Epilogue:
Myne’s Smile
THE UNDERGROUND CITY of Grandol was full of structures. I woke up inside one of them.
Ouch! My side hurt. It had to have been where Fate hit me to quiet my Wrath.
One of the dead hovered by my side, watching over me. Perhaps the ghost was someone I’d once known. Try as I might to see their face, the details never came into focus. This was not surprising; the dead led an ephemeral, uncertain existence.
If the Door to Distant Lands opened, the dead would return whether or not they wanted to. Then I could come to know this ghost.
But I no longer wanted to bring back the dead.
“I lost…” I said out loud.
The goal I’d held—the goal that came to form the foundation of my being—had been wiped clean away by Fate. What was I to do now? I didn’t know, and it frightened me. This feeling of trepidation had a tinge of nostalgia, much to my surprise. I’d forgotten that I ever felt like this. It was a feeling I’d given up a long time ago. I’d chosen to live on my own, as an adventurer, a warrior, and yet…now I was scared of being alone.
“It was because of Fate.”
He had said, “What I mean is…we’re in this together!” before he left me here and ran off. I sat for a time, clutching my knees, until huge tremors shook the building.
“An earthquake?”
I went outside and looked up at the ceiling of the underground city. Sections of the rock face were coming loose and falling. Were they still fighting on the surface? The thought of battle reminded me that I didn’t have my black axe, Sloth. I always kept the axe somewhere close, within reach. Usually, I could locate Sloth by feeling for the axe’s energy, but now…I had no idea where the weapon was.
I began to panic, then noticed the ghost from earlier gesture to me.
“What is it?”
I followed the specter and found the black axe stuck in the earth in an alley between buildings.
“Sloth! There you are.”
I picked her up, but even now, she was asleep. Usually, I didn’t mind. A well-slept child is a well-kept child, or so the saying went. But at present, I needed her awake.
“Hey! We don’t have time for a nap!” I said.
I gave the axe a few knocks, and finally Sloth woke with a great yawn. How could she sleep when I’d woken to a situation like this?! Did she want me to unleash my Wrath all over again?!
“Ah…good morning, Myne,” said Sloth. She was still drowsy, her voice relaxed and free of care. “No need to get angry. Are you done?”
“Yes.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
Sloth didn’t feel the need to say or ask anything more than that.
“That’s it?” I asked. “That’s all you have to say?”
“We’ve been together for so long that I can read it all in your face.”
What sort of a face was that?
Seeing the question in my eyes, Sloth spoke. “You look really happy. Like something really good happened. It did, didn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“I haven’t seen you looking so refreshed in a long time.”
Sloth was genuinely glad for me. So much so that it made me happy too.
“It has been a while,” I said.
I went to thank the ghost for their help, but they had already vanished.
“What’s wrong?” asked Sloth.
“No… It’s nothing,” I said, wondering if it was just the whims of the dead at work.
The earthquakes continued without end. I couldn’t sense Fate’s presence here in Grandol.
“He’s on the surface?” I asked.
“Then we have to go.”
I nodded. I had a bad feeling about this place, but right now I wanted to help Fate. We headed up. I had entered Hausen for supplies, so I knew a shortcut. The normal route meant passing through a gate that required holy beast authorization, but if Fate and the others had come through that to get here, the gate might still be open. Still, there was one other route that might be even better than the uncertainty of the gate: the path carved over long years by water flowing from above. It was a naturally formed path, meaning it was narrow and difficult to traverse for most people, but it was no problem for someone of small stature like myself.
“The only problem is you, Sloth. You’re too big.”
“I can’t help it!”
“Then we’ll have to make the path wider.”
“I knew you’d say that.”
With a swing of the axe, the path widened. Even Sloth could pass through now.
“I like shortcuts,” I said.
“Here I was, thinking you might have matured after what you’d gone through. Guess that was wishful thinking.”
“I did this to help us get to the surface faster!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I crawled out from between two great boulders a short distance from Hausen. Pillars of light fell upon the city. I had witnessed such a sight before.
“They’re being attacked from above.”
“Those pillars of light… Are those the Arrows of Indra?!”
“The holy beast Zodiac Aquarius…”
“It couldn’t be anything else. But it’s far too high for us to be able to do anything.”
Sloth and I were frontline fighters, specializing in close-range combat.
“Don’t forget you can’t fly, Myne.”
“I know. Wait, what’s that?”
“It’s quite far away, but there are two large sources of magical energy, and they’re heading for the holy beast.”
“Fate…”
“That’s one of them. As for the other…it’s nothing I’ve ever felt before.”
I looked up at the sky, glowing golden as the pillars of light rained down. Fate was flying straight at them. Somehow, being left to watch as it all unfolded…I felt abandoned. I was also deeply curious about the person who was with him, and these feelings were new to me. I’d never cared about such things before.