It was all a lie. That’s all Sara could think about when she met Kalif Esama in his Telsenlore palace. The last three days were a fantasy, a delusion, a refusal to accept the cold and harsh and darkened truth, and the second work resumed, everyone felt the true gravity of the situation. If they didn’t get their act together, Daniel would reverse time without Sara or Kyritus, and Tiber would die. So Sara negotiated a hard deal for Thousand-Year War support from the Kalif, leveraging the injustice she experienced and the ramifications of his soldiers’ actions to drive hard numbers. He agreed, and then her group spent a night of silence in a vibrant, lavish palace.

It was time to get serious.

The flight back to Lemora felt heavy, with constant flight but regular breaks for Tiber. Kye cooked food that Sara had in her spatial ring, but Raul didn’t complain that she was holding out. He and Emma were slowly spiraling into the pits of moral injury, knowing Edico was dead and everything was happening because they didn’t trust Sara. It got worse the closer they got to Lemora, and by the third day, they stopped talking entirely.

Sara didn’t blame them for what happened. She could’ve acted on her own. She should’ve acted. She just didn’t want to lose the little humanity she had left and wanted to hang onto the trust and love her friends were giving her for dear life, using it for warmth like a small fire in a blizzard of self-loathing, depression, and despair. Now, it backfired.

He died again, Sara thought. They could all die again.

Sara reached into her spatial ring on the second night and grabbed her wine bottle to swirl around the fire but didn’t pull it out. She now had Kye and Tiber. They were counting on her.

2

The welcome back to Lemora was as far from the scorn and hatred that Raul probably expected. Citizens sprawled over every nook of the cobblestone streets, waving and screaming and cheering for them as they flew into the city.

“What’s going on?” Tiber asked.

“Something political,” Sara replied. She waved, the crowd roared, and she swooped into the city, riling up the citizens as Tiber laughed and blew kisses, building hype and excitement for whatever Sara’s cabinet felt was necessary to build morale over. Then Sara returned to the top of the castle to a group of advisors who swarmed her.

Sara helped Tiber off the silver glider as Lord Kell walked up with a boy. The man saw the array on Tiber’s hand and froze. Tiber saw the array on the body’s hand and hid behind Sara. The atmosphere became tense.

“Are you linked to him…?” Lord Kell asked.

“No,” Sara said, patting down the silver glider as she tied it up. “Why are there cheering people?”

“Sayon’s Crypt,” an advisor said. “The announcement for war is fast approaching, and we needed a show of invincibility.”

“Good work,” Sara said. “Let’s use that energy. Build a pyre for the General and make it larger than any other. Tonight, we will mourn and then flip that energy into rage, and we’ll flip their rage into emotion, and then we’ll flip that into murderous fucking….” She stopped herself when Tiber looked at her. She also saw Kye standing in the distance, clammed up, feeling awkward to stand beside a queen. “We’ll send a message.”

The advisors nodded and glanced between Kye and Tiber.

“Who are these two?”

“Duke of… whatever, and Duchess… of whatever,” Sara said. “You have three months to carve out some territory because that’s when we’re getting married. Now excuse me.”

“W-What?” Lady Regam, the main Kingdom advisor, cried. “You can’t do that.”

Sara turned to the woman sharply. “Until the Demon Army is annihilated from this planet, I am in charge. And as of this moment, things are dire. So you will listen to me without constraint and do whatever the fuck I say, and what I’m saying is that these two will become high royalty so I can marry that man without a political scandal. Or, you can deal with the scandal. I don’t care. Now make it happen.”

Sara locked hands with Kyritus and Tiber and led them through the sea of advisors until she saw Alecov wearing a wry smile by the door. She paused before him. “Trust me—you don’t want this job.” Then she walked inside.

3

Sara led Kye and Tiber to Tiber’s room, which was right across the hall from Sara’s. The room was originally a personal treasury—now, it was a treasury with the greatest treasure in the kingdom.

Sara and Kye watched Tiber jump on the massive bed with glee, laughing and jumping and bouncing on her back, rolling around the mattress, seemingly without a care in the world. Sara found it amazing how fast kids learn to lie to please parents. It’s the tragedy of humankind.

“You’re spoiling her,” Kye said. The bathroom they added to the treasury was as big as his and Tiber’s bedroom in Hestiafern Tavern.

“Trust me,” Sara chuckled. “One week of people putting her in hoop dresses will make ’er wish she was in a tavern.”

Kye swallowed. “Do you want to start another tavern?”

Sara nodded. “Yeah.”

He looked at her, searching for honesty.

“I said, yeah,” she said. “That was the dream all along….”

“But?”

“Maybe travel a bit first? Go overseas?”

Kye smiled. “Sure.”

Sara smiled back and turned to Tiber. “Get some rest. It’s gonna be a long night.”

“Don’t leave….” Tiber’s face turned honest for once.

Sara swallowed nervously. “Just for a bit.”

“You’re just gonna do it.”

Sara sighed with depressed eyes. “Maybe.”

Tiber was old enough to understand. “Hurry.”

“Okay.”

Sara led Kye back to their bedroom. He entered in a state of awe, studying the ornate room built for a king.

“I can’t believe this is real,” he said.

“It is if you want it to be.”

“Of course I do.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Kye turned and found Sara hugging herself. Then he walked forward and clasped his hands around her awkwardly. “I’m… struggling to feel… worthy right now. I’m a tavern owner, not a king… or a politician… or… whatever is worthy of a room like this.”

Sara looked into his eyes.

“But, I want you,” he said. “And as long as I’m here… I’ll make you love me somehow.”

Sara chuckled. “This’s when you denounce my insecurity… not confess yours.”

Kye laughed and rubbed his eye with his palm, shaking his head. “If my insecurity doesn’t nullify yours… I don’t know what will.”

She smiled and nodded. “Hold me.”

He did.

Then, after a while, he leaned in with a nervous face. “So…? Do you want to ‘do it?’”

“Not when we feel like this,” Sara said. “Not to cope…”

“I agree.” They kissed and got ready. They had a funeral to go to.

4

Edico’s funeral had been in preparation for over a week, so there was no need to get people into motion. The entire city was alive, with merchants selling drinks to workers building the pyre, cooks preparing the tables for the feast, and performers from all over flooding the streets. Musicians prepared in large groups in Reemada’s take on symphonies, while nobles donned dark clothing that contrasted against their warm make-up. It was intense to be in the thick of it, weaving in and out of rushing citizens, listening to people yelling at each other, smelling rich aromas, and tripping over cobblestones, but Sara was there, right in the thick of it in a black cloak and dress, pulling Kyritus and Tiber along.

“Aren’t we coming here later?” Tiber asked.

“We are,” Sara said.

“Then why?”

Sara knelt and grabbed her shoulders. “In life, there are things you do and say because you want to, and there’s things you do because you must. I want to see what people think of him now… before the nobles and monarchs and politics change it…. Here. Follow me.” She led them to a wall where off-duty soldiers sat around in full armor in the setting sun, dehydrating themselves further with a flask of hard liquor. “Listen.”

“Crazy fuck,” one soldier said, taking a drink. “You know he always threw the first spear, right?”

“Nah, that ain’t true. He was a beast, and I saw ‘em fight, but he ain’t throwin’ the first spear.”

“Yeah, he did. I saw it.”

“You didn’t see shit, you dumb fuck.”

“Yeah, I’m a dumb fuck. That’s why they put me out front, and I’m tellin’ you, I watched the General grab a soldier’s spear and throw it durin’ the charge.”

The soldiers paused for a moment at the strange remark and burst into laughter. “Wait! It does kinda make sense you’d be out front, now ain’t it?”

“Nah, man. Forget that. Did you just say he took someone’s spear?”

“Yeah, I saw that shit.”

“So he took someone else’s weapon right before the charge?”

The woman drinking burst into laughter, choking, and that made them laugh more. “What happened to the guy? Did he go fisties?” The group laughed.

“Fuck if I know, I was about to die!” More laughter.

Sara smiled and tilted her head. “You hear that?”

“Them callin’ ‘em stupid?” Tiber asked.

Kye frowned and grabbed her shoulders. “Come on, Tiber.”

Tiber held a serious mug for a second before cracking a smile. “I know….”

“Good girl,” Sara said. “Up you go.” She knelt and put Tiber on her shoulders so she could see further. She wanted the little girl to see people celebrate, and so they did, watching, snacking, and getting ready until musicians started pounding drums that released the sound of thunder, jolting everyone to attention.

“Make way for the nobles!”

Sara frowned when the soldiers and crowd had to disperse for rich men and women to flow in. The nobles’ reputation was permanently scarred after the rebellion, so it was a tense start.

The nobles sat in chairs, eyes glued to a large stage with a massive pyre behind it. The front three rows were still empty, however. The front was for her and Alecov and the cabinet and Edico’s wife and his family. The row behind was for the high-ranking military officers, each noble in Escaran society, who served for him. The last row was for the heroes.

Sara waited for King Alecov to arrive and sit and for Raul and Emma to arrive on the sides, waiting their turn. Then she nodded and whispered. “It’s time,” she said as she put Tiber on the ground.

Kye and Tiber swallowed nervously.

“Okay,” he said.

Sara unhooded immediately and released a thin jolt of pressure that made everyone near her look. Then they saw her face and fell silent as she walked past, pulling them forward through the parting crowd until she reached Emma and Raul, passing the two off. Soon, they would be at her side—

—now, they were at a funeral.

Sara sat next to Alecov as if they were married, and then the proceedings began on the stage, where the speaker stood on an amplification circle. There was an introduction, followed by a person that listed out three pages of accomplishments, including battles won, ranks issued, dates, negotiations, and other stats. Then, it moved into military speeches and official speakers, and finally—into eulogies.

The first to speak was Rebe Sullsburg—Edico’s wife.

“My husband worked a lot.” She paused and smiled bitterly. “Anyone who has that many accomplishments had to.”

A sobbing woman behind Sara abruptly laughed, sniffing and coughing as crying people do.

“I used to joke,” Rebe said. “That he was married to the kingdom…. He said he was.” Men laughed. “We didn’t share a bed for a while.” Women laughed. Rebe cried, wiping her nose as she choked out the words, “But on the nights he was home,” she sobbed. “He was the best husband I could ask for.”

The laughter turned to mourning, filling Lemora’s city streets with sharp breaths and silence. She continued on with stories until she couldn’t speak anymore.

“Don’t forget he was a person,” Rebe requested. “A husband, a man who didn’t like toast.” Alecov laughed between his tear-streaked cheeks. “Because he was more than a myth… or a legend… or a general. He was just a normal person like you or me who rose up to protect this kingdom….”

Sara bit back tears.

“That’s what you should remember.” Rebe sobbed and walked off the stage.

Many more people followed with eulogies, but Sara didn’t move. She didn’t know what to say. Hey there…. I’m pretty sure a few of you know who I am…. Laugh, laugh. What you probably didn’t know was that I was his war buddy. Ol’ Ed and I used to chop up some demons together now and then, sendin’ them to hell with the dead tyrant we seized the kingdom from. Funny story, actually.

Sara gripped her chair, feeling cold and isolated, remembering that this life wasn’t her last life and the happiness she had was at the cost of what she lost. She and Edico weren’t friends or buddies or pals in this life. He didn’t save her from a jeel bug invasion in this life, and she didn’t tie the tourniquet on his leg when a meteorite sent rock shrapnel shooting into it. He was just her mentor and subordinate who was slightly more attached than others, only that, nothing more.

Suddenly, she looked up and found Rebe looking at her.

“Uh…” Sara said dumbly.

“He loved you,” Rebe said. “Like a daughter… you should speak.”

Sara took deep breaths and nodded before taking the stage, unsure what to say. “I’m pretty sure a few of you know who I am…” Sara began. The crowd laughed like she thought she would. She coughed and swallowed and breathed. “What you probably don’t know…” She paused, thinking back to Rebe’s request to remember him as a person. “Is that Edico actually loved toast.”

Rebe’s eyes widened, and the crowd hushed.

“Rebe just woke up three hours early to bake bread, and he wanted to spend as much time in bed with her as possible,” Sara said. “That’s the truth.”

Rebe burst into tears, and many began sobbing.

“I know because Edico used to tell me things like that when he whooped my ass with practice swords,” Sara said. “Pretty much sums him up.”

Sara let the awkward chuckles die down before continuing. “You probably know he had a selective memory,” she said. “That he could never seem to remember his days off or the plays he was invited to or the promises he made to have drinks….” She smiled. “But what you probably didn’t know was that he never forgot a soldier….”

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she remembered the way he listed off the fallen heroes and soldiers after the first major demon battle in her last life—all from memory—and that raw emotion bled through. “That man… that man could lead a eulogy about people he trained for a week twenty years ago…” she said. “And if he disciplined someone? He remembered them for thirty, clear as day.”

Soldiers roared in the distance. Military officers out front smiled.

“Whenever people were about to do dumb things, that man…. He always used to say, Private So-and-So tried that. You wanna know what happened?” Sara chuckled and looked down. “No one did ‘cause it was never pretty. And the strange thing was, in the short time I’ve known him, he’s said at least two hundred names—and I’ve never heard ‘em repeat one…. He remembered you… all of you. So the least you can do is remember him.”

Soldiers released distant battle cries in Lemora’s streets and soon, cheering spread like wildfire until Sara’s eyes were filled with rage and love and tears. “And live out his legacy!” Sara said. “Because that man gave everything for you. He was the role model we needed. The general that brought us victory! And for the few who got to know him well, he was the friend we’ll cherish until the end. So remember his name! Remember he was a person and that he loved and lived and died for you. Because when you see ‘em in the next life, you’ll want to be proud to stand by his side!”

Sara turned in the heat of the moment and did what she would’ve done in twenty minutes anyway: she lifted her hand to the twenty-foot stack of wood that Edico’s body lay on and chanted a spell loud enough for all to hear. Fire danced around her fingertips as she finished, releasing a fireball into the center, setting it ablaze to the sound of cheering soldiers. Tonight, Edico’s legacy would warm Lemora’s soldiers—

—tomorrow, they would continue it.