The strange part about dying, for a god, is that one doesn't really do it all at once. First, the human body I had inhabited faded, the immortal realm reclaiming that which was never really meant to be. I felt that part of me grow cold. In a detached sort of way, I felt Shadesorrow discard the shell I had lived in for so long. That part of me began to lose its hold on my attention.

  Far away, the second part of me flew. I followed Alira, becoming the wind that lifted her wings, urging her faster and faster. I sensed a strange overlapping of myself, as though two parts of me existed in different places but the mortal form was slowly disengaging from me. I could also feel the end chasing me, a dark wall of impenetrable nothingless that raced at my back.

  Hurry. I urged her faster but I was merely running from the endlessness behind us that I knew must not envelope me.

  The sun rose to our right, the light catching in her tawny feathers. The nothingness behind me swallowed the sunlight, erasing the landscape as it passed. Alira flew, shadows streaming from her like smoke. The darkness edged closer.

  Alira… I pleaded for her to move faster and she acknowledged my presence with as much tenderness as she could summon. I have to go.

  Don’t leave me. She begged but the darkness chasing us–chasing me–was catching up and I knew that once I was taken into the abyssal unknown, I could not return. I sent as much of this to her as quickly as I could, overwhelming her with the imagery in my haste. Her wings faltered and I shot past her.

  I will wait for you there. I said as I sent her the image of where I meant to be. I was once again the wind, the air itself.

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  The ground below me was a blur, the sun passing through my expansive, invisible form. I was intangible and only this unstoppable darkness could hinder me.

  I sent forward a sliver of myself, passing into the portal chamber at the vineyard while the rest of me struggled to move faster.

  I saw my mortal form, the limp, ragdoll of a man. Pale, bloodless, dead. I pressed forward, seeking the tether between myself and Alira for support. I felt nothing there, only the darkness.

  I saw Shadesorrow, her skin glowing brightly despite the many candles lit in the chamber. Shock and rage paled her further, her clawed hands clutching at the chains of Light Mara had cast on her. She wrenched one arm free with a roar.

  “Release me, witch.” She hissed in pain and the woman who had once held such sway over me did not lift her head as she shook it.

  “No,” Erin said. “You are mine now, Shadesorrow.” She lifted the dagger I had once seen Noran carrying and with a quick movement, embedded the knife into Shadesorrow’s side. “You will imbue me with the necessary power to ascend. I will be immortal, I will be divine.” Her words were hushed and low, partially drowned out by the guttural gasp of shock from the dark goddess. Black blood seeped out of the wound as Erin withdrew the blade, dark glee rampant across her features.

  “No human can outrun the shade of Aethra,” whispered Shadesorrow, her hand at her hip. “She herself may have died, but that I am still alive is testament to her power. Her will is my own. And she bid me cleanse the scourge of man from earth.” She lifted one of her long, wicked daggers in her black claws, pointing it at Erin who stiffened as though struck by something, her hands dropping to her sides.

  “I will Unmake you!”

  A bright green flash blinded all in the chamber, the sliver of myself dissolving in the glare. Like a bolt of emerald lightning, the part of me that Erin had trapped in the syphon rejoined the fading mortal form on the floor. The strange overlapping evaporated and in an instant, I was almost whole. The darkness still called, still chased me.

  Shadesorrow spun, sensing my power emanating from the body she had discarded. But it was gone. I had reabsorbed the mortal me, instead choosing my divine form. As the darkness began to settle around me, I wrapped my four arms around Shadesorrow and threw us both into the portal, uncaring where we went, as long as it was far away from the nothingness that hunted me.