A blue light snakes through each individual vein, coursing through and gathering in the heart. Cold, icy, nullifying. Every last fiber of mana restores the strength lost in passing days of revitalization.

I can stand up completely straight, see more clearly than I have in over a decade and the organ replacing my heart begins to shift and awaken.

"You just killed a person..." Theron mumbles under his breath. "You really just killed a person."

My eyes roll mechanically, my body unable to restrain all the facets of incredulity. "Yes, I killed someone. Wasn't it you who appropriately established my role as death?"

Daniel walks over and nudges the dead woman's head over with the heel of his boot. The light left her open eyes minutes ago and though I did not have to subdue her, she appeared exhausted and weak from a long time of surviving on her own.

The two other girls disappeared east, most likely ducking into one of the many burnt down buildings and praying this is all simply a dream. It isn't. Their friend is dead beneath us and I do not regret a second of it.

"I didn't think you'd actually kill them!" He yells, panic riding his voice.

Taking a deep breath, I pinch the bridge of my nose and look up. "Theron, you were going to die. Those women were going to murder you three execution style. I might not have made any sort of agreement with you about protecting you - nor do I entirely care - but I at least wanted to make sure we'd have the chance to make those decisions for ourselves. Haven't you ever killed a man? This is anarchy."

"I've killed," Daniel says rather nonchalantly. "I've killed a few times actually, but for the most part people stay away from each other."

My eyes stay trained on Theron, hoping he'll find the balls to answer my question. Even as he squirms, I feel no remorse for sitting him in the hot seat.

He drops his pack on the ground, starting to relax a little bit from the adrenaline. "No, I've never killed anyone..."

"Amazing," I tsk, laughing to myself. "The man who threatened to kill me within seconds of stumbling upon my camp has never taken a life. You seem to know the logistics of anarchy without truly being able to put up. And I thought you'd be able to defend the best out of the three of you... Of course not."

"Hey, I don't-"

"You don't what, Theron?" I snap, venom pouring into my words for the first time. "What could a self-absorbed Destroyer like you have on me? What could you possibly say to me that I haven't heard before? I am ancient, I am infinite, I was born long before this planet and I will live past its existence. You are a speck of dust. A blip on the radar of this history. So tell me, what do you have that I don't?"

He closes his lips, terror reaching his eyes for once as he withdraws into himself and turns away.

Such a broken, self-loathing idiot.

Remi looks like I stripped him of his balls, but Theron couldn't seem to find a voice. He still uses that tone of a rebellious prepubescent boy and I would estimate he's in his mid-twenties. Not even old enough to be wise by a humans standards, let alone mine.

Daniel chuckles to himself and sighs. "I see you found some clothes, good job."

"There is an Old Navy down the way if any of you'd like to have a look," I supply, glancing over my shoulder to make sure we're no longer being watched or followed. "I'm not sure what your agenda is from here on out."

"What do you mean?" He asks, confused. "I mean we need to get some supplies but..."

My eyebrows furrow. "You don't have an end goal? A destination? Why do you guys travel so much if you don't know where you're going? Were you just following the idiots I killed?"

Remi looks up from taking a long drink of fountain water. "You knew we were following them?"

"Of course, you were on the path with their shoe prints, far enough behind to go unnoticed but close enough to eventually catch up. I didn't offend anyone by killing the male, did I?"

Remi glances back at Theron. "He knew them. I'm not sure on what basis or how, but Theron said our best bet was to follow them if we wanted to make it out of this mess alive. I'm not sure what it meant since we're in the century of chaos and destruction. He said we'd find peace."

"And he didn't tell you why?" I ask. Two head shakes. "Fantastic, so you followed Theron as he tracked those two through how many countries?"

"Four, since they rescued me from Argentina..." Remi says.

I piece it together in my mind and nod absently. "You never asked?"

"I did once," Dan shrugs and goes to sit on the wall trapping water into the fountain. "It started off as an aggressive argument, though eventually, Theron relented that this man - Axel - was an amazing leader and could find a way to bring society back."

Laughter bubbled straight out of me. Sick, demented laughing that brought me to my hands and knees. My lungs burn to life and warmth rises up my throat as tears cascade down my cheeks.

Remi looks mildly concerned and an uncomfortable smile pulls on Daniels' lips. "Iridian? Are you okay?" He asks slowly, squatting down next to me and putting a hand on my back.

Coughing slightly, I crack my neck a little and slump into a sitting position. "I'm okay, yes. I just thought I heard you say that someone thought Axel would be a good leader."

"That's because I did," Theron growls from behind me. "I did - in fact - believe that he could rebuild a society."

My eyes slowly narrow into slits, vision fixing on his adamant stance. "I snapped his neck."

The male freezes, pausing mid-breath and staring at me in horror. "Why?"

"I don't have to justify myself to you."

"Why, damn it!?!"

"Didn't you ever find it strange that there was no sign of them? Did you just keep walking this way mindlessly, expecting that they'd appear? Why don't you tell me what an asshole like you was doing trying to locate someone for a new society? What place do you have - treating everyone like garbage - and following Axel like he could save the earth?" I say, dark emotions lacing my tongue.

No. I won't kill him. I'll let this life tear him apart piece by piece until there is nothing left. Theron will wish one day that I had.

Instead, he plays into such a predictable pattern of clenching his fists and shutting up. Theron refuses to make any sort of eye contact with me, his rage rising up and subsiding like an uncomfortably high tide waiting to burst over the edge of a ship.

Daniel's lips part in an effort to speak, but they close again momentarily, still deciding to assess the situation. Remi sits down on the ground below the fountain tiredly, resting her head on the wall and closing her eyes.

"Are there any functional cities?" I ask, turning to face them.

Daniel shrugs. "I'm not sure. I would assume your best bet for any civilization is in India. Supposedly there is an open society in New Delhi..."

"With water and electricity? They've figured out how to rebuild?"

Again a dismissive wave. "I don't know, I haven't been there. The last people I had the good fortune to meet were the criminals gathering in the Formosa Valley. The people that bothered to talk to me weren't very informative."

I feel myself formulating a plan in my head as I collect the information, granted its lack of weight due to an unsure audience.

Traveling west on the Pacific, I could find a way into China and further to India. With the last of resources on this coast, the best outcome is getting these three to society and departing to Africa, where I can go on my way to the coast Egypt and Greece share.

This is my best and fastest approach for getting to Lindon.

"Is it in any of your best interests to find out what is in India?" I ask, thinking through the logistics of finding a boat and establishing a safe route into China.

Remi perks up a little bit at the thought, blinking the stiffness out of her eyes. "I don't really know what anyone else thinks... But I'd like to know. I'd like to find a way to live again and not just survive."

Theron, of course, says nothing, brooding to himself.

In the last few moments of listening, Daniel nods to himself and crosses his arms. "Remi's right, I can't imagine staying in this burnt wasteland is going to get us anywhere."

"What happens when she kills us too?" Theron snaps.

Daniel fights a smile on his face and shrugs, "Then I'll die at the hands of a God, sounds pretty cool given the circumstances."

"I'm serious!"

"So are we," Remi smirks, pushing off the ground and wobbling into a standing position. "If anyone should be scared, it's you who would be sacrificed to her in certain cultures for being rueful."

"Sacrificed?"

"You know, the people of Egypt sacrificed criminals to their Gods all the time. You might not be a criminal, but with such disrespect, the legends would normally dictate you'd be dead by now."

Theron growls in frustration. "They didn't really sacrifice people..."

"Yes," I interrupt. "People sacrificed to us regularly actually. I could show you the documentation in the Egyptian temples. How do you know this, Remi? I thought you couldn't read?"

She shrugs a little bit and smiles. "I can't read but one of the women in the camp with me used to fill me in on all the lore from past eras... It's how I learned English."

Nodding slowly, I think about all the possible fantasies filling her head and wonder how many were true and which were false. Then something strikes me, confusion hitting my features.

Who could possibly be alive that still knows those legends?

Unless...

"Remi, did this woman have any interesting characteristics that you can remember?"

She shakes her head and then stops, thinking about it. "I don't think there was anything... What kind of interesting?"

"Besides mutations that happened from the storm, besides birth defects, were her eyes a different color than normal, were any of her features elongated or shortened, did her skin change in the dark?"

Remi gasps a little bit and nods. "Her ears, her ears were pointed and sharp. She always hid them in her hair but I saw them once..."

"Is she alive?"

"I don't know..." She murmurs, a sad look crossing her face. "I'm sorry but one night she broke out of the camp... Whispered something in a strange language and disappeared."

"Disappeared as in?"

"She walked off, I didn't watch too closely... It was in the middle of the night."

Of course, she disappeared. As did any hope of getting some real source of mana. The women had to be Fae or of magical decent, but she isn't the only one left.

Patience is a virtue.

"Why are you so interested in this, Iridian?" Daniel asks calmly, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Because I need Mana, I need life-force to operate. I don't suppose you three want me to kill one of you?"

Theron is the only one alarmed by this. He backs away slightly but in the amusing, indiscreet way that pretends there is another reason. The other two laugh a little, hearing the joke in my voice. Such a paranoid man shouldn't have survived this long.

"What does that have to do with Remi's acquaintance?"

Thinking about how I want to answer the question, I look down at my fingers, playing with static in the air until obvious tiny bolts of electricity. "I'm Death. I do not give life, I take it away. So, every time I restore the life of a tree or heal someone else, I'm killing myself. I need to take to give since I'm using my own life force. Lindon needs to give to take. He cannot kill without taking from himself. That is the balance. I need someone whose life-force is as infinite as my own to help me locate him. Otherwise, I will die before making it to Greece."

"Wait, who said anything about Greece?" Theron demands, looking pointedly at me.

I stay level, unfazed by his outburst. "I'm going to Greece, Theron. I'm bringing you three to India, which will be on the way if you so choose."

"Why Greece?" Daniel asks.

"Lindon's Temple is in Greece, I thought maybe he'd broken out like I did but you said Europe was under water... He's likely still trapped and I need him in order to repair the hell that is this planet."

I need him for me...

"This doesn't really help me know what you want with her..." Remi says hesitantly. "You're not going to kill her, are you?"

That depends...

"No, I'm not going to kill her, she just has the ability to make me something that will sustain my energy field until I find Lindon."

Relief instantly washes over her face and I know for a fact that I'm going to have to be careful should we ever run into this Fae. The breed is often finicky, their immortality also giving them a snobbish, superiority complex that is more than hard to work with.

"Is everyone just going to ignore the sacrifice thing?" Theron says awkwardly.

No one moves to say anything.

"So you want to take us to India on your way to Greece?" Daniel asks, appearing to get ready to move again. He mounts his bag on his back and looks to map out resource buildings.

I nod slowly, thinking about the logistics of being chained to humans. "I'll keep you safe until you reach the city, I'll help you survive until then and afterward you can do as you please."

Remi and Daniel agree, Theron, staying silent. He does not even open his mouth or protest. He's outnumbered. If Theron doesn't want to go, he knows he'll be the one left for dead on the shoreline. Remi is invested in getting to civilization and Daniel wants to have a fighting chance at survival.

Even if Theron doesn't want to admit it, I can see in his eyes how much it benefits him as well.

"So what's the first step to getting to India?" Remi wonders aloud. She stretches and kicks at the sandy cement.

"We find a boat," I mutter, grimacing.

Hey, all you fancy readers!

Thank you all for keeping up with the fantastic little story I have here. Short chapter, I know. No part 2 either. I just think this formatting is for the best. 

To all my silent readers: I love you guys equally, but I will say the people active on commenting are getting dedications to show how much I appreciate the love. 

Also shout out to SongofLightandShadow, happy birthday sis!

Have a good night everyone!