There was a roaring sound filling Parker’s ears as he continued clutching the master’s arm, refusing to let go. Alexis sat beside him and rubbed his back trying to comfort him. All she wanted to do was help him but she didn’t know what to do. She’d never been through anything like this before.

“Oh my God…” Master Kingston’s voice came from nearby as she ran to them. Alexis saw her eyes shift to Master Sora, unmoving on the ground. The sorrow that engulfed her face was instant. “We need to get all of you inside before others start to notice.

“What’s wron—” Master Keegan stopped mid-sentence. “Thelonius?” he asked, losing his voice. Master Kingston shook her head slowly. “Get them inside now,” he ordered.

Master Kingston pulled Alexis to her feet but when she tried to get Parker up, he pushed her off and continued holding onto Master Sora. “Honey… we have to go inside. You don’t want the whole school seeing this! I promise.” She pulled on him again. He didn’t push her off this time but he didn’t assist her in getting up.

When he finally got to his feet, Parker’s eyes were locked on Master Sora. He saw Master Keegan lean down and close Master Sora’s eyes as he picked up his body. “Let’s go to your chambers.”

Master Kingston held Parker and Alexis by their hands and guided them back to the castle while Master Keegan walked behind them. The roaring continued in Parker's ears as they walked. Alexis moved in utter silence.

They walked to the edge of the castle and continued along the outside of it. No one else seemed to be outside. Master Kingston moved all of them across the surface of the lake until they landed on the balcony to her chambers. She rushed in and cleared off her desk so that Master Keegan could use it.

Master Kingston then guided Parker and Alexis into some padded chairs that she’d turned away from facing her desk. “Talk to me now. What happened?”

Parker sat silently, staring at the floor. Alexis kept her eyes on Parker but started to recall all of the events of the battle. When she mentioned that Caleb and Hailee disappeared, Master Kingston turned to look at Parker again.

“Where did you send them to? Are they safe?”

Parker didn’t respond so Alexis shook his elbow lightly. “Did you send them back here?” she asked.

Parker didn’t respond.

“Did you send them somewhere else you thought would be safe?” Master Kingston asked.

Parker’s mouth opened slightly but no words came out.

“Honey, you’re okay. You’re safe now.”

Parker started to blink several times. “It’s my fault…” he muttered under his breath.

“Stop that right now,” the master demanded. “This is the fault of two parents who couldn’t communicate. In no way is this your fault.”

“I could’ve stopped them. We could’ve stopped them.” Parker was starting to hyperventilate.

Master Kingston rubbed Parker’s arm in an effort to console him. “What’s done is done. We need to honor him and move forward. That’s what he would’ve wanted.”

Parker didn’t respond but he knew she was right. Master Sora specifically told him that he was okay and didn’t want Parker to try to fix it. Why would he have been okay with this?

“Parker,” Alexis chimed in. “Where did you send Caleb and Hailee?”

“Yes, where are they?” the master asked.

Parker lifted his eyes from the floor and met Alexis’s. “They’re at my parents’ house. I didn’t think Lara would be able to find them there.”

“That was a great idea!” Alexis said with a smile on her face.

“No it wasn’t!” Parker snapped. “All it did was endanger my parents!”

“What are you talking about? Your house was so far away from where we were.”

“We’re talking about hiding them from someone who can sense where they’re at and teleport to them! Distance isn’t important when it comes to that!”

“But Lara clearly couldn’t sense Hailee’s core, she needed the picture frame in order to find them.”

Parker shook his head. “That’s only because Master Sora was interfering with her core. He’s dead now so she would’ve been able to find Hailee in an instant…” Parker trailed off. “Actually… why didn’t she immediately go find her?”

Alexis stared at him, now wondering the same thing. “What happened after you sent them away?”

“That was when chaos really broke out. She was stabbed, Master Sora…” he trailed off for a moment. “Master Terra, you…” he reached out and grabbed Alexis’s hand. “Then she saved you and I could tell as she was about to kill that person that she was ready to make Earth 2 again and I couldn’t let that happen.” Tears started to roll down his face again. “What did I do?” he mumbled.

Master Kingston placed both of her hands on Parker’s shoulders and looked directly into his eyes. “You saved billions of people, Parker. That’s what you did.”

Master Keegan made his way to Master Kingston’s side now. “Parker, I couldn’t be more proud of you.”

Parker looked at him, confused. “Proud, sir?”

“What you did was one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to go through, and at your age, I can’t even fathom what it must’ve been like. But, you saved so many.”

“I guess,” Parker muttered, not agreeing completely with the master.

“We need to hold an assembly,” Master Keegan said.

Master Kingston agreed and directed everyone out of her chambers. As they walked through the corridors, they stopped every kid they saw and told them to go spread the word that everyone needed to be in The Regale in twenty minutes.

“Will that really work?” Alexis asked, not believing that word of mouth would get everyone to The Regale in twenty minutes. The school was far too big for that.

The four of them stood at the front of The Regale as students filed in and filled all of the seats. There was whispering coming from every direction and Parker wondered what all was being said.

“After this,” Master Kingston whispered into Parker’s ear. “The three of us will go to your parents house and make sure that Caleb and Hailee are safe.”

“Why didn’t we do that first?” Parker whispered back.

“I felt like this should be our first priority. I’m living in the assumption that they arrived safely at your parents.”

Alexis couldn’t believe it, but it looked like everyone got the message and it still hadn’t even been close to twenty minutes. Apparently a vague demand that everyone be in one place worked.

Master Kingston took several steps in front of the head table and folded her hands. The Regale fell silent in an instant. “Thank you for coming on such short notice, but there is something we must tell you.” She tried to say the next part but it wouldn’t come out.

Master Keegan stepped up next to her. “As most of you know, one of our own was taken. Well, in the effort to get her back, Master Sora…” he trailed off, struggling to get the words out. Whispering broke out immediately as Master Keegan got caught up on his words. “Master Sora… died doing what was right.”

Gasps rippled across the room and then pure silence. “Who took her?” someone shouted.

“Master Terra was the one who took Hailee.” More gasps rippled through the crowd. “He was her father and Lara, her mother, was the one trying to stop him. We worked with her in order to do this. There was an intense battle, and sadly Master Sora died protecting Lara. He was, without a doubt, the bravest and most honorable man I’ve ever known.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Is Hailee safe?” someone yelled. Parker recognized the voice as someone from their house but couldn’t place it at the moment.

“We believe so, we’re going to check on her as soon as we’re done here,” Master Kingston answered.

Master Keegan spoke up, “We will be holding a memorial service for Master Sora tomorrow. All classes will be canceled. If you need to talk to someone, reach out to your friends. Support one another as best you can. All masters will be available to talk if you need it. No feelings are ridiculous. This impacts us all and we all have the right to be sad.” Master Keegan finished his sentence and walked out of The Regale.

“Let’s go now,” Master Kingston said to Parker and Alexis. They joined hands and Parker teleported them away from the school.

———

“Parker!” He heard his mom scream as she hug-tackled him to the ground. “Are you okay?”

He tapped her arm rapidly. “Can’t… breathe…” he struggled to get out.

She scurried off of him and helped him to his feet. “Are you hurt? Did she hurt you?”

Parker realized none of them knew what happened. His heart sank at the thought of telling the story again but Caleb and Hailee had been teleported away before everything went down.

“Are Caleb and Hailee okay?” he asked, not answering her question.

Parker’s dad entered the room. “They scared the ever living out of us, but they’re okay. Hailee is resting in your room and Caleb hasn’t left her side.” His dad walked over and gave him a hug. “Are you okay? Caleb mentioned that you had found Warwick and Lara but didn’t know much else.”

“Yeah, we’re okay…” Parker trailed off.

“What’s wrong?” his mom asked.

Master Kingston stepped forward to take charge. “Let’s go to the other room and let the kids go check on their friends.”

Parker’s dad led them into the kitchen so they could sit at the table and have a conversation. Parker grabbed Alexis by the hand and guided her to his room.

When they walked through the door, Hailee was lying in the bed with her eyes closed. Caleb was sitting in a chair next to the bed but was folded in half, lying with his head in her lap.

Parker walked over to him and placed his hand on Caleb’s back. “Hey,” he whispered. “Caleb…” he gently shook him.

Caleb shook his head a little and sat up. He turned and saw Parker standing next to him. “You’re okay!” he exclaimed, louder than intended. Caleb stood and hugged the two of them. Parker still couldn’t get the sad look off of his face so Caleb knew something was wrong. “What happened after you sent us here?”

Parker quietly told him what happened but Caleb didn’t look surprised by much. He sniffled at the news about Master Sora but was unfazed by Master Terra and Lara’s deaths.

“Is it bad that I’m not upset they’re both gone?” he asked. Both Parker and Alexis shook their heads. They understood exactly how he felt.

“I just don’t know how we tell Hailee,” Alexis said.

“Let’s go talk downstairs,” Parker suggested, doing his best to make sure Hailee could rest.

The adults were all sitting around the kitchen table when they arrived downstairs. Parker’s mom stood up and hugged him as they entered the kitchen. “I’m so sorry, honey. I’m so sorry you had to do that.”

“I did it for everyone…” he said.

They talked at the table for a while about everything that happened and how Parker and Alexis were handling all of it.

“How do we tell Hailee that her parents are dead?” Alexis asked. Everyone’s eyes went wide as they saw Hailee turn the corner at the end of Alexis’s question.

“You already told me,” she said as she entered the kitchen.

“Hailee!” Alexis yelped, standing bolt upright. “I’m so sorry!” She turned and ran to Hailee and bear-hugged her as tightly as she could.

“I heard you two telling everything to Caleb.” Everyone stared apologetically at her. “Please don’t feel bad for me. I know why you think you should but really, don’t.”

“Hailee,” Master Kingston started. “You’re still in shock.”

“I’m not though. I knew my dad was going to try to kill my mom. He told me countless times after he took me. It was all he talked about when I was awake. He kept me unconscious most of the time, but when I wasn’t he kept telling me how he was going to stop her. How Omnis didn’t deserve to live. And let’s be honest, we all know that my mom wasn’t going to take that lying down.”

Parker spoke up. “I’m so sorry that I had to do it. Lara could’ve lived if it weren’t for me…” he sniffled as he trailed off his sentence. The room was quiet for several moments. “I just couldn’t let her kill billions. Not again.”

Parker’s parents looked at him confused. “What do you mean, ‘not again’?” his dad asked. Parker realized that they left that part of the story out.

He turned to look at the master. “Can we stay the night here and return to the school tomorrow?” He shifted his gaze to his parents. “There’s still a lot to talk about.”

“I guess since you can teleport, it’s not an issue. I mean, let’s be real. If I could’ve teleported as a kid, I probably never would’ve spent a night at the castle when I could just, poof, and sleep in my own bed. We’re holding the memorial service tomorrow at noon outside of the castle so don’t be late.”

Parker teleported Master Kingston back to the castle and then reached out to make sure that he could send Master Keegan’s core nearby so he knew that she landed in the right place.

They spent the rest of the night telling Parker’s parents everything. When he got to the part about future Alexis, he could barely get through it without crying and she grasped his hand tightly.

Everyone finally crashed well after midnight. Parker’s mom made breakfast for everyone before they would go back to the castle.

“Come with us,” Parker insisted. “You knew him too. You should be there.” His mom wasn’t sure, but his dad agreed.

When they landed on the grass at the base of the castle, his dad said, “Well, that’ll take some getting used to… but man, look at this place. It hasn’t changed one bit.”

“You’re wrong there,” Caleb corrected. “Part of the castle had to be rebuilt because of Lara.”

“We really need to talk to the masters about changing the contact rules for parents. I think we need to be told about stuff like that…” Parker’s mom said.

The sun was high in the sky and Parker could see a large amount of students already gathered outside of the castle. The students from The House of Erion could be heard sniffling and crying. The other students were visibly sad, but not quite at the same level.

They all took their seats in the front row and waited for the service to start. There was a casket that had a shining white symbol for The House of Erion emblazoned on it.

Once everyone was seated, Master Kingston stood up in front of everyone. Parker expected Master Keegan to take charge but when he looked over at the master, he could tell that Master Keegan was taking this extremely hard.

“Thelonius Sora was a dear friend. He was one of the most caring and thoughtful people I’ve ever known. He’s been the leader of this school for decades and those are some shoes that will be difficult to fill.”

Parker could hear crying from all around him. His mom held his left hand and Alexis squeezed his right. Caleb was holding Hailee’s hand and part of him didn’t know if he’d ever let go.

“Everything will feel off, but we will recover, we will overcome. He would want nothing less for us to honor him and use his sacrifice as inspiration to do better. To be better. Lara was, in a way, an enemy.” Master Kingston glanced at Hailee for a split second. “But in the end, he still tried to save her even though it cost him his life. Everyone should strive to be as brave and as caring as Master Sora was, because that is a life truly worth living.”

Master Kingston sat back down and Master Keegan took the stand. “Master Sora was one of my dearest friends and I’ll miss him more than you can imagine but Master Kingston is right. He would want us to push forward and become the best versions of ourselves.”

———

“Man… I haven’t been here in ages. It looks a lot different now than when we were here.” Parker’s dad walked around The House of Erion common room looking at all of the things that had changed since he’d attended school. “Master Kingston is new too. She must have replaced Master Whitlock. He was a grumpy old man, she seemed much more pleasant.”

Parker made his way out to the balcony and his mom joined him. “How are you doing, honey?” she asked. “Aside from, you know, everything.”

Parker laughed at her question. “I mean, all I can do is honor Master Sora by doing my best.”

“Well, I think you need to have a very important conversation with the masters. What year should you really be in? I mean, you’re in our Parker’s body but you’ve got the mental state and abilities of future Parker.”

Parker hadn’t thought about that. He’d been so focused since he came back on just blending in and not letting anyone know what happened that he hadn’t thought much about the fact that he’s years older than his friends.

“I don’t want to leave my friends though…” he mumbled to himself. “God that sounds childish…” His mom laughed at him and hugged him from the side.

“Don’t worry. It doesn’t need to be figured out right away. Maybe you try to ‘intern’ here and help out in classes. I mean, you are an Omni, so you could be a lot of help to literally everyone. Just an idea though.”

Parker hugged his mom back and then walked into the common room. His dad was looking at Monty, who was sleeping peacefully in front of the fire. Parker wasn’t sure if Monty ever truly left that fireplace unless he had a lap to sit on.

“Thank you so much for coming with us to the memorial. Really, you have no idea how much help it was to have you both there.” Parker plopped down onto the couch. “What are you going to do now?”

Parker’s dad sat down next to him and grabbed Parker’s knee. “Well, as awful as this sounds, the world keeps spinning. We both have work tomorrow so we have to go home and get some sleep.”

“Man, the world really does just suck sometimes doesn’t it?” Parker asked with a laugh.

Everyone sat in a little bit of awkward silence. Parker wasn’t ready for them to leave but at the same time he didn’t really know what to do or say now.

“So… uh… are you gonna help us get back home or do we have to hoof it on foot?” his dad asked.

Everyone started to laugh. “I guess I can be of some help.” Parker hugged both of his parents goodbye and said, “I’ll be sure to try and visit more often now that it’s fairly easy for me.”

“You better,” his mom said with a smile.

In the next moment, his parents were gone and the common room grew quiet. “What now?” Alexis asked.

“I guess we just move on. Do you think we’ll be excused from homework for the rest of the year?” Parker asked, laughing at the ridiculousness of homework after everything he’s been through.