Shiv growled and punched the wall again. "It's too soon. I'm not ready for this."
"Be honest. Would you ever be ready for this reunion?" Duncan's voice echoed down the hall from behind him.
Shiv's only answer was to punch the wall again. He took a deep breath, then turned to face his companion. "Unless you know something I don't, your information was faulty. Blaze isn't here, and I don't think she ever was here, either."
Duncan's eyes narrowed. "Then she's already being taken to the Underwater City. This is not good. This is not good at all."
Shiv suddenly jumped forward and grabbed Duncan by his arm, twisted the lithe man's arm behind his back and shoved him into a wall. Before he could say anything, Duncan was laughing. "Hold up, Shiv. You can't kill me yet."
The man's words only served to fan the flames of Shiv's anger. "Why?"
Duncan's expression and words became cold. "If you destroy me now, then in the end… who will destroy you?"
Shiv broke his arm. The only sound to be heard was the snapping of the bone. Duncan didn't utter even a whimper.
His anger abated, Shiv threw the man to the ground and turned his face to the ceiling and closed his eyes. A deep breath. He opened his eyes and looked back at the prone man, who was staring at him with eyes that shone with more intelligence and madness than Shiv had ever witnessed.
The world shook again, this time with much more intensity, and Shiv sat down heavily. A familiar feeling was worming its way throughout his body. He laid back and succumbed, letting the depression suck all the energy out of him. He was done.
His vision started to fade, and he let the beauty of slumber engulf him.
Almost immediately, he was filled with energy and his eyes snapped open. He was in a familiar place, with blackness and stars being all he could see. He sighed and sat up, coming face-to-face with a certain dislikable tea drinker. "I'm done. Have someone else complete this stupid mission of yours." Shiv laid back again. "I'm done."
The Suit Deity cocked his head to the side, and grimaced before standing from his kneeling position and sitting at a table furnished with a pair of shot glasses and a bottle of an amber colored liquid. "Come, hero. Take a seat and enjoy a glass with me."
"I hate tea." Shiv whined.
"Oh, even I understand that tea is not suitable for every situation, and so I have something with a bit more of a 'burn and a kick', as you earthers so enjoy saying."
Shiv didn't move. "I haven't heard that phr-" he was cut off by his surprise when he suddenly found himself sitting across from the elegant man. He looked at the shot glass, filled to the brim with an unfamiliar but strong smelling alcohol, and grimaced. Without any hesitation he downed the entire glass, savoring the burn and the weightless feeling that permeated his very soul.
The glass was refilled as the two men silently stared at the twinkling stars.
"I can grant you the release from your mission, if that is truly what you wish for." The man spoke first.
Shiv looked at him sharply.
"It's simple, actually." He frowned at Shiv. "And pay close attention, for I will not repeat myself."
Shiv sneered, but nodded. "Just tell me how to end this nightmare."
"If you truly have given up on your mission, then your sweet release will come only in the form of death." The unimaginably powerful man's expression became that of someone remembering something much better forgotten. "So die, my hero…" His voice faded, as did Shiv's vision. "Just die."
Shiv sat up and looked around with urgency, only to relax when he found himself in the corridor sitting across from Duncan, who was staring at him with a raised eyebrow. "That stupid over-dressed alcoholic liar." He stood and brushed himself off only to pause and look at Duncan. "He repeated himself."
***
Once again outside of the fortress, Shiv was walking toward a staircase set into the wall surrounding the fortress so as to escape once and for all. Duncan had used his wind-abilities to disappear somewhere to recuperate, leaving Shiv alone with his introspective thoughts.
Unfortunately, that loneliness wasn't meant to last. "Mackey. I see you are doing unfortunately well."
With a groan, Shiv came to a halt. "Ay, it's Shiv, and right back atcha."
"I told you when last we fought that our next meeting would end poorly for you if you harmed the princess. And now you add the destruction of a fortress to your list of crimes?"
"I remember that. I'm glad that this meeting won't have to 'end poorly', because I can assure you that I was a perfect gentleman to the kid." He sighed. "As for the fortress, I thought my daughter was being held hostage in there." As an afterthought, he added: "Sorry."
"When the princess returned from saving you that night, she refused to speak, and spent weeks in her room simply crying." A dangerous edge creeped into the powerful woman's voice. "I don't know what you did, but you will pay for it with your future."
"You don't know what I did? That makes two of us. Isn't it normal for little girls to cry a lot? I mean, surely you know how ridiculously sensitive they can be. And what's with the scary threat? Lemme guess: you're going to cut everything off of me except my ears."
The only answer he received came in the form of an emerald javelin shot at his back. He easily sidestepped it and turned to face his conversant. "You know? I can't remember: did you ever mention your name? Or like, who you are or why you're after me in the first place?" He sidestepped a pair of javelins and snapped his fingers. "That's right!" He ducked and rolled to his feet as a slew of javelins erupted from the ground he had been standing on and came a little too close for comfort. "The dude in the fancy dress called you Esmeralda." Another dodge in the form of a sidestep, this one bringing him closer to the brown-eyed woman. "And if I remember correctly, you're all about teaching very specific lessons that are never to be forgotten, right?" Another step, to the side, followed by a step directly toward her, missing the javelin shot at the place she anticipated him to dodge to. "How many of those things do you have?"
Her hand dropped, and the rain of intended death stopped. "You are not the same man with whom I remember battling."
"You really think so? My girl used to say that there were three unchanging things in the world. Want to hear what they are?" He had continued moving forward till there was a mere sword-length between them.
"I suspect that she was arrogant enough to name you as one of them."
"Hey now, I'll take your insults with a smile on my face all day," Shiv lied, "but the moment you bring my girl into this, things get personal." His face hardened.
"You speak of this girl that you mistook my associate for, correct?"
"Yeah." Shiv grimaced. "The resemblance was uncanny."
Esmeralda seemed to stare into his soul for a long moment, making him feel slightly awkward at the scrutiny. "I have a hobby of studying families, and you are not a good match for a woman like Executioner."
Shiv was taken aback. "You know? My mom said the same thing… huh. You might be onto something."
"Is this woman who looks like Executioner the mother of your daughter, Blaze?"
"No."
"Then you cheated on her."
"I don't know what happened to convince you that I'm such a bad person, but no, I have not cheated on anyone. Blaze was adopted." Shiv took a deep breath. "Speaking of, you wouldn't happen to know where she's at, would you?"
"Adopted…" Esmeralda frowned to the side and muttered the word under her breath. Her expression abruptly cleared and she shook her head. "I haven't heard anything on the girl since she left Plateau City."
Shiv sighed. "Never mind, then. Hey, you take care of yourself. I'll see ya later." With that, he turned and started walking away, only for an emerald wall to jut out of the ground in front of him. "Come on, woman. Make up your mind. Either kill me or let me go." He whipped around and sent a peeved look at the warrior priestess.
"I don't understand why you would think I was ever struggling with whether or not I was going to kill you." Came the reply, accentuated by her summoning an emerald spear and settling into an attack stance.
Shiv settled into his version of a boxing stance, and took a deep breath. He abruptly threw himself forward while a pair of electrified knives embedded themselves into the ground where he'd just been.
"No! You have your orders, Executioner! Do not interfere with this battle." Esmeralda yelled sharply, her strangely familiar accent adding an extra bite to the words.
"Oh please, I've been hunting this prick for years. Nobody knows Mackey like I do. Besides, my husband and the team are more than enough to take care of that wounded wind mage." Not Jacqueline landed on the emerald wall that Esmeralda had summoned.
Shiv stood slowly to his feet and groaned. 'I hate this place.'