"What am I supposed to do?" Eirian had demanded answers and clarification, but Death had refused to answer.
Had just laughed in her face.
He refused to do anything more, just that she had to do something that, just from the little he was saying, had a good chance of killing her. Something that would be sung about long after in the epics.
But he wouldn't tell her what. He wouldn't even tell her what exactly had happened when they left that had done so much damage. Was it their magic? Had they torn the veil? Brought some creatures from the land of the dead into the world of the living? Upset the balance?
Did it have something to do with the dragons that were now gone?
Although he'd gotten strangely silent when she asked about them.
The only thing he had been willing to tell her was about her siblings. The others who'd come through the veil. Eirian had been relieved to learn that she wasn't that far off, that she'd understood the feelings they inspired in her dreams.
"Llelo," He'd called the first, the oldest, the one who led you to the light.
Then Bas, the second oldest, the explorer. Cer the innocent and Rhy the builder. Mal, the thoughtful, the one Eirian recognized as the legendary wizard, Malbec. There was Asa, the arrogant, and then Eir, he'd called Eirian.
He'd called her Eir the proud, like having pride in yourself was a bad thing.
After her was Saa, the warrior, and Asa, the failure, though Death wouldn't tell her what that failure was.
Syn, who did as she pleased, and then Day, the one who was going to be betrayed so terribly it would alter the very shape of the Rock.
Mei, their princess, Naj the wise, and the trouble-making twins, Tan and Teg. Val was one of the youngest and so fierce.
And then there was Myc, who would be the greatest of all of them.
The youngest two were Ser and Owa, who followed where their older sublings led but would strike their own paths to great effect when it was their time.
Time clearly meant nothing to Death because he spoke of them in a manner that suggested some had had their time already and others hadn't, and yet they were all happening at once to him.
And he'd been right.
Once he had told her about them, Eirian had longed for them desperately. Siblings she'd had no idea even existed before now, but suddenly imagining a life without them was empty and far too quiet. She'd even, for a moment, just a moment, contemplated death to meet them immediately.
They'd all seemed so close in her dreams. Close enough to follow their oldest brother on a path that took them away from everything they knew and the only parent they had.
But then she remembered everyone she had in this life. Eric, Chenzhou, Mingzhe, and Yuze. Finn and his friends, and now Brendan. She couldn't leave them.
Especially not now.
And she still had to complete whatever task Death had been talking about.
It seemed it would take all of them to undo the damage they'd done when they left, but they didn't get to do it together. They would all face their mistake alone.
That didn't seem fair, but Death had laughed in her face when she pointed that out.
"All of you made your choice, now you have to live with it." He'd said. "The Defender must defend."
He'd left while Eirian was still trying to figure out how to argue with him. Leaving her alone amidst the burned camp as the first brush of morning light appeared on the horizon.
On top of everything else, she couldn't stop thinking about what she was supposed to do as the Defender.
What kind of cataclysmic event was coming?
~ tbc