“Are you sure you’re okay here?” Delilah asked. She sat on a chair across from Caleb, watching him closely.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Caleb said, chuckling and waving her off. He gestured to his left and right, at Chelsea and Addie. “I’ve got these two looking after me. You’ve got important stuff to do, right? Don’t let me hold you back.”
“Yeah, but —” Delilah started, but stopped when Chelsea elbowed Caleb in the ribs, glaring at him. He couldn’t see the glare, of course, what with his eyes squeezed shut, but it seemed like he knew it was there all the same.
“Stop acting okay when you’re not,” Chelsea said. “Remember your other and his stupid mask? Don’t be like that. We’re not gonna judge you if you break down in tears.”
“I’m not gonna cry,” Caleb muttered, bowing his head and letting out a sigh. “I just… I don’t want you guys to worry.”
“Too late for that,” Chelsea said, shrugging. Addie nodded, matching her posture.
“If you need something, just let me know,” Delilah said.
“She is a Paladin, after all,” said Alice, throwing an arm over Delilah’s shoulders, grinning. “Basically one of the most important people in the universe. You should be grateful that she’s willing to help you.” Delilah wilted under the over-praise, but it got a laugh out of Caleb.
“That’s why I want you guys to focus on your own mission,” he said. “If you figure it all out and turn the Key of the World, then the Endless Night is stopped, right? Don’t let me hold you back.”
Delilah almost just went with it, but then, she changed her mind. She leaned forward, resting her hand on Caleb’s knee so he knew where she was. “You’re my brother,” she said, staring at him. “And I’m your sister. Don’t ever believe that me helping you is a burden, or holding me back.”
Caleb seemed taken aback, and then he smiled, and Delilah’s heart warmed at that smile. It was truly, deeply genuine.
I never realized just how many of his smiles were a mask, back then. He really was hiding so much.
“Thanks,” Caleb said. “I think I’m in good hands. But if I need you, I won’t hesitate to call for you.”
“Good,” Delilah said. She stood, and together with Alice departed.
“Kinda weird to leave him in the middle of a ton of books, isn’t it?” Alice asked as they walked up the stairs of the hub room, leaving Caleb down in the large study area in the center.
“He’s not blind,” Delilah said.
“He kinda is, temporarily,” Alice said.
Delilah bristled. “Temporarily,” she stressed.
Alice glanced at her with white eyes, then nodded. “Right.” A pitter-patter of footsteps caught their attention, and both turned to see…
“Addie?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. “What’re you doing, running after us? You’ve got someone you’re supposed to look after.”
“You didn’t even say hi!” Addie said, catching her breath as she pouted at Alice. “Even after Delilah gave her little speech about being a sister, you ignored your own!”
“I thought you were busy,” Alice said with a shrug. “Besides —”
“She’s had a lot on her mind,” Delilah said, cutting Alice off, and shooting a meaningful look her way. “She didn’t mean to ignore you.”
Addie stared for a moment, her pout fading. “Oh,” she said, then bowed her head. “Sorry. I… I know you’ve been doing lots of important stuff. Um…” She fidgeted, then looked at Alice. “So, I know I’m basically the same age as you because of Duo, but technically, I am your big sister. I just wanted to say… I mean… if you’re hurt, or troubled, or anything… you can tell me. Okay?” She spread her arms out wide. “And I’ll give you a hug! Hugs are great! And I’m really good at them!”
Alice snorted, but held back further mockery at Delilah’s swift glare. “Uh, wow,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck. “I, uh… thanks.” She bowed her head, and finally seemed to seriously consider what Addie had said. “I’m not all about hugs, so even if you’re good at them, I’ll probably —”
She stopped as Addie stuck her hand out. “A handshake, at least?” Addie asked, eyes full of hope.
Alice stared at her sister’s face, and then her hand. Slowly, she reached out, and clasped Addie’s hand. “Your hands are small,” she said softly, as if to herself. There was a wistful tone to her voice, the kind of voice Delilah rarely heard from her.
“It’s not like it’s my fault!” Addie said, taking Alice’s comment entirely the wrong way. “Besides, being little is —”
And she shut right up as Alice pulled her into a tight hug. Delilah couldn’t see Alice’s face now, but she saw Addie’s, and she was wide-eyed and speechless with shock. A few moments later, Alice let her go and stepped back.
“Thanks,” Alice said. “I’m gonna go now. Lots to do. But I’ll try and find you to say goodbye before we leave. Okay?”
Addie took several moments, staring, thinking. Then, slowly, she nodded. “Uh-huh,” she said. Then, after a moment’s consideration, her face lit up. “You’d better!” she said, grinning.
Alice rolled her eyes. “I said I would,” she said, turning away and waving over her shoulder. “Take good care of him, okay?”
“You bet I will!” Addie shouted, beaming.
Alice remained silent, and Delilah didn’t press, until they’d left that hub room, walked a very long corridor, and come out in another hub room.
“Thanks,” Alice said, nudging Delilah.
“For what?” Delilah asked.
Alice frowned at her, her white eyes flicking to black. “You gonna make me say it?” she asked.
Delilah stared back at her, saying nothing. After a few moments, Alice looked away with a sigh. “You really called me out back there,” she said. “With your eyes more than anything, too. And you covered for me at the same time. I…” Another sigh, and she looked up at the high ceiling. “I have no freaking clue how to be a sister.”
“It’s different for everyone,” Delilah said.
“Yeah, but —” Alice started, earnest, and then seemed to catch herself. She looked away, fidgeting slightly, like she was struggling with something. “I…” she started slowly, “I picked you as a sister. Because… I thought that… if I was gonna be a sister to Addie, I’d want to be the kind of sister you are.”
Delilah stared at her, shocked. It took her a few moments to respond, but when she opened her mouth, Alice pressed a finger against her lips. “Just hold those thoughts for a sec, okay?” Alice asked. “I… before you showed up at the White Whale, and we first met… Addie and I weren’t really sisters. There was a brief time, before Blaise found us, when we kinda were. And then I killed our parents, rescued her from that nightmare, only to end up in a different one. I was Blaise’s caged monster. And Addie wasn’t Addie, she was Duo, trapped in a prison of Kaohlad’s creation. But then Caleb pulled Addie out of that, and you… you pulled me out of… just screwing around, playing with people’s lives, not caring about anything. But all of a sudden, there was Addie — my sister. After all this time. But she’s, like, the same age as me, you know? Except that she acts way younger, or I guess I act old for my age, I dunno. It feels like I’m suddenly the big sister. And then there’s you, with us, and you… you made a big impression right away. I don’t… know if you realized that.”
Delilah hadn’t realized that. She’d been astonished back then, when Addie had said, “You’re like a big sister,” and astonished again not long after that, when Alice had asked her, in a moment of crisis and desperation, if Delilah would be her sister.
“I didn’t just reach out to you because you happened to be there,” Alice said. “I had my own biological sister right there with me. If I just needed anybody to be a sister just for the title, I would’ve just asked her to take it seriously. I… I needed you. I needed someone like you. And there’s no one like you but… oh, forget it, that’s way too embarrassing to say.” She turned around, not looking at Delilah.
Delilah was kind of glad Alice had left it unsaid. Because she was blushing at the unspoken praise. And her heart was overflowing.
I never realized just how highly she thought of me. And that she…
That she needed me.
“You’re all full of hope,” Alice said. “And you just charge after any challenge, you don’t run away from danger, even when it’s way bigger than you. You’re, what, four years older than me? But we’re the same height. It’s just… seeing somebody small but brave, and hopeful, and just… just good… I’d seen stupid, saccharine idealists before, I’d seen would-be heroes before. They were all so shallow. And then you come along, and all of a sudden, it’s real, and it’s deep, and I can’t… I can’t make fun of it. And I can’t ignore it. All of a sudden, I… I wanted to believe that I could be a hero, too. I guess… that’s just the kind of sister you are. That’s what… that’s what it really means to be a sister. That’s… who I’d like to be for Addie, if I could figure out how.”
“I’m not all that you’re making me out to be,” Delilah said, and when Alice wheeled around, opened her mouth to reply, she was met with Delilah’s finger against her lips. “Just hold those thoughts for a sec, okay?” she asked. Alice smirked at that, and Delilah lowered her finger. “I… I was pretty much a loner in a lot of ways. I still kind of am. I try to do everything myself, I try to carry everything and everyone else’s burdens by myself. I work really hard, but only alone, and I never spent enough time with my siblings. Shana and I played a lot, and we just naturally got along. It’s always easy with her, she’ll get along with anybody. But Fae… when she was even just a little bit prickly, a little bit standoffish, I rejected her. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to just… just slap her right across the face. I tried to disown her, in my own way, as much as a little sister can disown her big sister. All because she was dealing with a lot of stuff, and I couldn’t see past how frustrating she was to me. I didn’t even try to understand who she was or why she was acting the way she was. I wrote her off without even making the slightest effort. I know I’ve done some… amazing…” she hesitated over the word, because it was always embarrassing for her to compliment herself, “things. But most of that has only been since I met you. And you’ve pushed me in a lot of good ways, too. When you asked me to be your sister… it took me a while to answer. Because I… I didn’t know if I could. But I think you asking me that, because you needed me… it helped me to realize that I needed you, too.” She smiled at Alice, meeting her eyes, even though she felt tremendously embarrassed to bear her heart so. “You made me want to be the best sister I can be. That moment changed me forever.”
Alice was speechless for several moments, her white eyes seeming whiter thanks to the white-and-silver construction of the Library of Solitude. Then, with a soft, honest chuckle, she bowed her head. “Guess I’m not such a useless sister after all, huh?” she asked.
“Nope,” Delilah said. She started walking, holding out her hand. “Ready to rejoin the others?”
Alice grinned, taking Delilah’s hand. “Let’s go,” she said.
Maribelle, Marcus, Sarabelle, and Terevalde were waiting for them in the inner gardens, a ring of gardens surrounding the Library of Solitude’s central tower. But before Terevalde could show them where he’d hidden the missing page from the Book of the Key…
“Where’s Isabelle?” Delilah asked, looking around.
“She wanted to spend some time with Caleb, Chelsea, Gwen, and Lorelei,” Maribelle said, smiling. “But she said to make sure we don’t leave the Library without her.”
“She’s gonna miss something cool,” Alice said, rolling her eyes. “Oh, well. So? Where’s the page?”
“Through here,” Terevalde said. He led them from the stone courtyard down a side path flanked by tall hedges. After a few turns that wound back and forth, Delilah realized they’d walked into a hedge maze… without her ever realizing one was there from the outside.
“There are three ‘gates’ that the casual observer will never notice,” Terevalde said, pausing at what looked like a dead-end. “The previous Prime Paladin taught me their secrets.” He drew with his finger a strange pattern, quick and hard to follow, over the hedge wall. When complete, the pattern he’d drawn suddenly flashed once with white light as a complex glyph, then faded.
The hedge wall vanished.
“Hurry through, before the gate closes,” Terevalde said. They all followed him through, and just as Delilah and Alice stepped through last, the hedge wall reappeared behind them.
“I didn’t even know such gates existed,” Maribelle said, tentatively drawing the same glyph in the air with her finger. “Fascinating. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wandered this maze, and its greatest secret was right in front of me the entire time.”
“You’re not the only one,” Sarabelle said, smiling. “We used to try and map out this maze, remember?”
“Oh, yes,” Maribelle said. “And all we ever managed was to keep getting lost.”
“And we’re still in a maze,” Alice said, looking around at the dense foliage. “Even though we got through the secret gate.”
“There are two more gates,” Terevalde said, a hint of a smile in his voice, though he didn’t bear one on his face. He started ahead, and the others followed.
Even though they’d passed through one of the hidden gates, the path to the next was far from straightforward. There were twists and turns aplenty, and numerous other paths that they could have strayed onto if Terevalde wasn’t leading them.
“It’s been a really long time, right?” Alice asked. “What if things have changed?”
“They haven’t,” Terevalde said, gently brushing his hand against the leaves of a hedge wall as he turned a corner. “I wondered if they might, but all is as it was so long ago.”
“Nothing changes here,” Maribelle said, and there were conflicted emotions in her voice — conflicted emotions that Sarabelle shared in her expression. “Sometimes the people who tend to the Library changes, but even though it has been infested with Darkness and then purged of it, after a brief period of restoration, it has returned to just the same as it always was.”
“A ‘brief’ period of restoration, huh?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. “How come Revue Palace takes forever, then?”
“They are two different Bastions,” Maribelle said with a chuckle.
“And I’m pretty sure Revue wants us to put in the work, rather than just magically restore it herself in one go,” Delilah said, smiling as Alice groaned.
“Is that the second gate?” Marcus asked as they turned another corner.
“You’ve caught onto it quickly,” Terevalde said, nodding. He stopped in the middle of a passage, turning to the wall on the left. There, he drew another complex glyph, and only after he’d finished tracing with his finger did the symbol flash once with light, then vanish, taking a portion of the hedge wall with it. The group moved through, and the gate shut behind them.
“I can see the gates when we’re close to them,” Marcus said, following after Terevalde. “But finding the way to them is another story entirely. This is quite the complex labyrinth.”
“How do you see them?” Delilah asked. “Is it something we might be able to notice?”
“Or is it a gramps thing?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow.
Marcus chuckled. “It may just be me,” he said, casting a glance at Maribelle and Sarabelle. “Have you figured it out?”
“I think so,” Maribelle said. “But it might be something that most Humans cannot see. It’s faint even to Enchanted eyes. A sort of thin, gleaming line… like a thread, almost, and even then is sometimes invisible.”
“I saw the same thread,” Sarabelle said, nodding.
“That is what I see as well,” Marcus said. “Perhaps it would be invisible to Human eyes.”
“What do you guys have against Humans, huh?” Alice asked.
“Enchanted see the world differently,” Maribelle said. “We are born in magic, raised in it, surrounded by it, and it flows through us. We can see it in ways that Humans cannot.”
“Well, gramps isn’t an Enchanted,” Alice pointed out.
“My people have a similar deeper connection to magic, though,” Marcus said. “We are not so different from Enchanted.”
“Great,” Alice said, rolling her eyes. “Well, whatever. I’m gonna keep an eye out for that thread. Delilah, you too. We’ll see it. We’ve gotta see it.”
Delilah smiled, suppressing a laugh. “I’m on it,” she said. And she meant it. She was hoping she’d be able to see it, too.
Neither of the girls saw the thread before they arrived at the third and final gate. But as they stared long and hard at it while Terevalde drew the glyph…
“Ah!” Alice cried out, pointing just as Terevalde finished and the glyph flashed with light. “I think I saw it! Just barely, just before you finished!”
“I did, too,” Delilah said, gazing in wonderment. She couldn’t see it now, and then the hedge disappeared, ending her chances of another look, but even so…
I saw it. I know I did.
It was such a small thing, but it felt like an amazing accomplishment. Marcus and Maribelle complimented them as they all passed through the third gate.
They left the hedge maze behind. They left the sky behind, too — over them was a ceiling of stone, and before them a stone corridor, leading to a small circular chamber. In that chamber was a trio of bookshelves arranged in the center against each other to form a triangle. Terevalde switched a few books around on one shelf, then the next, then the third. Once he’d finished reorganizing the books, he tapped twice on the side of the third shelf, and a soft click sounded.
A panel had opened, one that even Terevalde could barely see, at the top of the shelf. From it…
He removed the page. Like the others in the Book of the Key, it was really more of a wooden tablet, with holes opened on the edge where the bindings could be threaded through so it could join its fellow pages.
“It would be best to read this one in the context of the others,” Terevalde said, “since you have the page that precedes it.” He held the page for a moment, just gazing at it with a reverent look in his eyes. Slowly, he nodded. “Yes. This is the right path to take.”
“What do you mean?” Delilah asked.
“I… was hesitant,” Terevalde said, meeting her gaze with an honest look. “Even though you are the Keybearer, even though the Key of the World trusts you… well, I am alone. And it has been a very long time. Without the Author, and with the memories of the Tragedy still holding their bitter sting… I worried that, perhaps, aiding you may not be the right course of action. But my hesitation is gone, now.” He held out the page to Delilah. “Thank you for finding me at the end of the world. Let us go together to put one more piece in with the others.”
Delilah smiled, gratefully taking the page. “Thank you,” she said, then motioning for him to lead the way. He did so, and together they followed Terevalde, as he guided them back to and through the hedge maze.
All the while, Delilah resisted reading the page, and hid it from Alice’s prying eyes.
She trusted Terevalde. She could wait until she had the proper context to fully understand.
And it wouldn’t take too long. Until then, along this walk, she could enjoy the excited beating of her heart, knowing that she was one step closer to her goal.
——
“And in the end,” Addie said, slowly, tracing her finger along the page, “the… hierophant?” She looked up at Chelsea.
Chelsea nodded, flashing a grin. “Nice one, kiddo,” she said. “That’s right. Keep going.”
Addie’s smile in response lit up Chelsea’s heart, and she watched with excitement as Addie finished that sentence and moved onto the next.
Addie had gone searching for books on bladed weaponry, continuing off of the conversation she’d had with Mister Midnight on the train. Yet for some reason, she’d decided to choose a hefty, complicated historical tome rather than something more clear and instructional. But helping her now and then, and marveling at how well the girl could read at her age, was something Chelsea had never realized would be so special.
And then she thought back to Grimoire. To Caleb proposing to her, and then, the promise that had followed — a promise the pair had made to Addie.
She’s… going to be our…
And Chelsea’s heart glowed. All of a sudden, she remembered reading alongside her mother in a very similar way, though quite a few years younger than Addie at the time. How she’d excitedly pick out the hardest book she could find, and slowly trace her finger along the page, checking with her mother whenever she tried pronouncing a difficult word…
Now I’m in the opposite position.
Did your heart sing like this, mother?
And she looked up, at Caleb, who listened with the gentlest, proudest smile on his face.
If it had just been the three of them like this, it would have been enough. It would have been perfect.
But it was even better than that. Because close by, Will was writing on his laptop, Trevain perched on his shoulder. The firrin Summon dozed softly, his glow giving Will’s platinum-blonde hair a dark purple tint. Not too far from him were Lorelei and Gwen, reading and chatting. They seemed to be trading notes, studying the same subjects from two different perspectives.
And next to Caleb, her head against his arm, her apple-red hair spilling down over her shoulders, was Isabelle.
Isabelle was fast asleep.
She’d initially left with her sisters, Marcus, and the man named Terevalde. But she’d come running back not long after Delilah and Alice left, all full of energy and emotion.
Because, as she’d pointed out, “It’s like a reunion!”
Caleb, Chelsea, Lorelei, Isabelle, and Gwen. If Delilah had stuck around just a little bit longer, all would have been present.
Everyone who had helped Isabelle get back home. Everyone who had defended her, who had promised to help her, who had seen the journey through.
She’d been so excited to talk with everyone again, and had been a wild bundle of energy at first. But she’d clearly been through quite a lot, and soon wore herself out. She settled in with Caleb, and swiftly fell asleep.
Thinking back to those early days left a bit of a sting for Chelsea. She’d doubted and been harshly suspicious of Isabelle when they’d first met. But now…
Now, I can’t imagine what I’d do without her. She’s such a ray of sunshine, such a wonderful, marvelous girl.
Here was Chelsea, surrounded by the people she loved most.
What could be better?
That was something she’d slowly begun to learn, to realize. Back then, at the start of the journey, her heart had been so full, so heavy, with anger, rage, vengeance, hatred. It was a fire, a fire she’d thought was power, thought was strength, but it was a fire that had been burning her from the inside.
She’d learned something valuable in the walls of the Library — that she needed to let it go. One tiny piece at a time.
But there had been a fear that accompanied that. If she let go of what filled her heart, what would be left? How could she go on if her heart was emptied? She was a Fire Mage. Like her mother, like her grandmother. How could she just let go of the fire inside her heart?
But slowly, over time, without her even noticing…
Things hadn’t gone at all like she’d feared.
She had emptied her heart, in a way. But it had swiftly been filled, filled to bursting.
All the anger, all the hate… that self-consuming fire…
Had been replaced by a new fire. A fire that warmed her, that strengthened her, that worked with her and flowed through her — in harmony with her, not consuming her.
That new fire was born of love.
Love that was Chelsea’s, that reminded her of her mother’s — gentle and kind, but also fierce and powerful. Love to care for, to cherish, to comfort. But also love to defend, to protect, all that she held dear.
Love was so powerful. And it was a far better thing to have filling her heart than what had filled it before. Fire flowed through her veins, had always flowed through her veins. She just finally had the right fire filling her.
She couldn’t help but cast a look Gwen’s way, and Gwen looked up, her golden eyes meeting Chelsea’s.
And they both knew. Neither needed to say a word.
Gwen had learned the same lesson. She’d undergone the same transformation.
“Hey,” Addie said softly, leaning back into Chelsea, gazing up at her with her blue and green eyes. “What’s this word? I can’t figure it out.”
Chelsea smiled as she read it. “Heterochromia,” she said.
“Heterochromia…” Addie said, sounding it out carefully. “What’s it mean?”
“It means you, silly,” Chelsea said, ruffling Addie’s hair, which was also in two different tones — pink-white on one side, purple on the other. “It means multiple different colors. Usually it’s used to describe people with eyes that are different colors.”
“Oh!” Addie said, her face lighting up. She giggled, leaning back into Chelsea. “Heterochromia. It’s kind of a funny word, but if it’s me, then I like it.”
“I never knew it, either,” Caleb said. “It’s nice.”
“You should know it,” chimed in Will, casting a meaningful glance Caleb’s way. “It’s used to describe Ion in Book Four.”
Caleb winced at that, and Chelsea didn’t try to defend or comfort him — she just sighed. Caleb had only ever read Will’s first book, and that had been published five years ago. He was way behind in reading his “best friend’s” passion projects.
“Guess what you’re doing once you get new glasses?” Chelsea asked sweetly.
“Yeah,” Caleb said, with proper chagrin. Chelsea laughed.
Isabelle stirred, rubbing her eyes. “Is it morning already?” she asked.
“It hasn’t even been night yet,” Addie said. “Did you get enough sleep?”
“For now, I think,” Isabelle said, smiling. She looked around. “Oh, good. Everyone’s still here.”
“We’re not going much of anywhere until Mister Midnight comes back,” Chelsea reminded her. “You’ll probably leave before we do.”
“Since our research was a bust,” Caleb said with a sigh.
It was true. They’d all — aside from Caleb — started off asking questions of the few librarians around, and seeking out every book they could find with even the slightest possible connection to the mysterious Ophelia.
And they’d come up entirely empty-handed.
Merric didn’t know. Marcus didn’t know. Maribelle and Sarabelle had no clue. Even Terevalde, who’d stuck around with them for a little while, hadn’t heard the name.
When they finally accepted that they wouldn’t get anywhere here, they’d settled into doing whatever they wanted. Lorelei and Gwen read, Will opened up his laptop and got to writing, and Addie practiced her reading with Chelsea’s help, while Caleb listened, and Isabelle took a nap.
“Where can you go to find out now, though?” Isabelle asked. “I always thought we had every book on everything.”
“Maybe the truth about Ophelia isn’t in a book,” Chelsea said, not hiding her frustration.
“Everything is in a book somewhere!” Isabelle said, with the kind of confidence only a child could have. “It just means either Mommy hid it somewhere or we don’t… have it here.” She seemed tremendously sad about the prospect of the latter being true.
“Maybe Millennium Vista?” Lorelei asked. “Their libraries are huge, but also far more specific, right?”
“Right,” Gwen said, nodding. “I’m not sure which one we should look in, though. We’d need to know more about Ophelia to begin with before we have a clue of where to look. Because there isn’t just Millennium Vista, but Starlight Academy, as well, in Starlight Spires. Their archives are vast and full of more esoteric tomes and writings. There’s the Mourner’s Collection in the City of Anguish, and there’s Eventide Archive… there are so many places we could ask for information, but trying to go to all of them and ask everyone is a monumental task.”
“And we really want to go back to Grimoire from here,” Chelsea said.
Caleb nodded. “Once I can use my eyes again, I can finally finish my list of Time Magic places,” he said, letting out a sigh. “I never thought it would take this long. I’m —”
“If you apologize, I’m gonna slap you,” Chelsea said. “You’ve already apologized for what happened with Nyx. It’s passed. Let’s move forward.”
“Oh!” Isabelle said suddenly, looking up, past Chelsea. And before Chelsea could turn around…
“If you’re going back to Grimoire, then we’d like to join you.”
The voice was vaguely familiar, but it wasn’t until she turned around that Chelsea recognized the speaker: Hestia, formerly of the Radiant King’s Royal Guards. She’d been the catalyst to help Shana and her team rescue Annabelle from the Radiant King, and had then turned against the Radiance alongside four other Royal Guards, two of whom were with her: Artemis and Galahad.
And also with them…
Was the former Gold Knight, and Artemis’ sister, Athena.
“Everything okay with you guys?” Chelsea asked, not hiding her caution.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Hestia said, bowing her head. “But…”
“I have accepted my Ki— Leon’s fate,” Athena said, a deep sadness in her eyes. “And I have accepted my complicity in his actions. I… I wish to help Hestia and my sister in whatever way I can.”
“We all do,” Artemis said. There was a defensiveness in her tone and posture, the sort of defensiveness that Chelsea recognized as unique to siblings.
“And to conveniently ignore my presence, I see,” Galahad said, raising an eyebrow.
“What?” Artemis asked, casting a sharp glare Galahad’s way. “Oh, I didn’t notice you there. Why are you here, again?”
“Your words cut deeper than your arrows!” Galahad said, a hand to his heart. “Fair Artemis, have you already forgotten our shared pact when we turned away from the Radiant King? Or how we fought side-by-side in defense of Grimoire? Or —”
“Pipe down, prima uomo,” Artemis said, shaking her head. “Always so dramatic.” She turned her attention away from Galahad and to Chelsea and the others. “Anyway, it’s like Hestia said. We’d like to go to Grimoire. With you, if it’s convenient, though we can always go on our own. There are things we want to check with Octavian and Desmé.”
“Please, don’t be afraid of Athena,” Hestia said, ever the mediator. “She was never truly an enemy. And while she served briefly under Leon’s Contract as the Gold Knight, she’s recovered — mostly — from that. She wishes to help, just like we do.”
“I have no quarrel with you, nor with the current Dreamer,” Athena said with a weary voice. “What’s done is done. Leon… is gone. He was gone long before any of us knew it. It’s like you said — we need to try and move forward. To learn from the past, not be ruled by it.”
“Why not?” Caleb asked, shrugging. “If you don’t mind waiting for Mister Midnight to come back. We don’t know exactly when that’ll be, but it might be more convenient for all of us to travel together, if we’re going to the same place.”
“Thank you!” Hestia said, and her soft face lit up with such an honest, earnest smile that Chelsea struggled to maintain her suspicions. “There isn’t a train departing here for Grimoire for quite some time, so it’s likely that Mister Midnight — if he’s willing to allow us — and the Goodnight Express will be the soonest, and most direct, path there.”
“We could find our own way, but a train would be preferable,” Artemis said. She turned away. “Well, we just wanted to ask. We’ll —”
“You don’t need to leave,” Gwen said. Her voice was slightly taut, but she seemed mostly calm. “I… I have more reason to quarrel with you than even Mister Midnight. But the Radiance is no more, and the Radiant King is gone. And you — except for Athena — helped us fight against him. Athena, if you are truly repentant, then I see no need for us to keep our distance from each other. If… if you aren’t too uncomfortable with it… you could wait here with us.”
“Truly?” Hestia asked, but then looked away, turning to her companions, realizing that they might have objections that she didn’t share.
“Gracious of you,” Artemis said, eyeing Gwen with her intense green eyes. Then, she took a step forward, and knelt, bowing. “Thank you. On behalf of my sister, and… for all our sakes. Nothing… nothing can truly make up for the evils we did for Leon. But… I promise you, every ounce of forgiveness is a gift more precious to us than any other. Thank you.”
Slowly, silently, Athena knelt and bowed beside her sister. She was clearly tired, clearly not yet physically recovered from the effects her brief tenure as the Gold Knight had had upon her. And then she murmured, in a small, grateful voice, “Thank you, Gwen.”
It was a small thing. Gwen, clearly, still had yet to fully forgive those who had destroyed her city, her home, and her parents. And who could blame her?
But she was starting to.
People change.
Tears stung Chelsea’s eyes at that simple truth. Grateful tears.
There was a lot of old pain in this room, she realized. A lot of old wounds. Horrible things that people had done, and people who had had horrible things inflicted upon them.
But change was in the air — had been, for a long time.
For all of them.