“What was that?” Fist asked, staring at Noah with the wide eyes of a scared horse. Her fingers dug into the orange dirt beneath her. “What did you show me, Spider?”
“I am deeply sorry about that,” Noah said. He raised his hands before himself. “Genuinely. I really am. I didn’t mean to bring you with us, Fist. Things got a little more hectic than I imagined.”
Fist stared at him for a long second. She blinked. Then her hands clenched into fists. She shook her head firmly. “No. No, no, no. You’re not just going to say that. What did I just see, Spider? What did I see?”
“The Line,” Noah said. There really wasn’t any reason to say otherwise. Fist had already seen it. And the Line’s name was rather self-explanatory. It wasn’t exactly giving much away.
Fist staggered up to her feet, her eyes never once leaving Noah. She swallowed visibly. Then she shook her head. “No. You can’t just say… that. What was it? Don’t give me a name! I don’t care what it’s called! It was horrible! You just made me spend days trudging through nothing! How is nobody else losing their minds right now? What was that, Spider?”
“The end,” Noah said quietly. “The Line is the afterlife.”
“The afterlife,” Fist repeated. “That’s the afterlife? Nothing? Just walking on a giant fuckass golden line? You expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t expect or need you to believe anything,” Noah replied. “It simply is. But I’m sorry that you had to experience that. I truly, truly didn’t mean for anyone here to have seen what you just saw. It was a horrible mistake. The only thing I can say is that we’re all fortunate that you only got a fraction of a sliver of my memories. If there had been more…”
Noah trailed off. He couldn’t continue down that path. It wasn’t something he could let himself even consider. The only reason his ego had managed to survive the immensity of the Line and the burden of eternity that came with it was probably some mixture of two different gods’ blood as well as countless deaths to ground him back into the world and a group of people that needed him.
And even with all of that, his soul was all different kinds of messed up. Not even he knew the full extent of the damage. It would have been beyond unforgivable if he’d somehow inflicted that upon all of his students.
Noah’s teeth clenched.
“What do you mean, your memories?” Fist asked. Some rationality returned to her eyes, but that did nothing to reduce the growing fear within them. “You were there? Yourself?”
“Yes,” Noah said heavily. “I was.”
“How were you there? How can any mortal have seen the afterlife?” Fist asked. She took a step back. “And if that was just a fraction… how long were you there?”
“Trust me,” Noah said. “You don’t want to know the answer to any of those questions. The only thing I will give you is my apology and assurance that it will never happen again. Well, because of me, at least. I can’t control what happens after you die.”
“Probably best to become a god and avoid the whole thing altogether,” Silvertide suggested. “That is currently my own personal plan of action. You may feel free to utilize it as well.”
Fist stared at Noah for several more seconds. Then she shuddered. It was a deep shudder, one that clearly ran all the way down to her bones and then back again before finally loosing her from its grip.
“You’re telling me that this… endless line of golden light is the inevitable end for everyone who doesn’t transcend into godhood?” Fist asked. “That’s it? There isn’t anything else?”
“Well, no. There’s everything else,” Noah said. “The Line is just the path you take to get there.”
“Right,” Fist said. Her eyes narrowed. Then she shook her head. “I don’t think I want to know any more. I don’t need that in my nightmares even more than it already is. There’s something deeply wrong with you, Spider. And I suppose I’m starting to get a little bit of the reason why. But how is it that the rest of your people are so… okay?”
Noah glanced at the others. Then he blinked.
Fist was right. His students, while clearly rattled, were largely put together. None of them were nearly as thrown off by the Line as she had been. And as much as Noah wanted to believe that was because they were simply stronger than she was, that couldn’t be the case.
Fist was a considerably more powerful mage than every single one of Noah’s students. The Line should have affected her less than them, not more. But while Fist was still clearly fighting off the last remnants of the Line’s influence, all of the others looked generally fine.
“You aren’t all trying to hide it to avoid making me feel bad, are you?” Noah asked, squinting at them.
“That seems like it would be a hassle,” James said.
“I should have done that,” Sievan mused. “It would have made convincing you to spill some of the secrets rattling around in that skull of yours considerably easier. Ah, well. Missed opportunities.”
“We aren’t faking,” Brayden said. He shook his head. “It was just a week.”
“Just?” Fist exclaimed. “I felt like my insides were melting!”
“I’m sorry that happened,” Sticky said. She walked over to Fist and reached up, trying to put a hand on her shoulder but only making it to her bicep. “Try to do better next time. It won’t feel as bad.”
“There isn’t going to be a next time!” Fist exclaimed. Then she hesitated for a moment, dread crossing her features. “Oh.”
“Guess you’ve solidified your goals for the future,” Tim said — though it may have been Sievan. His back was to Noah, and without being able to see his eyes, it was impossible to say for sure. He gave Fist a knowing smile. “Don’t worry. Death is a constant for all things. Even gods. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you will be able to surpass it.”
Definitely Sievan.
“That isn’t comforting,” Fist said. “At all.”
“It was not meant to be. Comfort is complacency,” Tim-Sievan said.
Fist grimaced. She stood there for a second longer, then ran her hands through her hair and let out a long, heavy sigh. “On accident. I got shown the end of all things up close and personal entirely on accident. Mordred is definitely going to be paying hazard pay out the ass for this.”
“I thought Vivian paid you,” Noah said.
“She does,” Fist said. “But Mordred pays extra when I get into ridiculous bullshit because of him. And the only reason I’m here is because he sent me along so he could get his chance to interview Lee.”
“Whoops,” Lee said. “That might be a bit difficult now.”
“Don’t feel bad. He’ll show up,” Fist said wearily. “He always does. Just tell me the next time you’re going to force me to confront my mortality far closer than I ever had any plans to. So where exactly are we going?”
“You’re coming with us?” Brayden asked. He glanced at Noah. “Is that wise?”
“I can’t exactly head back to Aqua Terra,” Fist said with a shrug. “I work for Vivian. She’ll make me spill everything. And after you just insulted her… I’d really rather not. Something tells me she’s not the happiest with us at the moment. I’ve certainly got no plans on screwing you lot or anything. Not after what I just saw. I’d prefer to live.”
“Do we really want to leave a way for Mordred to track us down, though?” Brayden asked.
“Oh, he’ll find you,” Fist said. She didn’t sound all that pleased about it. “That man does not give up. Ever. Not when there’s something he cares about on the line. And I haven’t seen him so determined to interrogate someone as he has been for Lee. It might take a while if I’m not there, but one way or another, he’ll find you.”
Noah glanced to Yoru.
The demon gave him a slight shrug.
“I suppose you can stick around for now,” Noah said. His eyes narrowed. No matter how bad he felt, he couldn’t take chances if they were going to bring anyone along with them to the Lost Citadel. Countermeasures would have to be put in place. “But don’t abuse that, Fist. If you share secrets with our enemies or ever so much as thing about betraying us — well, I’m not going to go into the details. We don’t need to. But I can assure you that there are worse things than seeing the Line for a few moments.”
Fist paled slightly before giving him a hurried nod. “Secrecy isn’t anything new to me, Spider. You’ll find me more than capable. Just keep the real nasty stuff out of my face. I don’t want to go seeing something I should be on accident and paying the price for it.”
“I think we can do that,” Moxie said. “But we should probably get moving now and then deal with reunions, threats, and any other assorted activities we’d like to get to after getting somewhere safer. I don’t love the idea of sticking around right where we teleported. There are probably ways of tracking it.”
“Yeah. You’re right,” Noah agreed. He adjusted his shirt, blowing out a sharp breath to steady his thoughts again. “Okay. Lee, do you happen to know the direction we came—”
Lee pointed to her left.
Noah blinked. “Seriously? That easily?”
“I have a nose.”
“We all have noses,” Noah said. “Yours is just magic. I’m not exactly sure where we are right now, but I trust Lee’s sense of direction. We’ll head in that direction until I spot something I recognize.”
Sievan let out a burst of laughter through Tim’s lips.
“What?” Noah asked, his nose scrunching in irritation. “I’m doing my best here. Directions aren’t exactly my strong suit. You got a better idea?”
Tim turned toward Noah. Tendrils of shadowy magic slithered down his fingertips to drip to the ground like melting snow as a knowing grin crossed the old man’s face.
“As a matter of fact,” Sievan replied, his smile growing wider, “I do.”