诸神的薄暮 Twilight of the Gods
作者 Graham McNeill
他们在夜幕的笼罩下走进山岭阴影中的死城。千人的军团，每个士兵身上都带着血红的图腾象征，象征着那位太阳血脉飞升者的古老血统，象征着他们的领袖。
They came to a dead city in the mountain’s shadow under cover of night. Battle-hosts of a thousand warriors, each bearing bloody totems that told of the ancient lineages of the Sunborn Ascended who led them.
这座古城和它市民的骸骨很早以前就已与沙漠融为一体，根本无法从黄沙中分辨出骸骨和灰烬。只有那些最高的高塔还能伸出到沙丘之上：残破的塔尖在遥远异域吹来的风中唱起挽歌。在一座残破的柱基上，一尊巨大的石像早已没了躯干，只剩下两条腿站在原地，石像的猛禽头颅在一旁被黄沙半掩着。
在遥远的过去，这个山谷中曾发生过一件大事，后来这里才有了这座城。
The city and the bones of its people had long ago become one with the desert, and it was impossible to tell ash and bone from sand. Only its tallest towers remained above the dunes: broken spires that sang mournfully when the winds blew from the realms beyond the mountain. Upon a broken plinth stood two trunkless legs of stone, the cruel visage of a half-buried avian head lying in the sand beside them.
它标志了恕瑞玛的初始。
同时也孕育了它的终结。
In a long-distant age, an event of great moment had taken place in the valley where the city would later be built.
没有人记得那一天，除了天神战士们，而他们现在带着自己的部队，走向这座城市参差的废墟。同样是这群天神战士，在他们的皇帝遭到背叛后的动乱中，用刀剑屠杀了城中的居民，并见证了城市被火焰吞没，看着它的名字从残存的石碑和方尖塔上凿除。
而这些赶尽杀绝的举动仅仅是为了徒劳的恶意。
It had marked the beginning of Shurima.
说他们徒劳，是因为那个来自这座城市的奴隶男孩早就死了，而且即使活着，也不会在乎关于他故乡的记忆。
那个人的行为摧毁了整个帝国，也破坏了他们的手足情谊。
And set in motion its ending.
所以天神战士们烧毁了奈瑞玛桀，连同他的人民，化成灰烬。
None remembered that day, save the god-warriors who now led their hosts towards the city’s jutting ruins. Those same god-warriors had put the citizens to the sword in the wake of their emperor’s betrayal. And with its people murdered, they had seen the city burned and its name hacked from every stele and obelisk that remained standing.
深邃的时间长河漠然地流逝，偷走了金色卷轴的光泽。
正如同我们，塔亚纳利心想。他用一根长着爪子的手指掠过卷轴上一行行名字和数字，这里事无巨细地记录着当时在北方新建成的贸易港收来的什一税。
Yet these acts of extermination were for naught but futile spite.
新建成的……？
可哈居恩几百年来一直是人类的城市，他们的粗野口音早已让这个名字变成另外一种丑陋音调。大学士可能会觉得这副卷轴的内容值得研究，但在塔亚纳利眼里，它唯一的价值只是对于那个时代的象征性，象征着一个并不疯狂的世界。
Futile because the child who had been taken as a slave from this city was long dead, and in life had no use for memory of his birth.
这个房间曾是用来存放记录的大厅，大理石的墙壁上支出一排排的书架，上面堆着的卷轴记录了献给皇帝的贡品，记录了他的战争，还记录了他的种种事迹。这里的空间曾经非常宽敞，不过屋顶已经在几百年前塌陷，所以黄沙已近填满了大部分地方。
他觉察到空气中的变化，放下卷轴抬头看去。
His act had destroyed the empire and sundered their brotherhood.
麦伊莎站在门口，她的身影在房间的尺寸对比下显得无比渺小，而塔亚纳利头上的黑色短毛应该刚好能擦过大门的横梁——如果他能站直的话。她的身形纤细，甚至可以说孱弱，但塔亚纳利依然觉察到她所拥有的深度足以让他捉摸不透。一头金黄色的长发绕着她的肩膀泻下，就像寒冷的北地之人的发色。她外表年轻，但她的双眸，一颗是饱满的蓝色，另一颗是薄暮的紫色，眼神中透露出超越她年龄的智慧。她穿着薄薄的丝绸长袍，鲜艳的色彩与沙漠格格不入，一根细绳系在腰间，上面挂着一把金色的钥匙。一条亮紫色的围巾缠在她的脖子上，末端的流苏在她指尖扭来扭曲。
“他们到了，”她说。
And so the god-warriors burned Nerimazeth, and its people, to ash.
“有多少？”
“九支大军。将近一万名士兵。”
塔亚纳利点点头，伸出舌头舔了舔泛黄的长牙。“比我料想的多。”
她耸了耸肩，“他们全都需要来。”
The passage of deep time had stolen the golden scroll’s luster.
“几百年来已经有太多血雨腥风，”他说。“太多肆虐的仇恨。我们之间可以和平相处的想法早已被他们深恶痛绝。”
麦伊莎对这蠢行摇了摇头。“这场无尽的战争已经夺走太多生命。你们自相残杀造成的伤亡甚至比死在深渊恐惧之口下的还多。”
Much like us all, thought Ta’anari. He drew a clawed finger down the etched list of names and numbers, a meticulous record of tithes from the newly-established trading port of Kha’zhun in the north.
她轻率语调中的一丝责难味道在塔亚纳利厚厚的舌头中间消散。毕竟，她说的没错。
他不正是为此才召集了自己的同族吗？
Newly-established...?
“从阿兹尔陨落的那一刻开始，太阳血脉之间的战争就已无法避免。”塔亚纳利一边说，一边收起卷轴，从古代历史的沉思中站了起来。“他走了以后，我们的野心太过庞大，我们之中任何一个都无法担任领袖。关于未来的样子有太多的愿景，但我们始终是散兵游勇、残兵败将，无法实现任何未来愿景。”
“看来你们和凡人之间的区别，说到底也没多大。”
Kha’zhun had been a city of men for centuries, their savage tongue already debasing its name into something new and ugly. The Scholar might have found the scroll’s contents interesting, but the only worth it held for Ta’anari was the tangible link it provided to a time when the world made sense.
以前，如果任何人胆敢说出这样的想法，一定会被他杀掉，但上百年来，他们给世界带来了无休止的战争和规模庞大的杀戮，让这句话掷地有声、振聋发聩。
塔亚纳利记不清麦伊莎是什么时候开始侍奉自己的。凡人的寿命总是转瞬即逝，总是在他不注意的时候就死了这一任，替换为下一任。但麦伊莎比任何一任都更加引他注目。一部分是因为她的桀骜不驯，但在这背后还隐藏着更多。她对凡人的心智有自己的洞见，而这是他和他们整个族类始终缺少的东西，因为他们早已将人性舍弃，用以换取更强大的力量。
The room had once been a hall of records, its marble walls lined with shelves and stacked with scrolls recording tributes due to the emperor, accountings of his wars and long lists of his deeds. It had been a cavernous space, but the roof had caved in centuries ago, and sand filled most of the subterranean space.
塔亚纳利最后一次以人类的身份行走于世已经是太长时间以前了。他几乎不记得身为凡人的感觉，也已失去时间匆匆流逝的观念。古老的魔法和太阳圆盘的煅炉已将他重铸，他凡人血肉的拙劣材质被精工淬炼成天神之躯。
虽然是有瑕疵的、残破的天神，但神格是不折不扣的。
He felt a change in the air, and looked up from his studies.
他身着青铜铠甲，外形如同一只猎豹，虽然如今已经被岁月和战争折弯了腰，但依然壮硕魁梧。他上身的短毛曾经乌黑油亮，但鼻尖和双手的毛发都已经泛白，这已经是他尽全力给自己重塑的身姿了。塔亚纳利的凝视曾让一整支军队心惊胆寒，但如今他的一只眼窝里含着的是开裂的红宝石，另一只琥珀色的眼睛上纵立着一条伤疤，眼角泌出绝望颜色的眦垢。他的脊梁已经无法挺直，那是在可哈丽河之战中的一记巨斧挥砍，严重的损伤即使是他熊熊燃烧的回复能力也无法完全修复。
他从桌子上提起一柄武器，一柄巨大的四刃恰丽喀尔。他感受到这夺命利刃的完美平衡，但更多的是，他感受到了它所承载的厚重的期望。他叹了一口气，将它扛在肩甲上，踉跄地走向麦伊莎。
Myisha stood in the doorway, dwarfed by its dimensions, though Ta’anari’s black-furred skull would brush its lintel—were he still able to stand upright. Her frame was slight, fragile even, yet Ta’anari sensed she possessed depths not even he had fully grasped. Gold-blonde hair, like the men found in the cold north, spilled around her shoulders. Her features were youthful, but her eyes, one rich blue, the other twilight’s purple, held wisdom beyond her years. She wore thin silks, colorful and entirely unsuited to the desert, tied at the waist with a thin rope, from which hung a single golden key. A vivid pink scarf coiled around her neck, and she twisted its tasseled ends through her fingertips.
即使岁月和旧伤的摧残让他弯腰驼背，塔亚纳利依然像一座山一样挡在她面前。太阳血脉——虽然其他人称之为另一个不同的，更加黑暗的名字——之间的战争令她的族类付出了惨痛的代价，然而她并不害怕他。
有的时候，他能从她那里感觉到一丝怜悯。
“They’re here,” she said.
另外一些时候，感觉到的则是极不耐烦的蔑视。
她把一只小小的、光滑的手放在他巨大的兽掌上，“你依然是一位天神战士，塔亚纳利，”她说道。“让他们回忆起天神战士所代表的力量，你就能赢得他们的支持。”
“How many?”
“如果他们听不进去怎么办？”
她微笑着说。“很简单，你把他们杀光。”
“Nine hosts. Nearly ten thousand warriors.”
他的载命人全都在沙丘中的前厅中等着他。他们曾经是凡人帝国的女皇和统治者，但在塔亚纳利的无敌军团面前，他们全都奉上了各自的剑并宣誓效忠。
Ta’anari nodded, drawing his tongue over his yellowed fangs. “More than I expected.”
最好是和天神战士并肩作战而不是与之为敌并被碾碎。
还没等他走到跟前，提乌什帕就弯下腰鞠躬，她的臂膀肌肉贲突，布满刺青，绑着一节节玉环。作为最新鲜的血液，她虽然桀骜，但却忠诚。绍佩是沙漠子民，血统可以追溯到阿兹尔先王的时代。她看到他以后立刻用长矛柄猛凿地面。她剃光的头皮被切割成网状，每个凸起的节点都钉着金珠。
She shrugged and said, “They all need to be here.”
伊德瑞－弥，自豪而且敦壮，将长柄战斧举到肩膀；双刃的斧头比大多数人的负重极限还沉重。她是东方来的女皇，她的母后和太后都曾为他而战。她苍白的皮肤如同象牙，乌黑的长发末梢坠着银制的钩子。
塔亚纳利站在这三个女战士面前。
“Too much blood has been spilled over the centuries,” he said. “Too much hate unleashed. The idea that there could be peace between us is anathema to many of them.”
她们不是他的保镖；他并不需要次等的生物保护自己。她们真正的作用是作为他天神旨意的象征，证明他能让那些带着杀意前来的高傲战士甘愿受到他的支配，而且这些战士的武艺都真的足以伤到他。
曾经与他手足情深的同胞兄弟和姐妹们也都会带上他们自己的载命人，但没有一个像他麾下的这几位这般勇猛。
Myisha shook her head at such foolishness. “So many have already died in this endless war. You’ve managed to kill more of your kind than even the abyssal horrors did.”
即便如此，这些女战士没一个敢在他说话的时候直视他的双眼。对上天神的凝视等同于死亡。
“ 我存在于世的数百年里见过许多载命人，但你们将是我最后一批。 ”塔亚纳利撂下话后开始扫视每个人的脸，寻找细微的情绪反应。但多年的效劳已经帮她们杀灭了情绪这个弱点。所以话音落毕，她们全都如同这死城中零落的石像一半无动于衷。“事实必将如此，就如同你们眼神中的耐心一样确定，如同我脑壳中的噩梦一样，每当麦伊莎的万灵药褪效后我都看得无比清晰。你们都很忠诚，但你们全都渴望我死。”
A rebuke of her flippant tone died on Ta’anari’s thick tongue. She was right, after all.
提乌什帕的眼睛是不是闪烁了一下？换作从前，看到这种失态的举动他会一口咬下血肉露出森森白骨，但他对屠戮的胃口已经在过去的几百年里逐渐减弱了。
“我不怪你们，”他继续说道。“我的族类带给你们的只有死亡和恐惧。从前，太阳血脉拯救了这个世界并付出了惨痛代价，但如今我们又亲自将世界推向残破的边缘。飞升之团的荣耀时代已经过去了太久，一切都已被我们的征战所掩埋，消失在你们凡人的短暂记忆中。”
And wasn’t that why he had summoned his kin?
最后几个字说出口，带出一股苦涩，这味道只有他和他的同胞才能反复品味，因为只有他们知道这是自作自受。自尊和自负、被战争摧残的心、以及来自远古的争斗，交杂熔铸成了利刃，斩断了他们职责的铁链。
塔亚纳利颤抖着呼出一口气。一千多年来，他一直都压抑着这个瞬间，但现在该来的还是来了，他知道死亡没有什么可怕的。
“The moment Azir fell, a war between the Sunborn was inevitable,” said Ta’anari, putting aside the scroll, and rising from his study of ancient history. “With him gone, the scale of our ambitions was too great for any one of us to lead. So many visions of what the future needed to be, but all of us too broken to realize them.”
“如果你们活过了今夜，明天破晓之时你们就拥有自由之身。太阳升起后，回到你们族人身边，告诉他们这里发生的一切。”他转过头，“麦伊莎，都准备好了吗？”
“是的。他们都在环形大剧场恭候着。”
“Then perhaps you are not so different from mortals, after all.”
塔亚纳利点了点头。“我们来结束这一切吧。”
Once, he would have killed anyone who voiced such a thought, but the centuries of war and the colossal scale of the slaughter they had unleashed was testament to the truth of it.
这个地方原本并不是环形大剧场。这里曾是奈瑞玛桀的大市场，但塔亚纳利的奴隶们将这里从沙漠的怀抱中挖了出来，他又用魔法给这里塑形，沙砾在剧烈的热度下融成了琉璃。现在这个地方到处都是棕色的结晶，如同一座烟黑、海绿和超凡彩虹组成的火山口。琉璃的表面吸纳了柔和的月光，反射成一层飘渺的皎白帷幔。
塔亚纳利穿过一座豪放的拱门，拱门的形状就像惊涛骇浪被定格在一个瞬间。场地里的空气立刻紧张沉重起来，正如同诸神召集军队时应有的气氛。
Ta’anari had no clear recollection of Myisha entering his service. The lives of mortals were so fleeting, he barely noticed when one died and another took their place. But Myisha had drawn his notice more than any other. Her defiant insolence was part of it, but there was more to it than that. She had an insight into the minds of mortals that he and all his kind lacked since trading their humanity for greater power.
上万名人类，有男有女，站满了环形大剧场的阶梯，天神战士各自的拥护者们集结在下面。没人亮出白刃，但所有人都准备着抽刀迎接一场浴血的狂欢，只听他们神主一声号令。
塔亚纳利如炬的目光扫过他的太阳血脉同胞——他们曾是情同手足的兄弟姐妹，与责任曾是他们坚不可摧的纽带，但实践证明，所谓的坚不可摧其实和玻璃一样轻易破碎。他们的身躯曾经受一种不可想象的力量的重铸，而这力量来自一个超越现世理解的领域，以一种生灵无法模仿的方式雕琢他们的尘世血肉。
Ta’anari had last walked as a man so very long ago. He barely remembered the sensations of a mortal, or the awareness of time’s inexorable march. Ancient magic and the forge of the Sun Disc had remade him, wrought the crude matter of his mortal flesh into that of a god.
但我们的心智依然是凡人，他默默地想，而且出奇地脆弱。
赛腓克斯的凝视中透着理解。吉冈图斯散发着耀眼的厌恶之情。须宇炎的轻蔑之情烫得冒烟。当时正是须宇炎的战斧在可哈丽河畔重伤了塔亚纳利。这位长着海龟面目的天神战士向脚下吐了一口涎，目送塔亚纳利蹒跚地走到环形大剧场的中间。
A flawed and broken god, but divine nonetheless.
沙贝卡和沙贝克眼皮都没抬一下，这对身覆渡鸦黑羽的双胞胎先知正在全神贯注地用精致的指节骨做占卜。瓦里伊娃紧盯塔亚纳利的目光充满高傲的鄙夷，和她兄弟一模一样——她的兄弟是唯一一个虽然缺席但却让他感到庆幸的旧同袍。
“巨狼”瑟搏塔鲁前前后后地踱步，这次集会已经让他等得不耐烦。他的军团在遥远的北方所向无敌，甚至远征西方大洋彼岸的土地。所有同胞中，瑟搏塔鲁最有可能打破目前这血腥的僵持状态。
His bronze-armored form had been panther-like, bowed by age and war, but still mighty. The fur of his upper body had once been lustrous black, but both his snout and limbs were threaded with grey, and he had reshaped himself as best he could. Ta’anari’s gaze had cowed entire armies, but one scarred socket now contained a cracked ruby, the other a slitted amber eye, rheumy with despair. His spine was twisted after an axe-blow taken during the Battle of the River Kahleek, a blow so ferocious that not even his fiery regenerative powers had been able to fully undo the damage.
来自祖瑞塔的娜伽内卡，她的目光藏在斗篷罩帽里，修长的身躯蜷缩在鳞甲长袍中。她的载命人全都被毒瞎了双眼，随时准备执行她恩赐的每一个字。五百年来，他们从未听到过她咝咝的低语。
He lifted a weapon from the table, a magnificent four-bladed Chalicar. He felt the perfect balance of its killing edges, but more than that, he felt the weight of expectation it embodied. He sighed and slung it in his shoulder harness before limping over to Myisha.
只有恩纳凯表示了尊重。他向前走来，皮肤上覆盖着新鲜、耀眼的橙色和黑色条纹。岁月让塔亚纳利弯下了腰，然而恩纳凯却让自己的年纪成为骄傲，他目光矍铄，漫长的战争并没有挫断他的力量。很久以前，他们俩一同登上金色的阶梯，携手迎接太阳圆盘的炽热光芒，拥抱天神的力量。恩纳凯曾带着塔亚纳利受伤的身体从艾卡西亚撤退，还曾在可哈丽的泥潭与他并肩作战，最后在冰川港，他们作为彼此的敌人兵戎相见。
活到我们这种岁数，就会发现命运之轮转了一圈又一圈。
Even hunched by the ravages of time and old wounds, Ta’anari towered over her. The War of the Sunborn—though others were calling it a different, darker name—had exacted a grievous toll of lives on her kind, yet she had no fear of him.
恩纳凯握住了塔亚纳利递过来的兽掌。“塔亚纳利。”
“恩纳凯。”
Sometimes, he sensed a measure of pity from her.
无需多言。几辈子份量的经历、喜悦、失落和心痛全都包含在轻唤彼此名字的问候中。他们是登天化神的存在，无关紧要的寒暄配不上他们的高度。
恩纳凯眯起眼睛流露出怀疑，他看到了塔亚纳利背后挂着的武器。他开口说话，但塔亚纳利以难以觉察的幅度摇了摇头。
At other times, a withering contempt.
“我希望你清楚自己在做什么，”恩纳凯低声说道，然后回到了自己的位置，紧贴着环形大剧场的边缘。
塔亚纳利深吸一口气，他在过去的几年间已经为这个瞬间练习了许多次，他知道，只要说错了一个字，就可能让整个计划未始先终。他的族裔都是天神战士，这份自我和自尊让他们充满高傲和乖戾。
She placed a tiny, hairless hand in his massive, pawed fist. “You are still a god-warrior, Ta’anari,” she said, “Remind them of what that once stood for, and you will win them over.”
“兄弟们，姐妹们，”他开口了，由魔法塑成的回声结构让他的话语响彻整个环形大剧场。“太阳血脉像今天这样汇聚一堂，上一次还要追溯到帕尔内萨城墙前的千神绘。”
他看到赞同的点头，那段生动的记忆在他们灵魂深处死灰复燃，让他们想起自己往昔的样子。
“And if they don’t listen?”
接下来要添柴加薪。要让每一位都把话听进去。
“环顾四周，我看到的是力量，”他继续说道，每个字都包含热情与笃信。“我看到天神立于凡人的古迹，我看到高贵的神格、气量和值得为之奉献的存在。有人说我们古老的同胞手足纽带已经破裂。他们还用古老的文法称我们为暗裔，但你们在这里构成的这番景象让他们的谎言不攻自破。”
She smiled. “Simple. You kill them all.”
塔亚纳利停顿了一下，让奉承和夸赞充分沐浴他们。这些话对他们中的大多数都空洞乏味，因为他们拥有许多饱受折磨的唱诗班，日夜不停地唱着赞歌……歌颂死亡的痛苦。
但这些话可能会打开其余同胞的心扉，足够让他博得支持。
“你们都记得我们并肩前行的时代，由瑟塔卡带领我们的飞升之团，将皇帝的疆土拓展到世界的最边缘。我记得很清楚。那是荣耀的年代，那是英雄的年代！瑟搏塔鲁，你和我曾骑着暮光巨龙前往世界的顶峰，在那万时归一的地方见证宇宙的创造。”
他转过身，向赛腓克斯伸出一只手。
His life-bearers were waiting for him in the sand-sunk antechamber. Once they had been queens and the rulers of mortal empires, but in the face of Ta’anari’s invincible warhost, they had pledged their swords to him.
“赛腓克斯，我的兄弟，我们曾征战深渊怪兽，它们从东海岸的海底裂谷中源源不断地涌出，我们战斗了十天十夜，直到耐力的极限，但我们最后还是将他们击退。我们凯旋而归！”
赛腓克斯点了点头，塔亚纳利可以看到那次战争的记忆像波纹一样在他的鳞片下荡起紫色、黑色和红色的涟漪。
Better to fight alongside a god-warrior than to be crushed by one.
“我从不提及那个时候，”赛腓克斯说道，他全部的眼睛都笼罩在烟雾中。“七千名恕瑞玛黄金战士死在了那片红海滩上。只有你和我活着返回。”
“的确，我们为了那次胜利付出了巨大的代价，付出了血肉，也付出了灵魂。但那是多么难忘的一战啊！凡人以我们那一天的壮举命名了那片海洋。”
Teushpa bowed as he approached, her muscular arms knotted with tattoos and banded with jade torques. Defiant, but loyal, she had been the last to offer her blood. Sulpae was desert-born with a lineage that reached back to the time before Azir’s father. She stamped her long spear at the sight of him. Her shaven scalp was scarified in a grid and pierced with gold beads at every ridged intersection.
赛腓克斯摇了摇头。“你的记忆遗漏了我们那天所见到的恐怖，塔亚纳利。 省省你的豪言壮语吧。我听不到。每当我闭上眼睛，都只能听到那些逝者的惨叫。他们被那些……东西杀死的情形历历在目。不止是杀死，他们被彻底抹除，就连灵魂都被吞噬。所以省去这些经过粉饰的回忆吧，我不认。”
“是的，那些都是鲜血淋淋的日子，是的，我似乎是在美化历史，”塔亚纳利说道。“但我所说的是这个世界应该理解并铭记我们的方式。作为伟大的英雄，作为纵横世界的先锋精锐，带领所向披靡的大军，效忠于万古长存的皇帝，以及——”
Idri-Mi, proud and sturdy, held her long-hafted axe at her shoulder, its double-leafed blades heavier than most men could lift. She was a queen from the east whose mother and grandmother had fought for him. Her pale skin was like ivory, her long black hair hung with silver hooks.
“但是阿兹尔并没有长存，”须宇炎厉声打断他的话，同时将他巨大的长柄斧重重插进地面，厚厚的琉璃应声碎裂。“他死了，而没有了他的带领，太阳血脉陷入战乱。曾经的一切如今都已是尘土。一切都毫无意义了。如果你以为让我们回忆起金色的往日就能结束如今的纷争，那你的疯狂就比我们任何一个都更彻底。”
“让我们共同回忆起曾经的身份只是我将大家召集于此的原因之一。”塔亚纳利说。
Ta’anari stood before the three warrior women.
“那就抓紧讲明你的意图，不然就让我们回去继续自相残杀。”
塔亚纳利想要挺直身子，但他扭曲的脊梁骨像一把被弯折的木椅一样发出了响声。剧痛沿着他的脊梁冲了上来，就像被虚空生物的利爪撕开。
They were not his bodyguards; he had no need of lesser beings to protect him. Instead, they served as symbols of his will, how he could dominate proud warriors who wanted him dead, and were skilled enough that they might actually be able to hurt him.
“旧伤不愈，须宇炎，”他说。“总是会反复发作。你还记得吧，在可哈丽河畔？”
“我当然记得，你这个残废，”须宇炎怒吼道。“从我走出大圆盘的光芒之后的每一下挥砍我都记得。在列的各位无不能讲述自己与曾经的兄弟姐妹共创的伟大壮举，以及卑鄙背叛。”
His brothers and sisters of the fallen brotherhood would bring their life-bearers too, but none were so fierce as his.
“你和我，我们曾在艾卡西亚挺立的地方守住阵线。你不止一次救过我的命”
“那些旧日如今已不复在，”瑟搏塔鲁的话语残乱不清，他的下巴越来越变形。“而且必须留在过去。”
Even so, none of the women looked him in the eye as he spoke. To meet the gaze of a god-warrior was to die.
“为什么？”塔亚纳利用命令的口吻问道，他找到了切入口。“为什么必须留在过去？难道我们不是恕瑞玛的飞升者吗？我们不是区区神的化身，我们就是神！世界是什么样子，全都由我们决定！我们之中任何一个都足以统治这个世界，但我们却陷入了无足轻重的争吵，为了不再有意义的原因而发动战争，甚至没有几个还能说得出那些原因。”
“I have seen many life-bearers over the centuries of my existence, but you will be my last,” said Ta’anari. He scanned their faces for a reaction, but years of servitude had purged them of the weakness of emotion. They were as expressionless as the fallen statues littering the remains of the dead city. “I know this with complete certainty, as much from the patient gleam in your eyes as the nightmares that rip through my skull when Myisha’s elixirs wear off. You are all loyal, but you hunger for my death.”
他停顿了一下，开始操起恫吓和审判的口吻，他自己却没意识到。
“吉冈图斯，你坚信我们应该从废墟中重建家园，继续阿兹尔的传承。恩纳凯，你追寻的是建立新的王国。瓦里伊娃，你和你的兄弟在每一只眼睛中都看得到凶光，所以要对任何轻蔑进行报复，无论是真实的还是你们想象出的。 ”
Was that a flicker in the eye of Teushpa? Once, he would have gnawed the flesh from her bones at such a lapse in control, but his appetite for slaughter had waned over the centuries.
“噢，没一个不是真实的，”她嘶嘶地说道，石膏般雪白的肌肤下透着紫色的静脉，数条剧毒的棘突从肩膀后面直立起来。
塔亚纳利没有理睬她，“我们每个人看到不同的未来之路，但却没有利用我们的太阳血脉力量并齐心协力实现任何神圣之举，反而像一群食腐动物争抢一具新鲜尸体。是的，瑟塔卡已经离世太久，我们永远都不可能再看到第二个她。是的，阿兹尔遭到了背叛，我们的帝国沦为废墟，子民们颠沛流离、提心吊胆。恕瑞玛需要在一位强大领袖的引导下才能重生，但留下来的没有领袖，只有我们，只有这群残破的怪物，由于凝视深渊太久，被深渊的恐惧扭曲了心智，陷入疯狂和自我毁灭。”
“I cannot blame you,” he continued. “What does my kind offer yours but death and horror? An age ago, the Sunborn saved this world at a terrible cost, but now we have brought it to the edge of ruin. The Ascended Host’s days of glory are long past, overshadowed by the darkness of our warring, and the all too fleeting memories of you mortals.”
“所以我们没有开始重建，而是开始为了帝国的残破尸首开始了争斗，顺带还把其余的世界烧成了灰。即使是现在，我们灭绝一切生命的速度可能还是快过共同目标的找寻。单个的我们是强大的，然而团结起来？我们将无所不能。无所不能。如果我们愿意，甚至可以冲破天界的大门，抛弃这个苍白的世界，在星辰彼端铸造新的帝国！”
塔亚纳利的声音弱了下来，不堪悔恨的重负。
Bitterness tainted the last of his words, tempered only by the knowledge that he and his brethren had brought this upon themselves. Overweening pride, war-damaged psyches, and ancient feuds alloyed to forge the blade that sundered their chains of duty.
“但我们做不到。我们做的事如同次等生命。我们自相残杀的这场战争比我们此前参加过的任何一场战争都持久数倍。”
然后他的声音变得洪亮，飞向环形大剧场的最远处。
Ta’anari let out a shuddering breath. For over a thousand years he had fought against this moment, but now it was upon him, he knew death was nothing to be feared.
“但事情并非必然如此，有转机了。”
塔亚纳利一只手越过肩膀伸向后背，解开了恰丽喀尔，吃惊的低语声像波浪一样在环形大剧场散播开来，大家都认得这件远古的武器。
“If you live through this night, you will greet the dawn free. When the sun rises, return to your people and tell them what you saw and heard here.” He turned away. “Myisha, is everything prepared?”
“你们都记得，”他说。“这件武器属于瑟塔卡，我们之中最伟大最高贵的。来自山的另一端，随着恕瑞玛的诞生共同崛起。这把刀刃将有朝一日传给希乌纳斯·阿拉海尔，“甘露使者”。并在其手中成为毁灭的武器，或统一的象征。”
他举起恰丽喀尔，让所有同胞都看得见。它的锋刃闪着金光，塑造它的宇宙力量不属于这个世界，这力量即使是恕瑞玛最睿智的人也无法理解。塔亚纳利看到了他们的尊重、敬畏和骄傲。
“Yes. They’re waiting in the amphitheater.”
但更多的，他看到他们渴望占有它。须宇炎向他靠近一步。
当然会是须宇炎。
Ta’anari nodded. “Then let us end this.”
这名天神战士挥动战斧，塔亚纳利想起了那股疼痛，就是这把黑曜石斧刃切开了他的铠甲，粉碎了他的脊梁。
“我要杀了你然后把它抢过来。”须宇炎说着，脸上的尖嘴裂出一道长长的微笑。“是不是这样就会使我成为领袖？”他双肩上的几丁质外壳开始隆起，相面嵌着的骨针和铁刃也都随着一起外凸。即使是在鼎盛时期，塔亚纳利也无法胜过他。
但可哈丽已经是几百年前的事了，而塔亚纳利已经学会了许多新戏法。
“你要用它来和我打吗？”须宇炎用斧头指着恰丽喀尔问道。
The space had not been designed as an amphitheater. It had served as Nerimazeth’s marketplace, but Ta’anari’s slaves had carved it from the desert’s embrace, and his magic had shaped it with heat so intense that it vitrified the sand. Now it was an arena of blown glass; a caldera of smoky black, sea green and numinous iridescence. Its surfaces captured the soft moonlight and reflected it back in floating veils of silver.
“不，”塔亚纳利答道，转身将它交给了麦伊莎。
它几乎已经超出她承重的极限，但她只是眨了一下眼，此刻他又感受到她那没来由的笑意，似乎天神之间即将开战的架势让她觉得是一种乐趣。
Ta’anari entered through a sweeping arch shaped like a frozen instant in the life of an ocean wave. Tension thickened the air, as was only to be expected when the gods gathered their battle-hosts.
须宇炎冷笑道，“那要怎样？你要赤手空拳和我斗？是这样吗？你想死在这里，死在其他诸神的注视中？”
“也不对。”
Ten thousand men and women filled the tiered heights of the amphitheater, the champions of the god-warriors assembled below. No blades were bared, but all were ready to unleash an orgy of slaughter at their liege’s command.
“无所谓，我不在乎你想怎样，”须宇炎说。“于河畔开始的，我将在这里结束。”
他像一场雪崩一样扑过来——如同撼天动地、无坚不摧的雷霆，掩埋一切而且无从躲避。塔亚纳利曾见证过，他的冲锋能破坏整支军队的方阵，撞翻高大的巨人，粉碎要塞的大门。
Ta’anari swept his gaze around his fellow Sunborn—brothers and sisters once united by unbreakable bonds of love and duty that were, in time, revealed to be as brittle as glass. Unimaginable power had wrought their bodies, drawn from a realm beyond comprehension to sculpt their mortal flesh in ways none living now could recreate.
塔亚纳利半跪在地，将双手平铺在环形大剧场的琉璃地面上。他感受到整个建筑结构中的魔法脉流，力量的金线将他与琉璃地面上的每个生灵都连接起来。凡人就像火堆上腾空的火星，稍纵即逝、微不足道，但天神战士们则如同新生的太阳，荡漾着魔法能量。
他接入了他们的力量，正如同麦伊莎教会他的。他从沙贝卡和沙贝克那里抽取了一部分被诅咒的先知力量，他们异样的感官在他体内扭曲。赛腓克斯蜥蜴般的灵活激荡在他远古的身体中。吉冈图斯的狂怒，还有恩纳凯对于正义理想的执着。
But our minds are still mortal, he thought, and shockingly weak.
塔亚纳利闭上眼，现在他已经知道须宇炎冲锋的落点。
他向旁边摇摆，斧刃距离他的喉咙只有一根头发丝的厚度。须宇炎像闪电一样冲过去，而塔亚纳利则轻巧转身，抓住了对手背后甲壳上的弯角。他翻上了须宇炎的后背，而这位曾经的兄弟则发出狂怒的咆哮。
Syphax’s gaze offered understanding. Zigantus radiated disgust. Xuuyan seethed with outright contempt. It had been Xuuyan’s axe that crippled Ta’anari at Kahleek. The chelonian-headed god-warrior spat on the ground as Ta’anari limped to the center of the amphitheater.
这位天神战士在地上翻滚，想要甩开塔亚纳利，但他抓的实在太牢了。先知双子不自知的馈赠让塔亚纳利预先料到对手的每一下狂野甩打。须宇炎反手握住战斧，越过肩膀向后挥舞，就如同疯狂的忏悔者用荆条抽打自己的后背。塔亚纳利翻身躲开了袭来的斧刃，而须宇炎的非凡甲壳则被自己切出了一道深深的血洼。
这位太阳血脉再次怒吼，将斧头从甲壳中扭出来，带出一滩鲜血。他的一只弯角已经断裂，仅由一层筋膜连接，塔亚纳利将其从甲壳上撕了下来。这支象牙色的角弧度如同弯刀，尖端套着铁箍，如针芒般锋利。
Shabaka and Shabake, the raven-feathered seer twins, did not even look up, too engrossed in casting auguries with scrimshawed fingerbones. Valeeva watched Ta’anari with the same haughty disdain that her brother always did—the one member of their sundered fellowship he was relieved had not attended.
须宇炎撞到环形大剧场的墙上，琉璃在猛烈的冲撞下裂成锋利的碎片。数十个凡人跌落到场地中心，立刻被扭打在一起的天神战士踩在脚下。须宇炎从后背拽下了塔亚纳利。他重重摔在地上，手中依然紧握那支锋利的角。
须宇炎转身举起战斧挥出致命一击，但塔亚纳利向旁边飞扑，地面炸出一场琉璃尖刀的风暴。但须宇炎粗壮的脚踩住了他的胸口，将他牢牢钉在地面。他感到自己的肋骨断裂，一个碎片刺入了他的肺。万钧重量压在身上，足以将他像虫子一样踩扁。
Cebotaru the Wolf paced back and forth, impatient to be done with this conclave. His battle-hosts ravaged the far north, and the lands over the western seas. Of all of them, Cebotaru was closest to breaking the bloody stalemate.
“恰丽喀尔是我的了！”须宇炎大喊道。
这位天神战士的厚重头颅从他的甲壳中伸到外面，他灰白的长脖子上血脉喷张。无光的黑眼珠由于即将弑杀另一个劲敌而向外贲凸。正如同他所承诺的，在可哈丽河畔开始的，要在这里结束。
Naganeka of Zuretta watched from within her hooded cowl, a long scaled robe draped over the coiled length of her body. Her venom blinded life-bearers stood ready to convey her words, should she actually deign to utter any. None of them had heard her sibilant whispers in over five hundred years.
“不，”塔亚纳利从带血的尖牙中间挤出几个字。“不是你的。”
他释放出一股新学来的力量，他的同胞对此都一无所知。他瞬目——一阵可怕的感觉将他淹没，如同跌入了无尽的旋涡，一条通道，被可怖的怪兽团团围住，全都潜伏在阈限屏障外侧伺机而动……
Only Enakai offered respect. He came forward, his skin patterned with new, vivid stripes of orange and black. Where Ta’anari was bent and bowed, Enakai wore his great age with pride, eyes undimmed, and strength unbroken by the long ages he had made war. Long ago, they had climbed the golden steps to the sun-disc together, hand-in-hand as its searing light infused them with celestial power. Enakai had borne Ta’anari’s wounded body on the retreat from Icathia, fought as his brother in the mud at Kahleek, and faced him as an enemy at the Glacier Port.
这感觉只持续了不到一秒，但他感觉已经长了一岁。
他睁开眼，看到自己又骑在须宇炎的后背上，夺命的战斧正向着地面挥砍。由于空气搅动而产生的爆破音在他身后回荡，转瞬即逝的传送门关闭了。
Live as long as we do, and the wheel will turn many times.
塔亚纳利将血淋淋的弯角高举过头顶，然后深深扎进须宇炎的眼中。
角的尖端深深刺入他的颅骨，塔亚纳利非凡的力量将整支角完全插入须宇炎的大脑。
Enakai took Ta’anari’s paw in his. “Ta’anari.”
这是猛烈的致命打击，但须宇炎依然站在原地，他飞升者的身躯还没准备好承认自己的死亡。塔亚纳利跳到一边，死去的天神战士跪倒在地，声音如同山岳崩塌。须宇炎滚落到一侧，剩余的一只眼死死盯着自己的死神，充满不理解。他的尖嘴依然在动，但却没有说出任何话语。
塔亚纳利吃力地喘着粗气，他双侧的肺都已浸满血沫。他听到麦伊莎悄悄地鼓掌庆祝，就像一名自豪的老师，对学生鲁莽的成功感到喜悦。
“Enakai.”
这声音让他恶心。
虽然一切都如计划进行，但他一度还不相信自己必须杀死至少一个同胞。他并没有因这场胜利而感到甘甜。他和须宇炎虽然从未亲近过，但他们都曾为了恕瑞玛的荣耀并肩作战，那个时候，太阳垂佑他们，赐予他们力量。
No more needed to be said. The span of many lifetimes’ worth of experience, joy, loss and heartache were contained in their exchange of names. They were beings raised up as gods. Inconsequential words were beneath them.
他跪在倒地的对手旁边，一只兽爪放在他的头上。鲜血中闪烁着神龙铸成的星光。“我真的很抱歉，兄弟，”他轻声说道。
须宇炎的拥护者们发出痛苦的吼叫。并不是为他们陨落的天神哀悼——被人们憎恨的须宇炎得不到哀悼——也不是因为复仇的渴望。他们的吼叫是因为他们自己也命不久矣。他们两侧的战团都已亮出渴血的白刃。
Enakai’s eyes narrowed as he caught sight of the weapon slung behind Ta’anari’s back. He opened his mouth to speak, but Ta’anari gave an imperceptible shake of his head.
天神战士们把自己的奴隶教育的很好。
没有了神的保护，人类只不过是待捕杀的害虫，至少神一直是这么教的。
“I hope you know what you are doing,” Enakai murmured, returning to his place at the edge of the amphitheater.
“停！”塔亚纳利大喊道。“神的拥护者们，停下手里的刀！”
这些战团并不属于他，但他是太阳血脉，他声音中的权威令人心生敬畏，人们纷纷停下脚步。其他天神战士看到塔亚纳利刚刚的的所作所为个个目瞪口呆。来自祖瑞塔的娜伽内卡向前滑了一步，附身查看须宇炎渐冷的尸体。苍白的烟雾从他的血肉表面腾起，天界的能量已经开始逸出这副凡人的身躯。
Ta’anari took a breath; he had rehearsed this moment many times over the years, understanding that a single wrong word could end this before it began. His kin were god-warriors, and had all the haughty arrogance and quick temper common to beings of such ego.
她脱下罩帽，露出嵌在灰烬中的众多催眠之眼，覆盖了鳞片的嘴唇外垂下黑色的长牙。她弯腰贴进须宇炎背后的伤口，吐出舌头上下翻拨，品尝他的死亡。
“拉亚斯特会很失望的，”她的湿漉漉的声音如同蜥蜴吐信。“他发誓要亲手杀掉须宇炎。”她那几位被毒瞎眼的载命人在她身后慌乱无措，他们的恶语女神开口说话了，但他们却不知道该做什么。
“Brothers and sisters,” he said, the magically crafted acoustics carrying his words throughout the amphitheater. “Such a gathering of the Sunborn has not happened since the drawing of the thousand before the walls of Parnesa.”
其他神也小心地凑上前来。恩纳凯和赛腓克斯带着新的敬意看着塔亚纳利。其他人则对须宇炎的死念念不忘，他们看到塔亚纳利做到了不可能的事，即使是天神战士也不可能做到。
沙贝卡和沙贝克绕着尸体转圈。他们发育残缺的翅膀因兴奋而鼓动。死亡的气味如同裹尸布一样缠在他们身上——天神战士被腐化之力触碰的痕迹，在这对双胞胎身上是最明显的。
He saw nods, that vivid memory stirring the dimmed embers in their souls of what they had once been.
缟玛瑙一般的眼睛，见过太多东西的眼睛，在尸体上来回扫视。“早就告诉过他他今天会死，不是吗，姐妹？”沙贝卡说。
“他们从来都不听，不是吗？”沙贝克回答说。
Now build on that. Speak as if to each one of them.
沙贝卡咯咯地笑起来。“不，永远都不听疯鸦叫。我们懂些什么？不过是一切!”
“你们预见到了这一刻？”吉冈图斯问道。
“I look around, and I see power,” he continued, every word delivered with passion and belief. “I see gods where once walked mortals—beings of noble aspect, mighty and worthy of devotion. Some call our ancient brotherhood sundered. They use the ancient tongue to name us darkin, but to see you here gives the lie to that word.”
“是的，是的，早就知道他会和自己的角凑得太近。早就告诉过他，但他只是笑。”
“现在笑不出来了，是吧，兄弟？”
Ta’anari paused, letting his flattery wash over them. It would be empty to most, for choirs of tortured subjects sang praises day and night to them... on pain of death.
“笑不出来，姐妹。”
“你们还看到了什么？”赛腓克斯问道。
But it might open enough of the rest for them to be won over.
先知双子蜷缩到一起，低声呢喃，将那些小骨片扔来扔去。在封印艾卡西亚大地疝那场战斗中，他们的心智被击溃。任何人，即使是天神，只要与深渊下的巨大灵体对上视线，就必定遭到心智的瓦解。
沙贝克皱起眉头。“未来编织得太复杂，无从得知……”
“You all remember when we marched shoulder to shoulder, when Setaka led our Ascended Host to push the emperor’s realm to the very edges of the world. I know I remember it well. It was an age of glory, an age of heroes! Cebotaru, you and I rode dragons of twilight to the piercing summit of the world, where all time is as one, and witnessed the creation of the universe.”
“太多种不同的可能性，现在还无法清晰看到任何一种，”沙巴卡补充道。“无法确定。”
“我们可能全都死在今天。或者只死一部分，”沙贝克说。“又或者一个都不死。或许吉冈图斯现在就杀了塔亚纳利，然后我们都能活。”
He turned, and held a hand out to Syphax.
“活下来日后继续自相残杀！”沙巴卡突然大笑。
“她想我们死。她就是那颗引起雪崩的小石子。”
“Syphax, my brother, we waged war on the abyssal monsters when they poured from the ocean rift on the eastern coast. We fought for ten days and nights, to the very limits of endurance, but we drove them back. We triumphed!”
“正常说话！”吉冈图斯命令道。“谁想干什么?小石子？雪崩？你们说的是谁？”
“她！”沙贝卡尖声叫道，手指向塔亚纳利的的身后，麦伊莎的渺小身影。“她就是天神眼中的砂砾之光。”
Syphax nodded, and Ta’anari saw the memory of that war ripple through his scaled flesh in waves of purple, black and red.
麦伊莎将恰丽喀尔护在胸前，就像一个小孩子紧紧抓住父亲给的小刀。
瑟搏塔鲁怒骂一声，将塔亚纳利搀扶起来。“巨狼”的体型瘦高，但却像怪兽一般有力，四条强健的臂膀握成利爪铁拳。“他们说的是什么意思？”他低吼道。“这个人，她是谁？”
“I do not speak of that time,” said Syphax, his many eyes veiled in smoke. “Seven thousand golden warriors of Shurima died on the red shore. Only you and I returned alive.”
塔亚纳利吞下痛苦的尖叫，他扭曲的脊梁骨顶在一起。“她就是个凡人，没什么特别。”他说。
“你撒谎的样子总是那么可怜，”瑟搏塔鲁露出又长又弯的利齿。“说出真相，兄弟，否则我撕开你的喉咙速度将让你来不及瞬目。”
“Yes, we paid a terrible price for that victory, brother—in flesh and in spirit. But what a fight it was! Mortals renamed the ocean in honor of our deeds that day.”
“她帮我找到了恰丽喀尔，”塔亚纳利说。
瑟搏塔鲁摇了摇头。“大学士把恰丽喀尔和瑟塔卡葬在了一起，那是艾卡西亚毁灭以后，他把她的尸首藏了起来。区区一个凡人怎么可能知道它在哪？”
Syphax shook his head. “Your memory has omitted the horrors we saw that day, Ta’anari. Keep your talk of glory. I’ll not hear it. When I close my eyes, I still hear the screams of those we lost. I relive how those... things killed them. Worse, how they wiped them from the world, and devoured their very souls. So spare me your gilded recollections, I do not recognize them.”
“她不知道，但她带我找到了内瑟斯。”
其他神将须宇炎抛在脑后，全都看向塔亚纳利。
“Yes, they were days of blood and, yes, it is likely I glorify them,” said Ta’anari. “But I speak of how the world should know us and remember us. As mighty heroes, bestriding the world at the head of invincible armies and commanded by an undying emperor who—”
“你看到了大学士？”瓦里伊娃问道，她的后脊梁在热诚的期待下颤抖着。“他因为莫尼伊拉探究纳施拉美大书库的灰烬废墟而将其手刃，从那以后就再也没出现过。”
“我看到他了，但他与我们认识的那个内瑟斯已经大不相同。无论他背负的负担是什么，都已经将他压垮。他在一座隐秘悬崖中的高塔上独居，观赏星辰的舞姿。他让她来找我，并将我带到了他的高塔。”
“But Azir did die,” snapped Xuuyan, planting his mighty long-axe hard enough to crack the glass beneath. “He died, and without him at our head, the Sunborn fell to war. What went before is now dust and ashes. It is meaningless. So if you think reminding us of golden memories will end this conflict, then you have fallen further into madness than any of us.”
“为什么是你？”娜伽内卡嘶声问道，“为什么不是我们其他神？”
“我不知道，”塔亚纳利说。“还有许许多多需要他关注的。”
“Reminding us all of what we once were is only part of my reason for bringing you here,” said Ta’anari.
“那你和他说话了？”恩纳凯问道。
“说了，”塔亚纳利说。
“Then state your purpose, or let us get back to killing one another.”
“然后他告诉你如何找到瑟塔卡的武器？”
“是的。”
Ta’anari tried to stand upright, but failed when the twisted bones in his back creaked like a bent branch. Pain shot up his spine like the raking claws of a Void-born terror.
“就那么简单？“赛腓克斯不屑地说。
“不，没那么简单，“塔亚纳利厉声回答，甩开瑟搏塔鲁的搀扶。他转身从麦伊莎怀里取回恰丽喀尔。这把武器中的力量充沛而且躁动。“我向他讲述我们的战争，讲述我们如何烧毁了乐土并像动物一样 彼此爪牙相向。我告诉他我需要瑟塔卡的武器来终结这场腥风血雨。”
“It is the old wound, Xuuyan,” he said. “It never really healed. You remember, at Kahleek?”
“内瑟斯在阿兹尔陨落的那一刻就拒绝我们了，”吉冈图斯说。“他为什么现在又肯帮忙？”
“他拒绝了太阳血脉，因为他看到了苦涩的嫉妒和扭曲的敌意在我们心中作祟，”塔亚纳利说。“他曾行走在被遗忘的道路上，他曾被悲伤所困，又漂泊在对弟弟的缅怀中，但他始终都对他出生的土地魂牵梦绕。”
“Of course I remember, cripple,” snarled Xuuyan. “I remember every blow I have struck from the moment I stepped from the light of the great disc. There are none of us here who cannot speak of great deeds or betrayals at the side of those we once called brothers and sisters.”
塔亚纳利喘了一口气，魔法的脉流在他体内变换，让他表情扭曲。一阵剧痛从他的下腹刺入他的心脏。
至此，终结已经开始。
“You and I, we held the line where Icathia once stood. You saved my life more than once.”
麦伊莎曾经警告过他，使用她所教授的魔法会造成不可逆的改变，即使是飞升者也不例外，他们的不朽气息与凡人血肉之间的束缚将会被打破。这力量曾阻止无数次战斗的伤痛，阻挡千年时光的流逝，但有些东西注定不能永远活下去。
这时恐惧触碰到他，这种感觉冰冷而且陌生，但他还是压下了痛苦和虚弱的暗涌。
“Those days are gone now,” snapped Cebotaru, the words mangled by the growing disfigurement of his jaw. “And in the past they must remain.”
“你说得对，吉冈图斯。内瑟斯永远都不会干涉我们的战争，但这并不意味着他对我们的所作所为充耳不闻。他告诉我星辰描绘了一个遥远的未来，恕瑞玛将从沙漠中再度崛起，真正的统治者将会奋战不懈，夺回曾经失去的一切。”
“恕瑞玛将再次崛起？”瑟搏塔鲁无法遮掩自己的渴望。“什么时候？”
“Why?” Ta’anari demanded, rounding on him. “Why must they remain in the past? Are we not the Ascended of Shurima? We are not mere avatars, we are gods! What is reality, but what we decide it should be? Any one of us could rule this world entirely, but instead we have fallen to petty squabbling, waging wars for reasons that no longer make sense, even to the few of us that could still name them.”
“我们有生之年看不到了，”塔亚纳利说。“我们全都看不到。”
沙贝克骨瘦如柴的身躯跳到对话的两位神中间。她干枯的双臂刺向空中，黑暗的双眼瞪到最大。“我们可能全都死在今天。或者只死一部分，”她尖声说。
He paced, his tone hectoring and judgemental, despite himself.
赛腓克斯将她推开。“恰丽喀尔，”他问道，“它是恕瑞玛重生的一环吗？”
“是的，”塔亚纳利说。“无论善念或恶意。它将成为恕瑞玛的象征，召唤人民集结。我希望它能修复我们之间的伤痕——提醒我们曾经的身份，以及再一次可以成为的神。它本可以拯救我们全部，只要我们当时把握机会重拾手足之情，像曾经那样团结在同一面旗帜下。”
“Zigantus, you believed we should rebuild from the ruins, to continue Azir’s legacy. Enakai, you sought to establish a new kingdom. Valeeva, you and your brother saw spite in every eye, and sought vengeance for slights real and imagined.”
瑟搏塔鲁饶有意味地咕哝一声。“现在真相大白了。你把我们召集于此是为了宣布自己身为领袖的资格，因为你拿着我们之中最伟大的战士的武器，还有大学士亲授的圣礼。”
塔亚纳利摇了摇头。
“Oh, they were real,” she hissed, her alabaster skin threaded with violet veins and her venomous spines standing erect at her shoulders.
“不，我永远都不配与瑟塔卡齐名，也赶不上内瑟斯。我想追寻的只是结束这场战争。我希望我们能共同完成，但我现在知道这是个不可能实现的梦。”
塔亚纳利离开他的同胞们，站在环形大剧场中间。所有眼睛都在看向他，八名天神战士和万千凡人。
Ta’anari ignored her. “Each of us saw a different path into the future, but instead of using our Sunborn powers and working together to achieve something divine, we fought like scavengers over a fresh corpse. Yes, Setaka was long dead, and we will never see her like again. Yes, Azir was betrayed, and our empire lay in ruins, its people scattered and frightened. Shurima needed a strong leader to guide its rebirth, but all it was left with was us, broken monsters who had stared into the abyss too long and felt its horror twist their minds to madness and self-destruction.
剧痛开始蔓延到他全身，几乎让他无法承受。他咽了下口水，喉咙品尝到砂砾的摩擦。几缕短毛结成小团从他身上飘落。每一刻都像是碎玻璃在他的关节研磨。
他转身对其他神说。
“So instead of rebuilding, we fought for the scraps of a dead empire, while burning the rest of the world to the ground. Even now, we would sooner see the extinction of all life rather than find common purpose. Alone we are mighty, but together...? There is nothing we cannot do. Nothing. If we wanted, we could storm the celestial gates, leave this ashen world behind, and forge a new empire beyond the stars!”
“不受控制的力量让我们失去意义，让我们相信自己不被任何事物否决。我们是这世界的拙劣监管者，我们不配做世界的主人。我们曾自称飞升之团，我们现在是什么？暗裔？这是被凡人贬黜的称呼，他们已不再理解我们是什么样的存在，更不理解我们被造就的使命。”
他抬起模糊的眼睛，看着环形大剧场阶梯上千万双注视着他的眼睛，泪水从在他脱屑的皮肤上开出一条运河。
Ta’anari’s voice dropped, laden with regret.
“他们憎恨我们，而当深渊中的恐惧再度涌出时，他们将乞求我们归来，”塔亚纳利一边说，一边看向麦伊莎渴望的凝视。“但到那个时候我们已经不在了，已经成为鸣风的低语，成为残缺天神的黑暗传说，只被用来教训不听话的孩童。”
塔亚纳利用最后一点力气，将恰丽喀尔砸进环形大剧场的结晶地面。撞击的声音振聋发聩，如同巨锤敲打世界根基的帷幕。撞击产生的裂缝比常理之中延伸的更深远，晴朗的夜空中燃起新星诞生时的钻石光辉。
“But we do not. We do what lesser beings do. We kill each other in a war that has lasted many times longer than any we fought before.”
但这不是金色的光芒。这光芒冰冷、无情、如白银般皎洁。
“由太阳铸造的，将由月亮拆散！”塔亚纳利尖叫道。
And then his voice rose, soaring to far reaches of the amphitheater.
如柱的惨白烈焰从夜空刺向地面。
它打在恰丽喀尔向外伸出的分支上，将白焰反射，天神战士被吸到近处，火光穿透了他们的胸膛。白焰烧灼着他们，伸向他们的奥法核心，吞噬着造就了他们的魔法。
“But it does not have to be that way, not any more!”
沙贝卡和沙贝克立刻蒸发了，消失在一团灰色的云雾和羽毛之中。他们的尖叫是获得释放的欢笑，诉说着对这一刻的预知和顺从。
赛腓克斯在白光中扭动，活像一条被钩住的鱼，但即使是他的神力，也在这宇宙之火的面前毫无意义。牛头天神吉冈图斯试图逃跑，但即使是他传奇的速度也无法逃出塔亚纳利召唤出的月火瀑。
Ta’anari reached back over his shoulder and unslung the Chalicar. A murmur of shock rippled around the amphitheater at the sight of the ancient weapon.
即使皮肤从骨头上剥离，塔亚纳利也还是流着泪看着他们死。他们是他的兄弟和姐妹，纵使上百年的残酷战争也无法让他对他们心生憎恨。
他看到恩纳凯在光辉之中瓦解，他的神圣之躯被光芒溶解，只留下骨骼。他伸出手，用双眼告诉塔亚纳利他已接受自己的命运。
“You all remember this,” he said. “It is the weapon of Setaka, greatest and noblest of us all. Brought from beyond the mountain and raised aloft at Shurima’s birth. It is the blade that will one day be borne by Sivunas Alahair, the Bringer of Rains. In their hands it will be a weapon of great destruction, or a symbol of unity.”
他哭泣，因为他被迫做出这一切。
光芒灼伤了他所剩的另一只眼，一片漆黑的世界包围了他。最后一丝力量也离开了他的身体，他无力地倒在环形大剧场的地上。他听到了更多惨叫和人类的打斗，他们对天神的事一无所知。又是一场血雨腥风，但它总会过去。
He held out the Chalicar for his fellows to see. Its edges glittered gold, shaped by cosmic forces beyond this world by powers not even the wisest of Shurima understood. Ta’anari saw their reverence, their awe and pride.
人类的军团会继续这场由他们族裔开始的战争吗？
或许吧。但那将是一场凡人的战争，所以会有终结。
But most of all he saw their desire to possess it. Xuuyan took a step towards him.
塔亚纳利在黑暗中漂浮，沉浸在美好往昔的回忆中。
Of course it would be Xuuyan.
他想要回想起更早的时光，在他与恩纳凯共同登上黄金阶梯之前的生活。但那个时光没有留下什么回忆，当天界的力量涌入他的脑壳以后，凡人的记忆就溜走了。
塔亚纳利听到了脚步声。厚重的靴子踩过碎玻璃。他闻到了凡人的血肉，掺杂着汗水和腐烂的味道。
The god-warrior spun his axe, and Ta’anari remembered the awful pain of its obsidian blade splitting his armor and smashing his spine to shards.
他认得这些味道。她们是他的载命人。
塔亚纳利伸出一只手，寻找另一个生灵的触碰，但没人接过。
“I will kill you and take it from your dead hand,” said Xuuyan, a wide grin splitting his beaked skull. “Will that make me the leader?” His chitinous carapace bulged at his shoulders, studded with outgrowths of bone spikes and iron blades. Even in his prime, Ta’anari could not best him.
“绍佩？”他的声音嘶哑。“是你吗？提乌什帕？伊德瑞－弥？拜托，帮我一下。我觉得……我觉得我又是凡人了，我……我觉得我又是人了。”
“你的确是，”这个声音听上去处于破口大笑的边缘。
But Kahleek was many centuries ago, and Ta’anari had learned new tricks since then.
“麦伊莎，”塔亚纳利轻声说道。“他们都死了吗？”
“没有，娜伽内卡，瓦里伊娃和瑟搏塔鲁在被火烧到之前就逃走了。但他们现在很虚弱，我觉得他们并不是长久的问题。问题是其他神，所有那些没有露面的，他们会更加防备陷阱。”
“Are you going to fight me with that?” Xuuyan asked, pointing to the Chalicar with his axe.
“不！你必须解决他们，”塔亚纳利喘息着说。“即使是受伤了的天神战士也一样能征服这个世界。”
“相信我，”麦伊莎说，“我们在这里的所作所为已经预示着你们族类的终结。”
“No,” said Ta’anari, turning to hand it to Myisha.
“那我们成功了。我们带来了和平。”
然后她真的大笑起来。“和平？噢，不——这个世界永远都不会懂和平。没用的。”
Its weight was almost too much for her to bear, but she winked and again he sensed capricious amusement from her, as though the sight of gods about to fight was amusing to her.
塔亚纳利彻底糊涂了，他想挣扎着站起来，但有人用长枪柄的钝头硬生生地戳在他的前胸，将他推回到地上。
“别，你躺在那别动，”麦伊莎说。
Xuuyan sneered. “Then what? You will face me unarmed? Is that what this is? You want to die here, in the sight of your fellow gods?”
“拜托了，扶我起来，”他说。“我都说了，我现在是人了。”
“我听到了，但你觉得变成了人就能洗刷你的罪孽吗？想想那些被你终结的生命。现在变成人就能让人原谅你制造的血海深仇吗？告诉我，究竟需要多少次暴行才能戳醒你那干枯的良知，最后决定做出改变？”
“Not that either.”
“我不明白，”塔亚纳利迟疑地说。“你在说什么？”
麦伊莎咯咯地笑了起来，她似乎突然年轻了许多，然而又难以置信地古老。他听到清脆的碰撞声，是恰丽喀尔被从琉璃地面中拔了出来。
“No matter, I care nothing for your reasons,” said Xuuyan, “I will finish what I began at the river.”
“我说的是，你死有余辜，塔亚纳利，”麦伊莎说。“你们之中有一些还不太坏，我估计，但大多数都在对抗虚空的战争中损坏了，你们能活这么久已经是个奇迹。或许你和你的族类最开始就是个错误，不过这个错误我能帮你们纠正。”
即使没了双眼，塔亚纳利依然能感受到恰丽喀尔的力量就悬停在自己上方。虽然他的身体已经枯萎而且力竭，但他还是用一声高亢的惨叫回应利刃切入胸膛的痛苦。
His charge was like an avalanche—a rumbling, inexorable thunder that was as deadly as it was inescapable. Ta’anari had seen entire phalanxes broken by it, giants toppled and fortress gates smashed asunder.
麦伊莎对着他的耳朵悄声说，“这件武器中流淌的力量能够触动你们每一个神，塔亚纳利。现在它对你们的族类了如指掌。而我将把这火焰带给凡人。”
她的双手伸进了他的胸膛，塔亚纳利感觉到自己的心脏被割下，被从裂开的肋骨之间掏出……然而，他依然还活着。
Ta’anari dropped to one knee and placed his hands flat against the amphitheater’s glassy floor. He felt currents of magic running through its structure, golden threads of power linking him to every living being that stood upon it. The mortals were like tiny sparks rising from a fire, fleeting and inconsequential, but the god-warriors were newborn suns of roiling magic.
至少，活了一小段时间。
“伊德瑞－弥，”她一边说一边递过塔亚纳利的心脏，“把这个和恰丽喀尔一起带回给你的武器铁匠。我们需要换一种方式来对付剩下的……”
He tapped into their power, just as Myisha had taught him. He drew out a measure of the cursed prescience of Shabaka and Shabake, feeling their alien senses twist within him. The lizard-swiftness of Syphax surged through his ancient body. The rage of Zigantus, and Enakai’s sense of righteous purpose.
麦伊莎停顿了一下。
“等会，那个老词儿怎么说来着？”
Ta’anari closed his eye, now knowing where Xuuyan’s charging blow would land.
她打了一个响指。
“啊，对。想起来了。暗裔。”
He swayed aside, the blade slashing a hair’s breadth from his throat. Xuuyan’s passing was like a thunderstrike, and Ta’anari swung around, grasping one of his attacker’s curling shell-horns. He vaulted onto Xuuyan’s back as his former brother roared in fury.
The god-warrior rolled, trying to throw Ta’anari, but his grip was too tight. The seer twins’ unwitting gift allowed Ta’anari to anticipate every wild, bucking move his foe made. Xuuyan reversed his grip on the axe and swung it over his shoulder like the barbed whip of a lunatic penitent. Ta’anari rolled aside as the blade smashed down, cleaving a deep and gory trough in Xuuyan’s unnatural armor.
The Sunborn bellowed in anger, wrenching the blade from his hardened flesh in a welter of blood. One of his horns hung by sinewy threads, and Ta’anari ripped it from the carapace. Ivory white and curved like a scimitar, its tip was sheathed in iron, and needle-sharp.
Xuuyan slammed into the wall of the amphitheater with a hammering impact that smashed it to spinning fragments of razored glass. Scores of mortal bodies tumbled into the arena, only to be crushed underfoot by the struggling god-warriors. Xuuyan hurled Ta’anari from his back. He landed hard on the ground, still clutching the sharpened horn.
Xuuyan turned and swung his axe down in an executioner’s strike, but Ta’anari dove aside, and the floor exploded in knives of glass. Instead, Xuuyan’s gnarled foot stomped down on his chest, pinning him to the floor. He felt his ribs crack, a shard punching through into his lung. The weight was colossal, easily capable of crushing him like an insect.
“The Chalicar will be mine!” Xuuyan shouted.
The god-warrior’s leathery, helmet-like skull extended from his armored carapace, his neck pale and thick with pulsing arteries. Soulless black eyes bulged at the promise of slaying yet another rival. As he’d promised, Xuuyan meant to finish what he had begun on the banks of the River Kahleek.
“No,” grunted Ta’anari through blood-flecked fangs. “It won’t.”
He unleashed a surge of newly-learned power, unknown to the rest of his kind. He blinked—a terrible sensation of hurtling through an unending vortex overcame him, a tunnel surrounded by hideous monsters that lurked just beyond the threshold...
The sensation lasted a fraction of a second only, but felt like an age.
He opened his eyes, and he was once again atop Xuuyan as the deadly axe arced towards the ground. A hard bang of displaced air echoed behind him as the fleeting portal closed.
Ta’anari raised the bloody horn high overhead, and plunged it down into Xuuyan’s eye.
The tip punched deep into the god-warrior’s skull, Ta’anari’s inhuman strength driving the entire length of the horn into the mass of Xuuyan’s brain.
It was a ferocious killing blow, but Xuuyan still stood, his Ascended flesh not quite ready to admit that it was dead. Ta’anari leapt clear as the towering god-warrior crashed to his knees with the sound of a mountain toppling. Xuuyan rolled onto his side, his remaining eye staring at his killer with mute incomprehension. His beaked mouth still moved, but no words came out.
Ta’anari gulped in breaths that heaved in his blood-frothed lungs. He heard Myisha squeal with delight, clapping like a proud teacher pleased at a student’s wild success.
The sound sickened him.
Even if things had gone exactly as planned, he’d suspected he would have to kill at least one of his brethren. But he had not relished the prospect. He and Xuuyan had never been close, but they had fought side by side for the glory of Shurima, back when the sun blessed them, and filled their bodies with strength.
He knelt beside his fallen opponent and laid a furred hand on his head. Blood glistened with the light of dragon-wrought stars. “I am truly sorry, brother,” he whispered.
A roar of anguish went up from Xuuyan’s champions. Not in mourning for their fallen god—Xuuyan was too hated for that—nor even in hunger for vengeance. The roar was for their own forfeit lives. Murderous blades slipped from the sheaths of the warbands to either side of them.
The god-warriors had taught their slaves well.
Men without a god to protect them were nothing more than vermin to be exterminated, or so the teachings had always been.
“Hold!” shouted Ta’anari. “Champions, stay your blades!”
These warbands were not his; but he was Sunborn, and the awesome authority in his voice halted them in their tracks. His fellow god-warriors stared in open-mouthed wonder at what Ta’anari had done. Naganeka of Zuretta slid forward, and lowered her upper body to study Xuuyan’s cooling corpse. Pale smoke was lifting from his flesh, celestial energies already fleeing the mortal meat of his body.
She pulled back her hooded cowl, revealing her many hypnotic eyes rimmed with ash, and scaled lips overhung by long, ebony fangs. She bent over the wound in Xuuyan’s back, and her tongue flicked out to taste his death.
“Rhaast will be disappointed,” she said, her voice a wet, reptile hiss. “He had sworn to slay Xuuyan himself.” Her venom blinded life-bearers shuffled behind her, unsure of what to do now that their reviled goddess had spoken aloud.
The others came forward warily. Enakai and Syfax watched Ta’anari with newfound respect. The others fixated on Xuuyan’s death, but they had seen Ta’anari do something impossible, even for a god-warrior.
Shabaka and Shabake circled the corpse. Their stunted wings fluttered in agitation. They wore the smell of death like a shroud—the corruption that touched them all was most obvious in those two.
Onyx eyes, eyes that had seen too much, darted back and forth. “Told him he would die today, didn’t we, sister?” said Shabaka.
“They never listen, do they?” Shabake replied.
Shabaka giggled. “No, no, never listen to the mad ravens. What do we know? Only everything!”
“You foresaw this?” demanded Zigantus.
“Yes, yes, saw him get too close a look at that horn of his. Told him so, but he just laughed.”
“Not laughing now, is he, brother?”
“No, sister.”
“What else have you seen?” asked Syphax.
The seer twins huddled together, whispering and tossing the small bones back and forth between them. Their minds had been shattered during the battle to seal the Great Rift at Icathia. No one, not even a god-warrior, could meet the gaze of the titanic entities who watched and dwelled within the Abyss without their sanity unravelling a little.
Shabake frowned. “Future too tightly woven to know...”
“And too many possible outcomes from the now to see any clearly,” Shabaka added. “Not for sure.”
“All of us may die today. Or just some,” said Shabake. “Or maybe none. Maybe you kill Ta’anari now, Zigantus, and we all get to live.”
“Live to kill each other another day!” cackled Shabaka.
“She wants it. She is the pebble that starts the avalanche.”
“Speak plainly!” demanded Zigantus. “Who wants what? Pebbles? Avalanches? Who are you talking about?”
“Her!” screeched Shabaka, pointing past Ta’anari to the slight figure of Myisha. “She is the mote-light in the eye of the gods.”
Myisha held the Chalicar tight to her chest, like a child clutching her father’s blade.
Cebotaru snarled and hauled Ta’anari to his feet. The Wolf’s physique was slender, yet monstrously powerful and wrought with four sinewy, grey-furred arms curled into clawed fists. “What are they talking about?” he growled. “That one, who is she?”
Ta’anari bit back a scream of pain as the twisted bones of his spine ground together. “She is a mortal, nothing more,” he said.
“You always were a miserable liar,” said Cebotaru, baring long, crooked fangs. “The truth, brother, or I will rip your throat out before you can blink.”
“She helped me find the Chalicar,” said Ta’anari.
Cebotaru shook his head. “The Scholar buried the Chalicar with Setaka when he took her body into hiding, after the doom of Icathia. How is it that a mere mortal knew where to find it?”
“She did not, but she led me to Nasus.”
The others forgot Xuuyan, and turned their attention on Ta’anari.
“You saw the Scholar?” said Valeeva, the spines on her back rippling with anticipation. “No one has seen him since he killed Moneerah for delving the charred ruins of Nashramae’s great library.”
“I saw him, but he is much changed since we last knew him. Whatever burden he bears has all but crushed him. He dwells at a tower raised on a hidden cliff, watching the dance of stars. He bade her find me, and bring me to his tower.”
“Why you?” hissed Naganeka. “Why not any of us?”
“I do not know,” said Ta’anari. “There are many more deserving of his attention.”
“And you spoke to him?” asked Enakai.
“I did,” said Ta’anari.
“And he told you where to find Setaka’s blade?”
“Yes.”
“Just like that?” spat Syphax.
“No, not just like that,” Ta’anari snapped, throwing off Cebotaru’s grip. He turned to retrieve the Chalicar from Myisha. The power within the weapon was potent and restless. “I told him of our war, of how we were burning paradise and clawing at one another like animals. I told him I needed the weapon of Setaka to end this bloodshed.”
“Nasus rejected us the moment Azir fell,” said Zigantus. “Why would he help now?”
“He rejected the Sunborn, because he saw the bitter jealousies and twisted rivalries that fester in our hearts,” said Ta’anari. “He has been walking the forgotten paths of this world, wracked by grief and adrift in memories of his lost brother, but always he is drawn back to the land of his birth.”
Ta’anari took a breath, grimacing as he felt the currents of magic shifting within him. Sharp pain stabbed up into his heart from his belly.
So, the end begins...
Myisha had warned that using the magic she had taught him would irrevocably change even an Ascended, breaking the fetters that bound the immortal breath of the gods to his human flesh. That power had held the hurts of endless battle and the passage of millennia at bay, but some things were never meant to live forever.
Fear touched him then, cold and unfamiliar, but he fought down the creeping tide of pain and weakness.
“You are right, Zigantus. Nasus will never fight in our war, but that does not mean he is heedless of what we do. He told me the stars speak of a time far in the future when Shurima will rise from the sands once more, when the rightful ruler will fight to claim dominion over all that has been lost.”
“Shurima will rise again?” said Cebotaru, unable to mask his eagerness. “When?”
“We will not live to see it,” said Ta’anari. “Not all of us.”
Shabake pushed her scrawny, skittering form between them. Her withered arms stabbed the air, her dark eyes wide. “All of us may die today. Or just some,” she screeched.
Syphax pushed her away. “The Chalicar,” he said. “It will play a part in Shurima’s rebirth?”
“Yes,” said Ta’anari. “For good or ill. It will be a symbol for the people of Shurima to rally behind. I had hoped it could heal the wounds between us—a reminder of what we once were, and what we could be again. It could have saved us if we had taken the chance to reclaim the brotherhood that once bound us together under a single banner.”
Cebotaru grunted in amusement. “And now the truth of it comes out. You gathered us here to claim the right of leadership, bearing the weapon of our greatest champion, and anointed by the Scholar himself.”
Ta’anari shook his furred head.
“No, I could never be the equal of Setaka, or Nasus. All I sought was an end to this war. I had hoped we could do it together, but I see now that was an impossible dream.”
Ta’anari walked away from his brethren, moving to stand in the centre of the amphitheater. All eyes were upon him, eight god-warriors and thousands of mortals.
The pain was spreading all through him, almost too much to bear. He swallowed, tasting the grit of sand in the back of his throat. Fur was drifting free from his body in wispy clumps. Every movement felt like broken glass was grinding in his joints.
He turned to address the others.
“Power without check made us vain, made us believe that nothing should be denied us. That made us poor stewards of his world, and we do not deserve to be its masters. We once called ourselves the Ascended Host. What are we now? Darkin? A name debased by mortals who no longer understand what we are, or what we were wrought to do.”
He lifted his fading eye to the thousands watching from the steps of the amphitheater, tears cutting a path through his flaking skin.
“They hate us, and when the horrors of the abyss rise once more, they will beg for our return,” said Ta’anari, meeting Myisha’s eager gaze. “But we will be gone, no more than whispers on the songwinds, a dark legend of imperfect gods told to scold disobedient children.”
With the last of his strength, Ta’anari rammed the Chalicar down into the crystalline floor of the amphitheater. The sound was deafening, like a hammerblow against the veil of the world. The cracks from its impact spread farther than they should have, and the clear sky burned with the diamond brilliance of a newborn star.
But this was no golden radiance. This was cold, merciless and silver.
“What the sun made, the moon will unmake!” screamed Ta’anari.
And a blazing column of white fire stabbed from the midnight sky.
It struck the Chalicar’s extended arms and reflected that fire outwards, drawing in the god-warriors and piercing their chests. It burned them, reached into the arcane heart of their being and devoured the magic that made them.
Shabaka and Shabake vaporized instantly, disappearing in an ashen cloud of drifting feathers. Their screams were cackles of release, freighted with resigned foreknowledge.
Syphax twisted in the light like a hooked fish, but even his power was meaningless in the face of this cosmic fire. The bull-headed Zigantus tried to run, but not even his legendary speed could outrun the moonfall called down by Ta’anari.
Even as his skin sloughed from his bones, Ta’anari wept to see them die. They were his brothers and sisters, and not even centuries of the most brutal war imaginable could make him hate them.
He saw Enakai unmade by the radiance, his divine flesh dissolving into light from his bones. He reached for Ta’anari, and his eyes were accepting as he met his fate.
He sobbed at what he had been forced to do.
The light burned away his remaining eye, and a world of darkness closed in on him. The last of his strength fled his body and he slumped to the glass floor of the amphitheater. He heard more screams and the shouts of fighting men who knew nothing of the affairs of gods. More bloodshed, but it would pass.
Would the mortal hosts continue the war his kind had begun?
Perhaps. But it would be a mortal war, and it would end.
Ta’anari drifted in darkness, lost in memories of happier days.
He tried to recall his life before climbing the golden steps to meet the sun with Enakai. Little remained of that time, the memories shed as the heavenly power had crowded his skull.
Ta’anari heard footsteps. Booted feet crunching over broken glass. He smelled mortal flesh, rank with sweat and decay.
They were smells he recognised. His life-bearers.
Ta’anari lifted a hand, seeking the touch of another living being, but no one took it.
“Sulpae?” he croaked. “Is that you? Teushpa? Idri-Mi? Please, help me. I think... I think I am mortal once more, I... I think I am human again...”
“You are,” said a voice that seemed on the verge of laughter.
“Myisha,” whispered Ta’anari. “Are they all dead?”
“No. Naganeka, Valeeva and Cebotaru escaped before the fire could take them. But they’re pretty weak, so I don’t think they’ll be a problem for long. It’s the others, all those who didn’t show up, who’ll be harder to trap.”
“No! You must finish them,” wheezed Ta’anari. “Even a wounded god-warrior could conquer this world.”
“Trust me,” said Myisha, “what we did here spells the beginning of the end for your kind.”
“Then we did it. We brought peace.”
Then she really did laugh. “Peace? Oh, no—this world will never know peace. Not really.”
Confused, Ta’anari struggled to rise, but the hard jab of a spear butt to the chest pushed him back.
“No, you stay down there,” said Myisha.
“Please, help me up,” he said. “I told you, I am human now.”
“I heard you, but do you imagine that fact washes away your multitude of sins? Think of all the lives you ended. Does being human now mean you’re forgiven for the oceans of blood you spilled? Tell me, how many atrocities did it take before your withered conscience finally pricked you enough to act?”
“I don’t understand,” Ta’anari murmured. “What are you saying?”
Myisha giggled, and she suddenly seemed so much younger to him, yet impossibly ancient too. He heard the cracking sound of the Chalicar being pulled from the amphitheater floor.
“I am saying that your death has been a long time coming, Ta’anari,” said Myisha. “Some of you turned out not so bad, I suppose, but most of you were so damaged in the war with the Void, it’s a wonder you survived this long. Perhaps you and your kind were a mistake to begin with, but a mistake I can help correct.”
Even without eyes, Ta’anari felt the golden power of the Chalicar hovering just above him. Though his body was withered and all but spent, he cried out in agony as its edge split his chest.
Myisha whispered into his ear. “The power that coursed through this weapon touched you all, Ta’anari. It knows your kind now. And I give that fire to mortals.”
Her hands were inside him, and Ta’anari felt his heart being cut away, felt it being lifted from the cage of his cloven ribs... yet, still, he lived.
For a few moments more, at least.
“Idri-Mi,” she said, handing off Ta’anari’s heart, “take this and the Chalicar to your weaponsmiths. We will need to take a different approach in dealing with the rest of the...”
Myisha paused.
“Wait, what was that old word?”
She snapped her fingers.
“Ah, yes. That’s it. Darkin.”
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