Emony walked along the ruined stone roads of the city, the knight commander beside him and Tiphaine, leaning her exhausted head on his shoulder. Thousands upon thousands of corpses lay on the ground at their sides, unmoving and untouched by the raging magic behind them.

They slowly made their way to where the king had collapsed the city wall with his fist and climbed slowly through the rubble, exiting the city. There, a crowd of humans awaited, and with them, Lenah and Aylard.

While the knight commander, Yperian, took his leave to find his men, the two came running towards them.

“Divines, I’m so happy to see you two again!” Lenah shouted. “I was so worried I couldn’t hold the spell, Aylard began dying so quickly all of a sudden! But then it all stopped and he recovered on his own, before I had even done anything – I’ve never seen anything like it! Did you really do it? Did you beat the king? Oh, divines… But Tiphaine, are you really okay? Are you really here right now, I’m not just seeing things?”

“I’m here. I’m alive,” Tiphaine said quietly, throwing a hand off of Emony’s shoulder to reach for her. He quickly changed his stance to stabilize her.

“I was pretty worried there myself, for a moment,” Aylard said. “Lenah explained nothing, and then the next moment, I felt like I’d been stabbed through the heart. I thought for certain I was going to die.”

“You were, Aylard,” Emony said. For the first time in a long time, he felt truly happy that he had met a human. “I couldn’t thank you enough… You saved Tiphaine’s life. I owe you… the world.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it, doggy. Just introduce me to Emma again, will you, and I’ll consider it worth it.”

Tiphaine chuckled weakly on his shoulder. His lips stretched into a smile.

“The lord commander didn’t tell you?” he asked.

“Tell me what?”

Within seconds, in the middle of so much rubble and death, he and the two girls burst out laughing. The happy sound spread across the snowy plains.

“Hey, Tiphaine, did you forget your veil back there?” Lenah asked, freeing her blue hair from the grip of Tiphaine’s vipers.

Still with her face buried in his shoulder, Tiphaine shook her head. “I still have it. I just want to feel the air on my face right now. Because I’m alive, and… because I can. That, and… Emony?”

“You want to show them?” he asked.

Behind him, she nodded.

“There are a lot of innocent people in front of us, Tiphaine. Try not to get them all, will you?”

She hit his shoulder lightly and lifted her head from it. “I have something to show you. Verena was right all along. The king’s black magic… it was stronger than the Eyes.”

While Lenah’s hands shot up to her mouth, Tiphaine opened her eyes, and not a single person looking at them turned to stone.

They were all at a loss for words. Luckily, those weren’t necessary. They simply stepped into a large embrace.

Days later, they were enjoying a casual stroll across Coldbarrow, the village where it had all begun. The villagers were moving back into their homes, the knight commander and his soldiers helping to repair the damage caused by the storms and all the fighting. People looked upon them nervously, still somewhat afraid to talk to them, but most of their fear had subsided with the news that they had helped defeat the evil king and the men of the lake.

They had freed Verena from her prison in the sunken palace and laid the king and queen to rest there, in the throne room, despite the protests of the other king, Raynardt. The bottomless abyss that lay in the lake was still there, tainting the waters with black magic, but Lenah was doing her best to find a way to deal with it.

Life was ever so slowly returning to normal.

And the best part? A full moon was coming.

“Are you looking forward to howling at the moon again?” asked Tiphaine, smiling brightly at him, holding his hand as they made their way across the village. “I’ve almost forgotten what you used to look like. And it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to pet you.”

“Tonight, you can pet me all you want. I just want to know that you’re beside me, alive.”

“Then I’ll never leave.”

“Aw, is this how it’s going to be, you too? Is this what happens when you upgrade your relationship to one where you can actually bear to look at one another?”

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“Zip it, Lenah.”

“Oh, you don’t want to be so rude to me, doggy. I know all your secrets. I even know what you’re thinking right now.”

“I think she does, too,” he replied, glancing at Tiphaine’s eyes and losing himself in them momentarily. He really would have to make up for lost time. He planned to stare at them at every opportunity.

“Urgh. Young love. Gross, am I right, Aylard? Hey, now that you’ve seen them both, who do you think is prettier, Tiphaine or Emma?”

“Are we really going to talk about her again?” Emony asked, provoking a small chuckle from Tiphaine. “I am so glad she’s gone.”

“But Emony! You promised Aylard you would help them meet up again!” Tiphaine said.

“Yes, actually, I’ve been meaning to ask – where does she live? Is she back in that river, by Terrena?” inquired Aylard. “Or is she still in that bathhouse? How did she manage to get out of there, anyway?”

“She’s closer than you think,” Lenah said.

“No, no she’s not. She’s impossibly far away. Sorry, Aylard, she’s gone forever.”

“What?!”

“I bet Lenah could make that potion again,” whispered Tiphaine, leaning closer to him as they walked. She seemed to have a very mischievous expression on her face. “We could make her come back.”

His eyes narrowed at her. He knew that expression. “What are you plotting?” he asked.

“Just this,” Lenah laughed.

“What—”

He was interrupted by a torrent of water smashing into his face out of nowhere and knocking him to the ground. Startled, as he heard Lenah and Tiphaine laughing by his side, he started to feel that familiar, terrible vibrating sensation.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, no, no, this should be over! This can’t be happening!”

“I’m afraid it is. Don’t you have somewhere to go, Emony? Come on, go and get your friend,” said Lenah.

“What’s going on? Why did you do that?” asked Aylard, confused.

“Because they’re jerks!” Emony shouted, running off past them in the direction of the lake, before the change could force itself on him.

“Huh? Where is he going? That was mean, Lenah, but… Is he really that afraid of water…? Really? After everything else?”

“Didn’t Tiphaine tell you? His mom dropped him into a puddle when he was little. That’s how he became an orphan.”

“That nonsensical story again? Whatever. I have some quick errands to run. I’ll buy a towel. I’ll be right back.”

“See you.”

Emony spied on their parting, watching with only her head breaking the lake’s surface as Tiphaine and Lenah made their way towards the shore.

With a few kicks of the golden tail she hated so much and her mind thoroughly poisoned, she swam over towards them, watching them chuckle together as if they had already known that this would happen.

“I demand answers,” she growled at them, lacing magic into her once again adorable voice. Those damned blue sparks flew off of the witch and plucked the magic out of the words. “Why am I still half mermaid?!”

“That’s a funny story,” Lenah laughed, crouching down on the wet pebbles in front of her. Tiphaine dipped the end of her tail into the water and laid down next to her.

“I thought something strange was going on with your magic, so I hung out with Tiphaine in her dreams last night. We watched a couple of memories to figure out what, exactly. What we found was pretty funny.”

“Explain. Now.”

“Well,” said Tiphaine, chuckling, “you already know that, before the king tried to kill me, he cast a countercurse on you to undo the effects of the mermaid spell. But apparently, it couldn’t take full effect until the stronger curse – my petrification, was gone from your body, and water stopped feeding the other. That’s why he said you would be cured once you were freed from the stone and removed from all water.”

“Yes, I remember him saying that. What of it?!”

“Well… He died before you got dry, so...”

Emony’s face fell. He was rapidly becoming very irritated. “You’re joking.”

“His countercurse died with him, Emony,” Lenah said.

“Please tell me you’re lying.”

Tiphaine shook her head, having a hard time trying to hide her smile.

“You’re lying! Do not tell me that I’m stuck like this!”

“Well, since you’re back, Emma, we might as well bring Aylard over here, right?”

“What? No! Don’t! Stop waving, Lenah! Tiphaine! Why would you do that?!”

“Because he wants to see you, and you owe it to him to see him, and… Oh, look! He’s already here! Incoming!”

“Tiphaine!” Emony hissed. “Damn it! Lenah! Hide me! Urgh, why is nobody on my side?!”

Blue sparks crackled through the air again. Frowning, Emony wondered if she should dive into the water to escape. They probably couldn’t stop her from getting away if she really tried. But then she noticed something else. It was Tiphaine, her tail was wrapped tightly all around her, even under the water. Smiling, she tightened her grip even further.

Aylard ran over to the three of them, a surprised expression on his face.

“I thought you’d gone after Emony, that you were talking to him,” he said.

“Well, we found Emma instead,” Tiphaine replied. “Come on, be nice to him, Emma, he saved my life.”

“Urgh, well I saved his before that, so maybe we’re even. Actually, I’m ahead. Considering what you’re doing to me right now, Tiphaine, your life is rapidly losing value to me.”

“You know, you talk a lot like Emony,” said Aylard, coming closer to the shore. “It’s good to see you again, though. You’re a lot prettier than he is.”

Tiphaine tightened her body’s grip around Emony’s waist and tail again. “I can explain that. So, the thing is, when Emony fell into that puddle when he was little, Emma was actually already living in it. That’s how the two of them met. They’ve known each other forever.”

“You’re going to continue that fairytale?” asked Emony.

“Yup. Unless you’d rather we tell him the truth?” she asked.

“No, that’s alright. Keep going.”

“Why do you guys insist on lying to me at every turn?” Aylard asked. “I think I’ve proven myself trustworthy by now – or is it just because I’m the only human here? Damned monsters. By the way, how did you get here, Emma? This lake isn’t connected to any rivers.”

“Stop asking questions. It’s just magic. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to kidnap the idiot that thinks she’s keeping me here.”

“What?” asked Tiphaine.

“Have fun, you two!” said Lenah.

With a few pushes of her golden tail, Emony quickly pushed herself off the shore, dragging along Tiphaine, who was still wrapped up around her.

After surging through the beautiful, life-filled waters for a while, they stopped right under the surface in the middle of the lake.

“You’re better at swimming than you used to be,” Tiphaine remarked, tightening her tail around hers and staring at her with her beautiful green eyes. “Far better than the average doggy. So, why did you bring me here? Is this what a kidnapping looks like? What are you going to do to me?”

“How would you like to make some memories for Lenah to enjoy later?”

“Haha! What a great opportunity! I’d love to – but we can do that after we’re done. No, let’s try to keep this one between us.”

It was a beautiful day.