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The Abernant sisters stand together, arms around each other’s sides and holding each other up. Though they feel as full and as alive as ever, they hold on tight, as though they will both collapse without the other for support. From the top of the steps, they stare out at the forest of dreams and illusions around them, the aftermath of their battle. Scorch marks and frost patches from Burning Hands and Ice Storm spells. Scattered shards of glass and splinters of wood from broken mirrors and broomsticks. Blood and scraps of clothing spilled and strewn everywhere. A large deep red splotch splattered and soaked into the wood and stone around the wrecked cottage, the same shade as what stained and dripped from Aelwyn’s hands and sleeves, from Adaine’s shirt, with a wide ugly tear through the middle revealing a large gnarled scar over her chest.
And their mother, crumpled and weeping, only a few yards away.
“This woman is not of your number.” The great goddex Cassandra says Adaine looks up and behind at them to listen. “She was here to attempt to control me, in my hurt and shattered state, is that correct?”
Adaine looks into her sister’s eyes, still red from exhaustion and tears. She nods, confidently, back to the goddex. “That’s her M.O., yes. That’s what she tries to do to people. Control them in their hurt and battered states.” She squeezes her sister’s arm, and feels Aelwyn’s fingers tighten on her side.
“Pretty sure she lost her magic, though,” Fig points out. She shares a grin with Adaine.
“That’s true.”
Kristen laughs. “That’s what I heard, yeah.”
“Yeah.” Adaine looks among her friends. Aelwyn stares down at their mother, not yet fully believing all she’s seen.
“Here in my forest, dreams are very real, and you were very clever in learning that.” Cassandra smiles, and lifts their arm to point a heavenly finger at the elf woman kneeling in hysterics on the ground. “Let’s make that permanent, shall we?”
A swirling jet of twilight spins out from their finger and envelopes Arianwen for a minute, before dissipating in a shimmer of stars. She howls out in anguish. The sisters watch and hold each other close.
“Oh, a fate worse than death,” Adaine comments, unable to keep herself from smirking. A breeze ripples the tattered fabric of her shirt and tickles her skin.
Something flashes in Arianwen’s eyes. She pushes herself up on trembling arms to sit up, just enough to lift her head and see what has become of all she had striven for. Her hair lay in messy, unkempt strands all around her head, her skin scarred and bruised, her glasses bent and askew, her face wet and red with tears and emotion. She stares at her daughters and sobs, reaching out a desperate hand to them.
Adaine feels Aelwyn begin to lurch or step forward, but hesitate. She squeezes her older sister’s arm again. They frown and stay still and silent, staring at the pitiful wreck of their mother.
Behind them, they hear Fig ask something, and Cassandra chuckle. “Come into my hands,” they say, and the sisters glance back to see the goddex lowering cupped hands with open palms to the ground. “I shall take you home.”
“Oh,” says Gorgug.
“All of us?” Adaine asks.
“I had the thought,” Gorgug continued, beginning to climb up.
“You’re going to throw us?” Fabian askes, wide-eyed.
“No, I’ll carry you,” Cassandra reassures them.
“That’s awesome,” Fig grins. “That’s a great god.”
“Awesome,” Fabian agrees. They all begin to climb into the goddex’s hands, while Gorgug scrambles up their arm to say something in their ear.
Aelwyn and Adaine stay standing, stay watching their mother. Through tears and crooked and cracked glasses, Arianwen stares at them and reaches out, crawling inch by inch closer. “Girls,” she says, whimpering, the weakest command. Her fingers twitch as though attempting to cast a spell, though no magic whatsoever sparks from her fingertips. They frown and do not move.
“Are you speaking of a pentacorn, a unicorn with five horns and twenty legs?” Cassandra asks behind them. Adaine glances back, seeing the goddex involved in some conversation with Gorgug on their shoulder.
“No, I think we’re talking about a bus with hands for wheels,” Fig says. Adaine snorts and stifles a laugh, while Aelwyn looks confused. “Is that what you’re talking about, Gorgug?”
“I don’t fully remember.”
“Yes, it was a bus with hands for wheels,” Adaine chimed in, nodding. She leaves their mother behind and joins her friends on Cassandra’s hands, bringing Aelwyn along still close at her side. Arianwen howls again behind them.
“Yeah,” Gorgug continues. “If I dream it, will it be real?”
Cassandra smiles at him. “Yes, in your heart. Alright, let’s move on.”
The Bad Kids laugh. “That’s so sweet, Gorgug,” Fig says, giving him a friendly elbow to the side as he slides back down Cassandra’s arm to join them in their hands.
“I just kinda wanted to see if it would be real,” he shrugs.
A disconcerting noise comes from the treeline.
“Ew,” Fabian exclaims in disgust, the first to spot the Vands skittering and crawling out from the forest. A chorus of amused, confused, and horrified noises goes up among the Bad Kids and their crew. On the ground, Arianwen turns to see them, and her eyes go wide in terror. She shouts in surprise and falls back, trying to crawl backwards away from them as much as possible, and holding up an arm to shield herself as the Vands approach.
“Arianwen,” Cassandra says and stands, lifting the Bad Kids and company up into their air on their hands. The elven woman looks up with wide eyes and sees the faces of not only the goddex but her two daughters staring down at her and pulling away, far away from her reach. She scrambles to her feet and holds her arms out desperately to them. “You came here of your own accord, and you will leave here as such.” Cassandra smiles. “Perhaps you can get the Vands to help you.”
She glances back to see the Vands approaching again and screams, taking off down the stairs. Adaine smiles a ruthless, spiteful smile.
“Seems very character-building to me,” she says, holding her sister close. “Character-building exercise for you to get out of this forest.”
“No more magic,” Fig chuckles.
From the steps, Arianwen pauses for just a moment and whirls back, throwing her arms out to the girls and calling out, one last time, a harsh and angry and anguished and scared and desperate look on her face. “Daughters, you would not abandon me here! There is love between us still!”
Aelwyn’s jaw tightens. Adaine catches the glance she casts at her sideways and nods. “Love without expectation?” Aelwyn answers, softly, but loud enough for every word to reach Arianwen like a dagger through the back. She glares back down at her mother, eyes steely. She scoffs and smirks. “What’s that?”
Adaine’s arm tightens around her sister and pulls her even closer, their arms and shoulders pressing so close as to be inseparable. “I have no idea.”
Arianwen howls out again, stumbles to her knees, sobs, and continues racing down the steps being chased by the Vands. She disappears from the sisters’ view as Cassandra begins to move, taking mile-wide steps and carrying them off through the forest. Adaine and Aelwyn simply watch as their mother is left behind from their world. They hold each other close.
They are carried back to Arborly. They laugh and talk and cry and lean on each other and recount their experiences. Adaine sits and Aelwyn presses her face into her shoulder and simply weeps. Adaine keeps a comforting arm around her, and laughs along with her friends over Fig’s Sexy Rat and Fabian’s protests. They are all fully healed now, in as complete a state as they’d been in so many days; yet after so long, the lack of exhaustion and physical pain is so foreign to their bodies it feels simply wrong.
Where the briar wall once was, Adaine finds the jacket she shed and the orb she left behind.
“Motherfucker,” Adaine says, laughing. She picks up the jacket and pulls her arms through the warm, wool-lined sleeves with a comforted smile.
“Adaine,” Aelwyn says. Though they no longer held each other up and walked on their own, she hasn’t left her sister’s side once yet. “That’s the orb Father gave you, right?”
“Yeah, on the first day of school last year.” She bends down and picks it up, cradling the large, smooth glass surface in her hands and seeing her face reflected in the curved surface. “Some kind of piece of shit arcane focus.”
“You left it behind?” Aelwyn asks.
Adaine nods. “Yeah. I had to…I couldn’t bring anything with me when I went into the forest. Nothing that would help me,” she explains, looking off into the trees. “I knew I’d have to follow my fears and that’s...being powerless, I guess.” She shrugs and glances back at her sister, heading back from whence they came.
“What are you going to do with it now, then?” Aelwyn asks, following.
“I’m going to throw this fucking thing into the sea,” Adaine answers definitively.
Aelwyn frowns, her brow furrowing. “Adaine, it’s your arcane focus,” she says, a mild protest. “You should keep it, it’s--”
“A ‘gift’ from Father,” Adaine scoffs. “I don’t need it. I’m strong now. And I have a new one now, anyway,” she continues. The Sword of Sight, hanging from the holster on her hip, bumps into her leg as she walks and thrums with magic.
“A focus, or a gift?” Aelwyn asks.
Adaine smiles. “Both.”
“One thing left,” Adaine says later as she crawls back to her claimed seat in the Hangvan. Aelwyn squeezes in beside her.
“What’s left?” she asks. Adaine’s hands already glow with magic as she casts a spell, a shimmering mist appearing and taking shape between them. Aelwyn watches, quiet as not to disturb her sister in the middle of a spell. The Sword of Sight at her side glows dimly and warmly with arcane energy.
An hour later, the spell is complete. The mist swirls and forms itself into an almost perfectly spherical, perfectly green, perfectly content frog. The arcane light fades from Adaine’s eyes and she smiles brightly, almost squealing in delight as she picks up and hugs her familiar close to her chest.
“Boggy!” she coos. The frog ribbits cheerfully in her arms. “You’re back!”
Some of the other Bad Kids turn to see and voice their approval, happy to see everyone’s favorite emotional support frog join them again. Even Aelwyn couldn’t help but smile a little.
“Find Famliar,” she says, nodding slightly. “I see.”
“Have I shown you Boggy yet?” Adaine asks. “This is Bogariel Frogariel. Here,” she holds him out for Aelwyn. She hesitates, but takes the frog and holds him in her lap after a beat anyway. He ribbits happily, and she must admit, it’s comforting.
“He’s a very good frog,” Aelwyn says, smiling. Adaine beams. Aelwyn hands him back and Adaine takes him gently, almost reverently.
“I had to dispel him in the Forest,” Adaine explains, hugging him close again. “I missed him.” Aelwyn leans over and wraps her arms around her sister in a sideways hug as well; Adaine presses her face into her shoulder. “I missed you, too.”
“So did I.”
They go back to Leviathan for a night, on Ayda’s request, and spend a night partying it up with Garthy O’Brien in the Gold Gardens. Aelwyn watches Adaine slip outside and pitch the orb as far as she can out to sea. It hits the water with a satisfying splash and disappears under the waves. Back inside, it’s hard for Aelwyn to process just how kind and welcoming the proprietor of the Gold Gardens is to her and the rest of the group, and can’t help but weep a bit when they make it their focus that night to help her relax and enjoy herself as much as possible. Aelwyn takes a drink and a smoke and a cushioned seat at a table near the stage where a beautiful lounge singer performs her set. She watches the Bad Kids go nuts with their fun, the adults unwind a little and have their awkward conversations, sees Adaine and Fig happily and nervously speaking with their school headmaster and the half-phoenix girl who’d joined them in their quest. It feels odd, in a way. Aelwyn used to be so good at partying, she used to let loose, dangerously so. It was her only escape, her only release, her only temporary reprieve from the burden of her parents’ expectations and control. She sips her drink and zones out. It doesn’t feel the same anymore. This isn’t rebellion anymore, this is just a party for party’s sake. She isn’t used to that yet. She’s not quite sure yet how to enjoy herself.
After Leviathan, they return to the mainland to head back home. It’s a long drive from Arborly to Elmville. The gang travels all day for almost a week, stopping at nights to camp out, sleeping as many people in the van as they can fit and pitching tents for those who can’t, or simply resting out under the stars when the weather is nice. The Nightmare King and Kalina were no more, the excitement and danger and thrill of adventure now reduced solely to placating confused and angry travellers they blow past on the road, or getting kicked out for being loud and rowdy in taverns along the way; nevertheless, the lingering anxiety of nightmares and ambushes in the night found them still taking watches each night. Of course, most of the kids stay up late most nights anyway, talking and laughing long hours away into the night like their road trip truly was a vacation, an extended sleepover.
Aelwyn usually finds herself sitting alone on the top of the van, staring into the starry sky in silent contemplation. She doesn’t feel completely comfortable with the Bad Kids just yet; after all, she did try to kill them the last time she saw them, and in fact, that was one of the last things she could even remember before this whole whirlwind had happened. It’s odd trying to be friends with your younger sister’s friends, it’s odder still realizing you really have none of your own. It’s odd to be on her own for the first time, finally away from the controlling clutches of her parents. It’s odd feeling real love for the first time.
“Aelwyn? Are you out here?” she hears Adaine ask one night. She glances down from the roof of the Hangvan, her younger sister standing on the ground looking up at her.
“Little sister,” she greets, pulling her legs up from dangling over the edge and hugging them to her chest. “Yes.”
“Why aren’t you inside with us?”
“I wanted some air.”
“Are you going to trance soon?”
“I wasn’t planning on it.”
“Okay,” Adaine says. “Can I join you?”
A beat. Then, “Yes. Absolutely.”
Adaine climbs up on top of the van and sits beside her sister. There is space between them, but only a little. Adaine dangles her legs over the edge of the van and sits a content Boggy in her lap.
“Why aren’t you inside, dear sister?” Aelwyn returns the question.
“I love my friends, really, but they can be a lot sometimes,” Adaine answers, chuckling. Aelwyn nods, thinking back to the party in Leviathan. Adaine brushes a loose bit of hair out of her face and tucks it behind her ear. “It’s a lot of noise. I just needed a breather. How are you doing?” she asks, also staring off into the night sky.
“I…” Aelwyn sighs. “I’m not sure.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” Adaine asks. “You can hold Boggy, if you’d like,” she offers, after Aelwyn doesn’t respond. She sees her sister consider this, and tilt her head a little, shifting to lower her arm around her legs. Adaine takes the cue and places her frog on her sister’s shoulder. He ribbits, happy to be here.
“I suppose I simply...don’t know where we go from here,” she says after a pause.
“Elmville,” Adaine answers. “You can stay with me and the rest of us in Mordred Manor. There’s lots of space. You can have your own room if you want,” she offers, “but we can put bunks in mine. I’d be happy with you staying in my room.”
“Yes, well…I mean, more figuratively, where we go from here. Or, where I go from here, I suppose.”
“What do you mean?”
Aelwyn sighed again. “You have your little Bad Kid friends--”
“They can be yours too, you know,” Adaine points out. Aelwyn chuckles once.
“Sure. And you still have, what, a year at school?”
“Two years. Plus a couple of months. This was spring break.”
“Right. Well, you have that ahead of you still. And then after that, I’m sure, university, or further studies and the like?”
Adaine nods. “I’m thinking of looking at state schools, yeah.” Aelwyn chuckles again, as does Adaine. “Well, I’m sure as hell not going back to Fallinel anytime soon.”
“Mum and Dad would hate that.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“Well, that’s good. Good for you,” Aelwyn says, without a hint of malice. “Really. It’s good for you to have a plan.” She looks off at the stars. Adaine begins to realize what’s up.
“Well, I mean, we’re going to find something for you too, once we get back to Elmville,” she says assuredly.
Aelwyn laughs. “Yes, I’m sure they’ll roll the red carpet out for my return, after all the crimes I’ve committed there.”
“I’ve talked to Professor Aguefort, he says he’ll help you. Solace grants people amnesty when they become citizens.”
“I doubt they’ll take me.”
“Sure they will. Professor Aguefort will vouch for you. If he could help Fabian’s crazy pirate dad, he can help you. Maybe you’ll just have to do some community service or something, but we’ll get it worked out.”
“Heh. And then what?”
“Whatever you want, I guess,” Adaine shrugs. “You could go back to school.”
“Oh, I’m sure Hudol will have expelled me by now.”
“Fuck Hudol. Come to the Adventuring Academy with me.” Adaine glances at her sister, raising her brows.
"Oh, I'm too old for that now," Aelwyn protests.
"Go to college, then. Or join a party. You’re a really good wizard, Aelwyn. I mean it. You could be a really good adventurer if you wanted.”
“I know, I know, it’s…” she sighs again. Boggy nuzzles against her cheek. “I don’t think I’m cut out for it.”
“I didn’t think I was either when I started,” Adaine points out. “Aguefort was never the plan, but look at me now. I’m actually kind of glad I failed that exam to get into Hudol.” She laughs.
“You truly are quite the adventurer now, I must say.”
“Hey, you too.” Aelwyn makes a noise of protest and Adaine cuts her off. “Really, Aelwyn. You were sneaking around sealing people in crystals and altering memories and conjuring elemental cheerleaders and writing your own spells and going into a crazy battle and you nearly beat us all together completely on your own. You survived a year of torture in prison and came out the other side alive and still fighting. You stood up to Father to save me and you fought with us against Mother and we would never have been able to win without you. You saved and hid away a piece of your own mind that they were always searching for and never found to protect yourself in case you ever survived and escaped. You’ve got what it takes, Aelwyn, you’re a badass . You’re terrifying. You’re as much of an adventurer as the rest of us.”
Aelwyn tries to take pride in what her sister says, she really does. But she purses her lips and squints, trying and failing to blink back tears. Her head droops and she presses her face into her arms, weeping.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Adaine says, scooting over and rubbing her back gently, comfortingly. Boggy nuzzles her face again and ribbits softly.
“I’m not, I’m not,” Aelwyn mutters through sobs. “I’m sorry.”
“You are. You can do anything. You’re strong.”
“I couldn’t,” Aelwyn protests, shaking her head and her shoulders. “I -- everything I did someone told me to do. Kalina or Mum or Dad, I couldn’t -- it was always them, I did everything for -- I’m sorry,” she chokes out. “And when you rescued me, and I could’ve -- I could’ve, but I didn’t, I went right back, I’m sorry, I’m sorry Adaine.”
Adaine moves to pull her sister’s arms away enough to squeeze Boggy in for her to hold, then wraps her arms around her sister in a tight hug. “Hey. Shh. It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”
“It is, I did everything--”
“No. You were scared and you were hurt and they manipulated you and that’s not fair, but it’s also not your fault. And they’re all gone now. Father is dead, Kalina is dead, Mother is gone. They can’t hurt us anymore, they can never tell you what to do ever again.”
She feels her sister’s shoulders shudder as she cries. “I don’t know what to do now,” Aelwyn says in the quietest voice after a short silence. “I don’t -- I’ve never known. I’ve always been told. I don’t know what to do.”
“We’ll figure something out. You can figure something out. I promise.”
“I’ll fuck it up. I know.”
“That’s okay,” Adaine says. Aelwyn picks her head up at that, glances through misty eyes at her little sister. “Everybody makes mistakes. We’ve all fucked up before, and we’re always gonna keep fucking up.”
Aelwyn sniffles and looks away. “I made a mistake. I left you. I left you in -- in Elmville, in Fallinel, in the Forest, I...I’ve made so many mistakes.”
Adaine rubs her back in soft circles. “And I’m still here. I’ll still fight for you, and for your mistakes.”
“I didn’t know. I didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry. I felt so...I’m so lost, Adaine. I don’t know what’s right anymore.”
Adaine takes a deep breath and lets it out, slowly. “I’m not sure either. But...I think that’s just something we figure out and decide for ourselves. You do what feels right, and you fight for it, and if things change, then you keep going. Someone’s always gonna be against you, but...someone else’ll always be on your side, too.”
Aelwyn sniffs again and glances to her sister. “Always?”
Adaine nods and frowns off at the night sky. “I think so. I don’t think we’re ever alone.”
“I feel pretty alone,” Aelwyn says.
“Well, I’m here,” Adaine answers. “And the Bad Kids, and everyone else. We’re here now. And I’ve always been here, and I always will be.”
Aelwyn takes a deep breath and leans into her sister, who wraps her in another side hug. They stare off into the starry sky again in comfortable silence, Aelwyn hugging Boggy to her chest. Slowly her composure comes back to her, her sniffling and tears stop, her cheeks dry and her eyes clear.
“It’s hard to...I can’t believe I ever...thought I...knew what I was doing. What was right,” Aelwyn says, quietly. “Listened to them. Every word they said, did everything they ever expected and wanted.”
“They were horrible people, Aelwyn. We didn’t deserve them for parents. Father was arrogant and calloused and cold hearted, and mother was a witch.”
Silence.
"I wish..." Aelwyn begins, feebly.
"I know," Adaine exhales.
“They didn’t...love us, did they?” Aelwyn asks. Adaine shakes her head. “I thought…”
“I know.”
“That’s not love, is it?” Adaine shakes her head again. Aelwyn sighs. “I really thought they were good.”
“Love without expectation is nothing,” Adaine says, squeezing her shoulder. “But so is expectation without love. I love you, Aelwyn. We're going to be okay.”
They look up into the night together. The moon is new tonight, no trace of it in the sky. As if Cassandra themself were watching over them, and keeping Galacaea and Sol and everything else at bay to give them peace and privacy and security, the stars twinkled down at them, and a few brief flashes streak across the sky, meteors shooting through the atmosphere, trailing magic and fire. A breeze blows by, but the spring air is warm, and they feel no chill.
“I love you too, Adaine.”