40: Return to Sender

"Harsh, but fair." Zen sighed as he sat up and lowered his eyes with sadness when he saw Lyra crying over Sam. It was a better use for her tears.

He saw Teal walk toward him.

"Kiara?"

"She's sleeping in a cage wagon for now. The girl is so exhausted; her ordeal was even heavy for an adult to bear." Teal glanced at Lyra and saw the woman wipe her eyes. "I think grief is catching up to us, we have you to thank."

"For giving you grief?"

She chuckled and shook her head. "For making sure we're alive to grieve." She paused with serious thoughts before asking, "You died, didn't you?"

"What makes you think that?"

"The overwhelming energy, which negated the enthrallment and cleansed the village: it carried your power of origin."

"Well destiny decided it was my time to live to fight another day. Excuse me." He wobbled to his feet to check on the others.

He saw Vo was up and already giving of himself to make sure those weaker than him could recover.

"Don't you ever stop playing the hero?" Zen grumbled as he came up behind him.

Vo laughed as he turned to face him with a proud grin. "Actually, I'm throwing that question back at you."

Zen gasped when Cleo's face momentarily surfaced to his mind. His expression warmed with tears. He burst out laughing. "I'm pretty pathetic, aren't I?"

Vo's expression eased into sober thanks. "Nah. Didn't I already say that you're the main hero?" He slapped his shoulder. "This time we all owe you our lives."

"Oh... stop being so damn perfect!" Zen groaned as he lightly punched his arm with his complaint.

The men's banter sobered when they saw Lyra rise: her expression a mixture of determination and resolve.

She turned and walked toward them.

"Are you okay?" Vo gently asked.

Her answer was a scowl. "You know Vo, I agree with Zen on one thing, you are too damn perfect after all." She lightly punched his arm.

Zen nodded and joined in with the light arm punches to Vo's body, stirring a play fight and laughter between them all.

The three of them slumped to the ground and laid on their backs, glancing up to another stark and bland sky, but it was one they were privileged to see.

"We really were goddamn, badass heroes, weren't we?" Zen whispered.

"Heroes and heroines, thank you very much." Lyra sarcastically injected.

"So what now?"

Vo sighed. "Now we help the village restore order as soon as possible." His mind lingered on Ghayne Mail's last words: the man was right about one thing, it wasn't over for the long haul. One thing was certain: the Rogue crisis was over and further danger to these human lives was averted.

Is this why you had me honing myself for ten years, for these kinds of moments? He thought of the Lodshen's advice to him and how they sent him off to Rogue to find the Lakshima. It set him up to be their means to deal with the horrific imperial threat. 

He could only imagine if he and Zen weren't around to stop the flow of those evil machinations. But there's always going to be machinations from both seats of authority and in-between are the people and the Forsaken.

He groaned when he realized that the Lodshen would prolly send him to other places that needed him, while he continued his journey to be reunited with Akari to save her.

"I guess that's fair. I was born a prince. The price of power," he mumbled.

Zen gasped when he recalled an important detail, Shane. "The blade!" He bolted up and scrambled to his feet, searching the ground for the sword. He found Vo's blade near a common one and hurried to pick it up.

The edges had jagged nicks and irregular teeth marks: it was in a really bad shape. "Oh, shit. Sorry Vo. Shane is all busted."

Vo patted his back. "But he's in the Hand of Honor, so he can sit tight in there while we fix it."

"Where is..." Zen was about to ask; as he saw the dark refined iron blade in his hand a spell surfaced to his mind with the means to fix both swords. "Give the swords, I think I can fix them."

"You became a blacksmith all of sudden?" Lyra wryly asked as she came up next to them.

"It just so happens I did but in a spiritual sense. I can only perform this spell on spirit swords."

They glanced about the hazardous state of the grounds. The three decided it was best to do it after they helped with the clean up.

For the day they worked tirelessly to repair damages and remove the corpses with care. 

The barracks had become a temporary mortuary, with Anul's priest casting blessings for the afterlife. There was a cacophony of wailing and grief being outpoured, but Vo found comfort that the people could go on living. 

People used the tavern space to gather together to make paper lanterns and paint the names of their lost loved ones on it with a majestic symbol that represented their soul.

It was for the first time the village of Rogue saw the good side of magic to their buildings, with Teal using her syn abilities to clear rubble and repair stone walls.

In the evening, the dead were respectfully gathered into the market square and placed on the ground in a royal pose (laid on their backs with hands clasped over their chests) with a talisman resting on their foreheads. Its spell painted in red ink on gold tinted paper strips.

Vo and Zen watched from the eaves of a building, as the people said their last goodbyes then lit their lanterns, casting them to the skies at the same time Anul's priest activated the talisman spell to trigger a cremation impact on the bodies. 

Their forms disintegrated into starlight particles, floating toward the Uethera afterlife above.

"Papa." Kiara's cries were heard. 

The men watched the child cast a lantern for Sam as his body became starlight. Teal and Lyra were comforting the girl.

"Why do children have to suffer for the adult's stupidity?" Zen sighed and frowned when he saw Vo's sober expression, but could sense a tease in there. "I didn't say that and shut up."

The roshi patted the man's back. "Let's get drunk."

"No that I can get behind."

Everyone gathered at the tavern for some hearty drinking to wash down the dark times and get merry for a new beginning.

The tavern keeper let Vo, Zen and Lyra remain in the dining area before the hearth, while everyone had dispersed.

"The place feels too big when it's empty. Odd thing isn't it?" Zen sighed.

"So you can fix Shane?" Vo laid out the two swords onto the long table they sat around.

"Stand back, watch and be in awe." The lakshima cockily declared as he rose from the bench and crunched his knuckles.

His hands hovered the blade; closing his eyes he chanted a spell.

Lyra gasped when columns of words in gold light appeared and hovered around the swords. She watched Zen move his hands across the blade, manipulating the gold words into columns and directing their flow over the metal. 

As the words touched the blades' damages they saw to a restoration of the weapons' perfect state.

Zen continued to move his hands and the magic words until both blades were completely restored. 

However, the Hand of Honor had a profound change of state, where the dark coloring of the iron had changed to silverish tone.

A tear fell from Vo's eye with nostalgia as he saw his grandfather's sword in the original state when the man was alive to wield it.

"Are you okay Vo?" Lyra noticed.

"It's nothing." He smiled.

"There. It's done." Zen slowly pulled away his hands and made a loud clap, which deactivated the spell and caused the magic words to vanish.

"Magical blacksmith it is." Lyra looked impressed. "But did you always have this magic?"

Zen shook his head. "No, this is new. One of my perks for being a hero."

She groaned. "Tsk, I'm never going to hear the end of it."

They lapsed into friendly laughter and decided to talk about happier times, with Zen pilfering the barkeep's best ale for the occasion.