XXXVII - At Last

Snow lay heavy across the broad fields beyond the road.

Every now and then, the wind shook loose a veil of powder from the fir branches and swept it across the road before the stagecoach wheels crunched through it.

Pan sat hunched beside Haku, wrapped so tightly in a wool blanket that only her eyes and ears were visible.

“I-it’s way too cold up here.”

Elda looked up from the knife he was cleaning with an oily cloth.

“Didn’t you say Panwanians like cooler weather? Quite apart from the fact that you’ve got fur.”

Pan made a face.

“It’s still my summer coat, mm! And after the Ember Weeks, I’m not used to weather like this at all anymore...”

Beside her, Haku pulled her own blanket tighter around her armor.

“It really did turn cold surprisingly quickly.”

Elda glanced out at the snow-covered landscape.

“We’re a good deal farther north now. Don’t expect Aenzia to be any warmer.”

Haku sighed.

“Perhaps the Ember Weeks weren’t so bad after all…”

By afternoon, the landscape had begun to change.

Forests and fields gave way to rugged cliffs, while the road grew broader and better maintained.

A wooden roadblock appeared around a bend. Several soldiers stood beside it with spears in hand while others searched a wagon.

“What’s going on?”

Elda slid his knife back into his belt.

“Looks like we’re about to find out.”

One of the soldiers stepped up to the stagecoach, the coachman leaning down from his seat.

“Three passengers bound for Aenzia.”

The soldier glanced inside, his eyes lingering on Haku for a moment.

“Adventurers?”

Haku nodded.

He studied her once more before waving them through.

“All right. But don’t be surprised if there isn’t much work around here for the time being.”

The driver gathered the reins again and urged the horses onward.

Pan frowned.

“What did he mean by that?”

“Good question,” Elda replied.

Not long afterward, something drifted through the cold air that Pan had not smelled for ages.

Her nose twitched.

Salt. Seaweed. Fish.

Ocean air!

At last, the land beyond the next hill fell away in broad terraces toward the sea, revealing a huge city:

Aenzia.

It curved around a vast bay in a great semicircle. Pale walls followed the coastline, while countless houses with dark slate roofs climbed the snow-covered slopes.

Beyond the northernmost walls, dark woods stretched along the higher cliffs.

Here and there, between the trees, Pan could make out patches of white and dull gray where small lakes and marshy hollows had frozen over.

Far below, miles of docks stretched into the water, overlooked by tall warehouses and the city’s lighthouse.

And everywhere stood masts.

Hundreds of them.

Pan leaned halfway out the window.

But her gaze didn’t linger on the city, it drifted to the ocean beyond.

Dark and steel-gray beneath the winter sky, it stretched all the way to the horizon.

Somewhere beyond that is Panwan...

“We actually made it,” she murmured before slipping back into her seat.

Her heart began to beat faster.

“We reached Aenzia, mm!”

Elda and Haku couldn’t help smiling at the light in Pan’s eyes.

After all those years…

Only then did Pan realize her eyes had grown wet, and she hurriedly rubbed them dry.

Eventually, the stagecoach came to a stop in a large square not far from the harbor, where the coach station was located.

After collecting their luggage, the three of them stood for a moment and took in the unfamiliar maritime surroundings before setting off.

“Say…” Haku began after a while. “Isn’t this an unusually heavy military presence for a trading port?”

Only then did Pan notice the soldiers all around them: outside taverns, along the piers, at checkpoints between the warehouses.

“You’re right. Something about this is odd,” Elda said.

An uneasy feeling settled over Pan.

I don’t like this.

As they continued, something else soon caught their attention.

Several large warships lay anchored among the merchant vessels, their dark decks bustling with activity as crates and barrels were carried aboard.

Suddenly, a loud screech echoed across the harbor.

“KRY-AH!”

All three looked up at once.

A large shadow appeared between the clouds high above the coast.

“Is that…?”

For a moment, Pan saw broad wings and the golden-brown fur of a griffin.

A lone figure sat on its back, a white cloak whipping behind him.

“Commander Dariuwos,” Haku confirmed.

The griffin banked in a wide circle above the harbor before disappearing behind the city’s towers.

“Do you think this has something to do with what he said?” Pan asked. “Those rumors he wanted to investigate?”

Elda lit a cigarette and watched the griffin disappear.

“Well... doesn’t exactly look like he came here for a vacation.”

Their path eventually led them to the harbor office.

The building stood right beside the water, a broad stone structure with tall windows.

A line of sailors, merchants, and travelers had already formed outside its entrance.

The closer they came, the louder the voices became.

“My cargo’s been sitting here for three days! What am I supposed to tell my clients?!”

“My ship was already cleared to leave!”

Two soldiers stood in front of the doors, struggling to keep the crowd under control.

Pan rose onto her toes.

“What’s going on here, mm?” she asked one of the men in the crowd.

He looked down at her, raising an eyebrow.

“You haven’t heard? The harbor’s completely shut down.”

Pan blinked.

“What?!”

Haku stepped closer.

“Shut down?”

“At least for civilian shipping. So unless you can prove you’re with the military…” He shrugged. “You may as well turn around.”

“But why, mm?!”

The man nodded toward the soldiers in front of the office.

“What do you think we’re all trying to find out? But all they’ll tell us is royal orders.”

With that, he turned back toward the front of the line.

Pan remained where she was for another moment.

This can’t be happening.

We finally made it here...

And now we can’t go any farther?!

A deep horn sounded across the bay as one of the warships was casting off.

Sailors rushed across the deck as sails were raised, while more soldiers carried crates aboard.

A short while later, the dark vessel slowly pulled away from the harbor.

Haku watched it in silence.

“I thought Vadonia wasn’t involved in any conflicts at the moment?”

Elda nodded.

“As far as I know, it isn’t.”

Pan looked out over the gray sea and sighed.

“Whatever the reason is, mm… looks like we’re stuck here for now.”

“Then I suppose we should find somewhere to stay first,” Haku replied with an encouraging smile. “After that, we’ll figure something out.”

***

They eventually rented two rooms at a small inn on a side street above the harbor.

While Haku was using the bath on the lower floor, separate from their room, Pan sat alone on the windowsill and stared outside.

From there, she could see a narrow strip of sea between the rooftops.

Someone knocked on the door.

“You done already, mm?” Pan asked in surprise.

But it wasn’t Haku who stepped inside.

“Elda…”

“Must feel strange,” he said as he stepped closer, looking past her through the window. “Finally reaching the place you spent years trying to get to. Even if the real journey is still ahead of you…”

She lowered her eyes.

“Is it, mm?”

Pan had pulled her knees up against her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

“It feels more like the end of my journey than the beginning…”

She sighed.

“I just can’t do it, Elda…”

“Obviously.”

She shot him an offended look.

“Very helpful.”

He shrugged.

“You said you’d tell her in Aenzia.”

Pan had no answer.

“Well. Now we’re here.”

Her ears drooped.

“I know...”

“Then stop waiting for the right moment.”

Pan looked outside again where soldiers moved between pedestrians in the streets below.

“But what if… she just leaves afterward? What if... she leaves this world again?”

“Then that’s what happens.”

Pan spun toward him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“It means you can’t control what she does afterward.”

His voice remained calm.

“All you can decide is whether you keep lying to her, or whether you respect her enough as a person to let her make her own choice once she knows the truth.”

Pan pressed her lips together while Elda pushed himself away from the wall.

“Oh, and by the way. Sunsets over the sea are supposed to be especially beautiful this far north.”

He headed for the door.

“I wouldn’t want to miss that...”

A moment later, it closed behind him.

Pan remained alone.

Bamboocrap.

***

The evening sun was already hanging low over the sea when Haku and Pan returned to the harbor.

“I like the ocean,” Haku began with a gentle smile, drawing in a deep breath. “Garatas’s world was covered in enormous oceans too, though fortunately we didn’t have to cross all of them.”

Pan chewed nervously on her thumb as she walked beside Haku.

When she noticed her waiting for a response, Pan forced herself to smile.

“O-oh… r-really, mm? That’s crazy…”

How…

How am I supposed to tell her…?

For a while, they simply wandered along the harbor, looking through the windows of shops that were still open or stopping to glance at the food stalls along the docks.

Eventually, they found themselves on a broad pier just as the red sun began to sink toward the horizon.

The burned end of Haku’s scarf fluttered in the cold ocean breeze.

“Pan…”

“Yeah?”

“What’s wrong?”

Pan’s stomach tightened.

“W-what do you mean?”

“Something’s been bothering you.”

For a moment, Pan could only stare at her.

Haku turned back toward the horizon, her silver hair stirring in the wind.

“Don’t worry. We’ll find a way across. And then we’ll be seeing your homeland before long.”

We.

The word struck harder than it should have.

Pan swallowed.

“Haku…”

Her hands had begun to tremble.

“I need to tell you something.”

Haku tilted her head slightly.

Now. 

No excuses anymore.

“Back in Garend… when I told you the eastern continent was being threatened by the Demon Emperor…”

Her throat tightened.

“I lied.”

The wind tugged at her clothes.

When Pan finally looked up, the smile had vanished from Haku’s face.

“There… there is no Demon Emperor.”

Only the waves broke against the stones below.

Her breath trembled as she looked up at Haku’s frozen expression.

“I made it up.”