The curtains fluttered in the light breeze.

“You’re finally awake.” He was greeted by Noire’s smiling face.

Noire handed him a cup of coffee.

“Fill me in,” he said softly.

“Well, the city is in disarray. King Langus is dead, it's been 3 days since then. We are in a royal amount of trouble but luckily people were too panicked to have seen or paid attention to us. It was also discovered that tens of Nemrire had been kept captive inside of the castle. They had been captive for decades and provided the king with tech no one had access to.

Iota slowly took in the information.

“Where are the others?” He asked after a while.

“Zeno is by Sanachi’s grave.”

Iota got out of bed, his joints popped, and cried out in pain but he ignored it.

“Take my shoulder.” Said Noire leading him out.

They walked to the roof of the building. Zeno was there. In front of him was a porcelain box and a gravestone. Sanachi was engraved into it. Zeno stood there silently.

Zeno turned around at the footsteps

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He rushed over.

“Iota, you’re awake.” He gave Iota a hug. “There’s no way you’d die now- You survived the Sagrarian Forest.”

Noire’s eyes widened in surprise at the mention of the forest, but he didn’t say anything.

Iota hugged him back. “Of course not.”

They looked at Sanachi’s grave for a moment.

“Wait here,” said Zeno.

He came back a moment later carrying a wire frame wrapped in paper.

“We need to give him a proper send of.”

“I don’t know any.” Said Iota.

“I thought we could do one I learned from my parents.”

Iota nodded. “That would be great.”

Zeno lit a wick in the frame. It filled up with warm air and would have flown off had it not been for a piece of string tying it to Sanachi’s grave.

“Sanachi is no longer with us, his body is no longer living. He was a great man who inspired his fellow comrades. He was a friend. . .”

Zeno paused momentarily before continuing.

“He will be dearly missed and his soul passes on from this world to the next.”

Zeno cut the string connecting the balloon. It drifted up and into the air fluttering on the updrafts. It disappeared among the clouds.

Iota wiped his eyes.

After some time. Noire interrupted the silence.

“Iota let's go back inside you need to get something to eat.”

Noire helped him inside and they ate around the table.

“What do you plan to do now,” asked Zeno to Iota.

“I have been thinking about that for a while now. I think I wanna try and make the world a better place I lived my life trying to survive in it and sooner or later I would die and leave it in the same wretched state. My parents wanted to make a difference, I think I want to as well.”

“What about you?! Asked Iota looking at Zeno.

“I want to remove the stigma around The Nemrire, I want to save the remaining ones and share the truth of what the Nemrire did.”

“They’re lofty goals.” Said Noire. “But I believe you two can do it.”

Iota nodded his eyes deep in thought.

“Yeah, one step at a time.”