A few days later and nothing was really normal for Rita. The most normal thing that was left was Rita sitting down at the breakfast table with mostly everyone. Lapis and Wonder were sitting in their own chairs eating breakfast, meanwhile Lamont and Queen Solaria were sitting together with Lunaria. The little one was eating her own body weight in pancakes and eggs, though she had adamantly refused to eat any sausage, something about not wanting to eat animals anymore.

Rita herself enjoyed a hearty meal with lots of syrup. The pancakes were still not as good as her own or her big sister’s, but after nearly dying to a goddess, it was surprisingly tolerable. Still she had several things to worry about now that the life threatening stuff was all over. Her first order of business was to go out and see if she could possibly even find Saturn. The woman had completely vanished from sight after the night where they defeated Nightmare, and all Rita had caught were small glimpses of the woman here and there.

So without further ado Rita left breakfast early to go and continue her search. Much to her own surprise five seconds after leaving the great hall she was able to hear the sounds of fighting outside through the still missing front doors. At least they’d gotten Rita’s poor destroyed truck out of the keep. She’d give it a proper funeral later.

Just outside she encountered a bright and sunny day unlike any other she’d had lately. It was warm spring weather, and she was enjoying the ability to go around in her shorts and tank top. The scars left over from the previous few days of fighting were healing nicely as well. A few blue birds flew overhead singing their songs to one another.

Just down the way Rita saw Saturn and Thaddeus exiting the fighting ring. Thaddeus was still wearing bandages, as was Saturn, but they looked well worked out and excited. This was possibly the best timing for Rita to go out and finally confront Saturn. She’d spent her entire school life and some of her free young adult life being afraid of confronting Saturn with the way she really felt, but after nearly dying recently she finally decided it was time to stand up for herself and take control of her own life for better or worse.

Rita marched up to the ring nodding at Thaddeus as he passed by. He smiled and waved. Once Rita was at the ring she watched Saturn’s entire body straighten up as she turned to meet Rita with eyes of steel. For a moment Rita’s breath was knocked out of her lungs by the look in those eyes. It wasn’t hatred, but it sure wasn’t friendly.

It was like swallowing hot led to speak but Rita fought through it and spoke anyway. “Saturn, I have to tell you something.”

Saturn stared down at her with a cold dispassionate glare. “I could take a guess, but I’ll let you decide what you imagine needs to be discussed between us.”

That… hurt. Still Rita pressed on. “Look, Saturn, I know we’ve had our ups and downs, right now we are certainly in one of our biggest downs. I… I really like you, like a lot. I have a crush on you.”

Saturn stared. “I know.”

Rita didn’t look away from those eyes. She had to show she was on equal level to her and not at all beneath Saturn. “I’m telling you this because in all honesty, after the fight over Lunaria I realized something important. I like you, sure, but I think it’s just because you remind me of the way I used to see my father. In all honesty, I think you're a hot headed, rule following, stuck up, jerk. You have rarely ever been kind to me all because of my mother, and my choice of actions to fight evil, but that’s what we both do, we stop the bad guys. We should be working together, but I fear that is all we will ever do. I wanted to at least be your friend, and hoped that you’d love me back someday but I now know that you’ll never feel that way about me so I’m going to stop hurting myself over you. I’m done being in love with you.”

Saturn’s eyes were wide but she didn’t say anything for a good minute afterwards, and when she did, all she had to say was, “You’ve grown up.”

After that Saturn turned and walked in the most opposite direction from her and the Keep. Likely to find somewhere peaceful and quiet. It hurt Rita to cut that hope out of her heart, but it was holding her back, and it was likely preventing her from seeing something good that had been before her very eyes the entire time. When Rita turned back she walked to the castle where Wonder sat on the steps staring at her left hand’s palm.

Rita joined her side and looked down at Wonder’s palm. The lavender heart that had once been brightly fused into her hand was gone. There was only a heart shaped scar left. “Hey,” Rita said softly.

Wonder looked up at Rita. “I don’t know what happened? I did something amazing, something I never thought possible before. I defeated Noct all by myself. Why am I losing my Guardian Heart? What did I do wrong?”

Rita shook her head and looked down at her own red heart which seemed to be stronger than ever before, and she lied, “I don’t know… you can still hang out with me and help out if you want?”

Wonder shook her head. “I’m losing my talent quickly. It took me a lot more energy today to create the illusion of a small meadow around me than it ever had before. I think my magic’s weakened as well. Now I can’t help you on missions, I can’t fight bad guys by your side anymore…”

Rita lowered her head. “I’m… sorry.”

Wonder shook her head. “It’s worse for Lapis. Her mark is gone. She has a hard time using her magic as well. It’s like something special was taken away from us. Something that let us fight, let us face threats. A part of who we are is... gone.”

Rita nodded. “What will you do?”

Wonder looked up at the sky. “I guess I’ll go to the Blue Moon Guild. Get in with them and study magic so that even with my limited power, I can learn how to reverse the effects of nether sickness. At least I won’t be in danger anymore, so you won't have to worry, right?”

Hearing those words was like shoving an ice pick through Rita’s heart. “Yeah, you two will be safe. You’ll never be in danger of dying from monsters again if you…”

Wonder finished what she was thinking, “Don’t have the power to fight them?”

Rita felt her throat go dry. She didn’t dare say a thing for fear of crying. Instead she just nodded.

Wonder looked back into the keep where Fiona was busy sweeping the floor. “At least there’s hope you’ll find new team members to rebuild the Guardian Hearts.”

Rita let out a quiet sigh. “It won’t be the same though.”

Wonder shook her head. “Maybe that’s the point. We’re growing up, things aren’t supposed to be the same. Things change, and it's how we embrace that change makes all the difference.”

Rita raised an eyebrow. “You been talking to Fiona a lot haven’t you?”

Wonder giggled. “Yeah, she’s surprisingly easy to talk to. I think she’s a really supportive friend. Take care of her please.”

Rita rose to her feet and nodded. “Of course I will.”

With that said and done Rita made her way inside and to Fiona. “Hey, Fifi.”

Fiona looked up and smiled warmly. “H-hello, Rita.”

Rita looked at all the scratches on the walls, and the chipped pieces of wood still lying about along with slivers of glass and metal. She was going to have to make some kind of wind powered device to actually clean up this mess, the broom was hardly working and Fiona still looked fatigued from all the healing and fighting. “So how’s it going?”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Fiona shrugged. “I… I’m just trying to keep moving right now. It’s too scary to think that I might have to face more monsters like that…”

Rita gave her a sympathetic look. “You don’t have to join me or the Guardian Hearts. That Heart on your hand and that magic power it gave you are just things. You could just stay here and clean in safety.”

Fiona looked around in silence for a moment. When she did finally speak she had a sense of resolution in her tone. “I will do that, for a while. B-but I see all the good I did and I want to do more of it. I’ll join you.”

A warm smile spread over Rita’s lips. “I’m glad. Just… don’t get yourself hurt in the process. You're my friend.”

Fiona nodded in agreement.

Rita moved on from that conversation and back into the great hall where she noticed that Lapis was gone. Instead she saw Lamont, Lunaria, Crow and Queen Solaria standing by the table talking. Lunaria was in the middle of a sentence, “-Would like that very much.”

They all stopped to look over at Rita as she walked in and closed the door behind herself. “Hey, I hope I’m not intruding. I just wanted to see how it’s all going here.”

Crow nodded and offered a warm smile. "Nightshade is behind bars and on her way to the Crimson Isle. Noct's body hasn't been recovered yet, nor has Mind Sliver's. But we'll find them Little Sparrow."

Rita chose to ignore the last bit as she usually did. "Well that's something."

Queen Solaria nodded and put a finger to her chin in thought for a moment. “Actually I was hoping we could speak with you a moment. We just got done speaking to Lapis about this. Crow, you may take your leave.”

They all waited for Crow to leave first before Rita joined Lunaria’s side. “Sup?”

Queen Solaria smiled and filled the room with even more warmth. “Actually we were discussing what to do with Princess Lunaria now that she’s back. It’s been quite the discussion but we think we’ve found out what we should do now.”

Lamont spoke next. “Well it looks like Lunaria will need time to grow up all over again and her forms of magic aren’t alien to what I can teach. So we’re considering the idea of having me and Lunaria go off to a small town somewhere so that she can be raised in and trained in peace. It’s a bit odd thinking that I’ll have to raise my aunt, but it’s better than trying to have Solaria’s sister appear out of the blue in Starsera Castle and expecting people not to freak out or go through what little records exist about her and coming to some damning conclusions.”

Rita nodded. “Yeah, that is a bit difficult. But wouldn’t the name Lunaria prove risky as it is for an ascended?”

Lunaria stuck her hand up in the air and waited until Solaria nodded towards her before saying, “I’m going to change my name to Dreamer. That way people won’t know I’m the same girl. When I grow up again if people haven't had their minds changed on Lunaria I can just be Princess Dreamer.”

Queen Solaria nodded. “I plan to spend the next few years slowly trying to repair Lunaria's reputation.”

Rita stuck her hands behind her head. The motion caused a small flair up of pain that she chose to ignore. “That’s a reasonable idea. But why did you talk to Lapis about it, or me?”

Queen Solaria smiled. “I wanted you to hear it as you saved my sister. You should only know that she will be safe with Lamont for the next five years. They’ll be leaving in a couple weeks if all goes to plan.”

Lamont added, “And I spoke to Lapis as I entrusted her with Castle Night Thorn while I’m away.”

Rita blinked. “Lapis… a castle… to herself? Oh my Gish, she’s going to throw orgies in here I hope you know.”

For a moment there was silence, and then Lamont and Rita broke out into a fit of laughter. Of course neither of them really expected Lapis to do any such thing, but it was fun to joke about how much of a pervert she was sometimes. Still once the laughter died down Rita had to admit this was a good plan. Lapis was always the one who belonged a bit more in the castle then Rita, and she would take pretty good care of it now that she couldn’t… go on adventures anymore. Maybe being a noble would be really good for her.

That left a pang of guilt and pain in Rita’s heart. She looked around hoping to somehow see Lapis. “So where is she?”

“Lapis?” Lamont asked.

Rita nodded.

“She went out back to the pond.”

Rita thanked them for their time and said goodbye. After that she was racing towards the back door and the garden area. Once she was out there she got a better idea of just how badly the gardens were doing after her tumble. A good twenty foot stretch of garden, flowers, roses, and vegetables had all been crushed, bent, broken, or just destroyed. Over on the other side of the garden near the wall there was still a large indent from where the Nightmare wolf had fallen.

It was a large pond, large enough to have several species of fish and its own little ecosystem. It even had a little dock where Rita saw Lapis sitting still and staring into the water. She was holding a fishing rod but it didn't even look like the line had been cast. Rita joined Lapis on the dock.

Lapis didn’t look up at her as she stared into the water. “The fish are still too scared to come up and play. It’s going to take awhile before I can fish here again.”

“Well it seems like you’ll have plenty of time to wait,” Rita said cheerfully.”

“Yeah, a whole five years.”

"Yeah, it's gonna be awhile."

Lapis sighed. "Did you know I come from a noble family? We used to have a lot rules. Especially about how one is supposed to talk. What kinds of things to think, or say, what was allowed and what wasn't."

Rita didn't really know that before, but it made a lot of sense now. "What happened?"

Lapis shrugged. "I quit. I hated being there. Now I'll be there again. But this time, I make the rules. Even if I am gonna be alone."

There was silence for a moment and Rita got the sense something else was wrong. Lapis’s entire body seemed to simply sag there, as if it was too heavy to really move. The woman had been prone to extreme ups and downs before, but now it just seemed sad. “Lapis… I’ll still come and visit.”

Lapis didn’t turn back to face her. “I’d appreciate it if you kept your visits to a minimum actually.”

Rita’s heart just felt like it was stabbed again. It hurt so bad that Rita had to look away to force herself from tearing up. “I’m so sorry about the mark.”

Lapis shook her head. “I don’t care about that.”

“Then… why don’t you want to see me anymore?”

“Because you don’t love me.”

A third stab to the heart. “I… I…”

“You don’t, and you never will.” Lapis picked up a rock and tossed it. The little rock skipped three times before sinking into the pond. “I thought that if I waited long enough, you’d turn around and see me for who I was, for what I was. That you’d learn to love me and you’d know I was always there to keep you safe and protect you. I know why my mark is gone.”

A shiver of fear and pain shot through Rita’s body. Did she know that Rita had made that wish? “W-why is that?”

Lapis lowered her head and sighed. “I lost my faith. I realized that I can’t stay loyal to you if the only thing keeping us together was my one sided obsession.” Lapis looked up into the bright blue sky above. “I’ll be safe here though. So you don’t have to worry about me anymore. Go out and make Saturn fall in love with you. I know you want her.”

The pain in Rita’s heart was just too much to bear. She could have told her about how she turned Saturn down and pushed her away. She could have told her that she’d give Lapis a chance at love. She could have said anything to keep Lapis by her. But Rita knew better than that. She knew she loved Lapis, but it wasn't the kind of love Lapis wanted or deserved, and if Lapis wanted to be set free then it would be wrong of Rita to keep her hooked on and close to her if she couldn’t return the romantic feelings.

Rita turned away and forced her tears back down. Strong girls didn’t cry, they fought and fought until their knuckles were broken and bled but they never cried. Rita was strong, and she would stay that way for those she loved and cared for. “Okay,” Rita said as she got up and walked away. “I’ll still check up on you, I promise. But I won’t be a bother when I do. You’ll always be family to me.”

Lapis’s voice cracked as she replied. “I know, and that’s the problem.”

It wasn’t until Rita was back inside the keep and in one of the many hallways that she leaned against the wall and wiped at her eyes. Her arm came back wet. Sure the coin had kept her friends alive, and to top it all off, they'd be safe now, but now they could no longer stay by her side. They were separated from her, and she knew deep down that their relationships would never be the same again.

Growing up sucked.

A gentle and big hand landed on Rita’s shoulder. “Rita,” Fiona’s voice came out soft as silk.

Rita swallowed her pain, her anger, her frustration with herself and others and replied, “What’s up?”

Fiona took a moment to speak but finally said, “Lamont just told me that there was something called an orglith spotted in town?”

Rita faked her boyish grin and slipped her goggles down over her eyes. Only then did she turn around and look at Fiona’s worried expression. Rita put all the vigor and energy she could into her voice as she said, “Let’s go kick some monster butt!”

That brought a smile to Fiona’s lips. “O-okay, b-but can we t-try talking to it first?”

Rita shrugged. “Try whatever you feel like, I’m still bringing a gun.”

After that Rita led the way, she didn’t know where she was going, or what she was going to do, but she still had a job to do, still had monsters to defeat, and still had a least one friend who could be there besides her as she did it. Yeah, growing up sucks, but sometimes if you try really hard it can also be fun. Rita was going to try really hard to make it fun.

The End...