J'VANN

“And...ah, yes,” J'vann said, taking his first step forward in the three months. “I am still a little stiff, but I believe I have fully healed.

“Great!” Fann said. “About time, you were holding us all up.”

“I seem to recall hearing you would have died without the effects of my growth auram,” J'vann pointed out.

“Yeah and I've been up and around for weeks now,” Fann said. “Like I said, hurry it up.”

J'vann smiled.

“Humor to mask fear and concern can be taken too far,” he said.

“Nah,” Fann said. “Not for me. I'm a genius. Besides, I think we were all hoping you'd heal up and we could leave these luxury accommodations.”

He gestured around what had once been the village of Trego. Now he didn't know what it was, exactly. The battle with Balthazar Nodd had pretty much flattened the place, and aside from a few buildings he wouldn't trust a bird to nest in the village had become a forest of white plastic tents.

At first the tents had been meant as a hasty first aid station, someplace to treat the knights until they could be safely moved. They had been more then slightly concerned when they discovered that J'vann actually couldn't be moved, not with his roots dug deep into the ground. And that Tyram, Andry, and Aurina—the least injured and most mobile—refused to go anywhere until their injured comrades were taken care of.

Then the villagers had come back, and they hadn't wanted to go anywhere else either. So more tents had been brought in, almost as if they village was regrowing around a field hospital where the people who's bodies the doctors actually understood could be treated without having to leave anyone behind. The tents were arranged around J'vann, who they'd mostly left alone while his body slowly repaired itself and returned to human—or at least humanoid, his scales hadn't gone anywhere—form over the past few months.

There was talk of rebuilding, with a memorial to Chaddim. Since no one had actually figured out what Balthazar Nodd did with the old man's body they were planning to put it in the center square of the new village. It might go up before any of the houses did.

There was a loud banging noise, then a couple of metallic chink sounds, and then the sound of children laughing and clapping.

“One more!” Someone said. “One more!”

“Doesn't that get annoying out here?” Fann asked.

“I have gotten used to it,” J'vann said. “Besides, our friend is reveling in the recovery of his greatest skill. I cannot find it in myself to blame him.”

Across the field Rimni and Verro were setting a bunch of aluminum cans on one end of a board. Once it was set up Verro stepped back and Rimni jumped on the far end, sending them flying up in a cloud. Verro, wearing an enormous smile, brought up his bow and speared each can neatly with an arrow before it fell the ground. The children clapped and cheered in awe again, though they grew visibly disappointed when Vann said he had to stop for the day. Vann and Rimni made their way over to where J'vann had been rooted in the ground.

“He's finally walking?” Rimni asked.

“See?” Fann said. “It's not just me.”

“I am healthy and moving once again,” J'vann said. “If I was the last impediment to beginning our journey, I am an impediment no longer.”

“Yeah,” Fann said. “The actual quest we were all going to go on at the start of all this. I'd almost forgotten it was a thing, but hey we're getting started! Unless of course you two plan to start a career in show business instead.”

“Ah they're good kids,” Verro said. “I'm actually gonna miss this planet.”

“I'll miss some people,” Rimni said, looking around the fields. “But this planet is kinda boring.”

“What makes you say that squirt?” Fann laughed. “Look what happened here, we fought bandits and pirates and the strongest guy in the universe. Alright he was a little past his prime but still, you know. A celebrity. What about that is boring?”

“But it's all flat!” Rimni complained. “And fields! And the only race that lives here is humans...”

“I saw a few Kurak in the city,” J'vann pointed out. “And the city itself was not, technically, fields...”

“You know what I mean,” Rimni said. “It's like the whole planet is one big farming village!”

“But that's the traditional place to start a quest from!” Verro said. “There or in a palace.”

“Yeah but then you have to be a prince,” Fann pointed out.

“Okay fine,” Rimni said. “We started. Can we go someplace a little more interesting now?”

“Be patient,” J'vann said. “Remember, some of our number are from this world. It must be hard for them to say goodbye...”

ANDRY

“So that's it,” Andry said. “We're leaving tonight.”

“Finally,” his father laughed. “I thought you'd never leave.”

“Dad...” Andry said, but Dorret held up a hand.

“Relax,” he said. “I always knew this day would come. When all's said and done you're a lot like your grandfather, and that's not a bad thing. No hold on, let an old man speak. You're a lot like your grandfather, and he was the bravest man I ever knew. And you accepted the Lion Regalia, which I never wanted to touch. I'm not a warrior, Andry, but you are. You're built for it in a way I'm not. It broke my heart, broke it clean in two, to see what happened to you after you lost to Jarlo. I'll be fine. Go. Find the shield. Do what your graddad always hoped and make the universe a better place.”

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

“Dad,” Andry sighed. “I mean, I always knew one day I'd leave the village too. I just thought it would still be standing when I did. And I didn't think I'd be leaving you alone.”

“I'll still be fine,” Dorret laughed. “I'm going to be mayor, remember? Doesn't seem like there's any way to stop it now. Not sure how standing around saying yes to whatever Chaddim suggested makes me qualified, but I can't get away from it now. Besides...when all's said and done she's a lot like your grandfather too. Wherever her blood comes from.”

“Her blood doesn't matter,” Andry said. “She's my sister.”

“Of course she is!” Dorret huffed. “She'd have to be, she's my daughter.” Both men smiled. “And it seems like she's going to be a knight. Or at least traveling with them. And a finer bunch I've never met, I'd think so even if they hadn't saved the planet. Just keep an eye on her for me, will you? Although with the knack for getting into trouble you two share I'm not sure the universe is going to be able to stand it.”

TYRAM

“Aaaand....no good,” Tyram said.

“Let me try a little longer,” Aurina said.

“You're not synchronizing,” Tyram said. “Sorry.”

“Hmph,” she frowned, putting the swirling metallic disc back with the others. This one had looked like some kind of an old industrial gear, only the faint luster of auram to indicate it was in fact the Boatswain's Regalia that had once belonged to Birger. “Well that's frustrating. Was that the last one?”

“Sorry,” Tyram said. “It doesn't look like you can synchronize with any of the Regalias we picked up. Maybe when we find a place to get the broken ones repaired one of them will work. But I don't know if any of these really suit you.”

Tyram had been astonished that the planetary government had just let them keep all the Regalias. Apparently Ms. Fadden had played a part in that. Though they had, of course, kept Cheif Revinson's Deadeye Regalia to pass on to the next Chief Enforcer. But all the rest had been handed over to the Order of the Alicorn Shield, complete with a red-leather lined briefcase to keep them in.

The Boatswain's Regalia sat between the ring of long, thin spikes that made up the Stiletto Regalia and the wispy curves of the Mirage Regalia, which looked a little similar to the Haze Regalia in the upper left corner of the velvet. Gazin's Trapdoor Regalia, a square hole in its middle, sat next to the wheel of Rado's Einrad Regalia. Jurgo's Slug Regalia looked slick, like it was coated with slime, and Jayban's Tortise Regalia was plated like a turtle shell.

The rest were too damaged to use. They'd never even found the Blight Regalia. J'vann said that Yggdrasil's violent rejection of the Blight Regalia had obliterated it entirely. The Thorny Devil Regalia was cracked in three pieces, the triangular Molehill Regalia simply broken in half, and it looked like someone had tried to twist Zweibel's Onion Regalia apart. For some reason the Void Regalia looked dented and battered, despite it's owner being killed with a single head shot. Well, sometimes damaged auram did weird and surprising things.

The Indomitable Regalia had shattered into dozens of pieces the minute it had been removed from Balthazar Nodd's body. The pieces could still be put together like a jigsaw puzzle, they knew because Rimni had spent an afternoon doing it, but none of them knew how to get it working again. That one worried Tyram. It was too powerful, whatever Birger had to say about strong souls, and even broken apart carrying it around felt risky. Just not as risky as leaving it behind.

It wasn't lost on Tyram that each of these Regalia represented a lost life, one that he and his friends had taken. It still bothered him. He'd just come to accept the fact that it had needed to be done, and having accepted that and chosen to act crying about it afterwords would do nothing but make the next hard choice even harder.

“I guess they don't,” Aurina said. “Suit me, I mean. I'll admit I was a little worried I'd end up synchronizing with the Slug Regalia.”

“Eh,” Tyram smiled. “You'd have made it work.”

“Still it would be nice to have something,” Aurina sighed. “You think there's a Regalia out there I can synchronize with?”

“Sure,” Andry shrugged. “Or you'll make one on your own. We've been teaching you auram training techniques to help you control it, haven't we?”

“Yep!” Aurina said, holding out her palms. A glowing dove appeared inside them, flapping up from her hands and flitting around the room before landing on her shoulder and melding back into her body. “I mean it's the same auram, I just learned how to do shapes now.”

“That's a start,” Tyram said. “Aurina...are you sure you want to come with us?”

“Yes,” Aurina said. “I'm not blind. I've seen what all the fighting did to my brother, and to you. But I feel like...I feel like I need to go. Whatever it is I'm getting into, well...I'll deal with that along the way.”

SASHA

There weren't a lot of forests on Trego, and it had taken Sasha a long trip across the fields by air car to find one. But among the trees was where she felt calmest. Most at peace.

She sat cross legged, letting her mind empty and her soul fill with the energy of the forest, the heartbeat of the wilds. A discordant noise sliced through the tranquility, the hum of an air car engine, but it was soon gone.

A few minutes later she noticed a presence beside her,

“You move well in the wilds,” she said. “I didn't even notice you until you got close. Except for hearing your air car.”

“It's an archer thing,” Verro said. “You feeling okay?”

“I have not killed anything today,” Sasha said. “Or for the past week. I believe I am...better.”

Verro nodded. Three weeks ago he'd come looking for her and found her hunched over the carcass of a deer, ripping it to pieces and stuffing raw bloody meat in her mouth. The gigantic form that had given her to the power to fight on par with Balthazar Nodd came, it seemed, with long lasting consequences. When she'd regained her senses she'd made him promise not to tell anyone. And lately, at least, she said hadn't been overwhelmed with the urge to hunt and kill.

“Jerro's up and around,” Verro said. “Everyone's talking about leaving the planet right away, but I wanted to make sure...”

“Two weeks ago a starship voyage would have been a bad idea,” Sasha said, getting to her feet. “I'm alright now. I'm glad to hear J'vann is finally moving, it was weird talking to him when he was a tree.”

“He hasn't looked that much like a tree for a couple of weeks now,” Verro pointed out.

“He was still rooted to the ground,” Sasha said. “Come on. We'll take your air car, I'll set mine to follow us on autopilot and...”

From deep within the woods something howled and Sasha whirled around, eyes wide, head darting back and forth as she stared into the trees.

“You alright?” Verro asked.

“Yeah,” she said finally. “Yeah. I'm okay. Let's go.”

TYRAM

The shuttle was a blocky thing, old and unimpressive. Built to perform the unglamorous yet necessary duty of bringing people from a planet's surface to a ship waiting in orbit. But despite being inherently unremarkable this one had attracted an awful lot of attention. The enforcers had kept the media—such as it was on a backwater like Trego—away, but no force on earth could have kept the villagers of Tragam from coming to see their heroes off. Aurina hugged her father one last time, made sure Chari was well settled on her shoulder, and then they were walking towards the ramp with the crowd clapping and cheering behind him.

Tyram didn't really hear them, his eyes were focused on the hatch. He'd boarded dozens of them before. He'd had to get on three of them just to make the trip to Trego in the first place. but this time it was different. He was different. Over the past few months he'd crossed some kind of threshold from knight in name only to true knight, a threshold marked by more than battles won or villages safely defended. Trego was where they'd all crossed it, one way or another. Before they had been thieves and druids and rangers, farmers and hunters.

He stepped through the hatch with the the others and the Knights of the Alicorn Shield, alive again for the first time since they had been disbanded nearly eighty years ago, ascended to the stars on the quest for their own history.