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"You will not be freed upon this land!" Tehlu says, holding Encanis down bodily, flames licking at both of them.
"Oh, but you, little god," Encanis says, panting, struggling against the fierce bonds he has no chance against, "you call yourself a man? No man could bear this fire."
"It will kill us both, but I will still exist after. You will not." Tehlu doesn’t so much as flinch as sweat fizzles against tongues of flame.
Encanis smirks up at him, sharp-toothed and leering, and raises ashen hips to meet ashen hips. "No man could bear this fire," he repeats, and Tehlu stares down at him, brow furrowed.
"What are you doing? What trick is this?" Tehlu asks, eyes searching face as dark as night, a void of stars beneath him.
"Little god," Encanis drawls, tilting his head, "to think you haven’t found the one good thing humans made without either of us. To think you haven’t found the neighbors that weren't demons. To think you made yourself without basking in the pleasure of it." His leg snaps free of the red-hot chain and he wraps it about Tehlu's waist tightly.
"I've seen everything the humans have done," Tehlu argues. "I know their evils number the stars."
"Oh, but didn’t you make those? Don't you know the number? You gave them wheat to make bread, grapes to make wine—" Encanis cranes his head forward to whisper against godly ear, "and bodies to make stars." His sharp teeth graze earlobe.
Tehlu's human body shivers, something it's never done before, something that doesn't make sense with the heat scraping at their flesh. "Quit this trick. It won't save you."
"It won’t save me," Encanis agrees. "I have heard the great Tehlu was merciful beyond measure, that he let evil cross the path. Will the little god show me this mercy now?" Encanis's voice is dark, heady, low. "Will the little god grant me the pleasure of teaching him something human? Since we shall both die, regardless?"
The wheel does not ring, and Tehlu swallows roughly. "What need I do?"
"Move with me," Encanis breathes into his ear, pressing his heel down and pushing up against Tehlu, finding an angle that has the god taking his first shaking gasp and trying to copy the movement. "There you go," he encourages, throwing his head back, and leads Tehlu shift by shift.
"I've seen the motion," Tehlu gasps out, and is surprised at the nature of his own voice.
"And now you can know the cause," Encanis whispers back.
"All the demons for— for this?" Tehlu's arms shake, his head falls to rest against Encanis.
"You think demons could touch this?" Encanis groans back. "You think we could ever create anything that feels like— like this? I told you the humans made it. Can't you feel the stars?"
"Stars," Tehlu repeats back mindlessly, grip tightening, eyes squeezing shut.
"Watch," Encanis breathes. "They’re all going to fall." He presses an open mouth to godly throat, and the god comes undone, making a sweet noise better suited to kinder voices.
"Encanis," he moans, gasping, and Encanis throws his head back and laughs, a final sound, as the fire claims him.
In the brief moment before he's taken as well, Tehlu has the abrupt and startling revelation that Encanis has achieved the only thing he couldn't before.
Tehlu cannot die, and neither can Encanis, because he lives in something shaken loose in Tehlu's chest, his bones, and the fire takes the little god who will never stop dreaming about stars.