Welcome Back

“Shit, are you sure that we haven’t screwed up?”

“Adish, please, have a bit of faith. If Nona had said the wrong name, a portal wouldn’t be opening.”

“Not necessarily, druid. According to Orelgard, the portal may open nevertheless because we have accidentally liberated an otherworldly creature.”

“...Nona, are you sure we haven’t screwed up, right?”

“H-Hah?! Vesper, what happened to your confidence?!”

“Guys, look.” The portal they had successfully summoned at the outskirts of The Evergreen was finally large enough to allow Nona to feel a familiar presence at the other side. A presence that blurred her vision. “We did it.”

“Are you kidding me?” Adish adjusted his glasses and his mouth fell agape. “That playboy is supposed to be him?”

“By Anuaf, look at those strong arms and that broad chest.”

“And his shirt is even more open than Zander’s, leaving his abdominals on display like that.”

“Are you two aware that you are ogling at Thorny, right? His terrible personality is going to be the same.”

“Yes, but he is quite attractive now/I was just pointing out some objective observations.”

“Gosh, you two are SO superficial…”

By then Thorny was right at the other side of the portal, looking at Nona with a smile that showed as much care as hers.

He remained there instead of directly crossing, with a teasing expression on his masculine face.

“Tsk, I had just got used to my super hot body and you had to go and summon me–”

Nona pulled Thorny into a tight hug. The moment he crossed the portal to the other side, he instantly shifted back into the imp appearance everyone was used to.

“Welcome back,” she whispered in a happy tone that trembled with emotion, keeping the imp closely against her chest. “I’ve missed you.”

Thorny smiled back and returned the hug.

“I’ve missed you too, leader.” After separating, Thorny looked at the rest. “And I kinda missed the bestiary girl as well, but four-eyes and pointy-ears? Tsk. I kinda hoped you had finally left those spots free in the team.”

“I would be more grateful if I were you, imp–god–shit, I don’t know how to call you anymore. Anyway, do you know how much trouble you gave us?” Adish started to mimic Thorny’s voice accurately. “‘Humanity is in your hands.’ What kind of cryptic crap was that?”

“Hey, I couldn’t simply spill my true identity! That went against the banishment rules, so I did the best I could!”

“Well, you didn't do well enough. You could have said something like ‘Humanity was lost right before the Battle of Rosethorn’, which would have greatly helped to find the proper ritual to bring you back.”

Thorny blinked a few times. “Wait, so is there more than one ritual to bring a god back?”

“HAHA! More than one he says…”

“There are a lot,” Nona intervened before Adish could jump on Thorny. “And the materials vary depending on the reason for the exile.”

“So Adish and Lorian spent quite some time in the Ancient Archives until they found the correct one,” Vesper added.

“Not to mention all the time Nona and Vesper spent researching the Dwarfs’ Registry of Ancient Rolls,” Lorian added. “If it weren’t for their perseverance, we wouldn’t have managed to find the last materials for the ritual–”

“OK, stop right there.” Thorny’s wings fluttred faster, betraying his nervousness. “How long has it been since I disappeared?”

“Nine months.”

“WHAT?!” Thorny snapped in a high-pitched voice after hearing the unanimous response. “Nine months? I-I thought we were talking about weeks!”

“Well, it’s been weeks indeed. Thirty nine to be precise,” Adish replied ironically, provoking chuckles among the group.

For the next few minutes, Nona filled Thorny in with what he had missed, which was basically she and Vesper spending most of the time in the South Continent with the Dwarfs, Adish staying in The Evergreen to help repair the Anomaly Detector and learn more about elven magic, and Lorian doing his leader duties in the clan, which involved convincing the Council that Thorny was not a menace to the elves anymore.

“And doing that wasn’t easy, let me tell you,” Lorian said with a tired tone before pointing at Nona with his chin. “You were lucky that your leader helped me reach my clan in one piece, or you’ll still be in that void.”

Thorny snorted. “Hey now, if it weren’t for me, the leader, four-eyes and bestiary girl would be dead now, so we are even–” Thorny suddenly stopped, staring at Nona in disbelief. “W-Wait, I just noticed, what on earth is wrong with your stats?! How is your general level over one hundred?!”

“Hehehe, well, there were a bunch of strong creatures to fight against in the Depths. I really had a blast there.”

“I can show you them if you want,” Vesper said, extracting the bestiary from her bag.

“What the hell, this book is twice the size it used to be!”

“Oh, and there is an entry about you: an imp whose true form is a banished god was certainly something worthy of documenting, so I hope you don’t mind.”

Thorny huffed and crossed his arms. “OK, is there something else I’ve missed or this is all?”

“Yes, I can safely turn into big animals now, with no risk of accidentally hurting anyone anymore,” Vesper added proudly, muttering the next words to herself. “I can’t wait to show it to my mother.”

“And we’re super rich now.” Thorny’s jaw fell slack when Nona extracted a bag of money that was as big as her torso. “All the time we spent in the mines paid off.”

“Oh, and Nona and Aecor are now married.”

“WHAT?!”

“A-Adish, don’t tell lies!”

“Wait, is that a lie?!”

“O-Of course it is a lie, Thorny! I haven’t even had a proper date yet because we’ve been super busy!”

“Damn four-eyes, stop laughing right now: you almost gave me a heart-attack!!”

“Oh, and maybe you’d like to tell the former god our plan for tomorrow, leader,” Lorian said, visibly amused by Thorny’s irritation.

“Oh, thanks, Lorian! I almost forgot.” Nona smiled widely at Thorny. “We are going to The Dawn Rift tomorrow.”

“...WHAAAT?!?!”

Everyone laughed at Thorny's shocked reaction.

Apparently, there were still a few things they needed to fill Thorny in.

* * *

“So? Are you satisfied now?”

Thorny burped loudly while rubbing a hand over his now rounder stomach.

“Jeez, time was so weird in that dimension that I didn’t realize how much I had missed these buns until now.”

Thorny lay down on the grass and placed his hands behind his head, mimicking Nona. The rest of the group had retired to sleep after sharing dinner together in a camp they had set outside the clan, like the good old times, so they were alone.

After spending some minutes watching the starry sky, Nona broke the comfortable silence that had settled between them.

“Thorny.”

“Yes, dummy leader?” Thorny frowned when Nona remained silent, in a pensive way. “Shit, it’s not like you overthinking so much. What the hell is wrong?”

Nona chuckled nervously and sat up, with her legs slightly flexed and her arms wrapped loosely around them. She looked at Thorny with a cautious expression.

“If I had a letter from Myra in which she talked about you, would you want to read it?”

Thorny stared at her in bewilderment. It was obvious her words had caught him off guard.

“How–” Thorny’s voice failed him so he tried again, but his tone still sounded strained. “How do you know that name?”

Nona started to search for something inside the smaller bag attached to her belt.

“Do you remember the short sword that I always carried with me?”

“You mean that sword that you refuse to throw away no matter how many times we all complain about how rusty it is? Yeah. Of course I remember. But I don't see what that has to do with–”

Nona handed Thorny a folded letter. The imp hesitated, but eventually took it.

“What is this? It looks like a will–” Thorny shut up, his eyes scanning the letter. “Wait. I recognize this childish calligraphy.”

Nona could see Thorny’s frown slowly vanishing as he proceeded to read.

…and for my dear Namuh, my youngest precious daughter who has decided to be foolish enough to join the army at this point of her life, I leave this short sword to you.

This weapon may not look like much, but it was once wielded by a god himself - the kindest, sexiest, most insufferable god to ever step on earth - and I have treasured it for my entire life.

May this sword help you break through your enemies forces just like his previous owner did with my impenetrable guard, both in the training grounds and in the walls I always built around my heart.

Love you all,

Myra

P.S. to Namuh: you better not use that sword to fight against Yti, or I’ll haunt you in your sleep.

P.S.2 to Yti and Namuh: yes, your dad already knew about my love story with that god. But he was the most righteous, kindest man who accepted to be by my side even if part of my heart was already taken.

P.S.3 to Jerry: you better start collecting your socks now that I won’t be around to do so.

“When Adish and Lorian found an elven testimony in the Archive saying that a god had been involved in the Battle of Rosethorn, I remembered that my great-great-great-great-great grandmother had participated too.” Nona said in a soft tone, pretending not to see the tears that now ran down Thorny’s face. “I’m sorry. I never told you the story behind that sword because I didn't want you to laugh at me. But it seems like that love story was not the made-up tale everyone thought it was.”

Thorny cleared his throat and brusquely wiped off his tears.

“How old was she when she died?”

“Seventy-eight. She got sick, but apparently she didn’t suffer too much, and had a peaceful death.”

Thorny nodded and snorted.

“Can’t believe she kept that useless sword with her. I mean, I only used it once.” He laughed in disbelief. “Shit, I spent my whole life avoiding her hometown just to end up in the same place as her descendant.”

“Did I make the right choice showing this to you?” Nona asked with worry.

After a short pause, Thorny nodded slowly.

“Yeah, I think so. Honestly I never dared to search for her again. I guess I was afraid of–” Thorny paused, shaking his head. “I guess I was afraid.”

“Of what?”

“Of everything. Of her being dead; of her being alive; of her being unhappy with some miserable; of her being happy with a nice man. After what happened, I just didn’t want to know.” Thorny looked at the letter, and a tender smile appeared on his face. “But despite everything, I’m glad she had a good life. And that she didn’t forget about me.”

Thorny gave the letter back to Nona, who stored it carefully.

They had barely lain on the grass again to keep admiring the beautiful sky a bit longer when Thorny gasped.

“Wait a minute–” Thorny frowned and turned his head to look at Nona. “I just realized. You said ‘the sword you always carried with you’.”

“Ah, yes. I don’t have it anymore. We needed to use an object that belonged to you for the ritual, so I had to offer it.”

“What?” Thorny looked at Nona with an apologetic expression that, for the first time, looked completely genuine. “I’m sorry, leader. You really liked that sword. I’m sure it was a hard decision to make.”

Nona looked at Thorny with an affectionate smile on her face.

“It wasn’t. It was to bring you back.”

Thorny swallowed with difficulty and exhaled a trembling snort before crossing his arms.

“Dummy.”

Nona smiled looking at the sky, pretending not to hear the poorly muffled sniffs next to her.