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Violet keened sadly, twining around Gem’s legs as she placed her wizard hat down, next to fWhip’s scarf and goggles. Her staff was last, laid diagonally across to fit on the small pyre.
fWhip soothed her, calling the baby dragon over to himself with a whistle-click and gently preening the scales on her head as Gem adjusted the last components on the pyre, built to the best of her memory. She had only seen a Mythland funeral once, and had only ever read about Helianthian rituals.
Now she had to honor both, as best as she could.
As best as they could, she reminded herself, fWhip coming up to rest a hand on her shoulder. She still had fWhip. Two out of the original four.
Violet chirped, and Gem picked her up, letting her lick at a speck of dirt on her neck. She must have brushed some off her hands by accident when taking her hat off.
“We should send her to Jade,” fWhip said softly. “The fire might scare her.”
Creatures of the End didn’t like fire. Gem put Violet down, making sure she had her wobbly newborn feet steady underneath her before giving her the chirp-command to go find the older dragon they had flown away from the end of the world on.
With Violet safely away, there was nothing stopping them from lighting the pyre and being done with the makeshift funeral.
Gem and fWhip stood in silence, seemingly endless like the deadly drift of ash that had begun to fall after the explosion, and hadn’t stopped.
“One time,” fWhip started. “After the ravine. I found Sausage, he was sitting by it, and we were supposed to go to Pearl’s for a meeting, but he was just watching Jimmy on the other side of the ravine. I think he was building that wall they fought over later. And Sausage, he asked me how I knew that things would be okay, every time I set off an explosion or did something dumb.”
She stayed silent. fWhip looked down, hands twisting and untwisting. “I told him that I didn’t, that half the time I knew it wouldn’t be okay. You just have to make it right, whatever it takes. I think he went and gave Jimmy back his disc for real, after that.”
Now it was Gem’s turn. “When he came back, after he died, and he was trying so hard to earn everyone’s forgiveness. I snapped at him, I told him he could never make it right.”
fWhip winced.
“I thought he wouldn’t come back, that I’d have to go to Mythland and apologize to him. But then, when I started rebuilding some of my buildings, he was there with wood and iron and just helped me build, even after I’d yelled at him.”
She dug her nails into her palm, forcing the tears back. “He was there, even though I never said sorry.”
“Did you know that Pearl fought the demon, one time?” fWhip asked. Gem shook her head.
“She did, she took them on and she won . He had ravagers, potion effects, she was blind and with a diamond sword and weakness three on her, and she still defeated him and everything it threw at her.”
Gem chuckled brokenly. “We should have just sent Pearl by herself to the End and let her beat Xornoth up. Maybe none of this would have happened.”
She was never going to hear Sausage make fun of her hat ever again.
Never spar with Pearl, never take on hordes of zombies together and win, never talk about magic and farming and just about things, never spend time with her best friend ever again.
They were gone.
fWhip’s arms were ready for her when she turned, burying her face in his shoulder with a sob, forced silence even as she shook. fWhip’s tears were falling onto her face, mixing with hers.
The sun was shining, birds sung, bees buzzed. They were far enough away that the endless ash had ceased to fall, the air was breathable and clear again, there was no fire and death and horrible silence.
But there was a light in the world that was gone.
Their family was dead .
Sausage and Pearl, arguably the toughest of them, if not the strongest. Sausage had been allied with the demon , for goodness’ sake. He survived death once. Pearl had fought Xornoth and won .
The world was empty, hollow. If not for fWhip by her side and Violet, she would have had nothing left.
Brushing the wetness off her face, she stepped away from fWhip, looking away as he wiped his own tears discreetly.
One last incantation, and the pyre was ablaze, small objects and charms catching fire, a bracelet Pearl had given her, the orange scarf Sausage had worn to match with fWhip, anything they could salvage from the Cliffs before they had fled the devastation.
The signs of their empires burned, fWhip’s scarf and goggles, Gem’s hat and staff.
Wizard Gemini of the Crystal Cliffs was dead. She was just Gem, now.
They stayed until the pyre had faded to glowing embers and the sun was sinking below the horizon. Only then did Gem step back, let fWhip douse the final flickers in dirt and place the gravestone he had engraved into it.
Sausage of Mythland
Pearl of Gilded Helianthia
The best friends anyone could ask for
In the growing darkness, with the empty grave of their fallen family, fWhip began to hum the Grimland’s burial hymn, one of the few traditions that weren’t practical or rational. A farewell to loved ones, and a wish for their safety in the journey to the afterlife.
“ The leaves fall from the trees,
Bones decay in the earth,
Your time has come, hear my final plea.”
Gem joined him, song wobbly and rusty from years away from her empire of birth.
“ Your home is by our hearth,
Your soul is free,
Return to the land of old,
Safe and wreathed in gold.”
The notes echoed in the night air, even the ever-persistent hum of magic in Gem’s ears abated, honoring their guardian’s grief.
There was nothing more to do, nothing left to say. But they lingered, the night growing darker, until the clatter of a skeleton rattled nearby.
Hands clasped tightly, Gem and fWhip walked away from the grave. Walked away from the end of the world, from the pain of death, from everything that had happened and would never change.
~~~
Somewhere far, far away, a dark mage tore his way through swarms of the undead, picking solid bones and bits of rare unrotted organ out of the carnage. Sheep the color of freshly spilled blood followed in his footsteps, stares hateful and rage filled even as he forced them into obedience.
He was going to bring them back, no matter what it took. No being, no power that be would stop him. Not this time. They brought him back, Gem and Pearl and fWhip. Brought him back from the Spirit Realm beyond despite everything he had done.
He would not fail them again.
The first and only Sorcerer Supreme of a fallen empire, the last living ruler that he knew of, with one goal in mind and one alone.
Bring his family back.