Epilogue: Remember The Hero

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Merry voices spilled out of a crowded tavern in Aberdeen, the warm light leaking into the street. Several men and women crowded around an interestingly dressed man sitting at a round table.

“You’re bluffing!” A drunk man accused. “You’re telling me that not only did you travel with the hero himself, but that you witnessed his party save Cloudspire Village?”

“Well, in a manner of speaking, yes.” The Storyteller said. “But it was quite the harrowing experience, I’ll have you know!”

In truth, he’d disembarked late from the Halfwing due to a hangover and passed out at the inn. The man was carried to safety, asleep and completely unaware of what was happening. Told after the fact, he decided to weave it into his tales.

“Bah!” Another drunk, a woman waved him off. “I’d sooner believe in ghosts than that the Hero walks among us.”

“You’d be surprised.” The Storyteller shrugged. “Why, I’d wager that even the king has heard the tale by now.”

. . .

Archmage King Dante held a book in his hands, something recovered from Felix’s cell in the Blackwater Prison ruins. A gift given to the man by their father, the inscription within filled him with a strange sense of longing.

“Your Majesty!”

A shout came from down the corridor as Dante's early morning walk was interrupted by Knight Captain Silas. The blonde man looked frantic, coming with expected news.

“Allow me to venture a guess,” Dante said. “You have updates regarding the mercenaries I hired?”

“Y-yes, Your Majesty, but…” Silas stammered, not wanting to be the bearer of bad news. “Crow is dead. Your brother, the Hero… survived.”

For several seconds, Silas seemed to brace himself for an emotional explosion that never came. Then, unexpectedly, the king smiled.

“Is that so?”

A weight he hadn’t realized he’d been carrying seemed to lift off of Dante’s shoulders.

“Was the assassin’s body recovered?”

“No, Your Majesty…”

I suppose I have little choice then…

“Do me this favor, Silas. Write back to Lady Almira immediately.” Dante instructed. “Tell her I’ll consider her proposal.”

“You mean, you’re going to marry the elf princess?!”

“SSH! I said I’d consider it!” Dante sighed, exasperated. “We may require Crestalis’ cooperation should my brother decide to make waves.”

He finally chuckled to himself.

“And knowing Felix, he will.”

. . .

“Where do you suppose he is now, if he is out there?” The curious barkeep asked the Storyteller. “The Hero, Felix Atlasse?”

The man simply smiled in response. He was the last patron in an empty tavern, the light of a new morning leaking through the windows.

“Where does any man want to go after a long journey?”

. . .

Felix knocked twice on the door to his farmhouse.

After checking in briefly with Prim, they had flown atop Moon overnight to the western frontier, passing over the capital of the Human Magic Kingdom in the process.

With Kite and Elora at his sides, Felix wore an anxious grin as he waited for a reply on the other side.

A young boy finally opened the door, someone Felix didn’t recognize. However, they shared enough in common visually for Felix to make the deduction. His nephew; he couldn't have been more than a year or two old.

“Ryder, what did I say about opening the door without…?” Appearing right after him was Felix’s younger sister, wide-eyed like she’d just seen a ghost and much older than he remembered. “Big brother…?”

“Hello, Faye.”

Tears streamed down the young woman’s face.

“Is that really you, Felix?”

“It is.” Felix smiled warmly. “…I’ve come home.”

The embrace they fell into lasted several minutes as many tears were shared between them, along with an abridged retelling of recent events. Felix was formally introduced to his nephew, and he in turn introduced the two friends he’d brought with him.

“Where is Mom?”

“Inside, but…” Felix’s sister hesitated. “Her mind is sick, Felix; she held out as long as she could. She may not remember anything, or respond when you call out to her…”

“Take me to her, please.”

Felix approached the common room where the mother he’d hoped to laugh and catch up with was in a rocking chair, wearing a muted expression. Her eyes were distant, but serene.

“Hello, Mom.”

No response…

Felix poured some healing magic into his hand and pressed a gentle palm against his mother’s cheek. When she felt the warmth, her gaze drifted to Felix's. A thin smile accompanied her words.

“…My boy...” She whispered. “…My Hero.”

. . .

Felix sat on a cobblestone wall beside the old windmill, watching the grass tumble in the breeze. Harmless slimes bounced idly in the distance as their neighbors tended to their fields.

He had arrived back home and seen with his own two eyes that his family was safe. That, at least, Dante had seen to despite his other treachery. Forgiveness wouldn’t come easy, though, if at all. But crazier things could happen.

Kite approached from behind, taking a seat right beside him as the wind brushed aside Felix’s dark blue hair.

“So, Elora said she’ll be taking the Necro Sword back to Crestalis to present to her people in a week or two...” Kite smiled. “I was just thinking about taking the offer to join her on the journey. You know, to watch her back.”

“Really?” Felix raised an eyebrow. “To think I’d come to see you both become such good friends.”

“Hey, that’s—!” Kite sighed deeply and shrugged. “For once, I’ve got nothing.”

Felix chuckled.

So dishonest, but… she’s getting there.

A journey to a distant land, and right on the heels of their return. The thought should have begun and ended there, but Felix couldn’t help but smile the more he considered it.

“You know…” Felix said. “If it’s all the same to you guys… I think I’ll tag along. If you’ve got room for one more, that is.”

“Wait, seriously?!” Kite exclaimed. “But you just got home, dummy!”

“You trying to get rid of me?”

“No, it’s just…” Kite rubbed her neck. “Isn’t this what you’ve wanted since we left the prison? To get back to your family here?”

There is that…

“I’ve been thinking about what Elora said to me back on the Halfwing, about my duty, and…” Felix nodded to himself. “I realized there are still a lot of things I want to do. There are people we can help, and you two, to me…”

Felix stood up, taking a few steps forward with a firm expression.

“…are just as much a part of that home as this farm is.”

Peace was never something owed. Happiness could not be made permanent simply because someone had fought hard to obtain it. Felix knew that now better than most.

The present would still become the past. Conversations would end. Smiles would fade into memory. Someday, whether he was ready or not, he would lose people he loved.

But that was no reason to stop fighting for them, to give up. If anything, it was the ultimate proof that anything worth keeping was also worth struggling for.

Felix had spent so long trying to escape the shadow of the Hero he used to be, the one the world decided it no longer needed.

“Oh?” Kite smiled warmly. “I see.”

But Felix had found people who still needed him—and, more importantly, people he needed too.

[THE END]