Chapter 56 Wataru’s Wish
Another long staircase. This time the stairs climbed not in a spiral but in a zigzag.
He could no longer see the walls of the tower around him. The reflections of images from his past were also gone. He was surrounded by a void—the color of the sky just before dawn. At the top of the stairs hung a circular platform that had to be the Goddess’s throne. It was like Wataru was floating in space, and the staircase touched the outline of some unknown constellation.
Getting closer, Wataru could see someone sitting right in the middle of the disk. He steadied himself. Finally—the last step.
The seat of the Goddess.
A girl was sitting quietly in the middle of that crystal disk. She was wearing a long-sleeved dress of pure white, and she was looking down at her lap. Her long hair was tightly bound on her head, revealing the slender, graceful curve of her neck. An aura of pure light enveloped her body.
She lifted her face and a single curvy strand of black hair fell down upon her forehead.
It was Kaori Daimatsu. Again.
“Wataru,” she called. Her lips were the color of cherry blossoms. “You’ve finally arrived. This is the end of your journey. You have reached the Tower of Destiny.”
Confused, Wataru shuffled his feet. He didn’t want to step back, yet he was afraid to go forward. Kaori smiled brightly. “As it was with Onba, mine is also a borrowed form. I took her shape from among the people of the real world that you hold in your heart. But I am not Lady Onba. I do not wish to deceive you, nor harm you in any way. Be at ease.”
I am the Goddess of Destiny.
It was the same voice, yet filled with an incredible presence.
“Why…” Wataru opened his mouth. He felt like his soul was melting and running down his legs. “Why Kaori?”
The Goddess smiled again. “I believe you already know the answer to that question. Lady Onba told you.”
“Because…” Wataru put a hand to his chest. “Because she has been in my heart?”
The Goddess nodded. “She, like you, is an innocent soul who became victim to a cruel fate. As you traveled to save yourself, you wanted to save all those who suffered as you did. That was your true objective, whether you knew it or not.”
“‘Those who suffered’? Does that include Mitsuru?”
“Of course. He was in your heart as well.” Then she added in a whisper, almost too soft for him to hear, “From the very beginning.
“If you speak the wish that is in your heart now, I can make it come true. That is why I’m here. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” Wataru replied in a squeaky voice. His forehead felt like it was on fire, and his body was trembling.
The time has come at last. The time when my wishes will be granted.
“Then, come to me,” the Goddess of Destiny called to him. “Take my hand, and put your wish into words. Give your wish unto me.”
Then those long, slender arms—Kaori Daimatsu’s arms—reached out toward him.
All was silent. Wataru found himself wondering at how such pure silence could be so calming. Only his steady breathing marked the passage of time.
One, two, three. His heart beat with each breath. I’m alive. I’m here. Me.
Me…and everyone else.
Wataru took a jerky step forward, then another. No one had taught him the proper procedure. Even Wayfinder Lau hadn’t told him how to behave in the presence of the Goddess. Wataru went down on one knee, took her hand and placed it on his chest, and bent his head.
“My…wish…”
“Yes?” Her soft voice seemed to stroke his hair.
Make your wish into words.
From long before he had realized what his true wish was, Wataru’s heart had already known. It had been waiting patiently for this moment. When the words came, they came without a moment’s hesitation.
“Goddess of Destiny. With your power, destroy the Mirror of Eternal Shadow. Break it, like the Mirror of Truth, into countless fragments, and spread them through the land. Please, destroy it. Cut off the paths of the Dark and save Vision.”
The Goddess’s white fingers were motionless in Wataru’s hand.
“Is this your wish?”
“It is.”
“Do you understand the entire nature of your wish?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Do you understand that I may only answer this one wish, this one time. You will never have a second chance.”
“I understand.”
“Will you not regret this? If I grant you this wish, your destiny in the real world will not change in the least. Can you tell me that you walked the long road to the Tower of Destiny, overcoming many hardships, all for the fulfillment of this one wish?”
The Goddess’s words wrapped around Wataru like gauzy ribbons of silk. Wataru grabbed each one of them and held them close.
“You are certain? Even if Vision is saved, your fate will remain as it was.”
Wataru looked up. The smile had faded from the Goddess’s face, her expression was stern, and her black eyes were focused on Wataru.
“No,” he said. “I think you’re wrong. Save Vision, and you will save me.”
The Goddess’s head tilted slowly. “On your way here, you saw the disaster that has befallen Vision. You saw the demonkin hordes attacking your traveling companions. That is why these things are burned so strongly into your mind now. You think only to help your friends and save Vision, above all else. But, Wataru, think again. You will never return to Vision. You do not live here. Nor will you ever meet your friends again. You go from here back to the real world. And when you do, you will realize. Once again, you will face the cruel destiny that has found you, and you will find it not a bit changed from when you left. Will you not curse your fate, and be ravaged by regret?”
Wataru managed to smile, surprising even himself. “Like you say, I first came here to change my destiny in the real world. I swore to myself I would do it when I started my journey.”
But it’s different now. Everything is different. I can see that now. “I was wrong. I was looking at it the wrong way. This Vision, it’s my Vision. I walked its roads. And as I did so, I created it around me. I made this world. It’s me.”
Protecting Vision from the demonkin is the same thing as protecting myself. “When I go back to the real world, my fate will be waiting there as it has been this whole time—I know that. But it’s not like it was when I left. I’m not who I was before I came to Vision.”
“So you say you have grown stronger?”
Shaking his head, Wataru continued. “I don’t think I’ve gotten stronger. In the real world I’m still just a kid. That’s why all I could do when things went bad was cry. Because I’m powerless.”
And I still am. I can’t do anything by myself. I cry when I’m lonely, and I tremble when I’m scared. I fear that what I loved will be taken from me, and I’m afraid of being hurt.
“The time just before I came to Vision, I was sure that I would never be so sad in my whole life. I thought I would never hate another person so much, or get so mad. I wanted to change my fate because I knew then I was the unhappiest I could ever be.
“But, when I came to Vision, I made friends and I had fun—a lot of fun. Sometimes so much that I forgot why I had set out on my journey in the first place. At the same time, I encountered things that were so sad they tore me apart, and times so scary I thought I might die from fright. I cried. I cried out loud. And I shook with fear. Sometimes I was so frightened I couldn’t even stand. But I couldn’t run away. I still had to continue my journey. I still wanted to reach the Tower of Destiny.
“And now that I’m finally here, I understand. My journey through Vision wasn’t to reach the Tower of Destiny at all. The journey itself was the point. It taught me that even if I relied on your power to change my destiny, it would only be this one time. I’m sure that I’ll know many more happy times, and many more sad times. I can’t avoid that. That’s life. And I can’t go asking to have my destiny changed every time something sad happens to me.”
Wataru never thought he would cry as hard as he did that night he crawled under his bed. But he cried when Kutz died. And he cried when Mitsuru faded into the mist.
And there would be more partings, more losses, more wounds, over and over, again and again. He could change his destiny a hundred times, and each time another loss or separation would be waiting for him on the other side.
As long as there is happiness, there will be sadness. As long as there is fortune, there will be misfortune.
“The joy and the sadness on my journey through Vision taught me that you can’t wait around for your fate to change. What’s real is something that not even the strength of the Goddess can change. The only one who can change it is me. If I don’t change my own destiny, if I don’t cut through the obstacles in my path, then no matter where I go, I’ll always be standing in the same place, doing the same thing over and over again, for the rest of my life.”
That’s why I have to protect Vision. That’s why I can’t let the demonkin win.
“But I—we are powerless to defeat the demonkin. Left as it is, the darkness will swallow Vision whole. That’s why my wish to you is to save Vision. Give my Vision a future. Give my friends a future.”
Wataru stopped talking and looked at the Goddess’s face. Her eyes were closed, though her eyelids were trembling, as though they might open at any moment and return his gaze.
But the Goddess’s eyes remained closed. Her white hand in his was motionless, without feeling, like the hand of a finely crafted doll.
“Even should this invasion be stopped, it does not ensure that Vision will have a future,” she said, slowly shaking her head. “You know this as well as I do. I fear that the Northern Empire and the Southern United Nations will not find harmony. The war will continue. Nor will the discrimination you saw on your travels end easily. Knowing this, would you still use your one chance to change your destiny in the real world to help the people of this Vision?”
Wataru was sure. “Yes. Absolutely.”
The endless, foolish, and stupid waging of war, the narrow minds that could only see what they believed and nothing else, impatient hands that reached only for the nearest, most convenient pleasures, all of this was part of Wataru’s Vision too.
It’s all in me.
“There’s a point to all the mistakes, the comebacks, the rethinking, the living—the living for all you’re worth. There’s a point to finding our own path. Please, give the people of Vision a chance to find theirs.”
Inside, Wataru was perfectly calm. He had said all there was to say. He was now filled with a soul-satisfying contentment.
He bowed his head again deeply.
Then he felt the Goddess’s slender fingers tighten around his own.
“Very well.”
The Goddess leaned forward and lifted Wataru’s chin in her hand. The smile had returned to her face. The aura enveloping her was dazzling to behold. “I shall grant your wish. Stand.”
Wataru stood, straightening himself as best he could.
“Give me your sword, the Demon’s Bane you have completed.”
Wataru drew the sword from the sheath at his waist, handing it to her with both hands.
The Goddess stood without a sound. “Look at your feet.”
Wataru lowered his eyes and gasped. Images were swirling across the circular dais beneath them.
Where once the Crystal Palace stood, the Mirror of Eternal Shadow now floated. It was supported on mist-like wings the color of night. Darkness swelled along its edge, and from that portal swarmed the demonkin armies. Even though it was just an image, the sight filled Wataru with unspeakable dread. He found his eyes glued to it, even as he stepped backward.
Demon’s Bane in her hand, the Goddess stepped forward, sweeping back the hem of her white dress. She thrust an arm straight before her, holding the blade directly above the image of the mirror. “Traveler Wataru. Here is your answer, from the Tower of Destiny given to the land below.” The point of the blade lowered, and the Goddess quietly released her grasp on the hilt. The sword began to fall, falling through the dais, into Vision, toward the Mirror of Eternal Shadow.
Down in Vision, everyone turned their eyes toward the sky.
A single beam of light came down from the heavens. It was the sword of light and it split the sky in two.
Then the piercing light sank into the Mirror of Eternal Shadow.
The great dark wings supporting the mirror flapped twice as if they were desperately clawing at the sky. After that, they began to fade. Without their support, the mirror tilted to its side. And just when it seemed as though the darkness brimming in the mirror might spill out, a bolt of lightning cracked the mirror to pieces.
The residents of Solebria witnessed the Mirror of Eternal Shadow splinter. First into two, then four, then eight, each crack spawning new fissures of its own, until it had broken into a thousand pieces.
The mirror now destroyed, the demonkin hordes were pulled back into the Dark from whence they came—their bodies reduced to black ash falling from the sky.
Everyone saw the source of their terror disappear in the blink of an eye. And before they could react in any way, the dusty remains quickly vanished.
People turned to each other.
They’re gone. They’ve left. The demonkin are no more.
It wasn’t long before the cheering began.
Just at that moment in Gasara, Kee Keema was standing on the roof of the branch office swinging his axe. One foul demonkin clawed at his head, another went for his throat, and a third clung to his back. The waterkin thrashed, trying to throw his assailants off, while Meena joined the fray, wielding a frying pan she had taken from the lodge kitchen.
“Off him! Fiend! Hang in there, Kee Keema!”
“Won’t these guys ever give up?” he roared. He was covered with wounds, but still fought on, snapping at a demonkin’s claws with his bared teeth. “You won’t take me down that easy!”
Kee Keema threw a demonkin aside, and Meena smacked it on the head with her frying pan.
And it disappeared.
They all disappeared. The countless demonkin swarming in the skies over Gasara faded away. Kee Keema and Meena stood, covered in black ash, dumbfounded.
“What was that?”
Kee Keema turned, spitting out a black clod of soot that had been a demonkin claw.
Their eyes met, and both of them looked up. Then they looked higher, toward the tower they knew stood there in the vault of the sky.
“It’s Wataru.”
By the gates of the town of Gasara, the Knights of Stengel fought for all they were worth. There were elderly and children to protect, and many more demonkin to kill. The gates must be defended to the death.
Looking to the left, a Knight could be seen throwing down his sword and picking up a flaming torch in its stead. To the right, a Knight lay prone, his life slowly ebbing from his body. Everywhere discarded greaves and helms were scattered on the ground.
“Don’t give them an inch! Push them back!” the captain yelled to his men. None among them were unscathed. The demonkin were strong and not easily felled. One after another the Knights were crushed by the black wings of death.
“Captain, look out!”
After cutting down several of the demonkin, Captain Ronmel had lifted a hand to wipe the streaming sweat from his eyes, and in that moment, a demonkin had launched at him. Caught off-guard, the captain stumbled. One of his Knights charged, but he was caught by a dive-bombing demonkin and tossed aside. The demonkin rattled its claws in victory.
“Captain!”
One of the Knights crawled out of the barricade and took off his helmet. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Everywhere around him black dust was falling.
What is this?
The demonkin horde had disappeared. All of Gasara hung thick with black soot, as though everyone in town had decided to clean their chimneys at the exact same moment.
But it wasn’t soot. It was the remains of the demonkin.
The men stood slack, unable to understand their sudden victory. The Knight who was tossed aside by a demonkin attack was back on his feet. “Captain, Captain!”
Ronmel was nowhere to be seen. All of the remaining Knights were covered in black. Not even the silver of their armor could shine through that dark falling mist. They gaped at the sky, waving their hands to brush aside the swirling particles where their enemy had been. Beneath a layer of grime, the hard expressions on their battle-weary faces softened into smiles.
Is it over?
It’s over.
As suddenly as it began.
Someone began singing a prayer to the Goddess. Everyone joined in.
And Captain Ronmel was nowhere to be seen.
The Knight was sure of what he had seen: a demonkin, its fangs buried into the captain’s neck, fangs stained red by a spray of blood. But now the demonkin were gone. All around him, the Knights were breathing sighs of relief, and cheering. It was the sound of victory.
The demonkin were gone. But so was their captain.
The Mirror of Eternal Shadow became dust, and the demonkin hordes became ash. Wataru quietly watched as the many particles of darkness found homes in the people of Vision, where they belonged. Blue skies returned to the city of Solebria.
Wataru turned to the Goddess. She was smiling.
“Thank you,” he said, returning her smile. “Thank you for granting my wish.”
Suddenly the Goddess knelt and hugged him tight. “Thank you,” she said, but the voice was that of a girl. Kaori Daimatsu. Wataru was sure of it. At once, his heart leaped, and forgetting his restraint and embarrassment, forgetting that this was the Goddess of Destiny, Wataru returned the girl’s embrace.
They sat there like that for a long time. In the warmth of the Goddess’s embrace, Wataru felt the warmth of so many others—his mother, Meena, Kee Keema, Kutz, and even Mitsuru.
“Now, Traveler. The time has come for you to return to your world,” the Goddess said gently, her hand on Wataru’s shoulder.
“I know.”
“Go the way in which you came. Descend the stairs from my dais. Wayfinder Lau awaits you at the bottom.” She stood, smoothing out the folds in her robes. Then she brushed Wataru’s hair with the tips of her fingers. “Farewell.”
Wataru looked up into her gentle smile and bowed deeply. Unable to find the appropriate words, he silently turned and left.
Wataru felt empty. He was happy and almost dizzy with relief. But with each step down the stairway he felt as though he were walking through a void.
I’m floating. My eyes are open, but I see nothing. I’m just swimming through an endless blue void.
It took him a long time before he noticed the silver boots, their toes covered with mud, and the clang, clang of steel-shod feet upon the stairs.
Captain Ronmel was standing on the landing just below him.
He looked up, saw Wataru, and once again resumed climbing slowly. He’s coming toward me.
Captain Ronmel held his silver helm under one arm. Blood and grit caked his wild blond hair. Several long scratches scored his chest plate. He walked slowly, tiredly, his shoulders hanging low. A wound gaped on his neck, the blood caked and dried.
“Captain Ronmel? Why are you here?”
Ronmel climbed until he was standing on the same landing as Wataru.
“This is the Tower of Destiny…why?”
He took a quiet breath before responding. “I was chosen.”
Wataru didn’t understand.
“I was chosen. To be the Half. To be the sacrifice,” the captain continued, his voice resonating in the empty space of the tower. “The other Half will join me in becoming a Lord of the Underworld, to raise once again the Great Barrier of Light. Together we will protect life in Vision for the next one thousand years.”
The sacrifices—Halnera.
“The…other half?”
Captain Ronmel put his grimy, cracked gauntlet on Wataru’s shoulder. “You completed your journey. That alone should be answer enough.”
Oh. Mitsuru.
“I go now to the Goddess. I’m glad we met here. To send off a Traveler from Vision is a great honor…it lessens the burden of sacrifice.” The edge of his mouth jerked upward into a smile.
The feel of the captain’s hand on his shoulder brought Wataru’s sense of touch back to him in a sudden rush. The strength returned to his legs. His blurred thoughts regained their focus.
“No tears,” Captain Ronmel said, his blue eyes fixing sternly on Wataru. “This is not a sad thing. Do not cry.”
Unable to speak, Wataru merely frowned and nodded.
“You were the one who broke the Mirror of Eternal Shadow?”
Wataru nodded again.
“On behalf of all the people of Vision, I thank you.”
Wataru remembered what he had to say. He had so many things to say, but one thing came out first. “Captain!”
No tears.
“I-I couldn’t save her. I let Kutz die.”
The captain raised an eyebrow then lowered his eyes. “I see.”
“She was guarding two children in Solebria. I don’t know what happened—but she kept fighting. Even when she dropped her whip she went at those demonkin with her bare hands.”
“How like her.”
Wataru choked back a sob.
“In Vision, when a person dies, they become light.”
“Kee Keema taught me.”
“Very well. And you know that eventually, she will be reborn?”
“Yes.”
The captain’s gaze softened, and the smile returned to his face. “Then I will be watching over the Vision into which Kutz is reborn. That suits me. That suits me quite well.”
Wataru knew he was wasn’t just putting on a brave face—he truly meant what he said.
“And I hope that when a thousand years are past, and my duty is finally complete, I too will become light. Then I’ll be reborn in the same place as her, so many lives later. We never did finish our last argument to my satisfaction.”
Now he’s posing.
“Tell the truth. You don’t want to argue with her again.”
The captain threw his head back and laughed. “Go now. I would like to be the last to see you off on your final journey.”
For a moment he stood there, looking at the captain.
“Brave Traveler,” Captain Ronmel put his fist to his chest in the Knights’ salute. “May the Goddess of Destiny watch over you, even in the real world.”
“Thank you.” Wataru returned his salute, and began to walk. He could feel the captain’s gaze on him, pushing him.
He didn’t look back.
At the bottom of the stairs, Wayfinder Lau was waiting, just as the Goddess had said. He stood casually with his staff held in both arms. He looked as if he had just sent Wataru on some errand and was impatiently waiting for him to return.
“Shall we?” Wataru said, coming to a stop before him.
The Swamp of Grief and the translucent collage of towns and villages were gone. He now walked through a void much like the one swirling around the staircase. Wataru walked quietly, following behind the Wayfinder. He couldn’t even see what they were walking on.
His mind went blank, as empty as his surroundings.
Then the Porta Nectere loomed into view—the giant gate between the real world and Vision, its apex lost in clouds and mist.
It seemed like a thousand years had already passed since he last saw it.
Wayfinder Lau stopped a good distance before reaching the gate. Tilting his head, he gave Wataru an inquisitive look. “You have given the Demon’s Bane back to the Goddess?”
“Yes.”
“Then to me you must return the pendant that marks you as a Traveler.”
As directed, Wataru gave back the pendant. Wayfinder Lau took it and put it in a pocket of his robe. “You journeyed well.”
“Thank you.”
“Your adventure is your own. No one may ever take it from you.”
“Yes.”
The Wayfinder’s long whiskers swayed. Maybe he was smiling, but even if he was, it was only for a second. Still, for that moment, the loud, ornery old man seemed like a different person entirely.
I’m going home. I no longer belong to Vision. I have to remember there will always be a wall between myself and Wayfinder Lau’s world. It is a wall that I will never cross again.
The Wayfinder placed a thin hand like a withered branch of a tree on Wataru’s shoulder. “Little child of man who must live in the real world. I shall not meet you again. May your journey through the rest of your life be as fortunate as your journey through Vision.”
Wataru nodded. “Wayfinder, I have a request.”
The old man’s eyebrows twitched.
“What could you possibly want at this end of ends?”
Wataru took off his firewyrm bracelet and handed it to him. “I want you…to take this back for me. Take it back to the people who will know what it means—this will tell them that I have finished my journey successfully and returned to the real world.”
Wayfinder Lau made such a sour face that Wataru suddenly became worried. “Did…I ask too much?”
“It is not a difficult request, boy. But I think there is no need. Your traveling companions should already know of your safe return by now.”
“Still, if you would. Please, give it to them.”
Wataru bowed. Wayfinder Lau stood motionless.
Then Wataru heard a sigh from above his head. “Very well, very well. I shall take the armband. I suppose it can’t hurt.”
Wataru’s heart skipped.
“Mmm?” Wayfinder Lau suddenly looked up toward the sky. “Ah, we’ll get quite a good view from here, I should think.”
Wataru followed Wayfinder Lau’s gaze upward.
High up in the void above them, a glimmering white curtain of light flowed elegantly across the sky. Its radiance was breathtaking, like an aurora of pure light that grew and grew until it filled Wataru’s eyes. Its gentle curves softly ebbed through the air, like the fingers of a mother upon an infant’s head.
“The new Barrier of Light,” Wayfinder Lau said quietly.
The shining curtain swept the sky with a fresh radiance, drawing farther and farther away as it headed for its destination where it would remain for the next one thousand years.
“Halnera is finished. And you saw it happen.”
Wataru nodded and reached out to grab Wayfinder Lau’s hand. He held it firmly, saying nothing.
Then he turned and looked up at the Porta Nectere.
Without a sound, the great white gates slid open. After Wataru passed over the threshold, they would not open for another decade. When they did swing open again, another Traveler would enter Vision. For Wataru, his journey was over.
“Wataru,” Wayfinder Lau called out. “In time, you will forget Vision. You will forget this extraordinary adventure. But the truth shall remain within you.”
“The truth…”
Everything I’ve learned on my journey. I get to keep all that.
“You will have your truth, but only when you leave,” Wayfinder Lau said sternly. He then stepped aside, opening the path for Wataru. “Go home now, Traveler. You must live out your life as a child of the real world.”
Wataru walked forward step by irreversible step. The gates were open, welcoming him.
What was waiting for him back home? What would he feel back in the real world? How would he live back in his old life?
However I want to.
When he first came here, Wataru was alone. Now I’m not. Everyone’s with me. Mitsuru, and Kutz; Meena, and Kee Keema too. And the Goddess in all her beauty…
In the National Observatory at Lourdes, Dr. Baksan stood quietly atop his wooden boots and looked out the window. Romy stood by his side.
“Doctor,” she called to him.
“I know what you would say. But now, you should be quiet.” And, he thought to himself, you should be observing this, my wayward students. All of you!
“It’s disappearing, isn’t it?”
The old scholar did not respond. Together, the two stared at the sky in silence.
After a time, he turned to his young student. “The Porta Nectere will be closing now,” he said, punctuating his declaration with a sudden, violent sneeze.
Romy quickly reached out, grabbing the old scholar by his collar so he wouldn’t topple off his boots and fall straight out the window.
The Spectacle Machine circus troupe had set up its great tent just outside the town of Gasara. But there was no performance. The tent was being used as a makeshift hospital and a refugee camp.
The town doctor was busy. Even if there had been two of him, he would still not be able to get everything done. Meena, who had so recently been fending off demonkin with a frying pan, was helping as a nurse.
She didn’t want to stop. She was afraid she might start to think about everything that had happened recently. She kept her mind on the task at hand, and she was grateful that she was needed to deal with emergency after emergency. A child crying over there, an injured man moaning over here. Where’re the bandages? Where’s the salve?
“Meena!” Bubuho stood at the entrance to the grand tent. “Over here. Granny wants to speak with you.”
Meena wove through the cots, sometimes stepping over people to get to the door.
“I wish I had five or six more hands, they’ve got me so busy. Does Granny need me right away?”
“Ask her yourself—she’s right outside,” Bubuho said, a gentle look in his eyes. “And you need to rest. Even just to catch your breath. I can see the worry swimming in your eyes.”
Meena stepped outside. Granny had pulled out a small table and chair where she now sat. She was gazing into the depths of her crystal ball.
Evening had come while Meena was busy tending to patients. The darkening pink of dusk stretched above her head. The evil black shadows of the demonkin were nowhere to be seen.
Wataru saved us. He went to the Goddess and wished the demonkin away.
—Later, Meena.
She remembered his words as they stood next to the walls of Solebria.
It had been a promise, one he kept.
What about Wataru’s wish? Was this the end Wataru wanted for his journey? All the questions she had desperately tried to keep from asking were now welling up inside.
Meena reprimanded herself. She pushed aside all the other questions, finding the one that resonated the strongest, shaking her heart.
Will I ever see Wataru again?
Then she shook her head. It’s my own fault. He’s from the real world. He was a Traveler.
Granny noticed her footsteps, and hunching over even further, she looked around. “Ah, you’ve come.” Granny gave the crystal ball a light pat with her fingers. She extended her hand toward Meena. “You will not need to look into the ball to see. Here, lend me a hand.”
Meena took Granny’s withered hand in hers. The old woman tugged at her, leading her farther away from the great tent. Then she looked up. “Do you see?”
Meena’s gaze turned skyward. Even the beauty of the sunset failed to stir her. “Granny, there’s nothing. Just…nothing.”
“It is disappearing,” the old woman said, pointing a finger at a quarter of the sky.
There hung a pinpoint of sharp red light. It had been there for weeks. For Meena, sometimes it had seemed even more evil than the demonkin.
But now the Blood Star’s light was fading. Even as she watched, it was absorbed into the night sky.
Halnera was ending.
The next thousand years for Vision were beginning.
At the edge of the Swamp of Grief, Shin Suxin took off his glasses and began to massage his knotted shoulders with the palm of his hand. While in Tearsheaven, the gatekeeper stopped sweeping up the remains of the demonkin for a moment and looked up into the sky. By her mother Satami’s bed, Sara put a hand on the window.
The dragons were returning to their island. The wounded Jozo sat nestled between his parents, looking up through a crack in the rocks.
Lady Zophie, reunited at last with General Adja’s troops, lifted the heavy canvas flap of her pavilion and watched the sky. In her mind’s eye, she could still see Mitsuru’s profile as he stood in the Crystal Palace.
In the remains of the sula woods where the Triankha Hospital had once stood, a quiet wind blew. Small animals ran over and under the fallen branches. Nearby, a waterkin looked up at the twilight sky from the driver’s seat of his darbaba cart.
Halnera had ended.
The Great Barrier of Light was remade anew. May the Goddess reign in eternity.
“Meena, Meena!” It was Puck calling her. She looked around to see him jumping to and fro by the side of the great circus tent. Kee Keema was with him, his face looking sad and tired, and his shoulders sagging more than she had ever seen them before.
“Puck, what is it?”
“A white bird just flew by!”
“A white bird?”
“Yep! He stopped right on my shoulder. And then when I looked, he was gone! But guess what, he left something!”
Puck held out his hand. There, in the middle of his palm rested a firewyrm band.
Wataru’s armband. Meena put a hand to her mouth.
“This belongs to your friend, didn’t it? It’s a Highlander band, isn’t it?”
“It’s Wataru’s,” Kee Keema said. “He is saying goodbye to us. He’s saying he made it to the Tower of Destiny, met the Goddess, and saved Vision for us. And then he left—back to his own world. That’s what it means.”
I know it, and it’s a great thing, so why do I feel so sad, Kee Keema’s eyes seemed to ask. He wiped his face with the back of one hand.
Meena took the armband in her fingers and held it to her cheek. She was crying.
“Meena, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” Puck asked, flustered. Meena slowly knelt on the ground, hiding her face in her hands.
Wataru had left. He was gone from Vision.
His journey was over.
“We didn’t even say goodbye, did we?” Kee Keema mumbled, his eyes swimming in tears.
Meena gave him a great big hug.
“You don’t say goodbye!” Puck shouted, doing another flip. “Meena, weren’t you the one who told us not to say goodbye?”
Meena wiped away her tears and looked up. “Did I say that? What did I teach you to say, Puck?”
Puck beamed with pride, sticking out his chest. “Be well, you said! Be well!”
Meena looked at Kee Keema, and the two smiled. “Yes. Those are just the words, I think.”
The Blood Star had now completely disappeared from the darkening sky above Gasara. As night’s curtain was drawn, the stars began to shine. They began in the darkest point near the top then fell down to the horizon, painting the sky, leading Vision into gentle sleep.
Meena and Kee Keema hugged each other close and looked up. In their hearts they whispered to Wataru, knowing he would hear them.
Our Traveler, and our traveling companion: we wish for your happiness, as you wished for ours.
Be well.