This is too much for Eric, and not just because a necromancer inside the body of a tiny child keeps calling him son. A good magician never reveals his secrets. An evil one, apparently, never shuts up about them.

“Right. You told them you were going to kill them?”

“I told them I would lead them to The End. The End to all their problems. To their pain. Their suffering. The end of strife, of hunger, of hate, of unhappiness. I promised them what they have always wanted. I offered them peace.”

“The peace of the grave.”

“Oh, aren’t you dramatic,” Colchester says. “Is that really so terrible? Isn’t this what they want? Every one of them longs for Heaven, but no one understands it. This is what they have been praying for all this time. They will finally sink into the soft earth and they will pull up their shrouds like warm blankets. They will be reunited with their mothers and fathers and their dead pets, all together again at last. They will be happy, because their struggle will be over. They will be over.”

“And so will everyone who gets in their way. I remember what your gift looks like. But somehow you managed to stay alive. You got stronger with every corpse.”

“You still don’t understand,” Colchester says, his voice actually pleading now, the little boy’s eyes shining with tears. “I have to see it completed before I can share it. I have endured centuries of pain. Tell me, how is that not love? One battle after the next with self-righteous magicians like you. I have committed atrocities for the greater good. The End is for everyone. Including me. That’s what I want. That is my great, evil plan: to die.”

“Right. And the kid you’re wearing right now? What does he want?”

Colchester looks surprised by the question. “Do you really care?”

“I’m curious.”

“He thinks he will be reunited with his parents.”

Eric smirks. Colchester looks wounded.

“It’s true,” he insists.

“Just not the way he thinks.”

“He’s a child, like you were. He needs the fairy tale.”

“But now that I’m all grown up, you’re willing to tell me the truth. I get it. Well, that’s really generous of you, but what if I’m not ready to die?”

“That was always your problem, wasn’t it?” Colchester says. “You weren’t willing to sacrifice yourself last time. You didn’t want to continue the cycle. So you dodged the choice.”

“Call me a coward,” Eric says, summoning power into his fist. “Please.”