Epilogue: Smiling Faces

I.

Nico stood outside in the courtyard, standing over the railing. It had been a week since the fight had ended. Taizu was still in recovery. Lorelai was still a lost one, or a remnant, as he had learned. He looked at his hand. Nico wondered if there was something he could have done. Some different approaches that could have helped her. That could have saved her. As she is right now, she lives at Rinzai’s old shrine. A decision that the eidolon of the harvest wasn’t too happy with. After some talking down, she accepted the proposal. As long as she was away from others, and Nico kept an eye on her, things were fine. She was currently living with a new four-legged companion that looked after her.

He placed a hand over his eye, looking toward where the spider remnant had been vanquished in the sky. The Pathfinder, Alex, was something else. Not even just her, but the others that aided Serya in its time of need.

“Nico!” Liz called out.

Nico turned toward her.

“This is where you were.”

Nico blinked. He looked up, then down.

Liz wasn’t wearing a black robe. She was wearing a shirt with pants. Not her standard fare. It looked good on her.

“Yeah. So, what’re you going to do?”

“I’m still thinking about it,” Liz said. “I’m going to wait until after the festival to make a decision.”

“If you’re going to become a Pathfinder or not?”

“Yeah. I want to see the world beyond Serya, just like my father did.”

“I think you should. You won’t find much more here.”

“Really?”

“Lizbeth, is this the guy you were telling me about?” Another person poked out from behind Liz. A girl with blonde hair and tattoos on her arms. She twirled her hair in her fingers. “So, is there a Miss Nico Verconis?”

“What is she talking about?” Nico stared at Liz.

“She’s been talking about dating people from the Upper Ring,” Liz said. “And that, obviously, includes you.”

“Oh no.”

“Come on, don’t play hard to get!” Aria said. “I saved your island! That deserves something!”

II.

Alex watched from the forest archway.

“You’ve got your work cut out for you, Ezia.”

Ezia sighed, “It has been ever since Nico’s been born.”

“You’re awfully focused on your brother.”

“It’s a promise I made. It’s my duty as his elder sister, and as the new heir to the Verconis.”

“Your Dad isn’t doing too well?”

“Even with Serya’s blessing, his body isn’t recovering as it should,” Ezia clutched her forehead in her hand. “Thaleo is missing. He left in all of the chaos that night.”

Krass told Alex that he saw a skyskimmer leave just a bit after the remnant’s defeat. They don’t have the means to really tail or track him. Alex put in a message to a friend of hers that specialized in tracking, but she wouldn’t get results for a good while yet. Probably a month or two if he was on a job in the Boreal Lands. She sighed, shaking her head.

“So, what are your plans, Alex?”

“Keeping watch until the festival is over,” Alex crossed her arms. “Seems like most of the people that were controlled by the spider remnant are still experiencing some symptoms of corrosion.”

“Your help is appreciated.”

“Yeah.”

“It sounds like something is still bothering you?”

“Thinking about that flaming soulforged. Didn’t see the head nor tail of him.”

“That is true, but we can only focus on the things that we can do, you know?”

“Yeah. How about we join the others?” Ezia said with a smile.

“Might as well,” Alex shrugged.

The two girls rejoined the others.Nico looked over to Alex and waved.

She waved back.

There was much to do and mysteries still remained. Alex wasn’t sure how long she was going to remain on Serya, but she was going to make the best of her time here. With new faces as well as new challenges, she wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.