Paradise.

Nothing else came close to describing the Floor of Amalgamation.

There were no wars.

No conflict.

No one to scream.

No one to cry.

No troubled slaves.

No signs of desolate lands.

No tears from a crying father.

No rejected masses who didn’t know what the sky looked like.

No deaths of the innocent.

And no woes from those precious to her.

The warm rays felt so real that she nearly believed they were somewhere near the plains of Wharftow.

The grass was so green that Frost thought they were along the flat expanse of Brandar.

Mountains so wide she thought back to Grandis.

Forests so magical her mind returned to the Village of Virt.

Rivers so clean that they must have been in H4.

A lake so vast that she could have sworn this was exactly where she stood next to Cer when she first opened up.

And a sea so endless that no one knew where it would lead.

It took a while before Frost was able to accept this place as the Floor of Amalgamation. Her defensive mechanisms begged her to look deeper into this world, and she obeyed, compelled to break this illusion.

She began feeling the flow of the water, tasting the rawness of the salmon that swam through, breathing the flowery scent of flower gardens, and basking in the warmth of the moving sun. Animals roamed this paradise, with all manners of beautiful flora that painted over the landscape.

Frost was in a world of her own. The illusion dispelled the longer she immersed herself. She realized that this was all real. And if it wasn’t, then she now refused to allow this illusion to break.

She asked the others to leave her alone just for a little bit.

That little bit became what felt like hours. Frost roamed the Floor of Amalgamation. The paradise that nearly convinced her that the Nexus was an ark from the past, preserving all life in the event of a disaster.

But Frost believed it was more than that.

She saw a new perspective of the Nexus after witnessing Anna’s Awakening, and as she embraced the sunlight through the canopies of the forest, she arrived at this warm conclusion.

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Maybe the Nexus was an ark carrying the hopes and dreams of those of the past.

Frost brushed her hair. Shook her head, and smiled to herself as she looked down into her palms.

Of course, the Nexus had all kinds of interpretations. All kinds of meanings, functions, purposes. The Nexus was too strange to have one concept pinned down, aside from ‘amalgamation’.

She thought about the unfulfilled dreams of the Archetypes.

And she wondered if Awakening them was to finally fulfil them, like how Anna realized she had saved the world in her own way. It helped shape her into a better person. She was still timid, and jumpy and sometimes needed a bit of space before she could do things on her own.

But…

Frost eventually left the forest, entering a small clearing where Jury and Nav began laying sticks into the ground like stakes. Meanwhile, Ignis and Ber hauled sticks from the mouth of the forest, waving at Frost with vibrant smiles.

Cer, Res, and the Little Frost – to her surprise – went off to catch some fish in a nearby river. As easy as it was to catch them with their bare hands, they tried their hands at fishing for once. They used a simple stick with a piece of metal string at the end, but of course, the impatient Cer used the tip of her tail and unsurprisingly caught a catfish.

It made Frost laugh.

Snap could be seen running in the distance, joining a herd of Beefed Boars. At the same time, the Hired Arm sat cozily along the grass beside Anna and the Star Child, watching over the others with a large sheet of paper in hand.

Anna’s silver eyes met with Frost, and she raised her hand timidly. Her smile burst with blissfulness, as if she were thanking Frost from the bottom of her heart.

She’s finally out of the library. Able to experience things on her own. An Awakening still isn’t so clear to me. But if this is what it means, then I love it. It’s beautiful. I wonder, if I were to Awaken like her, then what part of me would change?

Frost pondered as Ignis and Ber dragged her by the hands.

Or maybe I already Awakened and I just haven’t realized it yet?

They showed her what she missed while she went on her long stroll. Jury and Nav recalled the moment they declared that this world was their home but realized that they never had a place to actually call ‘home’.

With each stick they passed, and with every wall Frost imagined, she quickly understood what exactly Jury wanted to make here.

“What do you think, Frost!? I was thinking of one, big house! We can make one, can’t we?” Jury’s eyes sparkled as she suddenly picked Frost up from under the arms, twirling her around as shreds of grass flew into the skies like confetti.

The world turned so slowly.

And as cheesy as it was to admit it, she fell in love with Jury again. And again, and again. The rime and frost that had built over her heart after all the needless suffering finally began to melt away as Frost suddenly felt herself begin to shake.

Words failed to leave her trembling lips as her hair concealed her face. Then, as her heart finally thawed into its true, tender form, she found herself unable to speak.

A tear ran down her cheek.

She tried to wipe it away, but that trickle soon became a monsoon.

It arrived unexpectedly.

She herself didn’t know what happened.

But before she knew it, and as Jury stopped to see what was wrong –

– Frost broke down into a storm of tears.

I don’t care.

I want to stop caring.

Because at the end of the day, I just want to be with them.

When Sinder broke down all that was left was ashes.

But when Frost broke down what came after her winter was a new spring.

Frost had never cried so hard. She was completely helpless against her gushing storm of emotions. Her screams were barely muffled by Jury’s chest. When everything came crashing back down, and when she could no longer stand on her two legs…

… Then she could count on the support of her precious friends.

If she couldn’t bear the weight of it all, then they were here to help her.

Frost cried for all the wrongs she committed.

Cried for the people she couldn’t save.

And cried for the friends she hurt.

But mixed within was a cry of relief.

A cry to cherish this moment.

A cry to relinquish the despair.

And a cry to finally celebrate because it was finally over.

Many things still awaited.

Many more hardships would be faced.

But never in her life did she feel like she had people she could confidentially call her…

… family.