(Luca)

"Psst," I whisper in Gavin's ear as he carries me through Maelnor.

"What?" He asks somewhat groggily.

We're both really tired from our latest trip into the mines. He accompanied this time, something about making sure I don't whack Kylie too too many times. Whatever. I think she got the message.

"My stomach is rumbling," I tell him.

"We can eat when we return to the house."

"But it smells soooo gooood."

He sighs, then walks over to the market stall I was talking about. I didn't even have to point, he knows me so well. Gavin buys a couple of sweet rolls, and we sit down on a bench to eat. After licking our fingers clean once we finish, I climb back onto Gavin's back, then he finishes the walk home. It takes longer than it normally would, but he is exhausted. I am, too. I barely had the energy to eat that roll.

We finally return home after several wrong turns, and when we arrive, there's something off.

"What the hell is Braden wearing?" I whisper into Gavin's ear.

"I need to wear this to unlock Druid," Braden's face turns crimson, and I remember that his Perception is hella better than mine. My own cheeks flush, which I know because they're now burning. "It's not that comfortable for me."

"Max seems really hyper," Gavin comments.

Wow, he noticed that? I was expecting Gavin to not notice until after he got some sleep. Max and Braden are playing cards, and Max is bouncing up and down, his tail wagging and ears perked up. He's also grinning.

"Five!"

"Go Fish," Braden says, and Max pulls a card. "Seven."

"NOOO!" Max mock-wails as he hands Braden his seven.

Yeah, he's definitely doing better than he was last time I saw him. He was starting to get depressed because Lord Zack hadn't woken up yet.

That was Braden's last card, so he draws the last two.

"Five," Braden says, and Max repeats his thing. "King."

Max does it again, and Braden nods. He has a massive pile of cards, and Max has three pairs.

"How much sugar did Max have?" Gavin asks. "Or did Nit and Nin come to play? I can tell that Kit is hiding from Max, too."

"Eek!" I exclaim as something yanks me off of Gavin by the back of my cloak, and Max starts giggling.

I look at the person who's holding me up by the cloak.

"Lord Zack!" I squeal in excitement, then realize he has a stern expression on his face. Kyle is standing beside him. "Um. I'm really tired."

"Not too tired to apologize to Kylie," Lord Zack says. "You didn't need to treat her like that."

"She wanted to train with me," I tell him. "And I wasn't going to go less deep just for her. I needed harder stuff to fight!"

"Luca…"

"Sorry, Kylie," I look down.

I never thought I'd ever be in a position like this. Lord Zack is just holding me by the cloak. The only reason I haven't fallen out of it yet is because its clasp is pretty strong. Well, I suppose he has the back of my tunic as well. I can feel it the front of my tunic pulling against my chest.

"Don't whack her on the head again!" Lord Zack admonishes me, then sets me down. "And she knew exactly what you were trying to do, Luca. She's not an idiot, she figured it out. It also failed."

I feel my face heat up again.

"When did you wake up?" I ask.

"Three days ago," he answers.

That explains why Max is back to his old self. Well, he'd probably be all hyper again five seconds after seeing Lord Zack awake.

"Welcome back," Gavin tells Lord Zack.

"Thanks," Lord Zack responds. "Max and Braden are already prepared. Gavin and Luca, get some rest. Tomorrow, we're setting off into Lost Territory. I've already purchased all of the food we need, as well as any supplies the four of you forgot. Make sure your things are together by breakfast tomorrow, because that's when we're setting off."

"Yes, sir," Gavin responds as I nod.

Gavin and I head to the bath and scrub ourselves down and rinse off. Then we dry and dress in night clothes and head to our room, climbing onto our respective beds. I reach under my pillow for the letter, but my hand finds a piece of candy instead.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Strange. Did Bryce cast some sort of spell on it to turn it into candy if Lord Zack didn't read it in a certain amount of time? Hrm. Well, the candy is delicious. Maybe I should have saved it for Lord Zack?

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(Zack)

"What's that face for?" Kylie asks as I catch Luca's thoughts as he drifts into sleep.

"Nothing," I chuckle. "Just Luca being a dork, as usual. You have to return to training with Samantha tomorrow, don't you?"

"Yeah," Kylie answers. "She extended our break by another week because of some other stuff and her helping to deal with the higher-level monsters in the pass and valley, but all of that is taken care of, now."

I got some good exercise in with that stuff, though not as training. All of my Classes are at their max, and I'm not planning on taking on any new ones anymore. It's doubtful I'd need them, and Bryce is the one who needs to power up.

"Alright," I tell Kylie. "Good luck."

"Is it true?" She asks me. "What you told me on the way here?"

"That we're leaving tomorrow, for good?" I ask, and she nods. "Yeah. Once we head into the Lost Territory, we won't be returning. I want to explore it a fair bit, and I know my team's going to want to come with me."

"But why forever?" She asks. "Why not just a month or something at a time? You can kill the Avatars of the Shadow of Life, restore the City Barriers, then restore the Dark Temples, and you'd have an easy way to return."

"I'll be doing that, too," I tell her. "But… I guess I never told you?"

"Never told me what?" She asks.

"Within a year," Braden speaks up, and I move to the side so that Kylie can see him better. "The Boundary will no longer exist."

"What do you mean?" She asks with a frown.

"Within a year of the battle for the valley," I explain. "The war will be over. Either the Shadow of Life has won, or we've successfully slain him. Based on the vision, we know who the brothers are, and we know that the one who will supposedly side with him has turned against him for good. That means the other will achieve his ending, slaying the Shadow of Life.

"With the Shadow of Life dead," I continue. "There's no purpose for the Boundary to exist anymore. It was designed to be his prison. They already aren't bringing new Adventurers into it. The Crystals have done this for billions of years, and they're tired. Once he's defeated, once the war is over, they're releasing the Boundaries. Everyone here will move on to the afterlife to receive their earned rewards or punishments."

Which includes my team, too. I'll be sad to see them go, but happy at the same time for them to all receive their rewards. Especially after Bryce's letter. I want to see Braden again, before he and Luca reincarnate. Hopefully, Bryce talked Braden into waiting for me to return, as I have plans for immediately after the Boundary is released, and I'm sure Big S and the others want to talk with Bryce and me, too.

"You're serious," Kylie realizes.

"Yeah," I nod. "All of the important players know this, too. I told Nik as soon as I found out."

Kylie sighs sadly, a sad smile on her face.

"That's why you won't go on a date with me," she tells me. "Because in the end, it won't matter."

"Yeah," I nod. "Anyway, you should probably head back to the hideout and get some rest, Kylie. I hear Samantha's a bit of a sadist."

"I'm pretty sure," she laughs. "Luca's even more of one!"

She slams into me, giving me a hug, before taking off. I turn and look at Max and Braden, the former of whom is giggling. I roll my eyes, then join them at the table for a round of cards.

After we play another round, I tell Max and Braden that I'm head out again to do something, then leave. I want to offer up another prayer to Big Flame for helping me.

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(Braden)

"Max," I say once Zack has left. "I'll be back in a bit, too. Can you keep watch over Gavin and Luca? Especially Luca? His dreams will probably be better now that Zack's returned, but he might still have some issues."

"Me can do that," Max nods. "They be sleeping already."

"Yeah," I nod, then put a hand on his head, scratching behind his ears. "Thanks."

"You're welcome!" He responds.

I leave the property and walk, making sure to keep to the shadows, like normal. Trying to force myself to overcome my shyness by walking visibly and noticeably put a lot of stress on me, so I decided to stop that yesterday. Since then, I've been much more relaxed.

Zack didn't say it, but I know he already visited the memorial. He scratched over Bryce's memorial stone and put a new message under it, Not All Deaths are Permanent. Strange, but then again, it's Zack. Who knows what went through his head when he did that.

After a little more than twenty minutes of walking, I arrive at Brandon's house. I could have arrived sooner, but I was delaying it. Rather than entering, I make my way around to the back of the house.

Brandon is back here carving a new bow for himself. His old one was starting to get weak, and he wants to have a backup prepared for when it's finally time to replace it. I have a new bow right now, stored safely in my Inventory. I didn't make it, though, Brandon did. It's a high-quality bow, and it's beautiful. I'll probably use it more than the one I had made before the battle.

I sit on a log and watch as Brandon carefully sands the bow. Once he finishes this stage of it, he sets everything on the table beside him, then looks at me.

"Coming to say goodbye?" He asks, and I nod.

He already knows that we're leaving now that Zack's back and everyone has returned. Max already said his goodbyes to his brothers, which involved a lot of tears between the three of them. I can't imagine what it would be like to have your brothers back for only a month or so before leaving them, knowing you'll never see them again.

"I have a gift for you," he opens up his inventory and pulls out a box, then holds it out to me.

I accept the box and open it. Brandon's prepared monster-warding stones. They're not cheap to acquire, but when arranged properly, they'll ward away most monsters. Zack, Max, and I had discussed whether or not we should buy some for our time in Lost Territory, but ultimately decided against it. We might not need the money, but we're also not weak. Yeah, some of the monsters might be tough, but we have Zack on our side, and he'd know in advance if monsters were coming.

"Thank you," I close the box and send it into my own Inventory. I stand, and Brandon does the same, and I rush into him into a hug. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye, son," he says softly.

Zack isn't the only one who found a father figure here, though I suppose it's only natural Brandon and I would bond like this. Lord Dark of Water revealed to us a few days before Zack woke up that Brandon is my grandfather on my mother's side. We actually are blood family, though he feels more like a father to me than a grandfather.

"Goodbye, Brandon," I tell him.

I release him, then leave. That's all the goodbye we need for each other, though I'll admit I got a bit emotional at the end. Time to return home, now. As I do, I can't help but wonder if Zack has said his goodbyes. He has even more bonds with people here than we do.

Kylie, Nik, Theodore, Normar, Blaine, Jesse, Travis, Gold, Mama Bear, and many others I probably don't know. I have… Brandon. Max has the beastborn, Nik, and Theodore. Luca has Travis. Gavin has Peter and Kylie, though the latter is more of just a one-sided crush.

Leaving must hurt Zack even more than it does the rest of us.

Well, at least he's finally sleeping through the night now. That's at least a positive, it means he's not stressing himself to death anymore.

Speaking of sleeping, I'm rather tired. I suppose I'll head to bed once I return home, too.