Epilogue
There’d been a time, once, when Algonquin hadn’t believed in losing. After all, when you lived forever, you could never truly be defeated. There were only setbacks, temporary interruptions that would eventually erode, leaving her free once again to do what needed to be done.
But not today.
She crouched at the very bottom of her domain, curled in a ball in the sand with her water drawn in as close as it would go. Above her, the Sea of Magic raged like a typhoon. If she’d been willing to rise, she could have seen it filling the vessels of the Mortal Spirits, but she wasn’t willing. She’d seen too much tragedy already, including hers. It was all gone: her chances, her hopes, her future. It had all been stolen, and no matter how long she waited, how long she persisted, how hard she fought, it was never coming back.
But it can.
She lifted her water to see a familiar shape in the darkness where no one else should ever be.
But this is where I live, too, the Leviathan replied softly, reaching up with his tentacles to smooth her shaking waves. You invited me here. I answered your call, Algonquin. I came to your aid when no one else would, and we made a bargain. For sixty years now, I’ve acted as your second, supporting all your efforts to win back your world from the out-of-control forces of human magic. Not because I thought you would succeed, or because I wished you harm, but because in order for me to truly help you, I needed you to be like this.
“What?” she snarled. “Defeated? Hopeless?”
Empty, he replied, his voice echoing. Living things are always full. You’re all so packed with rage and hope and plots and expectations and dreams that there’s no room for anything else. It is only when you realize that all is lost, when you give up, that you are free to reach beyond yourself. Only in emptiness can you find the victory you were too small to realize on your own.
“There is no victory anymore,” she said, sinking lower. “The Mortal Spirits are filling, and when they rise, we will be crushed. Even if humanity died tonight, the trenches they carved in the magic are too deep to fade. Don’t you see?” Her water began to cloud. “I will never be free.”
Then let go, he whispered. I promised to help you fight until the end. Until all hope was lost, and now it is. It’s time to let go of yesterday’s war and start winning the next one.
“But I can’t!” she cried. “They’re too big, too strong! I can’t beat—”
I can.
The Nameless End moved closer, his tentacles creeping across the floor of her vessel until she was surrounded.
I am greater than all of your enemies combined, he whispered, sliding into her waters. Let me devour you, and I will destroy everything that has ever stood in your way. The spirits, the humans, the dragons—everything that causes you pain. I will eat them all. All I need is your life. Give me your undying spirit, your vessel to be my foothold, and I will wipe everything clean. I will scour the filth that has hurt you from this world, and when I am finished, your plane will be born anew. A blank slate, a pure land from which new spirits will rise. Clean ones. Free souls without shackles, without pasts or pain. That is what I offer, Algonquin. You can have your paradise back again, and all it will cost is you.
It was a tempting picture, but… “What good is paradise if I won’t live to see it?”
That is for you to decide, he said, raising the smooth black shell of his face to the storming magic above. Though a better question might be, what good is your life now? What are you really giving up? A failure. A loss. That’s all I’m taking, and in return, I will give you what is now impossible: a second chance. A better life for all the spirits of the land who come after you.
“But what about the spirits now?” she asked. “My life is one thing, but what of the trees and the animals and the mountains? We are the land. If we go, what is left?”
There can be no new beginnings without an End, he said quietly. It’s time to make a choice. Either you accept this failure forever, until the end of time, or you give yourself to me and let me start everything over. I will devour without prejudice or mercy, starting with you. When I am finished, your world will indeed end, but I promise I won’t let it collapse. When I am done scraping it clean, I will leave your plane with just enough magic to start over. Maybe this time you’ll get it right.
Algonquin curled back into a ball. His words were nothing new. This had always been their agreement, but she’d never thought her price would actually come due. She’d been so sure she could fix this, so certain she could overcome as she always had. This time, though, Algonquin saw no way out.
Even on her longest timeline, the Mortal Spirits were there, raging across the landscape that was her body. She and her fellow spirits would suffer at the mad gods’ whims from now until forever. There was no escape, no hope, no reprieve. All she could see of the future was a living hell. Next to that, was death really so bad?
Death is peace, the Leviathan promised, his tentacles closing over her like a net. Aren’t you tired?
She was exhausted. Exhausted and sick. Sick of humanity. Sick of fighting. Sick of getting her hopes up only to lose again and again. Sick of it all.
Then let it go, he whispered as his darkness curled in tighter. I’ll take care of everything. All you have to do is let me in.
She turned away, looking down into herself at her water, at all she would lose.
You mean have already lost, the Leviathan corrected patiently. It’s over, Algonquin. Let me in.
She had nothing left to say. He was right. No matter how hard she fought, she couldn’t win as herself. Not anymore.
So, with a sigh, the Lady of the Lakes gave up. She relaxed her clutched water, letting it flood her vessel and over the Leviathan, whose black tentacles were already sinking in to drink her down. As his shadows spread to every part, his black tendrils working through her like roots, the immortal Algonquin, the land herself, began to die.
And in the physical world, in the night sky above a smoking city lit up like a fairy circle with new magic, the Leviathan’s shadow began to become real.