We rode into the night. Still no stars.

 

No moon either, I noticed. Should there be a moon? I had no idea. Even our steeds tired, walking now with heads down.

 

“I think we lost him,” Kanesha ventured.

 

“Not forever.” After what I’d seen. “I know what we have to do. Sort of. But I have no idea where to actually start on it.”

 

No clue whatsoever. I turned to Thruor. “Can we warn the dwarves?”

 

“I have a way, yes.” She dismounted and walked a distance away, pulling out something which looked like a locket.

 

More dwarven magic, bound into objects as it so often was. I almost envied them.

 

Well, right now I definitely envied them. They were in a much safer place than I was. For now. It would not last.

 

I turned to Kanesha. “I’m sorry. I love you.”

 

She slid down from the horse and I followed.

 

“It’s not…”

 

“Maybe it is.” She couldn’t feel it. What the rest of us could feel. Or could she? I realized I had no idea what she felt, what she sensed.

 

Not from the inside. I knew what it was like to think myself human. I did not know what it was like to be human.

 

To be fragile and powerful all at the same time. To be what we protected and why we existed.

 

How could I love her?

 

“What can you feel?” I asked, finally.

 

“I feel cold. In the midst of all of this.” She turned to me. “Is it starting?”

 

“Not if I can help it. There’s one way to stop it.”

 

And it might mean I had to die. Permanently. Leave her. I didn’t want to.

 

“What is it?”

 

I let out a breath. “The king is the land. The king is also the sacrifice. Helgr lost because she forgot that, because she wanted to rule.”

 

“Somebody has to die.”

 

I frowned. “I don’t know that for sure.” It was my reading of it, but I also knew many things could be meant.

 

Prophecies. If I never heard another one, or another cryptic utterance, it would be far too soon.

 

And I would. If I managed to get myself and the world through this, I had a feeling there would be plenty more of them in my life.