The ground was rock hard and just as unforgiving. It didn't matter. Levi had long ago lost the ability to feel pain or discomfort. All he felt anymore was the unrelenting cold. After a breathless second, frigid air rushed into his lungs until he remembered he did not need to breathe. Air, food, and other luxuries of life were unnecessary for the dead.

Groaning his breath out, Levi opened his eyes. Laying on his back, he had an unfettered view of the gateway, hovering in the sky above. It loomed over him, its circular opening gaping at him like a hungry mouth and not that far away. In the beginning, he had hoped he might pass back through it and return to his world. But, after trying everything, reality set in. Unless he grew wings, there was no way to reach it. Still, he refused to leave. It wasn't hope that held him captive under its dingy glow, but stubbornness. Pure, unyielding, stubbornness.

Levi blinked. His sluggish brain became more aware. Something had changed—changed enough to draw him out of his comatose state of boredom. Not the gateway—that fiendish siren stayed the same. Then what was it?

Levi moved his numb body upward. His exposed feet couldn't feel the frozen tundra of a wasteland beneath them, but he forced himself to believe he was standing. It was the first thing he had to learn upon arriving here, as his sense of touch deserted him, the potent power of belief. If he convinced his mind of something, it became reality. Of course, it had limitations. Gravity remained the uncontested ruler, preventing him from floating away like the ageless boy who could fly. Maybe that ancient Scottish playwright had met an escapee from here?

Levi laughed, then regretted it as bitter air pierced his lungs. He rubbed at his bare chest, more from habit than any expectation it would ease the icy ache from within. All it did was remind him that his heart no longer beat. Levi gritted his teeth, stomping out the morbid thought. Whenever doubt crept in, he fell back onto his adolescent learning with the Brotherhood.

"Cogito, ergo sum. I think; therefore, I am." He stood taller, rolling his shoulders backward. He existed, even if that form of existence had physically changed him, he still existed.

His hands gripped the thin material covering his legs. It was the only article of clothing he had been wearing before the betrayal. Though his fingers could no longer feel the texture of the fabric, he could sense the tautness of it stretching across his thighs from the action. This existed.

In control of himself once more, Levi scanned the area. What had changed?

At first, he took it for a distant cloud. After staring at it, he could make out individual movements within it. His eyes jerked in their sockets. The scene zoomed toward him, expanding into details. Wild creatures only found in a drug-induced psychosis ripped and screamed across the sky. Levi roared. Sanity departed. Fingers curved into claws and reached for his eyes, ready to gouge them out. As his nails raked across his forehead, the palms blocked out the terrible image from sight, allowing rational thought to intervene.

Levi jerked his head away; his eyes squeezed shut. As he returned to his sense of self, bitterness flared inside, looking for someone to blame. "Cursed Collectors! May you forever rot in hell. Your death came too quickly for the pain you have done me. I wish I had given you a terrifying death—one where you saw your demise and could do nothing to stop it!"

The rage burned out. Levi hung his head. Now that he was listening for it, he could hear them—the muffled commotion of the approaching storm of living nightmares. Were they heading for the gateway? Would he escape their notice? Probably, until they realized none could enter through it. The gateway would only allow one being through, and he guessed none of those creatures met the requirements for passage.

"Your cursing could rouse the Leviathan from his depths, my friend," a tired voice said. It sounded like a man.

Levi's body twitched. There was someone here. Close by. He pivoted toward the sound of a heavy object thudding against the earth. Fear warred within him, debating on which would be worse: opening his eyes or keeping them closed.

His eyes snapped open, focusing on the ground. Underneath him laid the barren, godforsaken terrain it had always been. So far, so good. He spotted the large rucksack, patched and seams stretched from the amount stuffed into it. Then he saw the shadow. It moved and rippled like it was on water instead of solid earth. He convinced himself it was steady, normal. The shape bent to his will, slowing its wavering to form into the semblance of a humanoid shadow. He tracked its long length toward its origin. The stained and ragged edges of a thick cloak brushed across the tundra, offering teasing sights of bare feet encrusted with dirt. Feeling more confident that his sight wouldn't toss him back into the void of insanity, Levi drew his gaze upward.

A tall form, concealed within its cloak, stood before him. Then the being sprinted forward. The sudden rush of movement toward Levi caught him off guard. He shifted his body for defence as the person tossed a fistful of dust at his face. No, not dust. Tiny shards blurred his vision, drawing out tears. Levi resisted the urge to clear his eyes. Acting on instinct, his hand swung out to catch the man. He missed, grabbing the cloak instead. With a burst of inhuman speed, his attacker darted out of range, leaving behind his outer garment. It fluttered between them, caught in Levi's grip. Through his distorted eyesight, Levi could make out a slender half-clothed form composed of shifting grayness instead of details.

"I feel cold just looking at you," the stranger said. "Put on the cloak before you catch a chill."

Levi could feel the man's body heat captured in the fabric.

"Why would you help me?" Levi asked. Hadn't the man tried to attack him with whatever he had tossed into his eyes?

<<Pride will be the death of you. Accept the gift in the spirit of which it was given.>>

Levi would have ignored the man's words except he had spoken them in Thistress. The pull of those words was undeniable, bending reality to confirm to the speaker's words.

He was cold. The cloak would help to retain what little body heat he could still generate. Was it stubborn pride or cautious distrust that had him hesitate?

<<Be at peace, cousin. I mean you no harm.>>

One could not lie in Thistress. Levi draped the gift over his shoulders and pulled the hood up to cover his bald head. Another unwelcomed side effect of this place, him losing all his hair. Heat permeated his icy skin. For the first time since coming here, the bitter cold was held at bay.

Levi was about offer thanks when the cloth moved. The hood expanded and covered his eyes. The threads of its fiber constricted around him, binding his limbs. It was all he could do to keep his balance and not fall over. The terrors of being chained flashed through him as he experienced confinement again.

Why had he accepted the gift? He should have known better than to trust the stranger's words.

Levi could sense the man stepping closer to him.

<<Answer my questions truthfully, and I will do all I can to get the both of us out of here.>>

The compulsion to obey the Thistress words was strong, but not enough to bend his free will. Not yet, at least. This man had offered a gift in one hand, only to attack with the other. He refused to trust him. Unless...

"Are you a navigator?" Levi wished he hadn't sounded so desperate, but if this was the long awaited navigator...

In a soft voice, the man replied, "Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. He beholdeth all high things; he is king over all the children of pride."

Impossible. The man had mentioned the Leviathan before, but this was a direct quote about the beast from ancient Earther text. This alien could not be reciting what even the spacefaring humans have long since forgotten. Perhaps this was a delirious dream. Maybe he'd slipped over the edge of reality. This couldn't be happening, could it?

The back of fingers made the lightest of contact on Levi's exposed cheek, lifting the hood's binding to expose one eye. His sight was still blurred, unable to see the face of his captor.

"I had not imagined it." The man swiped his thumb at the moisture seeping from the corner of Levi's eye as his body tried to wash away the irritant. "The eye of Alistar. Of what need would someone have of a navigator when they already had you?"

"Impatience? Doubt? Fear? Do people need a logical reason to do the things they do?" Levi spat out.

The man dropped the hood, resealing his eyes. "Their betrayal hurt, but not enough for you to be enraged with them—unlike your tirade against the Collectors. So it's not the Collectors attempting to trap me. Maybe I don't have to worry about their kind anymore. I am half convinced you might have killed them all. Will wonders never cease? Leviathan reborn."

Frack it all. "I'm not the Leviathan."

"Yet you go by the name Levi, don't you?"

Wait, what? How did he know his name?

"Unless it's short for Leviticus? Always wanted to meet a priest."

This couldn't be happening. His secrets were laid bare from a few casual comments, although jumbled and out of context. This had to be delirium—his mistakes haunting him in the form of this hallucination.

A sense of freedom surged within him. If his tormentor knew those secrets, then why not reveal them all?

<<Are you a navigator or not?>>

The words left Levi's mouth and the immense power behind it rolled out and over the land with more strength than he had thought himself capable of. His question half-surprised him, making him wonder why he still cared about his mutinous, ungrateful crew and their quest for a navigator, but Thistress was like that. It didn't bend to the speaker's will, but forced the user to speak what hid in their heart—if one was rash enough to use the forbidden language.

"Yes."

Levi heard the man spit, as if that could remove the lingering effects of Levi's command that had forced his tongue to speak against his will.

"Gad!" the man continued. "No wonder your crew took a chance by getting rid of you."

Levi expected an insulting comment to follow. Instead, the man laughed. A full, honest laugh.

"Good night, my friend, but I have never felt so powerful a commander since the days of the Wandering King." Another soft chuckle came from the stranger. "The fools. Equal exchange through the gateways seldom works the way one expects."

Equal exchange. A powerful commander for a powerful navigator. He could not blame his crew for sacrificing him on the chance they could get home, but Levi did not believe in the theory of equal exchange. Yet, if it was true, then perhaps his crew would reach familiar space within their own lifetime with this navigator's help. Levi had no faith in the man taking him back home, but he clung to the hope that this stranger might save his unfaithful crew.

"It's Nish, by the way."

"What is?" Levi asked, still trying to sort out this topsy-turvy conversation.

Another laugh. "What I go by, cousin. It's Nish. Figured we should drop formalities if we're going to partner together and get out of here. I don't know about you, but I'm weary of this tedious state of endless life without decay."

The cloak unraveled around Levi, becoming a simple garment again. It happened so fast, Levi lost his balance. His knees hit the ground, but no pain followed.

"Death is the golden key that opens the palace of Eternity. Milton's poetry made this realm sound more glamorous than it is. I assumed I would get a permanent end to my life; instead all Eternity offers is a cessation of purpose."

Levi froze. Ananke had spoken those words right before forcing him through the gateway: death is the golden key that opens the palace of eternity.

"How do you know that quote?" Levi tried to stand up, but found his limbs refused to obey. The command. It had sapped his strength.

"There are a few ways to enter Eternity, but only one way to leave." Nish sat down before Levi, sighing. "What a pair we are, both too weak to run anymore. Too stubborn to die even though we secretly wish it would just end and put us out of our misery. This day we shall both know victory wasn't gained by our strength alone. Not by our wills, but by the will of the Divine Eternal. Let it be so."

Nish reached out. The tips of his fingers touched Levi's forehead. Waves of heat emanated from the man. "You have stayed on the edge of Eternity, but I have walked long on her shores and drank deep from her waters. This place first kills our body, then our emotions, and finally our mind. Death here is a slow process as we lose pieces of ourselves, bit by bit, until all that remains is a hollow shell."

Nish drew back his fingers. Levi's sight cleared to reveal a young man in his prime without wrinkle or blemish, but his bright blue eyes revealed an ancientness his face lacked. He, too, wore only pants. From the man's bare back, tendril-like ribbons in shades of silver and black poured upward and over him, weaving together to form enormous wings. Levi was mesmerized by the waves of power rippling through them.

"I have evaded death's reach," Nish said, "because my purpose, my reason to keep living, never faltered. It is only now, after finding you, that I feel the first chill of immortality reach for me. I have arrived at the end of my journey."

Nish reached out and touched Levi's hands. Levi almost pulled out of the loose grip, but something about Nish—his hypnotic words, the methodical shaping of his wings, the simple touch of connection—it drew him in. Having a purpose that never wavered—what would that be like? He had existed and worked among his kind, but had he ever lived?

Levi swallowed. "You haven't answered my question. The quote. Where did you hear it?"

Nish gave a wary smile. "I met a human here long ago. He desired to become an immortal poet, but feared death would intervene before he could achieve anything with his life. A creature, not of his world, opened the way to Eternity, promising him immortality. Of course, he took the offer, learning the hard way it wasn't immortality he wanted but significance. Purpose. Trapped here, in the stillness this realm offered, he discovered a truth that had eluded him in life. His words had the potential to extend farther than his single lifespan, to become greater than he, as a man, could ever become. When he believed in that truth, it cast a different light upon his life and desires and ambitions. It reshaped him. I met him after this reshaping. The memory still stands out to me because of his eyes, such a unique brilliance to them." Nish sighed, lost in his thoughts. He blinked, focusing on Levi again. "He shared a few of his poems with me, ones he hoped to share with his own people. That's who recited that statement to me. After we parted ways, I remember thinking, 'If there ever was a man who would find a way out, it would be him.' I'm pleased to see I was right. It would appear his words had attained the immortality he had once wanted for himself. Do you know of his works?"

Levi's mouth had gone dry. He licked his lips. Was this real? One way to find out. "Yes."

Nish's fingers tightened around Levi's hands. <<Do you know the poem about the pilot?>>

Words and memories fell into place like puzzle pieces. The Thistress question worked its magic against Levi's tired will, solving a mystery he never realized existed. Before the betrayal he had been the ship's commander—what the ancients called the pilot. Milton had spoken of a pilot.

"This can't be possible," Levi whispered.

The intensity of Nish's gaze refused to back down. <<Speak the line. What did the pilot bear?>>

"Two massy keys he bore of metals twain. The golden opes, the iron shuts amain." As soon as the words left Levi's lips, the backs of his hands and forearms glowed.

Nish turned them over, exposing the biotech implanted under Levi's skin by the Collectors. The geometric designs and foreign letters shone gold on one arm and silver on the other.

"It's true. I found you, the pilot, at last." Nish yanked on Levi's hands, pulling him forward. "Did you willingly open the gateway?"

"No."

A hardness entered Nish's voice. "The truth."

Levi tried to pull back, but Nish was stronger, jerking him forward. Their foreheads almost knocking against each other. "No! I didn't know the gateway was there until she pinned me to it. She betrayed and then discarded me like garbage."

"Do you wish to return? To leave Eternity?"

"Yes!"

Nish released him. Levi fell backward, catching himself from tumbling over.

Nish stood. The strange wings folded against his tall form as he gathered his rucksack and strapped it across his chest. "Then we will wait for the horde to arrive before we leave."

"Are you crazy?"

"No, I'm your navigator. This is the path you must take if you want to return to the realm where our eternal souls reside in a body subjected to decay and death. Back to the iron prison of constraints and limitations."

"Nish, we need to leave now. There is no way we will reach the gateway if that horde surrounds it," Levi said, waving a hand toward the approaching storm of teeth and talons. He feared to look upon it again, let alone travel through it.

Nish smiled down at him. "You spoke my name. This is a good start to our partnership."

"Partnership?"

"Pilot. Navigator. Only together do our roles work in moving a vessel between the stars. Come now, cousin: 'The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, but swol'n with wind, and the rank mist they draw rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread.' If we cannot handle this, then I fear we will fail in guiding our flock through the void of space."

Really? This stranger was quoting Milton as the basis for his strategy?

Nish reached his hand out to Levi, and pulled him to his feet. "Levi, we come here as broken men and most stay that way. Rare is the man willing to let himself be unmade. An impossibility for those enslaved to pride. I fear if we go now, you will arrive home only to die. The breaking and unmaking are necessary to survive leaving this place."

"Your plan will kill us."

Nish framed Levi's face with his hands. "We are already dead. Trust in the wisdom of Milton. Did he not speak of the pilot and say, 'but that two-handed engine at the door stands ready to smite once, and smite no more?' Your hands contain the two keys and together they become the engine."

"Yet it sounds like by smiting this threat, I end up killing myself."

"Yes."

Levi stared at Nish.

The man nodded. His thumbs caressed Levi's face before he dropped his hands. "Yes."

They stood, staring at each other as the advancing terror drew closer. Neither moved nor blinked nor breathed as Nish's words sank into Levi's soul. He didn't understand them. They made no sense.

The sky grew darker and the wind blew harder, but the cloak Nish had given Levi sheltered him and kept him warm.

Levi finally spoke. "Sounds like this partnership might not last very long."

"True. It might not."

Levi worked his jaw, swallowing the lump in his throat. "I would rather die in my own realm than stay here living an empty life forever."

"I am in agreement."

The clambering noise above them grew louder as the wind gusted and twisted around them. Levi resisted looking upward. He refused to back down even as he yearned to escape from the terrible dread rising within him built.

Nish looked upward. "It is almost time. Are you ready?"

"Honestly? No."

Nish smiled, meeting Levi's gaze again. <<Clear a path for us, man who had caught the Leviathan.>>

"You know nothing about me," Levi said, denying again he was the Leviathan.

<<I know everything about you.>>

Perhaps it was the gentle way those words gathered around Levi's battered heart, a heart that had forgotten how to beat. Maybe it was the firm resolve Nish displayed. Or the way it felt to know someone had sought after him and wasn't disappointed in what they found.

So Levi spoke the truth he had never faced. <<I have no purpose. No reason to live.>>

<<Then I shall share mine with you until you find your own.>>

So simple. So beautiful. At that moment, Levi dropped all his defenses. He wanted to trust this man and his words and strange ways. He feared it, yet desired it.

<<Clear a path for us, Keeper of Leviathan, the Destroyer of Worlds. Please.>>

Levi trembled at the overwhelming power of Nish's command. The please was comical, for Levi knew he had no resistance left to prevent his obedience. As he had done only once before, Levi spoke the words needed to annihilate the swarming mass above.

He felt his strength slip away, wondering if death would claim him at last. His body tilted forward like a corpse. Nish caught him, easing his body to the earth. Once again, Levi was on his back, staring up at the sky. This time, chaos obscured the gateway.

A gentle touch closed his eyes, but it was too late. The madness he had witnessed captured him in its thrall.

Heat surrounded him, so intense he feared his skin would blister. Hot ash landed on him. He was back into the nightmare of his childhood—his family slaughtered as death and screams hemmed him in, paralyzed with fear. His mother would find him and push him away. Tell him to run and save himself. This time will be different. He'll refuse. He'll die with them.

The ground shuddered. A powerful gust whipped the heat from off his skin, giving a moment of relief.

"Let me stay. I won't run," Levi murmured in his delirium. "Let me die with you."

Hands pulled at his body. She wasn't pushing him away. He smiled. She had heard. She was letting him stay. He didn't have to run and hide anymore. He wouldn't be alone. The feeling of weightless was a strange sensation, but a welcome one. Death was so much easier than he had thought it to be.

His body fell, hitting something hard and unforgiving—again. Pain blossomed upon his body. Pain? Clarity returned to his senses. The floor beneath his hands was slick yet grainy from dings and scratches. Scent of charred flesh and heat of fire wafted toward him. Levi welcomed the stench as his senses came back to life. It had worked?

Before him stood a towering presence of authority. Light pulsated within the form's body. It flickered. Then went out. The figure of gray shadows dropped to the floor beside Levi. The wings unraveled and scattered from an unfelt wind, going limp. They wrapped around the blurred shape of a man, clothing him. Nish.

<<Shut the gate.>> The weak command came from Nish.

Levi's distorted vision caught the murky glow of the open gateway. Foul mist spilled out to contaminate the room, stretching its vaporous appendage toward them. The biotech on Levi's hand activated. A stream of silver runes raced across the metal floor from him to the gateway. He tried to fill his lungs and forced air into the heavy, flat sails they had become. In a wet gurgle of sound, Levi coughed out, "Seal."

As Milton had somehow predicted with his poetry, the gateway spun inward, snapping closed with such haste the lingering fog dissipated as the gateway vanished.

Levi's victory was short-lived. No breath in his lungs. No heartbeat pounding in his chest. No sound of blood rushing in his ears. His body was dead.

Not so the ship. Sounds of footsteps grew louder. Excited voices echoed down the corridor toward them. Life existed here, just not in him.

"Ship, if you have any mercy," Nish whispered, "give us a moment of peace."

The swish of passages closing shut cut off the world of the living. Silence returned.

Nish gathered Levi's weak form against him, cradling his upper body in his arms. Breath teased his face as Nish spoke soft and low, close to his ear. "Divine Eternal, by Your hand alone, we have escaped. By Your will alone, we live and breathe. You alone are the One we praise."

A prayer. Levi smiled. This was fitting for his last moments—to have another take on the role of priest. The Brotherhood would have approved.

Nish gathered Levi's limp hand, placing the back of it against his chest. The odd sensation of dual hearts beating surprised Levi. He had never meant a species with two hearts.

"Long have I run from Your will. Now I surrender and fulfill my vows to You."

The thumping was so strong it caused Levi's fingers to twitch to its rhythm. Nish pressed Levi's hand harder upon his chest.

"I have prepared my heart, so teach and instruct me until only Your law abides within it."

Warmth surrounded Levi's hand. It permeated his skin and coursed up his veins. The heartbeat vibrating all around his hand stopped.

Breath caught in his throat. Were they both to die? No. Not Nish. The crew. They needed him.

"For the rest of my days, what is mine I give back to You, until only You remain. Let it be so."

A single beat fluttered against Levi's hand as one of Nish's hearts resumed its duty.

Its echoing partner responded within Levi's own chest.