Yatro: In the end, everyone dies

When Mors entered the room, the scene from her deepest, more unthinkable nightmares had come true.

He did not even see Ases at first, when she entered, her eyes were on the figure on the ground. A man she used to know as her son, was lying there. If she was anyone else she might have been able to keep the hope that he was alive, that there was a chance to save him.

But she was the Goddess of death, and as such, she knew in absolutely no uncertain terms that Todo was dead.

As her own world collapsed around her, she looked up and saw Ases, looking back at her in surprise. He didn’t need to say a word, his eyes said it all for him. His son was dead, and his murderer stood in front of her.

But why? Why did it have to be him?

Mors screamed. The void in her soul was gone, and for the first time, she felt relief. That relief she never wanted to feel, not even to imagine. It sickened her to feel fine for the first time in decades. It couldn’t be, not when that emptiness had been the only reassurance she had that her son was alive ever since he disappeared.

The shrill scream she released was accompanied by a wave of power that immediately collapsed the structure around them. In a minute, the entire underground city was collapsing on the ground, burying everyone who still remained in it. The last will of Atalan broke, letting the waters fall on what was now a tomb for Halia, and all the other telchines who had been fighting there before.

What had been a battlefield, was enveloped as silence, and soon enough, darkness.

Far, far away, now that the illusion had dispelled and she had returned to her own body, Mors woke up in the ground where her body had once collapsed.

“Stop!”

She screamed again, a wave of death quickly spreading before she was suddenly knocked out.

Hours passed, and she woke up in a place she didn’t recognize. After a while, she could see Yatro far away, in the distance. Between Yatro and her, there was an enormous barren field that was not there last time she saw. Why?

The reason came to her mind, as she slowly remembered what had happened. She cried, as she felt her own soul feel whole. The phantom pain she had dealt with for decades had become numbness, causing a heartbreaking pain instead.

She wanted to scream again, but this time, nothing came out. She was absolutely exhausted, and simply started crying. She started crying her heart out, regretting with all her soul the moment she had lost track of her son. She regretted the moment she escaped the shrine to meet with that guard that had aided her. She regretted ever getting entangled with him, falling for him, she regretted having gone on with the pregnancy even when everyone told her it was an absolutely terrible idea.

How could any of it be worth it when this pain was all she was left with now?

Eventually, her tears dried out. She didn’t want to move, but she had to leave wherever she was eventually. Only then she noticed that she had been tied to the ground with several glowing stakes.

“I’m sorry.”

Mors looked up, from out of nowhere, Wisdom had appeared. At this point, she didn’t even have the energy to feel angry at her.

“I’m truly, truly sorry.” Wisdom repeated sitting in front of Mors, at a prudent distance. “I don’t know if you can believe me, but I never wanted anything of this to happen.”

Mors did not respond. Her words barely registered, and in her heart, she already intuited them to begin with. When she had gone to the light, to find out what the portal was, she had told her all that was going on. How she wanted to give those who wanted to fight to the end a chance to do so, and how she did not want to risk Ases wanting to take part of it now that he had reunited with his family again.

How ironic wasn’t it? For all the secretism had worked for in the end.

She thought of Ases and surprisingly, she didn’t find anger, nor hate. No, she had seen his eyes. Those were not the eyes of someone who wanted to kill. If anything, the only thing she could see were the same scared eyes that had looked at her for so many years now. No matter how much she tried to fix things, he never could let go of his fear of her, and in the end, he looked at her, fully convinced that she would kill him right there.

She thought she did, but she could also feel a piece of herself far, far away. He was still alive, probably having to claw his way out of the rubble and swimming his way back to the surface of the ocean. Who knows how long it would take him to get back.

If he returned… it may be better if he did not. The grief was absolutely crushing, but she did not want to see him again. She could only think that if she met him, she may regret what she would do. Pain was all she felt, but the seeds of rage were budding in the depth of herself. As she was, she may be able to bring him a destiny worse than death, and the worst thing was, she was trying to find it.

She was thinking about how to punish him. How to make him eternally regret the horrible transgression he had committed. She had allowed him to live, and this was the way he repaid her? Taking her son’s life away?

No… Her son’s life was already forfeit, in a way, and she always knew. As much as she didn’t want to entertain even the thought, she knew that when the telchines razed the entire earth, neither he nor she would be able to escape alive. Had she been preparing for this, somewhere deep in her heart?

She could not find an answer to that.

Eventually, Wisdom let her go, and both of them walked back into the city. People received them with anxiety, as if they expected good news, only to be received with absolute silence. The lack of a message was enough of a message itself. The crowd dispersed, desperation fully sinking in everyone’s hearts.