Ian’s knees and palms slammed onto cold granite. He cried out and clenched his jaw as his injuries flared in pain, taking solace in the fact that the Eldemari’s arrival was even worse. When she materialized, the back of her head slammed into the floor. Ian could tell with a glance that she was out cold.

The necromancer’s eyes moved up from the dark floor to take in the cavernous hall. Series of pillars supported a domed ceiling tens of feet in the air. The ceiling was frescoed to look like a blue sky with sparse, wispy clouds. A painted star at the dome’s zenith hovered over a floor mosaic featuring an orange star socketed in the dark granite. The twin stars illuminated the room in soft, natural sunlight.

The buttressing pillars cast long shadows over the hall, one directly covering Ian and Maria. Ian gingerly picked himself up and hovered over the floor toward the floor mosaic, his breath labored from his ruined lung. Aside from the fresco and mosaic, the room was dim—dark stone, dark columns, and dark walls that seemed to absorb and reflect light like shards of obsidian.

Despite its austerity, the room exuded power, sophistication, and magnificence. It felt like the kind of place ascendants might inhabit, but Ian could see no vital signatures in the vicinity—Aside from himself and Maria, the hall was empty.

Ian’s eyes fixated on a black door at the back of the hall, its form melding into the dark walls. It stretched halfway up the ceiling to loom over the rest of the room. On close inspection, Ian noticed that it was inscribed and filigreed with accents of gold.

With nowhere else to go, Ian went up to the door and placed his hand upon its metallic surface, pressing gently. As though weightless, the door swung outward. Ian blinked but could only see opaque darkness.

“It’s been a long time since someone killed an ascendant.”

Ian turned around. Before him stood a man in a green dress shirt with blond hair pulled back into a small bun, loose ringlets glowing in the soft light. The man caressed a black snake that draped over his shoulders, its diamond-shaped head hovering just over his palm. His green eyes glinted with unconcealed interest.

“Hello,” Ian began cautiously. “How might I greet you?”

The man smiled. “Holiday is fine; that, or Crimson Teeth: It’s up to you.”

Crimson teeth? Ian didn’t notice any biological abnormalities, so the courtesy name probably referred to something else.

“...It’s a pleasure to meet you, Crimson Teeth,” Ian replied, deciding to go with the more formal of the presented name options. “Have you come to welcome me to the ascendant world?”

The ascendant blinked, one eyebrow raising almost imperceptibly. The smile still played at the corners of his lips, though it was more playful than before. “You’re not quite ready for that yet.”

“I defeated my ascendant fairly,” Ian remarked. “What’s there to discuss?”

The snake on Holiday’s shoulder flicked its tongue. “You killed an ascendant body and soul: There’s much to discuss.”

Ian blinked. So...a talking snake? It didn’t literally speak, but its thoughts wormed their way into Ian’s head.

Holiday rubbed the pale chin of the snake and sighed. “This turn of events was exciting for all of two minutes before I remembered my responsibilities. I need to go and prepare for the deliberation.”

Ian’s eyes widened. “I still don’t understand the problem. I defeated Ari, then ascended.”

Holiday laughed softly. “Still, Ari will be missed. Perhaps not by me, but by some.”

The snake hissed. “But also, there’s the matter of bringing someone else along.”

Ian wouldn’t have thought to bring the Eldemari if Achemiss hadn’t explicitly brought it up as an option. But Achemiss wouldn’t have tried to screw him over as soon as he succeeded in his task...right?

Ian kept a polite smile plastered on his face. “Is that not permitted?”

Holiday raised an eyebrow at the snake, who flicked its tongue back in response.

“It’s permitted, but not advised,” Holiday finally snorted, caressing the serpent. “Mostly because there’s no formal procedure on how to handle such a circumstance...which necessitates deliberation.”

Before Ian could ask further questions, Holiday’s mouth twisted and he shook his head, eyes narrowing. “I’ll come for you in a bit.” In a swift maneuver, the ascendant stepped around Ian and into the darkness beyond the door.

Ian stood by the vacant doorway for a few seconds before turning around.

He spent the next half hour healing himself. The extensive damage and lack of a Life practitioner to stimulate cell growth made the process painstaking. As he entered a rhythm of healing his more-extensive wounds, Ian’s eyes gravitated to the reposed form of the Eldemari. Her strawberry blonde hair was covered in ash, her face stained with soot. Half of her clothes had burned off, revealing an athletic physique.

What am I to do with you? Theoretically, Maria was no longer tethered by fate to people from their old world. Given that Achemiss said that ascendants couldn’t die unless they left the ascendant world, Maria couldn’t kill him here. Ian supposed she could try and torture him for revenge, but the idea that Maria would get the upper hand was...unlikely.

While Ian was lost in his thoughts, Maria began to stir, grimacing. 

On reflex Ian knocked her out again. He took in a deep breath and sighed as he studied Maria’s figure. She looked younger than ever as she slept, the lines in her forehead straightening, her features relaxed. Here, in this world...isn’t she harmless?

When Maria stirred again a few minutes later, Ian didn’t interfere. He simply sat on the floor and ignored her, showing no visible reaction. He kept his eyes fixed on a pillar while tracking Maria’s movements with his vital vision.

Maria’s breath was labored as she tried to stand, her burnt hands and face red and puffy with inflammation. Ian could sense her eyes boring into the back of his head.

“Where are we?”

“The ascendant world.”

Maria nodded her head once, then sighed. “Have you kept me alive because you don’t think I can make your life miserable, Skai’aren?” Her exhausted voice failed to deliver the line with sufficient vitriol.

“I still don’t think of the conflict between us as personal,” Ian confessed.

The woman fell back on the floor and stared at the ceiling. “You’re delusional.”

“And both of you are now awake,” Holiday said, his voice sounding out from behind a pillar. “Excellent.”

Maria jumped in surprise. Ian flinched and swallowed.

Holiday stepped to the side and leaned casually on the pillar, his gaze alighting on Ian. “I’m glad to see you’ve informed your companion about the current situation.”

Ian’s eyes reflexively darted to Maria, their eyes conveying a mutual sentiment of disagreement: Ian hadn’t told Maria anything more than the barest minimum, not that he had much more to share.

Holiday sighed. “So...the deliberation transpired. Thankfully, the interested ascendant parties didn’t require much time to reach a tepid agreement.”

“They’ve perfected speaking over everyone else into an artform,” the snake quipped.

“What deliberation?” Maria asked.

Holiday ignored her completely. “Quick tip before I forget: Your courtesy name below is Skai’aren, but as an ascendant, I encourage you to change up your name. It keeps things fresh. Tell me, who picked out such a hard to pronounce mononym?”

Ian blinked rapidly. “Excuse me?” Why was the ascendant randomly changing the subject?

Holiday chuckled. “Apologies, I’m just excited. I’ve been given leave from this place to serve as your guide for your first day; that was Ari’s job. She was either the best or worst person for her position depending on how you view indoctrinating people the second they step foot in Eternity.” Holiday peered down at his snake and shrugged.

Ian glanced at Maria. “And what of my...er, companion?”

Holiday looked off to the side. “Well, she’s not an ascendant, so it’s a bit messy. Achemiss really wanted her dead, but Ari’s faction seemed determined to keep her alive if only to spite Achemiss, disregarding the role she played in Ari’s death.”

The snake hissed and bared its fangs at Holiday, softly shaking its head before facing Ian. “Don’t beat around the bush. She will enter the ascendant world, but the connection will ruin her body over time. She will die in a year.”

Maria took the news in stride, nodding her head gently.

Perhaps she’s just too tired to respond, Ian thought. He had brought her here, put a noose around her neck...and even though he knew what it was like having a head on the chopping block, he felt indifferent to her fate. Perhaps I’m just too tired to care.

“Are you going to lead us to the exit, then?” Ian wondered. Holiday seemed to have his own methods of getting around, but Ian didn’t know if that was part of Holiday’s practice or some localized method of transport like the doors in Ichormai, the SPU’s capital palace.

Holiday blinked, his face growing contemplative. “There is no exit—just an entrance.”

“Just bring them already,” the snake hissed. “You’re being insufferable.”

Holiday sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes. “Fine.”

Before the word fully left his lips, the world shifted. Ian found himself in another hallway, though this one was much narrower and lacked the columnar supports. This hall didn’t have a fresco; instead, the ceiling was transparent, revealing a sky of millions of stars.

“You’ve never been beyond the boundaries of your world, have you?” Holiday asked, peering at the transfixed faces of Ian and Maria. “This is what the sky looks like beyond, a grand desert, the source of the beginning...”

Ian felt his breath catch in his throat. Holiday spoke with uncharacteristic fervor tinged by a noble bitterness, as though discussing how tragedy begets beauty.

Ian cleared his throat and immediately attracted Holiday’s attention, the practitioner’s gaze falling from the open ceiling. As though sensing Ian’s confusion, he gave the necromancer a sagely smile. “You’ll understand what I’m talking about once you attend school.”

Ian blinked rapidly. “...School?”

“Oh yes,” Holiday continued, his expression pleasant. “You’ll learn all about the way the universe formed, how your own plane of existence came into being as well as why affinities exist. Additionally, you’ll meet many new ascendant friends and go on adventures together!”

“...Why are you doing this?” the snake asked.

Holiday cupped the snake’s head with his fingers and looked at Ian conspiratorially. “Wouldn’t that be an exciting way to start your time in the ascendant realm? An academy?”

Ian had no idea what he was supposed to say. “It sounds...interesting.”

“‘Interesting’ means he doesn’t think it’s exciting,” the snake insisted.

Holiday groaned and gave Ian a conspiratorial wink. “I’ve been trying to pitch the school idea for years, but it still hasn’t caught on. For the life of me, I don’t know why people wouldn’t want to relive the brightest years of their youth when they start their eternal life in Eternity. Boggles my mind! Truly!”

Ian saw Maria trying to keep a straight face in his peripheral vision. When he made eye contact, she burst into laughter.

Holiday froze. “What’s funny?”

Maria’s laughter was more like wheezing; it sounded painful. “This entire business feels like a fever dream. It’s like this entire place is as real as your academy.”

The snake hissed and coiled tightly around Holiday’s arm. “Bring them to the amber.”

Holiday’s mouth dropped in mock hurt, his eyes narrowing at the snake. “No need to be nasty about it.” He turned to the side and opened up a door that Ian could have sworn wasn’t there a moment ago. Even so, the appearance of the door felt natural, as though it had always been present.

“In you go.”

Ian peered into the doorway and frowned. Darkness.

Maria strode forward first, seemingly uncaring what lay beyond the veiled threshold. Ian quickly fell in step behind her. After they took exactly three steps through the door, the veil of darkness lifted, the stars illuminating the small space. At the back of the featureless room was a wall made entirely of a shiny, ochre sap.

Maria walked up to the wall and hovered her hand over its surface.

“Don’t touch it yet,” Holiday’s voice sounded out from behind, his tone oddly serious.

Maria recoiled and stepped backward. “This is...the amber?”

Holiday crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes. It’s a bit of a special material, though, so you should listen carefully before proceeding.

“Amber is liquid and solid, and above all else, it’s sticky; it’s terrible to extract yourself from it. You must enter it in one movement for a clean submergence or part of you might be stuck. I’m going to demonstrate how to enter in a moment.”

The snake hissed. “Where is Arcinda?”

Holiday stroked the snake’s diamond head. “She’s still on her way. Had to get her affairs in order.”

“Is she prepared to take over?”

The ascendant rolled his eyes. “She’s a human calculator type; she’ll be fine.”

The snake coiled its tail playfully around Holiday’s wrist. “Very well.”

Holiday stepped up to the sticky wall and turned around, giving Ian and Maria a final once-over. “You can enter with your clothes but it’ll ruin them forever, fair warning.”

Ian disassembled his bone armor into his void storage back in the main hall; the rest of his clothes he couldn’t care less about.

“What of our items?” Maria asked, fingers trailing to a small teardrop pendant resting between her collar bones.

Holiday nodded. “Fair question. You should place everything you care about in your personal cubby. See, look over there—”

Ian and Maria’s eyes snapped to the corner of the room; there was nothing but an empty, mundane wall.

“Kidding. Actually, I was kidding about the clothes being ruined forever as well, else I would’ve stripped already.”

Ian and Maria gave Holiday blank looks.

“Neither of you seem to be in very high spirits for people who transcended the boundaries of their old world. I’ve been trying to lighten the mood, but I can see that it’s hopeless. No matter: I’ll still be the best guide I can possibly be.”

Without any further warning, Holiday turned around and stepped into the amber as though entering a wall of water, his movements unimpeded. He gave both of them a smile before his hair fell still. Even after thirty seconds his eyes didn’t blink.

“Best to get it over with,” Maria murmured. She stepped back, then ran forward and leapt into the wall shoulder first. She fell deeper into the amber than Holiday, but sure enough, her body froze in a matter of seconds.

Ian took in a deep breath, then walked up to the wall.

This is it, I guess. Seems like an odd way to start my ascendance, but Holiday seemed unfazed by it.

He tilted his head to take in the stars one last time, then walked forward. The amber parted before him like warm liquid; it didn’t feel sticky in the least. But as the seconds passed, the amber began to tighten around him like gelatin. He couldn’t move his mouth, nor could he close his eyes.

He was trapped and nothing was happening.

Am I supposed to suffocate?

Just as Ian was starting to panic, he felt a sensation of heat build all around his body...and everything faded to black.