"We're just creatures to you, then?"
"Beloved creatures, Dumar."
"Like pets?"
"No. Look we're getting off topic here. The power shared by two was only meant for one."
"So I've got to murder Grethron's brother because some cosmic alien died and passed his power on to two people instead of one?" Dumar lifted an eyebrow. "Can I just ask how's that my fucking problem to solve?"
Dawa sighed the sigh of an eternal being and slumped into a chair which leaped up to meet him, growing from the earth instantly.
Cool!
Dawa chuckled but put his head in his hands in a very familiar way.
"Okay. Okay. I don't live in a linear way like you, right?"
Back to the yes/no game again.
Dumar nodded.
"But even I can't be in two places or times at once. So my problem is, at the same time I'm battling the other cosmic alien – I still like demigod by the way – someone," Dawa levelled a vast finger at Dumar's chest. "Has got to put an end to Malthrom."
Dumar tried hard to get his head around the concept.
"I still don't get why you can't do one then go back and do the other," he admitted.
"I know, son, and you never will because your brain isn't set up to cope with the trials of non-linear time. There is no going back or forward, I'm everywhere at all times."
"But you just said you can't be in more than one place at a time!" Dumar yelled in exasperation. "And if you are everywhere at all times, wouldn't that mean you are infinite?"
Dawa barked a laugh.
"Welcome to my world, bruv," even Dumar had to grin at that. "We could stand here forever debating the issue, but the fact of the matter is, you're just not biologically capable of getting it. End of."
Dumar closed his eyes and thought about what this massive creature was trying to tell him.
"Fun innit?" Dawa added.
Dumar gave up.
"Okay. If I just accept you can't do it the only other question remains, why me? There must be thousands of killers on this planet alone. Why did I get drafted in?"
"I told you you were unique, yeah?"
Dumar didn't even bother to nod this time.
"It's your uniqueness that makes you the only person likely to succeed. And even you can't do it alone, Grethron is the only other geezer capable of stopping Malthrom's power.
"But your abilities and the way you think combined with the unique way your soul has developed might just give you the edge over Malthrom."
Fuck! What?
"The edge over him? Might just?" Dumar wondered.
"Yeah, Malthrom's been...modifying himself over the years. He's got quite tough."
"Quite tough, eh?" Dumar mused.
"Fraid so. Anyway I won't take up any more of your time, you've got things to do and so have I," Dawa stood and started back towards the lake, letting his seat collapse back into the planet as if it never existed.
"Oi," Dumar shouted as the massive form strode out across the water. "What things have I got to do?" The big man ran to the water's edge as Dawa turned.
"You'll see," the creature said with a smile. "Farewell, Dumar."
"Yeah, bye to you, you alien fuck."
Dawa laughed as the colour drained from his body, turning it back into the yellow lake water.
"Definitely the right choice." The voices sounded now as if they came from miles away, tinny and indistinct. "I love you, Dumar."
These final words hit the big man like he had been shot in the stomach at the same time as Dawa's huge water-body collapsed back into the lake with an enormous splash.
***
"You sent for me, majesty," Grethron said to his sister-in-law as he entered her suite.
Celouise nodded gesturing to a seat and waving the two Royal Guards away.
"What happened, Greth?" She asked cryptically.
The necromancer scratched at his chin.
"Regarding what?"
"Why did you hide away?"
He shook his head, an expression of guilt twisting his face.
"Why? As I failed the world," he admitted. "Jarhine," Grethron looked into the queen's blue eyes. "You."
"No one would have held anything against you, Greth," Celouise said. "We all saw what you did, and you did stop him."
"We stopped each other, Cel, we both fell at the end and I failed to kill him."
"No, you did not kill him, but he was stopped regardless."
"At what cost, Cel?"
She knew exactly the cost he was talking about – Jarhine. Celouise leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees, folding herself up as small as possible.
"It was not your fault," she told him.
Grethron looked sideways at his sister-in-law.
"No?" He asked in a hoarse voice. "Who else should take the blame?"
"Malthrom, Greth! He is the only one who is at fault here."
The old man was shaking his head.
"Not just him, Cel, I should have seen what was happening. Should have tackled his...his addiction sooner. Maybe if I had, Jarhine would..." Celouise rose and walked to him, grabbing the sides of his face.
"No. No. No. You cannot blame yourself for this," she looked at him with compassion as tears welled up in his eyes.
"We all saw what was happening. You, me and Jarhine along with Dawa knows how many others all watched as Malthrom fell from grace," she wiped his tears away with her thumbs. "I am glad you are back, I feel...safe to know you are here," Grethron sniffed.
"Thank you, Cel. I should never have stayed away for so long."
"What drove you away?" Celouise wondered as she stepped back from the necromancer.
Grethron sighed and shrugged, his shoulders drooping.
"I could never be him," he said simply. "Could never have filled his boots."
Celouise twisted her face up in confusion.
"Who? Jarhine?"
Grethron nodded.
"Who would expect you to?" Her bewilderment was clear.
"Many people, Cel. Most people. They would have seen it as my duty to assist you, maybe even make me Saruline's regent. How could I take the throne from beneath you after you had just lost your husband?"
Even as she was about to protest, the queen realised he was correct in his assumption. Influential aristocrats from noble families would have suggested exactly that. Grethron's self imposed exile had allowed her to keep her throne.
An intense warmth flooded her chest and she felt the subtle pull of her psyche towards his.
"I did not even consider it. Thank you," she gazed up at her brother-in-law with a new found sense of gratitude.
You have been looking after me. All these years and you had my best interests at heart
"It is nothing'" Grethron shrugged.
"It is not!" She cried. "You gave up your whole life and family to ensure I remained on the throne and I never realized. I thought you were off dead or sulking as you had lost,"
Grethron raised an eyebrow.
"Sulking?" He asked in a mock serious tone. "I do not sulk."
Celouise grinned.
"I seem to recall a time when you three brothers came to my father's castle and you had a pout like a toddler whose favourite toy has been lost when you had to leave the library behind."
A smirk crawled across Grethron's face and he looked away.
"I still remember your lower lip poking out as you packed the scrolls away," she smiled, "It was endearing," his eyebrows shot up and he changed the subject rapidly.
"How long has Alystra been like that?" Grethron wondered.
"You did not know she lost her feelings?"
"I heard rumours, half truths. Yet I never really believed her condition was as severe as I have found it. She barely spoke to me when I came back. I thought she was angry but I noticed she is the same with everyone."
Celouise's face crumpled.
"She saw the Dal kill Jarhine," Celouise said. "Watched it eat him from Frenot's back.
Grethron's face drained of all colour.
"The following day she had lost all emotion," Celouise sobbed. "I thought it would be temporary, a way to cope with the sight. As the days turned into weeks and then months she never came back, though. It was as if I lost both of them on the same day...and now Saruline and..." Celouise broke off, dissolving into floods of tears.
Grethron moved over and laid his hand gently on her shoulder.
"I am sorry, Cel."
The queen almost leaped into his arms, clinging to him tightly as the sobs racked her body. Grethron wrapped his arms around her comfortingly and stroked her back, making calming sounds.
Time stood still for the pair until Celouise lifted her head to gaze into Grethron's grey eyes.
Like images in a crystal ball, his feelings for her were plainly written – love, concern, respect – and her stomach flipped as she accepted she felt the same.
Celouise leaned her head forward and pressed her lips against his. The bristles of his beard grazed her face as she felt the softness of his lips against her own. Grethron abruptly broke the kiss, pulling back and holding her at arm's length, his hands strong on her shoulders.
"Cel...we...we cannot."