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This one follows on my post-secret-ending sequels Wandering Stars and West Wind but no need to read them to get the idea.
MASSIVE secret ending spoilers.
also on AO3
âOh. Youâre here.â Stooping to set down her valise in the doorway, Zarin froze and stared at Siavash.
âMaman!â Her son, Kyrash, pajama-clad and wild-haired, ran full-tilt across the ceiling of his grandparentsâ entryway and threw his arms around her head in an upside-down hug.
âWhat in the Dawnflowerâs nameââ
âJust a little fun.â Siavash took the boy by the armpits, flipped him over and set him gently on the floor.
Over Kyrashâs shoulder Zarin again gave her little brother the strangest stare, and then their parents arrived to welcome her back from her stay in Absalom and in the fuss and chatter whatever had alarmed her seemed forgotten.
Until she cornered him in the kitchen.
Down the hall in Siavashâs old bedroom Kyrashâs grandparents were helping him pack but by the sound of things Aivu was helping him unpack just as fast.
Zarin stood in the space between the table and the door to prevent Siavash from escaping.
He popped a grape in his mouth and angled for the far side of the table. âHow was Absalom?â
âEnlightening. Donât you dare. Stay right where you are.â
âWhat? Am I in trouble?â
Her dark eyes were round and anxious. âIâm afraid you might be.â
He guessed what was coming and had a fully prepared deflection on hand, but as she went on he began to experience a sinking feeling like he was a kid again, caught red-handed with his fist in the cookie jar.
âIn Absalom I visited the opening celebrations of the Temple of the Lark. Donât say a word until Iâm finished. There are only two explanations: either people have taken this way too far and youâre letting it happen, which isââ
âI canât stop them. Iâve tried. Anyway, it gives them hope.â
âSia. Iâm not finished. Either that, or you really did ascend. Which is crazy.â
âYeah, imagine that.â
âTheyâre healing in your name.â
âWho is? What? There must be someââ
âClenna, your High Priestess, for one. Gods Sia, sheâs barely older than Ky. And there is no doubt in her mind where the power sheâs channeling is coming from. Itâs you.â
âAnd you believe that. Sheâs nine years older than Ky, by the way.â
âWill you stop?â Her hand blocked his from reaching for the grapes again. âJust answer me. What have you done?â
Whenever he was having fun, Zarinâs concern for him had always felt like a bucket of cold water, but now he was so conscious of it radiating out of her that it made him shiver. Maybe it was time. Why in his heightened state of awareness and wisdom was this so difficult?
âFine.â He drew a deep breath. A demigod should not feel this unsteady. Like pulling a tooth in one sharp motion he said, âAll right. I ascended. With my crusade friends at Threshold. There. Now you know.â
Zarin let out a breath and reached out to steady herself on the cupboard.
âDonât ask how, because Iâm bound to secrecy and you wouldnât understand anyway,â he went on. âThe choiceââ
âYou chose to.â
âYes. The mythic powers were foisted on me but the decision to ascend was ours.â
âWhy?â
âTo save my friends and the crusaders. To close the Worldwound without dying and leaving Woljif alone. To continue helping people who need me.â Because it sounded fun at the time?
âDawnflower. What have you done?â She had gone alarmingly pale. âSia.â
The temptation was strong to reach out with his divine magic and comfort her, to infuse her artificially with hope and joy. Yet therein lay the catch. That was exactly what she was most afraid of: his good intentions unleashed upon the world.
âYou stupid, stupid, silly boy. What have you done?â she repeated, reaching to cradle his face in her hands and look gravely into his eyes as if with her Rahadoumi medical training she could detect the hairline fractures in his mind.
âZarin, itâs all right. I knew what I was doing.â
Her lips pinched at the corners just like when they were little and she was not crying. âYou stumbled on some sort of mythic power, led the Crusade to victory, and it went to your head. Of course it did. Poor, foolish child.â She released him and stood hugging her elbows.
Unconsciously he imitated the gesture. As a boy he hated being scolded by Zarin because she was almost always right. But she couldnât be right about thisâbecause if she was, heâd made a mistake too monumental to imagine. The kitchen curtains billowed in a sudden breeze.
âAnd Woljif too. He followed you. You do realize?â
âHe freely chose it, and so did our friends. He even helped appropriate the realms ofâuh, to create our domain for us.â
âHe chose freely? When his best friend, his Commanderâhis loverâchose it, he freely chose it too?â
âDonât patronize him. He knew what he was getting into.â
She gave a snort. âDo you? Of course you donât. Stupid boy.â
âDonât tell Mom and Dad,â he blurted.
Later after she and Kyrash took a carriage home he could sense her crying and realized that it wasnât that she never cried as a child. It was just that she never let anyone see.
In a puff of shadow Woljif appeared on the roof of the Almas townhouse and perched next to him. âWhatâs Zarin so upset about?â
Siavash hesitated. Woljifâs eyes flicked to the wine bottle in his hand, the guitar across his lap, and the twilight shadow in his eyes.
âShe knows,â he sighed, looking away toward the sunset over the Andoshen.
âOh.â Woljif leaned back on his elbows. âThen whyâs she so upset?â
âOh, you know.â Siavash tipped the bottle up and took a long drink. âSheâs an eldest sister. She worries.â
âWeâre demigods. Whatâs there to worry about?â
Siavashâs glance was like a cornered rabbitâs. He took another sip of wine and waved vaguely. âI guess she still sees me as her baby brother. She thinks Iâm in over my head. That this will⊠you know what I mean.â
âI dunno. What do you mean?â
âWhy do you say sheâs upset? What happened?â
âJust looked at me like my puppy died. Looked like her puppy died too. But you didnât answer my question. That this will what, chief?â
 Siavash gave another vague shrug but Woljif could see the tears pooling in his eyes.
She thinks he canât handle it, Woljif realized. And now he thinks he canât handle it.
âWoljif, do you remember what you were thinking at the time? Why you did it?â
âI am serious. What are youâoh, I get it. You talked to Zarin and now you need to clear your conscience. Well, listen chief. You did get me into this, but I was happy to go along every step of the way, because if I wasnât Iâd aâ been long gone. So you can put that to rest.â
âBut itâs already gotten us into hot water more than once, to put it lightly.â
âYeah. Weâre on new turf. Itâll take a while to figure out the rules. So we can break âem.â
âWithout facing eternal torture.â
âSheesh. Whatever happened to âItâll be fine?ââ
This âreal familyâ stuff was more complicated than Woljif ever imagined, and to make things worse he wasnât the one with diplomat training. Nothing for it but to try.
âOh! You scared me.â Zarin dropped her book in alarm.
âWell now that you know, I reckon I donât gotta bother with stairs and doors anymore. Whatâd you say to him?â Woljif half-sat on the piano, arms folded.
âThat I think he made a hasty decision in an understandable state of mania and that Iâm afraid it will have devastating consequences for him. And you. And possibly Golarion.â
âWell, now heâs out there doubtinâ himself. And before when he doubted himself it was just a bottle aâ wine or two and the next morninâ he was up happy as a lark again. But now, he starts gettinâ the blues thereâs a windstorm and all the flowers start dyinâ.â
âIf heâs that fragile he shouldnât have that kind of power!â
âHe ainât that fragile. He just cares what you think. Youâre his big sis.â
âIâm not going to pretend Iâm not scared, Woljif.â
âYou oughtta be the opposite aâ scared. Heâs lookinâ out for you, and Ky, and everybody.â As soon as it was out of his mouth Woljif realized just how true it was, and just how crushed the chief must feel under it all. Underneath his breezy, cheerful persona. It still struck Woljif as weird that thoughts like thatâthe chief staggering to his knees in the mud like an overloaded mule and tryina act like it was all fineâhurt him almost physically.
Zarin seemed to read his thoughts. âYou see why Iâm upset?â
Woljif heaved a great sigh and frowned at his own boots as if steeling himself. âYou know, Zarin, back when I lived in Kenabres nobody never gave me credit. Not that I gave âem any reason to. I was a low-down shifty liar and a thief, and a coward to boot and I never lived up to nothinâ. And then the chiefâSiavash came along, and I remember he said to me, âWe could use somebody with your talents,â and I thought, yeah, I got talents. Talents for savinâ my own hide. But he smiled at me.â He glanced up at her and away again in embarrassment. âYou know, that smile. And I started thinkinâ crazy things like what happens if I live up to it for once. So I stuck around just a little longer, and just a little longer. And I messed up. Donât you think it was easy. But he let me mess up and let me try again, and⊠after a while people started givinâ me credit. Not just him. Lotsa people.
âYou get what I mean.â
âI think so.â
He was more used to Siavash asking him to explain, so he went ahead and did. âI just needed somebody to trust me for once. And not like, rube trust. More like, Iâm-watchinâ-you-but-I-know-you-can-do-it-if-you-try trust.â
Zarin shook her head. âI lived in Rahadoum for a couple of years and I wasnât totally converted but I did acquire what I consider a healthy skepticism, and Siavash trusting you to have his back is not at all the same thing as trusting him to live up to the power of divinity.â
âYes it is. Question aâ faith.â
At that she blanched. Before her with his midnight face, yellow eyes and clever grin stood much more than her cute brother-in-law, but a demigod. âYouâre saying if enough people believe in him heâll live up to it.â
âThatâs right. And us mortals gotta stick together. You lived in Rahadoum, you get it.â
âButâyouâre not mortals.â
âSure we are. And demigods. A little aâ both,â he said. âAnd thatâs the key to the whole thing. Freedom.â
Hearing that word, something she learned in Absalom clicked. âYou. Youâre the Crow.â
âWell, I prefer âPrince of Shadow and Goldâ, but fine, yeah, thatâs one aâ my uh, monikers.â
There was talk about him in Absalomâa certain caper heâd pulled off. A lot of things were starting to make sense to her, but it was no comfort. âFreedom. The other gods must not be too thrilled with what you two are up to.â
âEh, they donât care about us small fry. Not yet, anyway.â
âWoljif. Donât get yourselves in any farther over your heads than you already have.â
âSomebodyâs gotta stick up for the little guy, yâknow. The poor, helpless mortals aâ the world.â
âDo not tell me itâll be fine or so help me.â
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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