At least the monster attack had taken the wind out of everyone’s sails, forcing them to stop arguing and work together again for a few moments...

‘It’s no use us bickering,’ Horatio said. ‘We’ve got to keep working together or we’ll be dead too… I mean sooner rather than later.’

‘You’re right,’ said Primus unexpectedly. He turned to Egea. ‘I apologise, mistress Egea. I spoke out of turn. I am sorry.’

Egea flicked her red curls back from her neck. Her yellow-purple suit looked considerably less smart by this point in their journey, tarnished and torn by their travel over plains and up mountains and through tunnels, and by countless monster battles. ‘’s’okay, I suppose,’ she mumbled eventually. ‘You’re forgiven.’

‘There,’ said Ceres, ‘doesn’t that feel better?’

‘Well, yeah, it does a bit, priestess-girl,’ said Egea, ‘but it still doesn’t solve our current predicament, does it? Like, what are we meant to do now that Alex, the great “Chosen Hero of Destiny”, is dead?’

Horatio looked down at Alex’s corpse again. ‘You’re right. We came all this way and…lost. We were defeated. All I wanted was to do something significant, to do something great...’ And to impress Ceres and win her hand, he added in his mind, but he didn’t say that part out loud. ‘And I really was convinced that we were going to, once we heard about the Clarent Sword from Olivia. But then we lost it, and then we lost Alex. So I guess I was wrong.’

They all stood round Alex’s body and listed their regrets one by one, going around the circle.

‘I was convinced,’ said Ceres wistfully, ‘that we were on a mission from Qind. That protecting and helping Alexander was Qind’s will for us. But I suppose I was wrong about that too… Maybe I don’t know Qind’s will as well as I thought I did, or maybe I know it even less well than I thought I did...’ She sighed, and her sigh got lost on a freak chill wind that suddenly blew past, making Horatio shiver and hunch his shoulders.

Egea took the next turn. ‘Now I’ll never make enough money to help my family in Balamb out of poverty…’ she said.

‘Huh?’ said Horatio. ‘You have family in Balamb?’

Egea nodded. ‘Lots. They live in pitiful conditions, on the east side of town, the poor district. I only became a traveling trader in order to try to make my fortune so that I could go back there and share it with them.’

The rest of them all regarded her for a moment.

‘What?’ said Egea indignantly. ‘You didn’t think I was that shallow, did you? I mean, to be fair, I am very shallow—I do love money, and shiny things, and nice clothes, it’s true—but I was also trying to earn enough money through my love of it to lift my family out of poverty. Is that so hard to believe?’

‘No,’ said Ceres, ‘it’s not hard to believe at all.’

Horatio was inclined to agree. Suddenly Egea made a bit more sense.

‘Well all I initially wanted on this quest was to find my granddaughter,’ said Primus, resuming the sequence. ‘Which we did.’ He glanced at Olivia. ‘But then you had to go and convince me that it was worth carrying on in order to find the Clarent Sword and save the whole of Gard. Which didn’t turn out very well for us. I am old and don’t have much of my life left to live anyway, but I never imagined that I would die here, like this...’ He looked around at the barren, volcano-marred landscape.

Horatio knew how he felt. Except for the part about being old.

‘Well,’ said Wyvera, ‘at first I only came along with you all for protection. Which I found for a time, too. But then I got sucked into this crazy quest to find the Clarent Sword as well. And now you’ve brought me to the heart of Braxia, to the most dangerous place in the whole of Gard. So I guess the protection thing didn’t work out very well in the end, after all… I’d still rather be here with you guys than stuck working in Hector’s whore-house, though…’

Horatio remembered slaying that no-good son-of-a-succubus on the road out of Balamb / to Kardia. He supposed that they had done some significant and worthwhile things in their time together, at least.

‘Ouzo just wanted to be the shopkeeper for a great and famous battle band,’ said Ouzo. ‘And you are great, and you were becoming famous! But Ouzo supposes nobody will remember [latest band name from Egea] now, if we die out here by ourselves…’

Egea gave a little moan at that, and Ouzo whined in return, almost empathetically.

‘I don’t know what you lot are all complaining about,’ said Silvia. ‘I’ve had a great time on this “quest” thingy. I got protection, too, and to go on an adventure, and I’ve stolen lots of really nice stuff along the way.’

‘Hang on, you wh—’ began Horatio.

‘But yeah,’ Silvia continued, interrupting him, ‘it is quite a bummer that this is how it’s all ending up, at the ends of the earth in the middle of nowhere, worn out to death by monsters. It was fun while it lasted, though.’

‘That’s right,’ said Helen. ‘I’ve had the greatest hunts of my life on this journey! First the seer girl, then the Sword, then Alexander! Never before have I encountered such elusive quarries, such worthy prey! The thrill of the hunt was even enough to make me forget the terrible things that befell me at the hands of that Braxian captain in Kirts. What a chase. What a hunt. And we were successful, and caught all of them, except for the Sword, which we lost…’tis a pity, that, indeed.’

‘I thought we were going to do it…’ said Olivia. ‘I was so sure, from my vision, from my dreams, from my prescience, that we were going to get hold of the Clarent Sword and use it to defeat Brax. But it looks like we’re not. It is a very great pity indeed.’

‘A pity…’ echoed Ross, next in the circle, staring at Alex with a glazed-over look. ‘“Pity” doesn’t cover it by half. ’Tis a tragedy. A disaster. A catastrophe. I will never be able to reclaim the honour of Xanadu now, nor to re-forge my nation anew. And the ancient line of Xanadunian royalty with die with me… How could I have failed?’

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‘Now hold on,’ said Ursula as the turn came to her. ‘All this talk of death… Listen, nobody is more disappointed at our failure than me. Qind knows, I have as much or more reason to see vengeance visited upon Brax and the prevention of his ascent as any of you. But we don’t have to die here, right now. I may not have been able to teleport us in this close to the Tower of Tartarus because of the magical wards on it, but I should still be able to cast a spell to teleport us away from it.’

Walter stirred at this, a glint recovering in his eyes. ‘Yes, that’s right! My…our son here said that in his timeline the two of us escaped Braxia when you teleported us out. So it must be possible for you to do this. I…we may have failed to obtain revenge on Brax today, but we can still make a tactical retreat in order to regather ourselves.’

‘Yes, but what’s the point?’ said Tyler. ‘We’ve still lost. Brax has the Clarent Sword, and once he has been summoned it’s only a matter of time before he takes over the whole of Gard. The Hero of Destiny is dead. The terrible future that I come from is going to come to pass, and there’s nothing that we can do about it anymore. I failed to put things right. We either die here, now, in Braxia, or we wait a bit longer and die a bit later, somewhere else, or become enslaved when Brax takes over the rest of Gard. What sort of a choice is that?’

‘Well,’ said Silvia, speaking out of turn now that they had been round the whole circle once, ‘I don’t know about you lot, but as the youngest member of the party I’d still rather die later than sooner.’

‘Yes,’ joined Ceres. ‘Where there is life, there is still hope. If we retreat and regroup, maybe we will be able to come up with another way to defeat Brax and stop him rising to power.’

‘Alright,’ said Ursula. ‘It’s settled then—I will teleport us back to [northern Gard] and we will reconsider our plans. This will also give us time to warn people of what is coming, so they can make plans and prepare to defend themselves. Are we all in agreement?’

The others nodded or mumbled their assent. Even Ross seemed to agree that this was the best plan of action, or the least bad of several bad options.

Only, Horatio didn’t. He didn’t think that this was the best of their bad options.

‘Wait,’ said Horatio. He had been pondering while the others had all been talking, and he found that a steely resolution had been being forged in him, galvanised by the words of his friends, though only now that they had made their own decision did it emerge from the furnace of his heart and fully into his awareness. ‘I don’t agree.’

‘What?’ said Ceres. ‘Why not?’

‘Think about it,’ said Horatio, as gently as he could manage while the fire of conviction burned so hot in him. ‘We’ve taken all this time to travel to the Tower of Tartarus, in the depths of Braxia. We’ve teleported here with the help of a former Braxian, something which only she could do. We’ve travelled through a two-day long tunnel. We’ve fought innumerable monsters and overcome multiple Braxian champions, a lamia, a dragon, a demon-general. All for what…to give up at the last hurdle? We can’t give up now! The Braxians may have the Clarent Sword, but they may not have summoned Brax yet to use it! As far as we know, there might still be time to get back the Sword and stop them from summoning Brax! The “Chosen Hero of Destiny” may be dead, but we’re not, at least not yet! And we may never get a chance to strike at the heart of Brax like this again! I say we stay, and go down fighting! We’ve got to try! I say we keep trying, even without Alex! We might die trying, but we’ve got to try anyway! And if we’re going to die anyway, we might as well die trying to get back the Clarent Sword and to defeat Brax!’

He finished his unplanned speech, aware that he had become more and more animated during it, and looked around at the faces of his comrades.

To his relief, they were all smiling at him, without exception.

‘Who’s with me?’ Horatio asked them.

‘Damn it,’ said Tyler, ‘but I think you’re right. We’ve got to at least try. It’s all we can do at this point. One last ditch attempt to take down Brax.’

Walter nodded too. ‘You speak much sense, mercenary. You have my sword. And my axe. And my bow. And my staff. And whatever else I’m carrying that I can’t remember right now.’

‘Alright,’ said Ursula, glancing at Walter and Tyler. ‘If the boys would rather stay and fight, then I will stay and fight too. I don’t know what this means for…for our future, but if it there’s a chance that it could mean that we get the Sword back and stop Brax from being summoned, then I’m with you too.’

‘Yes,’ said Ross, ‘and I. I don’t know what came over me. I must do my best to avenge Xanadu, and to redeem myself for leading the Braxians to the Sword. I must not give up, even if the Hero of Qind has been slain. Thank you, sellsword, for helping me to remember that.’

‘Indeed,’ said Olivia, ‘thank you, Horatio, for holding out hope and faith that we might still succeed. Maybe my visions and dreams and prescience will yet be proved right, and still come to pass.’

‘The hunt goes on!’ said Helen, the fire back in her pale irises. ‘The hunt shall go on! We will pursue the Sword, and the Braxians, further still!’

‘Pffft,’ Olivia blew out her breath exasperatedly. ‘I suppose I’ll come with you all too. Dying here, dying a bit later, I guess it doesn’t make that much difference, does it?’

‘Ouzo agrees!’ said Ouzo. ‘It doesn’t! And Ouzo will get to serve as the shopkeeper for a great band for a little while longer! Maybe Ouzo will go down in legend as the shopkeeper for the greatest band

‘Er…yes,’ said Wyvera. ‘I don’t think I really have a choice at this stage, do I? You’re all going to go on regardless, anyway. It’s not like I can just leave now and wander back through Gard by myself, can I? But even still, I don’t think I would if I could, anyway. What better way to give the little I have to offer than in service of an attempt to defeat the Demon King Brax?’

‘Quite right,’ said Primus, with a shrug. ‘If you are going on, Olivia, then I am going on too. And the quest is noble; our aims are true. If I don’t have much life left to live I might as well spend it doing some worthwhile.’

‘That’s the spirit, Gramps!’ said Egea, thumping Primus on the arm, who rubbed it and scowled at her. ‘And I’d much rather return to my family telling them that I’ve come back triumphant from the quest of the century with bags full of coin and merchandise, than come back to tell them that the world is about to be enslaved That’s a no-brainer, even if we do die!’

And, last but not least of all, Ceres looked at Horatio with her azure blue eyes and said, simply, ‘I am with you.’

‘We are in agreement then,’ said Horatio quickly, before he could change his own mind. ‘We will carry on to the Tower, to try to get back the Sword and stop Brax ourselves. Maybe I will still yet do something significant. Maybe I will still yet become someone great.

As if to test their newly re-forged resolve to continue on and keep trying to stop Brax, another group of monsters reached them.

Battle, surrounded formation