The Festival of Fish was going to start when the first star appeared in the sky.

Emmy prepared herself, putting on a sweater with a fish pattern and tying bows onto her tail.

She was finishing the last bow when her son opened the door and peeked in. He saw her smile and pushed the door open.

“Why do I have to wear ribbons?” he asked, walking in. “I don’t like them.”

“It’s tradition,” Emmy said, looking at his tail. Calvin had done a good job of tying the bows. “We have to do traditions.”

Luke wasn’t convinced. “Can’t I wear just one?”

“That would mean you only like eating one type of fish,” she pointed out.

“Well…” The kit looked at his tail critically. He pointed at a brown bow. “I could live without pike. Can I take the pike ribbon off?”

Emmy held back a laugh. “Ok. You can take the pike ribbon off. But only that one.”

Luke cheered, yanking the ribbon off his tail. He held it in his hand, clearly debating if he could survive without other types of fish, too.

“Come on, help me choose which necklace to wear,” Emmy said, opening her jewelry box.

He walked over, dropping the ribbon to the ground. “A fish necklace?”

“I don’t have any fish necklaces.”

“Maeve does. Mas has a fish charm for his earring. It looks dumb, but he likes it. What’s this one?”

Emmy pulled out the necklace he’d pointed at. “It’s a locket. Your dad gave it to me before you were born.”

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“It opens?” he asked.

“Yep.”

“What’s inside?”

Emmy took a breath to reply, but paused. “I… can’t remember.” She flicked it open.

> Activate memory restore?

>

> Doing so will not erase current memory.

>

> Yes | No

She stared at the box.

“It’s empty,” Luke said, taking the necklace.

Emmy hit Yes.

With a flash, memories poured in.

A dungeon. A dragon. A life with kobolds. Players. Catgirls. An amusement park. A secret. Forbidden knowledge. …Calvin.

Calvin came running into the room. He locked eyes with her, and she knew he was getting memories back, too.

He saw their son and hesitated. “Luke, could you… go get your shoes on?”

“Ok.” He went out, swinging the door closed behind him.

Emmy stared at Calvin. “How…”

He dropped onto their bed, starting to laugh. “It took ten years for us to open that locket?”

“I never thought to,” Emmy said, still processing everything.

Calvin was doing something with his screens. “I remember all the codes. Everything’s here. It all worked.” A shower of gold coins fell onto the bed next to him. “We can get Luke whatever he wants at the festival tonight.”

“Will using the codes attract attention?” Emmy asked.

“Some would, but most won’t be flagged. As long as I don’t overuse anything, we’re good.” More things appeared: enchanted jewelry, a few books, some metal trinkets Emmy remembered making…

“What should we do?” she asked. “Should we tell everyone? It… explains so much. Why no one has parents, why there weren’t any children a decade ago, why everyone on the planet speaks the same language… Why our town is so close to the kobold town.”

“No,” Calvin said. He picked up a book, a diary. “I’ll give these to their owners, but we shouldn’t volunteer information.”

Emmy nodded. “Ok.” She looked up. “I wonder what happened that last cycle…”

“Given our religion talks about a ‘goddess’, has to be that Admin 5 won,” he said. “She was on our side. We’re safe. Luke is safe.”

“Good to know,” Emmy said softly.

From the living room came their son’s voice. “Mooooom! Can we go yet!”

Calvin smiled, getting to his feet. “So how’s this for a happily ever after?”

Emmy stood, smiling back. “It’s everything I could ask for.”