’ll be celebrated as our savior as soon as we return home!”


    The thought of standing in front of a crowd made Sarien wince. “I don’t want that. You deserve some of that credit. Most of it. All of you. Please don’t make me take part.”


    Goslin began walking. “I will not force fame upon your shoulders, dear friend, if you do not want it.”


    The four of them walked on in silence, then Heradion stopped. “This is too slow for me. Goodbye.” He disappeared into thin air, traveling through the wayfaring like one of the Halvgudar.


    Sarien couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy in his chest. That was all he felt in there. No gray flame, not even a hint of it.