He didn't think the demon got near him, though, after he first came there, because he was rapidly shoved away from him by a familiar enough figure, still wielding his daggers like he had in life.
Except the thing that stood out to him, the thing that drove every other detail of his current situation far away, was when that figure turned his head and hissed, "Get further back," and suddenly, he wasn't familiar at all, and Percy knew the being before him was not his brother-in-law, much as he bore his features.
The grief that took him then was far fiercer than any grief or fear he would've ever felt for himself. The thought of Vax being truly gone...and when he had hoped so much he would still be there for them, when it was time, if only to take them at the end. He had wanted it so for Vex most of all, but for himself as well, and for their children, that had only known their uncle through stories and through his ravens, and for all their friends.
It was so overwhelming that, at first, Percy didn't react when he saw the second figure there also fighting Orthax. But he eventually found himself taking note of the strange red-haired half-elf, hacking ferociously at the demon with a great golden blade, especially when he yelled, "Back! Back! This one you will not have, demon."
The two of them together were more than a match for him, and Percy saw Orthax retreat. "That one should be mine," he hissed, and it chilled Percy to the bone, made him momentarily fear his soul would shatter.
"Not any more, Orthax; all those bonds are broken. Return to the Hells, and pray my friend here doesn't go there to kill you once and for all. I've known him to do that at least once." Indeed, on hearing his companion's words, the redhead hissed and raised his blade again. Orthax took the warning; Percy watched him fade out, and maybe, he thought, he would be free of him at last.
The he heard the anxious, affectionate murmur of, "Freddie?"
He looked again, and saw the change in his eyes. He who might not have been Vax'ildan only a moment or so ago nonetheless was him again now.
The relief crushed him even more than Vax's arms did a second later, and Percy could do nothing but let them. He wondered if either of them was still able to cry.
He had even momentarily forgotten about the red head. At least until he heard him say, "I'm afraid we'll have to part ways here, Champion. I may be as much a friend to his champions as I am to any such people, but I still won't go to his realm."
"I know," Vax said softly. He let go of Percy and more or less floated back over to where he was. "Thank you, Evandrin. You know how much this meant to me."
"Yes, thank you," Percy echoed, remembering his manners at last. "It seems that I literally owe you my soul."
But Evandrin's face turned hard as he looked at him, and he said, "I didn't do it for you. Don't think I don't know what you've done, Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Kossowski de Rolo III, and how much death and suffering it has caused and will cause. But your wife is a hero, and she deserves to have her husband waiting for her when her own time is up, and it seems you have not gone quite beyond forgiveness, at least for the sake of sparing another hero my fate."
And with that, he turned away, his cloak whirling around him, and after another moment he was gone, and it was only Percy and Vax there in that strange place.
Vax came back over to him and took his hand. "Come, Freddie," he said. "You have been granted a place in the outskirts of Pelor's realm, where my sister will be able to come to you as she likes, as will much of your family, I believe. You could even go meet with Grog, since he turned down a spot in Kord's realm to wait for Pike's on the outkirts of Saranrae's."
"That," said Percy, as he accepted Vax's arm and let him lead him, "is as good a fate as I could have possibly hoped for. Indeed, I can't say I'm not surprised by hearing I wasn't beyond forgiveness." His voice maybe shook a little, now at the thought of facing his parents. He didn't know how they were going to react to him.
"Well," Vax said to him, "you get a different perspective here. Evandrin certainly has one, since you didn't cause the Calamity."
"The Calamity?" Percy nearly stopped moving in his shock. "You're not telling me that man was involved in that. I never saw his name in any of the accounts of it. Of course a lot of the events around its start do remain a mystery, but was it not caused by a mage? Was that account wrong?"
"It was incomplete," Vax explained. "The Calamity, at least as Evandrin has explained it to me, was effectively caused by two people who entered the service of Asmodeus; Vespin Chloras was the one of them whose name made it into the records. The other was his husband."
"Oh," said Percy, because there wasn't much else to say to that. He had told Vex, once, that it was all right even if she turned evil. Maybe it even would have been. He still would have loved her no matter what she'd done, that was a given. But thinking about it now, Percy knew that he didn't know how he could've bourn it, had she ever done anything that extreme. Or how she could've, if he had.
And he'd had it in him, he knew that. Probably she did, too. Sure, they'd saved the world instead, but had their circumstances instead gone wrong enough...well.
And then Vax kept talking. "And the most painful part of it? He did it out of love for Evandrin. Or rather, out of grief and rage over his death. It puts Evandrin in an impossible position, too, because how can he forgive him for that, but how can he not forgive him for that? It doesn't help matters that they had a son, and his attitude is just...except it doesn't matter, because he truly will never see him again."
The first part of that story was sounding even more familiar to Percy, and now he couldn't help but say, "And now I will see my family again, you say."
Vax must have guessed his fears. "You've done nothing they won't forgive you for, Freddie. I'm certain of that. Indeed, I have seen enough to say that in the peace of these realms and all the time of eternity-although time does not behave here the way it does elsewhere, most pains fade. Though," he looked back to where Evandrin had last been before his departure, "there are some exceptions.
Evandrin's been here since his death; like with me, the circumstances of it left him a little tied up with the gods. Yours is not the first soul who's done wrong which he's chosen to save, for the sake of those who love them. He does for them what he could not do for the one he loved."
That was the last they spoke of Evandrin, then. There were other things to discuss, including how things would work in Pelor's realm, and Percy was very glad to hear that Vax would be able to come see him and Grog at least at times-and his explanation of how he was in fact with the Raven Queen at that moment, even as he lingered there with his brother-in-law, could not help but fascinate Percy. But even in all the eternity he apparently was going to get, Percy knew he wasn't going to forget him.