I was sitting in a forest. It was the forest my mother had created when we first moved to Nara. I had my back against the trunk of a tree and Myriam was sitting opposite me, her long red hair against the trunk of another.

These were the trees of her parents. This was the place where we’d first met.

“I know this is not how things are supposed to be… I’m sorry I won’t be there for you in the same way you were there for me,” she said, and I saw Kai walk toward us. “But I need to protect him. You can find everything you need in the market. Please forgive me.”

After her last plea for forgiveness, she stood up, took Kai’s hand, and walked away from me. I tried to shout but no voice came out of my mouth. I picked myself up but immediately fell back down again, my legs feeling weak and unable to hold my weight. I started to feel dizzy and closed my eyes, trying to rid myself of the vertigo.

When I opened my eyes I was in my room in the tower. The dream did get one part right though. I was feeling very dizzy, and I had ale to thank for it. I got out of bed and threw some water on my face from the magical basin in my quarters. It didn’t make me feel fresh but at least the minor healing qualities of the water made it possible for me to start thinking clearly.

I changed into my daily robes and walked out of the room, down the stairs toward the foyer. The sight awaiting me there was one that I had never encountered in all the months we had been living in the tower.

There were mugs and bottles laying around everywhere. Tables and chairs had been turned upside down, and some people were still sleeping in corners of the tavern while others were now having their breakfast. I spotted Seika eating alone, but as I got closer, I noticed someone else, hands on the table with their head between them, hunched next to my sister. I took a seat opposite Seika as she nodded to me in greeting and I realized that it was Krysha occupying the seat next to her.

“Boy, hells of a party, eh?” I said loudly, announcing my presence to her.

“Can you please lower the volume of your voice?” Krysha asked, waving her right hand in a downward motion without even pulling her head up to look at me.

“Didn’t you wash with the water of your basin?” I asked, in a considerably lower voice.

“If I hadn’t I would be dead by now,” came her muffled response.

We couldn’t help but snicker at her state, and yet my sister caressed her hair lovingly.

“Then why doesn’t Seika use a spell to heal you?” I asked, looking at her and then shifting my gaze to Man who had just entered the tower and was walking toward us. “It looks like it has worked wonders on this guy.”

Man smiled and held his hand up for us to wait for his response once he’d grabbed an apple from one of the fruit baskets.

“There was no spell involved here,” he responded. “This is not my first time drinking and I know how to handle my ale. I woke up and visited my father to tell him what we decided yesterday.”

“And anyway, Krysha doesn’t want to be healed,” my sister continued. “She wants to live with the consequences of what she’s done.”

“Well, this looks like it will be a miserable day for you, Krysha,” I said to her, not really understanding her stubbornness. “What did your father say, Man?”

“Just wait for a little while longer,” she replied as she raised her head for the first time since I arrived, interrupting Man who was about to answer my question. “Once Kard joins us, Seika will heal us all and we can start preparing for our journey. Then you can answer his question Man, when we’re all together and fully awake.”

Man seemed to be amused by the whole situation and simply nodded before standing up to bring breakfast for all of us.

Some time passed before Kard joined us and more people started arriving in the tavern, the majority dragging their feet and looking very tired. We’d had feasts in the tower before, but never one as grand as yesterday’s. Normally, we held back as if we needed to be prepared for the unexpected at any time, but after the archons’ visit, we were finally able to turn a page in our lives.

It seemed as though everyone in the tower felt free to do whatever they wanted. The fact that we’d never had a pregnancy announced before was also a big factor in how far things got out of hand. But I think they deserved a big celebration. We all did.

Kard was feeling much better than Krysha and I did, partly because he slept much longer than us. Once he joined us and was finished with his quick breakfast, Seika healed us all with an instant 32-word spell, and we headed into the basement of the tower, which Krysha utilized as storage for all the mundane and magical items we owned.

“So Man, since Krysha will allow it now, can you please fill us in on what your father had to say about our plans?” I asked, with a mischievous smile on my face.

“Well if it pleases lady Krysha,” Man replied, in the same mocking tone I had just used, “he is ok with us searching for Myriam and Kai as long as we do it discreetly. He doesn’t want Elysian spies to know that we think the duo are already on this side of the Endless Sea.”

“You didn’t tell him you got a lead?” I asked, fully suspecting that he’d neglected to mention this piece of information.

“I suppose it slipped my mind,” he replied, keeping a comically straight face. “Perhaps this is why he did not assign any guards to us. However, we will need to go over our back story once we are on the road.”

We all agreed on it and walked through the magical gates barring anyone but people of the tower from entering. Krysha took off her wide-brimmed black pointy hat and retrieved a piece of paper from inside of it. She then proceeded to put on the hat again and unfolded the paper, which turned out to be a list of everything we would need on our journey.

We walked through the hallways of the basement, picking up items and equipment of all sorts, many more than we had been wearing during our meeting with the archons. On the other hand, our needs on that day had been very specific, while this time our road might lead us anywhere and therefore we needed to prepare for almost anything.

We were each equipped with silenced boots to which Seika had previously added a permanent hastening enchantment and a cloak that would protect us from heat, cold, and rain. Additionally, we each wore a pendant with a protective orb encased in it, something that would render all arrows and bolts useless against us. Additionally, we all wore earrings allowing us to communicate with each other and with the tower, and of course we each had an emergency teleportation hourglass.

Having Seika, who was a powerful spellcaster, made things a little easier since we only had three invisibility-inducing items. Kard and I wore two of them shaped in the form of hats while Krysha, who under no circumstance would take off her own hat, kept the ring of invisibility. Man would in any case never leave Seika’s side so if it came to a situation where it was necessary, she could cast an invisibility spell on herself and on him, making them invisible to everyone but each other.

We also got various smaller protective items and magically enhanced bags. We didn’t want to travel at the pace a carriage would set, so we each chose our own mount. Once we were all ready according to Krysha’s plan, she told us to wait while she put together a bag of some additional provisions and secondary items.

This just made me think about how truly lucky we were to find all these items for free, while she did a great job making sure our inventory would grow, by selling stuff we didn’t need and buying what we were missing.

We made our way back up to the now crowded foyer where everything was mostly tidy again and people were more lively than when we’d descended to the basement. We obviously had not planned for something like this, but it seemed everyone had gathered in the entrance of the tower to see us out.

Even though we would be keeping in touch regularly and remain available for contact at all times, they waited for us, not saying anything. They simply smiled at us as we walked between them. I couldn’t bring myself to say goodbye since we would be returning sooner or later, but it felt like a goodbye all the same.