Never travel alone in northern Nuriz unless you’re certain you’re ready to be married. The chances of a solo traveler returning south without a bound partner are roughly one in thirty. Over half never return at all.


    <hr>


    Sekir Lifekeeper opened his eyes blearily against the green brightness. He''d been switching between forms far too quickly today, and that always made it harder to settle into the new one. At least this one was familiar, one he''d used several times before, so it shouldn''t be—


    Wait. Green light? There was no reason for there to be any light down here until he activated one of his imprints, what...?


    He turned his head sharply, and the answer stood right in front of him.


    The Phoenix Healer himself, just like he''d been described.


    "Hello, Sekir."


    Sekir smiled. "Ah. Finally. I wondered what was taking you so long." He unstrapped himself from the holding slab and sat up carefully, then scooted backward so he could lean his back against the wall. "I was sure you’d have come for me long before now."


    "You don''t know how long I''ve been wanting to talk to you."


    "You''re a fan? How nice. Where do you want me to sign? Should I use your blood or mine?"


    Welburne''s smile was tight and controlled. "Is that how you greet all your visitors?"


    "Only the ones who''re worth my time." Sekir stretched and twisted, shaking the rest of the body into alignment. But he kept the connection loose instead of tightening it down. He might have to leave at any moment. "Which you have yet to prove."


    "You expect me to prove I''m worth your time? When you''re the one obsessively hunting me and my friends down?"


    "Yes. I''ve been putting in all the work in this relationship. You realize I had to come this close to murdering your little girlfriend before you even bothered to come say hello?"


    Welburne''s face went cold and hard.


    Sekir couldn''t help grinning. That look. If he could bottle it, freeze it, breathe it in forever. The fire in Welburne''s eyes, the rigid restraint in his entire body, as though barely holding himself back.


    He wished he had access to his soulspell, but that wasn''t something that could be so easily moved from place to place. He would need to devote a lot more to this connection if he wanted to fully activate his abilities, and something told him this wouldn''t be a worthwhile investment. Better to let things play out as they would and only worry about the ultimate aftermath later.


    But Welburne was right here. The temptation was so strong.


    Sekir closed his eyes, imagining the terrible glorious beauty that would be Welburne''s despair, and accepted the sacrifice of this moment in service of the greater. "You didn''t think I''d miss the fact that you and that Serin girl are always running around together?” he murmured. “If you were even a little concerned with her safety, you should have been more discreet."


    "I will kill you." Welburn slashed down at one of Sekir''s backups and incinerated it in a burst of ashes. "As many times as it takes."


    “I could say the same. You’ve proved yourself remarkably adept at ignoring the world around you, but eventually you’ll have no choice but to notice you’ve been so thoroughly outplayed that there’s nowhere left for you to turn.”


    Welburne visibly stilled himself, controlling his emotions down to calmness before speaking again. "You have to stop."


    "Stop what? Trying to murder you? That''s a lot to ask on a first meeting."


    "Trying to unite the continents."


    Sekir stopped stretching and squinted at him. "What are you talking about?"


    "Your plan to merge Veor into Njarel is going to destroy us all."


    He''d heard that right, yeah? His new body wasn''t failing on him. Sekir laughed with unrestrained mirth. "And here I thought you were going to be boring. I take it back, Welburne. You don''t need to prove yourself. You''re exactly the man I''m looking for. More than I''d been willing to hope for. You''re completely mad, aren''t you? This will be such fun. Unite the continents? Why would I do something like that?"


    "That''s what I''ve been wanting to ask you." Welburne frowned. "So if you''re not trying to unite Veor with Njarel, what exactly are you here for?"


    "To stop the plague, of course. They don''t call me Lifekeeper for nothing. But you’ve gone and stolen my flag there too, so I’m left with all this free time on my hand and no one but you to take it out on."


    Welburne was thoroughly confused by this, which made Sekir willing to forgive his intrusion into what should have been a private rebirth. "But you''re trying to kill people basically at random to get at me."


    Sekir continued to smile as he rolled the stiffness out of his new neck. "You assume everything is about you. Why would you think that?" His soulspell was still out of alignment at the moment, but there wasn''t anything he could do to speed that up. Rushing something like this would ruin everything. Besides, having his adversary where he could see him was far more valuable at the moment than anything he could gain from it.


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    "You admitted a moment ago to trying to murder me."


    "Of course I would. You''ve been killing me. Why shouldn''t I return the favor? At least once or twice. But until you started hunting me without warning or provocation, I was only in Veor to deal with the soul-curse plague."


    Welburne blinked at him. "You planned to murder Prince Orren, kidnap Princess Fahla, and take over the kingdom entirely."


    "Yes, so? You seem to be having a hard time understanding this." Sekir crossed his legs and leaned forward. "I will do whatever it takes to accomplish my goals."


    "But... the plague, I already dealt with."


    "Exactly. So I don''t need to worry about anything. All I need to do is play with you until you''re boring and I murder you for real."


    Welburne leveled his sword at Sekir''s face. "I will kill you again and again until there is nothing left but your soul, and then I will consume that so you''ll never exist again. It doesn''t matter if you have ten bodies or a thousand. It''s over."


    "You think this is the endgame?" Sekir laughed, genuinely and uncontrollably. He''d been running around so long without pause, shifting and acting and shifting again for days on end. He''d put in so much work to prepare this all, and Welburne thought it was over? "It took you until the end of Solaria to catch up to me! You have no idea how mistaken you are. I only wish I could see your face when you finally realize. This game has been going on so much longer than you imagine, and you''re only just—"


    Welburne lunged without warning.


    Sekir released his hold just in time. The sword''s point drove through the body he''d been occupying a moment before, every trace of remnant mana slurped up in a fraction of a second by that monster of a sword, then the body itself burned away in black and green fire.


    But despite the perpetual threat of destruction hanging over him, even with the necessity of finding a new hiding place to return his new bodies to, Welburne was the most interesting thing to happen in years.


    Reskas had been a pushover, Zoress tried to fight back but it was no match for him in the end. Veor had been looking like nothing but another bland interlude between essential steps.


    Until now.


    He couldn''t wait to see what the Phoenix Healer tried next. Would he eliminate this timeline prematurely, or stick around long enough for Sekir''s other surprises? Well, surely he’d end up reverting sooner or later. And when he did…


    See you last week, Welburne. Hope you''ve enjoyed the smooth ride so far, because it''s about to get so much rockier.


    <hr>


    "So much longer than I imagine?” However many years Sekir might have been planning his conquest of Veor, however long he’d lived, it couldn’t be more than the number of times the two of them had battled across timeline after timeline.


    Jair waited a few minutes to see if Sekir was going to try using any of the other bodies in this place, but after no sign of movement for he decided there wasn''t much point leaving them. Even if Sekir had more stashed somewhere else, these were vulnerable right now.


    He destroyed them all, leaving the hidden sub-basement empty but for the stone slabs and ashes.


    Apparently Sekir hadn''t come up with the idea of uniting the continents yet at this point in the timeline, but it was too consistent of an event to be wholly unplanned.


    And still… something about the entire encounter felt hollow.


    He''d fought Sekir across so many timelines, seen him fierce and cold and implacable. Bragging about his plans? That was so suspiciously out of character. It had to be a trick of some sort. But what exactly it was intended to accomplish, he couldn''t guess.


    It was tempting to slot it down to younger-Sekir being more reckless and forward than his years-later self, but knowing he was an elf put everything in a very different perspective. There was no way that a few years would change his personality that dramatically after however many hundreds.


    For whatever reason, Sekir had decided that instead of stabbing Jair on sight, he should talk to him and brag about his plans going back who knew how far.


    It was almost like… he wanted Jair to go back in time.


    The implications of that were far more dramatic than any of the rest of what he’d said. He was certain Sekir wasn’t capable of time travel himself. So what kind of scheme could he possibly have set up that he imagined would be good enough against someone who could try it again and again without limitation?


    He ran a finger across the bladed edge of Maelstrom''s hilt and darkflamed himself back to Lilin''s party. They''d been such good hosts this whole time while she ran rampant, he should at least give them an official appearance where he didn''t skip out after three minutes.


    Unfortunately, he appeared right in the middle of what appeared to be a very volatile argument. Lilin and two other women were screaming accusations at each other, and the moment Jair appeared, three more came stomping over to try screaming at him.


    "You alright, Lil?"


    "This soulless sap-mouthed rock-eating—"


    Jair gently removed the fluted glass from her hand. "I think it''s time we get you back to the others." Clearly, her tolerance for alcohol was nowhere near as strong as his own.


    "But she insulted our family! Our whole profession. The entire region. She thinks she''s so much better but she''s never done a day''s work in her life!" This last was shouted back over her shoulder directly at the sap-mouthed noble in question.


    Jair sighed. "Yeah, they do tend to have that kind of attitude."


    "I''ll show you hard work!" Lilin screamed. "I''ll burn your house down!"


    Jair laughed. "Are you sure that''s what you want?"


    "Yes! And I want to watch her smug little face when she comes home and finds that she''ll have to put in some effort for once in her life!"


    "If that''s what''ll make you happy." He held out Maelstrom for her. "Empty vengeance it is."


    "Oh, there''ll be nothing empty about it," Lilin seethed. "She''ll wish she never even thought to look down on Marisbog."


    "Should I bring Qahrvirna along? She''s not the biggest fan of fire, but wanton destruction is very much her kind of thing."


    Lilin hesitated only a moment. "Yes, that sounds even better."


    Jair darkflamed Lilin to the plaza outside House Parlek''s primary residence, then darkflamed himself back to the Serin party to collect his wayward vampiress.


    Only to come up short.


    The courtyard was all but paved in blood.


    Dead staff members sat in their grotesque parody of a party.


    All the guests lay spread out around them in a circle.


    Carn lay sprawled beneath his master. And on the wall…


    Ajriol’s scattered remnants, with Raina and Qahrvirna just as thoroughly dissected hanging on either side.


    <hr>