Page 176 of Sunsplitter

I’d become immortal?she repeated, emphasizing how ludicrous that sounded.

Hypothetical, of course. The mechanics seem sound.

But I’d becomeimmortal? Like you did?

Not the same as I did.Veshri’s calm burrowed into Fi, as if he were urging it through this strange connection they shared.There’s no one way to build a bridge. No single path to immortality. I built my body of Void ether. The first aedari built her body from the dust of the Planes. This—he swept a hand to her middle—is merely a different path.

Fi focused on, metaphorically, steady breaths. She wanted to scream into the Void, just to see if it worked this time. She wanted to laugh in Avroz’s face, that his revered Veshri had pulled her aside to share insider tips on immortality.

She wanted to run straight to Antal’s arms and tell him maybe they could have a happy ending after all.

This was a lot to take in—really aludicrousamount to take in, on a day that had started with Fi moping in a garden. Veshri, Void ether, immortality, all dangled over her head, hung by aflimsy thread, threatening to crush her if she looked at them straight on.

She needed time to absorb all this.

More than the limited time she had here, before the first Voidwalker vanished again.

With truly an expert degree of compartmentalization, Fi took the frenzied buzzing sound in the back of her head, took the chill of Void-ether flesh, bundled them all in a tidy package she could clench in her fists. The old stories seemed so simple when they were just stories, stubborn daeyari dragging themselves back from the Void. She’d heard pieces of the aedari myth, too, bodies formed from Plane dust.

Fi needed answers, more than she’d ever be able to ask before she had to leave this place, before she had to breathe again. The ache in her lungs was growing tighter.

You think a mortal can do this?she said.You, a Void-damned… demigod, whatever you call yourself, have helped me twice now. You’ve never spoken down to me. So why do so many daeyari treat me like I’m nothing? If you care, why don’t you make them act better?

Fi felt Veshri’s sigh in her bones.

I guided the daeyari to immortality, he said.But I don’t control them. I’m no divine, nor have I ever desired to be.

So you roam around the Void? You leave the daeyari to rule over Planes? To treat humans however they like, even when you used to be mortal?Fi pointed to her raw ear, gold seared to the shell.And what about the aedari? You know all aboutthem, I assume. Yet you show up after we’ve already hunted down one of the immortals threatening your home Plane?

Frustration leaked through the bond, verging on… Fi didn’t know what this new emotion was. It felt like ants in her gut.

What have they told you of the aedari?Veshri said.

This had been Fi’s least favorite part of school, called on bya teacher who knew the material better than her.They’re sworn enemies of the daeyari. Looking for the Twilit Plane.

Veshri’s tail flicked.I do what I can. Many aedari scouts, I manage to turn away from this part of the Shattered Planes. But however loftily the daeyari think of me, I can’t always be watching. I can’t be everywhere at once. By the time I’d heard of unrest, you’d already slain one aedari.A huff.You did what you had to, I imagine.

Fi frowned. The daeyari made a ritual of drinking aedari blood, of marking their antlers with gold. She’d been given her bands in front of a statue of Veshri. Even he wore golden accents on his highest antler tips.

But that tone he was using. It stuck like plaque inside her skull.

You don’t approve?Fi asked.

Am I glad to be responsible for half of a Planeverse-wide war? No. Not particularly.His tail swished low, catching on wisps of Void trailing off his robe.But as I said, I don’t control what the daeyari think. Or how they act. I lost any ability to do so, long ago.

But you could—

I tried. For centuries, millennia. The daeyari revere me in the abstract, but when I spoke, they always found ways to misinterpret. To ignore anything that didn’t fit their convictions. Let them settle their own war. Their opinions shouldn’t determine your path. That is yours alone.

Fi could spot the tip of an iceberg. So much more he could tell her. Veshri became immortal before the daeyari and aedari met. He’d know where the dust-birds came from, how the fighting started, why he was gritting his fangs so much over his own people.

But her lungs begged for air. The cold of the Void sank into her. Curse this squishy mortal flesh. She couldn’t stay much longer.

The first immortal aedari was like you?Fi asked.A mortal once?

Solemnity settled over Veshri. Fi felt the added weight on her chest.

She was.