Duffy shed a tear.

“Take all the time you need.”

“You, Duffy, need to find Leopold. His transformation awoke something in him neither of us want to see again. Without the luxury of Oblivion’s curse, and with the Ice Henge shattered he may not heal.”

There was always risk messing with the forces which bore you. Duffy sniffed, wiped his cheeks with his sleeve and pushed Ruby away. He looked at her with brotherly love and regret.

“We’ll get through this.” He nodded.

“We always do,” Ruby replied. She ushered him away, and watched as he walked to the end of the jetty and fell into the mercury sea to find his way home. When she was alone, she burst into tears unfettered by piety or class.

For an age, the spell singer stood at the end of the jetty and stared at the myriad visions of possibilities that danced over the clouds of their inner sanctum. The Aria, for centuries, had been the only Haven the troupe had against the horrors of the world. With their endeavour to release the Tap and usurp the Thayne, their only sanctuary slowly turned against them. It no longer felt like home in a time when the troupe were lost, listless, and in need of guidance.

“I know you’re listening,” she said softly.

A crack of thunder tore through the clouds.

“You tried to hurt my family. Whatever misplaced notions think your actions are justified, mark my words Y’edda. I will be your ruin.” Her emotion spent, Ruby took on the mantle of her true self, devoid of the fury and uncertainty of her past lives. For the first time in decades she thought clearly. “Show yourself.”

A shudder, a twist in the air, and a form appeared at the jetty’s end. Smaller than her previous self, Y’edda gently swung four blades in concentric circles over the scar on her chest. Without the Ice Henge the goddess fought hard to manifest and the spell singer curled her lips into a wicked smile.

“This small victory will not lead you to redemption.”

“I’m not looking for redemption. I’m looking for a home. You took that from us, and we will take it back one way or another.” She cocked the bow to her violin and rested the guard under her chin.

“Save it.” The Thanyne bowed.

“Oh, going so soon?” Ruby dropped the violin to her side.

“The Ice Henge has fallen. Berevar is lost to us. You may not see our point of view, and hate us for what we made in the war of the Tap but this world is stronger with us. This is not over.”

In a flurry of owl feathers and piety Y’edda’s avatar disappeared. Ruby smirked long after she had gone, ignoring the flashbacks of Sei Orlouge’s warnings to the troupe that meddling with the Thayne would turn the Hero of Radasanth against them. In his absence, the people they had lived and died to free from the shackles of false gods in the Tap would finally now the meaning of free will.

“Oh, I’m counting on it.” Ominous echoes drifted out over the mercury sea, ricocheting away from eddies of uncertain futures and torrents of doom. She sat on the jetty and crossed her legs. Turning to the one thing she could do flawlessly, she began to play whatever her heart desired on her violin.