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It was nonsense, though. The constant push to see patterns where none existed. He and all his kin each had their own reasons for coming here. And it wasn’t because they were secretly mortal or “craved” its miserable touch.

Rather, it was simply because this was where land and sea met.

At length, Germal returned to the little castle’s main chamber and took a seat by the western wall. This place, too, harbored plenty of memories for him to fall back into, but he’d already indulged enough, he felt.

He needed to prep for his friends’ arrivals.

Maybe one day, he would be able to tell them the full truth of things. Of his unique nature and history. He certainly wanted to bring them in.

But it was still too soon. He didn’t want to risk them not understanding.

Yes. Better to keep up the illusion for a while longer.

He reached into his coat and pulled out the dormant blob of ethereal energy.

Nerovoy. Germal’s reaper.

Or Jonah’s, rather.

Doubtless, this had a great deal to do with why Jonah refused to see reason.

Nerovoy’s decline into this state was not something that Jonah was going to forgive or forget any time soon.

Reapers were always an issue when it came to reincarnating. They didn’t always decline in exactly this way--nor had it always been this gradual--but there was always something that went wrong with them. Despite his many attempts to remedy the problem across multiple incarnations, Ettol had never found a solution.

He didn’t want to resign himself to the idea that this was wholly unavoidable--that the merge simply could not be conducted without harming the reaper--but after all the Ages, it was difficult to deny that might well be so.

More lies, of course. He’d known this was going to happen all along and never warned Germal about it. Oh, but he’d ‘merged with full understanding,’ right? Sure he did.

Never the bad guy. Always well-meaning, at the very least.

How hard you work to convince everyone of that story. Even yourself.

You lying monster.

You can’t deceive me. I see right through you, and I always will.

Germal pushed Jonah back down again. More forcefully, this time. Stay quiet for a while, please.

He returned his attention to Nerovoy. He concentrated, closing his eyes as he searched for the Windlight.