Epilogue
THREE MONTHS LATER
S ylzenya washed her hands in a water basin, cleaning off the dirt caked underneath her nails. The two men she’d been training joined her, their fingers stained with blueberry juice. They’d come a long way in creating blueberry bushes in only a few short days, and she was grateful for their eagerness to help the fishing village.
Salt carried in the air, a scent Sylzenya still wasn’t accustomed to, but she liked it nonetheless.
It was different, and she liked different.
“Tavern?” One of the men asked, clearly too tired to say any other words.
“Please,” Sylzenya replied, the sound of beer—or anything that wasn’t wine—a relief.
They trudged through the village, children laughing and running around the wooden homes. The repairs Elnok and his crew had been working on for roofs and shattered windows had started to show after spending a little over a week in the village. Warm torchlights cut through the maritime fog as they approached the dimly lit tavern.
Opening the door, Sylzenya groaned in relief at the scent of hearty stew and malty beer.
“Ah, there they are!” Nyla shouted from the other end of the tavern, standing at a table closest to the bar.
The men Sylzenya was training rushed ahead of her and sat with Nyla and the rest of Elnok’s crew. Sylzenya followed, Nyla’s face lit up as she motioned for her to sit with her. One of Elnok’s crew members grabbed her stew and beer. Sylzenya hummed with satisfaction at the taste of starchy potato and warm spicy broth.
Nyla stood up again, waving her hands as she continued a story they must’ve interrupted.
“And then Elnok unleashes his whip and, thwap,” Nyla slapped her hand against her thigh, the veins in her arms crackling with yellow light, “the arachni screamed so loud I swear to the gods my ears bled!”
“What’d you do with the body?” Orym asked, slurping on his stew.
“Carried it to the ocean,” Nyla replied, sitting back down, “Didn’t want to take our chances with whatever the kids would do with a dead arachni carcass.”
Orym laughed. “Yeah, those kids really did a number to that other one in the last village.”
Sylzenya shivered. “What’d they do with the eyes again?”
“Stuck them on wood poles and paraded them through the town telling everyone to worship the great arachni killer .”
Sylzenya rolled her eyes, waiting for Elnok to chime in on how he and Nyla should be worshiped for such endeavors, but it never came. Searching the table, she placed her spoon down. Elnok wasn’t at the table.
“Wow, that took you longer than I thought,” Nyla said.
“I believe that’s five gold coins for me,” Orym sang as he held out his hand to Nyla.
“You bet on how long it’d take me to realize Elnok wasn’t here?”
Everyone laughed. Sylzenya sighed.
“Yeah,” Nyla replied, “and thanks to your tiredness, I lost five gold coins to this thief .”
“Ah ah, this was a simple bet. I’m a law-abiding citizen now, remember? We all are.”
The crew cheered, sloshing their beers together and taking long drinks. Sylzenya joined, finishing her glass.
“Where is he then?” Sylzenya asked.
Orym’s smile vanished. “He’s just over the hill behind the inn, a cliffside that looks out to the ocean. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind some company.”
The way Orym’s body stiffened made questions tumble through her mind.
“I’ll go check on him,” she said, standing.
Orym gave her a wary nod. She told Nyla to use her coin to buy herself another drink and she left. Walking up the small hill, Sylzenya smiled as the fog lightly wet her face. The sun welcomed her as she crested the hill, its light shining on the glittering sea.
The cliffside came into view, a person sitting on its ledge.
Her heart beat faster as she approached Elnok, his black hair tied at the nape of his neck, his black tunic exposing his strong arms as he leaned back, staring at the warm sky.
“Heard you had quite the tussle with an arachni today,” Sylzenya said, sitting next to him, the cold stone seeping through her linen pants.
“A pretty aggressive one,” he noted, his voice gravelly and low. “I know it might sound crazy, but I feel like it was one we might’ve fought back in Lhaal Forest.”
Stroking a finger along the two scars on his chest, he shivered.
“When we were attacked by that horde?”
He chuckled. “Now that you say it, I do sound crazy.”
“Well, most of the times you are,” she jested. “But not with this.”
A small silence sat between them.
“Sometimes I dream about it,” he said, leaning further back, the orange glow of the sun striking on his handsomely carved face. “Dying in that tree. The poison almost taking me. I even sometimes think about…” he trailed off, placing his hand over his stomach.
Sylzenya knew exactly what he was thinking about.
“When I killed you,” she said.
“I’m sorry?—”
“No, don’t be sorry. It wouldn’t make sense for you to simply forget that ever happened.” Sylzenya took a deep breath, leaning back with him. “His eyes still haunt me. Sometimes I’m talking to someone and I swear their eyes start glowing yellow, and I hear his voice, feel his cold touch.”
A sharp shiver ran up her arms, her skin pimpling. Elnok placed his hand over hers, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.
“He’s dead, but it still feels like he’s alive somehow,” she whispered.
“I wish we could forget it all.”
They stared at the sun as it slowly melted into the horizon, oranges and pinks blanketing the sky.
“Perhaps if we forgot it all, then it’d feel like something else would be missing,” Sylzenya said. “For all the destruction and damage Distrathrus caused everyone, he really seemed to be doing everything because he loved his sister.”
“A very twisted love.”
“Well, yes,” Sylzenya agreed, “Still. It’s like you told me back in Lhaal, it’s those with power who have consequences that reach furthest. He had more power than anyone on this continent, and so his mistakes cost everyone.” She tucked her knees into her chest. “As did mine.”
Elnok rubbed her back, careful to avoid her scar. “What’s it been like, helping communities thrive? Giving them food and water?”
She picked at a piece of lint on her pants, staring at how it glinted against the sun.
“It’s been satisfying in some ways, and yet unsettling in others.” She sighed, letting the lint float into the evening breeze. “To see their smiles when I create new vegetation, fill their ravines—there’s nothing like it. But knowing why they were absent in the first place… Knowing me and my people are the origin of their misfortunes… it feels like a dagger to my chest every time.”
Elnok wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “And yet you still do it.”
She draped her legs over his. “Just like you still kill arachnis.”
“They’re really scary, aren’t they?” he said, a small laugh in his throat.
“Terrifying. I’d hate your job.”
“Maybe we’ll switch one of these days.”
“I’d rather do anything else.”
“ Anything else?” he chided, running his hand through her hair, causing her eyes to flutter closed, “Even clip off all the blisters on Nyla’s feet?”
“Even that.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Sylzenya nudged his shoulder, tracing his jaw with her finger. “You know me pretty well then, don’t you?”
He grinned. “Sometimes I think I do, other times all I want to do is dig and prod until I figure out how such a delicious woman can be so intelligent and daring all at once.”
He hooked her chin with his thumb and brushed his lips along hers. She sighed into his touch, greedily taking another kiss from him, tracing a tongue on his lips.
“What’s something I don’t know about you?” she whispered.
He ran his thumb over her mouth. “What do you want to know?”
“This cliffside. What does it mean to you?”
Chewing the inside of his lip, he considered his words carefully. Sylzenya smiled as she watched him think.
“I suppose it means a lot of things,” he started, running his eyes along her face, down her neck, “It was home for a time, a place of peace. It was also a place of unrest, of war. And then it became a place of hope.”
“Can it really be all those things?” she inquired.
“Of course it can. Just like you’re both intolerable and yet the most bearable person I’ve ever met.”
She laughed. “What in the world is that supposed to mean?”
“Contradictions. You’re full of them. I am too. So are Orym, Nyla, Kharis, Tosh, everyone in my crew.” He brushed a hand through her hair. “Your parents. Aretta. Distrathrus. If places can be many things, why not people? Why not gods?”
“Contradictions,” Sylzenya repeated, “Like my power used to be. Life and death.”
“Exactly.”
“So then,” she said, “what does this place mean to you now?”
Grinning, he pressed his mouth to hers, sliding his hand up her tunic and onto her cold skin, gripping her hips. Warmth spread through her body, surprise lighting her core with fire as she tangled her hands in his hair, pulling down the deep “v” in his tunic and touching his chest.
He breathed deeply, and she responded, falling on top of him and straddling his hips. His large rough hands gripped her ass, guiding her as she rocked against him. Yearning thrummed through her chest, needing to feel him everywhere all at once.
His thoughts, his dreams, his hands, his cock, his eyes, his mouth. She wanted every last part of him, and she wanted to give every last part of herself to him. All her contradictions for all of his.
Biting her lower lip, he slowly pulled away, his breaths heavy as he leaned his forehead against hers. She reached for him, but he wouldn’t allow it, his hand digging into one of his pockets, pulling out something gold and shimmering.
A ring.
In its center, a deep blue gem glinted against the sunset.
“I was thinking,” he whispered, “this cliff side could also mean new beginnings.”
Tears burning in her eyes, she smiled. “Why blue?”
“Guess.”
She smirked, “My eyes?”
“Your eyes,” he confirmed.
“You’re a bit of a cliche sometimes, you know?”
Pulling her in for a kiss, she sank into him. “And you love it.”
“I do,” she admitted, letting him slip the ring onto her finger, “And I love you , Elnok Rogdul.”
“I haven’t loved anything or anyone more than I’ve loved you, Sylzenya Phatris.”
He pulled her in for another kiss, but she stopped him.
“But I don’t have anything for you,” she said.
“Don’t need to.”
“Yes, I do,” Sylzenya said, sitting up, staring out at the sunset, and then at the layer of soil on the cliffside.
An idea sparked in her chest.
She got off him, running over to a patch of dirt. Kneeling down, she dug her hands into the dry earth, feeling for her blood inside her veins, connecting it to the blood in the earth; her heartbeat thrummed through her body.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Power erupted from her hands, golden light circling her arms, her torso, her back—but no pain struck her as a small green sprout poked between her fingers. Awe took over her, just like it did every time she used her power. Breathing in life, she watched as the sprout grew into dark brown bark, bursting with golden sparks into an array of bright green willow leaves. Smiling, she pressed her palms deeper, the earth singing a new, wonderful song as the willow grew until its leaves reached the cliffside.
Placing her palm next to the tree, she called upon more roots to grow, laughter bubbling up in her throat as golden sparks fluttered across the dirt, tickling her hands. Green grass popped up from the ground and flowers of every color unfurled in splendid succession.
Satisfied, Sylzenya released her palms, her power retreating into the dirt. Looking at Elnok, concern furrowed her brow; tears streamed down his face.
“Elnok?” she asked, slowly approaching him, “Is this not what you wanted?”
Shaking his head, he grabbed her arm, pulling her into his chest and pressing his mouth to hers, salty tears mixing on their tongues as he wrapped his arms around her. She gripped his tunic, meeting his desire and passion with the same vigor.
They broke the kiss, his breath short as he whispered, “It’s more than I could’ve ever dreamed of.”
They cried and laughed together, her blue ring glinting in the sunset while the willow tree waved in the soft breeze.
The price for life would always be pain, and by the gods was it worth it.