The Forsaken Hero

As the council turned to more detailed preparations, I slipped away. Behind me, Bethiv called another officer to the table, and the discussion continued without pause. No one needed me to understand troop formations or decide how many soldiers could hold a passage.

I needed air.

I didn’t want to be separated from my friends. I didn’t want to go with Jessia. Even Fable would be somewhere else, beyond walls I couldn’t see through, fighting enemies I couldn’t protect him from.

Every part of the plan made sense. The barrier, the divided attack, my ability to dismantle the formation. I’d stood beside the table and nodded along with all of it. Now, with no one watching, I folded my arms tightly around myself.

The night air cooled my cheeks as I climbed a small knoll overlooking what had once been prosperous farmland. A thin dusting of snow lay between the furrows, broken by footprints and the blackened stumps of hedgerows. The soil beneath was gray, blighted by infernal mana. A broken fence leaned into a ditch, its rails trailing strands of dead vine.

Beyond it all stood the Divine Throne.

Its towers gleamed above the dark Radian landscape, the golden barrier outshining the stars that struggled through the smoke. Packs of demons moved among the hills, searching for survivors. A distant scream carried across the fields. I lowered my eyes, pressing my fingers into my sleeves.

A soft growl sounded behind me.

Fable padded up the slope, leaving deep prints in the snow. Even condensed, he stood more than twice my height at the shoulder. He lowered himself beside me, and I buried my face in his fur. His tail swept around my waist, drawing me into its warmth.

For a moment, with my hands lost in his coat and his steady breathing against my cheek, he was simply Fable again.

”Were you listening?” I mumbled. ”They’re sending you with Korra and Gayron.”

He licked my cheek. I wiped it with my sleeve, managing a small smile.

”I know. You’ll look after them.”

His affection settled warmly through our bond, but my tail remained curled against my legs. I stroked the fur beneath his jaw, smoothing the same patch over and over.

”You’ve never been here before, have you?”

I turned toward the Divine Throne. From a distance, the towers looked untouched. No broken spires, no smoke rising through shattered roofs. Light washed down their white faces and filled the spaces between them, hiding every window I might have recognized.

”It’s so white,” I whispered. ”I’d forgotten how much.”

Fable nudged my shoulder, and I leaned back against him.

”And cold.”

It hardly seemed possible that I could stand here now, wrapped in Fable’s warmth, while those same halls waited beyond the fields.

”Beneath it are the Dusk Chambers. That’s where they...the inquisitors...” My voice caught. I swallowed, but it didn’t help much. ”The people they take there don’t come back.”

”And that’s where they took you?”

I jumped at the sudden voice, my hand flying to the Soulbinder. Luke’s violet eyes caught the light as he came up the slope. Fable shifted to make room for him, though his tail stayed around me.

”Luke...”

I looked away. He took my hands, pulling them from Fable.

”R’lissea told me some of it. And after all the times our souls have entwined, it wasn’t difficult to guess the rest.”

”It was almost worse than High Valley,” I whispered.

I couldn’t meet his gaze. He waited, his thumbs resting against my knuckles.

”You had Aurle there,” he said.

I nodded.

”In the Dusk Chambers, they all left. Korra, R’lissea...there was no one.” My fingers tightened around his. ”Just knives, and fire, and...”

I closed my eyes. Luke drew me against him, resting his chin on my head. I listened to his breathing until I could manage a full breath of my own.

”They took everything they could from me. Spells, arrays, visions.”

”Your dignity.”

I shook my head against his chest.

”I don’t think I had any then.” My voice grew smaller. ”I wonder if I do now.”

His hand moved up my back and settled at my neck. Then he slipped a finger beneath my chin and gently lifted my face.

”Why would you say that? Xiviyah, you’ve saved countless lives. You’ve built a place where people can live without fearing the church. Look how far you’ve come.”

”But how much of it is mine?” I lowered my head again, resting my forehead against his chest. ”Fate marked my path. It led me here, gave me everything I needed to reach this point. I’m content to play my part, but it’s still a part, Luke. How am I different from the priests and paladins in there? I only made it this far because of the divinity. My abilities. Without them...”

My hands lay against his tunic, small and pale in the light from the Throne.

”What’s left?”

He was quiet for a long time. Wind stirred the ends of his hair, brushing them against my horns.

”It doesn’t matter.”

I looked up. He touched my cheek, catching a tear beneath his thumb, and I leaned into his palm.

”Once, your abilities were all I saw. An advantage. A way to reach enemies I couldn’t touch.” His mouth tightened. ”But I don’t need them to win anymore. Even without your help, the Divine Throne will fall. I’ll see Enusia freed of it.”

More tears slipped down my cheeks.

”T-Then why—”

”Because I still want you.”

He cupped my face between his hands.

”I don’t need a vision or a way to move my horde across a continent. I want you beside me when this is over. When there’s nothing left to conquer and no reason for you to cast another spell.”

My tail loosened, sliding out from beneath Fable’s.

”I love you, Xiviyah. Your powers have nothing to do with that.” He brushed another tear away. ”And watching you stand at that table, agreeing to go back into the place that did this to you...”

His jaw tightened. He glanced toward the Throne before returning his eyes to mine.

”You don’t have to. The plan gives us our best chance, yes. But that doesn’t mean you have to return to the Dusk Chambers. Certainly not alone with Jessia.”

”But Luke, I’m the only one who can—”

”I heard her. We’ll find another way.”

His hands slipped from my cheeks, but he kept me close.

”We’ll still win. It may take longer and cost more blood, but we’ll win. Their god is gone. They’ve retreated behind their walls and abandoned their armies. I’m not asking you to stop fighting. I’m saying you don’t have to fight them there.”

I watched the light shift across his face. He meant it. If I asked, he would walk back down the hill and make them change the plan.

For a moment, I wanted to.

”But it would take longer?” I asked. ”And there would be more fighting?”

He hesitated, then nodded.

”I’m not sure I have longer.”

I rested a hand over my chest. Even here, the inheritance continued to flow. Beneath the comfort of his presence, my soul strained against a body that couldn’t keep pace with it. I redirected another thread of power toward Haven and waited for the tightness to ease.

Luke’s gaze followed my hand.

”And even if I did, I can’t let this drag on,” I continued. ”Fate and Fyren are counting on me. Their war has already begun, but they need us to finish this part. Until we secure Enusia, people will keep dying here.”

I glanced toward the fields. The demons had moved farther away, their shapes disappearing into the hollows between the hills.

”We’ve carried this so far, Luke. I want to see it through.”

”Even if it means trusting Jessia?”

My tail twitched.

I remembered her hand closing around Fyren’s sword, the darkness flowing into her as though it had been waiting. The relief in her face before she noticed me watching.

”I’m not sure I have to trust her,” I said slowly. ”But I can fight beside her.”

Luke studied me, saying nothing.

”The inquisitors left scars on both of us. Whatever else she wants, I believe she wants them gone.” I swallowed. ”Maybe we can help each other do that.”

He brushed a strand of hair away from my eyes.

”If this is what you want, I won’t stop you.” A faint smile touched his lips. ”The emperors know how little good that would do.”

I nodded, grateful he left it there. I wasn’t nearly as certain as he seemed to think, but I meant what I’d said.

His arms settled around me again. Fable lowered his head beside us, his breath stirring the hem of my skirt. I reached down to rest a hand against his muzzle, keeping the other curled in Luke’s tunic.

For a while, neither of us spoke. Voices drifted up from the camp, too faint to make out. Someone called an order, and a line of soldiers moved between the tents below. I closed my eyes and let Luke hold me while we still had time.

Eventually, my tail found his.

”Why do you trust her?”

”Jessia?”

I nodded against his chest.

He pursed his lips. ”It’s not much of a story. You may be disappointed.”

”Tell me? Please?”

He looked down at me, and his smile softened.

”How can I refuse when you look at me like that?”

I waited, my fingers easing their grip on his tunic.

”Jessia was the first apostle. She found me after I escaped my master’s estate. Later, she found each of the others when they were called.” He glanced toward the camp. ”She was there before we had an army. Before any of this.”

”And that was enough?”

”It gave me reason to listen. She’s given me more since.”

His tail curled loosely around mine.

”When the demon gates began to open, she told me about a certain hero who might come to close them. I didn’t care much at first. We hadn’t gathered the strength to challenge the church yet, and I had no intention of drawing a hero’s attention.”

I lifted my head.

”But she insisted I travel to Brithlite.”

”Jessia sent you?”

He nodded.

”I don’t know how she knew. Somehow, she did.” His thumb brushed my cheek. ”And it was there that I first saw my little star.”