Chapter Text
The Mighty Nein drifted in the Astral Sea, beaten and bloody, but alive. The Tombtakers had been defeated. Their bodies drifted silently around the tear they'd rent between the planes, a glowing portal back to the material plane.
But the City was still coming.
Yasha watched in growing horror as its massive form bore down on their little group. A cacophony of screams, wild, raw, desperate, rang out as it approached. The members of the Nein who were still conscious struggled to get the rest to the portal.
Beau was using her speed--intellectual here, not physical, but still astounding-- to collect the Tombtakers' bodies and push them through. They couldn't risk any of them being left here for the Somnovum to use somehow. Fjord was dragging Caleb and Essek through the portal. Both were unconscious. Yasha herself was pulling a limp and bleeding Jester out, with Caduceus just behind her. She didn't know where Veth was.
Beau glanced back at Yasha as she pushed Mol-Lucien's body through the portal. Seeing that the last members of the Nein were close, she nodded, vanishing through the portal herself. Yasha arrived a few moments later and paused, waiting for Caduceus at the threshold.
The sound of screams rose.
Caduceus reached out to touch Jester as he caught up with them. Wounds closed. Breath came easier. But her eyes started shut.
"She'll be alright," he said, brushing a lock of hair from her forehead. "You two should get back to the others."
"What about you?" Alarm shot up Yasha's spine at the look in Caduceus' eyes.
"The portal," he said, looking back toward the City and swallowing thickly. "It can't be closed from the other side. It's got to be done from here."
"How do you know that?" She said, trying not to panic.
"Caleb," he said simply.
And Yasha understood. Caleb must have figured out how it worked right away. He probably intended to stay behind and dispel the portal himself. But just in case, he had sent a message to Caduceus. And now, Caleb was unconscious and on the other side. Jester could have dispelled it too, but Caduceus had stabilized her without waking her, saving her from this choice.
From this moment.
Yasha wanted to scream, to add her voice to the tumult of pain that raged around them. It went against everything within her to leave anyone behind, let alone this man. Her gentle, strange, steady, wonderful friend. But the shadow of the City was looming. Though it couldn't fit through the portal, she didn't want to find out what it could send through. What would happen when it impacted the tear, the weakened barrier between planes.
"It's okay," Caduceus said, and he was shaking. "I feel like this… This was always how it had to go. From the moment I first saw those eyes. It has to be me. I--"
His voice failed. Sweat was starting to gather at his temple. She could see his breath coming in uneven gasps.
She clasped his hand.
There was no time.
"You have to go," he said, with a shaky, wet smile.
Yasha nodded, squeezing his hand.
"We will find you," she said, fiercely. "I promise, we will."
"I have no doubt," Caduceus said. He was still a terrible liar. "Now get out of here."
With reluctance, she pulled her hand from his and began to take Jester through the portal.
"Yasha!" She glanced back. Caduceus stood tall, shoulders square. He shouted to her, voice barely carrying over the howling screams. "Don't tell my family about this. Tell them I fell. Tell them you couldn't bring my body. They don't need to know the details."
She nodded. He met her eyes and smiled one more time. He lifted his hands, prepared to cast his spell once his friends were safe.
She kept her eyes fixed on his as the bright light of the portal overtook her. In a moment, she was yanked through. She held fast to Jester as they were flung from one reality into another.
They landed softly in the snow. The sudden quiet felt deafening. The light was too bright; the cold was too deep.
A tear cut its way down her cheek and froze there.
Nearby, someone broke the silence.
"Wait. Where's Caduceus?"