The boys were taunting her of memories she could no longer recall. Or, rather, could no longer be thought of as memories. They were illusions thrown in to make the whole thing seem more real; now that it was falling apart, there was no reason to continue pretending.
Even looking back on it, she wondered what prompted their reveries. Perhaps they were just as aware of them nearing the end as she was.
“You remember that small trip we went on, with just the three of us?” Tim asked. “It really wasn’t anything compared to this, but it felt like something grand for six-year-olds.”
“They were the best thing to happen to us then,” Henry remarked. “Compared to this, though, they were all just baby adventures.”
“I always wanted to make sure I could include all three of you,” Lydia said. “There’s not really a lot of opportunities for something that definitely doesn’t have any chance of anyone getting hurt. It’s a lot more difficult than you might think to find something that appeals to thirteen-year-olds while also making sure the five-year-old stays safe. I’m pretty sure Dad went out and planned a couple of those just to give us something to do…”
“You didn’t need to always bring me,” Tavin mumbled. “I would’ve been content waiting at the castle and hearing the stories when you got back.”
Tim smirked and ruffled his hair. “Come on, you say that like we didn’t want you with us. I can’t imagine any one of those trips without you.”
“Plus, if you hadn’t come, you wouldn’t have been able to see all those ruins yourself,” Henry pointed out. “Every time we come up to one of them, the history nerd inside of you lights up a little. I bet you wouldn’t have just been content with hearing descriptions about it then.”
“Adventures like these are always better with family.” Lydia smiled, though it soon faded after her next realization. “I’ve been waiting to do something like this for a while—and here we are, almost done with it…” She was glad to be in a place where none of them would notice it.
It triggered more thoughtful reactions out of all of them, though.
“We’ve been to each of the territories and saw some amazing stuff,” Tim said. “Is there going to be something that can top this?”
“You’ve heard just as many stories as I have. There’s definitely something better than this—even if it doesn’t seem like there could be,” Henry responded. “Every adventure we’ve heard of has something that makes it different from all the others. There’s still no shortage of adventures for us to go on, so it’s going to be the same way for us.”
Tavin was the most solemn of the three, having knowledge that the other two weren’t capable of understanding. “We probably won’t need to worry about whether or not the next adventure is as good as this one.”
The twins gave him confusing looks and, despite how much Lydia hoped he wouldn’t, he explained.
“This is the end. After this, there’s not going to be anything else. It’s back to reality, where none of this was supposed to happen, and there’s no chance of it ever coming to pass…”
“Now you’re kind of sounding like those voices from the forest,” Henry mumbled. “If you’re going to be weird, can you explain what you’re talking about..?”
Tim glanced at Lydia and added, “Someone’s got to do it.”
“This isn’t real,” Tavin answered simply. “There’s nothing more to it than that.”
“He means it feels like it isn’t real,” Lydia quickly said. She wanted to pretend like it was going to do anything more than just prove that he was right. “We’ve been doing this for a while. It’s hard to believe that soon, we’ll be done with this and be ready to tackle a whole new adventure.”
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They didn’t believe it. They didn’t even try to pretend like they would.
Tavin stopped. “You know we don’t have a lot longer. Do you really want to leave this off on a note like this? With none of us really knowing what’s going on aside from that you’re obviously not telling us something?”
“What if I promised I’ll explain it when we’re done?”
“You mean not tell us at all.”
“That’s not—”
“I think it is.”
She looked between all of them and resigned to the fact that there was nothing else she could do. But unlike all the other times, she wasn’t going to try to fight it. She wasn’t going to pretend like that was going to do anything. Instead… she was going to be honest.
As honest as she dared, fearing what would happen with the full extent of the truth was really said out in the open.
“Do you remember the second projection we watched, with the woman that was getting chased by Skiá? That was me.” It hurt a bit to realize that they were even taking the truth with a kind of skepticism. Then again, it just showed how much they deserved this; how terrible she’d been at hiding it and how long she pretended. “It was twelve years ago—er, a couple of months?—when I went to find a charm. When we saw it, I told you about Usiu, the angel that helps guide lost souls. Even if it was a fun challenge, I didn’t just go there for the adventure. I wanted something from it…”
But the whole world seemed to falter when she thought back. All four of them acknowledged it, the boys all turning to her expecting her to tell them something.
There were plenty of things she considered saying, though none of them would really do much in the situation. So instead, she asked, “Do you want to see the end of this?”
Without a moment of hesitation, the three nodded.
“Are you willing to trust me?”
They glanced at each other and gave it some thought before nodding again.
“Then I’m going to explain the rest once we finish this. I don’t think it’s going to last long if we acknowledge what it really is. I swear I’m going to explain everything, just—I don’t want to lose you before we’re done here. Let’s just play along with this a little longer, okay? Then I’ll answer as many of your questions as I can.”
“I suppose the only thing left to do is hope that this stays long enough,” Tavin muttered.
They fell back into recalling memories as they walked; the small moments that they were still able to piece together. It wasn’t long before they began to wonder why there were so many gaps, yet no one said anything more than a single mention to it. To acknowledge it would be to acknowledge the fading trees in the distance, the absence of birdsong, the way it seemed like they were the only things in the world…
The moment silence threatened to stay, Lydia checked where they were supposed to be going. “I think we’re almost there. It shouldn’t be too far.”
“What do you think is going to be there?” Henry asked.
Tim shrugged. “It’s got to be something special, right? Better than everything else we’ve come across—and something we’re definitely not going to be able to miss.”
When Lydia stopped as the unspoken sign that they were there, Tavin remarked, “Or it’s something we’re going to have to work for.”
It didn’t look like there was anything special about the place. But that wasn’t going to stop them—they knew better than to shrug it off simply because of that.
“You packed all the other clues, right?” Lydia prompted, looking at Tim. He nodded. “Get the artifact we got from the Jaden forest. It might recognize we’re here and show us something else.”
“Or it’s just going to trigger those voices again,” he said, “and that other woman’s voice.”
“There’s no forest here and it didn’t seem capable of creating that much on its own. I don’t think we’re going to come across anything that we can’t handle.” Understanding it may not have been enough to sway them, she added, “Whatever we do come across, we’ll do it together. We’ll know what we’re supposed to be doing and I won’t let us get separated again.”
He pulled the artifact out of his bag and handed it to her. She, in turn, found a little spot near a patch of flowers that seemed to be the perfect place for it.
The boys stuck together in the few moments that followed; their summer surroundings changing more to resemble spring, with flowers newly blooming. The only thing that changed was the amount of flowers, forming a vague path towards something else.
Lydia looked back to make sure they were all still there then gestured to where the path wanted to take them. “This looks easy but we should probably be careful. It’s time to see what Achadus placed for the ones who completed his journey.”