"What are you doing here?"

Eldrazi took a step back as the Shar Drak'na rose to her feet, rows of fangs grit as she glared at Aoife, or more specifically, the purple flames lapping around her. "What do you want with us?"

"Oh! Nothing! Nothing at all; I'm so sorry!" Aoife squeaked, and the fire died down to a small, trained light. "Are you all right?"

The woman's claws lowered to the collar of her magenta dress, landing on a small patch of deep brown skin peeling along her neck. It remained that way for a moment, then the dark patterns along her body– far more than Talus had had– eased over the wound, coating it in nothing but shadow until it faded away.

"Burned, but fine," she answered curtly, words caught up in a hissed-out accent. Then her spined tail flicked angrily behind her, a jingling sound ringing out as the several silver bangles adorning it clinked together. Around her the shadows reared up, forming tendrils aimed at them, ready to strike. "Answer the question."

"W-we're just passing through!" Gavin quickly explained, and Eldrazi was surprised to find him moving them in front of Aoife, waving their hands frantically. "We're heading to Tercia underneath the passage. We mean you no harm!"

Her strange eyes scanned their face before looking back at Aoife. "Then why fire?"

"Because she suffers the misfortune of being born a 'Uman, and needs it to see." Eldrazi shook their head in fake sympathy. "We didn't know you were 'ere."

The woman jumped at the sound of Eldrazi's voice, and suddenly he remembered how strange having two voices probably looked to an outsider. Oh well. It was too late now, and if she attacked, he doubted it would go very well for her. Then again, he couldn't remember ever having the chance to tussle with a Shar Drak'na before. Could be fun.

Still, while her stance remained tense, she seemed to relax a little, watching over them slightly less wary. "You're a Dávoln."

"One of those, yes!" Eldrazi shot her a wide grin before waving a hand to gesture behind them. "And these are my friends, Aoife, the magik-weildin' 'Uman, and Selatan, the borin' Demon." He delved for the magik in his chest, the air glowing softly around them as their eye glowed gold, and he reached for the girl's Will. She only needed to be slightly more agreeable, after all. "So if you don't mind, would you allow us to be on our merry way?"

With one final push, Eldrazi extended the energy outward... only to feel nothing. There wasn't even the barest hint of a Will within her chest, only an endlessly cold nothing. It snapped back at him, like a fierce snake defending themselves, and Eldrazi drew back with a frown. He couldn't make people lose control if there was nothing they were in control of in the first place. Perhaps he should've expected that from a race supposedly formed of pure Chaos though, and so he withdrew his efforts.

Thankfully, either the woman hadn't noticed, or didn't care by the time it settled back in their chest, because she only continued to stand there, arms crossed and sharp, black-stained feet tapping on the stony floor. "You'll pass through our village though."

"We won't bother you," Selatan offered, and Eldrazi noticed him standing there awkwardly, hand half-raised in front of him as if he had no clue how to form a bargain. Then again, he probably didn't. He clearly lacked the dastardly amount of charisma needed for such a task. "I know you probably get attacked by the Cearte a lot outside of here, but our friend was a half Shar Drak'na, and... we loved him very dearly."

This only made the woman raise her own brows. "You can love a person and not their kind."

A laugh bubbled up in Eldrazi's chest, and he snickered, shooting the Tiger Demon a crooked smile. "She's gotcha there, Selatan. Want to keep going or will ya let me 'andle this?"

The teen huffed, turning away. "Fine."

"Wonderful!" Eldrazi crooned, and he bent back towards the woman, keeping the same smile at hand. "So as we were sayin' before my ignorant friend so blatantly interrupted me, we're not 'ere to 'urt ya. We're just passin' through, and, if it tickles your fancy, we're actually on a secret mission right now." He leaned close to whisper, and he felt the air shift cooler around her, which was normally a problem given his cold-bloodedness, but something about it was welcoming at the moment, and so he carried on. "See, we're 'eading to Tercia to collect the last Relic o' Akasha, and once we got 'er power, we're gonna be getting freedom for everyone. Dávolns, 'Alfbreeds, Shar Drak'na, weird, magikal 'Umans, you name it."

"Eldrazi!" Aoife shouted, and he snapped to attention. "You can't just go around telling people that!"

"Too late, already did," he told her, shooting her a sly grin before turning back to the woman. "So, whaddya say? Let us through?"

He was pleased to find her wearing a shocked expression on her face now, scanning over all of them as if she could hardly believe it. But, there was a difference between 'hardly' and 'not at all', and that difference seemed to be enough as she gave a tight nod, stepping back. "Eska."

"What?" Selatan asked, giving her a confused look. "Is that a yes?"

"No. My name," she explained, the silver bangles on her arms and tail clinking once again as she turned on her heel. "But I do say yes. I can lead you to the place. Or... Tercia. Your kind uses words for things."

A couple more seconds followed before her mouth screwed up into a more awkward shape, and she spoke again, her black, pointed tongue flicking between jagged teeth at the word. "Sorry. I know only a little Durnish. Mostly Tðna."

"That's all right. You're better at it than me trying to speak Ulnte. And thank you. We appreciate it." Aoife forced a laugh, and Eldrazi could tell that it was to help clear the worry racking at her. Not that he could blame her, especially after they'd asked her to spill her guts only a few hours back.

'Ow unlucky to stumble upon a whole village of Shar Drak'na right after that.

"Did you not know it was here?" Gavin asked as they began to follow the girl ahead, deeper into the tunnel and towards the world of shadow below.

No. This place was deserted last time. It made sense that they came here though, the more Eldrazi thought about it. It was a quiet place that most people didn't know about, or had no reason to come by, given all the sanctioning and fighting from the war, and besides that, it was dark. It was the perfect place for a race of void and chaos.

So when the rocky path made a sharp turn to the right, Eldrazi hadn't been expecting a vast village of flickering, dimly-lit paths running in all directions. The cave had widened, but now it was filled with houses: strange, dome-like shapes that ran along the floors, walls, even the ceiling as Shar Drak'na walked upside-down without any gravity to affect them. Each residence boasted lanterns on chains by their doorless, open fronts– not unlike the poi clipped onto Aoife's belt– and it seemed that the light was what provided the race the shadows they needed to climb up from the reflecting half of the town below. Finally, in the centre of it all, ran a waterfall. It poured down from above, the liquid a clean, bright blue from being filtered through mountain crags, and the lanterns alighting it a crystal hewn as it crashed down into the spiked grotto awaiting below.

It was breath-taking.

"Wow," Selatan said, echoing Eldrazi's exact thoughts as he drifted closer to the ledge to peer down. "It's beautiful."

"Thank you," Eska replied, and she sounded pleased before she continued to walk ahead. It was hard to make her out against the dark backdrop, especially when she was more part of that than a physical figure in front of them, but Eldrazi did his best to trail after the glinting silver jewellery: the one thing that didn't fade. "We're proud of it. We worked hard to make it home."

"Really?" Aoife wondered aloud, gaze running along the walls of the cave, coated in jagged edges of violet druzys and azure gemstones. "I've never heard of any place like this. How long has it been here?"

"Hm?" Eska gave them a brisk look. "A long time. I am not sure how you all count it. We do not."

The path was ending now, the gems of before falling away to the entrance of the town. Unlike the others, it lacked any semblance of a gate. The houses simply sprung up with the people: some as small, child-shaped shadows whisking between their feet, others as blurrier, animalistic shapes, the only thing in common being the strange, questioning looks they were giving Eldrazi and the others, saying nothing. The last of which could not be said for Selatan though, because he leaned over, brows furrowing. "What do you mean you don't count it? Do you not have years? What do you count then? Seasons, or moons... or what?"

Eska continued to stare blankly. "We do not count at all. Time means nothing to us. There is only cause, and effect, all for us to try and find for ourselves. That is what our god believes. To define it as anything more would take from what it was in first place."

"Your god?" Selatan blinked at her. "But Shar Drak'na don't—" He cut himself off suddenly, a tight frown pulling at his face as the similarity struck him. "You believe in one?"

For some reason, the woman seemed happy at the question as she nodded, a clawed finger pointed to a pillar of stone right before the town. "Yes. We are waiting their return."

That got Eldrazi's attention, and with nothing better to do, he followed Eska over to the tablet, covered in a strange, rune-like language he didn't recognise. The words ran higher than they were tall, the letters thick and pointed almost like calligraphy, but while he couldn't understand a lick of it, he certainly could understand the many pictures, particularly the illustration at the stone's top. It boasted six figures, one a fish-like boy with webbed hands and a friendly face, another a built warrior with flames fists. Another was easily recognizable as Eór, all tapered flesh wrapped around smoke, Uldyŋ with his antlers, Akasha, with her three, orbiting faces... But after them, and drawn several times after that, was a person with brown skin and darker claws in a plain green dress.

They didn't seem to have much of a gender, hardly anything defined about their shadowy features, but one thing Eldrazi could clearly make out was the three X-shapes stitched into their lips and...

"Well wouldja lookit that! Fella 'as a ponytail." Eldrazi nodded his approval, putting their hands on their hips as he continued to expect picture after picture of the god. The paintings went on for quite a while. "It seems someone knows style."

"Wait!" Aoife shouted behind them, and there was the sound of boots pounding into rock as she ran up behind them, mouth agape. "I know them! They were in Róhain's book. They're uhh, uhh—" She snapped her fingers a few times, each one igniting sparks. "Nix!"

"Nðx," Eldrazi heard Eska clarify behind them, the name just as hissy as the rest of her language. "The God of Chaos."

"But that's not- there's only..." Selatan sputtered behind them, nose scrunching in confusion until something clicked. "This had to be what Talus felt, and I didn't believe him."

"Felt?" Eska asked. "What do you mean? Who is this Talus?"

"He... was like a brother to me," Selatan explained, eyes falling to the floor and body stiffening. "One day, when we were um, getting the Relics, his energy suddenly grew a lot stronger, and he swore he could feel a god. But as far as I knew, there were only five, and none of them would talk with a half Shar Drak'na."

"Your brother felt Nðx's presence?" Eska's mouth fell open, completely baffled before she gave Selatan the widest smile, reaching to grab for his hands even as he jumped back, startled. "Where is he? You must let me meet him! We have been waiting for them so long! If Nðx is proven to Cearte by him, we won't be godless. We won't be hunted! Please, where is he?"

Selatan froze, eyes stuck open wide, mouth opening and closing. His chin dipped to his chest and Eldrazi could swear he caught the smallest of tears forming in the teen's eyes. "He's not here."

"Can you—" Eska asked before noticing his face, and she seemed to put it together. "Oh." She drew back, claws falling to her sides. "The apology is mine."

"It's fine," he mumbled, eyes on his shoes.

"The Cearte are cruel. My husband was killed also." She was quiet after that, only casting the paintings of her god's tablet one last glance. Her eyes closed, and she seemed to be in prayer as she lingered.

Instantly, Eldrazi felt a tug at their heart, their fingers twitching, but there was nothing he could do, whether he wanted to help or not. He could only continue to glance over the same words, at the final art of the stitched-up god dripping venom from their claws to rain onto Esternia, the black forms rising up and slowly forming into people of their own, because that's what they were. A people, and whether they had a god or not, that didn't mean the Goddess' Cearte had any right to kill them.

Unless they didn't know.

An idea struck him, and Eldrazi turned to Aoife, standing there awkwardly as Eska prepared herself to lead them once more. "And you said that Róhain 'ad a book on this Nðx?" Surprisingly, the name was a lot easier for him to pronounce than the others, the accent rolling along their whip-thin tongue with ease. "What about them?"

"Well, not a book on them really," she clarified. "It more just had a little poem at the end? It mentioned them living in the Chaos Star... and I don't remember much else, but it definitely didn't call them a god."

"Hm." Eldrazi continued to mull it over. "And 'ere I thought if the Cearte knew about them, they'd 'ave no excuse to be callin' Shar Drak'na 'eathens."

"As if they wouldn't just find another excuse to kill," Gavin immediately spat out after.

"True that," Eldrazi agreed, and he gave up, shoulders dropping into a shrug. "Well, that's what the Relics are for, am I right?"

Eska gave them another sad glance, though there seemed to be hope shining in her pure white eyes as she left the stone honouring her god behind, fully entering the village. "You would be doing that for us?"

Something about her sent a sense of purpose through him, a sharp spike that demanded his attention, and Eldrazi found himself giving her a solid nod. "We're going to do that for everyone."

"If you're speaking the truth, I will talk to others. Anything we can do to help."

"Oh!" Aoife exclaimed. "That's incredibly nice of you, but we don't want to intrude or anything." She gave another uneasy laugh. "Just continuing to Tercia is good enough for us."

"Divska," Eska droned, and while the word meant nothing to Eldrazi, he could tell it was exasperated as she tipped her head to the ceiling. "There is purple under eyes and you walk slow. Rest. Eat. If you knew someone connected with Nðx, it is... very little effort for me to do."

She seemed about to say something else, but another black silhouette appeared at her side, a more masculine shape staring at her with the same white eyes, and he tapped at her shoulder with a pointed finger, asking her... something. It was only half spoken, the person talking in short, choppy words while their fingers pulled at the darkness shrouding them to form the second half. Eska responded in turn with her own signs, and Eldrazi could only assume she was explaining their situation as she continued to talk.

"So, what are you thinking?" a whisper suddenly asked in their ear, enough to tickle. Eldrazi looked up at Aoife, particularly the wary look on her face. "Want to run?"

"Run? She said eat," he pointed out since the girl had clearly forgotten. "Free food simply because Talus supposedly felt a presence. 'Ow lovely is that?"

"It feels wrong to take advantage of his—" Selatan stopped himself, breaking off that point, finding another, sharper one. "We're just passing through. We're not here to eat, so stop thinking only with your stomach!"

"But it does such a better job o' it than my brain."

Selatan drew in a deep breath through his nose, chest puffing with indignance, but that too was cut short by Eska turning back around while the Shar Drak'na behind her nodded. "We can have you stay, long as needed. You'll be safe, don't worry."

"Much appreciated!" Eldrazi grinned at her. "Lead the way!"

"Eldrazi!" Aoife shouted, now for the second time that day. "We didn't agree to anything yet!"

"Sure we did! Gav totally agrees with me–"

"I did nothing of the sort."

"– and besides, what could go wrong?" He'd been having their body trail after Eska, feet light as he half-walked, half-skipped in a random pattern to follow, but he made sure to throw their head over their shoulder just enough to catch Selatan's eye for the final point. "Are ya sayin' we shouldn't be well rested before we snatch that final Relic?"

The teen crossed his arms, striped tail swishing behind him at an aggravated pace before he sighed. "Fine. Fine! One night, and then we continue tomorrow."

Taking Aoife's hand, he went to follow, his last words spoken beneath his breath, and if Eldrazi hadn't had so much control over the bond at that moment, he doubted he ever would've heard it. "Can't have them do anything to us in our sleep that you wouldn't do already."

Eldrazi winced, a rotten, heavy feeling returning to their stomach, but there was little he could do but pretend he'd never heard the comment in the first place. It was how trust worked anyway, like a piece of glass. It took forever to temper, form, and solidify into whatever it was meant to be, and yet it shattered in seconds, reduced to bits that stabbed and sliced when you tried to reach out and hold onto what was lost.

Course, you could ignore the blood, use a little tree sap to try and fasten it all back together over hours and hours, but it hardly looked the same, and it was always weaker for the break in the end.

He looked at Aoife, at the spiked ends of her wavy hair lopped off at her shoulders. It was a shame that there was nothing better than that.

"So, how much longer is it to your place?" Aoife finally asked, her hands digging into her coat pockets as she scanned the area. There were plenty of houses around them, all formed from rounded stone, glassless windows lit only by the smallest of candles. But it seemed Eska wasn't headed to any of the ones close by, and the waterfall of the town's centre was already growing farther and farther away.

"Not much longer. I live over the pit."

As the last of the houses– both above and below– moved behind them, Eldrazi could see the final building in the distance, neighboured only by a few others, and he doubted it would be separated from the town itself if it wasn't for a large dip in stone, burned a pure, ashen black from the hottest of fires, and torn to bits from claw marks.

Eldrazi's heart stopped.

Immediately, he could feel Gavin's chest burn in protest, and he quickly focused on keeping the organ drumming again, but now it was too fast, dizziness racking at their mind and stomach churning. Cold sweat formed along the back of their neck, dripping uncomfortably into their tunic, but Eldrazi couldn't react to it out of the feeling of choking on nothing but air. Because Eska was right. This was the pit.

This was the pit where he first died.

Recognition shot through him like lightning, and suddenly the concave in the ground was all he could focus on. There were noises in the distance, maybe voices? Eldrazi didn't know. They were overtaken by a catastrophic roar, and the floor turned to molten lava. The Dragon had found him, because that was what they were meant to do. They'd been furious, angry, born only to kill, and they had found him. The creature was in front of him now, standing on its powerful hindlegs to fling his body to the floor with a crack. It had opened its mouth and fire was sent forth, heat rushing at his face.

He'd gone to roll to the side, but the flames followed, biting at his arms, his scales... If Eldrazi screamed, he didn't hear it. Raw heat tore at him, blinding him until all he could see was fire. His skin begged for it to end, the fresh, bloody edges peeling off crisping brown all while a sickeningly sweet, metallic taste assaulted his senses. What didn't char dripped in molten, sanguine red to the floor. Reality, memories, it all melted into one, and he was falling, knees caving in until he was on the ground, unable to do anything but scream.

It burned. It had burned so badly as he watched orange cinders ripple through his greying flesh like veins of webbing fire. He should've died right then and there, and yet his body had continued to heal like it always did, falling into an agonising stasis of ember and ash. He couldn't look at it, yet he couldn't do anything to escape it, mind a blur of panic and pain...

"-zi! 'Drazi!"

The voice was shooting from Eldrazi's lips, and the floor flickered into view, of dark stone bathed in shadow. It was still hard to hear, but things were becoming clearer to make out over the sound of rattled breathing as their hands continued to shake.

"What happen to boy?"

"Are you all right?"

"What's wrong with him?"

Warm hands brushed against Eldrazi's arms, and they felt tight on their skin, like claws. Instantly, their own was shooting out, and he violently hissed a warning in its direction, batting the feeling away. The room was black. He couldn't see. He wanted to leave. He needed to leave. Astren was coming and he was going to be trapped if he didn't run now.

But their feet were dug into the floor, a feeling unwinding in Eldrazi's chest as Gavin yanked at the bond, forcing the world to shrink and for Gavin to be more steadily in control. "Eldrazi! Calm down! It's all right. They're not here!"

"What's not here?" Aoife asked, sounding echoey behind them. "What's going on?"

"It's Dragons. He's terrified of them," Gavin was calmly explaining, and part of Eldrazi wanted to cut in. To say that terrified was a mite too strong of a word. That really, Aoife didn't need to know, because she couldn't know. That was meant to go unspoken. And yet, unspoken was all he could manage as he continued to clutch at the front of their tunic, eyes wide and staring emptily at the ground like a mad man, trying to slow his breath while Gavin continued to talk. "I think the pit reminded him."

"What? Why?" Aoife asked, giving them a strange look. They all were, Selatan, Eska, even Gavin was making the connection thrum with waves of concern. It was so much attention, all sharpening by the second as Aoife gestured to the floor with a lazy wave. "They're all dead."

Don't answer. That was what Eldrazi wanted to say– what he needed to say– but the words weren't coming out, their throat ashen. There was nothing he could do to stop Gavin from continuing to explain, and the rapid beating of their heart worsened.

"Yeah, but when they were alive he fought one and he got burned, really badly. Thankfully, he survived but... it still bothers him sometimes." Gavin gave a wary chuckle, one that only sunk Eldrazi's stomach further. "It's why I always sit farthest away from the campfire. Sure, I'd love to be warm, but he hates fire. It just reminds him... though it's never been this bad."

"What? But that's impossible," Selatan said, each word almost making time seem to slow. "He couldn't have fought one. Dragons have been dead for over a thousand years."

"Well, Eldrazi is six hundred, after all."

"... yeah, and six hundred would be less than a thousand," Aoife pointed out with an awkward frown. "Which means he's older than that."

"What? No," Gavin immediately shot back, and their body was straightening, the boy shaking their head enough to throw Eldrazi back in that room of fog. He tumbled to the ground, unable to stand as Gavin kept going. "He's definitely six hundred. He says it all the time."

"Well, if the Dragons killed him, maybe he only got to live six hundred years?" Aoife half-heartedly suggested. "Maybe that's what he meant?"

"No, Tachir' killed Eldrazi, not the Dragons," Gavin continued to argue, and something about the strength, the confidence behind his words only wrenched Eldrazi's gut further as he sat in his mind, stuck. "They just fought one time, and it melted his skin badly. He still won though."

"Gavin," Selatan began, hands raised in defence. "No one could survive a fight against those things. The Cearte were made to take them down, and it took teams of ten Demons or Eunsis, sometimes even more just to kill one. They were monsters. I don't care how good of a fighter he is. Eldrazi did not survive that."

"But Tachir' killed him. I know she did! That's why she wants to kill him, because he was born a second time and she wants to finish the job!"

Aoife winced, and she and Selatan exchanged glances before she gave him a look filled with sympathy. "Gavin... are you sure this is only his second life? If he came back from Astren once, what stops him from dying from the Dragons and from Tachir', or a bunch of other things? I don't feel like he would've waited thousands of years in Astren to come back only once."

"But..." Gavin laughed again, but the sound was hollow. Desperate. "But he's never come back before. I'm his vessel. His Human. We– we're a team, just him and me. He wouldn't lie to me."

Yet, even as he said that, a memory was playing out in the boy's mind, of wandering on and on for days, all to find a mess of bones with the prize of two daggers. Eldrazi watched in horror as Gavin shot their hands forward, tugging them frantically out of his belt, mind whirling as he stared into the runes.

"Eldrazi, where did these come from?"

From the... Eldrazi tried to explain, but thinking was a muddy, liquid thing, and he could swear he was drowning. From the—

"So help me if you say these are from a pirate!" Gavin snarled, and his voice rebounded off the cavern walls, echoing again and again. "Where. Are. They. From?"

"Um, if it helps," Selatan cut in, and he pointed a sharp nail at the runes carved into the blade. "That spells his name. I just assumed they were personalised."

"But they're not supposed to be his! They're supposed to be our mother's!" Gavin screamed, and the window blurred as the boy's eyes filled with tears.

"Because you handle death just so well, don't you?"

Flickers of memory continued to play out, all out of Eldrazi's control, each one turning the fog redder until that was shot through with a violent indigo. Hatred.

"You lied to me."

Eldrazi went to pull at the bond, clamouring for their tongue to explain himself, but what was normally a warm ribbon now bit roughly at his chest like sharpened fibres of twine at his very lungs, and there was no give, leaving him only to be able to think. Gav, it wasn't like that. I don't really count the other lives. I barely even remember them. They might as well not exist.

His voice was nothing but cold. "How many were there?"

I... Eldrazi blinked through the mist to find the others watching them intently, each one making the knot of regret twist tighter.

"How many were there?" Gavin thundered, the force of it enough to shake their entire body.

His mouth ran dry, voice hardly above a whisper.

...'Undreds.

The world outside the window jolted, and something told Eldrazi even Gavin hadn't expected that much. The realisation sent a hollow feeling through him, and he stood ther, empty until Gavin spoke again, the words pure venom.

"So that's all I am to you then. Just another one to add to the pile, and when I die you'll just find another Human so you can avoid Astren yet again."

No! he shouted. I don't want to find another 'Uman after this! I care about you, more than anythin'! But as much as his voice resonated in the boy's mind, the fog never shifted from its cold hue.

"Shut up," he said, voice strangely soft. Tired. Blank. "Just shut up. I'm sick of you lying to me." There was a deep breath, followed by a heavy pause. "Goodnight Eldrazi."

The world cut to black, and then Eldrazi couldn't feel anything. Anything at all.