When they reached the ferry, Roland came to a sudden, startling realization.
“I… don’t have enough,” he said, checking his wallet, and comparing its contents with the price on the cab’s meter.
“I got it,” Tsubasa said, paying their driver. “Thanks for everything. Keep the change.”
“Thank ye kindly, miss,” the driver said, tipping his hat to her. Roland and company piled out of the cab and hurried towards the ferry terminal, where Tsubasa paid for all of them and they boarded. Roland cast a glance back, but there was no movement on the dock, or beyond it. It seemed they were in the clear — and he finally breathed easy when the ferry’s horn sounded, and the large steamship started out across the channel.
“Thank you,” he said to Tsubasa, standing on the rear deck, hands on the railing, watching the shore grow more and more distant, watching as he grew farther and farther from Ars Moran. And he found himself wondering when it was he would ever return.
He only took a moment longer, then turned away. Together, he and his friends found their seats, on the upper deck, where they had the greatest visibility all around. Not that there was much to see — it was past midnight, and dark waters were all around them. The dim lights of Ars Moran were growing more and more distant behind them, and the faint twinkling of a city on the far shore was barely visible, only the tiniest hint that there even was a shore beyond them.
They were silent, for a while. Erika took out her journal and started to flip through it. Enrique sat beside her, watching the far shore. The twins were between Tsubasa and Muirrach, with Roland beside Muirrach. All of them had so much to think about, so much to process.
“It’s been a heck of a day for these kiddos,” Tsubasa said. Roland looked over to see that they’d fallen asleep, Erika with her head on Enrique’s shoulder. There was a chill in the air, and Tsubasa took off her yellow jacket, draping it across the twins. The white wings emblem on the back seemed a fitting match to the feathered ear ornaments the twins wore. Now Tsubasa had just a cropped, sleeveless top on, but she didn’t shiver, or even wrap her arms around her for warmth, and Roland recalled what she’d said about being from Fuyuo, and the cold hardly bothering her until it was truly freezing.
“Heck of… well, a lot of tough days,” Tsubasa continued, watching the twins. “The things they’ve been through, at their age, and how they’ve held up… they’re amazing. I wasn’t that resilient as a kid, that’s for sure.”
“We need to be here for them, more than ever,” Muirrach said. “They’re on the edge of a breaking point.”
Roland and Tsubasa looked at the twins for a long time, taking in their sleeping faces. After all they’d been through on their journey… and all they’d suddenly had to face in such a short amount of time… Roland was impressed, too. And concerned, for how they’d be able to keep holding up.
That’s why they have us. They spent years alone, after their parents left to protect them. We have to make sure not only that they’re never left physically alone again, but that they never feel alone again.
“You okay?” Tsubasa asked, turning to Roland.
Roland hesitated a moment. It would be so easy to brush things off, but… “No,” he admitted. “It will take some time to process. But… I do take some solace in things not being completely one-sided.”
“What do you mean?” Tsubasa asked.
“Sharla regretted what things had come to,” Roland said. “She did what little she could to help. It… gives me a little bit of hope. That not everything I knew was completely wrong. That it’s not all gone.” He smiled at Tsubasa. “Thank you, again. For covering the cab, and our ferry tickets. I’d meant to visit the bank after the Tower, but, well…”
“Come on, what are friends for?” Tsubasa asked, smiling. “I’ll cover the train to Gardenia, too. You’ve been paying for everything for all of us in Wonderia, and at the café. It’s about time someone took the weight off your shoulders.”
“You should be able to make an international withdrawal once we land,” Muirrach said.
Roland shook his head. “They’ll likely freeze my assets,” he said. “Maybe even raid my room…” He trailed off, then set his elbows on his knees, and rested his head in his hands. “It was never… home. Not really. But it was a life I built, over the course of a decade. Now…” His eyes rested on the bag on the floor between his feet, and he felt the presence of the few items in his pockets. “All I have is what I have with me.”
He felt the gentle, warm touch of Tsubasa’s hand on his back. “That’s not so bad, is it?” she asked. Roland looked up at her smiling face. And he looked past her, at the sleeping twins, and at Muirrach smiling at him, too.
“No,” Roland said, a smile touching his lips. “It’s not so bad, after all.”
And Roland didn’t feel the wind’s chill, anymore. He sat back up, and listened to the steady chugging of the steamer’s engine, to the lapping of the channel’s waves, to the whistle of the wind. He looked up at the stars, and the distant, shining moon.
From one nation to another… but the night sky remains the same. My companions remain by my side. Much is changing, but much yet stays the same.
“Don’t forget us!” Vi sang in his heart, and Roland chuckled.
I could never. Thank you: Kirin, Vi, Shureen, Jurall. You’ve seen my friends and I through many dangers. And you are all welcome presences in my heart. I’m so glad I’ve met you all.
“Well, you don’t have to get so sentimental,” Vi replied. “But… well, we’re grateful to you, too.”
“You’re an excellent Summoner,” Kirin sang. “We’re all glad to be at your service.”
Roland was glad to hear that those two still had high spirits. Having their fantasians turned against them, disrupting their songs, must have been a terribly shocking betrayal. And yet they remained steadfast.
When they reached the opposite side of the channel, the twins remained asleep, comfortable in each other’s warmth and the extra comfort of Tsubasa’s jacket. So when it was time to disembark, Tsubasa lifted Erika onto her back to carry her, while Muirrach easily, and gently, lifted and carried Enrique with his one arm. Roland helped Tsubasa by draping her jacket over the sleeping Erika on her back, and the group disembarked into the Cyril Republic’s sterling metropolis Granthaven.
Or, well, it would be sterling, and truly impressive, during the day. But at four o’ clock in the morning, the towering skyline was mostly dark or at least dim, the many neon lights turned off, the streets largely empty. Roland spotted a few people going for an early morning — or very late night — jog in the grand central park. There was a couple taking their big, fluffy dog for a walk, the humans looking very much like they’d rather be in bed, and the dog looking as happy as could be.
“For ‘The City that Never Sleeps,’ it sure is quiet,” Tsubasa said with a chuckle. “Guess everybody’s gotta sleep eventually.”
They made their way to the train station, which was just a short walk from the ferry terminal. The first train wouldn’t depart until six, so they sat down — Tsubasa and Muirrach settling the sleeping twins in, the pair still not stirring — and waited.
“So… what does come next?” Tsubasa asked.
“Good question,” Roland said. “The Lighthouse was a lie. That was our biggest lead, going forward. We do need to find the twins’ parents — not only do they need to know that they were tricked, but we need to know what they know. They have held too much back.”
“No more secrets,” Tsubasa said firmly. “The kids deserve the truth.”
Roland nodded. “But we don’t know where their parents might be,” he said. “So… we continue the Path of the Eight. That’s the best lead we have. We keep moving forward, towards Elysia.”
“Their parents didn’t know they’d end up traveling with a Summoner,” Muirrach said. “Perhaps we never needed a Lighthouse. But we should keep eyes and ears open for any clues to a real Lighthouse. Just in case.”
Time passed, and more passengers arrived at the station to wait. Eventually, the train blew its horn, and opened its doors, and as passengers began to board, the twins stirred.
“Oh,” Erika said sleepily, looking around. “This… is…” She shook her head, rubbed her eyes, and took a closer look. “Where’d the ferry go?”
“Time for the train,” Tsubasa said cheerily. “You two have a good nap?”
“Oh, gosh, I didn’t realize I was so tired!” Erika said, stretching. And then she noticed Tsubasa’s jacket on her, and hastily held it out to her. “Thank you, very much, but you need to keep warm!”
Tsubasa just laughed. “I’m from Fuyuo, remember?” she asked. “It’s not cold for me until my nostrils freeze shut.”
“Can we board, yet?” Enrique asked. While Erika had been stretching and talking, Enrique had gotten up and was gazing eagerly at the train.
Roland smiled. “Let’s go,” he said.
Tsubasa bought their tickets, and they boarded, finding their way to the midpoint of the train and taking up a cozy compartment. The train cars were quite interesting, with each compartment having a slightly convex outer wall, giving the spacious window a gentle curve, offering a wider field of view than a flat window would have. Enrique and Erika took the seats closest to the window, and both peered out with amazement as the train tooted its horn and started off on its journey. They gasped as they finally caught their first look at Granthaven, and with the sun beginning to rise, they could see the grandeur of the great city, its seemingly endless sprawl all the more impressive when considering the towering density of its concrete jungle.
“I wish we’d gotten to visit,” Erika said.
“You could spend weeks in that city and not see half of all that’s worth seeing,” Tsubasa said. “Granthaven’s an adventure of its own. Maybe we can take a trip after… well, everything.”
“Everything,” Erika said softly. With that, she sat back, staring at her lap. “Where… do we even start? I mean… I know we can continue with you, Roland, to find Elysia. That’s the easiest part… as strange as that sounds.”
“The things we don’t know,” Muirrach said, “and the things we can’t yet understand, are much more challenging than the certain path before us. The most important thing is to not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed. Answers will come, in time, as long as we continue to ask these questions, and have patience.”
“I just… want to understand,” Erika said. “What is Songbird? What really happened in New Elysia that made everyone leave? What happened to Lairah’s mother? What does it mean for us to be keys to Elysia? Why have our parents kept so much from us?”
“We were only three years old when they left the ship behind, and the memory drive,” Enrique said. “And we weren’t even ten years old when they left to keep us safe from Reunion. When they see us again, and how much we’ve grown, I’m sure they’ll explain.”
“Will they?” Erika asked, looking at her brother hopelessly. “I’m realizing now, looking back, and taking in what they left for us — they have so many secrets, don’t they? They always did. Not just from us — from everyone. I know they love us. I know they care about us, and are doing everything they can to keep us safe. But that’s different from telling us everything they know. People with secrets… they don’t give them up easily. Even to people they love.” She looked away, out the window, and Tsubasa laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.
Enrique watched his sister for a while, looking like he was trying to find something to say. But when the words wouldn’t come, he finally looked out the window, too.
Time passed, and the train turned away from Granthaven, speeding along the rolling landscape of the Cyril Republic. It was such a vast, verdant land, and Roland marveled in equal measure at the lush, expansive forests and the long tracts of farmland, stretching on to the horizon. It was amazing how much a difference just having space could make. The Leucen Kingdom was an island nation, mighty despite its size, but the small size had always been something to overcome, not a boon in itself. The Cyril Republic had half of the largest continent in Albia to make use of, and the difference from the land Roland had left behind was striking.
It wasn’t much longer before stomachs started growling, and they made their way to the dining car. There, they settled in for a meal, and while it was very clearly breakfast — waffles and syrup, eggs and sausages, buttered toast, milk, and fresh juices — Roland, Tsubasa, and Muirrach realized something rather interesting.
“Is this dinner for us?” Tsubasa asked. “Lunch?” She pursed her lips in thought, looking up at the train’s ceiling. “We ate at the café, but that was a snack, not a meal. Before that…”
“Breakfast, in Thadheine,” Muirrach said. “We left Wonderia just around lunchtime, but it was already midnight in Albia.”
“No wonder my internal clock’s topsy-turvy,” Tsubasa said, swaying like her head was spinning. “All right, then. Let’s just call this, uh… second breakfast?”
“It’s breakfast for us,” Erika said, happily taking a bite of her waffle. “So why not?”
Breakfast, or lunch, or second breakfast — whatever this meal was, it was most welcome to Roland, after everything. His own internal clock was topsy-turvy, too — he was sure he’d end up crashing long before night fell again, but for now, he felt surprisingly awake and aware.
After their meal, they headed back to their compartment, and there, Erika immediately brought out her journal.
“I finally realized where my thoughts were going when we sat down on the ferry,” she said, flipping slowly, thoughtfully, through the pages. “It’s our quest. Taking the wishes of the world to Elysia… it’s strange, isn’t it?”
“How so?” Roland asked.
“In our parents’ surveillance reports,” Erika said, “Hildegarde asked them if they wanted to go home to Elysia. And they said that they weren’t sure if they deserved to go home. That they should accept the home they’d made in New Elysia. So… if they believed that… why was their mission to bring the wishes of the world to Elysia? That would have been going home, wouldn’t it?”
“It was their quest before it was ours,” Enrique said. “That’s… hmm. That’s a good point. Perhaps their minds changed. Or maybe there’s something more to it.”
“Of course there’s something more to it,” Erika said. “There’s something more to everything, now. So much they didn’t say, wouldn’t say.” She let out a frustrated sigh, then shook her head. “But, no. That’s only part of it. These wishes… look. ‘I wish for my son’s forgiveness.’ ‘I wish for my overseer to see the joy in his job instead of being a frustrated taskmaster.’ ‘I wish for all children in the world to love reading.’ There’s something wrong with this picture, isn’t it?”
“What’s that?” Tsubasa asked.
“These wishes,” Erika said, flipping through the pages. “So many people are wishing for people to change their minds. To forgive them, or to be joyful, or to love reading, or to love them. But… you can’t wish for people to change. That can’t possibly work. People have free will, people make their own choices. You don’t wish for someone to forgive you — you ask for it. And you do your best to show that you’re sorry and you’ve changed. You don’t wish for someone to take joy in their job — you show them what’s joyful about it, and hope that changes their mind, but you can’t make them change their mind. You don’t wish for people to love reading — you demonstrate what’s so lovely and beautiful about reading, and hope it makes a difference. But you can’t just change people’s minds with a wish. People get to make their own choices. If we take all these wishes to Elysia…” She looked up at all of them, and asked in a small voice, “What’s going to happen?”
“I don’t know,” Roland said. “But that’s an excellent observation. When we reach Elysia, before anyone makes any wishes, we should be asking what it means, what’s going to happen. It’s… strange. Over and over the tales tell of Elysia’s ‘wish-granting power,’ and how before the Fracture, the world was in a beautiful, golden age of peace. So you would think the wishes were all good, that the outcome was always good. But…”
“But that doesn’t seem to make sense,” Enrique said. “People would wish for selfish things, or for things that override others’ free will. If those wishes get granted, then that’s… something’s just wrong with that. But if those wishes weren’t granted, people would be resentful. They wouldn’t just accept it. Not everyone would, anyway.”
“Maybe that’s why it all went wrong,” Erika said. “Maybe that’s what led to what we saw in Aîrchal… that horrible war, that awful, loud, vicious battle, with everyone dying… Maybe… Maybe it’s best that Elysia remains sealed away. If there’s a power that can grant any wish, isn’t that terribly dangerous?”
“It’s important to think about the implications, and be cautious,” Muirrach said. “But I would be equally cautious to jump to such extreme conclusions. Remember what we saw in the heart of Aîrchal. The very heart of our world.”
“I know it was broken,” Erika said. “I know it was horribly shattered, and I heard Aîrchal’s song.” Her hand went to her chest, where her feather-shaped crystal rested beneath her shirt. “I can still feel it, like an echo in my heart. But… I don’t know. I guess I’m just so frightened. Uncertainties keep adding on top of each other. The choices our parents have made… the things they left behind… the quest we’re supposed to accomplish for them… what if none of it makes sense? What if it’s all broken, just like our world?”
“Then we fix it,” Enrique said, resolutely. Erika fixed her gaze on his, looked straight into his eyes like she was searching for anything to grasp, to hold onto, to keep her steady as the world gave way beneath her. “The world is broken. We don’t have all the answers, and maybe some of what we believe is broken, too. But we can’t sink into despair. It’ll drown us. The solutions to questions are answers, and to find answers, we have to seek them out. So we keep seeking. To Aula Fantasia. To the Second Quartet. To Elysia itself — maybe not to make any wishes. Maybe just to find out, at the source, what the truth is.”
Erika gazed at him, hanging on every word. Slowly, she closed her journal. “We have to know the truth,” she said softly. She took a deep breath, and let it out. “All these questions… I don’t want to drown in them.”
“We’re all asking the same questions,” Tsubasa said. “So don’t keep them to yourself, okay? Don’t keep the fear to yourself, either. There’s so much — too much — we don’t know. That was true before Loch Reòsair. We just got a whole giant heap of extra questions, harder questions… it’s a lot to take in. But we’re all in the same boat. Together, we’ll keep it afloat. And when we finally find the answers, find the truth — our boat’s gonna take off into the stars.”
Erika finally smiled. “I’m not sure we should be flying in a boat,” she said. “But… thank you. Everyone. I’m sorry I was starting to despair, it’s just —”
“Don’t apologize,” Roland said. “All that you’re feeling is understandable. And you’re not the only one who’s struggling. It’s good to let that out, to express that to people who love and care for you. So thank you, for not holding it inside. Thank you for trusting us with all of it.”
Erika blinked rapidly, then wiped at her eyes. “I’m… really glad that we found all of you,” she said. “Thank you, everyone. I want answers. I need them. But so do all of us. They won’t just come to us, and that’s frustrating, but I don’t want to give up. I can’t. If I do, then everything up to this point has been for nothing. It’s so hard to handle it alone, but… I’m not alone. I have to remember that.”
“And you’re never gonna be alone,” Tsubasa said. She wrapped Erika up in a hug, and Erika eagerly hugged her back. “We’re all about to be a lot less alone, at least for a little while. Just wait until you meet my family. They’re the best!”
“I can’t wait!” Erika said, turning to look out the window. “Are we there yet?”
“Almost!” Tsubasa said.
The sights out the window were evidence to this, with the farmlands vanishing behind them, the terrain transforming into sharply rolling hills, lushly forested but cut through with winding rivers, the waters dramatically cascading in countless miniature waterfalls, sparkling in the morning sun. Where the forests before were made up of towering, leafy trees, here they were shorter, flowering trees, blooming beautifully in an endless variety of colors. Houses came into view, brick buildings along straight lanes. A young city, less than two hundred years old, Roland had glimpsed it during their time in Aîrchal, but now he got to see it in the light, naturally, with actual people populating the streets and the surrounding countryside. In Aîrchal, Gardenia had seemed so… flat. Straight lanes, practically identical houses lined up in neat rows. There were flowering trees, of course, but they’d seemed constructed, placed in a way to offer color without real artistry or beauty.
Gardenia here — not a recreation of a memory or a distortion of the mind — looked natural, the straight lanes a bit winding, not as perfect as they’d seemed in Aîrchal. And there were little cul-de-sacs here and there, and from a distance they could see more of the city, how different districts in the distance had completely different layouts, and architectural styles to their buildings. Their view was briefly cut off by a sudden rush of close trees and swiftly winding rivers, and when it came back, the twins gasped in delight.
A huge apple orchard stretched out beside them, with delicious-looking apples of red, green, and gold hanging from their boughs. Workers were in the fields, tending the trees and picking apples. A great red barn served as the main building of the operation, but there was a colorful play yard for children, and a beekeeping field, and a large, fenced-in paddock with all sorts of animals. A petting zoo, perhaps? Roland couldn’t tell from here, speeding past.
Luckily, the train station was just past the orchard. As it came to a stop, and they disembarked, the twins were immediately asking about visiting the orchard.
“Why not?” Tsubasa asked with a smile. “I’m bringing guests, unannounced. I ought to bring some gifts, too. My whole family loves apples. Let’s go!”
It was a needed balm for Roland’s troubled soul to stand in the sunlight, in a cool breeze, in a new town where no one was hunting them, where there wasn’t the uncertainty of night hiding shadows around every corner. The fragrance of apples and honey wafted on the breeze as they walked to the orchard, and once there he delighted at the twins’ excited gazes and eager enthusiasm as Tsubasa asked them about what apples they wanted, and what other things to buy, like jars of apple butter and honey, and two large jugs of apple cider.
“We gotta leave,” Tsubasa finally said, hurrying over to Roland, easily carrying two very large bags. “These kids are gonna make me buy the whole store at this rate.”
“But everything looks and smells so wonderful,” Enrique said, looking longingly back at the shelves of produce.
“And tastes wonderful,” Erika said, smiling happily as she bit into a caramel apple she’d convinced Tsubasa to buy for her.
“Yup, sure does,” Tsubasa said. “We’re leaving.”
The twins, to their credit, didn’t put up any more fuss. They followed Tsubasa out and onto the street, and started walking rather than hailing a cab.
“Do you live close by?” Erika asked.
“Close enough,” Tsubasa said. “It’s a nice day for a walk. And it’s a beautiful city, isn’t it?” She smiled, bobbing her head side-to-side, humming softly.
“You haven’t been back for a long time, have you?” Roland asked, coming alongside her.
“Now who’s the detective?” Tsubasa asked, giving him a sly sidelong glance. “What gave it away?”
“Taking your time to go home,” Roland said. “Picking up gifts to bring beforehand — and buying an awful lot, to boot.”
“That was the twins’ fault, I told you!” Tsubasa said.
“Don’t blame us!” Erika said. “You’re the adult. You should know better than to succumb to peer pressure.”
“Ouch,” Tsubasa said. And then she let out a sigh. “Yeah, it’s been a while. Over a year. I’ve kept in touch, of course. But… yeah. It’s been a long time.”
“Then they’ll be super happy to see you,” Erika said.
“Yeah,” Tsubasa said. But her smile had some complicated emotions underneath it.
A ways down the lane, they turned a corner, and Roland immediately recognized her house from Aîrchal. There was the hill, topped with a wisteria tree in full bloom, and sprawling before it, a large, single-story house with a Kisetsugo architectural style that stood out from the brick houses in most of the city. Though, Roland realized, there were many houses in that style along this street and down neighboring lanes, mixed in with the brick houses in a way that looked completely natural — like the city would be incomplete without these very different homes living right alongside each other.
Whatever misgivings or hesitation Tsubasa might have had, they vanished now that she was at her front door. She walked right up, a bit of a spring in her step, shifted both bags to one hand, and slid open the door. In a bright, clear voice, she called out, “I’m home!”
“Tsubasa?” asked an old woman’s voice — old, but not frail, with a pronounced Kisetsuryuu-En accent. An elderly lady, short and small but carrying herself with confident poise, came down the hall. When her eyes rested on Tsubasa, she beamed at her, and spoke a welcome in Kisetsugo.
Tsubasa responded in kind, set her bags on the floor, kicked off her shoes, and rushed to the old woman. “Granny!” she said, wrapping the tiny woman in a big hug. The woman laughed, hugging Tsubasa back.
“Well, well,” came an old man’s voice, also with a pronounced Kisetsuryuu-En accent. “I’ve missed your cheerful voice.”
“Grand-da!” Tsubasa cried, and she hugged the old man, who was also quite small, but had the same steady, strong poise as the old woman.
Tsubasa’s grandparents happily greeted her, but when Tsubasa drew their attention to her guests, their eyebrows lifted — and their surprised gazes rested on the twins.
Tsubasa’s grandfather made a soft intonation in his native tongue, and then followed with, “This is quite the unexpected twist of fate.”
“What is it, Grand-da?” Tsubasa asked.
Her grandfather knelt before the twins. “If I’m not mistaken,” he said, “you two must be Alfred and Isadora’s children.”
Erika and Enrique’s eyes went wide. “You know our parents?” they asked.
“We met them, not very long ago,” Tsubasa’s grandfather said. “Please, do come in. We have much to talk about.”