Epilogue

A young girl walked along a low stone wall, holding her fingers slightly apart from each other and repeating a mantra. “Take the fire within and disperse it through the air. Let it flow back to me and release the water as steam. Let the heat bake and shape the earth below.”

The girl stumbled and fell, lost so deep in concentration she didn't realize she ran out of wall.

“Careful!” An older boy cried, racing to check on her.

“Agh! How does she expect me to figure something like this out? It goes against everything in all the books my family got for me.”

“And yet you know our tutor's reputation.” The boy replied, helping the girl to her feet. “I struggled with it too. I'm certain you'll figure it out.”

“But it can't be done! I'm a fire mage, I want to learn fire spells.”

“And air can make a fire grow.” The raspy voice of their elderly instructor startled the two youths. “Water can shape it. Earth can harness it.”

It took Agnes a few students to learn how to teach. Leo nor Alexander had the knack for magic. Until three years ago, she had only had scant few encounters with others like her. It took her a long time to realize it, but she had learned a few things through a lifetime of self-study contemporary magic education struggled with.

There was another trip, not long after. A much more lighthearted affair, accompanied by her husband, their grandson, and his new bride. Chartered carriages, formal meetings with nobles, lectures at universities. The types of places Agnes always figured one should go on a grand adventure until she had one of her own. She was fond of her way of going about the whole affair, really. Though she found it hard to explain her methods of using magic to others.

Then she started teaching students in River's Bend. It was always best to chase new challenges, she figured. But that meant having to figure out why she was so different in the first place, why most mages tended to focus studies on a single element and she could leap through all four with ease. Eventually she found the way to explain it. It was never something special, some predestined spark of talent. It was merely understanding her strength, wind, and learning how to shape the other three elements around it.

“Watch,” she beckoned the two students. “It's all a matter of visualization. Let your breath carry the water with it.”

A small cloud appeared above her hand before morphing into a fireball. “Then use that breath to stoke the embers of the fire within.”

She dropped the fireball to the ground, where it seeped into the earth that then sprang into a clay marionette she made dance. “The fire within can shape the earth better if your breath serves as bellows. Don't try to force it, use your own strengths as the foundation from which everything else springs.”

“Ms. Agnes!” A thin, reedy voice called behind them. “They told me I could find you here.”

Harbormaster Tumlin crossed the road to meet them, receiving a firm embrace from the teacher when he arrived. It was hard to believe the well-dressed man in front of them from the big city of Trelle was so recently the dauntless escort of a great hero. Or that the scrappy bodyguard would go on to revolutionize the largest dock this side of the continent. Raising pay for longshoremen and successfully cracking down on smuggling. Well, unless it was for family business.

He drew a pipe from his coat pocket and studied the two students in front of him. “Will, you're really growing like a weed. And who is this peppery little lady?”

“Calliope mister!” The girl replied cheerily with a curtsy.

Hektor tossed the girl a piece of candy. “Well, I didn't realize Agnes was running a finishing school.”

“Is that how you treat me after so long, Tumlin?”

“You act like I never come to visit!” He replied, still prone to demurring if Agnes cast a sharp gaze.

“Well you haven't as much since the hotel finished construction.” A woman's voice teased Hektor as its owner snuck up on him.

A gallant young man grabbed her by the shoulder before she could startle the harbormaster. “Now now dear, if you didn't treat him like this grandmother might get to see her favorite more.”

“No way! I'm her favorite.” Chloe spat in reply.

“Well I'm certain she loves us all equally.” Alexander offered to head off another round of their playful bickering.

Agnes cackled before telling her grandson “Quiet number three, I've missed this.”

“Now now, dear. Keep saying things like that and he might take you seriously.” Said the final member of their group to arrive. The sculptor Lysander was as spry and jovial as ever as he arrived. Impending retirement suited him well, and now the entire group was gathered for the unveiling of his magnum opus.

Agnes beckoned her students to join them as they made their way from the irrigation stoneworks of River's Bend back into the town square. It wasn't as easy as it used to be, now that the Petit Chateau was opened. But the hotel had proven to be a smart investment for the Tumlin Family. The small backwater town had become something of a tourist destination for families of children who showed the knack for magic. Especially those who could afford a single long trip to a small town but not quite an expensive academy education.

She sometimes used a ballroom the hotel did boast as an amenity, but magic was so intrinsically tied to nature Agnes favored outdoor lessons. Becoming a fixture of the prospering town, treating any student who asked to lessons all over the natural areas at the edges of River's Bend. She didn't charge money, but the perks were definitely worth it to her to keep coming. By this point the entire town had decided that she should eat and drink for free, and she had a permanent apartment in the hotel should she ever decide it wasn't worth it to hike back to her village home that evening. The regular trips to down were great for her health, even her trick knee no longer bothered her.

Lysander had been making them with her most of the time too, in order to spend the days working on his final commission. Across the plaza where his statue of Apollo cast his watchful gaze over the town's market, a cube of wood panels normally obscured the final piece of the sculptor's career. Now it had been replaced with a lush curtain and a crowd was assembled in front.

“Wow! Look at the turnout!” Chloe cried. “Making you nervous grandpa?”

“Ah! Of course not.” He cheerily replied, ruffling the young woman's hair between the tufts that still reminded everyone of a cat's ears. “Besides, they're here for the show! It's rare to see The Foolhardy Friends all the way out here.”

The arrived at a blanket Lysander had laid out on the green. Well towards the back of the assembled crowd just in time for the actors to take the stage. Despite traveling so far, they were able to put on a grand production with a little assistance from Agnes's student Will. Who had a talent for the complex magic of illusions. The show was a lively revue telling tales of a popular hero's exploits. Setting fire to a crooked guard captain's weapon stockpile. Sacking the mansion of a noble family in Trelle. Embarrasing the snobbish schoolmarm in Vinvintin as the witch and her companions fought their first giant. The wicked king's hellish prison. Fighting her own grandson in the pits and ultimately defeating the one-eyed King Dunne.

The crow was enraptured by this popular show coming to their town, children cheered blissfully unaware the real heroes were right behind them. Then, after the show the sculptor and his wife unveiled the grand marble statue of the legendary witch and her noble companions. A scene depicting them as liberators, promising to guard the town where it all began long after they themselves were gone.

Afterwards the group gathered together again to make the long walk to the village. Back to the farm where Agnes did what she wanted to be doing right now more than anything. Making a nice dinner for her family. Swapping stories in the yard long into the warm summer night. Seeing everyone off the next morning with a hearty breakfast before tending to their pear tree and keeping the rooster away from her crops. Watching her husband and grandson build a new home for the next generation of her familiy and thinking of her next lesson for her current crop of students.

Wondering if maybe, just maybe she had it in her for one more journey...