Thomas Reid - The Crystal Mountain

More sorrow washed over her. I'm losing them all. Kael, Pharaun, Eirwyn. Even Kaanyr. Everyone who became part of my life, yanked from me by-what was it Pharaun said?-the capricious whims of gods.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

Aliisza turned her back to the room and crossed it. She reached the door and pulled it open, stepping out into the hallway. Nilsa still stood there, waiting.

"I want to travel with Tauran," Aliisza announced. "Where is he going?"

The angel shook her head. "That's not possible," she replied. "You must return to the place from which you came. I am to take you to the city of Sundabar."

Anger boiled in Aliisza. "Why? You could take me anywhere, so long as I never bothered you or your kind again. Why does it have to be there?"

Nilsa sighed. "You're right, so far as that goes. But I have been given specific instructions. It's not up for debate."

Aliisza cocked her hip to one side and folded her arms across her chest. "That's not good enough," she said, giving the angel a pointed look. "It shouldn't matter, and I want to know why."

Nilsa stared right back. "You don't want to have this argument with me."

Aliisza snorted. "Why, because I'll lose?"

"No, because I don't need to debate you. I have a duty to perform. I'm not going to let you change my mind, no matter what you say. If you persist in trying, if you make it difficult for me, I will simply knock you silly and dump you in an alley somewhere in your city. So make your choice."

Aliisza fumed. She knew the angel could do it, simply by drawing on her divine power to stun the alu. But that didn't make it right.

For a moment, she fought the urge to punch the angel in the nose. Finally, as the rage subsided enough for her to control herself, she said, "Can you at least tell me where he's going so I can find him?"

"No."

"Gods and devils, why are you being so difficult?" Aliisza yelled, tears of helplessness welling up. "He's my friend. Can't you set aside your edicts long enough to give me some small thing?"

A momentary look of compassion crossed Nilsa's face, but she smoothed her expression quickly. "It was decided that you should be separated, never to see one another again," the angel explained. "There can be no risk of you coming together to cause further trouble for the House. I'm sorry, but that's the way it must be."

"I hate you all," Aliisza whispered, choking back sobs. She crumpled to the floor. "I hope you and your stony god wither and die."

Nilsa pursed her lips and reached for Aliisza. "Enough of this," she muttered, grabbing hold of the alu. "We're leaving now."

Aliisza started to jerk free of the angel's grip. She wanted the fight, wanted to force the cold, heartless celestial to follow through on her threat. It would prove that Aliisza was right in her assessment of how unkind and unfair Nilsa truly was.

Nilsa opened her mouth to say something, perhaps even to utter a word of power and knock Aliisza silly as she had promised, but a voice from down the hall interrupted her.

"Hold, Nilsa." It was Tauran. He and Kael approached together, Garin right behind them. Aliisza's heart leaped at the sight of them both. A foolish grin spread across her face.

"What are you doing here?" Nilsa asked in surprise, frowning. "Garin, our instructions were clear."

Aliisza yanked herself free of the angel's grip, jumped up, and ran to Tauran and Kael. She wrapped an arm around the fallen angel and the knight and hugged them both tightly. Warm feelings of hope and possibility coursed through her, where only despair and defeat had dwelt before. "I thought I'd never see you again," she said, her face buried in their shoulders. She felt Kael chuckle softly as the two of them returned her embrace.

Behind them, she heard Garin say, "It's changed, Nilsa. Everything's changed." The weary sound of his voice made Aliisza wince.

"What are you talking about?" Nilsa asked, walking up behind the alu.

"Tyr is surrendering his godhood," Garin answered.

Aliisza pulled back with a start and looked at Tauran and Kael. "What?" she asked. "Truly?"

Kael nodded and Tauran said softly, "He has already done it." His face held a grim expression, a visage that Aliisza had come to think of as a scar, every bit as permanent a fixture as a sword wound.

Aliisza turned to look at Nilsa. The angel had a stricken look on her face. She stared at nothing, her mouth opening and closing. Compassion welled up in the alu. She didn't know what to do. She took the angel's hand in her own and said, "I'm sorry."

Nilsa stared back at her. "It's true. I can't feel him with me anymore. I've lost Tyr." Her hand shook in Aliisza's grasp.

"He's sending all of us to serve Torm, and he's marching to war under Torm's banner," Garin said. When Aliisza turned to gaze at him, his wide eyes, usually so keen and piercing, looked lost.

Tauran said, "We have all been asked to aid in the fight. The demons are coming."

Aliisza gasped. "Demons," she said. "Does that mean-?" Kaanyr. It's just what you would do, isn't it?

"Yes," Kael replied. "Tauran and I agree. If Kaanyr is with them, he will try to reach the Lifespring."

"It would be the final insult hurled at us," Tauran said. "Invade the blessed House, find and bathe in the Lifespring. The one thing he sought in all this and was ultimately denied."

"He shouldn't be allowed anywhere near it," Aliisza said.

"No, he shouldn't," Tauran agreed. "Even on principle alone, I would deny him that which he desires most. But beyond that, with the power of the Lifespring at his disposal, he could become a dangerous force for the abyssal lords."

Aliisza bit her lip. The pain of his betrayal was still fresh. She wanted to hide away, wanted to avoid seeing the cambion again. But too much was a stake.

"We must stop him," she said.

"Are you sure?" Garin asked, offering a sincere yet hopeful smile. "We could really use you with us."

Nilsa, whose haunted expression bespoke her struggle to come to grips with Tyr's abdication, added, "It's going to get rough today."

Eirwyn nodded and offered her own apologetic smile. "Yes," she said. "Though I know the importance of getting every possible soldier on the battlefield, I sense that I am needed elsewhere."

As if to reinforce the grimness of the moment, a band of high clouds drifted across the sun, bringing a hint of gloom. They stood on a small, high plaza, near the very top of the tallest buildings of the Court, where the breezes were fresher and unimpeded. The wind ruffled the angel's hair and carried the barest hint of an odor of smoke upon it.

Most of the angels or the Court and Trueheart had already headed toward the front, preparing for the impending onslaught of demons headed toward the House. The great hall of Tyr stood nearly empty below the trio.

"What have we come to?" Garin said softly. "The end of an age? Is this how even the gods pass?"

"Don't say that," Nilsa admonished, her sorrowful look deepening. "Tyr has chosen to walk among his people as a warrior once more. When this unpleasant business is finished, and he has cleared his head of whatever troubles him, all will be set right."

"I hope, for both your sakes, that it is so," Eirwyn said. She reached out and clasped both Garin and Nilsa on the shoulder. "I understand the pain you are feeling. I pray that your sadness, unlike mine when Helm fell, is brief and supplanted by joy again very soon." She paused and cast her gaze down at the stones between their feet. The next part was harder to say. "I want both of you to know that I bear neither of you any ill will. You have been loyal servants of Tyr, and now Torm, and none can fault you for fulfilling your duties."

"Thank you," Garin said, and he sounded genuinely relieved. "I'm sorry it came to all this."