Part 5

It was yet another winter at the Hissing Lobster when Sirene decided to tell Vaust about why she came. She had never told him once in the hundreds of years she had been coming, but decided now was as good a time as ever.

"Vaust, a moment of your time?" Sirene asked him. It was the end of the day and the tavern was empty, so she didn't feel reluctant to use his name.

"Sure Sirene, what's on your mind?" He asked.

"Let's go sit in the lounge chairs. It'll take a bit."

Once they were seated, Sirene looked down and breathed in and out a few times, her eyes closed.

"Sirene, are you okay?" Vaust asked.

"This is something I've never shared with anyone other than my Master." Sirene said quietly. "It's about why I come here every winter, and why I've done it every winter for the past twenty five hundred years."

"That's before I built this inn." Vaust said. "Why else are you coming to the middle of the woods?"

"The graveyard, Vaust. I buried my parents there when I was twenty years old." Sirene said, starting to cry. "This long overgrown village is where my long life began."

Vaust's eye twitched. What kind of insane coincidence is this? He was sure nothing had ever existed here. "I never knew of any village being here."

"That's because I scrubbed it from history, Vaust. A village where everyone died." Sirene said quietly. "Once the ruins were overgrown, who would remember it ever existed?"

Sirene quietly told Vaust the story of what happened to her when she first met Eigengrau, those she killed to spare them the horrific death that awaited them, and the promise she made herself, to never forget where it all began.

"You're probably wondering about my last name." Sirene said afterwards. "It's one I came up with, as I never had one. I think you can guess the meaning."

Vaust simply nodded. To think the violent drunk who came to his inn every winter had such a tragic beginning to life.

"I don't like how Eigengrau treated you at that first meeting, Sirene." Vaust eventually said, after they sat in silence for several minutes.

"I was a naive iron age farm girl. I would have never believed her. That girl wasn't Sirene Ignitis the Reaper Mage, that girl was just Sirene of Isca. She knew nothing of Gods or fate or even the nature of the magic she was so skilled with. She had to be shown first hand."

"Do you ever regret it?" Vaust asked.

"Regret what? Becoming who I am now? Sometimes. But after the business a few years ago with the Dwarven Emperor and finding out the true nature of Eigengrau, it's not like I could have escaped this fate."

Vaust chuckled, thinking back on that day. To think Eigengrau was also Sirene, it was still absurd.

"I wonder who Eigengrau had to guide her, though." Sirene said out loud.

"Probably for the best that we don't know. Even if we asked, do you think she'd share?" Vaust replied, leaning back slightly. "She's even more recalcitrant than Vordea."

"That is for good cause." Came a voice from behind them. They both leapt to their feet and behind them was Eigengrau.

"When did you get here?" Sirene asked.

"A few minutes ago. Apprentice, something unexpected has happened, and I am not certain what to make of it." Eigengrau said, pulling out a book from inside her robes. Sirene recognized it as the Book of Fates, the tome Eigengrau carried that listed the death date of every soul on Karand. "You have a death date. It is illegible, but it is there."

Eigengrau opened the tome and showed Sirene and Vaust. There, next to Sirene's name, was just as Eigengrau said, unreadable text listing a day of death. Sirene glanced at other entries and noticed the dates were crisp and readable.

"Master, does this mean I'm going to die?" Sirene asked, one eye squinting.

"Fate does not change, Apprentice. We either have a meddler, or you always had a death date, but your entry has been blank for thousands of years."

"Master, have you ever encountered someone who's lived as long as I have?" Sirene asked, starting to speculate. "What does Syndra Valmaris's entry say?"

"A moment." Eigengrau replied. She was starting to realize what Sirene was getting at, and flipped to Syndra's page immediately, but it was just as crisp and legible as it was the day Vordea murdered her a thousand years ago. "Syndra's is crisp and legible, so that is not the case."

Sirene flopped back onto the chair and sighed contentedly.

"You're... happy?" Vaust asked.

"It means I'll get to see my parents again. I've waited so long for this day."

Eigengrau could only smile. It seems after all this time, they were still the only people she cared about. Maybe it would be okay for Sirene to die, she had been struggling for so long against a world moving on despite her attempts to stop it.

"My Apprentice has never been happy about living forever. She does not have the divine context to appreciate it, and we have kept her spark from lighting on purpose. I expected this reaction from her."

Sirene's eyes were closed, and tears were streaking down her cheeks. She didn't make a single noise, but the look on her face said it all.

"Has your Book ever been wrong?" Vaust asked.

"Not in any kalpa." Eigengrau flatly stated. She looked down at Sirene's entry again, and read it carefully.

Sirene of Isca. Birth: 13 Vakop, 33344. Aptitude: Time/Time/Time. Soul: Divine. Death: <Illegible>

Eigengrau frowned. No matter how she looked at it, it was either nonsense or simply illegible. She turned back to Syndra's entry, and spotted another mystery.

Syndra Valmaris. Birth: 27 Erot 34410. Aptitude: Ice. Soul: <Missing>. Death: 13 Ioz 35960.

"Missing?" Eigengrau asked out loud. "More problems. Apprentice, I am sorry to ask this of you, but you must go talk to Syndra Valmaris."