It's done. The Lone Keep, source of so much pain and suffering, has been destroyed, with help from beyond the grave. Mikansia and Nomi make their way back to Vigilance, where they left Dale's widow Ember, along with little Simone and mother-in-law Decima.
Mikansia and Nomi appeared in the streets of Vigilance, outside the house where Decima, Ember, and Simone had been staying. The sun was setting; an eerie quiet had taken hold of Vigilance. Almost all the windows were dark. No one was in Decima's house either, so Mikansia laid the skeletal frame of Makirta in an upstairs bed and went back to the street with Nomi. The sun had hidden itself a little more... and darkness began to intermingle with the silence.
They wandered down the empty street, acrost an empty piazza, down another another street. The only people they saw were three children playing stickball, running back and forth as their little legs would take them. They looked up and stared at the two elves. Yelling excitedly the trio ran up to Mikansia and Nomi. One of the children grabbed Mikansia's hand. Reflexively Mikansia yanked her hand away and the child stared at his hand, confused: "No coal?" One of the other children asked to play stickball with Mikansia and Nomi, while the last one just gaped at the ebony skinned elves.
"Do you know where everyone is?" asked Mikansia, still looking around. The darkening quiet was downright creepy to her. No city should be this quiet.
"They found the dragon that had wrecked the town! They're going to go kill it!"
Nomi was running down the street before the words were fully out of the child's mouth. She stopped. Turned. And ran back: "You can just teleport us there. MOVE!"
Mikansia was way ahead of her.
They stepped through. Fish was in the same place as they'd left him: in a glade down the mountain from Vigilance. There was a mob here now, complete with torches and pitchforks. Decima, who had been left to defend Fish, lay on the ground with a humans standing over her. Mikansia held her rainbow blade aloft: the mob stopped and stared at the blade, entranced.
Nomi screamed and launched herself at one of the distracted humans, hacking his head off with her sword as he stared at the blade. She lunged at another human, only to be blocked by Mikansia; the mob's eyes followed Mikansia's shining blade, uncomprehending. "Get.. out.. of my way!" Nomi growled. "We need to defend Fish!"
Mikansia's face twisted into a mix between compassion and concentration. "I. Would. Never. Let them hurt Fish. I'm on your side. I promise."
Nomi broke the blade lock and lunged for another human. Mikansia blocked again and knocked Nomi to the ground. Nomi made as if to stand, but after taking a look at Mikansia towering form she stayed down.
"You've some nerve, coming back here!" Ember, Dale's widow, had come out from hiding behind Fish. She walked right up to Mikansia, eyes filled with a cold fury, lip trembling from facing down possibly the best swordsman on the planet.
"This is not a good time, Ember." Mikansia growled. Ember seemed unfazed.
The mob began to stir, still mindful of that sword. Yelling at the crowd Mikansia began flashing her rainbow blade back and forth. The mob couldn't help but follow it. "This is not the dragon who was attacking your city! He was defending you! Leave him alone! Decima was helping him because he was injured defending you!!"
The crowd muttered, backing up. "Decima" was now rippling through the crowd, ending in "I know where she lives! Let's burn her house!" The ground shook as the mob hurried away.
Ember, seeing that the imminent threat had passed, slapped Mikansia, who didn't flinch. "LEAVE. NOW."
"Ember!" yelled Decima as she grabbed her daughter-in-law.
"You came back! Dale didn't! Why did you even bother to come back without him??"
Mikansia walked up to the sixteen year old widow. "I don't have time for this. And neither do you. They're going to burn your house down and I left someone there."
"I-"
"Ember, shut up." Decima pushed past Ember to stand next to Mikansia. "Stah here with Nomi, Simone, and Fish. Turning to Mikansia Decima nodded. "Cut your way home, please. I have a few things to get too."
When Decima saw Makirta she took a deep breath and whistled. "She was in the Keep?" Mikansia nodded. "Who is she?"
"My mother." Decima stared. "Makirta, my mother," reiterated Mikansia.
"I thought she'd died."
"So did I."
"Oh my goodness," Decima's mask of calm dropped. She looked years and years older as she stared at Makirta's unconscious form.
As they came back Ember's eyes narrowed in rage. "Uh uh. You don't get someone. Not after this. Not after Dale."
Mikansia froze Ember in place with a glare. "If you knew the half of what's happened to me you wouldn't have said that." The hatred in Ember's eyes didn't die. But she did back down.
Nomi hadn't stopped snuggling Fish since Mikansia had left. Mikansia walked up to her. "Are you and Fish alright?"
Nomi stood up and squared up with Mikansia. "They threatened Fish. Now we have to move him and we wouldn't have if you would have helped me kill all of them! Like you should have!"
Mikansia snorted in disgust. "We wouldn't have had to move him if you hadn't have flown off the handle in the first place! We couldn't have killed them all. Our best chance-"
An arrow entered Nomi's gut. She fell with a thud. the crowd had returned, this time with bows. Mikansia cut a portal under fish and Nomi, herding Decima, Ember, and Simone down into it. Dale and Ensio were waiting in Dream. Decima flew into Ensio's arms, crying with happiness. Simone laughed and giggled as her father Dale wrapped her in a fierce hug. But Ember stood back, away from her family. Dale tried to come near Ember. "Don't touch me!" snapped Ember, backing away. "You wont' be here the next few decades! It may be 'tomorrow' when you see me against but who's going to help me raise Simone?? Certainly. Not. You." If the dead could ever look hurt Dale did, right then. Ember stormed off.
"Daddy, what's wrong with Mommy?"
Dale took a deep breath. "She's hurting. People sometimes act out of anger when they're hurting."
"Oh."
"Promise me you'll take care of her?"
Simone wrinkled her nose. "Even when she's hurting." That was a statement, not a question.
"Especially then."
Simone nodded.
Ember had sat under a nearby tree, watching Dale and Simone with a curious expression. Dale had nodded at Mikansia as he snuggled Simone. Mikansia rolled her eyes and sighed, but walked over and checked on Nomi. She was stable, but definitely not happy. Mikansia really didn't want to talk to Ember, but she knew that cold rage all too well. She sat down next to Ember, who did not look over at her. "I know none of this" - indicating Dale and Simone - "Can take away your pain but... but we don't have to rush away if there's something... anything... unspoken. Anything you need to say here..." She looked over at the young woman. This whole thing felt empty; what could anyone say to alleviate Ember's pain? Mikansia sure didn't know.
Ember exploded. "What's the point?? He's going to be gone. By all rights Dale shouldn't be with Simone right now. I've cried myself to sleep every night. Simone has been inconsolable and Dale just comes back for a few minutes?? It's going to start things all over for Simone! And for me!"
"Yes, he will be gone again. And it's not fair. By all rights Dale should be there with Simone, with you, at night." Mikansia's words felt awkward in her mouth, nevermind when she said them. Her voice was choked with sorrow. Mikansia's mind flashed to Jabez, Tyce, Yngvar, Akseli, Ensio... and Dale. None of them had died of natural causes. Or sailed for the Void. The enormity of her left Mikansia hollow. So she looked over at Dale and Simone, who were happily snuggling. "He ran toward that dragon" she said finally, still gazing at Dale; he hardly seemed older than Simone in Mikansia's elven eyes."I've known elves who would not have charged that monstrosity of a dragon that we fought. Not like that. But Dale couldn't have run away, couldn't have left knowing something like that threatened you, or Simone, or the world." Those words sounded so flat to Mikansia. What did it matter that Dale had died with more courage than most humans Mikansia had ever known? Ember was still alone, with a small child preventing her from even mourning the way she should.
Ember's sobs were as loud as they sudden. Dale came running with Simone. Ember shook in his arms, sobbing over, and over, and over, that she wasn't as strong as Dale. Ember just wasn't strong enough. And she knew it.
Mikansia couldn't have felt worse.
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