Chapter Text
“My beautiful, beautiful Makkari,” he whispered, his hand wiping a tear on her cheek.
She didn't even realise she was crying.
“You know I can't let you do this. You still have so many more years to live, so many more places to explore.”
For a person who lived every moment of her life in a time-lapse, his mouth seemed to move in slow motion - he bit down each word succinctly with a weak smile on his lips.
Makkari couldn't move. Before this moment, she didn't even realise he could control people like her, control the Eternals.
She didn't know much about Druig, she realised.
“Let me have this chance, Makkari, so you can have a better future. The future we dreamt of together.”
Druig's breath brushed across her cheeks. The rocks gave in under her feet, falling into the abyss beside her.
“I'm sorry, love,” he said, signing four simple words that did not match his lips: I'll love you, eternally.
Makkari fought, screamed, at the bind which kept her still.
She struggled against her own body, at her mind, for not listening to her. She pleaded with Druig, her heart shattering into millions of pieces.
“Close your eyes.”
She felt her eyelids grow heavy and her world go dark.
She felt his presence slowly slip away and yet, she couldn't chase after him.
Not even a single step.
I love you, Makkari repeats in her mind, hoping that he was reading it until his last moment.
I love you.
I love you.
I promise I'll make your sacrifice worth it.
The world will be at peace.
I'll do whatever it takes.
I love you, Druig.
I love you.
And she could feel him saying it back, despite knowing that he was no longer next to where she was.
And just as suddenly as his power overwhelmed her, she could open her eyes again.
Druig.
She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, ignoring the warnings of the hooded man.
She sped down the cliff, bracing against the sharp wind and dry air.
And there, at the bottom of the abyss, was him.
His body lied flat on the ground, limp. His eyes stared at the sky above him, at the cruel celestials that abandoned them from their palaces high above.
Druig.
Makkari frantically felt for a heartbeat, for a vibration from his body.
Yet despite the desolating wind, the world around her was absent of everything.
Come back to me, Druig.
Come back to me.
At least don't lie here, in a place where the forgotten are left to vanish.
Druig.
But he was a martyr, a pawn in the game that a murderer forced them to play.