Outside the Cycle - Act XX

This is *actually* the last one. Sorry if XIX seemed like a premature ending. There's one more thread to tie up...

Act XX: Outside the Cycle / A Perfect Circle

Was it just a dream, and just now I am waking? Has it all along been a reverie, conjured of my mind? Or did this whole horrible saga truly end this way?

There are no happy endings.

Had he been able to, he would have torn out his eyes so as to never see another day. So long had Arash dwelt in a bleak, hopeless forest of ghosts and monsters that the light hurt to see.

There are no happy endings.

The adage had been with him for longer than he could remember, and had proven true every time. Yet here he was, alive and cured, the Shadow Fiend's own soul torn apart on the winds of the Abysm, and as one of those instrumental in averting the apocalypse.

It was with a heavy heart that Arash joined the forces of House Avernus outside the now-fallen Radiant fortress to find their leader. Through his synthetic link, the Psychomancer had discovered the young lord's feeling for Lanaya, and deserved at the very least to know her fate.

He was hustled through the ranks of House Guard. Abaddon was there, rinsing the blood off of his armour. He greeted Arash warmly.

"And here comes our master schemer!" he announced to the cheers of his troops, then looked around with a puzzled expression, a wary edge creeping into his voice. "Where are Vanath and Lanaya?"

There are no happy endings.

"Vanath died fighting the Phantom Assassin," Arash explained. "And-"

He couldn't say it. The words caught in his throat as he tried to speak. He took a long, ragged breath, remembering the last words Eredar had spoken to him.

"You have been given a great gift," the demon lord had said. "This world will be mine eventually, and it will be the better for it. Do not waste your talents. Leave a legacy that the world will remember what good comes from demonkind."

My legacy starts here.

"Lanaya is the reason I can speak now. She… she broke the control Nevermore had over me, but as a result… she-"

Abaddon's face was bone-white. "Tell me everything."

"I- I don't think she expected to be that outmatched. She underestimated the extent of his powers and paid the ultimate price." There was no way to put it gently.

The lord's jaw clenched. "It was never publicly announced, but…"

"…you were engaged. I know."

"What do I do now, pray tell? When the reason you had for fighting is gone, when there is nothing left but dust and bittersweet memories?"
"We are in the same position. I may not have… cared for her in the same way you did, but Lanaya was my friend as well. I would say she died for a worthy cause, but that would not be strictly true," Arash said softly. Was he a worthy cause? Had he changed enough for 'hero' to be more than an honorific? "Please, if you do anything, let it do her sacrifice justice."

"Justice." Abaddon's voice was ice cold. "Dying for a just cause still involves dying. You won't have to live with the thought of a future that can never be reclaimed."

The Psychomancer's heart sank further. "I cannot turn back time, else I would trade places with her in an instant. If any one of us deserved to live, it wasn't me."

"Don't be so harsh on yourself. I am not blaming you. Today, you have done the whole world a great service." The lord smiled softly past his grief-stricken eyes. "An era of blood has ended."

"The wheels have come round again, Abaddon. The Ancients are shattered and the cycle must begin anew. You can make this a utopia, a golden age of unity that our ancestors could not even dream of."

"That will be as much your legacy as mine." His words were resigned, betraying the sadness he felt, yet their meaning was genuine. "Without you, I would never have known the Skywrath. Now, there can be alliances. You have taken sworn enemies, and made them comrades in arms."

"Have I? It is but the first step."

"Then what is your place in the pattern?"

Arash allowed a small smile to crease his thin lips. "I am as I always have been - outside the cycle. And so I shall remain, the adjudicator from the shadows. A new sun rises, and mine does as well. And now I take my leave, to find a better place in the pattern."

There are no happy endings. But those were the words of an old age that had passed, and in this new one anything was possible. Everything could happen.

As he left the lanes for the last time, Arash felt an odd taste in his mouth.

It was, he realised with some irony, the taste of hope.