Thirteen ships. An omen, much like battling beneath the full moon on Zamael Waxing. The other ships of the armada were on their way to Cherin's Point with their holds full of rescued Islanders. These final thirteen carried the coalition's best warriors to the final extraction point. As the ships neared the shore of Caleel, not a soul on them spoke.

Rain fell from a cloudless sky. The Everrain structure, a sprawling building that was wider than Saphirhold, if lacking height, had been leveled to rubble. The shattered remnants of the Tranquil Throne were laid to waste upon the shore beside broken visages of the Love Queen and the First Mahagan. Alas, if it were only that, Alexia would have managed to keep her courage.

Alexia sailed into a nightmare worse than anything she ever imagined possible. The remains of thousands of Mahagans were on gruesome display. The men were all dead, except one, their decaying faces contorted in pain and their body parts scattered and devoured. The women were stripped, their bodies covered in scratches and varying levels of dismemberment; some were missing one or both eyes, others missing hands, arms, feet, legs, or mutilated in the breasts. Lions surrounded the captive women and moved among them. The women themselves were still and silent, eyes to the sand. Alive but lifeless, like dolls belonging to a cruel child. A dozen empagong formed a ring around the captives. The sight alone made Alexia queasy, but the scent of all the death and decay made her retch.

This was a reminder of what was at stake. A prelude to what was to come in Leveria. Would this be her fate if she were captured? Kept like a pet, spirit broken, body mutilated?

Alexia wasn't proud, but she felt an urge to command Captain Makeba to turn the ship and flee. She didn't want to look at this. Didn't want to become this. She felt like a coward.

Sea Lion reached the landing zone first. Leoquo was the first to leap into the waters of his home shore. He was followed by dozens of somber Waterrunners, their expressive faces telling the story of their pain better than any words Alexia could find within herself. Women leapt into the air, joining the men as they reached the shore. Among them, Alexia heard the mighty Masozi calling out for her daughter, who had been one of the Sultan's honormaids before the Chimaera came to the Everrain. She was far from alone in searching for loved ones left behind.

Yet, even if they found a loved one on the shore, Alexia wondered how much of their loved one remained, dismembered, disfigured, and discouraged. None of the names called out were answered. Not a soul on the beach stirred as their family and friends came to save them. They were broken things deprived of their humanity and will.

The Mahagan Spears reclaimed the edge of the shore without contest from the Tamed upon the beach. The two Volqori and the remaining Sapphire ships dropped their rowboats into the water. Captain Makeba called for Alexia, Azi, Garrond, and the Redeemed Men to board their rowboat. Alexia didn't want to follow that order. She didn't want to step foot on that beach. The biggest reason why announced its arrival.

A lion roared from the ruins of the Everrain and Alexia knew that it was a more powerful roar than any natural lion could make. Daichin ezen Celegan awaited her. She wanted to retreat within herself. Alexia hesitated at the rail while Azi, Sir Gyan, and several of the Redeemed Men loaded in. Every part of her resisted this reality. She didn't look up to see the chimaera. Her mind rejected truth and yearned to retreat into a fantasy where this day never was.

Garrond grabbed her arm and she met his eyes. He stared at her for several turns before speaking. "He will not have you," he promised. He gripped her arm tighter, but not painfully, as he tethered her to reality. "I will not let him take you."

Reluctantly, she nodded, exhaled as much of her fear as she could, and climbed into the rowboat. She sat shoulder-to-shoulder with Azi and hugged herself. Her body rattled with tremors. She didn't look up at the gruesome remains of the Mahagans nor the roaring chimaera. Azi had no words for the situation either. The princess reached her little finger out and Alexia intertwined it with hers. Doubts crept in, she didn't want this to be the last time she and Azi conjoined themselves as sisters bonded by love, not blood.

None of the Tamed lions roared. None of the empagong sang. None of the captives cried. The dead had no voices. The living were too afraid to use theirs. The only sounds were the lapping of oars against water, water against ships, bodies pushing through water, waves rolling into the beach, and the eternal patter of the Rains of Dalazuli. The rain descended from a cloudless, sunny sky and landed upon them as soon as the sea met the shore.

One sound conquered them all. The chimaera roared, loud enough to drown the sounds of the thousand lions on that beach into the mewling of a housecat. Alexia tried to tune it out while the boat lowered. It did not work. It was all she could think about. Alexia tried not to look but she lifted her eyes and saw the three-headed beast waiting just beyond the captives. A man with ashen complexion stood beside the beast wielding a meladonite scythe glistening with blood, naked from the waist down, he wore what Alexia imagined had been Sultan Leono's lion hide vest.

The chimaera exceeded her expectations in the worst way. The beast was an eldritch monstrosity unlike any she had ever seen and even the skulls in Theos's rooms didn't prepare her for its horrific grandeur. The lion head was at the forefront of the beast, and its silver eyes shone with light. The head was larger than any ten lion heads combined and stacked atop a robust thirty-foot-long torso with four thick, powerful legs as high as she was and several times thicker. Conjoined to the horror's right shoulder, was a black-haired ram head roughly half the size of the lion head. The ram's eyes were just as silver and its ivory horns spiraled, creating a half circle that pointed its electricity conduction toward its opponents. Trailing behind the torso like a tail was the dark-green serpent. The snake's body was at least fifty feet long and wide enough to swallow a person whole. It lifted a serpentine face full of teeth above the terror's left shoulder. Even the serpent's eye slits were silver, reminding her again that Daichin ezen Celegan was a lightseer and he made the world's perfect killing machine even more deadly. Especially to a cognitive-affectomancer.

The rains of Dalazuli were legendary for their soothing effect, which was in large part given credit for the peace that reigned from the Everrain as Mahagan sultans mediated clan disputes in the Serena. Alas, Alexia had never been less soothed in her life.

She closed her eyes and tried to wish herself out of this situation. Alas, that was one magical power she could never possess. The boat thumped into the shore and Alexia opened her eyes. She waited until everyone else was out, Azi half-dragging her until her feet touched shallow water and white sand.

The survivors on the beach were already lost. They couldn't defeat the chimaera. All the Redeemed Men would lay crushed in the sands. Garrond would be overpowered. Not even being aboard Sea Lion would preserve Theos from the ram's lightning. Azi would die, crumpled up on the shores of her dreams. Daichin would capture Alexia. She would fail. Nothing would stop the wave of Celegans as they spread over the whole world. Every civilization would vanish as if all the world had ever been was the Celegan Empire.

The coalition armada gathered at the shore with tension that mimicked her own. Mahagans looked for people they knew and loved, sometimes finding them but the shells of those loved ones on the beach refused to look at them when their names were cried. Whatever human spirit remained within them had been tamed. One Mahagan man was among the captives, on his knees with the Shadow's scythe at his back. Like every other captive on the beach, he was naked and haggard. Despite the severe gashes to the man's torso and his castration, the likeness was unmistakable.

"Father!" Leoquo called.

"Son." Sultan Leono Mahagan spoke with the forlornness of a man who had just been stripped of whatever hope he had left. The hoarse, weak sounds that emerged from his wasting body were not the roars of a lion, but the dying sounds of a house cat.

Leoquo lifted his spear with two hands and bowed to the broken statues of the Love Queen and the First Mahagan. The Lion Prince pointed his weapon at the chimaera. "You are not welcome on these sands, monster! You who bring war and hate where there should only be peace and love! You who taint the Rains of Dalazuli with your evil! You will be gone from here this day!"

The lions within the circle of captives rose at once, all turning to Leono, ready to pounce. The chimaera's lion head let out a monstrous roar that made Alexia want to crawl back into the sea. She covered her ears but the roar pierced her weak shield. It carried, never losing strength, as hundreds of soldiers at the tip of the beach raised their hands to their ears. None of the women on the beach tried to mute the sound, sitting in the sand, eyes down. Completely broken. Hopeless.

Alexia breathed short, anxious breaths even after the chimaera went quiet. The Shadow approached, scythe in hand, arms spread in welcome, grinning as if this was the greatest day of his life. He too exceeded Alexia's expectations in the worst way. He was nearly as large as Zander, scars covering a seven-foot frame of solid muscle.

Alas, the Shadow was not shaven like a Mahagan. Dark hair covered a sallow chest and created a balding patch atop his oblong head. He grew no facial hair, an oddity on this wild man. Gray, dead eyes stared out from a scarred face conveying naught but contempt, despite grinning wide with a mouth of decaying teeth. The Rains of Dalazuli fell on him, but no water would purify this creature's soul.

He spoke in a guttural bastardization of the Leverian tongue as he placed his scythe at the Sultan's neck. "The Son of the Conqueror and the Queen born atop the Goddess, the Great Ezen, the One Master of Celegana's Earth, Daichin ezen Celegan, has decided that you shall have a choice in your fate."

"What choice do we have!" Leoquo screamed.

The Shadow grinned maliciously. He removed his scythe from the Sultan's throat. "Surrender the Great Dreamer and the Khorota and you may take the pretender and all of your women aboard the evil tree horses."

Alexia tried to stay tethered to reality, to have all her eyes here on this beach where she was needed. Yet, three eyes she had, and one looked forward, knowing that there was no evil that Daichin wouldn't descend to in order to possess her. Another eye looked back at all the kinship she had shared with Leoquo and still doubted it would be enough. Nor should it be. She knew what decision Leoquo should make. One person's life wasn't worth thousands. Her last eye stayed in the moment, resigned to whatever fate Leoquo Mahagan and Daichin ezen Celegan decided for her.

Garrond wouldn't abide by the decision. He brandished Dust and the Redeemed Men and the Sapphires in the armada emulated. The Sapphire forces formed a protective ring around Alexia and Azi. The Mahagans turned toward them, spears pointed. The bonds of their alliance broke beneath the pressure to save countless loved ones on the beach who had lived through the worst hell humanity could offer. Leoquo glanced from his father toward Alexia and Azi. Tears brimmed his eyes as he held fate in his hands.

Beside her, Azi released a sob of pure agony. "I don't want to die," she muttered, gripping Alexia's hand and squeezing with a strength only the threat of death could produce.

Alexia knew she should plead for her life and freedom. But how could she ask this man to doom his own father and the family and friends of the people who stood beside him? If it had been her parents and the families of her army on that beach, would she have hesitated? She didn't know and she didn't want to imagine being in Leoquo's position. She couldn't speak for her own freedom. She would not.

Miraculously, she had forgotten about the Shadow. "Or you all die and we pry them from your dead hands!"

The chimaera's lion head roared. The tense Mahagans and Sapphires recoiled beneath its might.

Leoquo stared across the white sands into Alexia's eyes. Alexia nodded. "One life is not worth thousands," Alexia told him. "Free your people, Leoquo!"

"No," Garrond and Azi snapped in synchronized reprimand.

Azi dug her heels into the sand and addressed Leoquo with the wrath and the wisdom of a true sultana. "See clearly for once in your life! Fight for our freedom! Don't abandon what we have!"

Leoquo's chin and lips quivered. Tears gathered, almost ready to burst from him as he gazed at Azurianna—the woman he loved, no matter what he said of having half a heart.

The sultan spoke from beneath the chimaera at the edge of the scythe's razor. "When the sun sets on my life, another son will rise. Fear not, Leoquo. Love will never let go."

Leoquo clenched his teeth and sobbed. He met his father's misty eyes and nodded. His gaze met Alexia's and then settled onto Azi's. His chin and mouth became firm and fixed. Azi's death grip on Alexia's hand tightened like a vice as the Rains of Dalazuli pattered on the top of her head. Leoquo tilted his head in obeisance to her.

"The Lion answers!" he called, turning back toward the Chimaera and the Shadow. The Sapphire and the Mahagan forces both tensed, the edge of their weapons aimed at each other. "There will be no bargains! There will be no ultimatums!" Leoquo roared.

He set his eyes back upon his beloved Azi. His voice unbreakable, like love connecting two hearts for eternity. "Love will never let go. The Mahagan are born to be free. From now til the end of eternity!" He strode up the beach, passing between prides of tamed lions and entering the circle of empagong. His spear held in one hand and his other on his chest. "Let us see if you can pry her from my hands, Shadow!"

The Shadow's lips curled into a snarl. He bared his teeth in a dark facsimile of a smile. "I was hoping you would say that." The scythe swung, reaping Sultan Leono Mahagan's proud head from his shoulders. The sultan's body fell into the sands of Caleel beneath the Rains of Dalazuli. His life's blood soaked into the island.

For a fleeting moment, every soul on the beach was too shocked to react.

Then mayhem ensued.

Leoquo led the Mahagan Spears up the beach with a bellow. Lions tore into the captive women. The chimaera moved like a demon, lashing with the venom-spitting snake, ejecting lightning from the ram's horns, and snapping captives in half with the lion's massive maw then spitting their remains into other survivors. The thirteen empagong rushed forth, too numerous for Azi to contain them at once. The reunited Mahagan and Sapphire forces fought up the beach and into the Rains of Dalazuli with their blue brothers and red sisters from Volqor. Lightning streaked from the cloudless sky as an ancient cognitive-affectomancer sent an empagong crashing into the sand. Thunder boomed, vying with the roars of lions.

Alexia tried to steady her mind and focus, yet she was shaken. The battle moved forward while she froze.

"I cannot," Azi groaned. Alexia glanced aside at her friend. Azi's face strained, the whites of her eyes were more red than white, and blood started gushing out of her nostrils and ears, dripping from her eyes. She screamed and closed her eyes. A moment later, she fell to her knees and heaved. "I cannot," she cried. "I cannot move him." She sobbed. "He's too strong."

Alexia gazed up the beach at the chimaera. The lion head bared its teeth at her as the other two heads brought carnage and death upon the coalition and the Mahagan captives. Alexia tried to lead with love but she wasn't innocent anymore. The lion glared at her, taunting her, looming over her, and savoring her struggle. No, love would not guide her here. Hatred powered her now.

"The chimaera accepts the bond. I cannot defeat him," Azi wailed.

"I can," Alexia answered, finding a cold judgment swell within her.

Theos Stormkin lit the battlefield with blasts of lighting. Other cognitive-affectomancers mixed lightning with the Rains of Dalazuli. Fire and Ice melded together as dragon warriors toppled empagong. Lions tore into unarmed and naked women trying to flee down the beach. Mahagan men moved with the fluidity of water as they danced between gnashes and answered with slashes. Mahagan women leapt into the air, plunging down on prides of tamed lions. Sapphireguard and Admiral Bluvein's Tempests fought beside them with sword and shield. The snake head knocked down half a dozen Mahagan Spears and the ram destroyed them with thunderous echoes. Azi, the most beautiful soul Alexia knew, was several shades paler than she usually was, her hands and knees pressed into the wet, white sands as she bled upon them.

The beauty of the human spirit was juxtaposed with the hideousness of humanity. The unified armada had brought people together from all over the world and fought to protect their beautiful world from one man who would strip away all freedom, all diversity, all goodness for the sake of some twisted, ugly vision of oneness. Alexia had to protect her vulnerable, beautiful world from the ugly might of the Chimaera. All the people living in this world, from the white shores of Caleel where the Rains of Dalazuli had blessed the Everrain with serenity, to the military encampments beneath the endlessly flowered Covademara in Mirrevar where love would flow again, to the Frostmelt where fire and ice merged into a risen paradise far above the sea and below the beating of dragon wings, to the lush, jungle cities of Kavova where thousands of species of life teemed with endless possibility, to the fonts of knowledge in the Arcanium or at Leverian University where scholars unlocked the secrets of life, to all the lands that needed to be safeguarded, and for the memory of the beautiful desert city of Malhaya built on the world's largest lake, for the savannahs of the Heiyan city-states where Hana once presided over a people as golden and graceful as the world had ever known, for the Great Atmana Forest where people had achieved a perfect connection with the creatures of the wood, and for all the little girls born in the Celegan Hollows, into a life where from the moment they were born they were enslaved and oppressed by the Chimaera. For the Redeemed Men who had never faltered in their path or in their devotion, even when they lost their comrades. For Garrond whose icy heart slowly thawed as he saw her with new eyes. For Theos who had always seen her and helped her see herself as the beautiful person she could be. For Leoquo and Azi, whose beautiful hearts deserved better than this.

The Chimaera was an apex predator, an archfiend, that had long escaped judgment for the ugliness it spread over land and into hearts. Alexia would not let it go unjudged any longer. She wouldn't stand, frozen by fear, helpless when she could help, when she could protect the vulnerable, beautiful people that fought for a future where all were free. Divine Qoryxa coursed through her and the hot, humid beach of Caleel might as well have been the frozen peak of Monzqora. Qoryxa's divine energy answered Alexia's heart, flocking to her from all across the world and the air around the battlefield grew sweltering and even Dust felt warm beside her as Alexia's body became one with ice. Erlos and Jonah stepped aside for her.

Alexia pointed Aurora toward the chimaera as it tore through a bondpair, and she rendered ice's judgment.

A beautiful lance of ice and frost, mightier than meladonite, burst from Alexia's staff. It sped toward the chimaera. The monster tried to twist out of the lance's path, jerking its body to the side, trying to avoid total annihilation from the one it sought to claim. The creature was fast, but so was the lance. Alexia retained control, twisting her aim with the movements of the monster.

Divine Qoryxa, a lover of the weak, of beauty, and hater of all things cruel and oppressive, lent Alexia her power, the ice spear doubling in size at the moment of collision. Alexia's judgment crashed into the ram's head. The head shattered, but the ice did not break. Ivory horns fell to the sand, shimmering with the conduction of electricity, before they too faded. Of the ram's head, nothing remained. The divine energy of the lance dispersed into the air and the beach became a winterscape as the Rains of Dalazuli froze, turning into snow.

The Mahagans, Volqori, and Sapphires on the beach erupted into rallying cheers, bolstered by this sign that victory was on the horizon. Alexia had returned with eyes of sunrise and the night of the Chimaera would soon end. They fought harder, toppling empagong and hordes of lions, while the chimaera's legs gave out beneath it, lion and serpent releasing cries of agony.

Alexia drew Qoryxa's divine energy back into herself and the air thawed, turning snow into freezing rain, then into warm water. A wave of lions and three empagong crashed toward her, disrupting her focus. The Redeemed Men and Garrond went to work protecting her and Azurianna. Azi tried to rally, scrambling to her feet and glaring down one of the empagong. Alexia fell back, positioning herself into a pocket of safety as she built another lance for the chimaera. The wounded archfiend struggled to get off the ground, making an easy target. Aurora lit icy white and Alexia released her focus, forging the lance that would annihilate the lion head.

Shimmering white ice blasted toward the unmoving chimaera. Vindictive judgment flowed through Alexia's veins as she jousted with the power of a Divine and screamed for all the people she had failed to protect and all she would not. The lion glared ahead, its silver eyes flashed, blinding the beach with radiance. Alexia shielded her eyes. When she lifted them, the ice lance had vaporized and Qoryxa's divine energy dispersed throughout the world, returning from whence it came.

Much like he had in the ogre cave, Daichin knew how to dispel her magic with those silver eyes of Isihla. Alexia would have to hit him by surprise if she wanted to defeat him.

The smiling lion winked at her as it regained its feet and bounded down the beach, crashing into waves of coalition forces. The serpent tail swept wide and swallowed a flame-haired dragon warrior whole. In front of Alexia, a lion tore out Temos's throat—downing the sweet boy that had saved her life back in the Maypine Forest. Beside her, an empagong leapt into the air and landed with tens of thousands of pounds of force. Three Redeemed Men were crushed, including honorable Willem. Too late, Azi freed the empagong and it moaned its melancholy song as it fled the beach, leaving Alexia's companions lifeless in its wake.

Alexia felt her failures growing and chose hatred and rage instead of hopelessness and sorrow. She harnessed the climate and her emotions. Her icy vindication became a roaring inferno as she drew in Seraxa's fires. Once more, the rains turned cold and flurries fell upon the beach. She displaced the energy, so that a massive wave of fire would burst from beneath the chimaera, giving it no chance to flash its silver eyes and nullify Seraxa's rage.

Screaming from the flames overflowing into her body, Alexia prepared to incinerate the monster as she heated the ground. The gold choker clamped around her neck and Alexia immediately felt her connection to the Divine being severed by the binds of gold. The air regained its balance as Seraxa's heat fled her body and staff.

Alexia was thrown to the ground. She crashed face first into the sand, biting her tongue. Dazed, her mouth filling with blood, she scrambled forward on all fours to escape the Shadow.

She reached her feet and dared a glance back. Garrond dueled the Shadow as the Redeemed Men fended off lions and an empagong. Unfortunately, the Commander of the Azureknights, Leveria's finest swordsman, was outmatched by the Shadow and his meladonite scythe. The Shadow disappeared and reappeared behind Garrond and he was blurred with afterimages projecting five of him. The scythe arced low and Garrond tried to dodge. He stepped out of reach of four of the blurred images. But he didn't dodge the one that mattered.

Sir Garrond the Dust crashed to the ground as the scythe swept his calves, the meladonite on meladonite collision leaving dents in Garrond's indestructible greaves. Alexia screamed his name and tried, frantically, to break the golden choker but it was locked around her neck with a meladonite clasp. She would never channel divine energy again if she couldn't get the key.

Daichin had done this to her before, in the ogre cave. Either the key would be on the Shadow or he would have learned and hidden it. The Shadow looked like a wild beast fueled only by hatred as his hideous face lifted his scythe with sadistic glee. She screamed Garrond's name as the meladonite scythe descended to finish the legendary king killer. A spear snagged the scythe before it connected, causing it to careen into the ground beside Garrond's head.

"I've waited too long for this!" the Shadow jeered.

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Leoquo Mahagan tried to deflect the scythe but the Shadow was too fast. The meladonite reaper broke Leoquo's steel spear in two with a hideous metallic sound. The Shadow disappeared. Leoquo used his fluid movement to twist and he claimed a sword from the sands.

Azi watched the fight, all her attention on Leoquo and the Shadow rather than on unbinding empagong. "Leoquo!" she screamed, charging forward.

The princess slammed her body into the Shadow's side as he reappeared behind Leoquo. Azi threw him off-balance and he stumbled to the side. She rammed into him again, tossing him to the sand.

"Khorota!" the Shadow howled, he faded and Leoquo's sword struck sand. His voice came from nothing as he circled around them. "Khorota! I will leave you on death's edge for as long as you can last. I will break you until you wish you were never born!"

"You will not hurt her!" Leoquo swung at the voice but his sword hit nothing but air. Azi closed her eyes, trying to use her wilder senses to find the Shadow.

Alexia drew Sunfire. Across the beach, the chimaera flickered out the flame of life as bondpairs, dragon warriors, and soldiers fell to the lion and the serpent. Closer, Redeemed Men struggled with the pride of lions in their midst. Esrak took a bite to the leg and crashed to his knee. He howled out in agony before another lion pierced his throat and larynx with its claws. The Jonahs executed the lions, but Esrak would die on this shore if Alexia could not liberate her powers. She needed to kill the Shadow and find the choker's key.

A charging empagong commanded all their focus. Garrond rushed toward it and lightning blasted down upon the massive tortoise, staggering it in time for Garrond to slice up into the soft spot under its neck.

"Leoquo!" Azi shrieked.

Before she had even finished warning him, the scythe sliced into Leoquo's back. The Last Mahagan crashed into the ground, face down. He tried to stand, but collapsed back into the sand. His crying eyes settled on Azi. "I love you," he mouthed, his voice weak, but his love too strong to carry to his grave unspoken.

Shrieking, Azi ran to Leoquo's side, screaming his name into the uncaring rain. Alexia wanted to comfort her best friend, her sister, but knew that everyone's lives, including Leoquo's, depended on her freeing herself from the gold choker that cinched her throat and severed her from the Divine.

The ground rumbled as another empagong fell. Garrond stood beside it with Dust coated in green slime and black blood. Just beside Garrond, Jonah the Younger clung to his dying father. The Shadow reemerged amongst the final survivors of the Redeemed Men. He lifted his scythe and narrowly missed Erlos. On his backswing, he drove Erlos to the ground, striking him hard in the head with the shaft of the scythe.

Alexia charged the Shadow before he reaped the unconscious Erlos. She thrust her rapier at this monster, knowing but not caring how outclassed she was. She played with the advantage of knowing he couldn't use lethal force on her and hoped his hesitation would be enough for her, or her allies, to bring him down. He grinned, his hideous black teeth showing, in all five images. With ease, he slapped Sunfire from her hands and threw her to the sand. He split Nico in half from head to heel right down his spine before she had even finished kissing the sand. In two more heartbeats, Simon and Sein were down, tops severed from bottoms. Screaming, Alexia tore hopelessly at the golden choker and the Shadow laughed as he parried Garrond's slice. The scrape of meladonite on meladonite was a cacophony.

The Sapphires rallied to Alexia and Azi's position. Led by Sir Gyan they joined Garrond in fighting the Shadow. The Shadow danced between Sapphires and lions, blinking in-and-out of existence. His scythe bloodier each time he materialized. Sir Gyan, Azi's sworn shield for over a decade, took a blow directly between the eyes and tumbled to the sand. The Rains of Dalazuli washed his blood into the white shore.

The Shadow was a force of death, but for all that, Alexia could not focus on the Shadow alone. The Chimaera charged toward them, his silver eyes wide with delight at the sight of Alexia bound by the choker.

"You will not have her!" Garrond howled, standing between Alexia and the eldritch horror.

The lion roared and the force of its foul breath threw both Garrond and Alexia off their feet. He managed to roll aside and avoid the lion's massive maw. Gripping Dust, Garrond drove it into the lion's underbelly. The blade pierced flesh and the lion head let out a pained howl. The serpent head undercut the chimaera's torso and sent Dust flying across the sands. Garrond reached for his blade, but caught the brunt force of the chimaera's serpentine tail.

Alexia's body hurt everywhere. She struggled to find the hope or the strength to keep fighting. She looked up in time to see the Shadow's scythe claim a fleeing Jonah, ripping the boy's legs off and spilling his torso and blood. He would have a few moments of excruciating pain before the mercy of death found him. Every Redeemed Man and all of Calden's Caravan were down or dead. None of Sir Gyan's Sapphireguard were left to fight. This entire section of the beach was layered with an assortment of lion, empagong, and human corpses while the coalition armada lost on the other side of the beach as well. Scarred, traumatized women limped to shore where some Windjumpers helped them onto decks, but more of the captives were mauled or crushed than reached the Endless Blue.

Alexia cried on the ground, as the failure she was. She felt a fool. She failed to kill Chimaera. Let the Shadow bind her powers. Led all of her protectors and her best friend to their deaths. Narrowly focused on the chimaera, she had underestimated the Shadow and her mistake had cost them all. Now she was powerless to fight either Shadow or Chimaera. Bound by unbreakable gold, she was powerless.

Garrond fought to evade the lion and the serpent, but even he would fail to protect her. The serpent slammed into his torso, sending him flying twenty feet in the air. Garrond crashed into the water. He didn't rise as waves washed over him. It was over. It was lost. Hope faded as the silver-eyed beast loomed over her, ready to make his claim.

Only one thing kept the tiniest flickering flame of resistance burning in her. Azi huddled over Leoquo's body, making unintelligible sounds in her widow's distress. Azi tried to will him back up.

The Shadow gripped Azi's throat, lifted her off the ground in one armed deathgrip. Azi gagged, battling for air. She kicked at him. She clawed at his arm. Not even the princess built like her mighty father could free herself from the Shadow's grasp.

Alexia Bluerose tried, one more time. She crawled out from underneath the lion's smiling face, reclaimed Sunfire, and charged silently toward the horrid man.

The Shadow hollered with laughter. He threw Azi aside and braced for Alexia's final charge. He pivoted, evaded Alexia's thrust, and slammed an open-handed palm into Alexia's forehead.

She didn't even remember falling. When Alexia opened her eyes again, the Shadow was atop Azi, breaking her face with his bone-crushing fists. Her friend's pained cries were daggers to the heart. Instinctively, she reached for Leverith, needing to heal her friend's pain, but the gold cut off her connection to the Divine.

Garrond was up again, wielding his belt knife, against the deadliest creature on the planet. Theos Stormkin tried his best to even the odds. Lightning blasted down on the beast, staggering it just enough to give Garrond a chance to reach for Dust. The serpent lashed out, striking Garrond in the chest. Once more, Leveria's mightiest swordsman was thrown into the air, Dust soaring out of his grasp.

Alexia crawled toward Azi. The Shadow's hateful battery went well beyond what was necessary to neutralize her. Bones broke in her face and cracked further with each blow. He tore her clothes off and scratched at her breasts and neck, interspersing his savagery with bites and punches. He was a feral, rabid beast, an inhuman demon that only wanted to inflict pain. The princess's cries grew weaker and her consciousness faded.

Alexia regained her feet, unsteady, even lacking her rapier or her staff, she charged at the Shadow. She crashed into him, but he didn't even budge. She slammed her fist into the Shadow's face and she doubted he hurt as much as her knuckles ached.

He grunted, annoyed as a giant might be when bit by an insect, and tossed Alexia over his shoulders. From his high shoulders, she saw the surviving dragon warriors, Mahagan Spears, and Sapphireguard surrounded by empagong and lions, yet her focus was elsewhere. She pounded on the back of the Shadow's head, but she might as well have been an unruly toddler throwing a tantrum while her father carried her toward judgment. The blows were a distraction, as she searched for where he might hide the key.

There was only one place it could be. In the sultan's vest, one pocket. One hope. Alexia contorted, reaching over the back of his shoulders. Pretending at punching his kidneys, she reached for the pocket.

His malicious tease made her angry enough that she wished a yasmar upon him. "Uh, Uh," he tut-tutted. The Shadow blocked her from reaching the pocket, pulling her away. He unceremoniously threw her at the feet of the Chimaera.

The lion's roar pressed her into the sand with hurricane gale force. The chimaera's sickening breath smelt of blood and metal, the classic scents of battlefield death, and something more toxic that was native to its own hideousness. She pushed herself off the sand, determined to make another attempt at the Shadow's pocket. She was on both knees, prostrated before the Chimaera when the Shadow seized her again. From her collar, he yanked and ripped her robes. Alexia slapped at him, the memories of Dax and the Sentinel gate guards sparking within her.

"Let the Great Ezen see his claimed as Celegana made her."

Alexia screamed for mercy and begged him not to, but the Shadow laughed as he stripped her. Her garments in tatters, breasts and belly exposed to all, Alexia slammed into him, trying to push forward enough to wrap her arms around him and reach the pocket of his lion-hide vest.

He pinned her arms behind her, then slammed her to the sand. His body was on top of her and she felt him hunger with lust, his engorging penis pressing into her leg as he held her wrists to the sand. He finished stripping away her torn garments, until nothing but skin touched the sand as the heavens cried down upon them.

The lion head of the chimaera roared wrathfully. The Shadow shook with fear for two turns before mastering himself. When he lifted Alexia into the air, presenting her to Daichin ezen Celegan, all she wore was the golden choker and the tears that streamed down her face. She looked into the creature's silver eyes, seers gleaming with hope. The Chimaera released a husky ruff and both the serpent and the lion head nodded, their monstrous faces showing pure delight.

The Shadow held her up, his voice a vile whisper. "The Great Ezen approves. You will restore the wholeness of our world and make it one again."

Alexia closed her eyes. Azi, Leoquo, Garrond, Erlos, Jonah, the rest of the Redeemed Men and Calden's Caravan, the Sapphires, Mahagans, and Volqori…

It was lost and now she was Daichin's. Alexia looked forward and imagined a life without Azi, a life where she was kept naked and animals ravaged her, a life where she was at the mercy of the cruelest men in the world, a monster who thought himself savior. Hope died and she gave in to her fate. The only satisfaction she had left was that she would never willingly give the Chimaera what he wanted with her. That was all she had left to look forward to. And maybe, just maybe, her Elior would come rescue her. She clung to that thought. Her life wasn't over.

Zander lived on. He would come for her. Alexia clutched to that final hope in her heart because it was all she had left.

The Shadow lifted his voice above the sound of the rolling waves and raindrops. "The Great Dreamer will mend—"

Lightning slammed down on the lion head. The gargantuan thunder blast knocked the Shadow and Alexia backward several feet. The chimaera was staggered and Theos Stormkin was spent. Alexia scrambled away from the Shadow and raced toward Dust. Another beat her to it.

An ebony-skinned man flowed over the sand with fluidity, claiming the meladonite iceblade. The Last Mahagan let out a roar worthy of a lion, the greatest roar the world had ever heard, as he leapt toward the chimaera, Dust held in both hands over his head. "For Ulani!"

The serpent head writhed on the ground as blood poured from the chimaera's severed tail in rivers.

Garrond retrieved a spear from the sands and tossed it to Leoquo. Dust returned to the hands of its master. The corralled coalition answered the lion's call, fighting once more against the Tamed.

Alexia stood, searching for the Shadow, and the chance that she might claim the key and free her power. The corpses of people and lions covered the beach and the sands had nearly as much red as white. The cries of the dying greeted her ears alongside the screams of those who fought on. Naked, mutilated Mahagan women dashed into the water to escape the shores of Caleel.

Empagong continued to rampage and the Volqori, Mahagan, and Sapphire forces were driven into the sea despite their renewed efforts. Soon, the empagong would assault the ships in waters too shallow for the ribaia to protect them. Fortunately, some of their fleet had already began to sail out to sea with whatever life they had salvaged. Others were attempting to join them, even though their hulls were not at capacity. Of the Shadow, Alexia saw no sign.

"Alexia!"

Alexia glanced back at Garrond and the man who had impossibly come back from death's door to fight with more strength than she had ever seen. Leoquo met her eyes and Alexia did a double take. It wasn't Leoquo's dark eyes staring at her, but Azi's sapphire blues peering out of his face. "Take my heart and go!"

Before Alexia could object, Leoquo stepped aside of the lion's pounce, sending a counterthrust at its neck. Dust sliced into the lion's side, barely breaking through the magical hide. The chimaera was weakened, missing two heads, but Garrond and Leoquo still had to contend with the most powerful head of all and its monstrous body. She lingered, knowing how this would end for them. They were trading their lives for her and Azi's.

"Go!" Garrond bellowed.

Tears in her eyes, Alexia was back in Ferrickton. One knight being charged by a militia force he couldn't contend with. She wasn't innocent anymore. All she could do was her best and her best was not good enough to fight this creature with this gold choker suffocating her powers. She grabbed Sunfire and Aurora, knowing they were playthings beside the skill and size of the Shadow and the Chimaera.

Alexia dashed toward Azi and the ships only to see the Shadow step into existence between her and her best friend.

"No, no, no," he whispered, shaking his head. "The khorota dies today and I am going to make you watch," the Shadow's whisper burst into an enraged scream, "as I make her suffer!"

Alexia looked around for anything or anyone to help. Erlos stumbled to his feet. The last of the Redeemed Men limped toward her. His head was indented from taking a strike from the shaft of the scythe earlier.

He stood between Alexia and the Shadow. "You have been a great guide in this hard life we lived," Erlos said. "We have been redeemed, but you, you are not to the end of your road. No easy death for you, Alexia."

Alexia could not fucking take one more divinedamned friend dying on her on this divinedamned beach to this divinedamned monster. "Erlos, run!"

The barrel-chested man lifted his head and raised his shoulders. He carried no weapon but faith.

Shadow laughed with mockery. "Worthless man, come die, the pretender that you are. Maybe I will kill you before you witness the extent of your failure."

The tears filled Alexia's eyes as Erlos charged toward the Shadow. The Shadow wound up his scythe, and his image blurred. His confident snarl and his hideous teeth flashed dark on this darkest day as storm clouds gathered over the beach. Erlos bounded forth toward his death. The soldier turned father turned slave turned deserter turned bandit turned Redeemed Man let out a scream, and lightning burst from his mouth, crashing into each image of the Shadow. Thrown to the ground, the five images of the Shadow returned to one.

Erlos's awakening, as often was the case, grew wild and uncontrolled. Lightning slammed into the beach, rending ground and kicking up sand. Lions were slaughtered by the bursts of divine energy and the empagong were rattled as their shells weathered the blasts of Erlos's protective heart.

Alexia saw one thing in the world. The prone Shadow and his unguarded pocket. She held Sunfire and Aurora, ready to bludgeon and thrust and kill. The freak clenched his teeth and light bent around him. He vanished, but Alexia still thrashed out with her weapons. She hit him with Aurora, sensing him stumble. Alexia swung madly, desperate to regain her powers as the chimaera roared at her back. Garrond and Leoquo were dying for her and she clung to the hope that she could save them if only she had the key.

After several swings of hitting nothingness, she shrieked into the Rains of Dalazuli. "Why don't you do the world a favor and die, you monster!" Alexia swung a few more times, hammering down at the sand, hoping that her blow had knocked him prone after Erlos's lightning blast.

Erlos's storm subsided, killing the majority of the Tamed on the beach. Untrained in cognitive-affectomancy, he wouldn't be able to reliably call upon his magic to help them again. The Redeemed Man claimed a spear from the sands and limped behind Alexia. "The princess."

Alexia nodded, recalled toward what was most important. Alexia would not have recognized Azi as the lifeform on the beach. Azi's face was a disfigured, bloody ruin, with one cheek caved in, her jaw shattered, several of her teeth missing. Her lungs struggled to work, her chest rising and falling in spurts, her consciousness was gone. The Shadow had ripped off her top and the corset. Azi's upper body was exposed to the rain and covered in injuries that would leave scarring. Alexia had never seen anything like it and to see it on the person she loved most in the world froze her for a few turns. She gasped, her hands covering her mouth and stifling her cry to Leverith.

Erlos scooped Azi up. "Come on, boss. Nothing more we can do."

Alexia, crying, gripped at the choker. "The key."

"Keys can be made and locks can be picked. Death is not so easily undone."

Behind them, the chimaera's lion head roared continuously. She dared not look back right now. An empagong barred their path to the water. "Azi, we need you."

Azi groaned. She could hear Alexia at least, but her mind was not in the shape to battle away a tamer strong enough to hold power over an empagong. Erlos huffed, struggling with Azi's weight in a body that had endured enough of its own trauma today.

Lightning slammed into the empagong, splitting its shell despite their magical resistance. "Save the princess and Alexia!" Theos commanded.

Captain Makeba leapt from Sea Lion and drove her spear into the exposed brain of the empagong. The great guardian fell to the sand.

"Take her," Alexia said. Makeba nodded, grabbed Azi, and leapt back to Sea Lion.

Alexia crashed into the sand, drained. Erlos hunched his back, gripping his thighs. Alexia put her hand on his shin and met his eyes. He grimaced, wiping sweat, blood, rain, and tears from his eye. He looked back at the beach where every one of his surviving comrades had fallen. "We did the best we could for you."

Alexia frowned. "You overcame darkness and embraced Leverith's light. You will be remembered as redeemed men."

Erlos tried not to cry by clenching his jaw tight. He nodded and exhaled as Makeba leapt back to the shore. "Until next time, Alexia," Erlos said as the Mahagan captain gripped her shoulder.

Alexia started to rise then swiftly fell as her world became covered in red. The first mate, Makeba's beloved Chikondi, cried out in sorrow and horror. Alexia wiped her eyes and saw Makeba's head and shoulder on the ground as her body collapsed. Erlos gave a grunt as the meladonite scythe buried into his chest. He coughed blood and it splattered on Alexia's face.

The Shadow retrieved his scythe and kicked Erlos to the ground. The descendant of Isihla and the Celegan Hollows snarled at Alexia with those hideous rotten teeth.

Alexia was tired, in every meaning of the word. She hit him in the ankle with Aurora, and he let out an angry growl of pain, but didn't stop. The Shadow seized Alexia, effortlessly disarmed her of her weapons with his superior strength and skill. He took liberties with his hands, holding her tight to him, knowing that Theos would not dare strike her too. She sensed the Shadow's weakness. All the damage he had taken left him nearly spent. She mounted a resistance, slamming her foot onto his and reached into his pocket for the key. Alexia's hands found her salvation, claiming the key from the pocket.

Frantically, she reached for her neck, unable to see the keyhole. Her hands shaking, she inserted it, but before she could twist the lock open, she was in the air, legs going over her head, faintly able to see the shaft of the scythe.

The back of her head landed hard on the wet sand. Rain pelted down on her and her lungs worked fervently to give her air. She clung to the key and twisted it in the choker's locking mechanism. The clasp released, flooding divine energy into her. She reached for Zafrir, quickly mentalizing the winds that would blow the Shadow away.

The Shadow slammed the bottom of his scythe into her gut. He fell on her, slammed the choker shut, and seized the key. Alexia jabbed at him, trying to hit his kidneys with enough force to win back the key. He rolled off her, and threw the key far up the beach toward Garrond, Leoquo, and the chimaera. Alexia charged him, leapt at him and bit into his neck, hoping to find the carotid artery. Blood sprayed on her face and the Shadow hammered her on the side of the head with his fist. The pain opened her mouth and he slammed her to the ground with his blood on her teeth.

He howled, in agonizing pain, as he left behind the scythe and chose to use one hand to hold his wound and the other to seize Alexia.

Alexia clawed and snapped. He stepped outside of her reach, using his long arm to seize her by the throat. Alexia slowed his ascent up the beach, her eyes going in and out of focus as her air supply was cut off. She fought her hardest until he tossed her to the sand and put his foot on her back. He pressed down, driving her into the Caleel shore, surrounded by the fallen. Rain pattered down on her head and her vision dazed. She tried to push herself up, but the Shadow pressed down harder, leaving her trapped beneath his bare foot.

Garrond's meladonite plate was battered. He looked like Zamael's Hells. Leoquo's back wound was bloodied and Alexia couldn't comprehend how he was still alive, let alone moving. She caught sight of his eyes again, and they were no longer blue. She wondered if it had been imagined.

The chimaera sat on its haunches. Blood spilled from its underbelly, but it looked triumphant and proud.

Alexia turned her head as the lion bent to lick her face clean of blood. With the last of the survivors loaded onto the ships, the final four tamed empagong climbed up the beach. Of the thirteen ships that had sailed to the Everrain, only Sea Lion remained in the bay. The others were diminishing shapes in the distance. Alexia hoped they were blessed with a safe voyage to Cherin's Point. No matter what happened now, the Mahagan people lived on.

The Shadow's neck blood dripped onto her naked back. His voice was weak. "The Great Ezen is impressed with how well you protect his empress, metal warrior. He offers you the choice to join the Great Dreamer and help her restore the Wholeness as she and the Great Ezen make the world one again."

Garrond looked not at the chimaera nor the Shadow. His blue eyes and flat, stoic face were for Alexia. "I spent my life hunting the man I hated and when I killed him I had nothing left to live for. For years, I followed orders and found no purpose in them." Garrond exhaled, gritting his teeth together. His voice came out as something other than stoic, brimming with heart, with passion, with love. "There is no place I would rather be than at your side. There is nothing I would rather do than protect you as you restore wholeness and make us one again. You have become the reason I live, Alexia." Garrond lifted Dust and turned to the Chimaera. "And I will be the reason you die." Garrond shouted, one word at a time, as he strode the space between him and Daichin ezen Celegan, "You! Will! Not! Have! Her!"

The lion answered Garrond with a series of roars. Powerful gales emerged from its maw and battered at Garrond. He covered his eyes and stood his ground. Again. And again. And once more. He was one man against an unbreakable force. He would be blown away soon enough. But, Sir Garrond the Dust, beloved sworn shield of Alexia Bluerose, was not alone.

The roaring ceased and the chimaera went still. A voice, one that made Alexia tremble, quaked from Sea Lion. "I cannot hold him for long."

The Wilder Princess was joined by her Lion Prince. Leoquo lifted his spear and threw it, piercing the lion head's silver eye.

From above, a massive spear of lightning merged with the Rains of Dalazuli and rattled the chimaera. For the second time in his life, Theos Stormkin sent a chimaera to die in the sands. Daichin crashed, clinging to life as he fought to free himself of Azi's mental grasp.

That one man lifted his sword and drove it to the hilt, into the other silver eye. Leoquo joined him, slamming another spear into the other great silver eye of the Chimaera. Garrond and Leoquo bellowed as they pressed their weapons through eye and into brain.

Without another roar, the third and final head of the chimaera died upon the shores of Caleel.

Alexia's smile didn't live long on her lips. The Shadow lifted her off the ground and wrapped his arm around her neck. He pulled her back with him, using the four empagong as shields and retrieved his scythe. Alexia could feel his snarling grin. "This is not the end, pretenders! Daichin ezen Celegan has a billion bodies and we have his Great Dreamer!"

"You have nothing, monster!" Azi shouted.

One-by-one the empagong let out their morose moans. Alexia had never been so happy to hear those soul-splitting sounds. They fled the shore, crying that ululating agony, leaving the Shadow alone with her.

"I will kill her!" the Shadow threatened an approaching Garrond. He put the edge of the scythe to Alexia's throat. Garrond drove his gauntleted fist into the Shadow's face.

The Shadow fell back, releasing Alexia, as his body rolled into the sand. He seized his scythe and scrambled toward the jungle. Garrond pursued him across the beach.

Leoquo grabbed Alexia's hand and led her to the shore. They passed the proud, smiling face of Sultan Leono Mahagan, looking up at them and the sky. Alexia lowered her eyes, sorry that she had put Leoquo through this.

Leoquo exhaled. "If I relive this day, every day, for the rest of my life, I would make the same choice each time and know that it was right. As my father did."

Alexia reclaimed her torn robes, ensuring that Allison's doll was still within them. They were far easier to put on than ever before, and the open-chested Mahagan fashion was better than the Celegan fashion. "I would rather we never had to live this day at all," Alexia told Leoquo, her eyes passing over the death of so many people that were her responsibility.

"And yet, I live." Leoquo looked toward the deck of Sea Lion, knowing who he must now face. Alexia envied him and was terrified for him.

At the shore, Alexia knelt beside Erlos. "And now he has been redeemed, but we must go on, following the hard path in their stead."

She closed his eyes, kissed his forehead, and promised to herself that his little Freya would someday know that her father was a hero.

Alexia retrieved Sunfire and Aurora, then climbed into the rowboat while Leoquo stood in the water, watching after Garrond. The Dust disarmed the Shadow and sent him sprawling into the sand with a helmed headbutt. The monster disappeared as Dust descended, Garrond's cut hitting the sand.

"You will never have her!" he bellowed. "Never!" He sent several more cuts into the area around him, before turning his back to the Everrain and bounding for the rowboat.

Garrond rocked the boat, rolling into it before taking the oars from Alexia. Leoquo ran into the water, pushing the boat off the shore. As always, the emir, the sultan, was the last one off the beach. Leoquo leapt in, his spear ready for the Shadow as Garrond rowed them toward Sea Lion.

Let it end, Alexia thought, reaching for Norali's light only to be harshly reminded the Divine had been taken from her by the gold choker.

The Shadow reappeared at the edge of the Everrain, surrounded by the dead, the tears of Dalis raining down upon the beach. His booming, guttural voice chased them out to sea. "Daichin ezen Celegan has a message for you, Alexia of Leveria, Great Dreamer, Queen of Love, Destined to Wholeness!"

As the Shadow finished speaking, she heard the words rumble in her mind, as Daichin projected them directly to her from his seat atop Celegana's Spire on the far side of the world. "I look forward to our next meeting, Alexia of Leveria, Chosen Empress of Celegana. Until next time."

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