Chapter 640 - Iona’s Immortality

After a decade of being with Iona, I knew all her little habits. I knew all her little expressions, from ecstatic to morose. I could guess how much sleep she had the previous night by her temper, I knew what she wanted for dinner.

After over a century together, to say that understanding had deepened was a bit of an understatement.

Two years after Sara gained her first class, I realized something was eating at my wife. Something she wasn’t telling me, even with a few gentle asks. Iona was spending an inordinate amount of time at the local temple, even when there were no services. Even when nobody else was around. Orthus wasn’t large enough, civilization hadn’t advanced enough, for there to be a full time [Priest] always at the temple, for there to always be activity. We were almost there, but Iona was vanishing a little before sundown in her full armor, and arriving shortly after sunrise with huge bags under her eyes. I knew a knightly vigil when I saw one, and her energy skill could only keep her going for so long.

It wasn’t quite to the point where I felt I needed to step in and force the issue. She wasn’t spending every night there, every other at worst.

Even Sara picked up on it. The four of us - Me, Iona, Sara, and Auri - were sitting around the breakfast table inside of [Manor] when the ten year old piped up.

“Mom? Is everything alright?” She asked. 

“I’m alright.” Iona confirmed. The three of us traded looks, none of us believing her. Since Sara was noticing, I was going to push a little more.

“Let’s talk later?” I shot a significant look in Iona’s direction, wordlessly communicating we BETTER talk. If nothing else I was getting unhappy with the state of my cold and empty bed. Iona gave me a tiny nod, acknowledging the problem and that we’d discuss it, then masterfully redirected the conversation. Poor Sara, she never had a chance to insist.

She went off to poke at animals with Auri keeping an eye on her, and Iona and I sat down to talk.

“You’ve got something eating at you.” I said without preamble. “What’s going on?”

Iona frowned.

“Could you get me paper and something to write with?” She asked. “Some of this works better with a drawn timeline.”

I immediately got her what she wanted, and Iona started to sketch out a timeline.

“The first and easiest thing is the Valkyries.” Iona said, the light tension in her voice betraying a tiny slip over her masterful self control. “Nina and I have been tracking the stories and the tales. There just aren’t too many of us left, if any. I know of a few memorials, and I want to go on a long trip to gather up the remnants. Like your wall, I want to build a memorial hallway to my sisters-in-arms.”

She was blinking tears out of her eyes, and I put a hand on her arm to reassure her.

“Sara’s a little too young right now for me to vanish for a few months, nevermind the few years I suspect this might take. We’re looking at moving to the School soon, and that could be a good time to get started on this. The School flies around. It slows down, I pop down to the ground, investigate what I can, then return. I wanted to bring it up later, because there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

I reached over and squeezed Iona’s hand.

“You can certainly start looking around the area. Run over to a nearby town, talk for the day, run over at the end. You’re fast enough. Plus, we can have a nice bounty on the information. We can pay 10,000 arcs per final resting place, or something like that.”

I turned my head to look towards the door. Iona’s face lit up as she joined me.

“Damn. I was sure that would summon Amber with a full list of places.” I said.

“Give her a day or two, she probably got waylaid making even more money.” Iona joked.

=============

At the same time, in the Tuvan Tribes.

Amber tripped and fell hard, scraping her elbows and knees. A quick application of healing magic fixed her right up, and she turned to see what had caused her fall.

The lid of a broken treasure chest was poking out through the dirt, and Amber could see a deep pile of shining gems as large as her fist glittering in the light.

“Ooooh yes, my shinies.” She cooed.

===============

“That can’t be everything though. Something’s eating at you, and I mean no disrespect, but I don’t think deciding a timeline on when to go looking for your sister’s remains has you practically living in the temple.”

The mirth vanished off of Iona’s face.

“It’s not.” She agreed. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.”

I lifted one eyebrow as if to say ‘no shit’, but didn’t directly press more. Iona looked torn. With a deep sigh, she started talking.

“You’re Immortal. So is Sara. Fenrir. Nina. Auri. It’s just… not fair for me to go on ahead and leave you all behind. Not when it’s so easy to fix. My issues with Immortals remains, but I’m seeing it as less and less of a reason to just die, instead of doing everything I can to fix problems where I see them.”

Every part of me wanted to shout and jump with excitement, but I used every last bit of willpower and self control to shut up and not ruin things. 

“My whole family is Immortal, and I think I want to join you. I’m finishing working it all out. Can you give me some more time to think?”

All the petty complaints about a cold bed were gone from my mind.

“All the time in the world.” I promised.

==================

Iona had coordinated with the Moon Goddesses, and I wasn’t surprised in the slightest when they wanted to do the ceremony on the night of full moons. The dragoneye moons stared down at us, bathing the hilltop in baleful crimson light.

She - and I suspected it was the three of them - wanted a private ceremony, one with just the two of us.

We were both dressed for the occasion. I was in one of my favorite tunics, a bright red with golden threads, a pair of well-worn and comfortable sandals on my feet. Earrings were clipped onto my ears and rings were on my fingers, and I’d spent more time on my hair than was advisable. Auri was bleeding through a bit. 

Iona had done herself up as well. Her hair was in a tight braid, over one shoulder, and she was in her full plate armor. Her weapons were all on display, and I wasn’t quite sure what Iona thought she was going to fight. Then again, it was part of her being a [Paladin], and the entire ceremony was a form of worship to her patron goddesses. Her tabard had the symbols of the two moons on them, Selene and Lunaris’s sacred sigil.

“Twenty five, right?” I confirmed for the last time. Iona grinned at me.

“Hey, if it’s good enough for you, it’s good enough for me.” She said.

I couldn’t keep a silly smile off my face. Nor could I stop myself studying Iona, memorizing details that would be permanently obliviated by my skill. The crow’s lines by her eyes, the ever-expanding silver that had joined Iona’s golden tresses. A thousand little details that had marked the relentless passage of time on my wife’s body.

Her soul shone brighter than ever, and it was that inner beauty that I loved. 

“Are you ready?” I asked.

“Not yet.” Iona said with a glint of mischief in her eyes. She swept me up and kissed me deeply before letting me go with a satisfied sigh.

I pouted at how quickly it had ended.

We entwined our hands, moving in a small way such that our tattoos would’ve aligned exactly if Iona didn’t have her gauntlet on. I put my other hand on her forehead, and focused on my skill.

I let the Celestial element infuse my voice. The astral stars sparkled in my voice, inviting a sense of wonder.

“[A Drop of Eternity in a Sea of Starlight].” I spoke, and the world faded around us.

Stars.

A hundred thousand, a million, billions of glittering stars appeared in the vast cosmos around us. An entire sea of starlight for the two of us to swim in.

A single drop of pure gold condensed out of the endless starlight an infinite distance above us before falling down. It took a moment, an eternity to fall, before hitting Iona on the brow. It soaked into her body, and golden light started to shine from her eyes and mouth, then her ears, head, before her entire body turned into a radiant star, impossible to look at.

Even with all my skills, I couldn’t see what was going on. It didn’t stop me from trying, tears streaming down my face as my body tried to protect itself from the brilliant light.

The light faded and condensed, my wife looking almost the same, and yet entirely different. All the little details I’d so closely studied stood out in stark relief as being different, a thousand parts of her I knew with all my senses needing to be relearned. The world faded back in around us, and we braced for the inevitable party crasher.

White Dove fluttered up to my shoulder a moment later, glaring at Iona.

“Iona.” She Spoke, and the world trembled. “[Paragon -”

White Dove was interrupted by Selene manifesting herself on the hilltop, and literally slapping White Dove off my shoulder. The goddess vanished after the maneuver, and White Dove changed into her counterpart, Black Crow. With a vicious caw and a flash of talons, the grim reaper went for Iona’s throat.

Which was when Lunaris manifested herself, and slapped Black Crow out of existence. The only trace that was left of the two birds as one was a pair of feathers, one black, one white, that slowly drifted to the ground into an X.

The two of us stared at the feathers in shocked silence.

“I think I peed myself a little.” I finally said.

Iona started to laugh, the ‘what the fuck just happened’ sort of laugh in the face of something utterly impossible. After a moment or two I joined her, and we ended up lying down together, staring up at the beautiful night sky. A few wispy clouds weren’t enough to hide the endless sea of stars, nor the pair of moons staring down at us.

At last, Iona had joined the rest of us in Immortality. At last, I wouldn’t have to worry about the endless march of time stealing her away from me.

And somehow, she’d managed it without getting cursed.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”