It turned out that Esmeralda knew exactly where the church had been. But where it was now… not even she knew, because the entirety of it had been blown to kingdom come, leaving behind only rubble, scorch marks, and several incredibly conspicuous tunnels leading underground.
Shiv had grown quiet and tense. So much so that both Esmeralda and Duncan avoided getting too close to him as they made their way through the tunnels.
Esmeralda led them straight to the dungeons, passing dead priests without a glance. As each second ticked by, Shiv's mood grew more and more foul.
The dungeons were a mess. Everything had been scorched and frozen, and all of the cells had been forcibly opened.
There was nobody there.
"Where is she, Duncan?"
Duncan was kneeling, examining a corpse with frozen shards stuck in the gaping wounds. "I think you know where she is, Shiv." He stood and brushed his hands together. "Or rather, who she's with."
"Briggs." Shiv spat.
Duncan simply nodded, and Shiv turned abruptly and left.
"Who is Briggs?" Esmeralda asked.
"He was the first guy to join Shiv on his quest for destruction, though his heart was never really in it." Duncan sighed and followed after Shiv, but hesitated at the doorway when Esmeralda spoke again.
"Does he intend to do Blaze harm?"
Duncan laughed. "No. But that's the problem. Shiv knows that Blaze would do better to be with someone like Briggs." He lowered his voice, almost as if he was now talking to himself. "And to know that the person you love most would be better off with someone else… that's not a nice feeling." Duncan left, but Esmeralda remained, lingering and seeming to be in deep thought.
Then she followed.
"Where is it!?" Shiv punched through a wall, barely missing the terrified priest he'd pinned up against it. Duncan was exploring the catacombs, attempting to see if he could find the artifact himself.
The priest was less than helpful, only managing to piss his pants before fainting.
"It's in the castle." Duncan walked quickly out of one of the doorways, dragging a woman by her hair. "That Hood lied to us."
Shiv punched again, but this time he didn't miss. "Take me there."
Esmeralda followed after them as they left the ruins, a disgusted expression marring her features.
"It's always a castle." Duncan announced to the empty cobbled streets they were striding through. "Why? Why is it always a castle? Are the gods playing tricks on us? What's so funny about castles, huh?" Esmeralda assumed his questions were rhetorical, and was therefore surprised when Shiv replied.
"It's a metaphor." He took a deep breath. "From my world, castles are for the richest of the rich. For the princesses and the kings. They're designed to be impenetrable fortresses to ensure your safety, and filled with luxuries to make you comfortable and content. In short, they are the ultimate goals. They are what everybody wants.
"We go to castle after castle, obtaining what most can only dream of doing... and then we destroy each one. The gods are either mocking us or trying to persuade us from our objective. I'm not sure which, and it doesn't matter either way. The result is that we get what most people only dream of, and then we destroy it. And then again. Rinse and repeat."
The party fell into a contemplative silence. Even the woman Duncan was dragging along, who had been whimpering and crying, now fell silent.
As they came within sight of the castle, Esmeralda broke that silence. "Why?"
The question was open-ended, but Shiv nevertheless knew what she was asking. "Because I have disillusioned myself as to the results I will obtain upon completing this mission. I know that what I seek at the end of this journey will be a complete disappointment, but I pursue it regardless."
"But… if you know none of this is worth it, then… why?"
Shiv grinned a humorless grin. "Because… it might-maybe-be just worth it. And that hope is enough for me."
"And what if it's not worth it?"
Shiv didn't answer, and she didn't ask again.
***
They found it.
Their entrance into the castle was loud and destructive, bringing the attention of the monarchs reigning in the city. They had killed the king and queen duo only thanks to the quick thinking of Duncan, who had managed to stab them both through the necks from behind, simultaneously. Doing so had nullified their water magic's ability to heal each other and ended the fight without further ado. That was a relief, because both Esmeralda and Shiv had taken serious wounds from the semi-immortal duo.
Now, they were standing in a pear-white room, looking up at a beautiful woman sitting on a throne carved into a giant black pearl. Her face was tilted upward, pointed at a hole in the ceiling that revealed the lowest point of the ocean ceiling. Her eyes were closed, and a gentle smile rested on her features.
"She's beautiful, isn't she." The words were phrased as a question, but uttered as a statement by a handsome man leaning on the wall to the right of the only entrance.
Shiv ignored him, instead continuing to study the woman, but his two companions whipped around and readied their weapons, doing their best to hide the weakness their wounds had induced in them.
"Please, put the weapons away. It is disrespectful to even carry such abominations into this sacred room."
Shiv raised a hand, causing Esmeralda to acquiesce and dismiss her weapons, though Duncan merely pretended to do so while continuing to hold his weightless, invisible constructs of air in limp fingers. "Who is she?"
The man, who had an aura of mystery pervading every aspect of his being, moved to stand beside Shiv, looking up at the woman as well. "She's my wife. Or she was meant to be, before she was forced to become what you see before you."
"And what is it that we see?" Esmeralda stepped forward, standing to the left of Shiv, and looking past him at the man.
"The conduit." Duncan whispered, sounding angry.
"Correct. She is the power that keeps this city safe not only from the ocean, but from the prying eyes of the gods themselves."
A moment of silence fell upon the chamber. "How long has she been there?"
"Nigh on three centuries."
"Why?" Shiv decided that word was probably Esmeralda's favorite, with how much she'd been using it.
"For…" He searched for the right words, but gave up and said, "for personal reasons. But that's in the past now. Let us speak of why you are seeking to destroy that which I have sacrificed so much to create." He turned from the woman to face Shiv. "Before you speak, I want you to bear in mind that I am being far more generous than you can even begin to understand. Those people you murdered in the palace were my family. I've lived with them and loved them for longer than you can imagine. What is so important to you that you must cause me so much pain?"
Shiv ascended the steps, noting that the man tensed up and stared intensely at him. When Shiv reached the top, he reached out and touched the woman's cheek. She truly was beautiful. She seemed to embody everything Shiv wanted: peace, happiness, love… even the temperature in this room was pleasantly cool.
He let his hand drop to his side and looked down at his conversant. "The destruction of this world. That is my goal."
Silence fell once again, then: "is there a certain order you're going about it?" The man asked, and Shiv saw something in his eyes that, out of everyone he'd conversed with this extensively, only two people had failed to show him: fear.
But this fear was an entirely new beast that even Shiv had never seen before. This man had a fear within him that almost scared Shiv with just the intensity of it.
"I guess not. I mainly destroy them as I come to them, to be honest."
"Then perhaps you could be persuaded to spare this city for the time being."
"After I've already come so close to finishing it off? Correct me if I'm wrong- but all I have to do to bring the sea crashing down on us is kill her or remove her from the chair, right?"
"I have an army."
Duncan gave Shiv a look, causing the alien to sigh. "Talk to the blonde dude."
Shiv saw the confusion on the man's face, saw the man's lips begin to form the question, and suddenly had a knife to his throat. "What's your name?"
The man was shocked. Shiv was honestly a bit shocked himself. He didn't know it was in him to move this fast. Then he saw it: the little flickering light at the corner of his vision that told him he had a notification. 'I'll check it out later.'