Alex and I strolled around the theme park. She licked at a quickly melting ice cream, a Ninety-nine, its chocolate flake already long gone.

Between slurps she excitedly ranted on and on about the rides we’d been on. It was a nice change to see her so happy, and I was now really glad that I’d let her talk me into coming along.

Theme park rides were one of Alex’s passions, one of her few concessions to a normal life really – besides the rides, she only seemed to have work, her book and the memories of her sister.

Some might consider that sad, but take away the loneliness that she thought she hid so well, and the Alex that was left was a more complete human being than all those that surrounded themselves with the trivia of this modern world. Alex was a good and kind person, an open minded person that was prepared to see beyond the blindfolds that fashion and material possessions held up to stop so very many seeing what really mattered in life.

Alex had really surprised me when she’d suggested coming here today. But when I saw how much she enjoyed herself, how she opened up and blossomed as the day progressed, I was spellbound.

She was a different person, a happy and almost gregarious person. I liked her, I liked her a great deal. And she had such a wonderful smile. She didn’t show it often, not her true smile that was laced with joy and happiness.

That smile she seemed to reserve for fond memories of her sister, or when she was in free-fall or pushing ten Gs on some ridiculously fast and terrifying ride. Today she was a person who truly enjoyed life, and she was a pleasure to be with.

“What are you thinking?” Alex asked.

Startled out of my reverie, I didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what she asked.

“You were miles away for a moment. I rambled on about that last turn and how it fell away so abruptly into that completely black hole, and you ignored me.

So where were you? Back on Ellas I suppose.”

“Nope,” I answered. “I was here with you the whole time, not a single thought of Ellas. I was in fact thinking of you, and how alive you are here in the fairground.”

Alex blushed instantly, and I cringed as I saw the crimson rise in her face. What had I said? How could what I said have embarrassed her so much?

“Sorry, Alex, I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s me, not you. You see, I always come here alone. No one gets to see how I am here, how happy I am and how I laugh.”

I must have screwed my face up or something, because Alex said, “I know, it’s strange behaviour. But I am strange, everyone says so… and it’s true.

"I come alone because I don’t want people to see how I am here, I don’t want them to see what I am on the inside. That part of me lived with Sarah, that was what I always was.

"Now… well now, I seldom let it out, and until today I’ve never really shared it with anyone. But you already know so much about me, so much of my life, more than anyone else in the whole world… and you’ve shared so very much of yourself with me, told me so many things, personal things, things that I know hurt you to talk of.

"So today, asking you to come along, was just the next step for me, a step toward cementing our friendship.” She had tears in her eyes as she finished, and the last of her ice cream ran down her hand and dripped on the floor.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

What to say? Words failed me completely, so I took her in my arms and held her close, held her tight feeling tears welling up behind my own eyes.

“You’ve crushed my ice cream, you buffoon,” Alex whispered in my ear, with a giggle. “Come on, let's go on the Deep Dive next… that always makes me scream.

"Besides that’s enough seriousness for one day. We’ll get back to serious tomorrow. Then you can tell all about Ellas just before you were sent back, and how his return was affecting the world.”

Where the hell did that come from? I asked myself. One minute all laughter and tears, and then back to business, back to her relentless questioning. Well, never mind I thought, she did say tomorrow.

I can enjoy the rest of the day with this so very beautiful person.

But just as we teetered on the edge, looming above the hundred foot drop that was the Deep Dive, Alex’s words came back to me, and unbidden my mind went back there, back to those last few months before I was returned.

***

The whole world knew that he lived. Oh, some denied it, buried their heads in the sand and put all the Nargu atrocities down to their vicious and warlike nature.

he Nargu had been quiet for centuries since Dar'cen’s death because they built their own armies, they said, planning for the day when they would rise up against the People in their own right.

They would not admit that he had returned, that he was behind all the evils that had slowly taken the world.

To admit that he was would be to admit the end. Dar’cen had conquered all once, and only Al'kar was able to defeat him. So to admit his return would be to admit that Al'kar had failed, that Dar'cen was indeed immortal, and that now, the end would not be long coming.

So the nations fought the Nargu in isolation, drove them off where they could, and retreated to their strongholds where they could not.

They would not listen to what I said – I was an assassin, a murderer. What I had done was not at Dar'cen’s bidding, it could not have been for he was dead.

No, I had committed murder and much worse for my own designs, and they would not listen to a man who had killed and butchered for the sport of it.

Some listened though, some believed. Some knew without my telling.Setia was one such, and she had spread the word. Most within the Citadel believed, but they were so few now.

For he had targeted them in an attempt to remove those with magic ahead of his new conquest and, to my shame, I myself had been his tool in much of his efforts. Some had been strong, at least for this time I was told, but they fell before me just the same. It took longer, and sometimes I was injured, but they fell to me regardless.

I told myself that I had no choice back then, that I was not responsible for those terrible acts. But it didn’t help. I still woke shaking after the dreams, tears flowing down my face at the horrors I relived.

So I did the little I could, I and my few friends. We spread the word of his return, and tried to organise the People into a coordinated defence against his hordes.

But it was an impossible task – he had long since infiltrated the Noble Houses and bribed, terrorised or used his compulsion to gain their support.

And so the People remained fragmented in their disbelieving defiance of him.

We fought against him too, attacked his Nargu where we could, helped defend against them where we could make a difference.

That was how the last two years had been, all thought of home gone. We just did what little we could to hamper and delay his return to power. And little it was too; after all what could five of us achieve, especially when so many did not want to accept what we told them, and so many others were already under his influence.

It was strange though, wherever we did give help, word of what we did spread. It spread much more quickly than the aid we gave warranted.

Stories of what we did abounded, and like all stories, they grew – we were soon an army of hundreds, and had destroyed Nargu armies in places I had never even heard of, let alone visited.

Yet so often when we turned up to help, disappointment followed rapidly in our wake.

After all we were only five, not the army of the stories.

***