Indel refused to look behind him at Boon who stood watching. Nala was a mess. Her body trembled. Each attempt Indel made at taking the head, Nala made a sound like a wounded child.

There was no words exchanged as Sessel gathered everyone onto the field, promising to keep Nala’s condition private.

Nala held Crane’s head close to her own face, cheek to cheek.

Such show of affection made Indel hearts burst for her.

“Na’am...” He tried again, gentler as he lowered himself to his knees and looked up at her. “Na’am. Let us go. We must leave.”

“She doesn’t have to leave,” Boon insisted. “I will win. I will keep you all safe.”

Indel kept his back to him, refusing to acknowledge him even as the drums sounded.

“She can stay here until I’m finished. Then we’ll have a funeral. We can do it properly. She will like that,” Boon said, his voice petering down to nothing.

Still kneeling before Nala, Indel didn’t look back at Boon but knew when he finally walked away.

The ruckus that followed meant he’d gone to the inos. Perhaps he went to take Crane’s for his own finally.

Indel risked standing. He was slow when he sat at Nala’s side, taking care not to touch Crane lest Nala think he was trying to take it away. Sitting with his left arm around Nala’s shoulder, Indel stared at the bare soil at their feet

“Na’am. Come back to me, please. Please do not leave me all alone. Boon will soon be dead. And Crane....”

Nala let out a low whine, hunching over as she tucked herself under Indel’s left arm.

“Yosh, Na’am. Do not cry. Do not cry. Hush,” Indel soothed. Indel knew he should say something but other than a mountain of regret, he had nothing to offer.

As the suns rose high and Nala rested into him, Indel tried to remember how to breathe. Beyond crooning and petting Nala’s back, he could do nothing else.

He tried to help Nala up but his Summoner wouldn’t stand.

Try as he might, Indel couldn’t make sense of any of any of it. Of the way his life progressed, of the rises and falls, of anything.

A crowd of Levelers bowed one by one as they walked past him, and down the slope. They took the steps, the same steps he’d had carved out to accommodate Nala.

Indel walked to them but didn’t go down. Instead, he sat. From here he could see Boon’s opponent, nearly doubling him in size. He needed to watch. He would have to tell Nala about the defeat soon enough. And he’d have to be gentle about it. If Nala could move, could run, he would even leave with her now and try to take her back home. Boon’s ino was big enough to carry the both of them.

And Boon...he hobbled forward, riding Crane’s ino, a robe on his shoulders. That was when Indel spied Boon’s dead ino at Boon’s back; its body bloodied.

Boon.

Boon dismounted Crane’s ino to silence.

With the so-called sloth’s claw gone and Boon’s meager scales, Indel expected it to be a speedy kill.

His chest felt heavy, but he tried to resolve how he’d remember his sons in his final moments. And there was Nala. He needed to think of Nala. Someone had to care for her. Perhaps Sessel would find it in herself to let her stay; to give her the final days befitting of the king’s favored.

Boon remained still, maybe ready for death, even as the large Leveler barreled toward him, each scale jutting out into spikes.

At the first swing, Boon dropped low.

Indel shook his head. “Never go low.”

The robe fell away just as Boon brought something up and caught his opponent between the legs. He let out a shrill cry as he dragged the claw-like object forward, ripping the Leveler from groin to belly.

The Leveler screamed out against the stillness of the crowd, shrieking as he toppled over.

Boon put his foot on the Leveler’s head, reached down with the claw and brought it up through the throat.

He crouched down for the rest of the cut, hacking away until he took the head clean off and held it up.

Indel rose to his feet, confusion and panic clouding his mind.

Citel’s lone blue body sagged to the ground.

Two Levelers brought her to Boon. Whatever she said, he barely glanced in her direction before he swung the claw at her stage-two throat.

With the same blank expression he wore when he came and saw Crane’s body, Boon made his way out of the courtyard and up the steps.

Indel was unafraid, he only waited.

“I’ve won, Daga. What do you say to that?” Boon asked.

Hanging his head, Indel turned his face away.

Boon rushed past, but Indel was unsure of what was happening.

From the halls, Females and males alike cried out in surprise. One wail stood out above the rest and it grew with time.

“Nala!” Indel gasped. When he turned and saw the Leveler at Nala’s back, sloth claw raised, he froze. It wasn’t a sloth’s claw, it was that of an ino. Boon had taken it from his own.

Indel watched, disbelieving as Boon, the claw lodged in Sessel’s shoulder, dragged the aging Leveler out and threw her down before the flowerbed.

“You...” Boon seethed. “You! Tell them,” he demanded. “Tell them it wasn’t me. Tell them what you did!”

Sessel looked between Indel and Boon, fear in her eyes when she said, “Forgive me, Daga. You throw your life away for the unworthy.”

Boon’s swing came so quick and sharp that Indel flinched. Nala let out a wail.

Indel’s breathing grew ragged. Sessel’s body simply collapsed.

“He was my brother!” Boon cried, dropping to the ground and striking again and again. “My brother. The only one to ever truly admire me! My brother!” Relenting finally, Boon calmed. He still knelt by Sessel’s mangled body but he spoke to Indel as he said, “He was my dear brother and you thought I’d killed him, Azal.” Lumbering to his feet, he used the claw to point at Indel as he said, “You thought I’d killed him. I grieved with you and you put my thoughts and feelings to your back and looked away. You do not get to shame me. I came here ready to bow to him as king.” His scales grew as he shrieked. “Leave!”

Body trembling, Indel stared at him. It took several attempts of trying to speak before he could even move.

He took one step toward Nala and Boon blocked him.

“No. Not with Aza. She does not need you. You leave alone. You stay upon that mount and you die alone.”

Indel bit back a cry of his own. “No.” It took some time for him to regain control of his own body. When he spoke, his voice was unsteady, but he could speak. “She won’t be happy here. She’ll never be happy here. Please. I am what drives her. She is what drives me. I cannot do without her and she doesn’t wish to remain here in this roost. Bring her to where she’s happiest even if you must kill me.”

Boon spoke not a word. The expression on his face said it all; Indel had hurt him with the accusation about Crane. He’d hurt him beyond forgiveness and he would have to leave alone.

Finally, Indel took the shaky motions needed to step forward. He kept his posture hunched and humble until he reached Nala and whispered, “Na’am. Na’am. I must go.”

Nala’s gentle rocking was a constant as she stared out at nothing.

“I must go, Na’am. I must go.” He reached out to hold Nala’s knee but his Summoner flinched and pulled away. “Na’am....”

“Home,” Nala whispered, hunching over. “Bring me home, Mana.... Bring us home again.”

Boon’s woeful expression spoke volumes of his own heartache. Falling to one knee, he bowed his head. “This is your home now, Aza. This is your home. I will care for you here.”

When he took Nala’s arms and pulled her to stand, although Nala’s body shivered as if she’d fall at any time, she held steady.

“This is your home, Aza....”

Nala tore her eyes away from whatever she was staring at, and looked Boon in the eye.

They stayed transfixed in that gaze until Boon let out a shaky breath.

Indel was fearful, but Boon’s body relaxed. Finally, he could see it—Boon could see the truth; Nala couldn’t stay.

Gaze low, Boon muttered, “I will help you put Aza on Crane’s ino. I had to kill my own for the claw. And you take Aza back with you. Do you understand?”

Relief filling his body, Indel wrapped his arm around Nala’s shoulder and helped give her support as they made the long journey down the steps and into the courtyard.

In the end, Nala had to be wrapped up in robes. She curled in on herself. Boon did have the smarts necessary to secure it well. To Indel it looked more like a corpse than his Summoner but he was thankful all the same.

Boon handed the reins over and walked around to Nala and stroked her back.

“Calm, Aza...I will remedy it all. You will see.”