I was in the throne room.
It still stood, the walls and ceiling intact.
On either side of me were the people of Verania, their heads bowed in supplication. They wept, the women wiping their eyes, the men blowing their noses. Even the knights along the walls had tears in their eyes.
And I stood in the middle, walking down the main aisle, the red carpet leading to the dais soft under my feet.
But instead of the King’s throne on the dais, there was something else.
I said, “No.”
And took a step.
And then another. And another.
The people of Verania stared at me with scorn as I passed, as if what awaited me had been my doing. I ignored them as best I could, wanting to prove Vadoma to be a liar. This wasn’t possible; it wasn’t anything she said it would be. This was all a dream, a trick of the mind, no matter what Randall and Morgan believed. She had tricked them somehow, but she wouldn’t get to me. I swore she wouldn’t.
The King stood on the dais, head bowed. Justin was next to him. Gary and Tiggy. Kevin was nowhere to be seen. My parents. Randall. Morgan, my mentor, the man I trusted maybe even more than the knight who’d taken my lightning-struck heart in his hands to make it his own. Morgan, who had such sadness on his face, such despair.
“Morgan?” I said as I got closer, voice breaking. “Please. Please.”
And he looked away.
On the dais sat a large rectangular stone. Atop this stone lay a knight in full armor, sword clasped between his hands. His eyes were closed. His skin was pale. His lips looked almost clear. He was as beautiful in death as he was in life. My knight.
“No,” I choked out, trembling hands reaching to touch, to wash away this nightmare. “This isn’t real. This isn’t real.”
“It will be,” Vadoma said, and for the first time, she sounded regretful. “The paths I have seen. They lead to this, Sam. You think him your cornerstone, and he will die.”
“I won’t allow it,” I said, running a finger over his eyebrows. He was cool to the touch. “I won’t let it happen.”
“Death awaits us all,” she said, not unkindly. “For some, sooner. How did you think this would end? You heard the dark man. He has promised to take from you. And he will. Some paths more than others. Yet in every single one I have followed, every single thread I have plucked, this is the one thing that cannot be avoided. Even if you defeat the dark.”
My eyes burned. “I don’t understand. How can Ryan still be taken from me if I destroy this darkness?”
“Randall,” she said. “Morgan.”
I looked up at them. They were already watching me passively, but they didn’t speak.
“They outlived their cornerstones,” she said. “As all wizards do.”
“What?” I whispered.
The scene changed. The King was gone. My parents were gone. Randall was gone. Gary, Kevin, and Tiggy were there, looking almost as they did now, though they were a little thicker. Justin was there, and even though he’d aged into an old man, I still knew him. He was slim and still had his strength, but the lines around his eyes and mouth were pronounced. There were dark spots on the back of his hands. His hair was mostly white, thinning and held in place by the crown atop his head.
Morgan was there too but looked as if only twenty years had passed, not a lifetime.
Ryan, though.
Ryan had fallen to the ravages of time as Justin had. He was bone-thin, and his beautiful hair was gone. His skin was wrinkled and his hands gnarled as they held the sword to his chest. His armor didn’t fit like it had when he was young, much larger than he was now. He looked almost like a child playing dress-up, skin pale in death.
And I caught my reflection in the shine of the armor.
I looked almost the same.
“No,” I said. “No. No.”
“It’s inevitable,” Vadoma said. “The passing. You are a wizard, Sam. Your life… is not your own. The magic in you. It will prolong your years until most everyone you love has passed through the veil and ascended to the beyond. Randall is almost seven centuries old. Morgan almost three. Their cornerstones. They… learned from them what they could. They loved them deep in their hearts. And then the time came in which they had to say goodbye. Because cornerstones are just a beginning, Sam. They build you toward becoming what you’re supposed to be. And then you have to let them go. And when they don’t have magic in their veins, when they’re ordinary, you will lose them sooner.”