I awoke in that decaying place again. My head pounded as I gathered my bearings. Isgarren was crumpled on the ground nearby, nearing death but still hanging on by a thread. Peitha's voice rang in my ears, but my attention turned to the demon before us: Cerus.
Cerus circled, mocking us as he closed in the same way the lumbering beast had tried to kill me before. He celebrated his impending victory: he'd returned to Nayos with Eparch's prized bounty, Isgarren, and a prize for himself. The champion of an Elder Dragon. The scourge of Tyria. Blood-tinged saliva dripped from his jaws in anticipation. This fight was done.
As Cerus gloated, Isgarren called me to his side. With his last remaining strength, he cast an enchantment on me before Cerus took notice. But expending the energy rendered Isgarren unconscious. With Isgarren incapacitated, the demon's attention snapped to me. This time, he wasn't going to let me crawl out of here alive.
We fought viciously, but it felt like an unwinnable battle. I was knocked to the ground, death threatening me once again. Before Cerus could land the final strike, a sardonic chuckle broke his concentration. I knew who she was before she stepped from the shadows.
My blood turned cold. Was this what Peitha wanted, to serve me on a platter to her brother? The siblings mocked me as they danced, Peitha maneuvering between her brother and me. For a sliver of a moment, I was all but sure she was preparing to steal her brother's kill. Regret flooded my thoughts—I should've told Zojja. I should've told any of them. But it was too late.
But Peitha did not raise a hand against me. Once she was positioned between us, she instead dragged the tyranny of Cerus and Eparch into the light. She'd had enough of their treachery. Of their disregard for their own kind.
Peitha snarled at me to get me to my feet. Even with a Kryptis lord in my corner, the fight ahead would prove a brutal one. While we fended off Cerus's blows, they traded verbal jabs. Peitha had abandoned their king, and I'd walked straight into the meat grinder of sibling rivalry. From what I could parse, Eparch has done as much harm to Nayos as Cerus and he have done to Tyria.
The battle persisted and eventually we weakened Cerus enough that Peitha called on me to land the final blow. "He did not deserve to dream," she growled, and I purged the life from her brother's body.
Isgarren stirred awake but didn't recoil at the sight of our new "friend." I suppose little can faze someone whose lived for millennia and wrestled with demons for as long as he has.
***
With Cerus dead, Peitha insisted that we take our leave. Eparch was surely watching and could ambush us at any moment. I followed without hesitation.
When we emerged from the portal, we were back in the opulent embrace of the Wizard's Tower. Zojja's voice broke through the crowd first. She rushed to my side, inspecting me for injuries. Similarly, the Astral Ward flocked to Isgarren—eager to have their leader back—but Dagda's gaze immediately fixated on Peitha. For once, someone else stirred a bigger reaction from her than me.
Peitha, however, was unfazed. If anything, she appreciated the jotun's reflective nature. Before the two came to blows, Isgarren stomped on any impending escalations. He was home now, and drama like that would not be tolerated. Sharing Dagda's curiosity, Isgarren turned to Peitha. He had questions that demanded answers.
While Peitha and Isgarren headed somewhere more private to talk business, Zojja pulled me aside. She'd finally made her choice. THE choice.
She told me how she struggled against those thoughts: wouldn't she be leaving her friends—the remains of Destiny's Edge, the colleges, and Dragon's Watch—behind if she chose to ascend? Would she be leaving me after reuniting after so many years apart? I did the only thing I could: I supported her. Whatever she chooses, this is her family now. These are her people. And, regardless, I have my own path to travel. Whatever version of Zojja I meet on the other side, I'll support her just the same.
She held back tears as Dagda approached—Isgarren and Peitha called for me. Zojja nodded, encouraging me to go ahead. She was going to be fine.
I rejoined the group. Peitha and Isgarren were already at odds. Peitha told us that the situation in Nayos had devolved and was beyond anything we could imagine. While war raged against the Kryptis in Amnytas, another conflict had been stirring in the burrows of Nayos for millennia. The Kryptis may be a bit prickly compared to Tyrian standards of etiquette, but Eparch is an entirely different beast. He'd reduced their people to cattle, feasting on their bodies and souls to his benefit. Even with Cerus out of the picture, we'd barely snatched victory from his jaws.
Peitha was Kryptis royalty. And she needed our aid in the fight against her corrupt leader.
Isgarren was entirely strategic—almost clinical—about her request. He posited that allowing Eparch to bring his world to ruin may spare ours, but Peitha shook off those remarks. She insisted that Eparch would simply come here when he'd had his fill, invigorated and ready to conquer. And he is quite fond of our world. Isgarren analyzed the situation before eventually asking for my input.
Peitha had been a fixture in my mind this entire journey, and while I questioned her allegiance until the moment she rose up against Cerus, she has not harmed me once. She protected me from Eparch's whispers—she guided me in battle. She may be a Kryptis, and we may not know all of her motivations, but we haven't seen all that Eparch is capable of. And we do not want him here.
I offered to go with Peitha to her home world. Isgarren, at first hesitant, eventually agreed. The ward needs to recover before he can lend any meaningful aid, but as soon as Peitha is ready I will join her in Nayos.
After our impromptu war council concluded, I stepped aside to speak with my cross-dimensional ally. At first it will just be Peitha and I embarking on her mission—she feared bringing too many of Isgarren's forces in too quickly would threaten the greater Kryptis society, so I will act as her champion while we rally support from the inside.
Before I was pulled into that rift in Gendarran Fields, I questioned what came next. With the Elder Dragons dead and Aurene settling into her new role, I...didn't know. I didn't know what I wanted or what the world wanted from me. I suppose Zojja and I shared similar struggles. But now I feel like the world has been cracked wide open. With the discovery of the Astral Ward, I realized that there's a whole side of Tyria that I didn't know about. That nobody knows about. And with the arrival of the Kryptis, we may be seeing new threats from the Mists emerge in their place more frequently.
Tyria needs to act. We've a reprieve from the onslaught of the Elder Dragons—and there have been no signs of any rogue gods. We need to rebuild and heal. With the Kryptis being pushed back into Nayos, we've got time to figure things out. For now, at least. I just hope that Isgarren chooses to inform the rest of the world of this darker threat before the hour is too late.
Peitha suggested I do the rounds and meet with my allies—enjoy a moment just to breathe. Because, as soon as she's ready, we're headed to Nayos.
