Nox warbled happily. “And you, favorite friends. Favorite clutchmates. Till we meet again.”
They bowed one more time, then the pair of them made their way back out. It was a torturous process, given the windings of the labyrinth Nox had inserted himself into, but they emerged into the magma caverns at last and Scorio flew them back up the shaft and into the spire.
Naomi insisted on a quick detour by the baths so she could wash off the slime, and Scorio joined her. He slept in the shallows, the back of his head resting on the edge of the pool, and it took vigorous shaking from Naomi to wake him. They claimed fresh robes, and then ascended to their cluster.
Lianshi had set a stool before their entrance and sat with perfect posture reading a book. She glanced up at the sound of their approach and leaped to her feet. “Scorio! Naomi!”
“A stool?” Naomi’s amusement was obvious though she didn’t smile. “You really were intent on waiting for us.”
“Oh - no. When I came by there were a bunch of other messengers milling about. So I took the initiative of acting as your secretary while you were gone. I’ve taken down all the requests for audiences.” She opened her book to the last page, where she’d penned a brief list. “But… what in the ten hells?” Her eyes opened wide. “You’re alive. Scorio. You fought a Charnel Duke who vowed to tear off your arms and legs and you’re alive. The caldera activated! Now everyone’s talking about how Bravurn killed Queen Xandera, and the blazeborns in the Fury Spires are becoming unreactive -”
“Let’s take this inside,” said Scorio, touching Lianshi’s elbow and passing her to enter their cluster.
He’d passed beyond exhaustion to a place of strange lucidity. Filling cups with warm water from the iron tank, he passed them out then told Lianshi all that had occurred. Naomi frowned at him several times, clearly displeased by his candor, but it just felt right to be candid. She might not have been the same incarnation as his previous best friend, but she was the same person, and he instinctively wanted her counsel, her friendship, and on some primal level it was just so easy to trust her all over again.
“Oh, wow,” said Lianshi, covering her mouth. She blinked rapidly, processing all she’d heard, then sat up straight once more. “Scorio, Naomi, I need to tell you something… well. It’s hard to say. But you need to know.”
“Here we go,” said Naomi.
“Leonis… he’s been changing rapidly these past few months. I don’t know how he was when you knew him in his last life, but this time round he’s more… bitter?”
Scorio frowned. “Leonis?”
“Praximar really nurtured his pride. Leonis felt himself the star of our class, and while he never came in first, he believed he was receiving special treatment because Praximar recognized him as one of the legendary Great Souls who’d returned to aid in the war. When you arrived in Bastion and killed Praximar, and exposed Manticore’s manipulations… I didn’t even realize it at the time, but it really rocked him. He had some long, dark nights after you both left. Nights where he raged at being but a tool in Daemon and Praximar’s plans against you, and not a weapon in his own right. I tried to console him, to help him see that he was still everything he’d ever been, but…”
“Oh,” said Scorio softly, sitting down so that his legs hung into the rotunda.
Lianshi looked down at her hands. “He began training harder than ever, but it was a brutal form of training. As if he were angry at his own body, intolerant of his own weaknesses. His temper grew, and while he was still the man I loved, it felt as if he were receding from me, walking backward into a fog. I… I tried to help him, but his pride… he set his sights on matching your advancement, and when we met in the baths he was thrilled that you were still a Flame Vault. He’d feared you’d do the impossible and reach Dread Blaze in only months.”
“Oh,” said Scorio again.
“Oops,” said Naomi.
“Right.” Lianshi grimaced. “His training had really begun to bear fruit. He was advancing swiftly, making progress like never before. But our connection, our… love, it had begun to change, and his anger, his resolve… it was pushing me away. More and more I felt like a friend to him. And when I saw Juniper, and it felt as if an entirely different future were possible. She and I have been talking.” Lianshi glanced up quickly, her smile nervous. “Just talking. But it’s been so… so nice. This strange combination of effortless and sweet. And then I’d go back to Leonis and… so I told him I wanted to end our relationship, that I wanted to remain his friend, that I’d always be his friend, but…”
“That probably went over well,” said Naomi.
“Then you ascended to Dread Blaze and somehow convinced Plassus not to kill you, and it turns out had forged a connection with the blazeborn queen. It was too much for him. After your duel he grew incredulous, furious, as if your every victory was a judgment on him. I just… I just couldn’t take his anger anymore, so I left, and decided to come here.”
Lianshi looked down again, her knuckles white around her cup.
“I’m so sorry,” said Scorio, moving to sit beside her. “Is it alright if I give you a hug?”
She nodded mutely, and Scorio wrapped an arm around her shoulders squeezed gently. Lianshi leaned into him, body shivering with misery. “I don’t know how it came to this. We used to be so happy. He was always too much, but back then it was in a good way. Grandiose, generous, endlessly positive. And so gentle, so loving.”
Lianshi wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “But somewhere along the way he began to change. I think it was all the evenings he spent with Daemon. He’d come back from drinks with the man vibrating with ambition, and would imagine his future, how the Golden King would rise to Imperator and change the course of the war.”
“Yet another reason to kill Daemon,” said Naomi softly.
“I’d laugh, tease him, try to bring him down to earth, but he’d only grow upset, so I learned to let him dream.” Lianshi sighed. “I should have left him months ago. But I wanted to help him. And feared what my leaving would do.”
“Damn,” said Scorio. “When I knew the man he was… as you said. Generous to a fault. In our final Gauntlet run he sacrificed himself so that I could proceed. It was because of him that I first managed to get a handle on my own rage. That I ascended to Tomb Spark. It was because of him that I won the Gauntlet.”
“He knows.” Lianshi’s voice was but a whisper. “And he’s cursed that Leonis to the Pit and back for being a fool.”
Scorio shook his head. “I’d go speak with him, but I get the sense that would only make things worse.”
Lianshi chuckled, but the sound was more bitter than anything else. “He’d probably work himself up to challenging you to a duel.”
“He’d lose,” said Naomi flatly.
“I know. He knows that. But he can’t accept it. He’s the Golden King. I’m afraid of what he’ll do now.”
“Leonis is a good man,” said Scorio firmly. “He may be upset, furious even, but his fundamental nature won’t change. He’ll find his way.”
“You’re being naive,” said Naomi. “Last time, Leonis was nurtured by your friendship. This time round your place was taken by Daemon. Look what that bastard did to Jova.”
Lianshi’s eyes widened. “What did Daemon do to Jova?”
“He turned her against us,” said Naomi. “She wasn’t there when you both were killed, but she stayed with Manticore after she found out. And then when we returned from hiding? She tried to kill us.”
“I’d heard rumors…” Lianshi shook her head softly. “I’ve wanted to ask Juniper, but we’ve avoided serious conversations thus far.”