Chapter Text
“Welcome to my city!” Mara’s voice is the opposite of welcoming, and his eyes glow a rusty red as the god sweeps out of his city and closes the metal gate behind him with a clang.
Kendal’s not sure what to make of it—no matter how much experience he gains dealing with the gods, each new one he meets always manages to do something to throw him off balance. “Thank you,” he tries. “We don’t need to stay for long, we just want to pass through to continue on the mountain pass and be on our way.”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple, godling.” Mara draws a long, shimmering sword from a sheath on his belt. “I’ve heard about the passenger your little friend harbors in his mind. It would be foolish of me to endanger my citizens by disregarding the Paladins’ warning. I’m sorry I must kill your friend; I sincerely hope you won’t hold it against me.”
“I’m not going to let that happen.” Kendal draws his own sword in response, and he can tell his friends are all shifting into defensive stances.
“I’m right here, you know!” Erin’s voice is distinctly annoyed. “And for the record, I am not being controlled by the Dragon.”
Mara spares little more than a glance at Erin before turning back to Kendal. “Godling, out of respect for you and your god, I’ll give you a warning. My sword is enchanted so that any weapon it hits shatters, so unless you want to lose all that’s left of Vash, I’d recommend that you restrain yourself from interfering with this.”
Not a second later, the god is lunging at Erin, who yelps and dodges out of the way, and the rest of the group is beginning to cast and ready battle stances. For the first time, Kendal truly understands Falst's frustration with his perceived inability to help with fights. Kendal does what he can, using the battle for cover in order to land a few blows with the sword without ever clashing it against Mara's, but he can only ever do small amounts of damage before needing to dodge away again.
It's hard to tell in the chaos of the scene—at the first sounds of fighting, guards had come to the assistance of their god—but Kendal knows the fight isn't going well. He just wants to find the others and get out of here. Not being able to pass through the city will make the journey exponentially harder, sure, but he can't have anyone dying for him. He just can't.
Kendal finds Erin relatively easily, but before he can even call his friend's name, he notices Mara's looming figure standing behind Erin's back, sword raised. Erin's busy fighting off the swarms of guards, and doesn't even notice.
What Kendal does next is an act of instinct. He doesn't think it through, doesn't have time to consider the consequences. If he does nothing, Erin will die. Nobody dies. Not for me. Not ever.
Kendal launches himself across the battlefield and brings his sword (his connection to Vash, his namesake, a part of his very being) against Mara's, blocking the god's blow in the split second before the enchantment takes effect and shatters the blade (so much more than a blade, a companion, the very first thing Kendal experienced for himself).
Kendal falls to his knees, reeling. Everything feels off-kilter all of a sudden, like his world has been violently wrested from him and shoved back a few inches to the left. Distantly, he knows there's a battle still happening—he thinks he hears Alinua calling his name—but he can't quite bring his awareness to focus on anything but the shards of metal scattered around him. His sword was him, and it's gone.
~~~
Alinua has just fought her way to where she sees Mara's towering incarnation, having tied up all the guards keeping her away, when she sees Kendal crumple to the ground, his sword shattered.
She gets to his side faster than she ever would have guessed she was capable of, and she gently leans his catatonic form to rest against her own, supporting him as she tells the god, "Don't touch him."
"I warned him. Now get out of the way so I can save you from the Void Dragon's little pet."
"I am not letting you hurt anybody else!" A surge of vines sprout from the ground and start wrapping themselves around Mara's legs. They won’t hold him long, but they’ll slow him down enough to let everyone escape. "Erin, get the others, we have to leave." Every inch of her body is screaming at her to run immediately, to get herself and Kendal to a safe spot where she can heal him as best she can, but she forces herself to slow down and gather the pieces of the sword first. The two were connected. She can at least make sure Kendal has something of the sword that meant so much to him. She places them in her bag and is about to drag Kendal to his feet when Erin arrives with the others, still aglow with magic as he fights off the guards. Tess takes one look at Kendal's slumped form and scoops him up into her arms, and Erin sends off one last blast of magic to cover their escape before they all start running. Distantly, Alinua hears Mara ordering his guards not to follow them, but none of the group slows down until they're well into the foothills of the mountains.
When they do stop running, no one really knows what to do. It's been a long time since they've had a battle end this disastrously (Alinua thinks of how their fight against Tynan went down and shudders). Erin opens his mouth like he's about to start talking, but instead he just shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair before busying himself with setting up camp. Dainix and Falst are huddled together—if Alinua had to guess, Dainix is probably trying to convince Falst to let his wounds be treated—and Tess gently lays Kendal down on a soft patch of grass before quietly asking, "Can you do anything to help him?"
Alinua shrugs. "I don't know. I'll try, but I'm not sure this is something I can fix."
~~~
Erin's an absolute idiot. He knew it was a bad idea to accept others' help back when the Dragon had first taken up its residence in his mind, and knowing that, he'd rejected Kendal's kind-hearted offers at first. Seeing Kendal glassy-eyed and unresponsive in the middle of a fight, his sword shattered, drives home just how terrible of a decision it was to let Kendal convince him that he could have help.
Part of him wants to leave, to correct his course and deal with this on his own, like he always knew he should have, but his wishful thinking has done real damage now, and he needs to help fix the mess he's made. Or, at the very least, he needs to try, but he doesn't think this is something that can actually be fixed. Even as he'd been dodging guards and gathering Tess, Dainix, and Falst so that they could all get to safety together, he'd seen just how many pieces the sword had shattered into.
Erin had experienced passing scientific curiosity, in the past, of what would happen to Kendal if the sword ever broke. It was obvious that the two were connected, so he'd figured that the sword breaking would have some effect on Kendal. He'd never wanted to actually find out what would happen. In the past, learning the answers to things he'd idly wondered about had been a comfort when things were going badly—he'd think, oh, fascinating, so this is what it's like—but that crutch isn't there for him now. He wishes he could sink into the familiarity of scientific inquiry, but instead, he's stuck with a twisting feeling in his gut and a voice in his head telling him "this is all your fault" over and over again.
When he's finished setting up camp, he sits down and presses his hands over his eyes. His brain has been his one saving grace his whole life, allowing him to think his way out of his childhood and navigate endless tricky situations, but now he just wants it to be quiet. He should probably go let Alinua know that his bedding is laid out in the tent, ready for Kendal to use, but if he goes right now, he doesn't trust that he'll be able to keep himself collected enough to be useful.
He takes a few deep breaths, steadying himself and pushing everything further back in his mind before pushing himself off the ground and forcing himself to go see the aftermath of his mistakes.