The others kept training. They checked in on Trillia every day and brought her food that she didn't eat. Trillia sat in her room on her bed... her eyes were red and her cheeks were puffy.

She knew that Blossom's chances had been low. Everyone said as much. But why did she have to die? It seemed stupid. There were so many people there to fight. Was it the injury? Did Blossom think she was going to die anyway and wanted to do as much damage as possible? Tears welled up in her eyes as she clenched her fists.

She knew that her sacrifice hadn't been in vain, but that didn't soften the blow.

"Will there ever be a time this doesn't hurt so bad?" She whispered to herself as she buried her face in her knees.

"No. Not really." A voice responded to her. Trillia's head snapped up, and she saw a young woman dressed in an all-white gown sitting at her table. The woman's presence put Trillia at ease. The voice even more so because it was a voice she recognized.

"Dawn?"

The woman offered her a warm smile. "It's been a while. At least, as far as your time goes."

Trillia wanted to lash out. Wanted to scream at Dawn as well for Blossom's loss. But she didn't have it in her anymore. Most of her life had been fighting, and losing people along the way was a byproduct of that. It was exhausting, and she was only in her teens. Her heart ached as she thought about how often her mother and uncles had to have gone through this. "Is there something you need?"

Dawn nodded. "If there was a single place on your realm that you could have shown Blossom. Where would it be?"

The words bit into Trillia. Her eyes narrowed in anger.

But after a few minutes, she thought about Blossom. About the fields and lakes of the Shattered Plains. Blossom's world had been nothing but trees and oceans. She wondered how the woman would have liked the wide-open fields. Or perhaps the harsh desert around D'Jamu.

Wondered if her friend would go about planting trees.

The hurt came back.

Dawn stood and walked over to the young orc. Leaning over and kissing her forehead softly. "In a decade or two. I want you to go to the lake where you and your brother made a promise. Do you remember it?"

Trillia was leery but nodded. "Good. Survive."

"Why? What's the point?"

"Do you want Amelia to feel how you're feeling now? What about Tormash or Ralrouk?"

That felt like a punch to the gut. "No....of course not."

"So survive and train."

Just as quickly as she came, she was gone. But why? Did her words mean that Blossom was going to come back? Maybe she'd get a chance to see her. She knew that some spirits lingered in an afterlife, waiting for friends and family to come.

Maybe in a decade or two Trillia would be allowed to at least tell Blossom how proud she was. Trillia stood and made her way to the orb on the Professor's desk. Only to find the woman sitting there waiting.

The two exchanged a long look of silence before Trillia spoke. "Is there a way. That I could travel to Blossom's realm and see her world some time? Visit whatever monument they put up for her?"

"Something like that might be arranged."

Trillia took a deep breath. "I suppose I should get back to training. So that I can survive my own ordeals and visit her homeworld."

"We'll start tomorrow."

-=====-

The relationship between the three of them was strained. Trillia understood, deep down, that they had nothing to do with it. If anything, Titan and Tempest had been instrumental in making sure that Blossom had made a real impact.

But Trillia couldn't separate them from their deity status. She so desperately wanted to hug her mom. To have a bowl of stew with Amelia and listen to her best friend go on about music and watch her eyes light up as she taught Trillia.

The sound of a loud clang pulled her from distractions as Titan slapped her rapier out of her hands. There was no admonishment; he just gave Trillia a worried look.

"I can't do this. I just. I can't." Her fingertips trembled as she reached down for the rapier.

Titan and Tempest were silenced before they could speak as the Professor spoke up. "Why don't you take a few more weeks? You have plenty of time, with how slowly you perceive it here."

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Trillia gingerly lifted her rapier, twirling it in her hands for a moment before sheathing it. "Can you just use a spell or something? Make me forg-"

"No!" Tempest snapping startled Trillia.

"It won't fix it. You will just wake up in tears with heartache and have no idea why. I'm speaking from experience here. You need to come to terms with this. I know you're young... this isn't fair. But this is the life you signed up for when you became an avatar of a god. This is the life you signed up for when you wanted to be something. This is the price of legacy."

It was too high of a price. Trillia thought to herself bitterly. After a moment of trying to find a retort, she finally threw up her hands and just walked back to her room.

-=====-

The next day, Trillia woke up to find a small green book sitting on the edge of her desk. The door to her room was closed and locked. So it had to be the Professor.

Walking over, she sat down and looked at the book to see that it had been Blossom's journal. All of the pain came back in a rush, but she managed to hold it together.

Lifting the book and opening it, she read the first entry.

"Day One! Woo! It's scary, but I can't wait to learn. I won't let you guys down, I promise. I'll learn everything I can and close that damn rift so the forest stops getting corrupted. So far, my classmates all seem super scary. There's this really loud girl who is called Tempest. It's fitting since you always know when she's in the room because of her yapping. The Professor gave us some books to read; they are super complicated, but I think I can manage."

"Day Two! I've made a friend! But I'm not sure what she is. To be fair, I'm not sure what anyone really is. I think a lot of the folks in my class are from another axle. So, I sort of see them as slightly blurry creatures. The Professor said that I will slowly come to see them as they really are over the next few days. Her title is Fairtrade. Titan said she must be some incredible diplomat from her world since it even works on him. He's a deity, by the way!"

Trillia held a bitter little smile as she read through her friend's thoughts.

"I'm not sure what day it is. It's so hard to tell in here. There are no suns or moons. Trillia is really good at explaining stuff. Her system must be way different, though. Cause a lot of the terms she uses to describe things are words I've never heard of. But I get most of it! Tempest isn't so bad, I think she's just lost a lot of people, so she tries to be standoffish to scare others away. But that's ok! I've never met an acorn I couldn't grow. The seeds of friendship have been planted, I won't give up on you, my little whirlwind of yapping."

"I'm. I'm not sure how to write this. I'm scared, Mother Gaia. I saw a shard of the thing I'm supposed to be fighting. The fires from the great war got pulled up from my memories. I had to relive my entire clan being butchered and burned. I don't know if I have the strength to do this. But if I don't...what then? More people will die. It's nice to have friends. I hope I get to see them again after I leave this place."

Trillia paused and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

"Another deity showed up with some really bad news. But he is helping me to train, so I guess that's good. I'm currently sitting in Titan's room, trying not to panic. Trillia passed out on the floor. She snores. Titan and Tempest usually leave for a few hours to do more training and reading. It must be nice to ignore all the eating and sleeping stuff that we have to do.

....

I'm really scared, Mother Gaia. Something inside me feels wrong. Like, I can tell something terrible is gonna happen. I hope we can at least save some of our people."

"Final Entry. I'm writing this the day before I head out. I'm going to leave this journal here with the Professor. She can send it to me if I succeed. But if I don't, I am going to ask her to give it to Trillia, once Trillia's training is done. I've been doing a lot of research on where everyone is from. I think Fate is at play. Trillia is from something called a cradle world, and so am I. I think... I think our realms might be connected somehow. Like maybe our cores know each other? That's probably stupid. Anyway! If I am going to leave this behind, I may as well write in some last words.

To The Professor. Thank you so much for teaching me so much stuff. Thank you for staying up with me late so many nights and just talking to me when I felt lost and worried. I didn't wanna lean too heavily on the others since I know they all have a lot of stuff on their shoulders as well. I know you hate the rules that make it so you can't just swoop in and save us all. But you're doing the next best thing, letting us save ourselves. I hope I make you proud out there. If I do fail... don't take it too hard. Mother Gaia said the chances of everyone surviving were basically zero. It will cost us a lot of lives to survive, I hope we do, and I think you and Lord Zymeth have given us the best chance of that.

To Tempest. I don't know what to say. I never got a chance to know you better. If I survive, I'll pray to you. If nothing else, just to annoy you and ask how you're doing. One day, I'll get a genuine hug from you. You seem like someone who actually cares about us, even if you pretend otherwise. You sat up for six hours reading to me one night because I was scared. You wouldn't do that if we weren't friends.

To Titan. I hope things work out for you, big guy. You didn't say much about it, but I can tell the idea of leaving this place and entering a never-ending war against these things has you worried. I guess worry never really goes away, does it? Even as a deity. Thank you for all the lessons on fighting, I'll be honest. I doubt I'll ever be good at it. But hopefully, it lets me survive a little longer. You said that if I survive this, you'll check in on me from time to time... I think I'd like that.

To Trillia. I honestly hope you never read any of this. Cause if ya do, it means I didn't make it. I sure hope my realm survived, at least. I don't really care if I am alive if it means everyone else got to live. From what I could gather by pestering Lord Zymeth and the Professor. I think your world is going to be attacked soon as well. It sucks, you're so young, and you are having to deal with this. I've at least had a lot of time to live a full life. You seem like the most determined out of all of us, so I know you'll be ok. Plus, your realm seems to have a lot more powerful people in it. I'm sure you've got this. If you are reading this... sorry we never got a proper goodbye or got to really talk about each other's realms. I'll miss you, and I hope you find peace in your life. I think everyone deserves peace. But you're gonna have to fight for your peace, just like I am. Do me a favor, find a nice place in your world that you think I'd like, and bury this journal there. Somewhere with a nice view and a breeze. If my world isn't around anymore...who knows, maybe I can come to haunt this journal and chat with you."

Trillia closed the little book and hugged it to herself. The hurt was still there, but it hurt a little less.