There was darkness, but for once it felt more soft and comforting, the chill distant and kept at bay, closer to a warm bath than a deep and frigid chill. Stathis felt rested and relaxed, her mind calm and sleepy. Light oozed through her eyelids, strong and powerful, and she shook herself awake.

Bright, brilliant sunlight surrounded her, supporting her body without any obvious source. She could feel that she was in her armour again, a sword resting on her hip. The light rippled, a comforting light shining off water. But it wasn’t as bright as before – there were touches of shadow amongst the light, thin lines of darkness making the light less than absolute.

Stathis looked up – somewhere in the light, there was the impression of something, a power, vast and potent.

‘If you want to talk, then you might want to actually, y’know, talk! Rather than just dragging me here. So what is it? This place looks a bit different than before. At least in as much as I can see anything.’

She flapped her wings, pushing herself probably-upwards, towards the source of the light.

‘You there? I’m pretty sure you’re actually aware, sort of. If you’re going to drag me here, you could at least talk to me. I don’t know how much you’ve noticed, but things have kind of gone to shit, and everything might get sucked into nothingness. Which is probably bad – so maybe you could lend some advice or help there?’

There was a long pause as Stathis boosted herself towards the light – the place seemed huge, or at least there was no sign of any walls, and it was soothing simply to loose herself in the physical exertion of movement, her wings flapping, moving her faster and faster.

‘Well?’

Such devastation was not my intention.

‘Well, I don’t think it was your fault. Crazy stupid necromancers fucking around with things they probably shouldn’t. I guess it would have been better if the ancient demon-things had been dealt with then, but you were kind of sealed away yourself or whatever. If there’s anything you can do about it, that would be appreciated though. Don’t suppose that you can just reach out and close the rift?’

Such a thing would drain me unto nothing, and would likely fail even then. Such a rift is greater than anything I have seen – the world itself may be consumed!

‘Yeah, I kinda got that. So is there anything you can do? Some help would be nice, this is all a little above what I’m used to dealing with!’

The darkness is implacable.

‘I’ve noticed! I can go stab some demons and necromancers, but I don’t think that it’s going to do much about the problem. I’m doing what I can to keep things under control, but even so there’s limits. And I don’t think there’s enough time for a mass evacuation, even if we had another world to move to.’

The darkness will taint all it touches. You must not allow yourself to be besmirched.

‘Uh, it might be a little late for that… Although I really hope you’re not watching in that much detail. Can you do anything about that? It might make me a little more likely to listen to you.’

You would… bargain!? With the light itself?

‘Look, I’m going to try and sort things out – I’d rather not have the world sucked into a void and destroyed, or get sucked in myself, but it would be nice to have some proper time to relax. Or if there’s any other blessings or anything? You’ve not been very helpful, to be honest. I guess it was you that spread all the prophecies – those really could have been made more useful.’

The flow of time is not a clear river, but one cracked and mazed. To see more than fleeting glimpses takes power beyond mortal ken!

‘Well, if you’d just give me power more directly, that might be more helpful! I don’t know about seeing the future, but right damn now, the world is being sucked into sort-of nothingness, and there’s undead everywhere. Oh, and all sorts of things keep breaking through – like, elementals and things, just appearing and attacking. So it would really be helpful if there was something useful. Can you at least give me direct intelligence? Can you scry the world or something?’

The paths between the worlds…

‘Yeah, yeah, hard to see. I don’t want to sound like an asshole, but is there any actual useful advice you can give? Other than “stay away from Janaxia”, and it’s a bit late for that! Yeah, she’s creepy and has some stuff to work out, but she’s quite helpful in a fight.’

There was a long pause, the light giving an aura of being affronted.

‘If you wanted me to be more helpful, you could have interacted a bit more! All I got was random useless advice from a load of dead people. You’ve never even told me what you’re actually wanting from all of this – I guess to defeat the Black Triad, so they won’t harm you again?’

They were crafted as weapons, to destroy all that is of the light!

‘Well, one of them is a weapon, the other two, not so much. Janaxia just wants to be pampered – she’s not really a threat, and all the book does is eat magical items, it’s not really very active. The Bell has vanished – you know anything about that? And the Blade is a weapon, but it’s being used to make other people into those shape-shifting regenerating things. I’m not sure if it’s really a threat by itself, but it wouldn’t surprise me if someone’s going to show up with it. The demons are maybe more of a threat, but that just seems to be normal politics – we can probably buy Zarazonnia off and set up some decent trade routes with Setha. Maybe even do something about the Ash?’

You are meant to be a warrior!

‘I was raised by the leader of a nation – sure, she’s a general and a fighter, but she also taught me that it’s important to have a plan for after the battle. Sure, I can kill all the undead and hopefully resolve the world not getting sucked into another plane, but there’s a lot of shit other than that. Did you really not have any plan other than create me, give me powers and just hope I’d stab the right people? I don’t want to criticise, but that seems… really limited.’ Stathis took a deep breathe, trying to rein herself in and not just rant.

The light must strive not to be quenched in the darkness.

‘I’ve done that! And then some. Although the whole “world might be consumed” thing was a little unexpected. I didn’t see that in the prophecies.’

A maw of darkness, biting to the heart of all.

‘OK, fine, I guess I missed that bit. Although without any context, it’s a bit hard to be useful! Anyway, if you can see the future, don’t you know how this all turns out? Or is it some vague and mysterious stuff?’

There is an ending. One of night eternal, a painful withering to a bitter death.

‘OK, let’s try and avoid that one. Given that we’re possibly close to that one, can you give me anything useful? Anything that you’ve seen?’

The darkness clouds my sight. But there is bloodshed and strife. I can see… fangs and bones and blades, feathers and light and dirt. A plain of black sand and red grass, beneath a scourging storm. The champion of light shall fall, and the sun shall fade.

‘That doesn’t sound very good for me! And that sounds very specific. Isn’t there a way around it?’

The light seemed less intense now, the warmth fading. I shall empower you with my blessings, but you must fight with all your spirit! The darkness is powerful, but I have faith in you.

A glow settled over Stathis, filling her from within, like a filling and hearty meal. It banished any tiredness she might have felt, her wings starting to burning even more brightly, enough to shine even against the surrounding glare.

Beware the Blade! It shall claim your heart!

Before Stathis could ask any further questions, the light blinked out, and she was surrounded by… not darkness, but nothing, the space between spaces, drifting in void, silent and voiceless.